@ccess overview - Past, Present, Future

@ccess: Past, Present, Future

1988 Origins and Perspectives

Access on the ECTF

The Access Media Program (1993)

Past Reports & Projects

What you can do to contribute

And who are we trying to engage here

1988 Origins and Perspectives

Access was first established by EcoPlan in 1988 as an independent international collaborative and support program aimed directly at the challenge of first defining and then implementing sustainable transportation systems. The orignal sub-title of the program is as above: "Toward an Alternative Framework for Transport Policy & Action in Cities" The program builds on more than two decades of international collaboration, cross-disciplinary research, advisory work with the interlinked problems of transport, the economy, energy, environment, industry and quality of life, and more generally with the broader challenges of managing technology in society. (See the List of Access Reports here.) The following descriptive statement is exactly as it was set out in the 1988 opening manifesto annuncing the program.

* * * The point of departure for Access was the obvious conflict between cars and cities. But that was only the beginning. The next step was to recognize a gradually growing uneasiness that something has gone badly wrong: that private cars no longer work particularly well in cities, or at least not all cars in all cities. This hard fact is proving awkward for planners and policy-makers alike. Despite the problems they have brought in their wake, cars continue to perform a variety of functions and are perceived by many people as essential to their daily lives. As a result they have been planned into the system. And now that they are in there, their extreme complexity of function effectively rules out any easy solutions. For this reason we cannot in most places sensibly talk about cities without cars -- but rather places with fewer and much better managed cars.

The problem of cars in cities is, in truth, part of a much broader set of social and technology management issues which are coming into increasingly high relief. The links to pressing environmental and energy concerns are obvious and critical, as are impacts on quality of life, safety, urban form and economic efficiency. More subtle are the links between cars and human behavior, including such problems as urban isolation, alienation, violence, rejection of responsibility, and loss of human vitality, intimacy and neighborliness. A great deal of good work is going on in many places around the world aimed at parts of this complex problem, but much of this is not widely known. And there is a requirement for altogether new approaches which has yet to be met.

It was against this background that Access was established, with the goal of developing a long term (ten year), independent and vigorous international collaborative effort, untrammeled by bureaucratic requirements and run on an open basis with creative inputs and support from a wide variety of co-operating individuals, sources and institutions. Five objectives were set for the period 1989-94:

Provide concrete evidence showing how modern communities can work without today's overwhelming and damaging dependence on cars -- drawing attention to leading techniques, groups and places that have successfully tackled parts of the problem.
Encourage the development of much broader agendas of issues and approaches to the problems of transport in cities -- thereby bringing into the discussions and solution process actors and interests beyond the limits of traditional transport agencies and specialists.
Contribute to improving international communications, co-ordination and exchanges of information and expertise in the full range of disciplines and approaches involved -- so that each new project is able to build knowledgeably on the experience and accomplishments of the past.
Work to stimulate further research, tools development and problem solving as needed to improve our collective knowledge and mastery of these issues -- and find the means to inform and involve the public in both the debate and the decision process.
Encourage and contribute to exemplary projects and programs in leading cities and communities, working in close collaboration with highly qualified local partner groups and sponsoring institutions.

Initially, as it was getting underway in the latter eighties, the Access program made only limited use of electronic media (email, file transfers, etc.). The main products of the program were its various reports and working papers, sponsored working groups, advisory assignments, organization and participation in conferences, and a small but increasingly interesting set of on-site demonstration projects. In 1993 the first steps were taken to make fuller use of the quickly expanding array of electronic communications aids: several news groups were set up Internet on a trial basis and toward the middle of the year the first Access Forum was establishment, in cooperation with the European Commission Telecommunications Forum under Compuserve.

The @Forum which you see here in its latest version has been built up in careful steps over the last years on that first foundation. Go to Access on the ECTF to see how the original Internet site was organized back in 1993.

The Access Forum on ECTF (1993)

(The following text is taken verbatim from the initial announcement of the Forum in 1993.)

