Citizens Speak Out

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Local blogs, columns, groups, programs

The Agenda has long been a strong supporter of citizen activism and direct involvement in our troubled field, which for far too many years has essentially been dominated by a top down expert-dominated process in which the policy lead has been dominated by old mobility thinking, with just here and there the odd dab of carefully orchestrated "participatory planning and review" which most definitely ignores the considerable knowledge and sense of citizen responsibility which is increasingly out there and which in a 21st century democracy absolutely needs to be tapped if we are ever going to come to grips with these challenges.

You will see ample evidence of this in the many discussion groups and blogs which you can encounter in these pages, but this section has been specifically inspired by a recent call of the New York based StreetsBlog of The Open Planning Project, a model of citizen activism and hands-on expertise which we stringy approve and support. Specifically on 2 February of this year they initiated a listing of "Livable Streets Blogs in Cities Outside NYC" to which you can link directly from here. Their introductory announcement runs as follows:

We are interested in creating a new feature -- a collection of links to Streetsblog-ish web sites in other cities around the world. Ideally, this collection of links will represent the best, most comprehensive, most readable group of Livable Streets bloggers anywhere. We could really use the help of the Streetsblog online community to build this collection. If you know of a site that fits the bill, or if you wouldn't mind spending a few minutes poking around online to find some good potential sites in specific cities, please do. Just add your finds to the comment section.

This leaves the legitimate question: that if our Streetsblog friends are already pushing on this, what can we add from here? Several things I would suggest. First, we are well positioned to extend the search to sites and projects outside of the United States. Second, our broader interest in the full range of the Agenda, extends beyond the cycling and streets focus . . . but all of that we can see if and as this outreach project develops.

Groups, foundations, agencies, others supporting New Mobility concepts

We would also like to extend the search to identify groups, foundations, agencies, and others supporting these independent citizen programs. To get the ball rolling and to take the demonstrably unsustainable New York City as an example, in addition to the good work of the Open Planning Project, there is the strong group Transportation Alternatives . . . But this is only a start.

Click here to tell us all more about your own efforts and thoughts on this.