<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> This rating is interesting, and very similar to the stages of change of Proshansky et al which are used to describe people's level of awareness towards physical activity. I adapted it to my "public awareness and behavior change in sustainable transport" training document (in <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.sutp.org">www.sutp.org</a> ), and I think it's also nice to apply it to cities. It's very simple and a good way to "rank" and know how to act upon them. I also wrote a bit about that in the training document, since people in the "1" stage (technically called precontemplation) are not really reactive to changing drastically to a very different setting (unless their mayor is very progressive), and people in the "4" stage (technically, action) are really easy to improve towards level 5 (maintenance). In cities, there's also a big problem with those that find there is something wrong (congestion, emissions, road safety), but when they try to solve it they do unsustainable things: build highways, ring roads, pedestrian overpasses, ban rickshaws, ask for driver licenses for bicycles, take bicycles away from people without helmets (and the cost of retrieving the bicycle is higher than the bicycle itself). So they would be in a kind of "stage 3" but going the wrong way... I'm not sure how to go about this. Maybe a drawing would be good to show this, but I'm not that good drawing these things (or it takes me weeks to finish). If this message is not yet too long, another concept that really extends all this is Vygotstky's zone of proximal development, which actually explains (though for education of children) how to teach with people depending on their current level of knowledge. The interesting thing is that he states this as a dynamic process (and writing it around 1930!) where people have a "zone" to which they can improve, so anything that goes beyond that would be discarded or never understood (only when they've reached a zone that goes farther). I would then propose that people state the cities' ratings and the direction towards where they're going ("3 directed towards 5"). For example, Bogotá was for a long time a 4 or 5, but during the past few years may have been going down. These past few months, however, it is really aiming towards a 5 (and if Peñalosa wins again, it should definitely go to 5 and beyond). Best regards, <pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">Carlos F. Pardo Coordinador de Proyecto GTZ - Proyecto de Transporte Sostenible (SUTP, SUTP-LAC) Cl 126 # 52A-28 of 404 Bogotá D.C., Colombia Tel: +57 (1) 215 7812 Mobile: +57 (3) 15 296 0662 e-mail: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:carlos.pardo@sutp.org">carlos.pardo@sutp.org</a> Página: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.sutp.org">www.sutp.org</a></pre> <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:eric.britton@free.fr">eric.britton@free.fr</a> wrote: <blockquote cite="mid!~!AAAAAF%2FCWy35gYVKp0eiuTHNUZHkxkYB@free.fr" type="cite"> <pre wrap="">I should like to propose to you a thinking exercise. It works like this. Looking at them from a sustainability or Old/New Mobility perspective, I would propose that there are basically five gross categories of cities in the world today. Moreover, it's my guess that as you work your way down this list you find that the number of cities in each progressive category grows much smaller. Here it is in a nutshell, with "worse" of course meaning more traffic, more CO2 et al each year. Category 1. Those cities who are doing nothing, getting worse fast, and don't seem to care Category 2. Those doing nothing, getting worse. . . but who are starting to worry. And who just don't know what to do about it. Category 3. Those who overall are continuing to do worse (i.e., who continue to have growing traffic, more CO2, etc.), but have started to do a few better things - examples, building some pedestrianization, cycling paths, buying more buses, improved intermodal links, traffic engineering to smooth flows and provide most consistent speeds. And above all talking a lot about it. But who from the bottom line are still spending their money in the wrong (old) way, such that the only real impact of all this is to provide a cover for not really attacking the problem at the root. Category 4. Those who have decided explicitly to break with past practices and are starting to do long lists of good things. About these there are three important things to be said: First that they are an extremely small minority. Second, in every case I know, the basic bottom line traffic and environmental indicators continue to move in the wrong direction. And finally when you look at the budgets they are still at the end of the day spending more on roads and parking than on the rest. Category 5. Cities how have bought into the New Mobility Agenda and have adopted an aggressive integrated retrofit strategy for the sector with clearly defined, publicly available benchmarks and indicators of both micro and macro progress. Who have radically revised their budgets in the transport and related sectors, and are spending more on the new measures and programs than on road building, etc. To close with three questions/requests. * First to invite your comments, corrections, critical remarks, refinements etc on the above. * Second, to ask you where in this rough ranking you would put the city or cities you know best. * And finally, to ask if you can tell me one single city in the world who have made it to the final level -- one in which the move to sustainability is currently on track and, in being so, able to provide a shining example for the rest. (Though we have some great examples of cities that are real trying to dig in at Cat. 4, and that already is a wonderful start. After all, it's a big shift and we have to start somewhere.). Kind thanks. Eric Britton </pre> <pre wrap=""> <hr size="4" width="90%"> -------------------------------------------------------- IMPORTANT NOTE to everyone who gets sustran-discuss messages via YAHOOGROUPS. Please go to <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/listinfo/sustran-discuss">http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/listinfo/sustran-discuss</a> 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'). </pre> </blockquote> </body> </html>