From carlosfpardo at gmail.com Tue Jan 1 00:14:31 2008 From: carlosfpardo at gmail.com (Carlosfelipe Pardo) Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 10:14:31 -0500 Subject: [sustran] Slow transport? Message-ID: <47790757.7000906@gmail.com> Hi, Does anyone know of any research or theory of urban planning or transport planning that takes *speed* as a factor to be taken into account? I have been searching for this and haven't found anything. I thought about this because I've seen that transport planning normally takes land use, modes, infrastructure and other factors into account, but it doesn't seem to take speed as a component in its own right. The only explicit reference I could find was Le Corbusier, who emphasizes the role of high speeds in a city, and plans around those high speeds (elevated highways, etc). Should we think about slowness as a *positive* characteristic of transport? Should we propose slow transport as one solution to the problem? I think slowness should be promoted not just for reasons of road safety but for issues of sustainability in shorter distances traveled (slower speeds means longer travel times, so people would try to reduce their travel distances) and thus lower energy expenditures and emissions. Of course, this would need us to think about strategies to reduce speeds, which would include what we're normally promoting (bicycles, pedestrian areas, 30km/h speed limits, etc). Comments on this are most welcome. Ah, and happy new year! Best regards, -- Carlosfelipe Pardo From litman at vtpi.org Tue Jan 1 02:16:13 2008 From: litman at vtpi.org (Todd Alexander Litman) Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 09:16:13 -0800 Subject: [sustran] Re: Slow transport? In-Reply-To: <47790757.7000906@gmail.com> References: <47790757.7000906@gmail.com> Message-ID: <6.2.3.4.2.20071231082022.078cf860@mail.islandnet.com> Your question raises several related issues: First is the distinction between "mobility" and "accessibility" (http://www.vtpi.org/access.pdf ). Most current transport planning uses indicators that reflect mobility, and so inherently favor higher speed modes over lower speed modes, and mobility over accessibility. For example, transportation engineers often use estimates of vehicle traffic delays and roadway level-of-service (LOS) ratings to identify where transportation improvements are needed, which justifies widening roadways, even if this reduces access by walking and cycling, and stimulates sprawled land use patterns, which increases the distance that people must travel to reach destinations. Many planning professionals now realize that improving land use accessibility (for example, by creating more compact, walkable communities) is a legitimate way to improve transportation. In addition, many planners now recognize the effects of "induced travel" and a "constant travel time budget" (http://www.vtpi.org/gentraf.pdf ) which imply that efforts to increase travel speeds do not really reduce congestion or save travel time over the long run, they stimulate more mobility and sprawl. This may provide direct benefits to users (the people who travel more and live in more distant communities) but imposes numerous external costs on soceity, including increased traffic congestion, accident risk, land use impacts, energy consumption and sprawl (http://www.vtpi.org/landuse.pdf ). Since travel time costs are a major factor in transportation project evaluation, it is important that it be correctly valued (http://www.vtpi.org/tca/tca0502.pdf ). Unfortunately, most current travel models are biased in ways that undervalue walking, cycling and public transit service quality improvements, and overvalue highway capacity expansion, because they ignore the higher cost that should be assigned to unpleasant conditions (walking on busy roads that lack sidewalks, crossing busy highways, waiting for a bus alongside a busy roadway, traveling by crowded bus or train), which should give priority to improvements to these modes (http://www.vtpi.org/quality.pdf ). Described differently, more objective transportation investment models would be willing to spend as much to reduce per-minute travel time costs (for example, by reducing bus crowding or improving pedestrian conditions) as is spent to reduce the minutes spent in travel (for example, by widening roadways). In addition, current planning practices tend to undercount total walking and cycling activity, and ignore or undervalue many of the benefits of shifts from motorized to nonmotorized modes (http://www.vtpi.org/walkability.pdf ). Fortunately, many people within the transportation planning profession are realizing these points. For example, many recent issues of the Institute of Transportation Engineers Journal (http://www.ite.org/itejournal/index.asp ) have been filled with articles concerning pedestrian and transit improvement techniques. Best wishes, -Todd Litman and the implications of a fixed travel time budget. At 07:14 AM 12/31/2007, Carlosfelipe Pardo wrote: >Hi, > >Does anyone know of any research or theory of urban planning or >transport planning that takes *speed* as a factor to be taken into >account? I have been searching for this and haven't found anything. >I thought about this because I've seen that transport planning normally >takes land use, modes, infrastructure and other factors into account, >but it doesn't seem to take speed as a component in its own right. > >The only explicit reference I could find was Le Corbusier, who >emphasizes the role of high speeds in a city, and plans around those >high speeds (elevated highways, etc). Should we think about slowness as >a *positive* characteristic of transport? Should we propose slow >transport as one solution to the problem? > >I think slowness should be promoted not just for reasons of road safety >but for issues of sustainability in shorter distances traveled (slower >speeds means longer travel times, so people would try to reduce their >travel distances) and thus lower energy expenditures and emissions. Of >course, this would need us to think about strategies to reduce speeds, >which would include what we're normally promoting (bicycles, pedestrian >areas, 30km/h speed limits, etc). > >Comments on this are most welcome. > >Ah, and happy new year! > >Best regards, > >-- >Carlosfelipe Pardo > >-------------------------------------------------------- >IMPORTANT NOTE to everyone who gets sustran-discuss messages via YAHOOGROUPS. > >Please go to http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/listinfo/sustran-discuss >to join the real sustran-discuss and get full membership rights. The >yahoogroups version is only a mirror and 'members' there cannot post >to the real sustran-discuss (even if the yahoogroups site makes it >seem like you can). Apologies for the confusing arrangement. > >================================================================ >SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, >equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing >countries (the 'Global South'). Sincerely, Todd Alexander Litman Victoria Transport Policy Institute (www.vtpi.org) litman@vtpi.org Phone & Fax 250-360-1560 1250 Rudlin Street, Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, CANADA "Efficiency - Equity - Clarity" From s.j.baddeley at bham.ac.uk Tue Jan 1 03:51:59 2008 From: s.j.baddeley at bham.ac.uk (Simon Baddeley) Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 18:51:59 +0000 Subject: [sustran] Re: [carfree_cities] Slow transport? (edited slightly - sorry) In-Reply-To: <47790757.7000906@gmail.com> Message-ID: Try looking at Newman and Kenworthy (if you haven't already). http://davidpritchard.org/sustrans/NewKen99/ These authors use a model of the pedestrian, the rapid transit and the autodependent city - in which time is fixed. People seem willing to spend a given amount of time commuting so you can imagine 30 minutes mainly on foot producing what are now the small compact often 'heritage' old towns of most autodependent cities. The rapid-transit city where people will do a 30 minute train, tram or bus journey into the centre. This produces a spider pattern of lineal routes in and out with small settlements around rail stations and other rapid transit stops. With cars the door-to-door capability of the car means that in the same 30 minutes people will live anywhere that is 30 minutes from their work and removes the need for 'centres' and 'places' containing premises for trading, for worship, attending school, participating in government. 30 minutes remains the same but the settlement patterns differ according to dominant means of transport. What Adams also says is that drivers use up their extra safety on speed, and use their 'enhanced' speed on distance - so that the 30 minute periphery of the auto-city gets larger, especially if more roads are built. So time and people's willingness to spend a given amount of it on travel is a very significant parameter. As an urban cyclist for the last 15 years I have valued cycling less for its speed but for the amount of predictability that cycling introduces into the planning of travel. It is often faster to get from A to B in a city by cycle, but for me the greatest value is the way I can plan my day when cycling between different meetings - sometimes combining this with tram, bus or train travel, a combination made far better as more information about rapid transit schedules becomes available. Best wishes S Simon Baddeley Inlogov, School of Public Policy University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT 0121 554 9794 VoIP 0121 343 3614 mobile 07775 655842 Campus: Sue Platt 0121 414 5002 s.p.platt@bham.ac.uk http://www.inlogov.bham.ac.uk/staff/Baddeley.shtml > From: Carlosfelipe Pardo > Reply-To: > Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 10:14:31 -0500 > To: Global 'South' Sustainable Transport , > Newmobility Cafe , > > Subject: [carfree_cities] Slow transport? > > Hi, > > Does anyone know of any research or theory of urban planning or > transport planning that takes *speed* as a factor to be taken into > account? I have been searching for this and haven't found anything. > I thought about this because I've seen that transport planning normally > takes land use, modes, infrastructure and other factors into account, > but it doesn't seem to take speed as a component in its own right. > > The only explicit reference I could find was Le Corbusier, who > emphasizes the role of high speeds in a city, and plans around those > high speeds (elevated highways, etc). Should we think about slowness as > a *positive* characteristic of transport? Should we propose slow > transport as one solution to the problem? > > I think slowness should be promoted not just for reasons of road safety > but for issues of sustainability in shorter distances traveled (slower > speeds means longer travel times, so people would try to reduce their > travel distances) and thus lower energy expenditures and emissions. Of > course, this would need us to think about strategies to reduce speeds, > which would include what we're normally promoting (bicycles, pedestrian > areas, 30km/h speed limits, etc). > > Comments on this are most welcome. > > Ah, and happy new year! > > Best regards, > > -- > Carlosfelipe Pardo > From schipper at wri.org Tue Jan 1 09:37:20 2008 From: schipper at wri.org (Lee Schipper) Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 19:37:20 -0500 Subject: [sustran] Re: [sustain] Re: [carfree_cities] Slow transport? (edited slightly -sorry) References: Message-ID: <46E2E1971BCEC1459149FBB1A4B4342CFFEAC2@wricsex029330.WRI.CRM.Local> And I cycled to work for six years in DC and 6 years in Paris just to see what the city looked like on the surface. But I also paid through the nose to live in homes close to cycling opportunities/Metro (in a pinch) etc. Those that choose larger homes over proximity to the most densely built up areas must need more room from their 100 cm (40 inch) plasma LED Dvs and their large motorized lawn mowers! The question for megacities I think one has to be concerned about is where do millions of people live, under what kinds of real estate prices, with how much area to live in, as they get wealthier. There are huge apartment buildings going up in Shanghai in Puxi, the densest oldest part. Sadly, these are displacing the older traditional walkup houses, making room for more commercial space, probably leaving the day + night time population density higher. The result is much more built space/capita. The nice thing about these skyscrapers is that an elevator takes inhabitants part of the way to the metro or bus line. The bummer is that they are totally overwhelming. Even after 18 trips to Shanghai in nearly 10 years I feel dwarfed, and more so than in NY City. (And if you like Shanghai, just watch Dubai!) If the Chinese continue with a mostly walking/two wheeler (motorized and non motorized) urban structure, how many jobs and other opportunities are available within the 30 minute radius of each person's home. The answer is plenty if a large share of people and jobs live in these towers, thanks to Mr. Otis and his elevators. If they beyond metro and to some extent bus based, how long can they hold the line (and their pocketbooks) before jumping to cars at the fringes in order to (perhaps falsely) "enjoy" more space. What is a key element in all of this is land -- values, prices, regulation, housing prices and above all housing space available in a city of 1 to 10 million or more. My guess is that per capita space in Shanghai is 10-15 sq m/capita of home, up from 5 sq m in say 1985. That's quite an achievement, but it only came by pushing out hundreds of thousands of traditional dwellings in low rise buildings in order to make room for the skyscrapers. But in the US that number is closer to sixty square meters, reinforced by housing tax policies. What will keep Chinese bundled up in small homes, for how long? In New York the number for per capita area is smaller, to be sure, but in Manhattan expensive. That seems to be the reality - proximity in dense cities is cramped and expensive. There is also the issue of proximity to good transit and land prices. Land and housing near Transmilenio in Bogota is more expensive than elsewhere. (I commend you to Benoit Lefevre's new Phd (in French) that dealt with this issue extensively). In places like Bogota (soon), NYCity, Shanghai (soon), Hong Kong, Stockholm certainly Barcelona (80% of population within 500 m of a metro or fast bus line) it's hard to argue that there is a big bias towards places near fast transport, since most of the city is relatively close. In places like San Francisco region, Los Angeles, certainly Atlanta, relatively few live by rapid transit, transit that came at an enormous price, too. But housing space is higher. So there is a key element here-- living space and its cost has to be fit into speed/travel time, urban structure, etc. Discussion about what kinds of urban forms, densities, etc that focus solely on transport and speed and ignore how much space (of what quality) there is inside buildings for living, shopping, having fun, etc may be missing the forest through the trees, or rather the buildings for the streets. Wish I had the answers! Happy New Year to everyone. Lee Schipper Director of Research, EMBARQ the WRI Center for Sustainable Transport www.embarq.wri.org and Visiting Scholar, Univ of Calif Transport Center Berkeley CA www.uctc.net skype: mrmeter 510 642 6889 202 262 7476 -----Original Message----- From: sustran-discuss-bounces+schipper=wri.org@list.jca.apc.org [mailto:sustran-discuss-bounces+schipper=wri.org@list.jca.apc.org] On Behalf Of Simon Baddeley Sent: Monday, December 31, 2007 10:52 AM To: Carfree Cities Cc: NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com; sustran-discuss@list.jca.apc.org Subject: [sustran] Re: [carfree_cities] Slow transport? (edited slightly -sorry) Try looking at Newman and Kenworthy (if you haven't already). http://davidpritchard.org/sustrans/NewKen99/ These authors use a model of the pedestrian, the rapid transit and the autodependent city - in which time is fixed. People seem willing to spend a given amount of time commuting so you can imagine 30 minutes mainly on foot producing what are now the small compact often 'heritage' old towns of most autodependent cities. The rapid-transit city where people will do a 30 minute train, tram or bus journey into the centre. This produces a spider pattern of lineal routes in and out with small settlements around rail stations and other rapid transit stops. With cars the door-to-door capability of the car means that in the same 30 minutes people will live anywhere that is 30 minutes from their work and removes the need for 'centres' and 'places' containing premises for trading, for worship, attending school, participating in government. 