Why we are doing this?

To put New Mobility, as a transformative strategy for our lives, our cities and our planet, ever more firmly on the map.

"Old mobility" (you know what it is) is broke. And it can't be fixed. An entirely fresh approach is needed, and all the raw materials for making it work are already in place. The challenge is to piece them together into a strategic fabric and then to make it widely known. Which is what this collaborative international effort is all about.

Significant progress has been made in terms of new thinking and new practices in the transport sector over the last years, but despite their striking accomplishments they are still not quite into the mainstream of transportation policy and practice in most places. Old thinking dies hard. Thus, the main purpose of this collaborative effort is to help it out the door, and put in its place something a lot better, much more appropriate to the new and very different conditions of transport in the 21st century.

And what is important is not only all the various vital pieces - the new mobility modes and tools. But also the way that these are all pieced together - the New Mobility Agenda. Thus every article, every part of this important contribution is being prepared and integrated from this specific strategic perceptive. Let's take a closer look.

Why the 2008-2012 time horizon?

This is the central key to the whole effort. Because we now know that a waiting game will have deadly consequences. Hence we need to concentrate our minds and efforts on actions that are going to have early pay-offs.

And while the ideal is certainly anything that will lead to big visible paybacks in less than two years - a target that is in fact be obtainable by at least some of the measures that are getting attention here - the fact is that a couple of years of operational experience is often needed to fine tune, debug and start to get the most out of your new mobility measure. So let's give it enough time to get the job done.

In addition, within this frame you are going to have time to . . .

• At the very least to replace your present vehicle with something more appropriate for responsible 21st century city travel.
• Alternatively and better yet If possible where you live and work) shed your car altogether as new affordable alternatives start to come on line in your community (affordable carsharing among them of course)
• To seek a better, more environmentally coherent place to live and work
• And if you are an industrial or service group, enough time to design and bring on line a new range of products and services.

Building boocks of this Special Edition

Here are the five main keys to, the effective building blocks of, this project and the decisions it is trying to inform:

1. Sustainable development and social justice: We and many many others have written longly on these two inseparable topics and priorities. So we need add no more on this to this knowledgable audience, other than to repeat that this the final, unifying bottom line behind all that follows.

2. The critical time vector: The report focuses on the third of the three strategic pillars that underlie the New Mobility Agenda: namely, the importance of identifying and implementing actions, measures and polices that are going to bring visible improvements the city and the planet in the immediate future. (The other two pillars: (a) the step-by-step path to the rapid cross-over to high-amenity, low carbon, low cost, space-efficient new mobility modes; and (b) the creation in each place of a coherent global strategic framework as needed to bring all the necessary individual measures and improvements into a unified, synergistic, easy to understand (and test,) systemic, and effective reform package - the New Mobility Agenda).

3. The CO2 metric: We are proposing CO2 reductions as our common target for this project, both because they provide unambiguous benchmarks, lend themselves to intelligent estimates in most cases, if not always exact measurement. And because they work as strong surrogates for a number of other critical parameters (including other GHG reductions, VMT/VKT, congestion, smoothness of traffic flow, and with a little imagination also such things as accident reductions, public health impacts, economic savings (at the level of the individual and the collectivity), etc.

4. Local decision making: The main groups and decision makers who are going to make these projects work are the cities themselves. Effective, adaptive local government, first-rate public/private partnerships, broad based collaboration spanning all aspects of the mobility sector, a capacity to reach beyond the traditional sectorial divides to create more effective city policies, and active citizenry are the forces that are going to shape the New Mobility Agenda in your city. Regional, national and international agencies have their role, but they are by and large supporting and facilitating roles, The initiative and the actual work have to be carried out at the level of the cities themselves. Likewise foundations and public interest groups have important supporting roles, but at the end of the day it is the cities that have to get the job done.

5. Deep democracy: This is above all an exercise in "deep democracy", active citizenry in pluralistic democracies. On the one hand banding together to create a practical agenda for responsible collective and individual action. And on the other, to do it in a way that is positive, and that incites and facilitates positive individual choices made by citizens for their own good reasons and in their own good time.

Basic organization of the issue (Draft thinkpiece for authors)

We have a very specific work plan. This is not a general interest edition, and if we are to achieve our goals we must be very diligent to ensure that every piece in its contributes to this common thrust. There are three main categories of articles going into this edition, of which the first will doubtless be the most extensive. Here's how we see it at this (early) point:

• Part 1. The New Mobility Environment: Getting out of the box -
  In this opening section the authors each look at a specific component of the "old mobility problematique": providing valuable perspective and insight on underlying issues and attitudes which, if not understood and taken into account, are going to slow the move to the necessary transportation reforms. These reforms will in time take place, but we have the means for bringing them on line already today. The cost of waiting is enormous.

