Access Program Overview

EcoPlan established ACCESS in 1989 as an international collaborative program aimed directly at the challenge of first defining and then implementing sustainable transportation systems. The program built on more than two decades of cross-disciplinary work with the problems of transportation, the economy, energy, environment, industry and quality of life, and more generally with the broader challenges of managing technology in society.

The point of departure for ACCESS was the obvious conflict between cars and cities. But that was only the point of departure. The first step in this process 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 accumulating problems they have brought in their wake, cars continue to perform a variety of functions and are perceived by many people as absolutely 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 now 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 linkages between cars and human behavior, including such problems as urban isolation and alienation, violence and 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 most of this is neither widely known nor fully appreciated.

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 individuals, sources and institutions. Five objectives were set for the period 1989-94:

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. Make a contribution to improving international communications, networking, coordination and exchanges of information, tools and expertise in the full range of disciplines and approaches involved -- so that each new project is able to build creatively and knowledgeably on the experience and accomplishments of the past.

4. 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.

5. Scope, organize and execute a number of exemplary ACCESS Master Planning programs in leading cities and communities -- working in close collaboration with highly qualified local partner groups and sponsoring institutions in an attempt to achieve exemplary solutions.

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The Access Media Program

The processes that occur in our cities are not arcane, capable of being understood only by experts. They can be understood by almost anybody. Many ordinary people already understand this; they simply have not considered that by understanding these ordinary arrangements of cause and effect, we can also direct them if we want to.

The fundamental premise behind ACCESS was set out three decades ago by Jane Jacobs when she wrote these lines in Death and Life of Great American Cities. Reflecting this, 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.

This has meant working ourselves and encouraging others to develop concept papers, specialist reports, technical exchanges, course materials, meetings, and demonstration projects, all of which primarily aimed at the technical and expert communities. Beyond this, though, in an effort to reach out and involve a much broader public, EcoPlan is working to develop, cooperate with, support and promulgate such things as books aimed at the general public, Op-Ed pieces, films, videos, surveys, radio and television interviews, polls, exhibitions, posters, school programs, children's books, museum exhibits, design competitions, computer games, happenings, brainstorming sessions, public debates, etc. We are convinced that if we and others fail to harness the full spectrum of tools and means that are available, the challenges to which this program is addressed will go largely unmet. The first three ACCESS media projects are briefly described below:

1. END OF THE ROAD: From World Car Crisis to Sustainable Transportation

The aim of this book is to make people think about a problem in their daily lives which many ignore or dismiss too lightly. The book's tone is not accusatory; it attempts rather to explore the hidden complexities of a problem of our times which the author refers to as "the subtle price tag of technology". And it gives the reader hope in suggesting thirty-three concrete steps we can take to decrease our dependence on cars and improve the quality of our lives. Wolfgang Zuckermann is a senior writer and researcher who has been working with ACCESS for the past three years, a process involving reading and editing hundreds of articles and papers by transport specialists. The book tries to convey all this technical information in jargon free, vivid language, which incorporates humor, poetry, and many quotes from literature. Lester Brown of Worldwatch calls it "a clear, comprehensive, and eminently readable manual for the overhaul of the long benighted realm of transportation". Jane Jacobs wrote: "It is a splendid book, full of wonderful and useful information (among which I count the extraordinary illustrations). It ought to do much good." It is a very personal book aimed at the responsible citizen. Published simultaneously in 1991 by Chelsea Green in the U.S. and Lutterworth Press in the U.K., and in Italian by Muzzio Editore (Padua). Paperback second edition published in 1992

2. FAMILY MOUSE BEHIND THE WHEEL

This is a novel idea of which the EcoPlan team is justifiably proud. This 32-page children's book depicts with large colorful drawings the story of a family of mice who live in an unspoiled forest but decide to acquire a car to visit their city cousins. When they find they have no roads in their forest they get the Beaver Construction Company to build one. But, alas, this little road soon fills with cars driven by the other animals, and in a forest council the animals decide to build a free-way system. But that system, too, fills up with cars, and Family Mouse almost end up living in their car, because their former cozy tree has been cut down in the name of progress. Luckily in the end they find another tree, but all the roads are there and won't go away. The story ends on a reflective note ("Here's what we've learned from this affair. To trees be kind - of cars beware!"). Both text and drawings are intended to amuse but to make children nevertheless think about the problem. As far as we know, it is the first children's book to deal with the world car crisis. Published in November 1992 by Lutterworth Press (UK), with French, and Italian editions under discussion.

