[sustran] Free public information as part of the World City Bike project

[eric.britton]

Dear Sustran/Global South Friends,

 

This is to draw your attention to a collaborative sustainable transport
project  that we have been working on quite assiduously over the last six
months, and which I think could be a pretty important stepping stone toward
a New Mobility Agenda for many of our cities --   the World City Bike
project at http://www.citybike.newmobility.org - concerning which I would
very much like to have your views and counsel.

 

The basic justification for the project is pretty well set out on the site,
so I shall not take your time with it here. But there are really two sets of
parallel objectives,  of which the second may be of interest to some of you
here.  The first objective is (a)  to make a timely contribution at a time
when there are not all that many approaches which are actually able to get
started and make a difference on the really important bottom lines, and (b)
in parallel hopefully to find a way to pay for it through subscriptions and
eventual grants. All that you can see on the site.

 

But it's the second wing of this effort,  a responsibility which I take very
seriously and which I think more directly concern the members of our fine
group here, to which I would like to draw your attention and get your good
counsel and ideas on. And that is: how can we be of use on all this to
cities and groups without budgets for this sort of thing - despite its
potential importance, at least to study and understand as one _possible_
element of a new mobility strategy. (I am well aware as you might imagine of
all the barriers that exist in developing cities which may well make this
approach not appropriate at this time. You will see a checklist of useful
preconditions on the site which makes this quite clear.)  But all that said,
the concept is nonetheless an excellent one at the very least to reflect on
in the context of your city, since it can provide valuable clues about other
projects and approaches. 

 

To this end, I have tried hard to tailor the site and its contents in such a
way that it provides already valuable materials, links and insights on the
topic, without requiring any investment on the part of the interested person
or group, other than of their time, energy and brains. You will see most of
this content under the section at the top left menu entitled 2. Check it
out/Public information.

 

I would be grateful to have your thoughts on this, probably best to me
personally unless you think it will be of use to the group as a whole. We
need this kind of counsel if we are to make something useful of al this for
our Global South cities, which after all are well more than half of the
problem (and the opportunity).

 

Kind thanks,

 

Eric Britton