CLIMATE, SPACE, TIME, MOBILITY,
A quick shot from Reykjavik of a road at the start of a working day
That’s a good part of the challenge. Let’s go to work!
Source: Climate/Action/Plan Creating a New Mobility Ecosystem for Reykjavik 2020
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Tag Archives: *ClimateActionPlan
World Streets launches 2020 Open/Collaborative Climate/Emergency Cities/Mobility Streets/Cars Sharing/Space Equity/Women Vision/Strategy Action/Manage
– – – – – – – – > Working draft update of 1 May 2020. To be finalized over month. < – – – – – –
WORLD STREETS is betting its future on the coming immediate-term transition period led by certain ambitious, responsible cities, nations, organizations and citizens in different parts of the world to come together to break the downward pattern of ever-increasing climate stress — and before the challenge to plan and execute highly aggressive near-term initiatives aimed at sharply cutting greenhouse gas emissions from the mobility sector. And doing all this while working with proven tools, policies and strategies that harness cost-effective, readily available, measures, technologies, operational and management competence. And our job is to support them as best we can.
THE FIVE PERCENT CHALLENGE: One of the originalities of this approach is its fierce concentration on near-term initiatives and result, i.e., what can be targeted and accomplished in the year directly ahead to reduce GHG emissions by a targeted five percent. The long-time horizons that are being promised for achieving major cuts in the environmental load are, in our view, not all that helpful. The far future gets heavily discounted and fails to penetrate in many minds. Our cities and our planet badly need near-term results and a continuing sharp reversal of the installed the downward trends.
And for that we need to create a new model. There is no reason to wait any longer, and every reason to attack the climate challenge immediately. And we are here to support this mobility revolution. The idea is to be judged by the announced public targets and achieved results in the year immediately following the Challenge program startup, 2020.
• 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. – Marko Te Brömmelstroet
MORE WITH LESS: Here are a couple of acronyms that are central to these strategies — TDM, ICT, VKT, TSM, ITS, MaaS, HOV, LOV, LOS, PBS, . . . among a long list of others – that you are already familiar with and will see developed in the articles, pages and references that follow here. Ways in which to do more with less. And . . . / Better / Quicker / Cheaper. To get a better feeling for this, check out in particular our TDM Primer at https://worldstreets.wordpress.com/tag/tdm-primer/.
COLLABORATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING: By posting the key steps of their CHALLENGE project in the STREETS LAB project section, from the first organizational and planning stages and then on through the fine-tuning, results and proposed adjustments for the 2020 projects we open up a group learning process. Also encouraging both private and open comments and suggestions on posted projects.
ECOSYSTEM: This is the most subtle and demanding aspect of this challenge project. For a well-prepared program, many sharp reductions can be achieved in a matter of months or a couple of years, as opposed to decades (or never). The great art lies in how we prepare them and then knit them all together . . . so as to effectively redefine the entire underlying mobility ecosystem. As our Dutch colleague Marco Te Brömmelstroet put it so well: “The power of a new mobility concept depends not on how well it solves a problem . . . but on how many problems it (partly) solves “. We can take that as a timely reminder.
BETTER CHOICES: HOW TO. In two ways: first not by admonishing, but by inviting. Offering better choices and not punitive measures forced down the throat of the public. As the poet/politician William Butler Yeats put it so long ago: “the role of education is not to fill a bucket, but to light a fire.” Because we know that the way to make this more than difficult transition is to be lively, surprising and to find the soft way . . . together.
INVITATION: Readers of World Streets, colleagues, researchers, students and public interest groups around the world are cordially invited to join early discussions and shaping of a proposed open collaborative climate emergency initiative, aiming to identify and demonstrate by concrete examples ways in which greenhouse gas emissions emanating from the mobility sector can be reduced by a whopping 5% in Year 1. And then again in Years 2, 3, 4… etc. (Learning by doing.)
WORLD STREETS CLIMATE EMERGENCY TOOLBOX AND CONTEXT (Links to be verified and completed)
(1) Introduction – http://bit.ly/2SGXWNu
(2) Global Climate context – http://bit.ly/2SgKIWW
(3) Climate Change programs underway http://bit.ly/2EwBwK7
(4) World Climate Change News & media- http://bit.ly/2XegNCm
(5) International Advisory Panel – https://wp.me/psKUY-4yh
(6) Strategies – https://worldstreets.wordpress.com/tag/strategies/
(7) Planners’ Bookshelf – (See https://yhoo.it/2YbZwdp for example to follow)
(8) The Third Force – https://worldstreets.wordpress.com/tag/thethirdforce/
(9) Visual evidence – http://bit.ly/2T6Ee1k
(10) Twitter – https://twitter.com/worldstreets
(11) Full Gender Parity – http://bit.ly/2ViIR5G
(12) TDM Primer at https://worldstreets.wordpress.com/tag/tdm-primer
(13) Invitation – https://wp.me/psKUY-5vw
STEAL THIS PROJECT It is our firm hope that this open collaborative project will not only bring some much-needed fresh ideas to the on-going climate agenda, but that others will come in with their own hopefully even better ideas, skills, projects and resources, and do better yet in the search for those vital near term improvements and changes so much needed. World Streets will follow, support and report on this wave of new thinking and action as best we can. Teamwork!
