RE: Program contents...

Hello ladies and gentlemen,

Some philosophy follows...

As has been discussed here, most people who profess an interest in
"sustainable transport" only end up learning about transport shift and
"fuel shift".

Universities also encourage a focus on either urban planning OR transport
planning (or technology) and while there is some overlap there is always a
point where an architect working in a planning department says they are
not a "transport expert"... and this system creates a railway engineer who
throughout their working life remains clueless about any kind of
"proximity philosophy", not realising perhaps that to understand and
support it would be beneficial to their sector.

As others have reported the "sustainable transport sector" can be very
wary of talking negatively about cars. They present trains as things which
create "mobility choice". In over two years of attending railway events
and seeing promotional materials for (very expensive) conferences, I have
never seen any talk of a presentation called something like "How Carfree
cities can make us rich"*. The biggest public transport organisation on
the planet had perhaps one presentation on urban planning among dozens of
other offerings at their last Congress.

So, urban planning and transport planning/engineering have to become much
more integrated. But it doesnt start with transport. A "Carfree 101"
(introductory class) - at university and/or at one of our conferences -
and some kind of TV commercial, advert, etc - would start with/focus on
proximity-oriented carfree(re)development and only when people understand
that well would they learn about transport which will keep the cities
carfree.

It is true that we all are different places on the path to carfreedom, but
unless we give people a good foundation - and strength our foundation - we
will constantly be fighting the mobility mob and gently arguing with the
green mobility mob.

- T

*Cities which contract in physical size will always need intercity
transport, and neighborhoods which contract in size and become
self-sufficient via walking (and cycling) will always need
"intra-neigborhood transport", and so if people get access by their legs
(or wheelchairs) to everything they need and want nearby, they wont get
cars, and will take buses, trams, metros and trains beyond "leg distance".
This is a kind of anti-mobility strategy which it seems conversely will
make the public transport manufacturers lots of money and create lots of
jobs, too.

------------------------------------------------------

Todd Edelman
Director
Green Idea Factory

Korunní 72
CZ-10100 Praha 10
Czech Republic

++420 605 915 970
Skype: toddedelman

[email protected]
http://www.worldcarfree.net/onthetrain

Green Idea Factory,
a member of World Carfree Network



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