Discussions, Reflections: Lessons & Next Steps

Synposis and Overview

Discussion Forum

The purpose of this closing section of this special cooperative Vote Bogota 2000 edition is to encourage and assemble comments, ideas and reactions from transport and city planners, policy makers, students of political science and social change, and concerned citizens and NGOs around the world in order to round out this important milestone in the drive to more sustainable transportation arrangements not only in Bogota but in towns and cities around the world. What we would now like to encourage is a free-wheeling international expert dialogue on these accomplishments from two main perspectives:

• Letter to Bogota
  This is where our informal international assembly can contribute by putting our best thoughts together in order provide useful guidelines and counsel for the city in the next important stages of work on their great and demanding project. The fact is that the Bogota project, while an exciting and creative one with a fine team behind it, is nevertheless in need of additional counsel, perspective and orientation. Which is exactly what we are now targeting here.

• Bogota's Message to the World
  What exactly does the Bogota experience mean to the rest of the world? Is it just some isolated series of events that apply only to that one hyper-stressed city "2600 meters closer to the stars"? Or is it an example of a major pattern break, a shot whose sound is going to make itself heard and felt around the world? This is a message which we should be helping to get out. It risks to change many things in the world of city and transport policies and practices.

We hope you will find the extensive materials presented here useful by way of background to whatever it is you have to say or propose. Before sharing your observations with the others we would certainly suggest at least a quick look through the Background, the Bogota Project, and the Results sections, which between them do a pretty good job of setting the stage for a full understanding of what is going on and in process.

Mechanics of participation

With the results now in, we invite public international discussion of both the program behind the referendum and the results as follows.

1. You are invited to address your comments to the moderated Discussion Forum with your email addressed to Carfreeday@egroups.com.
2. Please label all emails on this topic as follows: "Bogota Referendum Discussions" (without the quotes).
3. You can freely consult the Discussion Forum at any time for yours and all other messages and materials sent in.

  Your comments here.

Eventual topics for group discussion and comment

The following is intended to help spark the exchanges. It is certainly not intended as a limiting list of topics.

• General comments and observations
• Lessons learned
• Errors, omissions, oversights
• Thoughts on new tools and approaches
• Recommendations and next steps:
  • In Bogota
  • Elsewhere in the world

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