[sustran] Google Project 10*100 competition - New Mobility Agenda steps up to the plate

[Eric Britton]

Dave Brook has kindly reminded me yesterday of something that had been on
the back of my mind, The Google Project 10100 competition which is just
getting underway and for which you can find the full story at
http://www.project10tothe100.com/ . I would encourage you to have a look and
if you have a project idea that you think might be able to benefit from this
offering I very much hope that you will submit it.

 

In fact, this comes at an interesting time for us here since our entire
program is under severe financial pressure as a result of, precisely, the
fact that our public interest work has no support of any kind other than my
own earning as a consultant. Things are getting a bit tight and we need to
find way out of this box.

 

I mention this to you since I have decided to join the competition, and
would like to put before you the draft materials that I propose to place
there. (You can see the form at
http://www.project10tothe100.com/submit_your_idea.html.)

 

As you will see, the key lies in the short responses as per items 8 - 15
below. With the thought that since our work is basically collaborative, that
it might be a good idea to share this with you all and to ask you for
comments and suggestions so as to come up with a stronger, tighter, more
convincing statement and argument for support. I would hope to complete the
application by Monday next at the latest, and I suppose that it will be best
for all if you send on your comments and suggestions to me in private. Then
if any of you might wish to see our final submission, just let me know and I
will be pleased to send it on.

 

Thanks for giving this your attention.

 

But think too about your own application, and if I can help with that well
you know how to get in touch. 

 

Eric Britton

 

PS. For latest background on our ongoing work program (always moving ahead)
please click to http://www.program.newmobility.org/ 

 

 

 

Draft content of application:

 

8. Your idea's name (maximum 50 characters):

 

New Mobility Agenda: Networking for sustainability

 

9. Please select a category that best describes your idea.

 

Community: How can we help connect people, build communities and protect
unique cultures?

 

10. What one sentence best describes your idea? (maximum 150 characters)

 

THE NEW MOBILITY AGENDA - The Politics of Transportation: World-wide
collaborative problem-solving for transport and quality of life in cities

 

11. Describe your idea in more depth. (maximum 300 words )

 

REINVENTING TRANSPORT IN CITIES - The New Mobility strategy:

1.	Climate change: Look to climate change, and the on-going worldwide
energy and resource crisis, to create the basic metric for your program. 


2.	Tighten time frame for action: Set firm performance targets --
gearing all actions to achieve visible results within 2-5 year time frame. 


3.	Reduce VM/KT radically. The critical, incontrovertible strategic
core. (And it can't be done without technology) 


4.	Introduce New Mobility services: A whole range of affordable, proven
new mobility services are available to keep our cities viable. 


5.	The technology core: Service innovations gain their advantage by
integrating SOA logistics, communications and information technology. 


6.	The road infrastructures: of our cities are vastly overbuilt, and
are not delivering deliver the goods. We can take over substantial portions
of the network for far more efficient modes. 


7.	The female metric: If we design systems that work well for women of
all ages and conditions, they will work well for society as a whole. Women
are the metric of new mobility. 


8.	Broaden ownership: Make your New Mobility program a broad-based
collaborative enterprise that listens to and engages the whole city. 


9.	Coherent integrated policy frame: that explicitly drives and aligns
all measures and actions so they move together in interactive synergy 


10.	Frugal economics: No need for another round of high cost, low impact
investments to make it work. Work with what you have. 


11.	Pick winners: New approaches demand success. Chose policies and
services with track records of success and build on their experience. 


12.	Use time wisely: Cities and people have their own rhythms -- if we
are to change our way of doing things we need to be highly strategic and
subtle in our use of time for the necessary conversions. 

 

12. What problem or issue does your idea address? (maximum 150 words)

 

The transportation arrangements that presently serve our cities are so
outstandingly bad that they defy all logic. Four decades after landing a man
on the moon, they basically have not budged since Neil Armstrong took that
"giant leap for mankind".   They were bad in 1969 and have gotten steadily
worse since. As things stand they violate economic efficiency, social
justice, resource security, the environment, life quality, and the integrity
of the planet.

 

However . . . virtually all of the necessary preconditions are now in place
for far-reaching, rapid, low cost improvements in the ways that people get
around in our cites. The needs are there, they are increasingly understood
-- and we know what to do and how to get the job done. The challenge is to
find the vision, political will, and leadership to get the job done, step by
deliberate step.  Starting now!

 

13. If your idea were to become a reality, who would benefit the most and
how? (maximum 150 words)

Basically everybody benefits from the progress these programs bring. The
benefits are environmental, economic, and social, Moreover the process of
bringing these new services and approaches on line requires and thus
reinforces active democracy.

The most immediate beneficiaries will be the majority of the planet's
populations who live in and around cities. But the ideas that make it there
- cities always being a hotbed of innovation as well as problems - will find
their application in ex-urban areas as well. 

Doubtless those who stand to gain most will be the populations of the
megacities of the developing world, where the old mobility models are still
in force and being used every day to create ever more catastrophic
situations of daily life for the majority of the people who live there, and
for the planet. That the approach consistently favors women and children in
all social and economic classes and ages provides a broad guarantee of
quality for the population as a whole.

14. What are the initial steps required to get this idea off the ground?
(maximum 150 words)

In this case we have a running start: We can work with the considerable base
that we have already established with an existing informal network
consisting of several thousand international colleagues from more than fifty
countries over the last two decades. But the project and the means of the
networking are far too artisanal given the tools now available, so it - the
website, the discussion fora, the media and the considerable wealth of
information and resources that it encompasses  -- becomes more transparent,
higher profile and easier to consult and use. We have a pretty good idea of
what is needed to do the job better, and our initial steps will be to work
with our very large network to create the kind of system that the group
feels it needs and can use. 

15. Describe the optimal outcome should your idea be selected and
successfully implemented. How would you measure it? (maximum 150 words)

 

Several possible measures come to mind, all are subsidiary  to our ultimate
objective: massive near-term reductions in greenhouse gas  emissions (that
being  a surrogate that works very well for all the  rest). And  while we
consistently  urge for projects to do their best to measure these impacts,
at the level our  program --  which is basically an advisory and support
function   I cannot  at this point see how we could achieve that.

 

 So, probably the best we can do will be to develop an accounting framework
to report on the number of people participating in the  various projects and
discussions, number of cities and countries represented,  and in the number
and quality of new mobility initiatives undertaken in  cities and countries
around the world.  In any event this is an important issue and coming to
grips  with it should be one of the first steps under the properly funded
program.

 

 

 

                   The New Mobility Agenda 

cid:image001.jpg at 01C8DAF3.F7EBC130 

                Technology transforms time and space

 

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      T:  +331 4326 1323  or  +339 7044 4179   Skype: ericbritton

 

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      T:  +1 310 601-8468    Skype : newmobility