From the outset in late 2008, we were aware that the reach of World Streets into the field was going to be constrained by the problem of language. For if in countries in 
which English is not a main working language there are always a certain number of people who are comfortable dealing with text in English, this is not the case for the greater number of those who work at the local level with the issues. So we knew we were going to need another approach to reach these people. Our first test case to show how it is possible to work competently in another language was Italy, leading to a global/local partnership and the creation of a new journal covering sustainable transport in Italian: Nuova Mobilità.
Summary: Working with machine translations:
How to use, limitations, work-arounds: To make the contents of World Streets more broadly accessible to friends and colleagues who work primarily in other language groups, we have linked the site to the increasingly well-performing Google machine translation engines that you will now find here. In each case all you have to do is click the language in which you wish to see the rough translation, and it will quickly appear on your monitor.
If you read the translation in parallel with the English-language original in front of you, you will in almost all cases be able to arrive at a pretty fair understanding of the thrust and main content of that particular article or announcement. The result is not literature; it is a rough and ready working tool for someone who needs to know. It works better in some languages than others. In any event it is not a substitute for a professional translation, but by contrast it can be in your hands in seconds, and can be extremely helpful for those who are ready to make an effort to use it with judgment. Some people will use it when they need it, others will complain and set it aside. That is for you to choose. (We use it and use it every day. And always with caution.)
Actually working in English gives us a great start -- various statistics indicate that it is the first language of going on to four hundred million people, and if you include second language speakers the number moves up to something on the order of half a billion. That is five hundred million people who can, one would hope, pick up and read daily articles in World Streets with ease. That is a big number.
On the other hand it leaves out on the order of six billion people organize their daily lives around other languages, and since it is our chosen mission to create and reinforce networks of people at various levels of government and participation in public life around the world in matters of sustainable transport, we would be remiss in our function if we neglected this important fact. With this in mind, we have from the beginning of publication continuously brainstormed with anyone who cared to join us on the matter of how to get the contents of World Streets, and with it the leading edge of worldwide developments and thinking in the field of sustainable transportation, into the hands of the people who are working in countries in cities around the world where working language is other than English.
As a result of these exchanges we decided not to continue to chat and plan, but rather to start with full scale real time public demonstration showing how it is possible to create an Italian-language edition carefully adapted to the needs and interests of Italian readers working with or following developments in this area. It took more than three months to plan, but by 1 July 2009 the first issue of Nuova Mobilità was ready to go on line on.
Thinking that your time might be short today, let's start at the end, showing you what happened in one country, Italy, when we developed a collaborative version of World Streets with skilled and committed local partners. Two pictures will serve for a thousand words.
The first of these is a map from our files showing the last eighty people to come into World Streets in late June, a few days before we started publication of the first number of Nuova Mobilità. You will note that despite the impressive worldwide coverage (extending to more than seventy countries on all continents), there were on that day zero entries coming in from Italian cities. Zero!
Before: World Streets reader map of 26 June 2009:
And now, half a year after start-up if we next look at the map showing the last eighty entries into Nuova Mobilità in the last 24 hours, an entirely different picture emerges.
After: Nuova Mobilità reader map of 13 February 2009:
Listing of Italian cities checking in
This listing of cities will be of more interest to our Italian readers than most of us surely, but what may interest them about it is that these 74 cities are listed in the order of the frequency with which readers have some into N/M.
Rome, Milan, Turin, Palermo, Cocquio Trevisago, Molfetta, Bologna, Verona, Padova, Azzano Decimo, Crotone, Ferrara, Potenza, Bergamo, Brescia, Torino, Pesaro, Genoa, Naples, Cagliari, Trieste, Novara, Catania, Piacenza, Treviso, Caserta, San Vero Milis, Manduria, Parma, Modena, San Martino Siccomario, Corato, Teramo, Favaro Veneto, Monserrato, Grùmolo, San Cesario Di Lecce, Giugliano In Campania, Montichiari, Solaro, Bresso, Ciserano, Lecce, Bari, Florence, Quartucciu, Castelnuovo, Rosarno, Brivio, Pisa, Santeramo In Colle, Pontinia, Cormano, Pescara, Catanzaro, Sannicandro Di Bari, San Donato Milanese, Trebaseleghe, San Severino Marche, Abano Terme, Nocera Inferiore, Medole, Varese, Galliera Veneta, Quartu Sant'elena, Leghorn, Limbiate, Capodrise, Turriaco, Cesena, Origgio, Incisa, Monza, Stezzano.
What is the expression: build it and they will come? Apparently this holds for more than building more roads. We need to do more of this kind of building.
The lessons of this successful joint are perfectly clear. What we have seen works in a country like Italy can also be at least tested and most probably would, with the right kind of collaboration, work in other parts of the world as well. In fact we think this is extremely important and intend to make this one of the strong collaborative development pushes of World Streets over 2010.
We are at this time in early discussion with colleagues in a handful of countries with a view to examining this template and seeing how it might be put to work to provide high-quality coverage in other countries and language groups. Here are our priority targets:* Chinese
We have yet to define a working agreement and operations plan with any of these eventual future partners, but as soon as we do please be sure that our readers will be the first to be informed. If you wish to have a more detailed idea as to the process and the reasoning behind these collaborative projects, we invite you to read on to see how all this was handled in the case of Italy and" Nuova Mobilità - Il Diario Italiano del Trasporto Sostenibile".
* French
* Spanish
* Portuguese
* Arabic
* German
* Turkish
The reasons for giving this collaborative Italian project early priority were three-fold: (a) Potential: Its potential to fill a gap as a trusted neutral Italian language source with one-click links to information and perspective on the full range of leading new mobility developments worldwide.
(b) Partners: Our good fortune in finding an Italian team willing to work with us on a volunteer basis for the half year or so it is going to take to get it off the ground.
(c) Prof of concept: And finally the way in which we hoped that, in time and with work, the Italian project would develop into a first-cut technical and organizational template ready to aid other language/country versions to follow in 2010 and beyond.
1. "New Mobility" for Italian readers
Italy provides an interesting and in many ways quite typical example of how the diverse strands that we call sustainable transport or new mobility are (or are not) being woven together to create better transport and better cities within a country or language area. Now as you can see in the pages of N/M, the new mobility concept is in fact gradually taking hold in Italy, but it is still very much in a minority position, and when implemented for the most part occurs on a project by project basis -- and only here and there with a broader unifying strategy. On this last score there is still plenty of room for progress. (But to be perfectly frank, there are few places in the world which have thus far really started to put all the pieces together.)
Italy had a strong claim for immediate treatment on the grounds that we had the good fortune to have already collaborated there successfully with Italian colleagues led by Enrico Bonfatti who showed up fully bilingual, understanding the underlying concepts and ready to get to work on them. Over the two months-plus we have worked with them day by day to lay a base for our collaborative project, we communicated by phone, email, Skype and videoconference on almost a daily basis, and often multiple times each day. (And this was certainly a low-carbon approach since at no time did any of us actually get on a plane or train to get the job done. Today's technologies were and are fully up to the job. And we suggest that this lesson can also usefully inform future collaborative projects.