30 minutes remains the same but the settlement patterns differ according to dominant means of transport. What Adams also says is that drivers use up their extra safety on speed, and use their 'enhanced' speed on distance - so that the 30 minute periphery of the auto-city gets larger, especially if more roads are built. So time and people's willingness to spend a given amount of it on travel is a very significant parameter. As an urban cyclist for the last 15 years I have valued cycling less for its speed but for the amount of predictability that cycling introduces into the planning of travel. It is often faster to get from A to B in a city by cycle, but for me the greatest value is the way I can plan my day when cycling between different meetings - sometimes combining this with tram, bus or train travel, a combination made far better as more information about rapid transit schedules becomes available. Best wishes S Simon Baddeley Inlogov, School of Public Policy University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT 0121 554 9794 VoIP 0121 343 3614 mobile 07775 655842 Campus: Sue Platt 0121 414 5002 s.p.platt@bham.ac.uk http://www.inlogov.bham.ac.uk/staff/Baddeley.shtml > From: Carlosfelipe Pardo > Reply-To: > Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 10:14:31 -0500 > To: Global 'South' Sustainable Transport , > Newmobility Cafe , > > Subject: [carfree_cities] Slow transport? > > Hi, > > Does anyone know of any research or theory of urban planning or > transport planning that takes *speed* as a factor to be taken into > account? I have been searching for this and haven't found anything. > I thought about this because I've seen that transport planning normally > takes land use, modes, infrastructure and other factors into account, > but it doesn't seem to take speed as a component in its own right. > > The only explicit reference I could find was Le Corbusier, who > emphasizes the role of high speeds in a city, and plans around those > high speeds (elevated highways, etc). Should we think about slowness as > a *positive* characteristic of transport? Should we propose slow > transport as one solution to the problem? > > I think slowness should be promoted not just for reasons of road safety > but for issues of sustainability in shorter distances traveled (slower > speeds means longer travel times, so people would try to reduce their > travel distances) and thus lower energy expenditures and emissions. Of > course, this would need us to think about strategies to reduce speeds, > which would include what we're normally promoting (bicycles, pedestrian > areas, 30km/h speed limits, etc). > > Comments on this are most welcome. > > Ah, and happy new year! > > Best regards, > > -- > Carlosfelipe Pardo > -------------------------------------------------------- IMPORTANT NOTE to everyone who gets sustran-discuss messages via YAHOOGROUPS. Please go to http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/listinfo/sustran-discuss to join the real sustran-discuss and get full membership rights. The yahoogroups version is only a mirror and 'members' there cannot post to the real sustran-discuss (even if the yahoogroups site makes it seem like you can). Apologies for the confusing arrangement. ================================================================ SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries (the 'Global South'). From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Wed Jan 2 02:06:56 2008 From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (eric.britton) Date: Tue, 1 Jan 2008 18:06:56 +0100 Subject: [sustran] Slowth Message-ID: <005e01c84c98$bb0f2110$312d6330$@britton@ecoplan.org> Thanks, Carlos, Todd, Lee, Sujit, Simon. Much in this spirit I have for some years been a firm supporter of the concept of "slowth" - that which occurs in situations when your top speed is limited but somehow you get there first. Myriad examples abound, and in addition to Aesop's good write-up of this highly technical point a few years back, we have the example of thousands of cities - Paris being one -- in which you or I just about invariably get there first if we take our bike and not our Ferrari. (I am not sure as to when or where I first ran into this word, but I have been using it rather often in my own work for more than a decade now. A traffic system based on slowth is going to be carefully calibrated to lower top speeds - way 20 or 30 kph works well for me - but where the entire system leads to far steadier flows and throughput, and, with it, greater safety, lower emissions, and higher quality of life all around. If I were a young traffic engineer, I would certainly want to make this a pillar of my life work - which of course is exactly what wonderful people like Hans Monderman, Jan Gehl and a growing cohort of young practitioners are now doing. It's a splendid thing to do. Eric Britton PS. Just looked slowth up in the Urban Dictionary which provides the following, to me, rather unpromising definition: "Slowness. Generally sloth-like behavior, especially of computers or co-workers." (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=slowth) PS2. That done I next looked up slowth just now in the Wikipedia and found no entry. But now if you go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slowth you will see the following entry, which I hope that one or more of you may wish to jump in and complete. It's a very important concept and really does need a far higher profile. Words count. Slowth is a New Mobility transport planning concept, describing a physical situation, usually in a city, in which lower top speeds can lead to shorter overall travel times. (The traditional "model" for this is of course Aesop's tale of the race between the tortoise and the hare, in which the slow turtle arrives well before the fast rabbit.) This is a powerful model which transport and city planners are only recently starting to take seriously. A traffic system based on slowth is carefully calibrated to lower top speeds - 20 or 30 kph on most city streets is one common target - but where the entire system leads to far steadier flows and throughput, and, with it, greater safety, lower emissions, and higher quality of life all around. ************ now help make this better. ******* From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Wed Jan 2 02:19:17 2008 From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (eric.britton) Date: Tue, 1 Jan 2008 18:19:17 +0100 Subject: [sustran] Slowth Message-ID: <006301c84c9a$72f284b0$58d78e10$@britton@ecoplan.org> From: Peter Newman [mailto:P.Newman@murdoch.edu.au] Sent: Tuesday, 1 January 2008 17:48 To: eric.britton@ecoplan.org Subject: RE: Slowth Great concept. It is at the heart of traffic calming of course and now 'Naked Streets' as well as the Slow Cities idea from Italy. It is interesting that 20 to 30 kph is the speed that we are bilogically made for as our maximum. It is the speed that sprinters reach and of course over thousands of years our hand eye co-ordination has adapted to that speed so we see so much more at or below that speed. Birds can see at much faster speeds and have adapted their skills and observation accordingly. We can't do much at high speed other than stay straight so we have awful accidents all the time due to 'human error' and somehow get surprised by it. Peter Newman _____ From: eric.britton [mailto:eric.britton@ecoplan.org] Sent: Tue 1/01/2008 23:21 To: NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com; sustran-discuss@list.jca.apc.org Cc: Lee Schipper; 'Carlosfelipe Pardo'; 'Sujit Patwardhan'; Todd Litman (Todd Litman); s.p.platt@bham.ac.uk; Hans Monderman; Jan Gehl; Aaron Naparstek; Peter Newman; Jeff Kenworthy Subject: Slowth Thanks, Carlos, Todd, Lee, Sujit, Simon. Much in this spirit I have for some years been a firm supporter of the concept of "slowth" - that which occurs in situations when your top speed is limited but somehow you get there first. Myriad examples abound, and in addition to Aesop's good write-up of this highly technical point a few years back, we have the example of thousands of cities - Paris being one -- in which you or I just about invariably get there first if we take our bike and not our Ferrari. (I am not sure as to when or where I first ran into this word, but I have been using it rather often in my own work for more than a decade now. A traffic system based on slowth is going to be carefully calibrated to lower top speeds - way 20 or 30 kph works well for me - but where the entire system leads to far steadier flows and throughput, and, with it, greater safety, lower emissions, and higher quality of life all around. If I were a young traffic engineer, I would certainly want to make this a pillar of my life work - which of course is exactly what wonderful people like Hans Monderman, Jan Gehl and a growing cohort of young practitioners are now doing. It's a splendid thing to do. Eric Britton PS. Just looked slowth up in the Urban Dictionary which provides the following, to me, rather unpromising definition: "Slowness. Generally sloth-like behavior, especially of computers or co-workers." (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=slowth) PS2. That done I next looked up slowth just now in the Wikipedia and found no entry. But now if you go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slowth you will see the following entry, which I hope that one or more of you may wish to jump in and complete. It's a very important concept and really does need a far higher profile. Words count. Slowth is a New Mobility transport planning concept, describing a physical situation, usually in a city, in which lower top speeds can lead to shorter overall travel times. (The traditional "model" for this is of course Aesop's tale of the race between the tortoise and the hare, in which the slow turtle arrives well before the fast rabbit.) This is a powerful model which transport and city planners are only recently starting to take seriously. A traffic system based on slowth is carefully calibrated to lower top speeds - 20 or 30 kph on most city streets is one common target - but where the entire system leads to far steadier flows and throughput, and, with it, greater safety, lower emissions, and higher quality of life all around. ************ now help make this better. ******* From litman at vtpi.org Wed Jan 2 03:23:29 2008 From: litman at vtpi.org (Todd Alexander Litman) Date: Tue, 01 Jan 2008 10:23:29 -0800 Subject: [sustran] Re: Slow transport? (edited slightly -sorry) In-Reply-To: <46E2E1971BCEC1459149FBB1A4B4342CFFEAC2@wricsex029330.WRI.C RM.Local> References: <46E2E1971BCEC1459149FBB1A4B4342CFFEAC2@wricsex029330.WRI.CRM.Local> Message-ID: <6.2.3.4.2.20080101101040.078d02c0@mail.islandnet.com> Lee, I think you raise an important point: that our ultimate goal is to maximize human happiness (or more technically "social welfare") which requires consideration of factors such as the urban quality of life and cultural preservation. Understanding how to make dense megacities livable will be a major challenge. It may be that there is a city size and density that is overall optimal, beyond which incremental economic and social costs exceed the benefits. I suspect that many countries would benefit by encouraging more development in secondary cities, to avoid excessive city size. However, megacities exist so we shouldn't dismiss them. I've been impressed with the quality of development in some large cities, such as Seoul, where thoughtful planning is responsive to residents quality of life, for example, by creating urban villages (residential neighborhoods with public services and opportunities for social interactions) and preserving public greenspace. Best New Years Wishes, -Todd Litman At 04:37 PM 12/31/2007, Lee Schipper wrote: >And I cycled to work for six years in DC and 6 years in Paris just to >see what the city looked like on the surface. But I also paid through >the nose to live in homes close to cycling opportunities/Metro (in a >pinch) etc. Those that choose larger homes over proximity to the most >densely built up areas must need more room from their 100 cm (40 inch) >plasma LED Dvs and their large motorized lawn mowers! > >The question for megacities I think one has to be concerned about is >where do millions of people live, under what kinds of real estate >prices, with how much area to live in, as they get wealthier. There are >huge apartment buildings going up in Shanghai in Puxi, the densest >oldest part. Sadly, these are displacing the older traditional walkup >houses, making room for more commercial space, probably leaving the day >+ night time population density higher. The result is much more built >space/capita. The nice thing about these skyscrapers is that an elevator >takes inhabitants part of the way to the metro or bus line. The bummer >is that they are totally overwhelming. Even after 18 trips to Shanghai >in nearly 10 years I feel dwarfed, and more so than in NY City. (And if >you like Shanghai, just watch Dubai!) > >If the Chinese continue with a mostly walking/two wheeler (motorized and >non motorized) urban structure, how many jobs and other opportunities >are available within the 30 minute radius of each person's home. The >answer is plenty if a large share of people and jobs live in these >towers, thanks to Mr. Otis and his elevators. If they beyond metro and >to some extent bus based, how long can they hold the line (and their >pocketbooks) before jumping to cars at the fringes in order to (perhaps >falsely) "enjoy" more space. > >What is a key element in all of this is land -- values, prices, >regulation, housing prices and above all housing space available in a >city of 1 to 10 million or more. My guess is that per capita space in >Shanghai is 10-15 sq m/capita of home, up from 5 sq m in say 1985. >That's quite an achievement, but it only came by pushing out hundreds of >thousands of traditional dwellings in low rise buildings in order to >make room for the skyscrapers. > >But in the US that number is closer to sixty square meters, reinforced >by housing tax policies. What will keep Chinese bundled