<html xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:st1="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"> <head> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <meta name=ProgId content=Word.Document> <meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 10"> <meta name=Originator content="Microsoft Word 10"> <link rel=File-List href="cid:filelist.xml@01C61064.41D219A0"> <o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="State"/> <o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="PersonName"/> <o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place" downloadurl="http://www.5iantlavalamp.com/"/>  <style>  </style>  </head> <body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='tab-interval:.5in'> <div class=Section1> <st1:PersonName>Eric</st1:PersonName><o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> It seems from what I can gather that ‘xTransit’ is basically a shared radio taxi.  No?  <o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Certainly there are shared taxis in plenty of locations, like from the Salt Lake City airport to Park City, and there were functioning as shared radio taxis in New York during the transit strike.   Shared taxis are typical in developing countries, though usually without the radio.   I think in a few circumstances, like where there is a carpool rule in effect or an HOV lane on major access routes to a city center (as was the case in <st1:State><st1:place>New York</st1:place></st1:State> during the transit strike) that private companies might offer a shared radio taxi service.  <o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Do we really need a very amorphous term like ‘xTransit’ to describe a shared radio taxi?  I am not convinced.  Am I missing something? <o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Walter <o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p> -----Original Message----- From: sustran-discuss-bounces+whook=itdp.org@list.jca.apc.org [mailto:sustran-discuss-bounces+whook=itdp.org@list.jca.apc.org] On Behalf Of Eric Britton Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2006 12:00 PM To: WorldTransport@yahoogroups.com Cc: Sustran-discuss@jca.apc.org Subject: [sustran] New Mobility/Year Agenda - Fast 2006 Update <o:p> </o:p> New Mobility/Year  Agenda - Fast 2006 Update<o:p></o:p> <![if !supportLists]>1.      <![endif]><a href="http://www.newmobility.org/">The New Mobility Agenda</a> at http://www.newmobility.org has undergone a major overhaul. You should find it more informative, transparent and easier to find what you are looking for once there. Have a look and if it is not good/useful enough for you, let me know.<o:p></o:p> <![if !supportLists]>2.      <![endif]>Cruising speed:  <a href="http://worldcarshare.com/">World Carshare</a>, <a href="http://worldcarfreeday.com/">World Car Free Days</a> , and the <a href="http://www.newmobility.org/">Agenda</a> itself . . . are all on a roll. (As is <a href="http://ecoplan.org/">The Commons</a>.) Steadily improving and extending coverage, brining in new members, offering new tools, and doing their bit for sustainability. If you are following any of these, you will know about all that. But if not (yet), let us invite you in to have a look. Who knows, you may stay around for a while.<o:p></o:p> <![if !supportLists]>3.      <![endif]><a href="http://www.newmobility.org/">xTransit</a>: Yes, again one of our strange words. But it appears to be needed to pull together all the many bits and pieces so as to provide a coherent platform for discussions and exchange on what has to be the hottest transportation topic on the Agenda: <a href="http://www.ecoplan.org/general/go-to-xtransit.htm" target=main>The "third way" of getting around</a>. <a href="http://www.ecoplan.org/general/go-to-xtransit.htm" target=main>Getting people around in cities in road vehicles, smaller than full sized buses, driven by real human beings, dynamically shared with others, and aided by state of the art communications technologies as the only way to offer "car like" mobility in most of our 21st century cities without killing the cities.</a>  Check it out via http://www.newmobility.org <o:p></o:p> <![if !supportLists]>4.      <![endif]><a href="http://www.kyotocities.org/">Kyoto World Cities 20/20 Challenge</a>: This perhaps most important of our collaborative projects has sat on the sidelines over these last months while we hammered away with our limited resources at other parts of The Commons, with the thought that this work on the concomitant parts of the New Mobility Agenda were going to be important raw materials for making this policy project zing. What’s missing? The link between our very real collective hands-on competence in terms of how people can get about in cities, sustainably, and all those higher visibility programs that are out there are targeting climate issues, mayors’ Kyoto initiatives (but where is the hard core of their transportation proposals), et al -- but few with the kind of transportation competence that is needed to make real progress out there on the city streets.  