[sustran] SLoCaT Status Report on Rio+20 Sustainable Transport Voluntary Commitments

FEKBRITTON fekbritton at gmail.com
Sun Jun 23 21:03:52 JST 2013



 

Subject: Time for a good Spring cleaning

 

Dear Sustran friends, colleagues and perhaps eventual antagonists,

 

With reference to the excellent email of this date of Morten Lange,
immediately seconded by Sujit Patwardhan, please add the names of Eric
Britton and World Streets to the list of those agreeing fully with these
comments, critical remarks and recommendations. 

 

If we read his piece carefully we can see that Lange is showing a red flag
to the entire procedure and values behind the Rio + 20 + 1 report. He is
asking for aggressive truth telling, which to my mind does not rule out
diplomacy, far from it!  But it does rule out hypocrisy and playing patsy
with not so hidden anti-social commercial agendas (keep reading). 

 

Telling the truth about complex asymmetrical policy issues involving cities
and transport was the life work of Professor Paul Mees, who died last
Wednesday in Melbourne, far too young at 52 years old to have left us. Paul
was  an accomplished  lawyer, university professor, skilled writer,
transport planning expert, fierce public transport advocate, organizer,
maverick author and truth teller. His public attack on very senior people in
Melbourne in 2008 when he said that the authors of a report on public
transport privatisation  were "liars and frauds and should be in jail" was
correct and a rare example of an academic "telling it as it is".  What if in
this case we do Paul honor by agreeing to tell and then insist on the
unvarnished truth in this case?

 

Here's a candidate idea for your consideration. In addition to Lange's
excellent recommendations, I propose that we add one more. Namely to show
the FIA to the door, unless of course they  are willing to once and for all
eliminate the racing bit of their grotesque and purely commercial agenda.
What they offer is no more, no less than blood money.

 

There will be other bits of pruning and weeding that will be necessary of
this document and the considerable and potentially valuable collaborative
work behind it, if it is truly to represent the sustainable cities agenda,
but that would be a great start.

 

You will also find a bit of much needed clarity if needed on these issues
and choices in today's World Streets, where Professor John Whitelegg's lead
editorial introducing  the latest number of World Transport Policy and
Practice

 

·       The time has now arrived for some serious plain talking and no
holds-barred reflection on our societal obsession with speed, distance,
mobility and all its negative and perverse consequences for quality of life,
social justice, fiscal prudence and the environment.  The “perfect storm”
coincidence of a massive fiscal crisis, failure to produce carbon reductions
large enough to deal with climate change, 3000 dead citizens each day as a
result of contact with vehicles and a dawning of realisation that public
health absolutely depends on sorting out transport all point in one
direction.  The direction is clear.

 

Do I go too far with this recommendation? I count on you to tell me -- and
yes please tell me in public.

 

Kind regards/

 

Eric Britton

 

 

------------------

 

 

On Sun, Jun 23, 2013 at 8:41 AM, Morten Lange < <mailto:morten7an at yahoo.com>
morten7an at yahoo.com> wrote:

 

Hello Cornie Huizenga

 

Thanks for your work and for telling us about it.

 

Below are my gut reactions. They might reveal that I lack insight into 

complex international affairs, and might seem rude, but are meant to 

try to address an important issue in a clear manner, not to discuss or 

criticize persons or organisations.

 

I had a look at the press release and a couple of the 17 original 

documents.

 

What I read from it was this : Many big important groups, partially 

with opposing agendas ( FIA springs to mind )  are going to spend 

quite a lot of money on staring at the problems and discussing them 

and hopefully develop some pilot projects.  I might have missed some 

important points that would alter this description, but I frankly lost 

patience with all the "wooly" text.

 

I miss an identification of where the tough challenges lie. I miss 

examples of  some measures that could lead us down a better path, possibly

in the form of "best practices" / success stories.    I  miss seeing the

large win-win options being spelt out clearly.

 

I particularly miss mentioning of the big injustice, including health 

loss and death that today's users of "soft" / active modes are 

experiencing, because of "brute force" motorization.

 

I am trying to find the story to convey to others as  you ask us to do.

