A Weekend Tale of Shared-Mobility & Shared-Space: ___________BODHISATTVA IN THE METRO________

The Sanskrit term Bodhisattva  is the name given to anyone who, motivated by great compassion and wisdom, has generated bodhichitta, a spontaneous wish to attain Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings. What makes someone a Bodhisattva is her or his spontaneous and limitless dedication to the ultimate welfare of others.

(May we suggest that you view this at least two times? Get comfortable.)

It’s not the destination, it’s the voyage.  It’s the way in which this public space is suddenly shared.  Happily shared.

Merci Christine.

OP-ED: WHOSE OPINION MATTERS IN PENANG?

Lessons from a Stakeholder Engagement Process for Penang, Malaysia

A Walk along the Street of Harmony in Penang

Penang Street of Harmony Project celebrates mutual tolerance illustrated by this amazingly cosmopolitan microcosm.

– Anwar Fazal takes us for a walk down the Street of Harmony in Penang.

The island of Penang, Malaysia, has long been a magnet for a multitude of people from all over the world and has over the last two centuries succeeded in integrating countless cultures and religions into its very fabric.

Penang  is very special.  It was a place that opened up for all the communities of the world. That particular special flavor, sometimes in many places in the world, is all too often lost over history. But in Penang, uniquely, it continued.

There is much Penang can teach the world today about acceptance and harmony in diversity.

* * * Walk down the streets of Penang with Anwar Fazal. |  View: https://vimeo.com/219493364

Archives: Homage to Hans Monderman

Unexpected interview in Groningen (On the street and straight to the point)

1 min 20 sec – May 30, 2006

Description: What? You know all about transport in cities and you have never heard of Groningen? Well, check out this an unexpected street interview in Groningen, a slice of life as lived by our old friend and transport innovating colleague (and now World Eyes on the Street correspondent from Portugal) Robert Stussi.

He has titled it: A Homage to Hans Monderman. Hear, hear!

Video Archives : Glasgow 2010 White Bikes Festival

 

On clicking to the video, you will see the Full Screen icon ¤  just before the vimeo button.

2017 Sustainable Transport Award Winner

You think your bus was crowded this morning

Survival of the Fittest – Gender and Public Transport in Kathmandu

* http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/video/2014/03/17/gender-public-transport-in-nepal

A Paean to Democracy in Troubled Times

On 15 November 2015 US President Barack Obama in a deeply resonant address to an audience of mainly young Greeks in Athens, reminding us of the challenges of democracy in this troubled century, calling for a “course correction” on globalization that has left populations afraid for an uncertain future.

Mobilien: Better, Faster, Cheaper. . . than BRT (for Penang)

While Penang is thinking once again about its transportation arrangements, we are hearing a lot of late about BRT and tramways — and rightfully. Both a huge improvement over earlier proposals for a mad spaghetti mix of intrusive monorails, elevated LRT/LRV systems,  Sky Cabs hanging uselessly in the horizon, over-built road infrastructure projects  to serve and encourage yet  more car traffic, and a backbreaking  proposal for a sea tunnel that would bring yet more traffic into the island and in the process extend and multiply today’s traffic mess and associated inconveniencies

But before we make up our minds let’s also give a thought to another less well known mobility option, the Mobilien.  It may be just what you were looking for.

Survival of the Fittest – Gender and Public Transport in Kathmandu

* Click for 4 minute video: http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/video/2014/03/17/gender-public-transport-in-nepal

Taipei Autumn 2015 New Mobility Videoteque

We live at a time when the people at the top who have to make or influence decisions in our sector are time-starved, over-burdened and, truth to tell, not about to spend a lot of time reading, or even listening or otherwise trying to ingest the great glaciers of data views and recommendations that are about to inundate and eventually freeze them solid for more thousands of years. But for those of us who see ourselves as change-agents, we need to find ways to capture their attention in order to widen their intellectual pallet in order to draw their attention to a range of new ideas and alterative problem-solving approaches beyond the ones that normally inform (and limit) their choices. Well, what about a series of attention-grabbing, lesson-purveying one-minute movies that can get them thinking in broader terms? And better than that, share with their families and colleagues. Might we have a look and think about this together?

