New Mobility Media Partnerships

Some media partners
  • Cogent/Benger. Productions
  • kontentreal - PBS series
  • Cicala Filmworks
  • StreetFilms
  • eCoexist
  • Perils for Pedestrians
  • Radio
  • PriceTags
  • NewMob YouTube libraries

    Check out the portfolio here:
  • Contested Streets (5 minutes)
  • Homage to Hans Monderman(2)
  • Happy Birthday Vélib (8)
  • From Bikeshare to Carshare (5)
  • BRT à la française (4)
  • Greening of Paris (draft)
  • Thinking is such hard work (15)
  • Reinventing the wheel (15)
  • New Mobility introduction
  • Brainfood (17)

    The Carshare Follies:
  • Carshare Lite
  • Carshare rocks (and rolls) (1)
  • Passion at the wheel (1
  • Compassionate capitalism (3)
  • Food for thought (1)
  • James Bond learns carsharing



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    What, why, how, and when

    What is holding the world back in the tragically necessary move to more sustainable lives and a healthier planet. Well, certainly not because the need is not there. No, what is holding us back is that most of us who care about these things are simply not getting the message out. Yes, Al Gore has done his bit and it's great - but as even he says it's only a start. He tells us what is wrong and missing . . . but we now need to put some meat on these bones and move toward concrete actions and a consistent agenda that will make the difference.

    We ourselves have neither the skills nor the resources needed to prepare the quantity and the quality of media support that is so much needed as part of the push to new mobility and sustainable cities and lives. On the other hand we are on top of quite a lot of useful content (and ideas) on an extremely important topic of high public interest, the urgent overhaul of our hugely under-performing arrangements for getting around in cities. And since it's as you may have noticed the 21st century, there are a variety of powerful tools and sources that are there for us and others to draw on in the quest for a better understanding of the issues and eventual solution paths.

    We believe that with our associates in dozens of countries around the world we are in a good position to work with media firms and personalities to do just that - get the message out! We have a portfolio of ideas for films, videos and DVDs, and invite you to get in touch to discuss. We are ready to roll.

    Our relationships with each of the teams and works listed here is strictly ad hoc, taking projects one at a time as they come up. Here are the groups we have actively collaborated with for one of more media events thus far:

    • Click Contacts to talk about your project.

    Cogent/Benger Productions (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)

    Cogent/Benger Productions Inc. has been producing high-profile network documentaries and specials since 1998. The company has a reputation for producing films destined for a wide public that explore major social issues.

    This film under the title of Pedal Power was produced for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and aired in October 2009. It has a major section on cycling in Paris that we helped with. "From bicycle-mad Paris to rush-hour New York and the back alleys of Toronto, take a ride through the changing world of bike culture."

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    kontentreal- Public Broadcasting System e2 series

    • Vélib' (The Greening of Paris).

    This film, directed by Tad Fettig and produced by kontentreal, a documentary film and strategic entertainment company out of New York, is the core of a 30 minute program for the Public Broadcasting System to be screened in November 2008. The film is part of its e² series which debuted in 2006 with its first season of design, introducing viewers to the burgeoning sustainability movement worldwide. The series is broadcast on PBS in the U.S. and is distributed internationally.

    Description: "Paris' ambitious public-private Vélib' bike initiative encourages residents to forgo cars for bikes and public transportation. In the process, the program has fostered a unique popular culture, complete with its own language, jokes and pick-up lines. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë has undoubtedly taken heart: Its success has inspired cities like Rome, San Francisco and London to begin adopting similar programs of their own."

    You can check out a short extract from the film here:

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    Cicala Filmworks/Transportation Alternatives

    Contested Streets is a documentary produced by the New York City advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, and made by Cicala Filmworks that explores the rich diversity of New York City street life before the introduction of automobiles and shows how New York can follow the example of other modern cities that have reclaimed their streets as vibrant public spaces. The 57 minute film was premiered in New York City on 27 June 2006 and is presently available for purchase at cost from Transportatin Alternatives.

    Contested Streets features new footage of reclaimed streets in London, Copenhagen and Paris and features interviews with New York savvy notables such as Ken Jackson, Mike Wallace, Bob Kiley, Eric Britton, Jan Gehl, Majora Carter, Kathryn Wylde, Enrique Penalosa, James Howard Kunstler and many more - -- who help us to make our way through the morass of problems, resistances and opportunities that all our cities face.