The first World Streets’ spin-off, Nuova Mobilità, which you can now visit, work with and profit from is online at http://nuovamobilita.org/
2. Nuova Mobilità has two functions within Italy:
Window on sustainable transport in the world:
First, to provide a window on the world of new mobility for those Italian readers who are more comfortable working in their own language. To do this, the editorial team selects daily articles from World Streets and other sources which they feel will be of particular interest to the Italian reader. They then both translate and adapt them for the Italian context, with adjustments and contextual information to make them more informative for the Italian reader in search of new ideas, leads and approaches.
Window on sustainable transport in Italy:
But Nuova Mobilità also has an important “internal” function within Italy as well, namely that of providing a central information and exchange point for outstanding projects and programs, and problems and barriers inhibiting change, that are going on in various cities and parts of the peninsula. There are a number of programs and web sites already active in the sector in various places, but most of these focus on a specific problem or approach -- for example cycling, public transport, carsharing, school transport, climate issues, environmental concerns more generally, for specific cities, etc.-- Nuova Mobilità can serve as a valuable clearing house function, with its global/local orientation.
Editorial independence:
Like World Streets, Nuova Mobilità retains complete independence in terms of editorial content and the views expressed. Moreover, the program is informed by a consistent set of guiding principles which you will find spelled out in the Mission Statement.
3. Nuova Mobilità: Template for future country/language editions:
One of the main potential contributions of Nuova Mobilità is that it is put before you not as a plan or a promise, but as an operational working entity already in place and there to serve as a pioneer and concrete example for other country/language editions. Of course it can be improved in many ways, including technically, and that is part of the task of both the Italian team and the collaborators at World Streets. But Nuova Mobilità exists, it is there, it works, and it is already in place to perform valuable functions.
It is our view that despite the enormous reach of the internet and the availability of ever-better (and free) machine translation services, native language coverage is needed by many people in many places. The reality is that it is not all that easy reading every day in a second or third language. Most of us do best working in our mother tongue. The task of full and rapid comprehension of a fair body of materials that come in day after day, already difficult enough for most topics, becomes even more challenging in a new area such as this which continuously brings in many new, less familiar concepts, and along with them a new and fast-evolving vocabulary, thus adding yet another level of complexity to the challenge of understanding what is really going on.
Thus it is our firm intention to find other language/country partners to work with them to build on the Italian example which can be exported in its entirety to serve as a sort of first-stage template for future language/country editions.
To this end, we are already in preliminary discussion with eventual Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, French and German language partners the possibility of building on this example with new dedicated websites and supporting programs in the months ahead. But the list of countries and languages of course need not end there. Nor should it.
# # #
Working with machine translations: How to use, limitations, work-arounds
To make the contents of World Streets more broadly accessible to friends and colleagues who work primarily in other language groups, we have linked the site to the increasingly well-performing Google machine translation engines that you will now find here. In each case all you have to do is click the language in which you wish to see the rough translation, and it will quickly appear on your monitor.
If you read the translation in parallel with the English-language original in front of you, you will in almost all cases be able to arrive at a pretty fair understanding of the thrust and main content of that particular article or announcement. It is of course not a substitute for a professional translation, but it can be extremely helpful for those who are ready to make an effort to use it with judgment.
# # #
For more information on Nuova Mobilità:
Contact: Enrico Bonfatti, Editor. editore@nuovamobilita.org
Nuova Mobilità is at http://nuovamobilita.org
Skype: nuova.mobilita
Click here to read Nuova Mobilità in English (machine translation)
Monday, February 15, 2010
Putting World Streets to work in other languages.
Example: Nuova Mobilità, Sustainable Transport in Italy
Friday, February 12, 2010
Do monorail projects deserve fair treatment? Part II
Dragging them into the cold light of day.
It is our position here at World Streets that the challenges of sustainable transportation are so many and so important that we need to ensure we maintain focus on concepts and policies that are going to be up to the task and the priorities at 
stake. The following just in from Brazil summarizes the author's views on this particular mode. We have left it in his colorful language, making this a lively as well as informative read. Again, our objective here is to make sure that no one, particularly no one in the developing world, wastes any more time with approaches that are very clearly inappropriate. We need to keep focus.
Dragging monorail projects and propositions into the cold light of day
Dear World Streets reader,
Let me share my point of view coming from a developing city (Sao Paulo/Brazil) which saw some projects like the Mumbai Monorail trying to break ground here, and now is much happier to see that they won't happen that easily...
For the carbon footprint discussion: if we add the total construction cost, which, by the way, should be at least 3 times what the Malaysian company Scomi is saying it would cost, plus operational subsidies, life cost analyze of the concrete, trains and energy consumption, which in India should be pretty bad (energy comes majority from coal, isn't it?), after all of that, their CO2 reductions would probably not look that good at all. Even if they could construct it very cheap (which they can't), private car use will only increase! We are in the developing world with huge population increase, economic growth and incomes going up (for some). Come on?
But the most important thing in my opinion is that the Mumbai project will most likely never happen at all! If you have patience to read on, I'll try to show you how their numbers for the Mumbai monorail are unreal, and, as I explain briefly Scomi background (as well as JICA s monorail proposal) in Brazil, I'll try to show my point of view that this monorail will never be completed, as soon as the costs become clear and couple of kilometers and win whatever election India might have this year, but after that, no way they will finish it Why?
Well. First of all, Scomi and JICA both use pretty rough numbers to make politicians believe that their monorail are good for them. But when the final costs turn out to be more than double, triple, and, even worst, when the City finally realizes the amount of operational subsidies it would have to pay, they will just give up on the project. (And I can only hope for us taxpayers that this will happen sooner and not later.)
It happened in almost all their projects here in Brazil. Scomi made many presentations in different cities in Brazil to foster monorails for the World Cup, using the magical number (17 or 37 mi/km which was the cost of the Kuala Lumpur monorail in 1997) sometimes in REAIS, sometimes in US Dollars. But the reality is that after one year of studies, most of their projects were abandoned as the prices have just skyrocketed.
Lula (Brazilian President) has just announced that BRTs are going to be built in 9 of the 12 World Cup cities, so most of Scomi's investment to send people to Japan, Malaysia and India, to pay for campaigns and projects, will be lost The only two projects still alive at this point are: one in Manaus/Amazon Jungle (by Scomi) which should be soon abandoned, believe me. And one extra monorail for Sao Paulo (by Jica), which I'll talk about later, as I'm positive that it won't happen either, although there are many other issues involved, which are not technical at all.
Monorails to connect airport or leisure parks are different in my opinion. For these you don't need high capacity and you can charge them 5, 10 dollars per way... But for urban transportation... come on?
Background Information: These Malaysian companies have a very controversial background in fostering and working with monorails around the World, if we look at real numbers and deliverables.
Well, let's start with the Kuala Lumpur project, after JICA decide they wouldn't finance the monorail project with Hitachi, so some Malaysian companies were born there to do that project. Kuala Lumpur (one of only three monorails that actually got built in the last decades) went bankrupt and the State had to pay for their debt. If you want to learn more on that, please take a look http://www.itdp.org/index.php/news_events/news_detail/special_report_monorails_back_to_the_future/
After that, they got some contracts with cities for the World Cup in South Africa, but these projects never went through, after the real costs and operational difficulties became clearer. Instead South Africa opted for BRTs and Rea Vaya is there to prove how BRT can deliver a much better economical solution for our developing world cities.
Now we come Brazil, oh yeah my beautiful and lovely Brazil We had JICA here! The Japanese cooperation agency came to Sao Paulo to help Hitachi exports some monorails. Sao Paulo is the paradise for large construction projects: we have BRTs, highways, bridges, subways, everything under construction. It's an election year in Brazil, therefore, many projects are only launched and paid for the engineering stage, although we all known they won't ever get built (because there is no budget available for the construction). Anyway, because SP has been achieving 15% increase in its budget per year these last years, they thought money wouldn't be a problem.
Therefore, the Japanese found a good opportunity to foster their beautiful monorail here. Nobody wanted it here, they were all talking about BRTs and light rail to replace the subway projects, as their construction costs went really high this last decade for underground subways, but the Japanese gave us monorail project for "free", sent everybody travelling to Japan, Scomi came in too, help them consider the monorail again... you known well, therefore, the Japanese guys start studying it and it would cost "only" US$ 37mi/km.
But then it became US$ 70mi/km, and now they are saying US$ 100 mi/km or US$ 120 mi/km, which would be very close to our subway cost, which vary around US$ 170 US$ 250mi/km. But besides the billions for the construction costs, they still need more 3 billion of private money to pay for the monorail! Come on... Just impossible They estimate 100% transfer mode from the buses to the monorail, and, in 2012, it would increase 50% the ridership!!! Come on?
AFD (France Cooperation Agency) also gave a free project to foster Light rail in Brasilia, but as the Mayor was caught in corruption receiving money (he was filmed and it was all over television) the project is now tied up in the courts and it will likely not happen. It's illegal to have the same company doing (fostering) the basic project, and also doing the construction -- so Alston (French) couldn't have won the tender as they did. Now the federal justice has stopped their project and the same thing will happened in SP. There was no basic project to do a monorail in the extension of a BRT under construction.
I don't think they are ever going to construct it in Sao Paulo anyway, believe me It was going to cost 1.5 billion for everything, now, it would cost 2 billion for the construction plus 3 billion in private financing to buy the monorail and how would the Japanese banks find someone to take that loan? There are no crazy guys enough to invest in this monorail... Oh no!! The only large scale PPP ever done in Brazil was less than 500 million... Now 3 billion? Impossible...
The reality is that they will only open the tender, pay 50 million for the company to do the basic engineering studies at an elections year, then after the costs have been elevated they would just forget about it You known, campaign, projects financing campaign, forget the projects! Normal politics for Brazil, and after that, they will continue to construct BRT, as they have normally done. SP has already 130 kms of open BRTs , with a lot of challenges to be done, but, since the basic network creation and integration done in 2004, it went from 5 million trips (2004) to 10 million trips/per day (2009) and many more BRTs still on planning... It s just a political/ election games... It looks good for the mayor to say they will do monorails all over the City... (Ah, and the Mayo' s brother is the Director of the Metro, so the metro would construct the monorail and help the City finance it )
What about the other monorails touted or done around the World? Did they work?
The most recent elevated monorail done was the JICA/Hitachi proposal in Dubai. As Dubai didn't have any financial problems, JICA was doing well to deliver. ArabeBussiness.com, said the elevated metro would cost US$ 3.38 billion (AED 13 bi) and then it became US$ 7.6 billion (AED 28 bi). The monorail inside the Palm Jumeirah, 5.4 kms, was tender by US$ 381 million, became US$ 550 mi, but really cost US$ 1,1 billion. Source (1): Arabebussiness.com - Our city, our Metro - 19 September 2009 http://www.arabianbusiness.com/568075-our-city-our-metro
Source (2): Arabebussiness.com - Quiet please for region s first monorail - 07 April 2007 http://www.arabianbusiness.com/property/article/10716-quiet-please-for-regions-first-monorail
Source (3): Klalleej Times online - Nice and Easy, but Fares Not So Fair - 7 May 2009.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theuae/2009/May/theuae_May169.xml§ion=theuae&col=
Now, Dubai is having a hard time to pay the operational subsides and pay back the loan to the Japanese banks, therefore it won t be easy to find financing for a large scale monorail for Mumbai Google: Mitsubishi Construction, Mitzuo Bank, Hitachi and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Dubai World, monorail and you will see what I m talking about A good part of the Dubai default is related to the monorail/ elevated metro projects...
Seattle had the same monorail proposal. Their Green Line monorail went from 1.3 billion to 2 billion, plus more 7 billion in financing, therefore, US$ 9 billion of total cost, therefore, of course, it was cancelled by a public referendum with 65%... http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002612604_monorail09m.html
I visited Seattle in January to see their small monorail done in 1962 for the World fair earlier in January 2010 because Scomi and Jica said it was a very successful example, so I went there and it was broken due to mechanical repairs, looking like a poor joke, but, it's not funny.
Seattle has a tunnel downtown used exclusively to public transportation Their most important road downtown, the 3rd, is closed for cars on peak hours, and ALL buses are free downtown in the peak hours This was the result of the monorail project there
Bus improvements!!! Awesome! And BRTS are all over the West coast Las Vegas monorail was the same (more than US$ 100 mi/km then they abandoned the rest of the project). None of the other projects which JICA, HITACHI or SCOMI tried around ever really happened. Not even in Tokyo and Osaka they did finish the first projects as they had planned. So, if in Japan with the technology, capital and elevated roads everywhere, they didn't do I . . . why would the Mumbai project ever actually happen?
It's very easy to open a tender, sign a contract, ask the private initiative to come and deliver a huge mobility project, turnkey, but it normally doesn't happen that easily someone has to pay, there is no free lunch! And in India, if I recall well, the bus fares are so low.... How would they pay for those huge subsidies?
My friends, I really want to continue these discussions, but you are all already tired (and bored) with such a long posting. But I would like to finish my thoughts on that topic and discuss it even further one day If you are interested in this issue, please take a look at a small report I did for the Secretary of Transport and the Mayor of Sao Paulo about the reality of the monorail. Now, I m sending it to the mayor (and the press) in Manaus. Let s see how far the project will go there...
If you can t read Portuguese or Spanish, just take a look at the pictures and data, and you will get the message. I also did some estimates of the amount of subsidies that Manaus and Sao Paulo would have to pay if the monorail was done, and the results are incredible!!! I did a small comparison with what they could do with the R$ 4.5 billion for the monorail in Sao Paulo, if it was a combination of BRT, sidewalks, cycle paths, and the numbers are good.
Conclusion:
Could Mumbai pay for the real price of construction and operation? Brazilian cities couldn't...
Adalberto, Sao Paulo, Brazil
# # #
About the author: (to follow)
3-6 line bio note + pic to follow
Editor's note: Equal time
For readers looking for a more upbeat vision of Monorails, we can suggest the site of The Monorail Society at http://www.monorails.org/. And Innovative Transportation Technologies at http://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans/
We welcome comments, above all from those who do not agree with the points of view set out in this series and who are convinced that monorails really do have a legitimate place in our cites, and especially thus in the developing world.