CHECK OUT SELECTED CAR FREE DAY VIDEOS/WORLD-WIDE.

Looking for ideas,inspiration for your 2015 Car Free Day? Check out the pretty extensive World Streets video collection at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R3tLUZO8_8&list=PL2120657BD0B30397 – more than forty cities in more than 20 countries on all continents.

You will see here the good, the bad and the ugly. But you may find that a bit of patience pays off. So get comfortable, pour yourself a cool drink, go to the movies and give the first dozen or so clips a chance. You will be rewarded for your diligence.

Archives: Free Public Transport hits the road in Guadalajara

Why sustainable development is so hard, when it should be as “simple as riding a bike”?

UNLEARNING as a sustainability strategy?

What does not being able to ride a bike have to do with sustainable development?  Or rather of course UNsustainable development, which is the dominant and to now apparently unbreakable pattern? Thousands of conferences have been organized, more thousands of books printed,programs launched,  actions organized, treaties signed, promises made (and broken), and despite all that and by just about all valid indicators, the bottom line of our unsustainability continues tragically to deteriorate, to destroy our gasping planet. As you can see here:

Spring Break: Happy City Weekend on World Streets – Part 1

Author Charles Montgomery Talks “Happy City” with Mark Gorton, Philanthorpist and public servant

Saturday at the Movies: Bollywood Bicycle Boogie’s back

Take a break. It’s the weekend. And even if you have seen some of these before, let’s invite you to take your head out of that fat report and come with Navdeep Asija and me to the movies in India, the Bollywood Bicycle Boogie. The idea behind World Streets has from the beginning been to seek out and share universal lessons, from specific times and different places but which, with a bit of thought, can open up our eyes, ears and hearts to many things, including with a bit of luck to ourselves and our own limitations and quirks. For today’s musing Navdeep brought us a packet of Bollywood films for your weekend viewing pleasure. Let me turn over the word to Navdeep so that he can explain it for himself.

* Click here for 3 minutes of cycling pleasure

Son of D Bus (The Sequel)

D Bus (Make that one Danish, with coffee and a splash of snaps)

World Streets Vidéothèque: Latest edition (Try Slugging)

In response to our New Year’s annual roundup of the library of striking and informative videos assembled over the last years by the editor and readers of World Streets, one just came in today from New Zealand, thanks to Paul Minett, Chairman of the Ridesharing Institute. To contact him directly, email him at paulminett@tripconvergence.co.nz.

World Streets Vidéothèque

The Tellus Institute of Boston Massachusetts has recently initiated a collaborative program looking into alternative Urban Mobility Futures which will certainly be of interest to many readers of World Streets.  Initial background information on their program along with direct links to the appropriate sites will be found below. But today we thought to see if we might be useful in response to a request from them which has just come in, as follows:

With  the dawn of a new academic semester for some members of this group, we aim to identify resources (especially video materials) that are useful for classroom use on the general subject of “post-automobility futures.”

No problem: World Streets can be of some help since we have made it a habit over the years to identify, keep track of and share widely particularly interesting videos that will be of use to students, researchers, environmentalists, the media, activists and others wishing to follow new ideas and approaches on various aspects of the New Mobility Agenda.

* As of this date the World Streets Vidéothèque offers a collection of 63 films which are conveniently available at https://worldstreets.wordpress.com/tag/videotheque/, coming from two dozen countries and showing us the good, bad and the ugly of transport in cities.

And while you are at it, it certainly would be a pity to miss the excellent collection of original videos which has been assembled over the last eight years by Clarence Eckerson and his team of talented videographers that you can find freely at http://www.streetfilms.org/.