Implementing the Briefs

A 20/20 project for your city?
A thinking exercise

"What you can start to do already today in your city to . . .

Reduce traffic and its negative impacts dramatically (we believe it is perfectly possible to target on the order of 20% reductions). . .
. . . within a very short period (we suggest you first think about 20 months in a first instance and then examine for fit). . .
. . . and all while staying well within your existing transportation budget"?

That's it. That's the whole deal. In three short lines. The entire thrust of this collaborative international sustainability project is to provoke you to ask yourselves this one question. And, if we can, to help you in your search for answers, examples, references and solution paths. Nothing else! Now let's take a closer look at how this can work.

Four questions you will want to ask yourselves before digging in

A 20/20 program consists of a meticulously coordinated set of time-phased 'carrots and sticks', all of which are geared to making more efficient use of the existing transport infrastructure of the city. At the leading edge in Europe and elsewhere we have seen that many of these measures are well known. But not all of them and certainly not in much of the rest of the world..

It is the combination of packages of new measures, new ways of applying and coordinating known ones, and the creation of an overall coordinating framework with strong and extensive public commitment and corresponding technical competence that lies at the heart of this approach.

Hmm. At first glance this sounds a bit unlikely ("at least for our city, because we are different . . . ") but if we look at the evidence on the street we can start to answer the following with some confidence:

Is this a desirable approach? Does it directly address priority concerns? Something that seems to you and the voters in your city consider to be important and desirable? Or is it so far off the political screen as to merit no attention?
Is it realistic? Is it an impossible goal for your city? We would certainly expect that your initial reaction should be at the very least skeptical. But hold on. Are you all that sure? Might it not be a good idea to have at least a closer look?
Is it going to be heavily divisive? Is it a policy that is going to divide your population into two divisive groups and involve many negative, anti-car measures? Well, we think not, but this is certainly something that needs to be kept in mind as you move head in preparing any eventual program in this often conflict-ridden area of public policy and private practice.
Is it going to cos us a lot of money? Is it going to require major increases in the amount of money available to the sector? The answer is, quite simply: No! But keep reading and you will see why.

Mrs. Mayor: The ten advantages of a 20/20 program for your city

It is ambitious (as it needs to be to make a difference.)
It is focused (20/20 and that's all)
It is simple (hence easy to communicate and sell)
It builds on and engages a broad local base.
It is effective. (It can handle the challenge.)
It is cheap. (Can be made to work within your existing resources.)
It is positive (Targets "car-like mobility" for all, a very different way of thinking about transport in cities).
It can be guaranteed (through careful planning and consultation)
It provides a consistent, high profile, broad overarching policy umbrella and incentive package for doing and better supporting all the good things you certainly should be doing anyway.
It is great politics. (Visible successes during electoral term. Great national and international visibility for your city. And a great way to keep getting elected as mayor for ever.)

Four vital keys to success

To succeed it will be critical to get the following fully in hand:

Set clear, understandable, ambitious but safely meetable performance targets.
Secure strong commitment of local leaders from the top -- at least to take this through the first Blueprint Go/No-Go preparatory phase.
Obtain and nurture as a priority a very broad base of public support and participation, from the beginning and without omitting early opponents from the open dialgue.
Ensure you have on board from the outset highly committed local implementation partners with the technical virtuosity needed to get the fine detail plan, carefully, executed and then consistently fine-tuned -- allwith the open community spirit and orientation needed to get the job done.

How to get the job done?

The short answer is: very carefully! And with due attention to:

Leadership: A 20/20 program can only be accomplished in your city with strong leadership and communications skills, because behind there must be a broad based public/private/community partnership that will bring together and integrate the active participation of a far broader number and range of groups and interests than traditionally involved in the planning and implementation process.

Preparation: The preparatory and planning process - which we advise should be carried out in an intensive, broad-based 3/6 (six months absolutely top we think) month "Blueprint Go/No Go Decision" effort - must be highly inclusive and carried out in an Open Society initiative. It should target to bring into the process not only those groups that traditionally favor environmental initiatives, but also those who have their doubts, including groups and interests who traditionally have opposed anything other than the now suddenly old-mobility process (i.e. and in brief: build and spend your way out of the problem).

Different from the rest: As you will note this approach breaks many of the 'established rules of the transportation game', to the extent that it may well appear as 'foreign' or even uncomfortable in light of existing administrative and planning routines in the sector which have tended to be much longer term in general. We are talking about a project that is to be decided, fully planned, implemented and evaluated for next stages within the time period that most transportation projects are just starting to get off the drawing boards. This is going to make the partner search more challenging for sure.

