<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML xmlns:st1 = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" xmlns:o = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"><HEAD><TITLE>Message</TITLE> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.5730.11" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV>Dear Eric, </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Interesting piece, and it does identify a major challenge. I know that there is already a huge amount of knowledge out there about what can be done for Car Free Day, so I would like to offer a few different thoughts at this stage : </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>1) The bottom-line is that CFDs are a means of bringing attention to possibilities, but they are not a solution. Just as puppies (and Cliff Richard?) are not just for Christmas, Car Free Days can't just be for the 22nd September or a demonstration week. There have to be clear, feasible goals for how urban societies will function on a permanent basis. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>2) The number and diversity of Chinese cities is beyond our normal experience. I believe there are 167 cities of about 1 million or more people, and there are tens of cities which we would consider 'large'. Each has its own unique characteristics, and there are very significant climatic differences. One design, one size, one colour will not fit all. And it is not enough that there are many options in the toolbox, there must be a range of creative fundamental concepts. Put it another way, for China think 'continent' rather than 'country', we would not presume to take the same approach in Copenhagen and Stockholm as in Athens or Seville. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>3) Just as important, each city has its own interest groups with their own motivations and balance of power. They must be understood. Things will not happen without the approval of those who currently hold the balance of power or those who can cause inertia.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>4) Cities, city leaders, interest groups and citizens have concepts of what a city should be like, what are the characteristics of a prosperous city, and what are the characteristics or symptoms of a poor, backward or unsuccessful city. Perfectly logical technical arguments may perish on these rocks. It is not enough to show that something is efficient in transportation terms - it is vital that the stakeholders perceive it as beneficial and progressive at many levels.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>5) The State Council has issued a number of Opinions, included SCO 46 which encourages the prioritisation of public transport, the making available of facilities and improving the conditions, etc. As far as I know, genuine efforts are being made at this level. Bus fleets have expanded in many cities, and BRT is gaining a strong foothold in many Chinese cities. While there is more to be done, I don't think this is the critical pinch-point.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>6) What is less clear is whether there is a real commitment either to the serious restriction of the use of private car traffic or the genuine promotion of cycling and walking and giving it equal treatment with the car in roadspace. I think this is where the battlelines are more likely to be drawn.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>7) It is not clear who is your target for these actions. I suggest that you would need to have both central support at the Ministry of Construction (to embed concepts and actions at national policy level), and real support at the Mayoral level in a selected set of cities (to get real implementers). Of course, the best option would be to link with existing initiatives rather than start new ones (I guess you're doing that anyway). </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>8) I think that there would be great benefit in study tours and meetings between counterparts (e.g. Mayor to Mayor, heads of municipal planning and traffic,heads of traffic police, etc.). These are the people whose jobs are on the line and who can push or block initiatives. Discussions with their counterparts allow them to explore the real aspects (positive, negative, implementation methods, benefits) of what is proposed.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>9) Finally, it needs to be clear whose problem is being solved here. Is China the problem that the rest of the world needs to solve? Or, do Chinese cities have both common and unique problems to solve, where co-operation with others would offer new perspectives and lead to beneficial outcomes? Personally I prefer the latter approach.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I hope this perspective contributes to the discussion. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>With best wishes, </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Brendan.</DIV> <DIV>_____________________________________________________________________________________ From Brendan Finn, ETTS Ltd.   e-mail : <A href="mailto:etts@indigo.ie">etts@indigo.ie</A>   tel : +353.87.2530286</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black">From: <A title=Eric.Britton@ecoplan.org href="mailto:Eric.Britton@ecoplan.org">Eric Britton</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">To: <A title=Sustran-discuss@jca.apc.org href="mailto:Sustran-discuss@jca.apc.org">Sustran-discuss@jca.apc.org</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">Sent: Friday, December 08, 2006 1:37 PM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">Subject: [sustran] The Great Leap China Car Free Days Idea Factory</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> The Great Leap <st1:country-region><st1:place>China</st1:place></st1:country-region> Car Free Days Idea Factory<o:p></o:p> Outline draft proposal for an open brainstorm<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Kindly preserve Subject line in future