World Streets from Aug. 20 to Sept. 20: Gone fishin'

While World Streets is a collaborative journal fed by a steady flow of contributions of hundreds of contributors from countries around the world, plunging the depths and enormous variations of the challenges of sustainable transportation and sustainable cities, our entire massive editorial staff consists of a single person, also known as Eric Britton, your servant, whose day job it is to spot, incite, cajole and eventually coordinate the articles, photographs, illustrations, letters, commentaries and other media which regularly populate these pages.

But in the late summer month directly ahead, I will be unable to ensure this function since I have been invited to participate and take a significant role in no less than three major international projects which are online for that period and which are simply too good to miss.   Each of these assignments require extensive international travel and full working days charged with presentations, discussions, brainstorming sessions, classes and hands-on advisory work, a combination which is not exactly ideal for providing the peace and concentration that is needed in order to fulfill my editorial duties.  That said, it is a privilege to be able to work directly with projects, programs, cities and groups who are taking on the challenge of sustainable development and sustainable transport, and as such a great learning opportunity.

These three projects include, in order:

Taiwan: A nine-day stay in Taiwan, during which time I will be active in supporting this year's Car Free Day programs in no less than three major cities (Taipei city, New Taipei City, and Kaohsiung),

Guadalajara Mexico:  Eight days working in this booming city in which the car situation has gotten way way out of control.  This involves participation in a cycle of site visits, conferences and workshops, as well as in a weeklong Master Class.

Brussels Belgium: Participation in a one-day workshop bringing together some of the outstanding carsharing operations and startups in various cities across Europe, as an opportunity to share the closing session which looks over past developments and future prospects from a broader strategic perspective.

I shall be reporting in these pages on each of these three programs toward the end of this month-long break.

Search for financial support:
There will unfortunately not be much time for me to give this the attention that it deserves, but the least I can do at this point is to draw your attention to our strong need for financial support so that World Streets can continue to exist, and to provide be an independent voice and source and spur to innovation and sustainability in our troubled sector.

Please do not be shy if you think you can help us in any way in this important outreach effort. We truly need your help.

Eric Britton.  Paris, 20 August 2011

Print this article