(And love it )
Click to Translate Help Desk
|
The New Mobility Agenda remembers . . .
"Drivers are our customers - So let's help them out!"
- Tired of being stuck in traffic?
- Feel like you are paying too much for too litte?
- Panicked at the huge price surge at the pump?
- Totally exhausted in your search for that parking place?
- Feeling fat and wobbly?
Well, what about rethinking your car? And the way you use it? Let's have a look at how "NewDriving" can work for you. You'll see, you have some interesting choices.
| The New Context for NewDrive | |
Twenty first century transport policy in the leading cities builds on three critical strategic pillars, which between them condition pretty much all the rest:
- Expand supply: Work to provide the city with first class new mobility services (i.e., more, better, faster, cheaper than the old mobility options) and a greatly expanded palette of new mobility choices.
- Manage demand : Reduce substantially, strategically and discretely the amount of road and parking space available to low occupancy vehicles (namely cars and above all cars with only a single person in them).
- Full cost pricing:Cars and trucks to pay full costs, especially in space-constrained, environmentally sensitive areas (cites).
With the powerful technologies and organizational skills we have at hand today, there is no reason why, in cities at least ,we should not be able to offer new mobility options which compete favorably or even better than driving your own car (old mobility style).
But what about all those good people, those well-backed voting citizens who today are driving their own cars and sincerely feel that they do not have a choice? Or at least a better choice? And even it is costing them a bundle, even if the huge increase in gas prices has them shaking, and even if they are losing huge amounts of time in traffic still would prefer to keep on rolling in their cars. The devil they know, etc. etc.
No problem. Let's see if we can work that into our formula as well. Which brings us to NewDriving:, the car owner/operators best friend in 21st century cities.
Back to top
| NewDrive (The missing link in the New Mobility Bouquet) | |
In many places there are huge numbers of citizens who are locked into their cars in a no-choice situation. So, if we aspire to providing wise public policy counsel, can we afford just to ignore these honest people, or, worse yet, force them into our cookie-cutter for change? No, of course not. We need consider them - and by the way that's you and me when we are behind the wheel for instance, both from a human and strategic behavior.
So we ask ourselves: is there some way to roll all these much needed measures, reforms and actions into a single coherent package, which is not only good for the environment and for our cities and good for all those who live and work there? But we need something that has a positive ring to it so that people will welcome it as a great thing to do. Rather than scrape, gripe, grumble and at the end of the day resist (and maybe successfully at that). Which is almost always the case given the prevalent policy mindset du jour.
The central idea behind NewDrive, as the till-now missing soldier of our strategy, is to treat car owner/drivers, not as adversaries, but as our customers. We want to bring all these good car-captive citizens into that world of new mobility with a smile. So, how can we best serve our good customers? That is the question.
The idea is that as a NewDriver, you have a better, more comfortable and more economic life style. (And oh yes, you are also cool and have more friends!)
Behind all this new mode of behavior is the fact that our cities are changing because they must before the increasingly urgent climate challenge, -- but also for many other immediate local reasons. But now, you are able to use your car AND be a good citizen and neighbor at the same time.
To achieve this leap, as a new NewDriver you now have at your disposal a rich array of technologies, partners and organizational devices which permit you to be palpably better off than you were under the old mobility arrangements which our cities are increasingly leaving behind it. You are, for sure, a car owner/driver, but as a NewDriver you are not stuck in traffic, you are not spending a bundle, and what is more, in addition to your own much loved car, now a lot more effective than it was in the old days, you also have access to a whole range of the new and improved mobility options which you can use as and when you wish to. ("Look Ma, no compulsion!")
Now while this single, simple, understandable, positive proposal encompasses goals usually seen as "negative" - traffic reduction, less congestion, lower speeds, fewer places to park, less energy consumed, greenhouse gas reductions, resource savings, and the long list goes on - we can, I am confident, achieve these important objectives, but this time with NewDrive putting the whole thing in a positive frame for an important part of our voting and vocal public.
Also, it is positive and at the same time can be shown to lead to numerous other advantages, including offering improved mobility options and services to many people who simply would not have them if you had not put "newdrive' into practice in your city.
| NewDrive: From cradle to grave | |
It's a package and different cities will handle it indifferent ways. It will in each case bring together a dynamic set of integrated, synergistic policies, measures and technologies -- and while this is not the place for me to roll out the full carpet, here in shorthand is a first think list of some of the good things that you might want to consider folding into your program:
- Match-your-car: If you are going to be using your car regularly in the city be sure that your choice of vehicle size, energy efficiency, emissions, noise, visibility (eye to eye contact with pedestrians and cyclists), and top speeds matches the new driving environment.
- Eco-driving training: This is well charted terrain as a quick Google visit will make clear.
- Mixed-mode driver training: Driver training programs for new high density, mixed-mode travel patterns to reduce accidents
- ZRIP - "Zip Right In Parking": New parking technologies and packages which permit you to reserve your parking slot by mobile phone or internet before you set off on your trip, so that you can zip straight into your reserved slot without driving all over the place to find one;
- HOV parking: Proportional and significant parking fee reductions and increased availability to anyone who is operating their car with three or more passengers aboard.
- HOV access: Privileged access to HOV lanes and conveniences if you can figure out how to get more than three people in the car;
- HOV access: Privileged access to HOV lanes and conveniences if you can figure out how to get more than three people in the car;
- Ride-sharing: This is how you get those people into your car (and off the road), helping to share your costs and gaining you in the process that privileged access to the scarce road resources. It's been around for a long time but things are changing fast. Stay tuned.
- Digital hitchhiking:This twenty-first century fillip for ride-sharing (car and van pools) keys on the dynamic use of mobile phones as the central organizing device. But it's going to go way further than that and will tie in carsharing, public transport, taxis, etc. (tune in to http://www.dighitch.org )
- Carsharing: There when you need it, but someone else's problem the rest of the time. (See http://www.worldcarshare.com)
- Drive-a-Bike: True automobility for shorter city trips (See http://www.citybike.newmobility.org/)
- Shed a car" programs: The soft path: Vehicle Buy Back incentive programs and packages, together with savings and good deals via transit incentive schemes.
There's a lot more that can be folded into such a package, but you get the idea! And I hope you will share your ideas about how to fill out this list.
Thus NewDriving can be carried out in parallel with high profile new mobility projects such as City Bikes, BRT, group taxis, reserved lanes, slow streets, all-mode fare cards, seamless transport, public space projects, etc. which everyone sees as positive and which not only offer options and complements to own-car travel, but also and far more subtly work on people's minds and attitudes (which at the end of the day what this is supposed to be all about).
So . . . is it time for you to consider becoming a NewDriver? We think so and are ready to help you do just that.
The Commons has welcomed
Europe: 8/10 rue Joseph Bara 75006 Paris, France, Europe. T: +331 4326 1323
USA : 9440 Readcrest Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90210. T: +1 310 601-8468
Copyright © 1994-2008 The Commons ® Last updated on 1 June 2008