And you if have not yet had the pleasure, let us point you to the short monorail clip which you will find at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEZjzsnPhnw. Tells the story quite nicely.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Editorial: A Six Thousand Kilometer Non-CO2 Conference
(From the archives)
A recent discussion has come up in the context of our 2010 work program concerning your editor's long-standing unwillingness to hop on a plane, travel great distances to make a "cameo appearance", and then scurry back to his burrow in Paris. Since 1995 we have tried hard to maintain a consistent - Eric Britton, Paris, 12 July 2006. 
policy about this kind of travel, which you can find at http://www.personal.newmobility.org/. However this does not mean that it is not possible to have some form of "hot" presentation and interaction on topics of high mutual interest without that dreaded trip to the airport. With a bit of preparation and at low cost, you can do an excellent job at creating a lively and engaging interactive low-carbon environment. Let's have look.
Draft videoconferencing debriefing notes of 30 June 2006
The first half consisted of an in-place presentation by Professor John Maulbetsch which was sufficiently well informed, balanced and dramatic to make Al Gore look like the comics page. Scary stuff. The second half was led by me, and took a look at what we think can be done working from the bottom up – taking as a point of departure the specifics of transport in and around cities as set out in the New Mobility Agenda (full details at http://www.newmobility.org. )
Our meeting lasted for about two hours including the questions and discussions, roughly equally divided between Easthampton and Paris. My travel costs were $00.00. Our communications cost were $00.00 I saved on the order of two tons of CO2 by staying at home. I was also able to eat dinner with my wife and sleep in my own bed. Highly sustainable.
Background note on videoconferencing organization begin here:
We have been using videoconferencing in our daily work since 1993. It has not been a straight line and about every eighteen months (sound familiar?) we seem to change technology. In the old days it was both hardware and software (via ISDN), but since IP videoconferencing came on line here (late 1999 in parallel with move from ISDN to ADSL), it has been increasingly about new and better software as it comes on line. From 2000-2004 we worked with a toolkit from Polycom.com, which was a bit expensive but gave us good quality connections and nice group work package (which we still have to duplicate). Since 2004 we have shifted to a combination of Skype and SightSpeed, which has in both cases the advantage of being free and of quite satisfactory quality (most of the time). For a historical note on our progress in all this, check out. http://ericbritton.org/htdocs/general/eb-examples.htm#it.)
Our first “public videoconference” took place in 1995, with a seminar at University of Toronto. In 1996, at an OECD conference in Vancouver Canada (on the topic of "Toward Sustainable Transportation"). Since we have done at least one or two a year in places as distant as Bogota, Shanghai and Perth Australia, with the latest as presented here. As a result of this succession of projects and experiences we have developed a certain number of routines and work habits which I should now like to share with you.
The basic objective:
Our goal is to integrate the distant speaker/participant as seamlessly, efficiently and inconspicuously as possible into the full fabric of the conference, given what we have to work with. Please understand that despite what may seem like some considerably complexity, it is really no big deal and while it takes careful preparation it is well within the capabilities of just about any group with even a smidgeon of IP competence. (Which is to say that if we can do it, anyone can.) But careful about this: the devil is in the details.
Basically this works best if we establish three channels of IP communications. In this instance we combined two (free) SightSpeed video links and one (free) Skype voice link (the latter for discrete ear-to-ear communications and overall management and control purposes).
1. Video link 1: The first video link has as its objective to enable full participation (as possible) of the distant participant (in this case me). a. At this end (Paris), I work and interact with the meeting via the webcam properly set up on a computer. This essentially is my "face to the meeting".
b. The second half of this link is a webcam placed on the speakers’ platform and aimed right at the audience, so that I can see them as I speak and judge their reactions with all that normally entails. (This camera/link is also very handy for the Q&A and discussions, allowing me to see the person making the point..
c. The speaker’s image (me in this case) is projected on a screen next to the podium -- and it is important that the image is of human dimension, bearing in mind the need for people at the back of the hall to see everything.
d. One nice option is to keep a smaller image up there when someone else is speaking, more or less exactly as if the distance guy were there on the platform, politely listening and not getting in the way.
e. When it is time for me to make my presentation, the image gets bigger, but should not be allowed to become a glowering Big Brother image.
f. By way of additional feedback, when my image appears there will also be the little ‘picture in picture’ image in the bottom right corner – so that the public can get an idea of what I am seeing. (I find this handy because I am a feedback guy, but if you don’t like it, well forget it.)
g. When there is a film clip or other presentation item to appear, these appear full size on the big screen, while my image as speaker is then reduced to a very small rectangle in the bottom right of the screen. (This retains the direct link between me and the audience, as they would have if I were up there on the podium during the projection.)
h. Questions from the audience: It will be important that the distance speaker can look at them both during questions and as he/she answers. Visual feedback in important.
2. Video link 2: The second video link provides my “chair in the audience”. a. This camera provides a one way stream and is placed at the back of the hall (slightly raised usually to get a clear continuous shot of the action).
b. It provides both visual and sound feedback, thus permitting me to ‘sit in the audience’ and observe what is going on during the entire conference.
c. Incidentally for that to work well from here, I have to have, of course, to separate video and software/communications links on different computers. It is best to have the two monitors placed side by side so that the distance participant, in this case me, can get a full view of the goings-on without having to race or swivel from one computer to another.
3. Voice link: The third link is a simple Skype voice only connection which serves two purposes.a. The main purpose is to roved a private voice only link between the distant speaker and the technician running the show in the conference area. Stuff happens, and this discreet private voice link permits us to problem solve without getting in the way of the rest. The technician usually is best served by a wireless Bluetooth headset.
b. It also provides us with a last chance emergency backup in case the video links go on the fritz. This has happened to us on two occasions, and happily both times we had backup so that we could at least get through the conference. You can never be too careful when it comes to technology.
4. Private Discussions: We also like it when we can organize the equipment to permit more private discussions at one or more points during the overall conference. This is not hard to do.
The idea is to create a space and invite anyone who has a private question to the distant participant to come forward to these small display (monitor) which we like to have placed on the speaker table, with the front camera pointing directly to the person wishing to initiate the exchanges. This can be very warm and really quite intimate, permitting the kind of more lively interactions that we traditionally have experience during coffee breaks and other less formal moments of the conference. Not hard to do and the great addition to the toolkit.
5. Watch out for: That’s about it, but here are a few other things it is good to keep an eye out for.a. Lighting is critical. At both ends. It is worth worrying over to get right.
a. Sound too is critical and needs careful verification and fine tuning. Screeching speakers or interrupted transmissions are not fun.
c. The speaker should take the time to ensure that (a) his/her image is not too huge and(b) not centered on the screen. People quickly loose interest in talking heads. Best is to have a visually interesting background, good lightning, and to pop yourself a bit off center. As a rule, half of the image should be of something other than the speaker. Nice and unaggressive. Kind of like not shouting.
d. When any films or presentation items are to be presented, it is good to download them first and then play them locally. This saves precious bandwidth and removes one more potential source of problems.
e. Best if everyone clears off all other programs and possibly conflicting stuff, so that the conference will be uninterrupted.
f. Bandwidth. It is like they say: you can never be too blond or too rich. And you can never have too much bandwidth. Never.
