The Briefs have been created to offer mayors and local government, their support staffs, key policy makers, and concerned citizens and groups within their city who care about sustainability and integrity of their transport system - the people who hold the key to bringing on sustainable transport in your city - with . . .

1. A set of useful practical tools s which can help those who care enough in your city to turn the very general concept of "sustainable transport" into specific on-street, in-lung reality

2. In a highly readable format that gets to the point quickly - each Brief can be scanned for relevance in a few concentrated minutes and read from cover to cover in one hour.

3. Saves countless days and months of research efforts on topics that are in general poorly understood from a practical policy perspective.

4. Gives local leaders and their staffs the exception information they need to make more informed decisions.

5. And with the key support material needed to promote their own proposals.

6. Saves you and your constituents much money and time by avoiding costly errors others have committed

7. Provides structured reinforcement for environmental and other groups in the city that are already engaged in the restructuring process.

8. All while up some useful doors in case you want to take these new approaches further in your city.

Vol. 1, No. 1. City Bike Implementation Strategies (Available Dec. 2007)

This first 130 page Policy Brief has been prepared to inform considering cities and agencies first hand as to how best to go about planning and implementing a city bike system of their own. It takes the new Paris Vélib' system as a leading example and its point of departure, but then reaches much further back into the history of city bike developments as well as looking at how such a project can fit into the larger new mobility and sustainability framework of your city.
                                                            > > >Click here for more on this Brief.

Vol. 1, No. 2. Carshare Strategies for Cities (Spring 2008)

Just in case you are not aware of it, carsharing is already a well proven New Mobility form, with services today active in more than six hundred cities world wide. After several decades of experience, failures, successes and continuous fine tuning and upgrades t the product is ready for the market. But the market? Hardly. Which is why this second Brief will be given over to providing an authoritative series of statements of what carsharing is, how it works, and what is needed from its key partners - and most notably those at the level of the city and local government - if it is to make its full contribution to the city and those who live and work there.
                                                          > > > Click here for more on this Brief.

Vol. 1, No. 3. Economic Instruments/Road Pricing (Spring 2008)

The role of the Advisory Briefs is not to "sell" a given remedial measure or approach to local government. To the contrary the goal in each case is to provide a neutral expert appreciation and decision guide, both from the technical end as required to select, prepare and get most mileage out of the concept, while at the same time putting the basic issues into a balanced strategic context reflecting the priorities, limitations and realities of your city. Thus you may find that any given concept may be a good idea in many ways, but perhaps not the right one for your city at this time. Congestion Charging is a good case in point, not least since it is getting extensive media coverage which by and large - since it is more often than not fed by those most directly involved in the project - tends to point up the accomplishments of the projects.

The bottom line from a New Mobility Agenda perspective is this: Congestion Charging can, if you get it right, be a powerful instrument for cities, but it is not one that can be brought on line in a few months (rather the set up time is at least several years). Nor is it cheap or easy to make into a success. It certainly has its place in the list of new mobility economic instruments that our cities should be looking at, but the prudent city manger will consider it only in its full (and very rich) context. Subscribers will be able to discuss these issues and trade-offs with the team behind this Brief as part of the Hot Line service.                                                             > > > Click here for more on this Brief.
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The New Mobility Agenda: 2007-2012

Unconstrained by bureaucracy, economic interests or schedules, the New Mobility Agenda has since 1988 served as an open international platform for critical discussion, exchanges of materials and views, and diverse forms of cross-border collaboration on the challenging, necessarily conflicted topic of "sustainable transportation and social justice". Want to know more? Click here.

Your city cannot, should not, wait

The Briefs focus 100% on programs and measures that can obtain visible, measurable sustainability impacts within this very short term horizon, from a few months (yes, it is possible) up to a maximum of two to four years (think, electoral term). It is not that we neglect the importance of longer term thinking and overarching strategies for these longer term trends and goals - but we think that at this point the short term crisis is too critical to be neglected. The search is thus on for short term measures that open the way for more ambitious and far reaching longer term strategies and structures.

- - - - > Click here to go the New Mobility Briefs - - - >