For those of us who are concerned with the pressing problems of access, transport and sustainability in our communities around the world, an excellent means now exists that can help us put our heads together on the subject: an easily accessible and easy to use “electronic library and meeting room”. What you need to take advantage of this new facility today is a computer, a phone, a modem (the faster the better), and a subscription to the popular CompuServe service (see below for some first information). While some researchers, administrators, policy makers and citizens already make regular use of these new means of communication and exchange, for most of us these innovative techniques are not yet very well known.

Fortunately it is neither difficult or expensive to gain access to them. Once you have your equipment properly installed and gain access to CompuServe via the local telephone number, your next step is to plug into the Forum with GO ECTF. On first access you will need to join the forum: this costs nothing - it just means registering your name to permit full access. The Forum was initially developed to serve individuals and institutions interested specifically in telework or distance working. But because these media are by definition flexible and dynamic, the Forum has opened up its ‘doors’ to a number of concerns which relate to their initial orientation; and of course since much transport is work-oriented, the telework theme takes on particular importance in the Access program as well (A second, related electronic forum initiated by EcoPlan on ECTF is also possibly worth your inspection: New Ways to Work, Library # 9)

The Access Forum offers those of us who are concerned with these issues internationally a convenient means for exchanging documents, data, information, ideas and views on innovations and the search for better ways of organizing transport, communications, and land use in and around cities. Other concerns of this forum include:

sustainable transport and social-technical systems, and
the need for "bridging strategies" and policies which will permit the rapid transition to healthier and more livable communities.

Once you get into the Forum you will see the Access section, which you can then consult for a list of currently available documents. Using the Library you will be able to peruse and eventually “download” the latest copies of working papers and other documents available. Then via the Message Section you will be able to exchange ideas and suggestions with the authors and organizers, either in a public manner for others to join in or privately.

It is also possible to enter into real time discussions via Conferences, but as things stand presently this is more than a bit cumbersome and slow. In the months immediately ahead we intend to concentrate on using the forum as a ‘living library” of the latest and best printed information and as an ‘electronic bulletin board’ for exchanging comments and ideas. Although this facility has been used in this relatively simple way at first, new ideas and types of use have fast emerged from it as we all gained experience within this framework for a variety of planning, communications and consultation purposes. We expect that this development will be very rapid and very far-reaching indeed.

The discussion and exchanges are open, free (other than the indicated CompuServe and local phone charges) and fully international. It is felt to be important that the Access Forum should be open to all contributors in all ways. While this puts pressure on the forum's managers and their good housekeeping practices, it is essential to the long run success of the program which depends on achieving the broadest reach of ideas and inputs. Information on how to contribute materials to the library is available from the addresses below.

For further information, you are invited to contact:
[End of 1993 statement.]

* * *

The Access Media Program (1993)

From the outset one of the most deeply felt objectives of ACCESS has been to increase public awareness of these challenges and opportunities through developing, promoting and making imaginative use of a very wide range of tools and means to do the job. The Access Media Program is an important part of this side of our cooperative efforts. An early note introducing the program and summarizing its principal accomplishments and plans in 1993 can be found here.

Representative Past Projects and Publications

This is a sample of titles of reports and research and advisoru projects that have been carried out by EcoPlan and its collaborators in the Access program and on those same basic themes since 1968. For further information contact Ecoplan by email. To this listing, it might be added the numerous articles that were written or commissioned by Eric Britton on those themes in his role as advisory or international editor to the spcialised journals World Transport Policy & Practice, Mass Transit, and Traffic Engineering & Control.