posts;<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> It’s soon 2007 and we have now accumulated a dozen years of international experience with Car Free Days of many sorts in many places. Against this background the goal of this proposed group thinking exercise is to see what we might get out of it if we launch an open group brainstorm on how the best of this experience and past lessons may be put to work in <st1:country-region><st1:place>China</st1:place></st1:country-region> in the months and years immediately ahead. Caution: We are certainly not talking here about anything like some direct “transfer of experience”, not least because in fact the overall record of accomplishment of the Car Free Days movement internationally is, despite occasional successes, hardly what one might call a model of success. But there are in all this some germs of ideas, and the goal of this group think and talk exercise will be to see if we can scratch together and come up with something that might have some uses.  Eric Britton. <o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <DIV style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-RIGHT: 0cm; BORDER-TOP: medium none; PADDING-LEFT: 0cm; PADDING-BOTTOM: 1pt; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0cm; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt solid; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt"> <P class=MsoNormal style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-RIGHT: 0cm; BORDER-TOP: medium none; PADDING-LEFT: 0cm; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0cm; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0cm; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm">I. The Three Great Truths . . .  of <st1:country-region><st1:place>China</st1:place></st1:country-region>, Cars and the Future.<o:p></o:p></DIV> <o:p> </o:p> <OL style="MARGIN-TOP: 0cm" type=1> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 120%; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2">They are going to be more and more cars coming onto the streets and roads of <st1:country-region><st1:place>China</st1:place></st1:country-region> -- and coming at rates never seen anywhere in the world in the past.  And these cars will be used. Ineluctably. And there is nothing that anyone else can do about it.  It is thus not only an ‘all-China’ problem, but it is also an ‘only-China’ problem when it comes to addressing and solving it.<o:p></o:p> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 120%; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2">There are at least three basic reasons why this challenge truly needs to be met, as a huge priority: <o:p></o:p> <OL style="MARGIN-TOP: 0cm" type=a> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 120%; tab-stops: list 72.0pt; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2">For the country and its citizens, its environment and its future; <o:p></o:p> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 120%; tab-stops: list 72.0pt; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2">For the rest of the world in terms of the potential for huge world wide negative environmental and climate impacts; and <o:p></o:p> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 120%; tab-stops: list 72.0pt; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2">For a world badly in need of new models of behaviour and collective problem solving in areas such as these.<o:p></o:p></LI></OL> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 120%; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2">On the positive side of the ledger, the Chinese elephant is just about unique in the world, in that it is one which can turn on a dime, when it decides to. This means, for better or worse, that once the political decisions have been made at the appropriate level, the country can embrace entirely new patterns of behaviour. <o:p></o:p></LI></OL> <DIV style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-RIGHT: 0cm; BORDER-TOP: medium none; PADDING-LEFT: 0cm; PADDING-BOTTOM: 1pt; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0cm; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt solid; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt"> <P class=MsoNormal style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-RIGHT: 0cm; BORDER-TOP: medium none; PADDING-LEFT: 0cm; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0cm; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0cm; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm">II.  The Challenge<o:p></o:p></DIV> <o:p> </o:p> <OL style="MARGIN-TOP: 0cm" type=1> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 120%; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1">These very very large numbers of cars are going to have enormous environmental, social and economic impacts.<o:p></o:p> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 120%; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1">Much of this is going to be very negative indeed.<o:p></o:p> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 120%; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1">The absorption capacity of almost all Chinese cities and towns for these large numbers of new cars are very very limited.<o:p></o:p> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 120%; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1">There are however choices – though it would seem that these are not very clear to those who are making the decisions (or really much anyone else) these days.<o:p></o:p> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 120%; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1">The ‘time locks”: There are two that come to mind: <o:p></o:p></LI></OL> a.       Most important, the environmental and other impacts which are already underway and which threaten the country both in specific places and indeed as a whole. <o:p></o:p> b.        And the coming great events, including the 2008 Olympics in <st1:City><st1:place>Beijing</st1:place></st1:City> and the 2010 World’s Fair in <st1:City><st1:place>Shanghai</st1:place></st1:City>.  <o:p></o:p> It may be that for various reasons it will be the concerns about the latter which drive the move toward a pattern break.<o:p></o:p> <OL style="MARGIN-TOP: 0cm" type=1 start=6> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 120%; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1">The country is keen to innovate and to demonstrate new patterns in the process.<o:p></o:p></LI></OL> <DIV style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-RIGHT: 0cm; BORDER-TOP: medium none; PADDING-LEFT: 0cm; PADDING-BOTTOM: 1pt; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0cm; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt solid; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt"> <P class=MsoNormal style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-RIGHT: 0cm; BORDER-TOP: medium none; PADDING-LEFT: 0cm; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0cm; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0cm; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm">III. First Great Leap Brainstorm<o:p></o:p></DIV> <o:p> </o:p> 1.       Use all the available distance and group work tools to somehow get together with Chinese experts, politicians, the media and civil society to have a look at one specific idea.<o:p></o:p> 2.       Specifically to see what might be done if they were to build on the dozen plus years of experimentation and lessons learned in the Car Free Days movement in many other places.<o:p></o:p> a.       To concentrate entirely on the challenges of cars in towns and cities. <o:p></o:p> b.       NOT to accept any of the existing Car Free Day models, but rather to search and innovate one that just might open the door to new thinking and new practices which can possibly lead to a major “pattern break” and a new model, both for China and for the world. <o:p></o:p> 3.       To carry out this idea search in a way that those of us who are not Chinese understand fully that our role if any is simply to try to lend a hand on the understanding that the ultimate decisions and solutions will be entirely of their doing.  Put in other terms our goal is to put our experience and a certain number or raw materials into their hands for them to work with. <o:p></o:p> 4.       Here are four possibly useful examples that I propose we start by looking over and discussing to see what if any useful lessons can be derived from them. (This is my personal  shopping list on this and I put it forth her just to get the ball rolling. You will most probably have ideas of your own. I would hope.)<o:p></o:p> a.       The, I would like to call them, Enrique Penalosa Car Free Days in Bogotá. (I will be pleased to discuss why I chose to call them as such.)<o:p></o:p> b.       The Italian Ecological Sundays – (Domeniche Ecologiche)<o:p></o:p> c.       The South African national Car Free Days program<o:p></o:p> d.       The self-organized Car Free Day events in <st1:City><st1:place>Pasto</st1:place></st1:City> <st1:country-region><st1:place>Colombia</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p> Again the goal here is not to select some sort of ‘top ten’ projects as in a beauty contest, but to see if we can open up the exchanges with a first handful of real world examples that differ from each other and might possibly have application potential in the activities that we would like to help make happen there.<o:p></o:p> 5.       One idea that I would like to see receiving some attention from the beginning, is not so much that of a uniform national program along the lines that the French and EC have pushed, but rather perhaps a Cities Program, even some sort of cooperative competition in which specific cities carve out a particular idea that they are ready to run with, and to this in public and as a contribution not only to their own citizens but also to other cities and groups across China who are looking for ideas that can make a difference <o:p></o:p> 6.       How to develop and advance these ideas:<o:p></o:p> a.       Through exchanges if possible focusing on a single main collector site –I suggest the Lots Less Cars Idea Factory at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/LotsLessCars/ <o:p></o:p> b.       On the other hand this will have to outreach to bring in the many people and programs who have expertise and competence in these areas. This is quite a long list and perhaps at a next stage we can begin to scope it out as well. <o:p></o:p> c.       Some group work tools that we might want to think about using in addition to the above:<o:p></o:p>                                                    i.      Some kind of dynamic Wiki(pedia) group work project <o:p></o:p>                                                  ii.      Google Documents (This note is posted as an open document which you can rewrite as you wish at http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=df9b63x7_28g7dpc3.)<o:p></o:p>                                                 iii.      Also posted to The New Mobility Group Blog at  <A href="http://newmobilityagenda.blogspot.com/2006/12/great-leap-china-car-free-days-idea.html">http://newmobilityagenda.blogspot.com/2006/12/great-leap-china-car-free-days-idea.html</A>  where comments are invited. <o:p></o:p> 7.       And now it’s your turn!<o:p></o:p> <HR> -------------------------------------------------------- IMPORTANT NOTE to everyone who gets sustran-discuss messages via YAHOOGROUPS. Please go to http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/listinfo/sustran-discuss to join the real sustran-discuss and get full membership rights. The yahoogroups version is only a mirror and 'members' there cannot post to the real sustran-discuss (even if the yahoogroups site makes it seem like you can). Apologies for the confusing arrangement. ================================================================ SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries (the 'Global South').</BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>