up in small >homes, for how long? In New York the number for per capita area is >smaller, to be sure, but in Manhattan expensive. That seems to be the >reality - proximity in dense cities is cramped and expensive. > >There is also the issue of proximity to good transit and land prices. >Land and housing near Transmilenio in Bogota is more expensive than >elsewhere. (I commend you to Benoit Lefevre's new Phd (in French) that >dealt with this issue extensively). In places like Bogota (soon), >NYCity, Shanghai (soon), Hong Kong, Stockholm certainly Barcelona (80% >of population within 500 m of a metro or fast bus line) it's hard to >argue that there is a big bias towards places near fast transport, since >most of the city is relatively close. In places like San Francisco >region, Los Angeles, certainly Atlanta, relatively few live by rapid >transit, transit that came at an enormous price, too. But housing space >is higher. > >So there is a key element here-- living space and its cost has to be fit >into speed/travel time, urban structure, etc. Discussion about what >kinds of urban forms, densities, etc that focus solely on transport and >speed and ignore how much space (of what quality) there is inside >buildings for living, shopping, having fun, etc may be missing the >forest through the trees, or rather the buildings for the streets. Sincerely, Todd Alexander Litman Victoria Transport Policy Institute (www.vtpi.org) litman@vtpi.org Phone & Fax 250-360-1560 1250 Rudlin Street, Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, CANADA "Efficiency - Equity - Clarity" From schipper at wri.org Wed Jan 2 03:57:17 2008 From: schipper at wri.org (Lee Schipper) Date: Tue, 1 Jan 2008 13:57:17 -0500 Subject: [sustran] Re: Slow transport? (edited slightly -sorry) References: <46E2E1971BCEC1459149FBB1A4B4342CFFEAC2@wricsex029330.WRI.CRM.Local> <6.2.3.4.2.20080101101040.078d02c0@mail.islandnet.com> Message-ID: <46E2E1971BCEC1459149FBB1A4B4342CC73800@wricsex029330.WRI.CRM.Local> Thanks Todd. I think the catcher is "quality of life". I remember going to Disneyland on invitation opening day in 1955 and seeing the Monsanto/GE House of the future, the Richfield (later Arco, later BP) "autopia" and other "visions" of quality of life Disney was subtly putting forward. We fell for it. I won't write down here how much income I deducted legally last year for mortgage interest, but it was a huge amount and to me one of the driving factors in defining lots of space and cars as "quality of life". With or without such tax benefits, I think most of well to do and middle classes in Asia are falling for it, as Latin America tried to and l learned last month (and so did Eric), "it" is now in full swing in Dubai. And in Bali during and after the Climate meeting I experienced mostly endless strip development, whether in shacks, concrete store fronts, or real malls. I remember Seoul in 1980, barely a sixth of its present population, and then 13 years later, a nightmare. They fell for it too, so when parts of the city reform, its heartening when most of the world is running towards a greater mess. Lee Schipper EMBARQ, the WRI Center for Sustainable Transport www.embarq.wri.org >From Oct 1, Visiting Scholar, UC Transportation Center UC Berkeley, CA www.uctc.net 510 642 6889 202 262 7476 ________________________________ From: Todd Alexander Litman [mailto:litman@vtpi.org] Sent: Tue 1/1/2008 10:23 AM To: Lee Schipper; Simon Baddeley; Carfree Cities; NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com; sustran-discuss@list.jca.apc.org Subject: Re: Slow transport? (edited slightly -sorry) Lee, I think you raise an important point: that our ultimate goal is to maximize human happiness (or more technically "social welfare") which requires consideration of factors such as the urban quality of life and cultural preservation. Understanding how to make dense megacities livable will be a major challenge. It may be that there is a city size and density that is overall optimal, beyond which incremental economic and social costs exceed the benefits. I suspect that many countries would benefit by encouraging more development in secondary cities, to avoid excessive city size. However, megacities exist so we shouldn't dismiss them. I've been impressed with the quality of development in some large cities, such as Seoul, where thoughtful planning is responsive to residents quality of life, for example, by creating urban villages (residential neighborhoods with public services and opportunities for social interactions) and preserving public greenspace. Best New Years Wishes, -Todd Litman At 04:37 PM 12/31/2007, Lee Schipper wrote: And I cycled to work for six years in DC and 6 years in Paris just to see what the city looked like on the surface. But I also paid through the nose to live in homes close to cycling opportunities/Metro (in a pinch) etc. Those that choose larger homes over proximity to the most densely built up areas must need more room from their 100 cm (40 inch) plasma LED Dvs and their large motorized lawn mowers! The question for megacities I think one has to be concerned about is where do millions of people live, under what kinds of real estate prices, with how much area to live in, as they get wealthier. There are huge apartment buildings going up in Shanghai in Puxi, the densest oldest part. Sadly, these are displacing the older traditional walkup houses, making room for more commercial space, probably leaving the day + night time population density higher. The result is much more built space/capita. The nice thing about these skyscrapers is that an elevator takes inhabitants part of the way to the metro or bus line. The bummer is that they are totally overwhelming. Even after 18 trips to Shanghai in nearly 10 years I feel dwarfed, and more so than in NY City. (And if you like Shanghai, just watch Dubai!) If the Chinese continue with a mostly walking/two wheeler (motorized and non motorized) urban structure, how many jobs and other opportunities are available within the 30 minute radius of each person's home. The answer is plenty if a large share of people and jobs live in these towers, thanks to Mr. Otis and his elevators. If they beyond metro and to some extent bus based, how long can they hold the line (and their pocketbooks) before jumping to cars at the fringes in order to (perhaps falsely) "enjoy" more space. What is a key element in all of this is land -- values, prices, regulation, housing prices and above all housing space available in a city of 1 to 10 million or more. My guess is that per capita space in Shanghai is 10-15 sq m/capita of home, up from 5 sq m in say 1985. That's quite an achievement, but it only came by pushing out hundreds of thousands of traditional dwellings in low rise buildings in order to make room for the skyscrapers. But in the US that number is closer to sixty square meters, reinforced by housing tax policies. What will keep Chinese bundled up in small homes, for how long? In New York the number for per capita area is smaller, to be sure, but in Manhattan expensive. That seems to be the reality - proximity in dense cities is cramped and expensive. There is also the issue of proximity to good transit and land prices. Land and housing near Transmilenio in Bogota is more expensive than elsewhere. (I commend you to Benoit Lefevre's new Phd (in French) that dealt with this issue extensively). In places like Bogota (soon), NYCity, Shanghai (soon), Hong Kong, Stockholm certainly Barcelona (80% of population within 500 m of a metro or fast bus line) it's hard to argue that there is a big bias towards places near fast transport, since most of the city is relatively close. In places like San Francisco region, Los Angeles, certainly Atlanta, relatively few live by rapid transit, transit that came at an enormous price, too. But housing space is higher. So there is a key element here-- living space and its cost has to be fit into speed/travel time, urban structure, etc. Discussion about what kinds of urban forms, densities, etc that focus solely on transport and speed and ignore how much space (of what quality) there is inside buildings for living, shopping, having fun, etc may be missing the forest through the trees, or rather the buildings for the streets. Sincerely, Todd Alexander Litman Victoria Transport Policy Institute (www.vtpi.org ) litman@vtpi.org Phone & Fax 250-360-1560 1250 Rudlin Street, Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, CANADA "Efficiency - Equity - Clarity" From schipper at wri.org Wed Jan 2 07:45:35 2008 From: schipper at wri.org (Lee Schipper) Date: Tue, 1 Jan 2008 17:45:35 -0500 Subject: [sustran] Re: Slowth (was "Slow transport?") References: <002501c84c81$8ed03100$ac709300$@britton@ecoplan.org> <477AC12B.9040608@gmail.com> Message-ID: <46E2E1971BCEC1459149FBB1A4B4342CFFEB00@wricsex029330.WRI.CRM.Local> There is a much more deadly disease you get from cycling -helmet hair! Lee Schipper Director of Research, EMBARQ the WRI Center for Sustainable Transport www.embarq.wri.org and Visiting Scholar, Univ of Calif Transport Center Berkeley CA www.uctc.net skype: mrmeter 510 642 6889 202 262 7476 From: Carlosfelipe Pardo [mailto:carlosfpardo@gmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, January 01, 2008 2:40 PM To: eric.britton@ecoplan.org Cc: NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com; sustran-discuss@list.jca.apc.org; Lee Schipper; 'Sujit Patwardhan'; Todd Litman (Todd Litman); s.p.platt@bham.ac.uk; Hans Monderman; Jan Gehl; Aaron Naparstek; Peter Newman; Jeff Kenworthy Subject: Re: Slowth (was "Slow transport?") Yes! This was more or less what I was aiming at when I asked my initial question about "slow transport" or "slowth" or whatever name comes out of this. Other than the "tortoise and hare" concept, there are other arguments such as the whole idea behind slow food, slow cities and slow living in general (there have been various documents on this recently, such as the book by Wendy Parkins or the work of Paul Virilio). It's also interesting to see what Peter Newman mentioned about human capacities of 20-30 km/h. If you look at the history of the bicycle, everyone was afraid to ride it because of the risk of getting "bicycle face" (your face would suffer a deformation due to the "high speeds" of the vehicle). Also, people did not like the train ride because they didn't feel they could perceive the journey and its surroundings, due to its very high speeds (initially, around 30 km/h!). And to make it all more complex, we have followed a process of "speed desensitization" (not sure if this term is right, it's the shortest way to describe the concept): in the 19th century, trains h were "excessively fast" as were also bicycles, Today, speed limits of 30 km/h are difficult (or impossible) to enforce and bicycles and choo-choo trainers are the slowest vehicles one can think of. Thus, we don't perceive the impressive acceleration of our daily lives, but we want to go faster. To reiterate the idea from the beginning: In transport and land use, greater speeds generate greater distances traveled, which in turn can generate the idea (or action) of living farther from work, study and everything else. This normally has greater sprawl as a consequence, and thus greater energy use and increased emissions. Most of this is common to many, but the issue of speed as a factor in this is normally neglected. I really think there should be more work on this issue of speed, and I've seen that speed (or slowness) has not been treated as a goal, but as a means for something else. If we improve the situation, we could see as a result: lower speeds = reduced distances traveled = living closer to work, study, etc =more appropriate densities = reduced energy use = reduced emissions... increased quality of life. Thanks for your feedback, especially around new year! Best regards, Carlosfelipe Pardo eric.britton wrote: Thanks, Carlos, Todd, Lee, Sujit, Simon. Much in this spirit I have for some years been a firm supporter of the concept of "slowth" - that which occurs in situations when your top speed is limited but somehow you get there first. Myriad examples abound, and in addition to Aesop's good write-up of this highly technical point a few years back, we have the example of thousands of cities - Paris being one -- in which you or I just about invariably get there first if we take our bike and not our Ferrari. (I am not sure as to when or where I first ran into this word, but I have been using it rather often in my own work for more than a decade now. A traffic system based on slowth is going to be carefully calibrated to lower top speeds - way 20 or 30 kph works well for me - but where the entire system leads to far steadier flows and throughput, and, with it, greater safety, lower emissions, and higher quality of life all around. If I were a young traffic engineer, I would certainly want to make this a pillar of my life work - which of course is exactly what wonderful people like Hans Monderman, Jan Gehl and a growing cohort of young practitioners are now doing. It's a splendid thing to do. Eric Britton PS. Just looked slowth up in the Urban Dictionary which provides the following, to me, rather unpromising definition: "Slowness. Generally sloth-like behavior, especially of computers or co-workers." (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=slowth) PS2. That done I next looked up slowth just now in the Wikipedia and found no entry. But now if you go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slowth you will see the following entry, which I hope that one or more of you may wish to jump in and complete. It's a very important concept and really does need a far higher profile. Words count. Slowth is a New Mobility transport planning concept, describing a physical situation, usually in a city, in which lower top speeds can lead to shorter overall travel times. (The traditional "model" for this is of course Aesop's tale of the race between the tortoise and the hare, in which the slow turtle arrives well before the fast rabbit.) This is a powerful model which transport and city planners are only recently starting to take seriously. A traffic system based on slowth is carefully calibrated to lower top speeds - 20 or 30 kph on most city streets is one common target - but where the entire system leads to far steadier flows and throughput, and, with it, greater safety, lower emissions, and higher quality of life all around. ************ now help make this better. ******* From carlosfpardo at gmail.com Wed Jan 2 07:49:59 2008 From: carlosfpardo at gmail.com (Carlosfelipe Pardo) Date: Tue, 01 Jan 2008 17:49:59 -0500 Subject: [sustran] [Fwd: Re: Slowth (was "Slow transport?")] Message-ID: <477AC397.8040007@gmail.com> didn't go through for some reason.... -------- Original Message -------- Yes! This was more or less what I was aiming at when I asked my initial question about "slow transport" or "slowth" or whatever name comes out of this. Other than the "tortoise and hare" concept, there are other arguments such as the whole idea behind slow food, slow cities and slow living in general (there have been various documents on this recently, such as the book by Wendy Parkins or the work of Paul Virilio). It's also interesting to see what Peter Newman mentioned about human capacities of 20-30 km/h. If you look at the history of the bicycle, everyone was afraid to ride it because of the risk of getting "bicycle face" (your face would suffer a deformation