[sustran] What/who keeps holding back newmobility reform.

[Eric Britton]

Dear Colleagues,
 
I would like to invite your attention to the following small strategic
piece, which I hope will be of interest to you. And if you have any
questions, comments, or suggestions on how to improve, it would be good to
have them either in private to me at eric.britton at newmobility.org or if you
feel it appropriate via NewMobilityCafe at yahoogroups.com 
 
If I learn from you that it is good enough I would like to prepare it as an
editorial for World Streets.
 
Kind regards/Eric britton
 
 
 
 
What/who keeps holding back newmobility reform.
 
If you get it, newmobility is a no-brainer.  However  while that is a great
starting place, it is not going to get the job somehow miraculously done. We
have a few sticking points here to overcome first.  Let's have a quick look.
 
After some years of talking with cities, and working and observing in many
different circumstances, here are some of the barriers we and others most
frequently  encounter in trying to get collaborative transportation reform
programs off the ground, including even in cities that really do need a
major mobility overhaul.
 
1.    Mayor/city manager: The mayor or prime city leader either: does not
get it, feels that she knows the whole area well enough to require nothing
else, does not think this is a matter of high priority, does not have enough
time to get his arms around it, feels confident that his staff has this well
under control, or or
 
2.    City council: Where you have city councils taking these decisions, it
turns out that they are often much better at disagreeing then agreeing, at
least  when any unfamiliar idea comes before them. And yet, if we do not get
some kind of consensus for change at the top  this is never going to happen.
 
3.    City's transportation experts: The city's main transportation expert,
team, is not that interested in having any "outside help", other than the
usuals. Anything else is often seen as a challenge to their authority and
expertise. 
 
4.    Local Consultants: The specialized consultants who work in the sector
in that city, or have contact with it, feel that they do not need any
additional help since this is after all they are job and specialty.
 
5.    Local business groups, who the most part are firmly wedded to the idea
of cars and car access (AKA parking) as being the key to the success of
their businesses.
 
6.    Public interest groups: Specific transportation, environmental groups
(cycling, pedestrian, public space, emissions, quality of life, specific
neighborhood groups, etc.) tend to be committed to their specific missions
and far more often than not simply do not get together to create a global
sustainable cities program, as indeed should be the case.
 
7.    In-place transportation service providers: bus/transit services,
taxis, others -- tend to be the most part quite narrowly focused on their
specific business area, often already under some financial duress, and by
and large not known to be open to new ideas or new ways of doing things.
Including new and much broader partnerships with other service providers and
actors in the community. And finally. . .
 
8.    Local media: For reasons of their own, advertising revenues included,
have rarely really bought into the sustainability agenda. 
 
9.    The "local car lobby".  While there are financial interests tied to
the continuing abundant unfettered use of cars in the city, including local
auto dealers, any businesses that might be suppliers to the sector, parking
businesses, the great bulk of this "lobby" is an unquestioned implied
understanding that nothing should be done that would change your
relationship with your car.
 
10.  All of us: Doubtless the biggest single obstacle to deep
transportation reform is a result of the fact that  that it deals with a
highly visible area of public life  in which just about everybody, from
mayor to dogcatcher, feels that they have a high degree of implicit
expertise in figuring out what works and what will not work in their city. .
. because transport is something that they do every day and can see with
their own eyes. This is the Achilles' heel of transportation policy, this
very human tendency for just about everybody to feel that if they do it i.e.
move around every day) this means they understand it.  The trouble with this
is that transport in cities is a highly complex metabolism of great systemic
complexity that is far closer to that of the human brain than say another
glass of beer. Thus one of the main challenges of deep transportation reform
is to help citizens and decision makers come to grips with these challenges
of complexity, without at the same time removing it from their role as
active and responsible citizens and placing it entirely in the hands of
centralized experts. There is a major communications challenge here.  And a
governance challenge as well. 
 
How many potential barriers is that already, ten?  And if you think of it in
terms of your city, I am sure you are going to spot most if not all of the
above and yet others, making it the first challenge of anyone who wishes to
advance the sustainable transportation agenda in that place to understand
this terrain and to figure out ways of coping with it.
 
For sure, it is going to be impossible to take on and convert all of these
interests at once.  But the fundamental concepts and potential of a
21st-century mobility system are such that if we take a strategic approach
to dealing with these barriers, taking them on one at a time and with great
patience and foresight, the policy agenda can be opened up and perhaps some
first small victories can be achieved.  Once this has happened, the rest
will follow in due course.
 
 
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