xTransit, Livable Streets and Smart ParaTransit collaboration

Smart ParaTransit is a specific, and to our minds the most promising, subset of xTransit. For this reason the New Mobility Agenda and its networks are extremely pleased to be able to join forces with the Livable Cities Network and their new (August 2008) Street ParaTransit collaborative project. This page provides you with a clear path of information and background on both the LSN and its several key group projects, and on the unfolding specifics of the joint project, the front gate of which can be accessed directly here.

Smart ParaTransit -- which we define basically as SOA 21st century technology-driven shared transport arrangements -- is the missing link in our 21st century transportation policy tool kit. It takes direct aim at the enormous service gap that today exists between individual transport arrangements , motorized or other, and large vehicle public transport services, which by their nature depend on fixed routes and schedules.

Our 21st century cities and their residents have transportation requirements that have little in common with the historical past. They are closer to what we can see in successful car-based systems than traditional public transport. They are not linear, nor strictly time-cadenced. They are highly varied over time and space, involving an ever-changing kaleidoscopic mix of many origins, many destinations, many different times and many different levels of requirement. Requirements that seemed to be well served for a privileged minority in the past when our cities were far smaller , less encumbered, drivers relatively few, and the planet and its resources seemingly infinite by comparison to the burden of a system that served a small minority.

This project not only attempt to provide useful insights and support for SPT system planning, implementation and replication, but also has set out to put this dynamic collection of modes in the necessity broader strategic context, namely that which is set out by the New Mobility Agenda and its related programs and projects. Which as you will understand are not at all unique to the Agenda, but which are broadly shared by leading edge thinkers, programs, groups and cities around the world. This is, in fact, the future of transport in cites.

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The Livable Streets Network - in brief

From their opening page:
The Livable Streets Network is an online community for people working to create sustainable cities through sensible urban planning, design, and transportation policy. We provide free, open source, web-based, resources to citizens working to create a greener economy, address climate change, reduce oil dependence, alleviate traffic congestion, and provide better access to good jobs in healthy communities.

We believe that people make a city great. Yet, so many of the world's great cities dedicate too much of their precious, limited public space - their streets - to motor vehicles rather than people. We are working to redesign our communities around public transportation and walkable, bikeable streets. We are transforming parking lots into public plazas, busy intersections into town squares, and congested highways into bike paths. We are taking back our cities, one street at a time.

The Network runs four interlocking programs to advance their agenda, as follows:

StreetsBlog is a daily news source, online community and political mobilizer for the global Livable Streets movement. Launched in New York City in 2006, Streetsblog is building a network of Livable Streets bloggers throughout North America and around the world.     

                                            For more on Streetsblog click here

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StreetFilms is the video arm of the Livable Streets Network: producing educational, entertaining, and inspiring films for a sustainable urban environment. Our short, on-line videos on topics such as bus rapid transit in Bogota, Colombia, neighborhood traffic-calming in Portland, Oregon, and bike lane design in Copenhagen, Denmark have been viewed more than half a million times and used to support advocacy projects in communities from Toronto to Tasmania.     

                                            For more on StreetFilms click here

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StreetsWiki is a free, community-created, online encyclopedia where you can read, write, and learn about sustainable urban policies from around the world. If you want find out what a woonerf is or learn which cities have the best bike-sharing programs, StreetsWiki is the spot. Share your knowledge on StreetsWiki and help our encyclopedia grow. The only think you'll need to contribute is a Livable Streets account.     

                                            For more on StreetsWiki click here

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LSN Groups is a free, open source, online meeting space designed to help people organize and manage their own local Livable Streets projects. By creating or joining a group, members have access to a growing collection of online tools including mailing lists, blogs, and wikis (virtual bulletin boards), all geared towards helping small movements achieve their goals in collaboration with the larger Livable Streets community.     

                                            For more on LSN Groups click here

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