due to the "high speeds" of the vehicle). Also, people did not like the train ride because they didn?t feel they could perceive the journey and its surroundings, due to its very high speeds (initially, around 30 km/h!). And to make it all more complex, we have followed a process of ?speed desensitization? (not sure if this term is right, it?s the shortest way to describe the concept): in the 19th century, trains h were ?excessively fast? as were also bicycles, Today, speed limits of 30 km/h are difficult (or impossible) to enforce and bicycles and choo-choo trainers are the slowest vehicles one can think of. Thus, we don?t perceive the impressive acceleration of our daily lives, but we want to go faster. To reiterate the idea from the beginning: In transport and land use, greater speeds generate greater distances traveled, which in turn can generate the idea (or action) of living farther from work, study and everything else. This normally has greater sprawl as a consequence, and thus greater energy use and increased emissions. Most of this is common to many, but the issue of speed as a factor in this is normally neglected. I really think there should be more work on this issue of speed, and I've seen that speed (or slowness) has not been treated as a goal, but as a means for something else. If we improve the situation, we could see as a result: lower speeds = reduced distances traveled = living closer to work, study, etc =more appropriate densities = reduced energy use = reduced emissions? increased quality of life. Thanks for your feedback, especially around new year! Best regards, Carlosfelipe Pardo eric.britton wrote: > > Thanks, Carlos, Todd, Lee, Sujit, Simon. > > Much in this spirit I have for some years been a firm supporter of the > concept of ?slowth? ? that which occurs in situations when your top > speed is limited but somehow you get there first. Myriad examples > abound, and in addition to Aesop?s good write-up of this highly > technical point a few years back, we have the example of thousands of > cities ? Paris being one -- in which you or I just about invariably > get there first if we take our bike and not our Ferrari. > > (I am not sure as to when or where I first ran into this word, but I > have been using it rather often in my own work for more than a decade > now. > > A traffic system based on slowth is going to be carefully calibrated > to lower top speeds ? way 20 or 30 kph works well for me ? but where > the entire system leads to far steadier flows and throughput, and, > with it, greater safety, lower emissions, and higher quality of life > all around. > > If I were a young traffic engineer, I would certainly want to make > this a pillar of my life work ? which of course is exactly what > wonderful people like Hans Monderman, Jan Gehl and a growing cohort of > young practitioners are now doing. It?s a splendid thing to do. > > Eric Britton > > PS. Just looked slowth up in the Urban Dictionary which provides the > following, to me, rather unpromising definition: ?Slowness. Generally > sloth-like behavior, especially of computers or co-workers.? > (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=slowth) > > PS2. That done I next looked up slowth just now in the Wikipedia and > found no entry. But now if you go to > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slowth you will see the following entry, > which I hope that one or more of you may wish to jump in and complete. > It?s a very important concept and really does need a far higher > profile. Words count. > > Slowth is a New Mobility > > transport planning concept, describing a physical situation, usually > in a city, in which lower top speeds can lead to shorter overall > travel times. > > (The traditional "model" for this is of course Aesop?s tale of the > race between the tortoise and the hare, in which the slow turtle > arrives well before the fast rabbit.) > > This is a powerful model which transport and city planners are only > recently starting to take seriously. > > A traffic system based on slowth is carefully calibrated to lower top > speeds ? 20 or 30 kph on most city streets is one common target ? but > where the entire system leads to far steadier flows and throughput, > and, with it, greater safety, lower emissions, and higher quality of > life all around. > > ************ now help make this better. ****** > From sudhir at secon.in Wed Jan 2 12:36:48 2008 From: sudhir at secon.in (Sudhir) Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2008 09:06:48 +0530 Subject: [sustran] Slowth - concept Message-ID: <005801c84cf0$b4a3e100$d607a8c0@SA152A> Dear Sir, Sir, the roads are mainly designed for 30,50 and 80 kmph for access,feeder and collector/arterial categories. The major lucune in design is that it does not consider the issue of landuse development. as the road gets improved, landuse changes thus allowing more access to the road which invariably decreases the operating speed. it is a known fact that generation of shock-waves due to rapid change in speeds is the main cause of accidents. As an Engineer, i would like to see a lower speed of 30kmph as the operating speed in an ideal city. Implementing such a speed would decrease the number of fatalities in accidents. with urban people are so used to congestion that unhindered movement of 30kmph would allow them to traverse the city through one end to another end in an hour thus improving the throughputs without allowing any dissent. the main issue is should we allow such an arrangement to all modes?? Or should we allow the mass transportation modes which are only 5% of all vehicular modes to travel at 30kmph slowing down the other modes intentionally. Regards Sudhir From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Wed Jan 2 17:38:07 2008 From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (eric.britton) Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2008 09:38:07 +0100 Subject: [sustran] Slowth In-Reply-To: <477AC16E.3020109@gmail.com> References: <477AC16E.3020109@gmail.com> Message-ID: <003701c84d1a$cf6106b0$6e231410$@britton@ecoplan.org> From: Carlosfelipe Pardo [mailto:carlosfpardo@gmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, 1 January 2008 23:41 Thanks for your support! This, I hope, will be my "pillar of life work". But I really like the term "slow transport" more than "slowth"... don't you? ************************************************************* Depends Carlos. Different words can or at least may do different jobs. Coolth is of course a complete barbarism, as well as unknown (outside of my head until recently I believe) and hence ambiguous and confusing. Slow transport is proper simple English, in itself a very strong argument. One possible advantage of letting the barbarism live for at least a bit is that it seems to create a certain flurry of interest as folks try to find out what it might mean. Which brings them to slow transport (ST). And beyond this, one possible downside of slow transport is that it will often be seen as a negative concept, where as our barbarism got right may just get people to thinking about a brave new world, in a positive sense. IN another note of this date you mention at one point that "speed limits of 30 km/h are difficult (or impossible) to enforce", which is in my view not the "problem" but rather the "problematique" Thus the challenge becomes that of solving the problematique, i.e., to use what we can find to get those top speeds down. Street architecture is a great start, both in terms of the lengths of speed-appealing straight-aways and those nice smooth surfaces that beg for the accelerator. Our traffic management friends, going all the way back to the original Woonerfs (Woonerven) in 1968, have certainly led the way on that. Then too, as many of our friends here know better than you or I, are all the great things that can be done in terms of visual narrowing, roundabouts, et al. A very long and inviting list indeed. BTW, I continue to try to factor some of this feedback into http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slowth but perhaps some of you may chose to join me in this? Eric Britton From edelman at greenidea.eu Wed Jan 2 21:11:12 2008 From: edelman at greenidea.eu (Todd Edelman, Green Idea Factory) Date: Wed, 02 Jan 2008 13:11:12 +0100 Subject: [sustran] Re: Slowth - concept In-Reply-To: <005801c84cf0$b4a3e100$d607a8c0@SA152A> References: <005801c84cf0$b4a3e100$d607a8c0@SA152A> Message-ID: <477B7F60.9040806@greenidea.eu> Hi Sudhir, Sudhir wrote: > [...] > the main issue is should we allow such an arrangement to all modes?? > Or should we allow the mass transportation modes which are only 5% of all vehicular modes to travel at 30kmph slowing down the other modes intentionally. > 5% of number of vehicles? I think a better percentage to look at is that of passenger throughput (and also emissions per passenger mile, etc.). And remember, that speed limits are just made up things, based on what is acceptable from view of crashes, getting somewhere etc. 30km/h is a good speed, I would argue, not because it slows down cars to an acceptable level (and in my view no speed for a personal car in a city is acceptable) but because it is more or less the normal top speed - or nominal speed - for cycling on level ground (not talking about sports... or tailwinds) in attention to the perception things already mentioned. BUT, thanks... that gives me a few ideas... - T > Regards > Sudhir -- -------------------------------------------- Todd Edelman Director Green Idea Factory Korunni 72 CZ-10100 Praha 10 Czech Republic Skype: toddedelman ++420 605 915 970 ++420 222 517 832 edelman@greenidea.eu http://greenideafactory.blogspot.com/ www.flickr.com/photos/edelman Green Idea Factory is a member of World Carfree Network www.worldcarfree.net From edelman at greenidea.eu Thu Jan 3 01:13:53 2008 From: edelman at greenidea.eu (Todd Edelman, Green Idea Factory) Date: Wed, 02 Jan 2008 17:13:53 +0100 Subject: [sustran] "Public Transport: Self-Harming Adverts" visits Canada and goes back to Bogota... Message-ID: <477BB841.7090200@greenidea.eu> Happy New Year!, My series on Self-Harming Adverts in Public Transport... (see NEW introduction...) ...has been updated - with a contribution from Canada, and a second one from Bogota: See... Canada: Bogota: earlier contribution from Transmillenio: Be good, T -- -------------------------------------------- Todd Edelman Director Green Idea Factory Korunni 72 CZ-10100 Praha 10 Czech Republic Skype: toddedelman ++420 605 915 970 ++420 222 517 832 edelman@greenidea.eu http://greenideafactory.blogspot.com/ www.flickr.com/photos/edelman Green Idea Factory is a member of World Carfree Network www.worldcarfree.net From damantoro at swisscontact.or.id Wed Jan 2 20:16:58 2008 From: damantoro at swisscontact.or.id (Tory Damantoro) Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2008 18:16:58 +0700 Subject: [sustran] Re: [NewMobilityCafe] Slow transport? Message-ID: <7DB275FD89044E4B96C42D5CC020957B5E5774@sbs2003.Swisscontact.local> Dear Carlos, Happy new year for you, your wife and your little baby. May God bless you with health and prosperity for the whole year. I remember reading a book about the history and development of sign board design (sorry I could not remember the title). Due to close relation between speed and vision, the size of sign board spans overtime. It is very much the same with architectural fa?ade. Prior to motorization era, building facade full of detail ornament that can best enjoyed with walking speed. Now days, the fastest people move the plainer building fa?ade leave the ornamental detail as an interior luxury. Regarding to the relation between speed and urban planning, it is a very good idea. I think the first thing that you have to address is the role of speed mobility in human quality of life. Hence you can derivate more detail indicator to measure it and relate it with other indicator if urban quality of life. You may also refer to transportation behavior study which determining relation between speed, side vision and geometric requirement to incorporate it. People from highway engineering are familiar with this issue. Cheers, Damantoro ________________________________ From: NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com [mailto:NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Carlosfelipe Pardo Sent: Monday, December 31, 2007 10:15 PM To: Global 'South' Sustainable Transport; Newmobility Cafe; carfree_cities@yahoogroups.com Subject: [NewMobilityCafe] Slow transport? Hi, Does anyone know of any research or theory of urban planning or transport planning that takes *speed* as a factor to be taken into account? I have been searching for this and haven't found anything. I thought about this because I've seen that transport planning normally takes land use, modes, infrastructure and other factors into account, but it doesn't seem to take speed as a component in its own right. The only explicit reference I could find was Le Corbusier, who emphasizes the role of high speeds in a city, and plans around those high speeds (elevated highways, etc). Should we think about slowness as a *positive* characteristic of transport? Should we propose slow transport as one solution to the problem? I think slowness should be promoted not just for reasons of road safety but for issues of sustainability in shorter distances traveled (slower speeds means longer travel times, so people would try to reduce their travel distances) and thus lower energy expenditures and emissions. Of course, this would need us to think about strategies to reduce speeds, which would include what we're normally promoting (bicycles, pedestrian areas, 30km/h speed limits, etc). Comments on this are most welcome. Ah, and happy new year! Best regards, -- Carlosfelipe Pardo __._,_.___ Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Messages | Links | Database | Polls | Calendar Check in here via the homepage at http://www.newmobility.org To post message to group: NewMobilityCafe@yahoogroups.com Please think twice before posting to the group as a whole (It might be that your note is best sent to one person?) MARKETPLACE ________________________________ Earn your degree in as few as 2 years - Advance your career with an AS, BS, MS degree - College-Finder.net. Yahoo! Groups Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe Visit Your Group Yahoo! Finance It's Now Personal Guides, news, advice & more. Green Groups on Yahoo! Groups share your passion for the planet. Yahoo! Groups Health & Fitness Find and share weight loss tips. . __,_._,___ From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Tue Jan 8 14:30:38 2008 From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (eric.britton) Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2008 06:30:38 +0100 Subject: [sustran] Sad news - Hans Monderman Message-ID: <003301c851b7$9c0075c0$d4016140$@britton@ecoplan.org> Dear Friends With much sadness I heard today of the death, early this morning, of Hans Monderman. Although he had been suffering from cancer for many months, he remained very active and uncomplaining until the end. He will be very sorely missed by all those who, like me, were able to benefit from his wisdom, intellect, courage and generosity of spirit. If anyone wishes to write to his widow Tineke, her address is: Fazant 13 9247 GK Ureterp The Netherlands Yours Ben Ben Hamilton-Baillie Hamilton-Baillie Associates Limited Dean House, 94 Whiteladies Road, Bristol BS8 2QX E-mail: ben@hamilton-baillie.co.uk Tel: 0117 911 4221 Mob: 07968 774280 www.hamilton-baillie.co.uk From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Tue Jan 8 19:51:52 2008 From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (eric.britton) Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2008 11:51:52 +0100 Subject: [sustran] Homage to Hans Monderman Message-ID: <00a801c851e4$7c8dcbc0$75a96340$@britton@ecoplan.org> Hans Monderman, 1947 - 2008. In memoriam As we were going to press this morning with this report and work plan for 2008, I learned of the sad news that our deal friend and colleague Hans Monderman has passed away. As many of you know very well, Hans was an exceptionally creative , energetic and original thinker and doer. His specialty was not to write reports or go to conferences, but rather to get out onto the street and show people and policy makers what can be done if we apply our minds to it. His approach has been called Designing for Negotiation, which he in his usual modesty admitted works better in some places than others. At busy urban intersections with slow traffic, he found that it is often safer and more effective to get road users to focus on looking at one another instead of traffic control devices. An article that appeared in the New York Times on his work in 2005 started with the following, which I share with you here as a good lead-in to his original approach: "I want to take you on a walk," said Hans Monderman, abruptly stopping his car and striding - hatless, and nearly hairless - into the freezing rain. Like a naturalist conducting a tour of the jungle, he led the way to a busy intersection in the center of town, where several odd things immediately became clear. Not only was it virtually naked, stripped of all lights, signs and road markings, but there was no division between road and sidewalk. It was, basically, a bare brick square. But in spite of the apparently anarchical layout, the traffic, a steady stream of trucks, cars, buses, motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians, moved along fluidly and easily, as if directed by an invisible conductor. When Monderman, a traffic engineer and the intersection's proud designer, deliberately failed to check for oncoming traffic before crossing the street, the drivers slowed for him. No one honked or shouted rude words out the window. "Who has the right of way?" he asked rhetorically. "I don't care. People here have to find their own way, negotiate for themselves, use their own brains. We were lucky to know about and benefit from his work over the years and when I learned that Hans's health was starting to be threatened in 2004 I took the initiative of nominating him for the 2005 Word Technology Environment Award and then putting the full force of our international network behind his nomination,. It worked and brought him to the award ceremonies in San Francisco where he thrilled the audience with his lively acceptance speech outlining his original ideas and approaches. To learn more about his work and contributions, a good place to start is the Wikipedia entry, and for a shot at his work have a look at the joyful little film that Robert Stussi turned on the occasion of a visit "Unexpected interview in Groningen: A Homage to Hand Monderman". The full text of that Times article can be had here . Hans wrote me a few lines just last Tuesday reacting to my proposal for something I call "slowth" in part derived from his work, with measuredly optimist comments that the approach to sharing space is taking hold. His note ends with the words: "I attach two pieces of text I found very challenging." Which I can now share with you: * John Adams on "Hypermobility: A Challenge to Governance", Amsterdam, 11 May 2006 * Pier Giorgio Di Cicco's Closing Address to the Oct. 2007 Walk21 Conference, Toronto, 3 Oct. 2007 I am honored to dedicate the work of the New Mobility Agenda over 2008 to the memory of Hans Monderman. We shall miss him greatly. From carlosfpardo at gmail.com Tue Jan 8 19:53:38 2008 From: carlosfpardo at gmail.com (carlosfpardo at gmail.com) Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2008 05:53:38 -0500 (EST) Subject: [sustran] IHT.com Article: India offers cheapest car on earth Message-ID: <20080108105338.6B4A8FA17@dumpty.iht.com> This IHT.com article has been sent to you by: carlosfpardo@gmail.com The beast is out of the cage... ------------------------------------------------------ India offers cheapest car on earth By Anand Giridharadas International Herald Tribune Tuesday, January 8, 2008 There was the $400 airplane seat that plummeted to $40. Then there was the $2,000 laptop reborn for $200. And now the $25,000 car has a $2,500 cousin. Every now and again in business history, a disruption comes along that breaks the conventional wisdom about cost, tweaking and paring features once thought untouchable. Likewise, the $2,500 car, scheduled for introduction Thursday by the Indian company Tata, swims against the current, with a rear-mounted engine, a trunk that fits little more than a briefcase, and plastics and adhesives replacing metal and bolts in certain nooks. (Some analysts expect the car to be priced closer to $3,000, still making it the cheapest on earth.) But the still-untold story of how the Tata car was built is less about big-bang innovations than about a long string of $20 trims: a steering-wheel shaft rendered hollow here, a small headlight leveler removed there, the use of an analog speedometer less accurate than its digital equivalent. The car is thus a triumph, not of one great invention but of a new engineering philosophy rising out of the developing world, with potential to change how cars everywhere are made, industry experts say. Just as Japan popularized kanban (just in time) and kaizen (continuous improvement), so Tata may export to the world what can perhaps be called "Gandhi engineering" - a mantra that combines irreverence toward established ways with a scarcity mentality that spurns superfluities. "It's basically throwing out everything the auto industry had thought about cost structures in the past and taking out a clean sheet of paper and asking, 'What's possible?' " said Daryl Rolley, the head of North American and Asian operations for Ariba, which provides parts for Tata and other auto makers like BMW and Toyota. "In the next 5 to 10 years, the whole auto industry is going to be flipped upside-down." Low-cost cars are already having global impact. Tata's move, announced in 2004, has already inspired two rivals to plan their own ultracheap cars: the French-Japanese alliance Renault-Nissan and the Indian-Japanese joint venture Maruti Suzuki. Meanwhile, struggling Western automakers are increasingly borrowing from the cost-obsessed ethos of the developing world. Yet it is unclear whether the Tata car itself, so small and wispy and lacking the most cutting-edge emissions and safety technologies, will ever drive a Western road - or whether it can sell briskly enough at home to reap a profit. The "People's Car," so called in homage to Volkswagen's Beetle and Ford's Model T, is a carefully guarded secret. The company refuses to provide details of how it was built, and it has signed legal agreements with suppliers not to divulge details. But as the debut date approaches, a handful of suppliers broke their silence to offer an early, impressionistic picture of how the automobile, a machine invented by a 19th-century German, is being propelled by 21st-century Indians across a new frontier - to cost as little as the optional DVD player on the Lexus LX470 sport utility vehicle. The handful of people who have seen the car describe a tiny, charming, four-door, five-seat hatchback shaped like a jellybean, tiny in the front and broad in the back, the better to reduce wind resistance and permit a cheaper engine. "It's a nice car - cute," said A.K. Chaturvedi, senior vice president for business development at Lumax Industries, a supplier in Delhi that developed the headlights and interior lamps for the car. Driving the cost-cutting were Tata's engineers, who in an earlier project questioned whether their trucks really needed all four brake pads or could make do with three. As they built the People's Car, for about half the price of the next-cheapest Indian alternative, their guiding philosophy appears to have been one question: Do we really need that? The model appearing Thursday has no radio, no power steering, no power windows, no air conditioning, and one windshield wiper instead of two, according to suppliers and Tata's own statements. Bucking prevailing habits, the car lacks a tachometer and uses an analog rather than digital speedometer, according to Ashok Taneja, who until recently was president of the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India, representing many of Tata's suppliers as they signed deals with the company. "So what if I'm going at 65 or 75?" Taneja said, referring to the use of a less precise speedometer. The frugal method also pervades the car's internal machinery, invisible to consumers but perhaps with even greater implications for the vehicle's safety and longevity. To save just $10, Tata engineers redesigned the suspension to eliminate actuators in the headlights, the levelers that adjust the angle of the beam depending on how the car is loaded, according to Chaturvedi of Lumax. In lieu of the solid steel beam that typically connects steering wheels to axles, one supplier, Sona Koyo Steering Systems, used a hollow tube, said Kiran Deshmukh, the Delhi company's chief operating officer. The car's cheapness could come at the cost of longevity. For example, Tata chose wheel bearings that are strong enough to drive the car up to 70 kilometers, or 45 miles, an hour, but will suffer wear and tear above that speed, reducing the car's life span but never threatening consumer safety, according to Taneja. "When I need silver," he said, "why am I investing in gold?" Tata's focus on reducing the weight curbed material costs and also permitted a cheaper engine. People familiar with the car describe a $700 rear-mounted engine built by the German company Bosch, measuring 600 to 660 cubic centimeters, with a horsepower in the range of 30 to 35 - no more powerful than some commercial lawn mowers. The Tata car, according to industry experts, runs on the somewhat forgotten technology of continuous variable transmission, a lighter alternative to the manual or automatic kinds. Conceived by Leonardo da Vinci in the late 15th century, it is an elegant, stepless transmission reliant on pulleys. While it was never popular in the United States because of often sluggish acceleration, continuous transmission was once widespread in Europe and has resurfaced in the United States in offerings like the Nissan Murano SUV and the Toyota Prius. Even as Tata reverted to old technologies, it embraced cutting-edge sourcing practices, said Rolley at Ariba, which has assisted both Tata and its foreign rivals with buying parts. Traditionally, carmakers cultivated long-term relationships with suppliers, but companies have gradually embraced electronic sourcing, using Internet auctions that force multiple suppliers to compete for business. Yet even the most efficient carmakers buy no more than 10 percent to 15 percent of parts electronically, Rolley said, while Tata sources 30 percent to 40 percent of its parts that way. Critics of the Tata car have asked how a car that prunes thousands of dollars from regular prices can comply with safety and environmental norms. The answer may be that it comes at a fortuitous moment in India's developmental arc, when India is affluent enough to support vigorous demand for cars but not yet so affluent as to have enacted the regulations common to wealthy countries. Tata executives say the car will comply with all Indian norms. But those norms are changing, and so might the car's price. India's major cities plan to adopt the Euro IV emissions standard in April 2010, requiring a costly reduction in sulfur emissions to a 35th of those allowed in the current Euro III standard, according to Anumita Roychowdhury of the Center for Science and Environment in New Delhi. New safety rules mandating airbags, antilock brakes and full-body crash tests are also forthcoming, she said. Roychowdhury gives the car "not much" chance of retaining its populist price tag. That happens to many ultra-cheap offerings: even the "$100 laptop" ended up selling for $200 over the recent holiday season. And the car may be less than environmentally friendly even in complying with Indian standards. Unlike U.S. cars, Indian ones are not tested after use on real roads, which often batter the systems that curb emissions. Michael Walsh, a pollution consultant and former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulator, said that a car so cheap was likely to lack the complex technology to maintain its initial level of emissions and that without such technology cars could pollute four to five times their initial amount before long. "It strikes me as impossible that such a vehicle will be a very clean vehicle over the life of the vehicle," Walsh said. In a recent interview, Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Group, also suggested that the car's lightness, while favorable for the environment, had frustrated efforts to make it safe. "We will have far lower emissions than today's low-end cars," he said. But, he added, "The emissions standards were much easier to meet than the crash test." That is understandable. In most U.S. cars, safety features alone cost more than $2,500, said Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in Arlington, Virginia. But, he added, "If what we're talking about in India is people having the option of getting off the streets, from motorcycles and bicycles where they are at risk from bigger vehicles, this may actually be an improvement of the safety environment." Even if the Tata car never plies Western roads, the philosophy behind it will influence global car makers, Rolley of Ariba said. Manufacturers are searching for ways to make small cars for the middle class in India and China; to produce small cars for their own home markets, roiled by rising gasoline prices; and to improve the profitability of existing larger cars. With old tactics failing, Tata's car will be mined for applicable lessons, Rolley said. Automakers will create more cars from scratch with low cost built in from the start, Rolley said, and embrace the sensibility in which every design choice is made with cost foremost in mind. After Renault-Nissan began making cheap cars in Romania, it cross-pollinated low-cost engineering techniques to its plants producing more expensive models - for example, making doors flatter so they could be stacked in greater volume in shipping containers, according to a Nissan spokeswoman. Consumers in wealthy nations can perhaps expect more thin doors, hollow steering shafts, actuator-free headlights and tiny trunks. "This will be no different," Rolley said, "from when U.S. companies spent a whole decade in the '80s thinking about what Japanese management techniques they had to adopt." iht.com/biz http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/07/business/car.php From whook at itdp.org Wed Jan 9 00:31:26 2008 From: whook at itdp.org (Walter Hook) Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2008 10:31:26 -0500 Subject: [sustran] Re: Homage to Hans Monderman In-Reply-To: <00a801c851e4$7c8dcbc0$75a96340$@britton@ecoplan.org> Message-ID: <000001c8520b$8926fa10$3601a8c0@DFJLYL81> It is a real shame. John Howe and I were sitting together at an ICE organized workshop, in Utrecht I think, when we first heard Hans speak. John and I both shook our heads, and said to each other, 'amazing'. He generously shared his powerpoints, which have gotten a lot of use since then! He turned so much of our thinking on our heads. He started us walking down a new path. Ahead, in the foggy distance, are enticing other possibilities that we would never have dreamed of, had it not been for Hans. Walter -----Original Message----- From: sustran-discuss-bounces+whook=itdp.org@list.jca.apc.org [mailto:sustran-discuss-bounces+whook=itdp.org@list.jca.apc.org] On Behalf Of eric.britton Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2008 5:52 AM To: Sustran Resource Centre Subject: [sustran] Homage to Hans Monderman Hans Monderman, 1947 - 2008. In memoriam As we were going to press this morning with this report and work plan for 2008, I learned of the sad news that our deal friend and colleague Hans Monderman has passed away. As many of you know very well, Hans was an exceptionally creative , energetic and original thinker and doer. His specialty was not to write reports or go to conferences, but rather to get out onto the street and show people and policy makers what can be done if we apply our minds to it. His approach has been called Designing for Negotiation, which he in his usual modesty admitted works better in some places than others. At busy urban intersections with slow traffic, he found that it is often safer and more effective to get road users to focus on looking at one another instead of traffic control devices. An article that appeared in the New York Times on his work in 2005 started with the following, which I share with you here as a good lead-in to his original approach: "I want to take you on a walk," said Hans Monderman, abruptly stopping his car and striding - hatless, and nearly hairless - into the freezing rain. Like a naturalist conducting a tour of the jungle, he led the way to a busy intersection in the center of town, where several odd things immediately became clear. Not only was it virtually naked, stripped of all lights, signs and road markings, but there was no division between road and sidewalk. It was, basically, a bare brick square. But in spite of the apparently anarchical layout, the traffic, a steady stream of trucks, cars, buses, motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians, moved along fluidly and easily, as if directed by an invisible conductor. When Monderman, a traffic engineer and the intersection's proud designer, deliberately failed to check for oncoming traffic before crossing the street, the drivers slowed for him. No one honked or shouted rude words out the window. "Who has the right of way?" he asked rhetorically. "I don't care. People here have to find their own way, negotiate for themselves, use their own brains. We were lucky to know about and benefit from his work over the years and when I learned that Hans's health was starting to be threatened in 2004 I took the initiative of nominating him for the 2005 Word Technology Environment Award and then putting the full force of our international network behind his nomination,. It worked and brought him to the award ceremonies in San Francisco where he thrilled the audience with his lively acceptance speech outlining his original ideas and approaches. To learn more about his work and contributions, a good place to start is the Wikipedia entry, and for a shot at his work have a look at the joyful little film that Robert Stussi turned on the occasion of a visit "Unexpected interview in Groningen: A Homage to Hand Monderman". The full text of that Times article can be had here . Hans wrote me a few lines just last Tuesday reacting to my proposal for something I call "slowth" in part derived from his work, with measuredly optimist comments that the approach to sharing space is taking hold. His note ends with the words: "I attach two pieces of text I found very challenging." Which I can now share with you: * John Adams on "Hypermobility: A Challenge to Governance", Amsterdam, 11 May 2006 * Pier Giorgio Di Cicco's Closing Address to the Oct. 2007 Walk21 Conference, Toronto, 3 Oct. 2007 I am honored to dedicate the work of the New Mobility Agenda over 2008 to the memory of Hans Monderman. We shall miss him greatly. -------------------------------------------------------- IMPORTANT NOTE to everyone who gets sustran-discuss messages via YAHOOGROUPS. Please go to http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/listinfo/sustran-discuss to join the real sustran-discuss and get full membership rights. The yahoogroups version is only a mirror and 'members' there cannot post to the real sustran-discuss (even if the yahoogroups site makes it seem like you can). Apologies for the confusing arrangement. ================================================================ SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries (the 'Global South'). From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Thu Jan 10 03:09:46 2008 From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (eric.britton) Date: Wed, 9 Jan 2008 19:09:46 +0100 Subject: [sustran] condolence registry for Hans Monderman Message-ID: <056701c852ea$d3310850$799318f0$@britton@ecoplan.org> A condolence registry for messages that will reach Hans's colleagues and family has been set up at http://www.shared-space.org/default.asp?ObjectID=24828 On January 7th the sad news reached us that Mr. Hans Monderman, head of the Shared Space Expert Team, had died at the age of 62. Hans was an impassioned person. He showed vision and since the eighties he had worked untiringly for his ideal: restoring human measure to street and society. In this way he did not only lay the foundation for the European Shared Space project but he also managed to inspire and challenge a countless number of people from all over the world to look critically at themselves and their environment. He was frequently able point out failings and mistakes that most took for granted, and was never discouraged by the sceptism or hostile reactions that such pioneering work generated. Especially in his own professional field, the traffic sector, he regularly encountered a lack of understanding. However, he was not daunted by this but used this 'feedback' to elaborate his vision further. We will certainly miss Hans' contribution, commitment and enthusiasm as the pater familias of the Shared Space project. We wish his wife and children much strength to cope with this loss. From litman at vtpi.org Fri Jan 11 03:23:13 2008 From: litman at vtpi.org (Todd Alexander Litman) Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:23:13 -0800 Subject: [sustran] VTPI NEWS - Winter 2008 Message-ID: <6.2.3.4.2.20080110102228.076c7568@mail.islandnet.com> ----------- VTPI NEWS ----------- Victoria Transport Policy Institute "Efficiency - Equity - Clarity" ------------------------------------- Winter 2008 Vol. 11, No. 1 ----------------------------------- The Victoria Transport Policy Institute is an independent research organization dedicated to developing innovative solutions to transportation problems. The VTPI website (http://www.vtpi.org ) has many resources addressing a wide range of transport planning and policy issues. VTPI also provides consulting services. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ACTION ALERT ============== "Tax-Free Transit Benefits In Canada" (http://www.vtpi.org/TT_alert.htm ) For more than a decade VTPI has promoted employer-based incentives for public transit, called "tax-free transit benefit" or "tax-free transit passes" (http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm8.htm ). There is now a promising opportunity to have this policy established in Canada?s tax code. If you are a Canadian resident, your support can help. Please click the link above for information. NEW DOCUMENTS ============== "Smart Transportation Emission Reductions" (http://www.vtpi.org/ster.pdf ) This report investigates how to identify the optimal (best overall, taking into account all benefits and costs) transportation emission reduction strategies. Current evaluation methods tend to undervalue mobility management due to various types of biases. More comprehensive and objective analysis tends to rank mobility management strategies among the most cost-effective emission reduction options. This report describes ways to correct current planning bias so mobility management solutions can be implemented to the degree optimal. "Measuring The Performance Of Transit-Oriented Developments In Western Australia," (http://www.vtpi.org/renne_tod_performance.pdf ) This new report by Professor John Renne summarizes factors to consider when evaluating TOD transport, economic social and environmental impacts. It recommends longitudinal measurement of performance indicators in six categories, including travel behaviour, the local economy, the natural environment, the built environment, the social environment and the policy context. "Sustainable Transportation Indicators: A Recommended Program To Define A Standard Set of Indicators For Sustainable Transportation Planning" (www.vtpi.org/sustain/sti.pdf ) This paper, a cooperative effort by the Transportation Research Board?s 'Sustainable Transportation Indicators Subcommittee' (ADD40 [1]), discusses how to develop a standard set of indicators for sustainable transportation evaluation. It describes sustainable transportation definitions and concepts, discusses factors to consider when selecting indictors, recommends specific sustainable transportation indicators, and discusses issues of data quality. We hope this will lead to the development of a standardized set of sustainable transportation indictors for worldwide use. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UPDATED DOCUMENTS ============== "Appropriate Response To Rising Fuel Prices" (www.vtpi.org/fuelprice.pdf ) This paper evaluates public policy options for responding to rising fuel prices. There is popular support for policies to minimize retail prices by reducing fuel taxes or providing production subsidies. But price-minimization policies are likely to harm consumers and the economy overall by encouraging transportation system inefficiency. Rather than reducing fuel prices it would be better to allow prices to rise and simultaneously working to improve transport system efficiency. "Smart Growth Reforms" (http://www.vtpi.org/smart_growth_reforms.pdf ) This paper identifies specific policy, planning, regulatory and fiscal reforms that support smart growth. "Land Use Impacts On Transport" (http://www.vtpi.org/landtravel.pdf ). This paper examines how various land use factors such as density, regional accessibility, mix and roadway connectivity affect travel behavior, including per capita vehicle travel, mode split and nonmotorized travel. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ IN THE NEWS ============ "Connected Urban Development" program with Cisco Systems and the Clinton Foundation (http://commitments.clintonglobalinitiative.org/projects.htm?mode=progressreport&rid=43067&blogId=216 ). I'm a special advisor on transportation and land use planning. The project will include bus transit improvements, a handheld navigation device (a mobile telephone with web-browsing, GPS and automatic fare payment capabilities), road pricing (likely to be implemented in Seoul), some smart growth policies, plus promotion of telework. For more information see Ted Samson's InfoWorld Sustainable IT blog (http://weblog.infoworld.com/sustainableit/archives/2007/12/cisco_clinton_g.html ). We Rock Geekaliciously! (http://www.sightline.org/daily_score/archive/2007/10/15/congestion-is-the-cure-worse-than-the-disease ) Litman's Planetizen Blogs (http://www.planetizen.com/user/2394 ). VTPI Executive Director Todd Litman shares information and insites in blogs posted on Planetizen, a public-interest information exchange for urban planners, designs, and developers. Below are examples: "Smart Emission Reduction Strategies" (http://www.planetizen.com/node/28841 ). "Place Trumps Mobility Equals Paradise," Planetizen Blog (http://www.planetizen.com/node/28195 ) "Smart Growth Safety Benefits," Planetizen Blog (http://www.planetizen.com/node/28523 ) "Ten Insights on Carbon Policy," Seeking Alpha ? Stock Market Opinion & Analysis" (http://seekingalpha.com/article/56026-ten-insights-on-carbon-policy ), by Tom Konrad. "Transportation model decreased travel costs, added options" The Daily Journal (http://www.daily-journal.com/archives/dj/display.php?id=406356 ), 26 October 2007. "Gas prices affect TransLink" Georgia Straight (http://www.straight.com/article-115501/gas-prices-affect-translink ), 25 October 2007. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BEEN THERE, DONE THAT ========================== "US Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Summit" (www.seattle.gov/mayor/climateSummit2007.htm ) The two-day U.S. Conference of Mayors' Climate Protection Summit in Seattle, included presentations by former President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore via satellite, New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, and VTPI E.D. Todd Litman. This event stressed the importance of local and regional actions to create more livable, efficient and sustainable communities (http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=6336&state=52 ). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UPCOMING EVENTS ================ Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting (http://www.trb.org/meeting ). Below are some events VTPI will participate in: Workshop 141, "Cutting Carbs in the Transportation Sector: International Efforts to Address Global Climate Change," Sunday, 13 January 2008, 12:15pm-5:30pm, Hilton, International East 'Macrolevel Collision Prediction Models to Evaluate Road Safety Effects of Mobility Management Strategies: New Empirical Tools to Promote Sustainable Development' (08-2385), http://www.trb.org/am/ip/paper_detail.asp?paperid=21962, Poster Session 253, Monday, January 14, 2008, 9:30am-12:00pm. "Evaluating Quality of Accessibility for Transportation Planning" (08-0495); SESSION #: 332, Monday, January 14, 2008, 2:30pm- 5:00pm. (http://www.vtpi.org/access.pdf ) "Valuing Service Quality Improvements in Transport Planning" (08-0998); SESSION #: 337, Monday, January 14, 2008, 2:30pm- 5:00pm (http://www.vtpi.org/quality.pdf ) Transportation and Sustainability Committee" (ADD40); Monday, January 14, 2008, 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM, Hilton Map Room, Hilton Hotel "Sustainable Transportation Indicators Subcommittee" (ADD40[1]); SESSION MMM08-035, Tuesday, January 15, 2008, 12:15pm- 1:15pm Bancroft Room, Hilton Hotel "Performance Measures for Sustainability" (Session 677); Wednesday, January 16, 2008, 10:15 AM - 12:00 PM, Hilton "New Perspectives on Sustainable Transportation" (Session 734); Wednesday, January 16, 2008, 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM, Hilton "The Carmichael Conference On The Future of American Transportation," (http://www.nationalcorridors.org ), St. Louis, MO, January 28-29, 2008. This conference is organized by the National Corridors Initiative with the support of major transportation advocacy organizations including AASHTO, APTA, NARP, ETC. "Transportation Demand Management Toolkit" (http://www.academicimpressions.com/pdf/0108-transportation-demand.pdf ), January 28-30, San Diego, CA. This conference on Campus Transport Management (http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm5.htm ) will help participants learn to plan and implement techniques that can reduce parking costs, improve town-gown relations, help green your campus, and reduce single occupant vehicle trips to and around campus. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ USEFUL RESOURCES ================= "Growing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change," (http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/gcindex.html ). This book documents how land development changes could help reduce vehicle greenhouse gas emissions, based on a comprehensive review of dozens of studies. The authors make the case that one of the best ways to reduce vehicle travel is compact development: building places in which people can get from one place to another without driving. "Transport and Climate Change: A new module of the GTZ Sustainable Urban Transport Sourcebook" (http://www.sutp.org/component/option,com_docman/task,doc_details/gid,383/lang,uk ) This new module summarises the challenges that climate change mitigation has to face in the transport sector and presents options to deal with them. "Smart Growth E-Learning Portal" (http://www.moodleserv.com/smartgrowthca ), is an educational program describing various smart growth concepts and implementation strategies, developed by the Smart Growth Canada Network, sponsored by Natural Resources Canada. "ITE Journal? (http://www.ite.org/itejournal/0711.asp ), Vol. 77, No. 11, November 2007. This issue includes two excellent articles which indicate that the Institute of Transportation Engineers supports multiple modes and community livability: 'President's Award for Merit in Transportation Engineering: Road Diet Handbook,', by Jennifer A. Rosales. This award-winning paper describes the benefits of road diets and how they can be implemented. "Innovative Intermodal Solutions for Urban Transportation Paper Award: Quantifying Transit-Oriented Development's Ability To Change Travel Behavior," by John Gard. This award-winning paper summarizes information on transit-oriented development impacts on transit rider and automobile trip generation. It indicates that TOD typically increases per captia transit ridership 2-5 times and reduces vehicle trip generation 8% to 32%. "Your Next Move: Choosing a Neighbourhood with Sustainable Features," (http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/odpub/pdf/62180.pdf ), helps consumers evaluate community sustainability when selecting a home. It describes features that create safe, convenient, environmentally-friendly and affordable neighborhoods. 'Making Cycling Irresistible: Lessons from the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany,' by John Pucher and Ralph Buehler, published in "Transport Reviews," Vol. 28, No. 4, July 2008; at http://www.policy.rutgers.edu/faculty/pucher/Irresistible.pdf . This paper describes the policies and planning practices that result in very high levels of cycling transportation in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany, and the feasibility of applying these strategies in other countries. "Design Guidelines for 'Greening' Surface Parking Lots," (http://www.toronto.ca/planning/urbdesign/greening_parking_lots.htm ). These Guidelines by the City of Toronto are designed to deal with common urban design and environmental challenges found within and around surface parking lots. Two Cool Videos: "Ciclovia and Recreovia" (http://www.streetfilms.org/archives/ciclovia ). This video clip shows the 'Ciclovia and Recreovia' program, in which major streets in Bogota, Columbia are closed to motor vehicle traffic so residents can walk, bike, run, skate, recreate, picnic, and visit. "Parking Illustrated: Toy Cars And Stop-Motion Animation Show How Parking Reform Can Work,? (http://www.streetsblog.org/2007/12/21/donald-shoup-plays-with-parking-fees-and-matchbox-cars ). A fun video with Parking Master Professor Donald Shoup. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please let us know if you have comments or questions about any information in this newsletter, or if you would like to be removed from our email list. And please pass this newsletter on to others who may find it useful. Sincerely, Todd Alexander Litman Victoria Transport Policy Institute (www.vtpi.org) litman@vtpi.org Phone & Fax 250-360-1560 1250 Rudlin Street, Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, CANADA ?Efficiency - Equity - Clarity? From sunny.enie at gmail.com Fri Jan 11 13:34:04 2008 From: sunny.enie at gmail.com (Sunny) Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2008 11:34:04 +0700 Subject: [sustran] Tata Nano aimed at common man, says Kamal Nath Message-ID: <27b8dced0801102034o77484e6ehad047ca569e7e72f@mail.gmail.com> Tata Nano aimed at common man, says Kamal Nath Nano, Tata Motors' Rs 1,00,000 "people's car" unveiled at the Auto Expo 2008 in New Delhi on Thursday will help the common man shift from two-wheelers to four-wheelers, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said. "This is a proud moment for India. It demonstrates India's technological and entrepreneurial ability," Kamal Nath told reporters on Thursday. "It fulfils the need of the common Indian who aspires to move from a two-wheeler to a four-wheeler," he added. Tata Motors chairman Ratan Tata spoke in a similar vein at a press conference immediately after unveiling the Nano. "I have observed families riding on two-wheelers - the father driving the scooter, his young son standing in front of him, his wife seated behind him, holding a baby," he said. "It made me to wonder whether one could conceive of a safe, affordable, all-weather form of transport for such a family," Tata added. "Tata Motors' engineers and designers gave their all for about four years to realise this goal. Today, we indeed have a people's car that is affordable and meets safety and emission norms." Tata said. "We are happy to present the people's car to India and we hope it brings the joy, pride and utility of owning a car to many families who need personal mobility," he added. Jagidsh Khattar, the former chief of Maruti Udyog Limited that manufactures Maruti 800 that "Nano" is seen to target, said it was early days yet for this to happen. "It's a good product but it's still too early to say whether it will overtake the (Maruti) 800 because it caters to a totally new market segment," he pointed out. An official of Hyundai Motors that unveiled an LPG version of its Santro Thursday was more direct. "We definitely see it as impacting on our sales," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Bajaj Auto head Rajiv Bajaj wondered about Nano's commercial viability and whether Tata Motors would be able to maintain the Rs 1,00,000 ($2,500) price tag. "My scepticism about the Tata car is not about Tata's ability to put it together but to put it together at the price of Rs1,00,000. I still haven't heard them (the Tatas) say it will be profitable," Bajaj said. The Tata car could "jam cities" and raise pollution, NGO Centre for Science and Environment said. Pointing out that the average vehicle speed in the national capital had dropped, CSE said on its website: "As congestion builds up and vehicles slow down, emissions increase up to five times." From sunny.enie at gmail.com Fri Jan 11 13:53:30 2008 From: sunny.enie at gmail.com (Sunny) Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2008 11:53:30 +0700 Subject: [sustran] Why critics of the Tata small car are barking up the wrong tree news Message-ID: <27b8dced0801102053o46e72292k526e7060b94cabc9@mail.gmail.com> Why critics of the Tata small car are barking up the wrong tree news Vivek Sharma 10 January 2008 Those who criticise the Tata small car are barking up the wrong tree and some of their arguments are elitist and discriminatory. "India is in serious danger", warned the hugely popular New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman last November in one of his columns. The danger, he said, is from the $2,500-Tata small car which he believes is a highly retrograde initiative from a country capable of incredible innovation. Why is Friedman so worried about a car that may never be seen on American roads? Because, he is very concerned about the well-being of us Indians! He is worried that we will make an even bigger mess of our road traffic and pollute our way to motoring bliss. He even asked Americans to urge Indians not to imitate the indulgent American way of life, but leapfrog and invent 'cheap-scale', sustainable solutions to big problems like public transport. On the face of it, the column reads like yet another patronising sermon from a westerner baulking at the thought of third world masses enjoying cheap personal transport the way Americans do. But Friedman, a three times Pulitzer prize winner, is unlikely to harbour any prejudice against India and Indians. After all, one of his biggest claims to fame is a true 'eureka moment' when it dawned on him that 'the world is flat' - while playing golf in Bangalore! The picture of Bangalore he paints in that book, with gleaming skyscrapers housing development centres for Microsoft, Sun and Oracle adorning his view from the golf course, would easily beat BJP's old 'India Shining' campaign. Tom Friedman is not alone in deriding the Tata small car. Ever since Ratan Tata announced his intention to build the cheapest car ever, there has been no let up from a variety of Tata baiters. Some competitors ridiculed the idea and questioned the company's ability to launch a car at such a low price. Green activists and 'concerned' souls, much before it caught Friedman's attention, have been warning us of the terrible fate that awaits us if the small car becomes a reality. Their objections range from vehicle safety to pollution and some of them sound plain elitist in their arguments. The elite who pretend to be liberals Last year, a columnist in a major Indian financial newspaper wondered how this country could allow a product like the Tata small car that would make our urban lives messier and all the more tedious. This is one of the biggest complaints against the Tata small car. But the question is, messier and tedious for whom? Obviously the urban rich, for the lives of the urban lower middle class and the poor cannot be made any messier! So, those who cannot afford more expensive cars must stick to their motorbikes so that the rich can continue to enjoy comfortable rides in thin traffic! Another curious argument is that most of the potential buyers of the Tata car would have no parking space at their homes. So, it is said, they will all start parking their puny little cars by the roadside and clog traffic. A car manufacturer cannot be asked to sell to only those who have their own parking space. It is the potential buyers' problem to find a safe parking space. If they cannot find adequate parking space, or find parking to be very expensive, they will not take out their cars very often or will abstain from buying them in the worst case. Given our 'highly developed civic sense' and 'ready willingness to obey the rules', it is likely that many of the new small car owners would conveniently park their vehicles where they should not. But, doesn't that happen even now with those who can afford expensive cars? It is the rich who flout traffic rules more blatantly and it is very likely that cars left at 'no parking' areas will be the most expensive ones because they know the traffic policeman will usually not dare to touch the 'sahib's gaadi'. When that is the case, this argument smacks of blatant elitism. The less affluent cannot be denied the safety and comfort of a cheap four-wheeled vehicle, only because the existing infrastructure will come under further strain. Any move to restrict the number of cars should apply to all vehicles, irrespective of their cost. Even then, it should be ensured that the costs of such measures - like increased road taxes and parking charges - should be proportionate to the owners' ability to pay. Anything else will be discriminatory and simply unfair. The safety bogey Another potential fault critics have come up with is safety. "When you lower prices that drastically, how will you be able to meet safety standards?" - Anumita Roychoudhury of the Centre for Science and Environment (CES), one of the most-quoted critics of the Tata car, is reported to have asked. Does she really believe that there are no safety standards for vehicles in India? Even if they are inadequate, are we supposed to believe that a manufacturer from the House of Tatas, would risk its reputation and compromise on safety just to cut costs? Even if the Tata small car is deemed less safe in terms of passenger injuries in the event of a collision, we need to remember that nobody in their right senses would enter such a car in a drag race! Neither will any sensible driver try to test the car's speed limit on our dangerous highways. Most potential buyers, ordinary middle class buyers, will drive the car to work or take their families for an outing on weekends. Is the probability of high speed collisions on our city roads, where the average speed is in the range of 20 to 30 kmph, so high? In high-speed highway collisions, will the passengers in other small cars like the Maruti 800, Alto or even a Santro fare any better? Furthermore, won't the Tata small car be far safer for lower middle class families who now use motorcycles and scooters with only the rider wearing a safety helmet in equally "dangerous" traffic conditions? Roychoudhury has also argued that the Tata car has "not much chance" of retaining its price tag when safety features like airbags and anti-lock brakes are made standard in all vehicles. It is Ratan Tata who should worry about that, not his detractors. Oh! Shouldn't his critics be happier if the car becomes costlier and beyond the reach of its target customers! The pollution bogey R K Pachauri, with all the added gravitas from the Nobel Peace Prize, said the Tata small car is giving him "nightmares" - presumably implying the environmental impact of emissions from more cars on our streets. He is one of the biggest stars of the global warming campaigners, second only to Al Gore, and it is understandable that he gets nightmares. Just when he and his scientists and experts had convinced the sceptics that global warming was for real, here is a company from his own country, which he believes, is hell bent on worsening the problem! Roychoudhury of CES is worried that "we have a time bomb ticking away" in terms of the environmental impact of hundreds of thousands of Tata small cars that will flood the streets in the coming years. Others are no less appalled or frightened. But, how real is the potential pollution problem posed by the Tata small car? Ratan Tata has said that the car's emissions will be comparable to two-wheelers on a per passenger basis. That is assuming that the car will always have four passengers, which is unlikely. So, if the car replaces as many two-wheelers on our roads, total emissions will undoubtedly be higher. But there is a potential upside, too. The Tata small car is said to be twice as fuel-efficient as other small cars. So, if some of the existing and potential owners of other small cars switch to the new car, the increase in overall fuel demand and emissions will be lower. Again, it