* Heaven is a place where you have good friends who are smarter than you but who are still willing to lend a hand when a good idea pops up.
CONTACTS: Email. climate@newmobility.org . Tel. +336 5088 0787. WAP +1 310 919 4292. Skype: newmobility. Project coordinator: Eric Britton at http://bit.ly/2Ti8LsX
ONLINE TDM ENCYCLOPEDIA – VTPI
This is a critical reference and tool set for World Streets readers, introducing the full contents as of 6 March 2019 of the TDM (Transportation Demand Management) Encyclopedia of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute headed by Todd Litman. All the more than one hundred resources and references cited here are available online. The full report is online at: http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/
Transportation Demand Management (TDM, also called Mobility Management) is a general term for strategies that result in more efficient use of transportation resources. This Encyclopedia is a comprehensive source of information about innovative management solutions to transportation problems. It provides detailed information on dozens of demand management strategies, plus general information on TDM planning and evaluation techniques. It is produced by the Victoria Transport Policy Institute to increase understanding and implementation of TDM.
How important is TDM for transport/mobility planners, policy makers or concerned citizens and civil society? It is very easy to answer that question, which boils down to this: If you do not have on your team first rate competence in TDM measures and references, then you are in the wrong business. TDM is the first line of defense of sustainable transport planning and policy!
TDM – A World Streets Primer
Since TDM (Transportation Demand Management) is a key pillar of the New Mobility Agenda strategy, and of our now forming-up Five Percent Challenge Climate Emergency program, it is important that the basic distinctions are clear for all. In one of our recent master classes, when several students asked me to clarify for them, I turned the tables instead and asked them, since we are now firmly in the 21st century, to go home, spend a bit of time online and come up with something that answered their question to their satisfaction. Here is what they came up with, taken whole hog from http://bit.ly/2rTxHrr (which we then lightly edited together and offer for your reading pleasure).
Quick-start references:
A COMPENDIUM OF 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, strengthen the economy, and improve accessability, 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.)
SECRET WEAPON?
The Rough Road to Climate Protection and Sustainable Mobility: Values, priorities, behavior and, finally, understanding people (and ourselves)
What many people call “transportation” . . is at its very essence not about road or bridges, nor vehicles or technology, and not even about money. Above all it is about people, their needs, fears, desires and the decisions they make. And the backdrop — real and mental — against which they make those decision. The transport planner needs to know more them and take this knowledge into the center of the planning and policy process. What makes them tick, individually and collectively. What do they want and what they are likely to resist. And people, as we all know, are intensely complicated, personal and generally change-resistant. .But if we take the time and care we can start to understand them, at least a bit better. Which is a start.
Oslo takes bold steps to reduce air pollution, improve livability
Norway’s capital city Oslo, home to over 670,000 people, is boldly pushing forward with a range of measures to improve air quality for the city’s inhabitants. Oslo is one of 42 cities who take part in Breathe Life, a campaign led by the World Health Organization, UN Environment and the Climate & Clean Air Coalition that inspires cities and individuals to protect our health and planet from the effects of air pollution.
Zero-emission vehicles play a key part in the city’s strategy to reduce C02 equivalents by 95 per cent in 2030, and city officials are encouraging people to make the transition to electric vehicles. Benefits for drivers include reduces taxes, access to bus and taxi lanes, free travel on toll roads and public ferries, and free municipal parking. Over 1,000 charging stations have been added in recent years.
Meanwhile, all public transport in Oslo and neighbouring Akershus county is to be powered exclusively by renewable energy by 2020.
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:
X XXXXXXXXX XXXXXX
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”
- 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
COP15 2009: CLIMATE IS THE PORTAL TO NEW MOBILITY (Letter to the organizers)
Message from World Streets to the Copenhagen Summit: The 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference
Letter from the Editor: ON THE RUN-UP TO COPENHAGEN AND COP15
EcoPlan International
8 rue Joseph Bara
75006 Paris France
27 September 2009
Dear Colleagues,
The climate agenda is getting high political and media attention worldwide, and there are many important events scheduled for the months immediately ahead. That is good. But in our view the agenda for sustainable transport system reform at all levels is timid, incoherent and in large part irrelevant given the real priorities. Well, what is relevant then? How can we get the level of innovation and reform that is going to be critical in the years immediately ahead?