Can you help us make those links with these other groups and the cities themselves? So far, we have not been able to do this job. <o:p></o:p> <![if !supportLists]>5.      <![endif]><a href="http://www.newmobility.org/">United Nations Car Free Days</a>:  This one got stuck somewhere in some office in that big building in New York. Have a look at what we propose on the site and let us know if you have any ideas for this great cause. It is too important, too good to end its life there in some drawer.  Pop in and have a look at our proposal for next steps.<o:p></o:p> <![if !supportLists]>6.      <![endif]><a href="http://www.newmobility.org/">Our Wikipedia New Mobility Projects</a>: Promise! There is more to this than you may at first blush think. Our goal here is to stimulate our informal international expert consortium to "put our brains together", and in the process to tap our collective intelligence to build a free, high-quality, comprehensive on-line encyclopedia and get out the word that solutions are in sight. For the benefit of all in a world in which old ideas and old and bad practices die hard. (We want to help them out the door.)<o:p></o:p> <![if !supportLists]>7.      <![endif]><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Organizing_Collaborative_Network">Self-Organizing Collaborative Networks</a>:  Sound kind of familiar. Well that in fact is almost exactly what we are here. And since that is the case, we have set out to examine this concept more closely and in public. For more on this, you are invited to turn to the new entry in Wikipedia on this, and to join in with your ideas and additions.  (It reads quite nicely with the in-process entry on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_building">Knowledge Building</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-organization">Self Organization</a> which I also invite you to have a go at.  They are all part of what we are dong here, and since we have between us some years of hands-on experience together in this, who better than we can help define the meaning of these terms in the field of policy and practice)<o:p></o:p> <![if !supportLists]>8.      <![endif]>Finance:  Oops. Big problem. Big challenge. Normally I do the heavy lifting here, paying for all of this out of my consultancy earnings. But I have been spending too much time with these programs, and we need to find new ways to pay for it. Now, we are going to keep all this going one way or anther but it ain’t easy. We are not looking for your money (that would corrupt the whole concept of being ‘off the economy’ which is so central to all we do. But it would be good to have your ideas about possible foundations or other sources of support. Or your thoughts on how to integrate some parts of all this into some form of 21st century cash machine (a la Skype, Google, who knows, but no ads). Failing any ideas on that, what you can do is to write me a brief letter with some kind of “attestation” that all this work is serving some useful purposes, at least as far as you are concerned. Than if you can properly sign it so that you are properly and impressively identified, I can then place that into our eventual applications as we start to shop around for support.<o:p></o:p>  <o:p></o:p> There we have it as this New Year opens up before us, with its challenges and its opportunities. As you may have noticed we remain entirely optimistic that we have the means to deal with these problems, and that the only thing we need to find is a bit of imagination and solidarity to put all our big brains and even bigger hearts to work.<o:p></o:p>  <o:p></o:p>  <o:p></o:p> Eric Britton<o:p></o:p>  <o:p></o:p> The New Mobility Agenda is on line at http://www.newmobility.org <o:p></o:p> Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara                     75006 Paris, France<o:p></o:p> Tel:  +331 4326 1323                                        Skype: ericbritton<o:p></o:p> E: <a href="mailto:mobility@ecoplan.org">mobility@ecoplan.org</a>            Backup: <a href="mailto:fekbritton@gmail.com">fekbritton@gmail.com</a><o:p></o:p>  <o:p></o:p> EcoPlan International                Innovation consultancy/advisory<o:p></o:p> New Ways to Work in an Information Society: <a href="http://www.xwork/">http://www.xWork</a>.org<o:p></o:p> 9440 Readcrest Drive                              Beverly Hills, CA  90210<o:p></o:p> T. +1 310 601-8468   E: <a href="mailto:eric.britton@ecoplan.org">eric.britton@ecoplan.org</a>  Skype: xWork-on-line<o:p></o:p>  <o:p></o:p> </div> </body> </html>