3. TRANSPORT IN CITIES

A forty minute video lecture with Brian Richards as author/guide, presenting his ideas and personal views in a series of slides and film excerpts drawn from many areas of the world. The presentation is aimed at a broad public, including city planners, public authorities, transport specialists, students, the media, concerned citizens and public interest groups. The video opens by examining the role cars have played in shaping our cities. It then looks at remedial actions such as parking controls, car bans, and road pricing as ways to restrain the private automobile. It goes on to show ways in which cities can replace private cars by other means of transport. The video examines not only conventional public transport such as buses and light rail, but also less conventional means such as taxis, dial-a-rides, car pools, and telecommunications. This is followed by a discussion of cycling and walking and finally of ways to arrange our cities by intermingling work and residences to avoid unnecessary movement. The film shows cities from all over the world with their own examples of how to handle this problem. [An adapted Spanish language version of the film has been produced during the Bilbao project; it is now also available under the ACCESS program.]

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Next Steps

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Qualifications and Outlook for 1993and Beyond

EcoPlan is an independent research and advisory group established in Paris in 1967. The group's work focuses on the challenges of anticipating and managing technological change. It is both is cross-disciplinary and international in nature. While concentrating on four main technical areas, the group and its associates are involved in a considerable range of concerns and jurisdictions. This breadth of scope, which is especially important in strategic planning and policy, helps us to avoid some of the traps associated with excessive specialization.

EcoPlan is able to contribute to this program as a result of the experience, contacts and background gathered over more than two decades of research and advisory activity in this broad problem area. The ACCESS program is funded by EcoPlan and in by specific project contracts, consultancy fees and annual membership fees.

Given the dimensions of the challenges, it is clear that we cannot expect to make any major inroads if we work only on our own. To make real progress, we are actively seeking projects and partners to collaborate with on these objectives. Within the limits of our resources, we are providing funding and support for a small number of independent activities. At the same time we are seeking additional financial support for both individual projects and the program as a whole. Major stress in 1993 is being placed on developing ACCESS Master Planning projects with qualified local partners in a healthy cross-section of cities and regions.

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Access Master Planning -- City Demonstration Programs

We have thus far cooperated with ACCESS Master Planning demonstration programs in six cities which are putting to work a number of the basic planning and policy principles which we believe are going to be necessary to create sustainable communities. Each has been a major team effort. The most recent has been in the region of Metropolitan Bilbao in Spain, where a major ACCESS report has just been issued for public consideration and debate, with a dozen pilot projects slated to go on line in 1993. The first planned new community based on this approach in the United States, the Ahmanson Ranch outside of Los Angeles, has just completed successful review of the last planning hurdle, the Environmental Impact Review. All programs are being continued through the coming year.

EcoPlan is currently working to identify and initiate a small number of new ACCESS Master Planning programs with other groups in America and Europe over 1993, and is seeking both sponsors and qualified local partners to define and organize successful programs. The search is concentrating on identifying regions or communities either that are considering construction of large and costly new transport infrastructure projects and/or where local pressures are building up for sounder and saner planning and policy in the transport sector and beyond. As in the case of the earlier programs, the emphasis is on finding and working with sponsors whose concerns include not only transport but city and regional development in the broadest sense.

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Core Research and Publications

EcoPlan and its international associates are collaborating in the preparation of a cycle of core reports and working papers to support the various ACCESS demonstration projects that are now being organized or going on in the field. The first five of these are now available for program sponsors:

1. The Access Planner's Handbook And Guide
2. Access Checklist Of Tools, Measures And Policy Options
3. Access Source Book Of Planning & Policy References
4. International Access Network Directory
5. Access Fact Sheets And Implementation Guidelines

These volumes are being developed through an iterative process. An important part of the early effort for each new ACCESS project is given over to reviewing and updating the various databases and key sources in order to produce guidelines and materials that will be of most use to the sponsors. Each Core Report is turned over to sponsors in both print form and on computer diskette.

Every ACCESS Master Planning project involves preparation of a proprietary report, usually toward the end of the first year as a wrap up of the year's work and findings. Sometimes these reports are advisory documents limited to internal uses. Others are intended for wide circulation in order to help gather support for the project and otherwise make it known to the community and to the various interests and organizations that are going to be involved in the implementation process. In all cases great attention is given to considerations of both layout and graphics, which are considered critical to the effective communication of the results and recommendations. A particular effort is made to mark these off from the usual technical reports and to present each in clear readable language for non-specialist audiences. In their own way these documents are intended to persuade as well as to inform.

A list of approximately two dozen papers and project documents prepared for various ACCESS meetings and presentations are available from EcoPlan. We suggest that considering organizations have a close look at the materials which have been prepared in support of both the Bilbao and Ahmanson Ranch projects, as well as the working paper that was presented for Berlin.

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