Our Personal Choices — and Our (un)Sustainable Lives
I don’t think we can buy the argument anymore that we deserve special dispensation just because we think what we — the “elite” — are doing is worthwhile.
Let’s see. At last count there were already well more than seven billion of us sharing this suddenly very small planet. And let’s say, just to get a crude handle on this, that each of us, whether in Mali or Malibu, makes something like a hundred “personal planet action choices” each day, leading to specific actions which when we had them all up have quite a potential impact on our earth.
CHECKLIST OF KEY TERMS, CONCEPTS AND REFERENCES FOR MANAGING THE CLIMATE/NEW MOBILITY TRANSITION
Checklist of key terms, concepts and references for managing the climate/new mobility transition (1 June 2019. Text to follow here.)
ACTIVE TRANSPORT: * Bicycles * Bike/Transit Integration * Public Bicycle Systems * Telecommuting * Telework * Walk to School * Walking
WORLD STREETS FIVE PERCENT CLIMATE CHALLENGE: Concept Summary and Invitation on one page
They actually relate to each other. And if you don’t understand that, then you are in real trouble.
WORLD STREETS is betting its future over the coming two-year transition period on the ability of certain ambitious responsible cities, nations, organizations and citizens in different parts of the world to come together to break the downward pattern of climate stress — and specifically plan and execute highly aggressive near-term initiatives aimed at sharply cutting greenhouse gas emissions from the mobility sector. And doing all this while working with tools, policies and strategies that harness proven, cost-effective, readily available, measures, technologies, operational and management competence. It is our job is to support them as best we can.
THE FIVE PERCENT CHALLENGE, COLLABORATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING (In brief)
* * Working draft for peer review and comment of 17 July 2019
</b>The basic concept is simple in principle, namely: to identify and put to work a strategic package of proven, street-tested, cost-effective measures, tools and means to reduce GHG emissions from the mobility sector in a cooperating city or place by a targeted five percent (or better) in a year or less. Realization of the concept on the other hand is highly demanding and requires considerable technical competence, abundant political savvy and leadership by daily example.
The underlying goal is highly ambitious, and perhaps not immediately evident. It is about people and choices, and not so much about infrastructure or vehicles. We are talking here about influencing behaviour of individuals and groups in this specific part of their day to day lives. Since indeed the only way that we can successfully make this critical transition in a functioning democracy — is no less than to change behaviour by creating a transformed urban (or rural, or other demographic) ecosystem of connected realities, time, space, perceptions, awarenesses, values, fears, prejudices, habits and, hopefully in parallel with this an wide array of “better than car” or at least satisficing mobility choices. The key to all this being to offer what are perceived as better choices for all when it comes to daily life, climate, mobility, environment and democracy impacts. The challenge we now face is to accompany this transition, and this in the teeth of a rapidly degrading environment and still a largely skeptical world.
Rapid cuts needed to protect billions of people from rising emissions due to increased use of cars and coal.
THE 2020 FIVE PERCENT EMERGENCY CHALLENGE: (Cross-cutting issues, measures, sources & startup strategies)
Executive Summary:
QUESTION: Is it going to be possible to cut greenhouse gas emissions resulting from day to day transport in your city by five percent next year?
RESPONSE: Yes *
___________________________________
* But you have to be very smart
If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it? (Attributed to A. Einstein)
MASTER CLASS: CAN FREE PUBLIC TRANSPORT SAVE OUR CITIES?
If you wish to sort out your thinking on the suddenly popular topic of free public transport, may we propose that you spend a lively half hour listening to an excellent Australian radio program on the topic — and listen to what experts like Judith, Oded, Gregory, Tony, Ansgar and Jarrett have to offer on this subject. A refreshing variety of perspectives and comments — a veritable master class on a topic that responsible cities cannot afford to run away from.
It’s not that our cities need to do it in this or that way. Far from it! But it turns out that it is a mobility option to which we really need to give serious thought — because at the end of the day it is really about transport and budgets, but no less about basic rights and equity in a democracy. And also — as you will hear — about efficiency , economy, environment and quality of life for all. Now let’s listen to the experts:
SLOW CITY TRANSITION: NOTES FOR A THINKING EXERCISE
The idea of slowing top speeds on traffic in the city to reduce accidents and achieve other important systemic benefits would seem like a pretty sensible, straightforward and affordable thing to do. For a lot of reasons. Let’s have a look.