Variations: It may be that after the careful Blueprint Implementation plan is completed, a rather different set of targets will emerge. One distinct possibility is that a consensus that 20/20 per se is simply too ambitious for your city. Fair enough. The team might end up proposing instead a 10/20 or even 5/20 program. Would that be a problem? We don't think so. Even if "all" the city were to target and achieve would be, say, a 5% reductions over twice as many months, they would still be inching toward what we call "Kyoto Compliance". Indeed, such a performance would be notable and offer great improvements which would mark your city apart from the rest who are simply and passively submitting to what they believe to be their destiny.

Please note: We are well aware that in many cities there is a lot already going on to make specific point improvements and if the city is lucky many qualified citizen groups and associations that are getting involved and trying to make their contribution both in terms of steering policy in the direction of being more sustainable, and in terms of specific actions on their part to make this happen. The objective of the New Mobility Initiative is not to get in their way or supplant their efforts in any way, but rather to reinforce them and define a consistent and supportive overall structure within which their energies and projects can be better supported and coordinated.

What's the downside: It is our firm belief that if you approach this with the care, energy and commitment needed, there is no downside. It may turn out that after your pre-study, you will elect different objectives and levels of ambition. But who can criticize a city for taking this challenge seriously and spending a relatively small amount of money and time to see if they can get on the right path?

Planning notes

The 20/20 strategy (20% reductions in target indicators in a period of 20 months) steps beyond the individual Briefs and has as its goal to provide a targeted short range implementation strategy for putting a package of measures and policies such as are identified in the Briefs to work in your city via a focused priority program with high public visibility. As such it represents a full step beyond the individual Briefs, but in most cities the time to start thinking along these lines is now. There is no reason to wait. Here is how a 'generic' 20/20 project looks in outline:

The 20/20 challenge has a single objective: For example, target and achieve for your city a 20% reduction of CO2 from traffic via a carefully studied and phased 20 month implementation period.
You may chose another target, some indication of traffic or congestion for example, as you work on it you will see what makes most sense for your city at this time. Or it may be some package of indicators, including such things as ridership on public transit, bicycle traffic, reduced accident rate, etc.
You can expect to be told that these are far too ambitious targets. hat they are naive, unachievable, with a long list of reasons as to why. They are not. Believe in them and you can make them happen. You will be cautioned to "be reasonable". Do not be intimidated. With proper preparation and public support these targets can be met and exceeded.
Once you have launched the necessary preparatory steps, investigations and negotiations, you may find that a modified set of targets may be more appropriate for your city. Who knows better than you? Not to mind: look hard, recalibrate and keep going!
It is likely that in your city a number of the measures that are needed are already in some way operational or under study. What the 20/20 program offers in this context are two things: (a) Better support and higher visibility for the good things that are already out there and working, and (b) an overarching set of criteria which help to turn all these measures from a list of lots of good things to do into a unified, time defined, high profile program that the public can see, understand and judge their city government on.
The goal is to mobilize the entire city around a broad-based multi-part remedial program which can then go on to generate visible results against specific announced targets out there for all to see and judge their performance. (No possible ambiguity; no place to hide; no term so long that ultimate responsibility can be ducked.)
This target and level of ambition has been publicly accepted as feasible by a large and growing body of international experts and authorities (many of whom are identified here in the International Advisory Council.
With the appropriate level of political and public support, the planning, negotiation, preparation phase to lay a solid base for success can be carried out within an intense 3/6 month period..
What is required to get the job done is to create and implement a quite complex but entirely do-able integrated package of proven measures attacking the problems on many fronts.
And it will cost you less than another yard of urban freeway..

The eight strategic pillars of the new policy

Here with a tip of the hat to America's favorite living Vice President are eight strategic steps that will suffice to take us in the two or three years ahead a considerable way toward a sustainable transportation system in a sustainable city: Anywhere in the world. Let's have a quick look at them:

Infrastructure strategies: Redraw the existing (overbuilt and exceedingly inefficiently used) street and parking infrastructure so that it is realigned to favor 'space efficient' and 'location efficient' (i.e., land uses) transportation. (Note: if whatever the mode, technology or use pattern it is makes better use of the streets it almost certainly has corresponding positive environmental, economic and other key impacts).

Supply strategies: Expand the supply and range of transport services that make use of this new reserved infrastructure. This means not only more and better organized conventional public transport (fixed route scheduled services) and cycling access (and support), but also an expanding panoply of what in many cities are less familiar and log neglected other service options, the bottom line of which is a myriad of shared uses of small, driver-operated systems.