5. Nice to have:a. Orientable/zoomable cameras that can be controlled from this end. (Not a big deal and available at pretty low cost today.)
b. Ideally, the entire event will be recorded. And if appropriate streamed so that others who were not there but would have liked to be will have access at their convenience to the goings on.
c. We like to provide an on-line “Guestbook” for later comments and questions.
7. Take the time to prepare:
This is critical. If for any reason you do not adhere religiously to this process, I advise that you cancel the presentation immediately. Lots of small things can and will go wrong at first, so we must work them out way before the actual meeting. Unless of course we prefer to educate ourselves in public. a. We recommend a full run-through session one week before the target date to be sure that we have everything in hand and properly adjusted. This also gives us a chance to make the adjustments or get what might be missing equipment or software well in time.
b. Then 24 hours before the broadcast, a full dress rehearsal: step by step, minute by minute.
c. Finally, one hour before conference start-up everyone shows up on both sides to est, confirm, fiddle if necessary, to make sure that all is in order.
d We then get a cup of coffee and talk about how smart we were to get it all straight well in advance. No pressure. Pure pleasure.
That's all there is to it. Do this and you are ready to roll. And you can do it! Be a hero. Tell your children what you did. They will love you even more.
# # #
Paris. 11 February 2010
2006 was, in these terms at least, a very long time ago, close to three generations 
according to Moore's Law. Imagine what we are able to do today with a bit of ingenuity and the available low-cost or free technologies which will permit us to create a lively interactive environment as opposed to the usual talking head which almost invariably is not the most exciting moment of the conference of the day. Try it, you will like it. And so will our planet.
Eric Britton
Editor
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
"We need faster horses."
"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses". - Henry Ford
Hmm, sounds quite good but, well, I am not quite sure how I feel about this -- but anyway those are Henry Ford's famous words, as quoted by German Federal President Horst Köhler in a challenging speech on January 14th of this year to ADAC, Germany's and Europe's largest automobile club - a speech widely ignored by the German media.
He then added this: "In other words, mobility has to be thought ahead. You, leading representatives of the car industry, be ahead of your customers! The phrase "that's what the customers wanted" is not set in stone for all eternity. As leaders you have a responsibility to lead. And part of that is to recognize shifts in the tide - on the markets and in society - and to react promptly and get new products ready for the market."
The fact that he then segues into the importance of a massive move into electric cars troubles; it repeats one bad old habit of some parts of the political and administrative establishment in many places, which is to assume that they somehow can make wise determinations about technology. They cannot. That's not their competence, that's not their job. What we expect of wise governance is to set ambitious, but achievable performance parameters, standards if you will, that lead us toward better, cleaner, safer and fairer mobility. But not to tell us which technology is best suited to do the job. They, quit frankly, do not and can not know.
And in any event if you ask me, what we need is slower horses. It's at least a start. Someone please tell that to whoever it is in Germany who continue to resist setting speed limits on the autobahn.
You can read the full text of his talk which touches on matters of mobility, technology, entrepreneurship and governance here: http://www.bundespraesident.de/en/Speeches-,11165.661675/Speech-by-Federal-President-Ho.htm?global.back=/en/-%2c11165%2c0/Speeches.htm%3flink%3dbpr_liste.
Thanks to Markus Heller of Autofrei Wohnen in Berlin and Pascal van den Noort of VeloMondial in Amsterdam for the heads-up.
The Walkmobile approach to understanding transport
One of the major challenges we face when it comes to sustainable transportation is "We are increasingly retreating into enclosed environments, more or less
not so much to identify useful policies, projects and approaches but rather, once we have done this, to find a way to sell them to the public. Images and stories are part of this process. And if we are to win the war of sustainable transportation it will be because we are not only technically strong but also that we have these critical didactic and communications skills. Here is a sweet example with Hermann Knoflacher's memorable "Gehzeug" or "walkmobile"
out of our own choice, while isolating ourselves from an outside
world subjected to noise, pollution and dust created by cars"
- Knoflacher in Die Zeit-Interview of 13 September 2007
The “walkmobile” approach to understanding transport
The “walkmobile” is a high technology reflection project was invented by Hermann Knoflacher, Professor at the Institute of Transportation at Vienna University of Technology. It is a simple frame made of wood and has the size of a car. A belt makes it easy to walk around with this frame.
The idea of the “walkmobile” is to show how much space a car needs and how much city space we are willing to cut from public space and give it away to the group of car drivers. This results in streets where the whole width is reserved for cars and motorbikes, leaving almost no space to pedestrians - as seen on many streets in Pune. If all the pedestrians would walk around with a “walkmobile” occupying the same space as a car, our footpaths will be very fast as congested as streets are today. 
This clearly demonstrates that a car oriented traffic policy will lead to nothing but a collapse of mobility in the city. There have been many visualization projects on space consumption of different traffic participants, like pedestrians, cyclists, bus users and car drivers. The result was everywhere the same: non-motorized traffic and public traffic manages with much less space than individual motorized traffic.
If traffic policy continues to concentrate mainly on car drivers, we would essentially lose the space for living and the city would only consist of streets and parking places to satisfy the needs of car drivers. To create a city with good living quality traffic policy has to focus on human beings and not vehicles.
Compared to European countries, the car ownership per thousand people in India is quite low. But the number is expected to grow very fast. Cheap cars are being introduced to get the drivers of two-wheelers to shift to cars (e.g., the Tata Nano). So, it is clear that this can only lead to congestion. But how many flyovers will have to be built over flyovers until it becomes obvious to our city planners that this only worsens the problem?
Instead of making the same mistakes as the West in the last century - a century of the automobile - decision makers in India should learn from their mistakes and look for a sustainable answer. Today’s traffic policy has to find solutions how to avoid the growth of traffic. Before people rethink their use of motorbikes and cars, they need a true alternative. A good working, affordable, clean, safe, reliable and well and maintained broad network of public transport as well as pedestrian zones, parking fares, bicycle lanes and pavements have helped many other cities to solve their traffic problems. 
It is as Prof. Knoflacher points out with his “walkmobile”: the cities we are living in should be made for humans not for cars. The space in cities is precious, that is a fact of urbanization. We must not give away this precious space to vehicles but convert it to places with a high amenity value.
# # #
About the Walkmobile's inventor:
Hermann Knoflacher has completed degrees in civil engineering, geodesy, and mathematics. Since 1975 he has held the post of professor at the Vienna University of Technology. In 1985 he became head of the Institute for Transport Planning. His research focuses on spatial planning, urban planning, and transport planning. He is one of the key contributors to the sustainable transport movement (know as Sanfte Mobilität in German). Since 2004 he is the president of the Club of Vienna. He is also a member of the Club of Budapest and the global pedestrian representative of the United Nations. He has recntly have published a book in German "Virus Auto", whihc he is in the process of tranlsating into English.
