Stuart Goldsmith, Project Manager City of Seattle Transportation Department, USA
Peter Lagerwey, Bicycle and Pedestrian Program Coordinator, City of Seattle
Transportation Department, USA
Jumpstarting
Bicycle Transportation in the United States: the Carrot or the Stick?
Many people believe that with proper incentives the bicycle could be a viable, mainstream transportation mode in the United States. Though some of those incentives have been put in place over the last decade, bicycle transportation does not appear to be growing much in most parts of the U.S. Given this reality, what, if anything, can be done to jumpstart bicycle transportation in America? Is it enough to focus on providing bicycle facilities? Is it a case of providing "too little, too late?" Are "carrots" effective without "sticks" that make driving much less appealing? Or are there fundamental reasons why utilitarian bicycling is fated to remain on the outskirts of America's transportation consciousness? This presentation will discuss and evaluate the various "carrots" and "sticks" that are currently being employed in the U.S. to increase utilitarian bicycling as well as examine the dilemmas inherent in more aggressive approaches to accomplishing that goal.
This topic should be of relevance to policy makers and planners implementing
programs whose goal is to increase the bicycle mode share.
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John Merory, Doctor of Environmental Science Programme, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
Community Action: applying systems thinking to succeed.
Community action: applying Systems
Thinking to succeed [Talk]
[Slides]
As part of an Environmental Science program at Monash University, two community actions were examined. The first was a practical application of systems analysis to establish a successful bicycle users group in the Melbourne region. The second was a failed attempt by an community group to influence pollution control in a new road tunnel development. In both cases the issues of the environment and transport were paramount.
This analysis was applied to the bicycle users group. The success of the process was not only in the formation of the group but also in its relationships with cyclists, the community and the local government. The group has developed rapidly, and has successfully lobbied on behalf of cycling and the environment arranged events and linked strongly with environmental groups.
In contrast, the community group action on the road tunnel pollution was based on a public campaign and confrontational debate. The action failed to influence the developers to install particulate removal systems from the tunnel1s ventilation stack, despite the evidence for the harmful effects of particulate pollution.
This paper examines the processes of both community actions. The road tunnel community group action is analysed according to systems insights, and the mechanisms of its failure are revealed.
The paper is intended to stimulate debate about community action, especially as it pertains to cycling. In particular, the author seeks to demonstrate the power of systems thinking to shape community action, and welcomes discussion about this approach.
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