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

[Pascal van den Noort]

Dear Morten,

On a number of issues you mention I agree with you.

Something I agree with is the quality of language, that you refer to as wooly. This criticism is a good one because it prevents most people out there to read the documents and use them for inspiration and debate. Most likely they are not meant for these purposes, but rather to reflect an internal thinking without 'legal' repercussions. 
The curious thing however is, that most people involved may like what you propose and most likely might even agree. They however have no 'tools' to convey that because of lack or fear of lack of internal 'legal' support. Their hierarchy  would most likely also agree with you, but they respond to the messages from their system and confirm that language. 
Yes, the likes of the UN will always be slow and they will depend on messages from outside the system -like yours-  to change their internal lingo.

OK, enough phylosophy for one Sunday morning. What I found most useful these last years is working with cities and their realities. City politicians and technicians need to be very much on the ball and need explain what they do to their voters what they do on dayly bases. If they would come up with the language you are referring to, they would be out of business very quickly. One of the projects I worked in with politicians and technicians in cities is CiViTAS MIMOSA. 

CiViTAS has executed projects and designed tools tools to help these people to change their urban mobility. For almost 10 years now, the CIVITAS Initiative has supported the implementation of more than 730 innovative urban mobility measures in 59 European cities. These 730+ individual measures relate to one of 8 CIVITAS thematic groups:
	• Clean fuels and vehicles;
	• Collective passenger transport;
	• Demand management strategies;
	• Mobility management;
	• Safety and security;
	• Car-independent lifestyles;
	• Urban freight logistics; and
	• Transport telematics.

Lots of very practical experience has been gained and is available. Velo Mondial's voluntary commitment  refers to making the information from CiViTAS and from many others projects better available to city people and others. For that purpose we have designed a portal with a variety of different angles to look at information that may cities help in pursuing what you write: better mobility for a better quality of life for the people in their cities. Pas-Port to Mobility works with 'buttons'. Just click away and you will find your path in:
 
	•
We have integrated a highly innovative search engine that connects to many databases. Also here: click the button that we have pre-defined for your convenience.


You and all others can help by uploading new documents that become part of the search or suggest new sources in the categories above. We will be happy to have your support to make Pas-Port to 
Mobility the finest source of information out there.

www.pas-port.info  - Try it out and pass this message on.

Pascal

Pascal J.W. van den Noort
Executive Director 
Velo Mondial, A Micro Multi-National

operations at velomondial.net 
 +31206270675 landline
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Click here for information on urban mobility issues you always wanted to have
 

On 23 jun. 2013, at 05:11, Morten Lange <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 springst 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 unjustice, including health loss and death that todays users of "soft" / active modes are experiencing, because of "brute force" motorisation.
> 
> I am trying to find the story to convey tro others like you ask us to do.  But I am  having problems.  Perhaps it is necessarry to be this formal and diplomatic and general, but I suspect more people than me get frustrated by looking for the nedle in the haystack - the concrete things being envisioned seem to be missing.  The FIA quote comes closest, to being soundbyte.  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 procing is not occurring for users of private cars, and develop steps to rectify that. 
> * It is time to mandate "stickers" on car adverts smilar to those seen on tobacco packaging.  And why not also on the dashboard, and under the side mirrors
> * "Free" or lowcost 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 you 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 improportionallly 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 apologise 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 <cornie.huizenga at slocatpartnership.org> wrote:
> 
> Subject: [sustran] SLoCaT Status Report on Rio+20 Sustainable Transport Voluntary Commitments
> To: "Global 'South' Sustainable Transport" <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, *
> 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 Portugese (
> 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
> 
> -- 
> Cornie Huizenga
> Joint Convener, SLoCaT Partnership
> 317 Xianxia Road, B 1811
> 200051 Shanghai, China
> 
> www.slocat.net
> @SLOCATcornie
> +8613901949332
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> SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries (the 'Global South').