[sustran] World Streets needs to do better

[Eric Britton]

John Ernst, a long time sustainable transport colleague and ITDP Vice
Director, Southeast Asia, writes today that he finds World Streets pretty
good value, but he regrets that most of our content thus far seems to be
focusing on what is going on within the advanced edge of the OECD region.
What can I say in response but yes indeed --  so what if we now put our
heads together to bring in content from other parts of the world . . . after
all, that’s where most of the people are and where the future is going to
play out in the mega-numbers.

 

So let me share this with you as a challenge. And what do we need from all
these places? Well, news on trials and innovations to support more
sustainable transport where they are actually up and working, honest
reporting on everything, and even from time to time when it is exemplary,
information for our Bad News Department.

 

But we are at least getting read in other parts of the world. Take a look at
the map showing the origin of people coming in to Streets this morning , and
we note visitors from Brazil,  Colombia,  India,  Indonesia,  Kazakhstan,
Korea, Republic Of,  Kuwait,  Malaysia,  Mexico,  Philippines,  Poland,
South Africa,  Thailand,  and Turkey. That has to mean something. 

 

And in this spirit if you can help us bring in readers from these other
places, it is surely a step in the right direction. Readers can become
sources and writers rather quickly we have seen.

 

One idea that comes to mind immediately is to see if we can get your support
for doing some Profiles – see  <http://tinyurl.com/ws-profiles>
http://tinyurl.com/ws-profiles 

 for latest background on that -- on outstanding organizations and programs
in these parts of the world. Again, it is true that we tend to now most
about what is going on in the OECD region,  but profiles telling us what
lading programs and groups are trying to do in China, India, Indonesia and
all the rest will be very important and of high interest to us all.

 

And am I hearing someone saying Africa and the Middle East too? Yes, please.

 

Finally we are not exactly sitting on our hands and here is something that
is still cooking, but may provide us with a key for John’s good challenge
for the future. We are working with our Italian friend and Eyes on the
Street Sentinel in Bergamo in the north of Italy, Enrico Bonfatti, to
develop an Italian language site – Nuova Mobilità
<http://nuovamobilita.org/>  -- which takes World Streets as part of its
content but then builds on it in several  interesting and powerful ways to
make it into a good and useful read to advance the sustainable transport
agenda in Italy. You can check it out at
<http://nuovamobilita.blogspot.com> http://nuovamobilita.blogspot.com, but
please understand it is still work in progress and not yet ready for show
time. 

 

There are two main streams of content for a partner journal like this. The
first is selected World Streets articles which Enrico and eventually others
are adapting not only in terms of putting them into Italian, but also
interpreting and adapting them so as to have meaning in the Italian context.
The second stream is Italian content per se. (And of course we at Streets
profit because some of this becomes material for publication here.)

 

Perhaps that is an example for yet other countries and language groups. It
is too early to say if we can get the right model for this, but it is to let
you know that we are working on it and trying to develop it as a template
for relatively easy adaptation. If you wish to talk about this in the case
of your country or language  group, it would be great to hear from you.

 

So kindly get in touch with your ideas and suggestions. You can do this
either publically here, or if you think it better to me directly. Thanks for
thinking about it.  And of yes, keep your eyes on the street. 

 

Eric Britton 

 

| Editor <mailto:editor at worldstreets.org>  | World Streets
<http://www.worldstreets.org/>  | The New Mobility Agenda
<http://www.newmobility.org/>  | Paris  | +331 4326 1323 | Skype newmobility


 



 

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