ACCESS Program: Implementation Guidelines, Planning Documents & Case Studies
Adelaide into the Eighties: Policy and Project Recommendations
Aerotrain, the SNCF & the Public Interest: A Case Study of Conflict
Automatic Vehicle Monitoring Systems: World Prospects
Choosing Europe's Energy Future: Challenges and Opportunities for the Nineties
City Center Environment & Transportation in Five European Cities
Competition Survey of the World Helicopter Industry
Corporate Plan for Tire and Retread Industry in Western Europe
Database for National-Level Distribution Systems for Microcomputer Sales in Europe
Development Prospects for Transport Sector in Brazil
EDP Markets and the European Computer Industry
Electric Vehicle Development Prospects in France: Impact Assessment
Energy, Growth and the Environment: A Three-Pronged Policy Strategy
Future of the Urban Bus: World Survey of Markets and Products
Future of the Urban Bus: Expanding the Sphere of Opportunities
Future Prospects of Natural Gas: Strategies for Expansion
Guidelines for Long Term Industrial Development Planning in Greece
Industrial Investment Opportunities in Portugal
Information Society and Sustainable Development
Innovational Bus Systems and Technology: International Survey
Innovational Guideway Systems and Technology: Future Prospects
Investment Climate for Technology Firms in Japan
Long Term Energy Plan for Argentina (Contributor)
Long Term Energy Strategies in a Sustainable World (with Holger Rogner)
Market Prospects for Alternative Energy Sources
MATS: Guidelines for a Multi-Modal Area-Wide Transportation System
Mobile Communications Systems Futures: Europe
Natural Gas Scenarios: Europe's Uncertain Energy Future
New Strategies for the Finance of Urban Transport
New Technology and Transportation: 1970-1990
New Technology and Transportation: 1990 Perspectives
Nonconventional Transport Systems in the Developing World
Opportunities for Automotive Suppliers in Brazil
Paratransit: Survey of International Experience and Prospects
Pressure Points for Management of the Urban Environment
Privatization in International Transport: Techniques and Impacts
Privatization in Urban Transportation: International Survey
Product and Market Strategies for CV Suppliers to Latin America
Putting Paratransit into Perspective: New Approaches for Urban Mobility
Rail Safety Research in Europe: Present Status, Future Trends
Rethinking Transportation: Alternatives to Inefficient Physical Displacements
Small Business Computerization Studies
Strategic Business Plan for Penetrating the European Market for High Tech Telecom Systems
Supplier Opportunities in the French Rail Sector: A Survey
Survey of Advanced Technology Dispatching and Fleet Management Systems: Product Prospects, Markets, Competition
Survey of Impacts of Privatization Movement in Europe
Survey of the Helicopter Industry in Western Europe
TaxiCom: New Technology and Management Applications for Taxis (1985 and 1995 editions)
Technology and Business Opportunities in the Taxi Industry: An International Survey
The World Aluminum Industry: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom
Toward a Long Term Energy Strategy for the European Community (with Holger Rogner)
Transportation Planning and the Public Interest: Case Studies
Transportation Systems Management in Europe: Lessons for the US
World Automotive Industry to 1995: Products, Markets, Organization (contributor)
World Survey of Smart Transit Systems: Present Status, Future Prospects
World Telecommunications Industry Prospects
World Transit Survey: International Markets & Corporate Strategies
World Transit Survey: Projects, Markets and Opportunities at a Time of Rapid Technological Change

Ten things @Access can do for you

We propose that @Access on the Web can serve as a useful tool for all those who are concerned with advancing the state of thinking, policy and practice in this important area of technology and society.

Here is a quick listing of some off the ways in which we think it can be put to use without delay:

As an activist international source of innovative ideas, information and contacts on the single speicilised topic of sustainable transportation policy and practice.
As a multi-function communications center and toolkit to support and internationalize your activities, inputs and impacts in these areas.
As a fully independent, non-official, non-bureaucratic, non-aligned source of views and critical opinion.
As an interactive forum which has set out to incite and support the very widest range of views and approaches - in the knowledge that there are no easy answers to these problems, and that the best responses are going to be those that are hammered together as a result of exchanges and conflict resolution among those most directly involved.
As a conference or event support system with which you may want to consider working if you are planning something along these lines and are interested in making use of the tools and approach that is set out here.
As a handy place to announce, test and get critical feedback on your ideas and plans - whether set out in the form of informal working notes, brainstorming pieces, essays, reports, or multimedia materials.
As a means for quickly accessing information and materials on these matters that may be taking place in language groups to which you do not have easy access (via the machine translation capabilities that exist both in simplified public version in the site itself, as well as back in The Commons in a much more sophisticated and powerful variant. Thus if, for instance, you have a newsletter or other occasional publication which presently exists only in French, Spanish, Italian, German or Portuguese, we can possibly run a machine translation for you and present the results in handy two column form so that they run as a reading aid for those who do not master that language.)
The team behind the site is also available to prepare somewhat higher quality machine translations of key longer documents (which others are invited in turn to fine tune and repost).
You can also use the forum to organize an audio or real time text conference on your own or with the group as a whole. The standard procedure is to set a time and date, create a conference group, either post of send them by email a paper or multi-media presentation that is to be discussed in the meeting, post the agenda, appoint a moderator, and then go on the air with your presentation and the follow-up discussion and question session. All this without leaving your desk.
As a means for getting support for a project or an idea, including international partners to help in the organization of events, pilot projects or proposals (such as for the various specialized programs of the European Commission which are open to international teams).

