One of the reasons why such a small proportion of the world cities are working on having more sustainable transportation systems has to do with the fact that these are literally “complex systems”, a category of social and economic interactions which is far more complicated than laying down additional meters of concrete.
A complex system is filled with nuances and surprises, as a result of the fact that all of the bits and pieces that constitute them interact with each other, and all too often yields contradictory results which are quite opposite from what the initial practitiones or policymakers may have wished to bring about. The classic example of this is of course the discredited “predict and provide” approach to transport which famously creates a mindset which consistently favors more traffic. So even with all of the goodwill and hope in the world, many of these policies or approaches achieve results which are contrary to the initial expectations and often deleterious.
In an effort to try to clarify this point, I sat down this morning and played a kind of associative-thinking word game, the results of which you will see below. Essentially what I was trying to do was to put my finger on the multitude of issues, topics and phenomena that need to be taken into consideration for sustainable transport planning and policy, which for now have you do the following “short list”. Now someone who is properly trained or works in this area will immediately recognize just about every point brought up in this long listing — and moreover understand how it fits into the overall pattern which needs to be developed if the overall mobility system is going to serve all the population in a sustainable and fair manner. So if you have trouble identifying points on this list, then you are most likely going to have to engage in some continuing education if you want to take a positive role when it comes to thinking about the future of the mobility system of your city.
I’ve surely missed at least as many things which are critical to the overall system, so any suggestions you might have, including to eliminate any of the things you see here, will be most appreciated.
So for now, off we go on this Saturday, 16 July 2016 attempt to make some sense of all this and to engage you to thinking about sustainable transport in Penang or in your city.
- Accidents
- Accounting
- Affordability
- Ageing population
- Air quality
- Apps
- Behaviour
- Better
- Bicycles
- Big data
- Bike to school
- Blind/sight impaired
- BRT
- Bus stops
- Bus to school
- Car free zones
- Car ownership
- Car rental
- Car sharing
- Car-based transport
- Cheaper
- Choices
- Ciclovia
- City planning
- Civil society
- Climate
- Climate impacts
- Comfort
- Commercial impacts
- Commuter traffic
- Compensation
- Complaints
- Complex systems
- Compromise
- Conflict
- Congestion
- Congestion pricing
- Contracting
- Cycling
- Damage
- Deaf/hearing-impaired
- Delivery
- Dialogue
- Dignity
- E-Bikes
- Economic impacts
- Economic instruments
- Economics
- Eco-zones
- Elderly
- Electric transport
- Electronic fare cards
- Emergency services
- Emergency services
- Energy impacts
- Enforcement
- Environmental impacts
- Equity
- Fairness
- Faster
- Feedback loops
- Ferries
- Finance
- Financial disincentives
- Financial incentives
- Fines
- First kilometer
- Flyovers
- Free public transport
- Freight delivery
- Fuel efficiency – systemic
- Full cost pricing
- Future generations
- Gas/petrol prices
- Goods delivery
- GPS
- Greenhouse gas emissions
- Handicapped
- Hitchhiking
- Home delivery
- Hours
- HOVs – high occupancy vehicles
- Incentives
- Incidents
- Inclusiveness
- Integrated transport planning
- Isolated populations
- Job creation
- Justice
- Kiss and ride
- Land use
- Land-use planning
- Last kilometer
- Learning systems
- Life quality
- Lifecycle assessment
- Logistics
- LOVs – low occupancy vehicles
- Low carbon
- Low-density areas
- LRT/LRV
- Maintenance
- Mediation
- Mobilien
- Mobility
- Monorails (Not)
- Motorized two wheelers
- Negative feedback loops
- Negotiation
- Neighborhood impacts
- Neighborliness
- No choice
- Noise
- Obesity
- Open reporting
- Openness
- Parent with children
- Park-and-ride
- Parking
- Pedestrian overpass
- Pedestrian underpass
- Pedestrianization
- Person with shopping
- Policing
- Positive incentives
- Pollution
- PPP – Polluter pays principle
- Predict and provide
- Priority systems
- Privacy
- Protection
- Proximity
- Public accounting
- Public bicycle systems
- Public health
- Public interest
- Public space
- Public transit
- Public transport
- Public-private partnerships
- Renewables
- Rental cars
- Repairs
- Residential parking
- Ridesharing
- Road conversion
- Road diets
- Road marking
- Road narrowing
- Road pricing
- Road rage
- Road safety
- Road widening
- Safety
- Scheduling
- Scooters/motorcycles
- Security
- Sentences
- Signage
- Slowing traffic
- Slugging
- Social impacts
- SOVs – Single occupancy vehicles
- Speed
- Speed limits
- Strategy
- Street hawkers
- Street sharing
- Sustainable cities
- Sustainable lives
- Sustainable transport
- Taxes
- Taxi
- Technological agnosticism
- Ticket prices
- Time
- Time management
- TOD – Transit oriented development
- Tolls
- Tramways
- Transit stops
- Transition strategies
- Transport hubs
- Trishaw
- Uber
- Underserved areas
- Underserved people
- User pays
- Variable hours
- Variable pricing
- Variable pricing
- Vision
- Vulnerable populations
- Walking
- Water transport
- Women in leadership
- Work trip
- Worker transport
- Zoning
# # #
About the author:
Eric Britton
13, rue Pasteur. Courbevoie 92400 France
Bio: Founding editor of World Streets (1988), Eric Britton is an American political scientist, teacher, occasional consultant, and sustainability activist who has observed, learned, taught and worked on missions and advisory assignments on all continents. In the autumn of 2019, he committed his remaining life work to the challenges of aggressively countering climate change and specifically greenhouse gas emissions emanating from the mobility sector. He is not worried about running out of work. Further background and updates: @ericbritton | http://bit.ly/2Ti8LsX | #fekbritton | https://twitter.com/ericbritton | and | https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericbritton/ Contact: climate@newmobility.org) | +336 508 80787 (Also WhatApp) | Skype: newmobility.)
WORLD STREETS __ A New Mobility Action Plan for 2022 
Good list, Eric. Here are a few that occurred to me while reading:
user pays
ageing population
congestion pricing
kiss and ride
e-bikes
integrated transport planning
Perhaps some of these might be added to replace one or more of your duplicate entries?
Di