Barrier strategies: Review the existing laws and ordinances in your city which in many ways prevent the needed innovations at all levels - and do something about them.

Time strategies: All measures and packages should be selected and brought into play on the grounds that they will have significant visible, checkable impacted within a maximum of three years, ideally with a supporting 6/12/18 month performance screen and package. (The Kyoto World Cities targets are, for example, 20% improvements in selected indicators in 20 months or less. Now this is possible for every city on this planet. I only hope that Al Gore is listening.)

Targeting strategies: Once the projects or package of projects has been prepared, provide a system of public information which tell citizens how their new system is doing. Against stated performance targets step-by-step progress toward which needs to be independently verified and made known.

Participation strategies: Since most of us do not really like change much, and especially when it involves changes in some of our daily habits, it is going to be necessary to find ways to reach deep into the community to get support for these new measures. And the best way to do that is to involved as many people and interests in the program from the beginning. The so-called Big House approach.

Leadership strategies: In a pluralistic democracy leadership does not reside in a single person or institution. It must be much more far reaching. But there must be early champions to create these kinds of changes, and one of the most important early accomplishments of any given city program will be to find them and bring them on board.

Success strategies: The entire program MUST be framed both to guarantee success - and more than that, early and visible successes. Happily, enough experience has now been accumulated with these approaches in enough different places, that a carefully planned package can be handled in a way that guarantees these successes. (And if you can't feel confident about this, then you probably should not even try.)

And what you CAN'T do in 20 months - A friendly reminder

You have 20 months (Okay 30 . . . you chose) to achieve your publicly targeted priority objectives. And that's all. Any failure to reach these announced public targets will be immediately visible (that's part of the package). This gives the city little time for anything other than the bare tactical essentials to meet those agreed, important goals.

There is thus no time to build anything new of any size, such as a new road, an interchange, bridge, fly-over, additional traffic lanes, a metro line or extension, an LRT or anything else that requires scale tampering with the physical infrastructure
Rebuild any part of the city, create new activity clusters, move people into new areas, etc.
There is in fact not even time to carry out the planning for such large infrastructure projects, never mind all the purchases and negotiations that must go in to them.
Moreover, we advise that any such large and expensive projects which are already in the pipeline, need to be reexamined in the light of the near term priorities which will certainly alter the financial envelope, timing of expenditures, and doing anything non-strategic that might modify or impede throughput or efficiency on the overall system
There will be neither the funding nor the time available to program, order and accept delivery of new transit vehicles.
There is not even time or funding available for setting up a new road pricing or congestion charging systems.

What this boils down to in the final analysis is that for the time being all the usual big ticket transport and infrastructure items have to be put on hold and subjected to the new priorities that have been set for the immediate short term, agreed tactical objectives.

If this sounds unfriendly to longer term thinking and problem solving, think again. Basically what we are proposing here is a focused problem solving effort which surely at the end of the day will yield new perspective as to what is important, what can be done, and what needs to be done in the longer term. One of the main benefits of such a targeted, results-oriented publicly-visible effort, is that it provides, or at least should provide, an entirely new perspective as to what is important for your city, and what it is the best way to go about achieving your objectives. It will most probably challenge and blow away a lot of old thinking and old myths in the process.

But there are a couple of hundred things we can consider and bring into the package. So let's move on to look at all this in more detail.

But what about the "Long Run"

What is useful about this approach is that it is at once visible, short-term, results-oriented, far-reaching, affordable and realistic. No less important, it targets highly ambitious near-term efficiency and visible environmental improvements without requiring massive injections of hard earned taxpayer money. It also, with the right kind of preparatory work and support, can offer a very powerful political tool for mayors and city counsels who wish to offer a better, safer, cleaner and more affordable city to their electorate.

No more metros? LRT construction? 'New energy' demonstration projects. Even new infrastructure building or improvement? Not quite. But . . .

References to Maynard Keynes aside, we hope that you will understand that the fact that we strongly advise that over the two to three years of such a program, the overwhelming thrust and attention of the city be to meeting these ambitious and demanding priority objectives. And through this process to initiate this effective move to an entirely new transportation paradigm - and it is indeed no less than that - should not be interpreted as suggesting that we once and for all bury all long term construction projects and the like. But, we do advise that they will need to be rethought radically given the emerging new policy and performance frame.

Once your city has shifted gears and achieved at least parts of these objectives, it is likely that your perspectives as to what is needed in the longer haul in terms of more expensive, taxpayer supported transportation investments will be rather different. But we can see about that in time. For now, let's get started on what is the most important!