And then of course there are the which you may want to initiate, collaborate with or make use of. Go to @Access Collaboration to see how this works.

You may have some ideas about this yourself. We hope that you will share them with the group. There may be others who can profit from your creative thinking, insights and information.

Useful things you can do to contribute

The actual content of this site is going to be determined by what the participants chose to bring to it. In this first stage, we have posted some first ideas and links, to get things moving. But we now await your ideas and inputs. Here are some of the things that you might consider....

Join the @Access Forum, use it, and take an active part in extending it and making it better.
Inform people and groups who need help in these matters and who can help others through their writing, experience or capabilities - and encourage them to take an active part.
Bringing to the group's attention (preferably via the Forum's excellent group email functionality) information and links of leading programs and practices elsewhere.
Sending on articles, reports, graphics, media clips, etc. that you think are going to be useful to the others (These can then be posted on the site for easy access.)
Take an active role in the discussions and exchanges, via either the various email links, the chat sessions, or the voice conferencing tools that we have here.
Critiquing and improving the wording and content of this site (which sure needs it).
Giving a hand in smoothing out the machine translations of the best of what we have here for those who may not have full mastery of the original languages in which they originally appeared.
Advise and help us and others with integrating new media and tools into this site
And if you have the technical competence, give us a hand to improve the layout and functionality of the site.
Helping the best of these projects to find funding and other forms of support that are needed if they are gong to move ahead and make their full contribution.

There are a number of things that you can do in fact to support this effort -- and of course more generally to do something concrete and practical about the underlying problems to which all this is addressed.

AND TELL US WHAT you don't like, or think we should be trying to do or do better. This is being run as a cooperative group project. So, if you have critical remarks, ideas or suggestions for us, this is the place to turn.

Who are we trying to engage?

The people and groups that can make a difference. Among them:

The European Commission, and in particular the new Office of the President of the Commission, the Forward Studies Unit, and the many programs of the various units, DG's and off-shoots -- all of whom are exceptionally well placed to put some fire to the sustainable transport debate and to lay the base for far more experimentation and better exchanges across Europe of information on successful, alternative experiences and approaches around the world.
The European Parliament, whose approach thus far has been one of rather sleepy periodic interest and debate, with little concrete accomplishment. But whose potential to emerge as a major force not only at the Europe level but on the world stage is very great indeed.
The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris -- despite the fact that they have consistently and insistently remained within the box on the work issues which, by definition, require out-of-box thinking. The OECD could develop into an important carrier of the new messages, but it must first of course come to understand them (and to practice them, themselves).
National governments and their institutions with a variety of mandates (transportation, communications, infrastructure, technology, education, quality of life, economic and regional development, etc.), and in particular those who are willing to reach out for new approaches
Regional and local government who, in our book, are among the most likely to emerge as champions of innovative projects and implementations.
Foundations, as sources of financial support, counsel, contacts and guidance to make sure that we are putting our energies into directions which are going to be concretely useful to real people and places.
Industry and business-- which needs help in better identifying these new product and service opportunities in a transport world that is undergoing rapid change.
The academic and research community which has begun to branch out into these less traditional areas, but only at the leading edge. There are many opportunities for them here to be of real public service, and to provide new kinds of learning opportunities and growth environments for their own students and faculty.
The cooperative and volunteer movement, who now have an opportunity to come out of the wings and on to center stage.
Public interest groups and associations (including those who are concerned with poverty and exclusion)
And, of course, you!

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