is not that millions of Tata small cars will be rolled out every year. Tata Motors' current capacity is 250,000 units per year, which is less than a quarter of the total cars produced in the country. In the long run, yes, the number of Tata small cars on our roads could be in millions. But, the number of other small car models sold over a period of as many years will also run into millions. Then, why single out the Tata car for criticism? The Tata small car will definitely increase the pace of passenger car sales. But, the incremental addition to total car sales may not be as high as it is being made out to be. On balance, potential emissions are not the "nightmare" critics want us to believe. The traffic chaos bogey More cars on roads definitely mean more congestion. But, will the Tata small car make it that worse as some fear? It is estimated that there are over 12 million vehicles in India - four wheelers and above. Around a million are being added every year, and the additions will only increase. If Tata Motors sells as much as it can produce, we will see 250,000 cars being added every year. By the time the company reaches full capacity, at the earliest in 2009-10, total number of vehicles will be around 15 million. In percentage terms, the Tata small cars will constitute less than 2 per cent of total vehicles on our roads. Even if the company doubles its capacity, it will still be less than 4 per cent. Is that a big problem? Our roads are congested in urban areas, not so much in semi-urban and rural areas. It is likely that a substantial number of Tata small cars will be sold in areas where the road traffic is not that bad. So, should the village aam aadmi also be denied a cheap personal vehicle? Even if the Tata small cars create utter traffic chaos in our cities, it may be a blessing in disguise. The transport infrastructure in our cities is pathetic probably because our netas never have to suffer traffic blocks. The big shots, who take all the decisions, have police vehicles clearing the way for them. The lesser minions, who lobby to influence the decisions, are usually chauffeured around and hence commuting is less tedious for them. So, to take a highly charitable view on our netas, it is possible that they are really not aware of the problems. When we protest loudly, they will agree to 'look into the matter', without really grasping the enormity of the problem and hence cannot be blamed for forgetting the promise. But, they will grasp the problem better and will be forced to 'look into it' if their cars cannot move. For them to roll down their windows and see reality, the traffic should become so bad that even police vehicles cannot clear the way. Then they will do something about our roads or let the private sector do it. I am all for mass transport systems - metro rail systems, high capacity buses on dedicated lanes and so on - for our cities. Many commuters would prefer public transport to driving their own cars, provided they are safe, comfortable and reliable. There is no doubt that, in the not too distant future, a majority of city dwellers will switch to public transport from cars. Because it will be impossible to take out the cars daily and our public transport systems would have improved beyond recognition by then. But, that will be a gradual transition. All we can do is to exert pressure to speed up the process, and that is what all the activists railing against the Tata small car should be doing. Until we have better public transport, commuters would prefer personal transport - if they can afford it - and there will be huge demand for personal vehicles. You cannot fault a business for trying to meet market demand, in a supposedly liberalised economy. If the Tatas had not done it, somebody else would have. Bajaj already has a prototype ready! All those who are arguing against the Tata small car are barking up the wrong tree! From sunny.enie at gmail.com Fri Jan 11 14:34:16 2008 From: sunny.enie at gmail.com (Sunny) Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2008 12:34:16 +0700 Subject: [sustran] Links for the news items posted earlier Message-ID: <27b8dced0801102134p40530a55we027557c2fe4189a@mail.gmail.com> Dear All, I forgot to send the links for the news i posted before. Please find the same below. cheers sunny Tata Nano aimed at common man, says Kamal Nath Link: http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=decfe71c-4d4c-4b8b-9db8-145faf7ce6d6&MatchID1=4619&TeamID1=3&TeamID2=4&MatchType1=1&SeriesID1=1163&MatchID2=4617&TeamID3=3&TeamID4=4&MatchType2=1&SeriesID2=1163&PrimaryID=4619&Headline=Tata+Nano+aimed+at+common+man%2c+says+Kamal+Nath Why critics of the Tata small car are barking up the wrong tree http://www.domain-b.com/companies/companies_t/Tata_Motors/20080110_tata_small_car.html From cowherdr at wit.edu Fri Jan 11 20:40:14 2008 From: cowherdr at wit.edu (Robert Cowherd) Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2008 06:40:14 -0500 Subject: [sustran] Tata Car and getting our act together In-Reply-To: <27b8dced0801102053o46e72292k526e7060b94cabc9@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Despite the thinness of Sharma's laying out of one specious argument after another, the elitist charge has a history of stopping otherwise well-meaning and effective people in their tracks. This comes at a great cost. The double whammie here is how nicely the elitist charge meshes with the petro-automaker public campaign to extend personal mobility (automobility) to the developing world as a social justice imperative. Unfortunately, as in telling Brazil to stop cutting its rainforests, the elitism charge has teeth. The key is to mobilize the measures to restrict auto use, not necessarily ownership (see Singapore), in ways that benefit the poor first (congestion pricing funding bus-only right of ways, etc.). The Tata car makes it clearer than even it has been that the reasons for the developed west to get its act together is quickly becoming less about reducing our direct global impact and more about our effectiveness in presenting a model for India, China, Indonesia and the rest of the developing world before our cultural appeal and thus our capacity to lead fades to black. Robert Cowherd, PhD, Associate Professor of Architecture Wentworth Institute of Technology 550 Huntington Ave. Boston, MA 02115 USA cowherdr@wit.edu; +1 617 989-4453 On 1/10/08 11:53 PM, "Sunny" wrote: > Why critics of the Tata small car are barking up the wrong tree news > Vivek Sharma > 10 January 2008 > > Those who criticise the Tata small car are barking up the wrong tree and > some of their arguments are elitist and discriminatory. > From schipper at wri.org Sat Jan 12 22:58:42 2008 From: schipper at wri.org (Lee Schipper) Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2008 08:58:42 -0500 Subject: [sustran] Re: Tata Car and getting our act together References: Message-ID: <46E2E1971BCEC1459149FBB1A4B4342CC73907@wricsex029330.WRI.CRM.Local> Let me propose a simple equation -- weight the benefits of the "Nano" owners (whomever they may turn out to be) against the disbenefits of the large majority of Indians on foot (note I did not say "on the sidewalk"),on pedals, or on two wheelers. Seeing the current onslaught of two wheelers against "foot people" and against each other in India, I have a hard time believing that the benefits will outweight the disbenefits. If you want to argue that some day a huge percentage of Indians will be driving Nanos, which will somehow mean that foot people are no longer at risk then I would simply argue that Indian cities will have collapsed under the tires of cars.... Lee Schipper EMBARQ, the WRI Center for Sustainable Transport www.embarq.wri.org >From Oct 1, Visiting Scholar, UC Transportation Center UC Berkeley, CA www.uctc.net 510 642 6889 202 262 7476 ________________________________ From: sustran-discuss-bounces+schipper=wri.org@list.jca.apc.org on behalf of Robert Cowherd Sent: Fri 1/11/2008 3:40 AM To: sustran-discuss@list.jca.apc.org Subject: [sustran] Tata Car and getting our act together Despite the thinness of Sharma's laying out of one specious argument after another, the elitist charge has a history of stopping otherwise well-meaning and effective people in their tracks. This comes at a great cost. The double whammie here is how nicely the elitist charge meshes with the petro-automaker public campaign to extend personal mobility (automobility) to the developing world as a social justice imperative. Unfortunately, as in telling Brazil to stop cutting its rainforests, the elitism charge has teeth. The key is to mobilize the measures to restrict auto use, not necessarily ownership (see Singapore), in ways that benefit the poor first (congestion pricing funding bus-only right of ways, etc.). The Tata car makes it clearer than even it has been that the reasons for the developed west to get its act together is quickly becoming less about reducing our direct global impact and more about our effectiveness in presenting a model for India, China, Indonesia and the rest of the developing world before our cultural appeal and thus our capacity to lead fades to black. Robert Cowherd, PhD, Associate Professor of Architecture Wentworth Institute of Technology 550 Huntington Ave. Boston, MA 02115 USA cowherdr@wit.edu; +1 617 989-4453 On 1/10/08 11:53 PM, "Sunny" wrote: > Why critics of the Tata small car are barking up the wrong tree news > Vivek Sharma > 10 January 2008 > > Those who criticise the Tata small car are barking up the wrong tree and > some of their arguments are elitist and discriminatory. > -------------------------------------------------------- IMPORTANT NOTE to everyone who gets sustran-discuss messages via YAHOOGROUPS. Please go to http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/listinfo/sustran-discuss to join the real sustran-discuss and get full membership rights. The yahoogroups version is only a mirror and 'members' there cannot post to the real sustran-discuss (even if the yahoogroups site makes it seem like you can). Apologies for the confusing arrangement. ================================================================ SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries (the 'Global South'). From hghazali at gmail.com Mon Jan 14 13:47:45 2008 From: hghazali at gmail.com (Hassaan Ghazali) Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2008 09:47:45 +0500 Subject: [sustran] Tata Nano: Criminalizing Mobility or Mobilizing Crime Message-ID: Friends, There was a time when a Model T rolled off the Ford assembly line every few seconds. I do believe that was probably the most exciting and the most positive time for the US economy. Now, it seems Tata's mobility breakthrough has everyone on the edge and I am surprised to see so many negative sentiments being expressed within South Asia. I don't remember so many issues abounding when Daimler-Chrysler's Smart car came out. Regardless of the fact that the Smart car was probably one major reason for the eventual divorce between Daimler and Chrysler, how does the economic and social disparity between the developed and developing world create the context to despise such an incredible product? Shall we all begin by shunning technology which aims to empower the masses or shall we encourage its uptake and ensure that the whole suite of technological constructs (institutions, policies, regulatory oversight, etc.) are also provided. Regards, Hassaan -- Institutional Development Specialist Urban Sector Policy and Management Unit (The Urban Unit) Planning & Development Department, Government of the Punjab A: 4-B Lytton Road, Lahore, Pakistan T: 9213579-84 (Ext.116) F: 9213585 M: 0345 455 6016 Skype: halgazel http://hghazali.googlepages.com *When conditions are right, everything will go wrong* From regina at wholechoice.net Mon Jan 14 17:46:01 2008 From: regina at wholechoice.net (Gina Anderson) Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:46:01 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Re: Tata Nano: Criminalizing Mobility or Mobilizing Crime In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20080114164601.0qxb4uemo8g04o40@www.wholechoice.net> Dear Hassaan, All, when the Model T rolled off the assembly line there was definitely much excitement. Now, 80-90 years later, and with the example in the US of how debilitating automobile-centered development patterns are, how unsustainable economically and environmentally, and the health problems resulting in a society grown used to car-centered development and life - there is real cause for alarm to see something like the Nano. The problem is, that, as you say, the "whole suite of technological constructs (institutions, policies, regulatory oversight, etc.)" that also need to be provided, won't be. Mass, cheap car production was bad for the US, and it will be bad for India and other countries. The seduction of allowing personal car use to become the prime mode catered for is too strong; other more efficient modes (road-space-wise, price-wise, etc) will loose out to the car. That's the real tragedy for India and the masses of people there. That is the tragedy in the US as well, where people are saddled with the costs of owning a car because in many cases there are no buses, no taxis, no trains available. Gina Anderson -- Regina Anderson, AICP WholeChoice Master Planning, Pedestrian Design, Sustainability Singapore phone +65 6467-6594 Quoting Hassaan Ghazali : > Friends, > > There was a time when a Model T rolled off the Ford assembly line every few > seconds. I do believe that was probably the most exciting and the most > positive time for the US economy. Now, it seems Tata's mobility breakthrough > has everyone on the edge and I am surprised to see so many negative > sentiments being expressed within South Asia. I don't remember so many > issues abounding when Daimler-Chrysler's Smart car came out. Regardless of > the fact that the Smart car was probably one major reason for the eventual > divorce between Daimler and Chrysler, how does the economic and social > disparity between the developed and developing world create the context to > despise such an incredible product? > > Shall we all begin by shunning technology which aims to empower the masses > or shall we encourage its uptake and ensure that the whole suite of > technological constructs (institutions, policies, regulatory oversight, > etc.) are also provided. > > Regards, > > Hassaan > > > -- > Institutional Development Specialist > Urban Sector Policy and Management Unit (The Urban Unit) > Planning & Development Department, > Government of the Punjab > > A: 4-B Lytton Road, Lahore, Pakistan > T: 9213579-84 (Ext.116) > F: 9213585 > M: 0345 455 6016 > Skype: halgazel > http://hghazali.googlepages.com > > *When conditions are right, everything will go wrong* > -------------------------------------------------------- > IMPORTANT NOTE to everyone who gets sustran-discuss messages via YAHOOGROUPS. > > Please go to http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/listinfo/sustran-discuss > to join the real sustran-discuss and get full membership rights. > The yahoogroups version is only a mirror and 'members' there cannot > post to the real sustran-discuss (even if the yahoogroups site > makes it seem like you can). Apologies for the confusing arrangement. > > ================================================================ > SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, > equitable and sustainable transport with a foc