About the author:
Robert Obenaus studied Geography in Germany at Humboldt University Berlin and is now working for the civil society organization Parisar in Pune, India. Parisar undertakes various activities of different kinds to promote and advocate sustainable transport. For more information please visit the website http://www.parisar.org.
About Parisar:
This article first appeared in Parisar and is published here with their 
permission.Parisar is a Pune, India based civil society organization which focuses on sustainable development. Over the last decade or so, its main focus has been the snowballing issue of urban transport in Pune and other Indian cities, working closely with World Streets and other leading groups in the field.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
A 2010 update on carsharing in Greece :
World Streets Annual New Mobility Country Reviews
Carsharing, like Rome, is not built in a day. At least not formal carsharing as we are 
seeing it develop in many countries now at, in places, rapid and highly satisfying rate. The following short report comes from colleagues who are involved in an attempted laying the groundwork for the first formal carsharing project in Greece. This is one of the EU "momo Car-Sharing" projects to encourage carshare development throughout Europe. We invite you to have a look and to share your thoughts and comments with the authors or with our readers more generally.
- E. Tritopoulou and M. Zarkadoula. CRES. Department of Environment and Transport.
Car-Sharing is a new mobility pattern which can contribute to the protection of the environment by reducing traffic, resulting cleaner and more sustainable cities. Car-Sharing, integrated with the "eco-modes" (public transport, cycling and walking), may be considered as an appropriate and valid element in the urban transport mix.
The mobility situation in Greece
Transport is of fundamental importance to human society, providing mobility and facilitating industry and trade. Nevertheless it has also many environmental impacts. Therefore, it is crucial that transportation planning is carried out in a sustainable manner in order to meet optimum travel needs, promote economic prosperity and environmental preservation.
The transport sector in Greece is responsible for the 39% of the total energy consumption while in EU-27 it is 31%, respectively. In parallel, the road transport sector is responsible for about 80% of transport energy consumption as well as for 40% of the emissions of CO2 and 70% of the emissions of other pollutants. 
Road transport is, also, responsible for serious accidents. In 2006, 370 people died in Greece, 26% of those were pedestrians and 74% drivers of cars and motorcycles.
The mean mobility duration by car and public means of transportation is 15% more than the duration in other European cities while the mean mobility distance is 26% less than the average distance in other European cities.
There is, also, a significant increase of the number of private cars. In 1990, the index of ownership was 170 cars/1000 inhabitants while in 2005 this index was raised to 393 cars/1000 inhabitants.
Nowadays, 35% of the population and 43% of the country’s vehicles are concentrated in Athens, the capital of Greece. The number of transportations is estimated to be in average 8.000.000 daily in Athens, of which 40-45% concerns transportations from and to work. This leads to increased traffic and to a reduction of the average mean speed. Increased traffic during the peak hours leads to a series of urban mobility problems such as increased cost for the maintenance of cars, high levels of stress for the drivers and increased levels of environmental pollution. 
Transport Policies
The adaptation of a sustainable transport policy is of great significance for the Greek transport system. According to the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) adopted in 1997, the EU and its Member States are committed to reducing the total emissions of six greenhouse gases by 8% comparing to the 1990 level, over the period 2008–2012. In this context the promotion of transport energy efficiency programs is of great significance.
The White Paper “European Transport Policy 2010 – a time to decide” and the Green Paper “Towards a new culture for urban mobility” 2007 suggest new mobility patterns, like Car-Sharing which can contribute to the optimum use of car.
The Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving (CRES) is the Greek national Centre for Renewable Energy Sources (RES), Rational Use of Energy (RUE) and Energy Saving (ES). The main goal of CRES is the promotion of RES, RUE/ES applications at a national and international level, as well as the support of relative activities taking into consideration the environmental impacts, in the production/transfer/energy-use chain. CRES is a scientific/technological establishment of international prestige, competent and qualified to offer valuable services supporting the planning and implementation of both national and European policies.
Pilot Program on Car-Sharing in Athens
CRES is participating in the European project momo Car-Sharing targeting to transfer the current European car sharing experience in Greece.
The key objective of Momo Car-Sharing is to contribute significantly to sustainable mobility patterns by establishing a mobility culture which is based on using various transport options instead of car-ownership. Car-Sharing has a great but unexploited potential at a European scale. Being a type of decentralised car-rental service, Car-Sharing supplements the sustainable transport modes of walking, cycling and Public Transport – thus giving an alternative to car-ownership without any restriction for individual mobility. With Car-Sharing as a market-based service, transport can be organised more rationally and more resource-efficient.
The European momo-project wants to increase awareness, to improve the service of Car-Sharing and to increase the energy-efficiency within the existing Car-Sharing operations. The momo consortium is composed of municipalities, Car-Sharing operators, research organisations, energy agencies and the International Public Transport organisation UITP. As an ambitious target, momo is going to extend Car-Sharing services at a European scale by 20,000 new Car-Sharing customers in total – with significant impacts on transport patterns, energy consumption (- 58,000 GJ p.a), CO2-emissions (- 6,000 t p.a) and on the reallocation of urban space (about 3,500 parking spaces to be available for other purposes).
CRES is planning a pilot Car-Sharing program in Greece, starting in the city of Athens and with a further goal to result in a professional service in the future.
CRES has already started a Market Analysis, in order to find areas that have a high number of success factors, such as:– high population and jobs density
– higher than average income and social class
– higher employment rates
– higher affluence, lower deprivation scores
– ability to support a sustainable lifestyle and promotion of multimodal transport use, e.g. key services within walking distance, good public transport links, local employment and residential densities that are sufficient to support a walkable city/town/neighbourhood
– limited parking space to make car ownership become less and less attractive to local residents.
Previous surveys have resulted in that the typical customer profile is the intelligent urban citizen with above average income and education. CRES is trying to identify the right place to start according to the demographic characteristics and the education levels of the citizens. The right place seems to be the area with a high density of people that have less access to a privately-owned motor car, people that use alternative modes of transport for regular journeys to work, school or college and people that live in blocks of flats, and who are therefore more likely to face parking difficulties.
As a start, CRES is planning the establishment of three stations with three cars each. These three stations could be placed in the centre of Athens, another in the north suburbs of Athens and the last one in the south suburbs.
CRES organised a workshop in Athens with the title “CAR-SHARING – innovative solution for Greek cities” on 17 December 2009. This workshop was attended by representatives of the Greek Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change, the Athens Urban Transport Organisation, the Attiko Metro S.A., the municipality of Athens and other municipalities, car rental companies, the National Technical University of Athens, the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers, the Athens International Airport and other policy makers.
The General Secretary of Energy and Climate Change announced the political support of the Ministry to new mobility patterns like Car-Sharing which lead to “Green Development”. Besides the political support and the integration of car-sharing into the policies and strategies of the Ministry, CRES will also try to achieve a financial and legal support, at least for the initial stages of the Car-Sharing. One example could be to allow the use of public and on-street spaces for parking car-sharing vehicles and the provision of official road signs to support car-sharing in such locations.
