[sustran] an example of a worst practice

[eric britton]

-----Original Message-----
From: Cherry, Chris R (Christopher Cherry) [mailto:cherry at utk.edu]
Sent: Sunday, 24 July, 2011 11:03
To: eric britton; Walter Hook

Eric and Walter, 

Here's an example of a worst practice, an analogue to the rickshaw ban you
mentioned. This one is coming from Guangzhou, ITDP's sustainable city award
winner this year. This was in the China Daily a couple of days ago.
China is notorious for arbitrary "crackdowns" that have significant
implications for (often poor) users of these vehicles. These crackdowns are
infrequent, occur without warning, and are negatively reinforced by
non-enforcement 360 days a year. This leads poor individuals to invest huge
portions of their income to purchase these vehicles, for transportation or
goods delivery, only to have them confiscated and crushed without warning
(actually this happened to me once in Kunming.

Fortunately I'm not poor, but I felt terrible watching rural migrants lose
about everything they have in one swoop). Unfortunately, these individuals
cannot afford to live near BRT or their trips are not adequately served by
that mode. It would be interesting to compare this policy to a policy of
impounding and crushing cars (with richer drivers) that drive or park on
sidewalks. I think that the impact, considering purchasing power, might be
about the same. I'm particularly interested in the paper's explicit mention
of "tricycles used by the disabled" and "electric bicycles", two of the most
socially and environmentally sustainable modes on earth.

Chris Cherry
Assistant Professor
Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of Tennessee-Knoxville
223 Perkins  Hall
Knoxville, TN 37996-2010
phone: 865-974-7710
mobile:  865-684-8106
fax: 865-974-2669
http://web.utk.edu/~cherry