• Part 2. New Mobility Measures, Services and strategies - The step-by-step path to the rapid cross-over to high-amenity, low carbon, low cost, space-efficient new mobility modes/Exemplary implementations.
  In this section each author/reporting team explains with high competence how a specific innovative new mobility measure (i.e., high impact, high amenity, affordable, low- or zero-carbon access mode) has been made to work in a specific place -- and then goes on to provide reflections and guidelines for considering cities and other eventual implementing agencies or groups. (The in-process list of the measures we presently in discussion with our authors is available here.)

• Part 3. New Mobility/New Tools
  The transition to new mobility is going to require virtuoso performances by the traffic engineers, planners and all those transportation and related experts who constitute the vital underpinnings of the city's mobility system. But new tools and areas of expertise are coming online as well, and these too need to be capted, understood and then prudently put to work.

• Part 4. New Mobility Agenda: Tying it all together
  In this section the authors demonstrate how in several specific places a certain number of these individual measures are being combined and fine-tuned in concert, to create a synergistic package ("bouquet") of interactive new mobility services - the New Mobility Agenda, by whatever name. (You can get a first feel for this if you click to "The Greening of Paris" and once there dig a bit through the left menu item marked 4. The Greening of Paris, and then once there maybe a quick look through the PowerPoint presentation and if you have the patience the short (3 minute) draft video introduction that you will find there. Again, the idea at this point is to give you an idea of what we think is needed in the submittals in this series.

Some points to be considered in articles (checklist):

Here is a checklist of points that we would hope to see addressed, or at least thought about in some way in such an important piece. (This is intended as general orientation and food for thought for our collaborating authors, and not a straight-jacket. Still we do need to keep our basic structure intact.)

• Tell us about the measure, approach. How does it work?
• Where has it worked? Overall "time trend" and spread to other places
• Elucidate an outstanding, exemplary city project
• Tell us: Why, how, and when?.
• And with whom? Collaboration strategy, key partners, how to work together
• Outstanding lessons learned?
• Impacts on environment, CO2? (Best guesses are just fine)
• On traffic, congestion?
• On safety, public health?
• Impact on other parts of the mobility system (positive and negative)]
• Public space impacts
• Economic impacts. On individuals. The city. Beyond?
• Impacts specifically on local business, commerce?
• What went wrong in the process? And how was it fixed when it did (if at all)?
• Sources of eventual opposition -- and strategies for dealing with them
• Media strategies and recommendations
• Who were the champions? The individuals and groups who made it happen
• Author recommendations and cautions for extending this approach to other cities, programs
• Where the reader can go for help? Sources, programs, other.

And, it needs to be paid for

Now we really start to get down to it. How we spend the taxpayer's treasure. This is a tough refocusing exercise, the results of which will determine the success or failure of the effort that is now so much needed.

It is our considered proposal that for the city that wishes to deal with these challenges in a responsible manner, there is no alternative than to make some serious reallocation decisions about the public moneys that are being put into the transport sector.

Our proposal is that, once the full alternative mobility package has been at least sketched out in solid conceptual form, all major new infrastructure and other projects that will not kick in with significant CO2 results in less than the 2012 frame should be either (a) be summarily stopped (for now at least) or (b) put into a much tighter budgetary envelope.

Our recommendation is that a strict budget threshold be set: we propose that 50% of all funding for the 2008:2012 period be directed to new mobility projects that are programmed to yield solid results within the plan period.

And oh! the pips will s This is of course going to be hotly contested in most cities, since there are interests, projects and mindsets that are firmly committed to the old patterns of transport policy and practice. They will argue strongly for maintaining the longer terms projects, but this needs to be resisted. In the event, if their project is really strong, it will find its place in the future, once the real priorities and emergencies have been at least addressed.

We do not anticipate that this is going to be easy to achieve. But that is what leadership and citizen responsibility are all about.

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Seven steps to reinvent transport in your city

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world". - Gandhi

Virtually all of the necessary preconditions are now in place for far-reaching, rapid, low cost improvements in the ways that people get around in our cites. The needs are there, they are increasingly understood -- and we now know what to do and how to get the job done. The challenge is to find the vision, political will, and leadership to get the job done, step by deliberate step:

1. Vision and leadership: Open your eyes, break with the past, take on the real problems of mobility, well-being and economic health in your city.

2. Broaden ownership: Make your New Mobility program a broad-based collaborative enterprise that listens to and engages the whole city.

3. Tighten time frame for action: Set firm targets for all to see and judge -- gearing all actions to achieve visible results within 2-5 year time frame.

4. Coherent integrated policy frame: that explicitly drives and aligns all measures and actions so they move together in interactive synergy

5. Frugal economics: You are not going to need another round of high cost, low impact investments to make it work. Work with what you have.

6. Focus Projects : Select FIVE new mobility innovations to lead your transformation, and then package and integrate them for success.

7. Pick winners: New approaches demand success. Chose policies and services with track records of success and build on their experience.

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