CRES has already received positive attitude and support from the Athens Urban Transport Organisation (OASA) and will support Car-Sharing as a complementary service within the public transport system. OASA will also provide motivation to the Car-Sharing users by offering reduced tickets for public transport and by joining promotional activities for Car-Sharing. CRES also tries to achieve support from Attiko Metro and other public transport operators.
Many municipalities, including the city of Athens, have expressed their interest to participate in the pilot program by providing free parking spaces for Car-Sharing vehicles.
CRES intends to cooperate with Greek Car Rental Association members like Hertz and Avis for the operation of the Car-Sharing pilot program. These companies have great experience on car-rental systems, and they are capable of operating or assisting in the management of such a pilot program. Hertz already provides Car-Sharing programs in London, Paris and other European cities. Therefore Hertz Hellas is thinking very seriously to proceed in a Car-Sharing program in Athens. Even if, a partnership will not be achieved, car-rental companies can participate in the Car-Sharing program by providing car rental as a complementary service for Car-Sharing and by offering reduced prices for Car-Sharing users.
In addition, to guarantee a professional and qualitative Car-Sharing service, an adequate system provider is necessary. The system provider will supply the service with software and modern technology regarding the reservation and car access system. CRES has asked for offers from some system providers. When the partnership will be formed, it will be responsible to decide.
CRES is focused on the organization of a pilot on Car-Sharing in Athens by exploiting the experience gained by the momo Car-Sharing project and the available network.
# # #
About the authors:
Efi Tritopoulou - etrito@cres.gr -- is a PhD chemical engineer with 
ten years of experience in a range of R&D activities. She is a member of the transportation & environmental planning department of the Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving-CRES since 2006. She has worked in several important EU and national projects related to environmental planning of RES projects, energy policy and energy technologies for RES. She has also a experience in sustainability, energy efficiency, alternative fuels, and mobility management in transport sector.
Maria Zarkadoula - mariazar@cres.gr - is an Agricultural Engineer, with an M.Sc. 
in Energy and Environmental Protection Management Systems. She works for the Centre for Renewable Energy Sources & Saving since 1990, and is currently responsible for the Department of Transport and Environment. She is a member of the “Green Transports” committee supervised by the Ministry of Transport as a tool on the promotion of a sustainable policy in the field of transport.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Make World Streets happen in 2010:
Subscribe, support, write, advise, get involved
World Streets is entirely dependent on the support of subscribers and others who 
share our deep concerns about sustainable transportation, sustainable development and social justice. Subscription is free for all who cannot afford it, and as a matter policy we do not accept advertising. We count on your support and invite you to consult the following to see how you can best contribute.
Contents:
1. Individual subscription
2. Institutional subscription/partnerships
3. Foundations
4. Personal gifts, donations
5. How to transfer funds
6. The last mile
7. Seven reasons why this is a great idea
Individual subscription
World Streets is a public interest publication which, as a matter of policy, we make freely available to all who are looking to understand, support, and contribute to the sustainability agenda anywhere in the world. We firmly believe that there should be no barriers, and especially not commercial ones, to the free circulation of news, tools, counsel and peer exchanges when it comes to important issues of sustainable development and social justice. Students, people working in the developing countries, volunteer organizations, unfunded local or public interest groups and others of limited means are invited to come in and enjoy the benefits of the journal without payment. For those who use it and can afford it, we ask that they step up to do their part. (To receive a free subscription, we would ask you to email us a short note with your name, city, country. And, if you wish, something about your work and interests in this area. Thanks for the courtesy.))
* Suggested contribution: EUR 50.00 (USD 70.00)
Public agencies, ministries and funded NGOs and associations
At the state, national, regional or international level, these key institutions with broad responsibilities to guide policy, education, communications and investments in the fields of transportation, environment, cities, energy, or climate can provide valuable support for all concerned by making Streets available to their members, staff and associates.
Deliverables, Supporting services for subscribers and partners:
1. Subscribers have full access to all of the focus groups set up under the New Mobility Agenda (carsharing, value capture, share transport (xTransit), World Transport Journal, "low-car" strategies, PBS, etc.), each of which assembles and serves an international expert community working in the given area for collaborative exchanges of information and views. The individual fora are supported by regular, often daily, updates on events, discussions, and issues in the topic area which are available to members only. The emphasis is on "exception information" bearing in mind that our members are busy and do not have to much time to spend on scanning external information. (For more on this go to www.program.newmobility.org.)These are the organizations who are in an ideal position to take a strong lead, and we want them to do so because they understand that the benefits of distributing World Streets widely to their staff and cooperating groups considerably outweigh the price of subscription. (See section below on "The last mile" for some ideas on this.) Depending on the size and means of the institution . . .
2. In addition to having full access to both the World Streets daily and the specific program sites, subscribers and partners receive free copies of the World Streets Monthly Report for their own in-house and other distribution.
3. There is important potential for co-organizing seminars, workshops and events in support of sustainable transport projects and groups taking the lead in their area. This is been done in many cities and countries in the past, and we have full experience in how to handle this in a workmanlike manner.
4. Subscribers and partners are invited to suggest topics, events, working tools, or projects which they feel need to be more broadly known, and for which the fully independent reputation of World Streets ensures accuracy and relevance.
5. Finally subscribers and partners are invited on joining to nominate a collaborating partner group, program or city from the developing countries to benefit at no cost and fully from their subscription. Our hope is that they will chose a partner group in a country in which their own bilateral aid program is active, to get full synergy from the collaborative partnership.
* Suggested subscription: EUR 5.000/10,000 (USD 7,000/14,000)
Cities, Local government.
Local government are the ones closest to the issues and who make the decisions that count. Via the daily journal and the monthly edition we supply them with a carefully selected, easy to digest, steady flow of exception information, insight, clues and feedback from world experts that would cost them many times more than the annual subscription to develop on their own. It also gives them a chance to make their voice heard on a worldwide forum. Depending on size of city and available resources . . .
* Suggested subscription: EUR 2,000 (USD 2,800)
Public transport operators, other service providers and management groups
World Streets provides an efficient way for their officers and staff or these groups to stay on top of the issues, challenges, and accomplishments at the leading edge and from an international perspective. Again depending on size and resources . . .
* Suggested subscription: EUR 3,000 (USD4,200)
Private sector suppliers to the sector (goods and services)
This is more delicate, but this form of open public support is appropriate for companies and organizations who are firmly committed to the sustainable transport agenda. Suppliers of goods and services in such areas as insurance, non-motorized transport, carsharing, liftsharing, strategic parking, logistics, buses, delivery services, locational systems, integrated multi-modal ticket/access systems, transport logistics, spatial planning, and specialized consultancy, management and research groups are appropriate. Depending on size of enterprise . . .
* Suggested contribution: EUR 500/5,000 (USD 700/7000)
Universities and research institutions
World Streets offers a good fit and tool for university teaching and research programs at all levels. Various forms of collaboration and mutual support are possible. Get in touch so that we can discuss.
* Suggested subscription: EUR 1,000 (USD 1,400)
3. Foundations
Until such time that we have developed the necessary firm base of support for our continuing operation, once-off gifts and donations will go a long way to help us fund our early operational and start-up costs in these crucial first phases. We are particularly hopeful for the support of foundations, groups with such budgets, and well-to-do individuals who share our sense of mission. If you are among them, please contact us for more information. And if you have a lead or know someone we should contact for discussions, please let us know.