    Cicala Filmworks is a full-service film, video, and new-media production company. Headquartered in New York City, the company produces content as varied as documentary programming, industrial videos, TV commercials, web content, and short and feature films.

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    StreetFilms - Livable Streets Network

    The mission of StreetFilms is to document livable streets best practices throughout the world and enlighten the general public that their streets can be safer for pedestrians and bicycles. The ultimate goal is to encourage more human-friendly cities and rethink the way our streets are allocated.

    StreetFilms does this by making sometimes complex traffic and transportation concepts simpler by using video, animations, and language that the public can understand. They can also be frequently humorous. Our productions are used as Creative Commons tools the world over by communities and advocacy organizations to fight for better conditions in their neighborhoods.

    StreetFilms is part of the Livable Streets Network which includes sister sites Streetsblog and StreetsWiki. There are two full time filmmakers on staff, who usually shoot and edit their own videos independently as one-person productions.

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    eCoexist

    eCoexist is a new film group started by Manisha Gutman and Antoine Lasgorceix. They have collaborated with Eric Britton and the New Mobility Agenda on several occasions in Paris. (Further information on eCoexist to follow.)

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    Perils for Pedestrians

    Perils for Pedestrians is a monthly cable TV program dedicated to improving the quality of the pedestrian environment in the US and Canada. Perils' director John Z. Wetmore came to Paris to interview some of the locals to get their views on bicycles, public space, and Vélib' for a series for North American cable television

    One of these looks straight at Vélib' and captures a 15 minute dialogue with the editor of World Streets. You can pick up the episode with Mr. Wetmore's questions and their exchange by clicking here to http://blip.tv/file/2363567/. (Interestingly enough, while this program was shot here in Paris last winter it actually arrived here on the day of Velib's second anniversary - see "Happy birthday Vélib', now you are two".)

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    Radio

    When it comes to radio interviews our role is of course more passive. Still, a good interview is the result of a certain level of collaboration both to prepare and execute. Here are two examples.

    Australia: (8 June 2009)

    Along for the ride. A fifteen minute interview looking at bike safety issues via Skype for an Australian community radio station. Of particular interest to them was their local requirement for mandatory helmets for cyclists. We discuss.

    France: December 2009)
    As part of the massive media effort underway in France in support of the Copenhagen initiative, the editor of World Streets was invited by Ann-Cécile Bras of Radio France International this morning to share his views and reactions to the COP15 process and what might come next. His principal theme: "The problem is not the problem. The problem is the 'solution'." (You will find a World Streets article on this collaborative project at http://newmobilityagenda.blogspot.com/2009/12/cop15-radio-france-interviews-world.html)

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    PriceTags on Paris

    Price Tags is an urban design newsletter authored by Gordon Price, Director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University. Gordon spent several weeks in Paris in the winter of 2007/8 riding the city and looking over the Paris transport and public space environment. This led to three striking illustrated publications which you can access here:

    • Paris Vélib' - PriceTags 101. March, 2008. 25 pages
      Spend some time with this attractively illustrated report from Paris and you will have a good feel for how it works and what it might mean for your city.
      http://www.pricetags.ca/pricetags/pricetags101.pdf

    • Paris Périphérique PriceTags 102. (April 7, 2008. 33 pages)
      On the edge of the Bois de Boulogne at Porte Maillot, where the world's first auto race finished in 1895, there is a "Monument to the Automobile." And behind the statue is another monument to the automobile: Paris's great commitment to auto-dominant urban planning … The Boulevard Périphérique http://www.pricetags.ca/pricetags/pricetags102.pdf

    • Paris Plantée - PriceTags 103. May, 2008. 30 pages
      Gardens and public spaces that work (and some that don't) in Paris
      http://www.pricetags.ca/pricetags/pricetags103.pdf

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    Carshare Lite

    A handful of short videos which in our view demonstrate the growing maturity of this important New Mobility sector, to the extent that they are willing to laugh at themselves in public. Laughter - a great communications tool.

    This first lot in from Nicolas Le Douarec of Mobizen in Paris and Ken McLaughlin of Autoshare in Toronto (Ken who forwarded the Zipcar whatever suggests that you hang on gamely through what may be for some a heavy first minute. A lesson in "compassionate capitalism", contemporary American usage, and the golden parachutes that Zipcar generously offers its managers).

    Your candidates?

    Here is how it stacks up at present:

    • Click here to see the full cycle of short videos thus far available:


    And click the following for . . .

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