But I am  having problems.  Perhaps it is necessary to be this 

formal and diplomatic and general, but I suspect more people than me 

get frustrated by looking for the needle in the haystack - the concrete 

things being envisioned seem to be missing.  The FIA quote comes 

closest, to being sound bite.  But it says A, and does not go on to say 

B.  B would to my mind be e.g.

 

* We need to make the buyers of cars acknowledge full-cost pricing is 

not occurring for users of private cars, and develop steps to rectify that.

 

* It is time to mandate "stickers" on car adverts similar to those seen 

on tobacco packaging.  And why not also on the dashboard, and under 

the side mirrors

 

* "Free" or low-cost parking is a subsidy with many bad side-effects

 

* Transport Demand management that rectifies some of the inequities 

between active transportation and private cars should be pushed by big 

international bodies or at least not be obstructed by them. A list of 

such bodies off the top of my head comprises : ILO, WTO, IMF, UNEP, 

ECE, EU, IATA, IEA, WHO. TDM involving both benefits and information 

and training  could be encouraged in the form of tax incentives to 

workplaces and / or employees.  Put your money where your mouth is. ( I 

believe there is such an expression)

 

* It is time to have a very critical look on victim-blaming practices 

seen when those utilising active transport modes are improportionally 

held responsible for injuries sustained in collisions with cars and 

other vehicles.

 

I would furthermore think that a common, short manifesto on problems 

and possible solutions (possibly using some of the above),  should be 

drafted very soon.  If e.g. the FIA would refrain from underwriting 

some parts, so be it. Work out a near-consensus, or 75% consensus, and 

make the possible difference of opinion come out in daylight, but 

decide to continue working together, and discuss the differences in opinion
now and then.

 

 

Again I apologize for the bluntness, and that I should speak out in 

spite of my lack of familiarity with the diplomatic and high level
deliberations.

 

 

Best Regards,

Morten Lange

 

--

Morten Lange, Reykjavík

 

 

> --------------------------------------------

> On Thu, 20/6/13, Cornie Huizenga
<mailto:cornie.huizenga at slocatpartnership.org>
cornie.huizenga at slocatpartnership.org wrote:

> 

>  Subject: [sustran] SLoCaT Status Report on Rio+20 Sustainable 

> Transport Voluntary Commitments

>  To: "Global 'South' Sustainable Transport" < 

>  <mailto:sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org>
sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org>

>  Date: Thursday, 20 June, 2013, 11:44

> 

>  Dear All,

> 

>  We are happy to announce the first update report on the

>  Rio+20 Voluntary  Commitments on Sustainable Transport.

> 

>  We have created a special section for the report on the  SLoCaT 

> website, *   <http://www.slocat.net/Rio20-VC> www.slocat.net/Rio20-VC. *If
you tweet about the report  

> please use >   #Rio20transport in our tweets.

> 

>  On the website we have also a press release in English,  Chinese, 

> German,  Spanish and Portuguese ( >
<http://slocat.net/press-release-rio20-sustainable-transport-status-rep>
http://slocat.net/press-release-rio20-sustainable-transport-status-report

> 

>  We would greatly appreciate your help in the wide  distribution of 

> the  report and the press release.

> 

>  Thanks a lot.

>  Cornie Huizenga

>  Joint Convener, SLoCaT Partnership

>  317 Xianxia Road, B 1811

>  200051 Shanghai, China

> 

>   <http://www.slocat.net> www.slocat.net

>  @SLOCATcornie

>  +8613901949332

--------------------

 

On Behalf Of Sujit Patwardhan
Sent: Sunday, 23 June, 2013 07:45

Very well put.

I agree with the points Morten makes, particularly about the "opposing
agendas" and the "wooly text"

It's time to stop mincing words and trying to carry everyone along and blur
the focus.

--

Sujit

 

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*It's no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.
J. Krishnamurti

 

 

Sujit Patwardhan

 <mailto:patwardhan.sujit at gmail.com> patwardhan.sujit at gmail.com

 <mailto:sujit at parisar.org> sujit at parisar.org < <mailto:sujitjp at gmail.com>
sujitjp at gmail.com>

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