4. Private donors, personal contributions, gifts
We hope to get support from individuals and families of means who share our concerns, and who are ready to reach into their pockets to give proof that the struggle for sustainable cities must engage us all.
World Streets is going to need significant financial support if it is to continue through 2010. Despite the many volunteers pitching in with ideas, articles and encouragement, our programs are still costly to run and require an annual budget on the order of EUR 100,000 to get the job done. (There is a lot going on here, the iceberg under the tip, which is needed to get the journal out each day and which of course you never see, including management and oversight of all that goes into maintaining the New Mobility Agenda focus programs and sites – see www.program.newmobility.org to get an idea on that.)
This level of funding normally can come only from foundations, public agencies, or well-to-do individuals. But there is plenty of scope for smaller, more strategic donations as well, and here is maybe where you will have some ideas. Your counsel and initiative will be helpful in several ways.
• By making a contribution - large or small - you are sending us a strong signal that what we are doing has value.5. How to transfer funds:
• Your contributions will help us to fund the diversity of our existing programs at the quality level and frequency you are used to.
• An active contributor base helps us equally to turn to the foundations, agencies, and individuals that can make more sizable contributions to help us make-up a budget shortfall.
Make immediate payment via Paypal or credit card:
Payment by Paypal is simple and fast:
(1) Click www.paypal.com.PayPal also has provision for paying by credit card. It is fairly well explained on the site.
(2) Enter your account (or set one up quickly (and safely) as indicated).
(3) Click "send money".
(4) Address: association@ecoplan.org.
(5) Amount.
(6) Click "Personal".
(7) Click "Gift".
(8) Thank you for helping World Streets to continue in 2010.
To make direct bank wire transfers:
Account Holder: Association EcoPlan International
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If you prefer to send a check direct our mailing address is:
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6. The last mile:
(The "last mile" or "last kilometre" is the final leg of delivering connectivity from a communications provider to a customer.)
It is one thing to subscribe to and support World Streets, but quite another to figure out how best to fit all that can come with it into a busy schedule. We have several thoughts on this which we would like to put briefly before you.
For individual subscribers, here are three ways to be kept efficiently informed (Other than simply bookmarking the page and referring to it as you wish):
1. RSS feeds: To activate this you will see the necessary information in the upper left column of the site. Under the heading: "Free daily delivery: RSS". (We find Bloglines.com entirely satisfactory.)
2. World Streets Forum: Alternatively you can sign into the World Streets Yahoo group forum by sending a blank email to WorldStreets-subscribe@yahoogroups.com . There you can select receiving individual notification either of all new postings or a daily summary.
3. The World Streets Monthly Report. Let us know that you would like to receive the monthly summary, for which all we need is your request and the e-mail address to which it should be set.
For larger organizations, these options also work but the problem remains how ensure that this information gets transmitted to your busy colleagues in an efficient way. We have been told by some of our long-time collaborators that they handle this through personal networks and internal list serves; but some organizations have internal communications systems which can be put to work for these purposes.
Some of our associated groups have taken the step of integrating summary information on the latest Streets articles directly into their websites. This can be done efficiently and in different ways. One that we quite like has been developed by the Oxford Transport Network in which you can see at http://oxtran.ning.com/. There they have placed a feed in their central column which automatically provides information on the last five articles. Other groups do the same but limited either to titles only or to the title with two or three lines of summary information. (We are told that since this information is automatically updated daily, it also serves to bring traffic to their web site.)
7. Seven reasons why you should pitch in and help us continue our contribution:
1. Your vote for the future: Because if you are a parent or active citizen it is the right thing to do for your children, for your city, for your nation, and yes, for the planet. (And it is simple and cheap.)
2.Act now: Getting behind World Streets and the New Mobility Agenda demonstrates publicly that you give high importance to the critical vital climate/transportation link and the need for acting now -- and not waiting about for some kind of long term deus ex machina that may or may not solve your and the planet's problems.
3. Worldwide focus: It gives you an efficient way to track some of the things going on at the leading edge not only in your own country or regional grouping. Its genuine worldwide focus -- North/South, East/West (and South/North) -- reporting from source, brings to your attention projects, ideas and clues which otherwise you are just about certain to miss.
4. Re-defining the mainstream: By stepping forward you provide proof that you are part of the growing movement that is in the process of transforming sustainable transportation from a marginal activity, into the defining mainstream of 21st century transportation policy and practice at the leading edge.
5. Share with others: By doing your bit, you are helping make these ideas and materials available to cities, researchers, activists, and others all over the world, including many others who otherwise cannot even afford it on their own.
6. Make your voice heard: As a colleague and supporter, you and your team are in a position to work with the editorial staff from time to time to let the world know about your leading projects and accomplishments.
7. Step forward: And finally, if you do not step forward to do this, if we do not step forward to do this . . . who will?
For the rest, thank you in advance for your contributions, your counsel and your support. And if you wish to talk about any of this, here is how you can get in touch. Believe me, we will not be able to do this without you!
Eric Britton
Editor, World Streets
Tel. +336 5088 0787 • Skype newmobility
eric.britton@newmobility.org or fekbritton@gmail.org
PS. Have a look at who visited World Streets today. They have to be coming here for a reason.
--> Read on:
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Bottom line: Roads are for vehicles. Streets are for people.
(No matter where you are in the world.)
Your editor was on automatic pilot this early morning, reading with half an eye the 
International Herald Tribune/New York Times as is his habit, and behold there in the Letters to the Editor column were a series of words which at first glance he thought he had written himself. (More coffee clearly needed.) Wrong, it was Lee Schipper commenting on an earlier Times piece on "Building Cambodia’s roads". I quote:
Building Cambodia’s roads
Regarding the article “Cambodia’s routes to riches” (Jan. 19): While rural roads connecting major population centers are important for development, Cambodians rely mostly on bicycles, small motorbikes and their feet for transportation. This majority of travelers is usually the first sacrificed for cars and trucks. New roads tend to cut through smaller villages and lead to the deaths of pedestrians and cyclists, who are rarely considered by the road-building authorities.
Striking a balance between development, auto-mobility for the minority of Cambodians with cars, and the livelihoods of the majority, ought to be more important than opening tourist centers. Is this the only way for Cambodia to develop?
Lee Schipper, Ph.D. - schipper@wri.org
Project Scientist, Global Metropolitan Studies, UC Berkeley
Senior Research Engineer, Precourt Energy Efficiency Center, Stanford Univ.
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Most of us who have managed to make our way to the right side of these issues have for some time made the vital distinction between roads and streets, for which the Executive Summary is: (a) roads are for vehicles and (b) streets are for people. And once you have figured that out, all kinds of good things can follow. (And you can find quite a bit more on this here by clicking http://tinyurl.com/ws-street
Thanks Lee for reminding us once again -- and as we gear up to make our collective voice heard in Haiti this is one of the key points we need to make, make early, and make in a way that our voices get heard.
Eric Britton
Editor
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