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2011]
What happened in Guadalajara on the topic of sustainable transport & sustainable cities from 3 to 10 September 2011?
Quick Intro: Just back from a challenging three-week round of events conferences and workshops which took me to several cities in Taiwan, back to Paris for a few hectic days and then on to Guadalajara Mexico for a week presenting, listening, inspecting, reflecting and from time to time commenting in a variety of settings on my usual sustainable development/sustainable transportation public policy conundrum. Let me see if I can give you quickly a feel for what happened in Guadalajara in a way that will I hope be sufficiently compact and interesting to make it worth your time. And if you are also curious about how things worked out in happened in Taiwan (no less interesting), please let me know and I can prepare a similar synopsis of what happened there. The Conference: I was invited to provide a keynote address on the topic of "Better Cities with a Lot Fewer Cars", to kick off a weeklong festival of events, discussions, and presentations in the context of their program Hacia Ciudades Libres de Autos/Towards Carfree Cities. My chosen theme was deep democracy and the need for immediate action. You can see the full program at http://carfree.mx/mx/ Guadalajara as a leading example: Guadalajara is an absolutely picture book example of the dilemma of sustainable transportation in all its ugly varieties. Unrelenting, cascading growth in car ownership and car use as the main transport mode to and around the center, impossible and increasing burdens on the citizens of the city in terms of lost time, rotten air, dangerous streets, unnecessary high transport costs for all the usual, I might say -- , with government at all levels stubbornly sticking to the old mobility agenda of mindlessly building yet more capacity, more roads, wider streets, more bridges, more tunnels and more parking facilities, and on the part of the responsible authorities over the last fifteen years little understanding -- no check that, NO understanding -- of the all too often proved fact that there is no way in the world in which they or anyone else can deal with the mounting problems of cars, traffic and all that goes with them, without a major course change. Eric Britton, New Mobility Agenda, Paris
Draft notes on conference and associated events. Eric Britton. 29 Sept. 2011
Draft notes on conference and associated events. Eric Britton. 29 Sept. 2011
Eric Britton, Editor / Managing Director World Streets / New Mobility Partnerships / Sustainability Seminar Series 8, rue Jospeh Bara 75006 Paris France Tel. +331 7550 3788 | editor@newmobility.org | Skype: newmobility
Avant d'imprimer, pensez l'environnement
Draft notes on conference and associated events. Eric Britton. 29 Sept. 2011