[sustran] Re: The Seven Simple Truths of Sustainable Mobility (Come argue with me)

[Cornie Huizenga]

Dear Eric,

Thanks - I agree, you will need sticks as well.

In Asia this was acknowledged initially by Singapore who had as first  tight
controls on the number of vehicles and their use. This was then followed by
Shanghai which also has fairly tight quota of 7000 new vehicles per month.
Lately, Beijing has joined the "sticks" waggon by imposing an albeit weak
quota of 20,000 cars per month.  In addition I have been at meetings over
the last months where several governments referred to their plans to develop
Congestion Charging prices. (China and Indonesia).

It appears that in this case you might not be that radical in terms of your
recommendations, although I would assume that you, I and a lot of other
readers of this forum would like to see a much faster roll-out of both the
carrots and the sticks parts.

Cornie

On Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 4:19 PM, eric britton <eric.britton at ecoplan.org>wrote:

> The Seven Simple Truths  of Sustainable Mobility (Come argue with me)
>
> Sometimes in life things can be simple. Let's look at one case.
>
> One of the problems with the hard up-hill fight for "sustainable transport"
> in cities and countries around the world is that so far everyone seems to
> have a different definition and a different agenda.  True, there are an
> enormous range of interests and concerns. Among them such important things
> as :improving conditions for pedestrians and cycles, car access and parking
> control, more ridesharing, carsharing, taxisharing, more flexible and
> responsive public transport services, strategic deployment of economic
> instruments (to reflect full social costs), BRT, congestion charging, speed
> reductions, etc. The long list goes on.
>
> And at the same time there are all those other measures and approaches
> which
> claim to fly under the banner of sustainability but which in our view need
> to be put to tougher and more public tests.  Many of these last call for
> very large investments of taxpayer money or property, and often
> considerable
> lag times before bringing even those benefits to the streets of our cities
> or indeed the planet.
>
> So we really do need a unifying  strategy.
>
> And  if you look hard enough, you will see that there is only one
> overarching strategy that will do the job.   It works like this:
>
> Truth 1.             You can't have a sustainable planet without
> sustainable
> cities
>
>
> Truth 2.             Nor sustainable cities without sustainable mobility
>
>
> Truth 3.             The key to sustainable mobility is to ensure that
> every
> step, every project, every investment you take will end up by reducing
> motor
> vehicle miles or kilometers (VMT, VKT) travelled both in that place and
> overall.
>
>
> Truth 4.             Moreover these reductions have to be achieved
> strategically, quickly and at scale. (Otherwise it fails the responsibility
> test.)
>
>
> Truth 5.             The policy response involves a strategic combination
> of
> carrots and sticks, which will of course be different from city to city and
> country to country, but even with all the necessary variations the central
> lines of the strategy will be the same.
>
>
> Truth 6.             We know all we need to know about both (a) the sticks
> (economic, regulatory and other instruments to reduce, sequester and
> control
> traffic, etc.) and (b) the carrots (all those other ways of getting around
> which need in each case to be woven into a mobility system of
> affordability,
> enhanced life quality and choice).
>
>
> Truth 7.             When you reduce VKT/VMT notably and rapidly through
> the
> best available means and proven strategies, here are the main benefits
> a.       You help save the planet: through resource savings and GHG and
> related emissions reductions
> b.      You proportionally reduce today's crushing dependence of imported
> fossil fuels
>
> And in order to achieve these ambitious - but completely doable - goals,
> you
> have to open up more choices and better and fairer mobility for all those
> in
> and around our cities who are at present NOT well served by the old (20th
> century dominant) own-car, no-choice  pattern (bearing in mind that this is
> a majority of all citizens).
>
> Conclusion: You can't do it with the carrots. And you can't do it without
> the sticks. We know what they are, so what is hold us back?
>
> Your turn:
>
> Eric Britton
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-- 
Cornie Huizenga
Joint Convener
Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport
Mobile: +86 13901949332
cornie.huizenga at slocatpartnership.org
www.slocat.net