A COMPENDIUM OF ONE HUNDRED BETTER, FASTER, CHEAPER MEASURES YOUR CITY COULD START TO IMPLEMENT TOMORROW MORNING TO SAVE THE PLANET . . . cut GHG emissions, get people to work on time, reduce traffic accidents, save lives, clear the air, improve health, create a sense of community, strengthen the economy, and improve accessibility, mobility and quality of life for all.

We often hear that transportation reform  is going to require massive public investments, large construction projects, elaborate technology deployments, and above all and by their very nature are going to take a long time before yielding significant results. This is quite simply not true. This approach, common in the last century and often associated with the “American transportation model”, no longer has its place in a competitive, efficient, democratic city  And we can start tomorrow, if we chose to.

To get a feel for this transformative learning reality let’s start with a quick look at a first lot of ideas for Slow Street Architecture as a major means for reducing traffic related nuisances, accident prevention and improving quality of life for all.  These approaches are not just “nice ideas”.  They have proven their merit and effectiveness in hundreds of cities around the world. There is no good reason that they cannot do the same in your city. Starting tomorrow morning.

(For further background on external sources feeding this listing, see Sources and Clues section below.)

Challenge Partners (Working draft)

Incomplete working draft of 28 July

(Introductory para here to explain, etc.)

Thus far ( 21/07/2019), eventually with direct link and 2-3 lines of comment + Key Contacts

• World Streets, France – Journal of reference and record
• Journal of World Transport Policy and Practice, UK – two Special Editions: Winter 2019-2020 and Spring 2021
• SOLVED, Finland –
• Ytech Innovations Centre, Netherlands

Plus under initial discussion at this time:

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Tools – 21/07 Action Plan Placeholders

 

              You never change things by fighting the existing reality To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. – Buckminster Fuller

World Streets, Paris, 21 July 2019.

This is a temporary placeholder for several key postings and tools in support of the collaborative 2020 World Streets Climate/Space/New Mobility Action Plan at https://worldstreets.wordpress.com/tag/climateactionplan/.  To be completed and updated shortly.

If you have questions or suggestions, please feel free get in touch  as below.

“The power of a new mobility concept depends not on
how well it solves a given, targeted problem. But on how many problems it (partly) solves.”  –   Marco Te Brömmelstroettoo

# # #

Project Convener:

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.)

View complete profile

 

 

 

Op-Ed: Why Electric Scooters Companies Are Getting Serious About Safety

• By SARAH HOLDER.   July 16, 2019. CityLab at https://www.citylab.com
•   * * * Full article and illustrations HERE.

Lime has joined Bird in establishing a safety advisory board tasked with helping the e-scooter industry shape local regulations—and shake its risky reputation.

Lime, the micromobility company that’s flooded the streets of more than 100 cities around the world with fleets of green-and-white electric scooters, launched a Public Policy and Safety Advisory Board last week. The group, which convened for the first time at a safety summit in San Francisco, is tasked with determining what research and policy initiatives to pursue, what regulations to advocate for, and how to generally smooth the company’s sometimes-bumpy relationships with cities, riders, and riders-to-be.

Lime’s announcement reflects a growing acknowledgement within the e-scooter rental industry that safety concerns present a major barrier to mass adoption.

Op-Ed: The changing landscape of shared mobility

   – By Caroline Samponaro, head of bike, scooter, and pedestrian policy at Lyft.

• Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota
• http://www.cts.umn.edu/publications/catalyst/2019/july/mobility

From the quick rise of the electric scooter to Lyft’s expansion of bike-share networks across the country, change is constant in the shared mobility industry. This changing landscape was the topic of the CTS Spring Luncheon presentation by Caroline Samponaro, a longtime bike and pedestrian advocate in New York City who now leads micromobility policy at Lyft.

ODE TO CLIMATE CHANGE . . .

Hello!

CLIMATE?

Of course. No doubt. Yes, Yes. . . Of course. Of course.

ON THE OCCASION OF AN EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY: A few words with my friends

The power of a new mobility concept depends not on how well it solves a given, targeted problem. But on how many problems it (partly) solves. –   Marco Te Brömmelstroet

 ON THE OCCASION OF MY BIRTHDAY, A FEW WORDS WITH MY FRIENDS

• Eric Britton,Convener, World Streets Climate Initiative, Paris. 27 June 2019

Dear friends, colleagues, planners, policy makers, students, professors, people working with local government, engineers, accountants, and above all those of you as active citizens and participants in civil society, whom I have met, not met, collaborated, swapped ideas with, argued, modifying my position and then arguing some more . . . Because as you and I know well, nothing ever stays fixed and final in the world of transport and mobility.

Op-Ed: “After 25 years of failure, we should abandon the UNFCCC”

• By Chandra Bhushan, deputy director general of the Centre for Science and Environment in New Delhi. Published Climate Change News on 27/03/2019,  Because of its importance, we reproduce it here in its entirety. With thanks.

Emissions are at record levels and the international  treaty designed  to rein them  in cannot  drive action.   It is time for new ideas to be explored

“While we’ve made enormous progress in 25 years, the world is still running behind climate change.”

“Today, the urgency to address climate change has never been greater. But because of the work begun 25 years ago, we are also better coordinated to take it on. We have the Paris Agreement, and we have the guidelines strengthening that agreement. What we need now are results.”

This is a summary of the statement that Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), put out on the occasion to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the entry into force of the UNFCCC.

While I agree with the sentiments above, especially the urgency to address climate change, I disagree with two points: one, the progress made by the UNFCCC so far and two, the potential of the UNFCCC to deliver results in the future.

Leaders told to bring plans, not speeches to UN climate summit

1998. COP 4. Comfortably installed at the Head Table in Buenos Aires

And comfortably installed at the head table in Buenos Aires in 1998. BAU

Notice anything in particular here?  Exception, or rule?

Hmm. Let’s think about that? Let’s think of it as not the end of a story, but the beginning of a new story.

Off we go.