Thursday, July 17, 2008

Cities Adapting to Sustainable Mobility.

Speeches in Portland, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Daejeon and Cork; June/July 2008.
Cities are changing fast and a few arguments show that: Car sales have dropped in Europe with 8 % in the last month; Car industry disassociates with SUV; Car companies focus on electric cars; Petrol price has passed $4 per gallon in USA; $11 in Europe; Congestion on the rise, infrastructure overheated; Public Bike systems in over 140 cities now ; Waiting list for bikes in New York; Overbooked trains in the USA; Price of donkeys in Turkey on the rise. Local arguments become more compelling: obesity, diabetis, noise, asthma, sleep disorders; Global arguments are felt: climate change, air polution, CO2 emission,
Economic arguments for change emerge like Emission Rights trade; New ways of energy generation: solar/wind/tidal/sweet & salt waterBuilding permits; Floods / nature disasters; Cradle to Cradle; ‘Dump the pump’ behaviour all over the world ; New modes of transport are out there.
Better understand Sustainable Mobility as a political choice for a level of long term balance between: emission rich modes, emission poor modes and emission free modes; at the same time aiming at a mix of mobility modes in economic terms, environmental terms and terms of social justice. See the IAMSTERDAM / AC2S power point presentation.

No comments: