The Journal of World Transport Policy & Practice was founded in 1995 in an attempt to provide scholars, researchers, transport operators, policy makers and ordinary smart people concerned with the marked unsustainability of our current transport arrangements with a high-quality, independent medium for the presentation of original and creative ideas in world transport. The Journal appears four time a year in an electronic version by The Commons and the Journal's editorial board. While it is made available at no cost, it is partially funded through subscriptions from institutions and individuals who are willing to contribute. For full information on the contents of the latest edition, access to all past numbers, and how it works, please click here.

The Journal takes strong, informed positions on matter of sustainable transport and social justice. This latest lead editorial by the founder and editor and chief John Whitelegg provides a good example.

8 May 2001 Edition. Lead Editorial

This issue of the journal revisits some of our strongest themes. Once again we take a close look at Calcutta in the paper by Sarkar. Calcutta is still very much the weather vane or 'canary in the cage' of world transport. It is one of the finest examples in the world of an accessible city. All of the recent rhetoric about creating livable cities or sustainable cities in Europe and North America is nothing compared to the reality of Calcutta which can provide thousands of everyday destinations for its 14 million citizens within walking and rickshaw distances that can be covered in less than half an hour. If North American cities (Toronto excepted) could be as efficient as this world transport problems would be much less. Because of this - and in spite of this - US-led engineers and Japanese road builders are bringing to this great city the misery, inefficiency and inequity prevalent in their own countries. Sarkar's paper is very timely indeed in drawing attention to the importance of pedestrian trips in Calcutta and the paper by Nesamani and Deb shows that the debate on private vehicle restraint in Asia is alive and well.

In this issue we publish in full a letter from a citizen in South-west England. The letter is a resignation letter in which the author publicly withdraws from all future consultation and participation in the debate about transport futures in South-west England. This is an important subject. All over the world tentative steps are being taken to involve the public in the decision making processes that most affect everyday life. This is clearly a good idea in basic democracy and human rights terms but in the context of sustainable development and Local Agenda 21 it is even more important. Solutions must be built from the bottom up. All of us must work in partnership and citizens have a basic right to be part of a decision making process in a real sense and not just the unwilling recipients of expert opinion from above or the unwilling victims of half baked and fraudulent consultation procedures.

No one has asked the citizens of Calcutta whether or not they want the Japanese funded flyovers. If they did they would get a resounding rejection. The citizens of South-west England (and the rest of the UK as well) have been asked to take part in consultation procedures leading to the production of 5 year strategic Local Transport Plans or LTPs. Many individuals and groups have responded, given up a great deal of time, read lengthy documents, attended long meetings in their spare time and given their views. In the vast majority of cases these views have been ignored. Citizens want better public transport, much better walking facilities, less traffic and safer cycling and they have been given expensive, grandiose and ultimately useless new roads. Just like the residents of Calcutta they have been ignored. At least the government of West Bengal was more honest. It is clearly of the view that citizen views are not wanted so it didn't ask for them.

The letter by Patrick Kinnersly puts this whole sorry saga into clear relief. An involved, aware citizen has withdrawn from a false and deceitful participation process. The UK government has raised expectations by launching into numerous public consultations and participation exercises but the results are a callous disregard of the views of ordinary citizens. This is very damaging indeed and it undermines democracy itself in a way that that will be very difficult to put right.

Consultation and participation are crucial skills for transport professionals and largely absent in the UK. Politicians working within

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representative democracy principles have also forgotten what this means and as a result transport problems multiply like a virus while virtuous solutions die as a result of lack of attention, lack of a willingness to listen and lack of a determination to be bold and creative. A better track record in this neglected area of transport planning would rescue cycling, give women better transport choices and ensure that car sharing was a rampant success in developed countries. As the articles by Gaffron, Woodcock and Katzev show reality is somewhat different.

John Whitelegg
Editor
World Transport Policy and Practice

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