Participation Checklist

Participation Checklist

The following is a generic check list of organizations, groups, agencies and eventually people to be brought into the discussions, planning, implementation and follow-up. It is intended to be useful to guide the search for inclusive cooperation in Toronto for the New Mobility Summit and its proposed follow-up in the months to come.

The normal practice in most transport projects in the past has been, unfortunately, to work with a greatly reduced list of partners and contributors. Over time however we are learning that it is vital to bring to the table as wide a range of groups and interests as possible, from the city and in the surrounding region in each case. This must include those whose views may be negative about any of the kinds of major shift in today's transportation arrangements (no matter how unsatisfactory. It is not hard to figure out whose they are, which in most cases boils down to opposition from those who fear that the event or what might follow, will reduce their revenues. But in a diverse, pluralistic and open democracy they too need to be brought in from the beginning. Which requires no little political savvy and communications and negotiation mastery.

Concerned local/regional government agencies

City hall(s)
Communications, public information specialists
Community development programs
Energy, conservation
Environmental services (including monitoring stations and services)
Fiscal and economic policies
Mayors (personal commitment)
Ombudsman
Other towns and municipalities in region
Parking policy and administrating
Police and traffic authorities (local and regional)
Public health
Public space management
Related incentive programs
Social services
Special event management
Street vendors, kiosks, etc.
Taxes and charges
Transport and traffic planners
Urban development/master planners
Other concerned agencies, services?

Mobility purveyors, representatives

Carshare operators
Cycling and walking groups
Emergency transporters and services
Goods/Freight delivery
Message/courier services
Package delivery
Paratransit providers
Parking providers (public and private)
Public transit operators (rail and road)
Rental cars, vehicles
Rideshare and hitch-hiking services
School and other special buses
Taxis, limo and chauffeur services
Transport services for elderly, handicapped
Transport shelters
Other?

Movement substitutes, Demand Management

Car/free housing
E-meeting technologies (videoconferencing, voice conferencing, other)
Teleshopping (and delivery)
Telework, telecommuting programs
Travel diaries, logs
Trip chaining
Urban patterns - clustering
xWork (new ways of organizing distance work)

Other key and potential actors, supporters

Anyone interested or involved in earlier CFDs or similar car free projects or demos in region
Board of Trade and other industry groups (including infrastructure)
Automobile associations and related industry groups (get them on board early)
Chambers of commerce, Business groupings, Downtown associations
City boosters
Clubs, churches, synagogues, mosques
Consultants, university/research groups working in these areas
Developers, real estate agencies,
Employers
Financial community, banks, insurance companies
Foundations, individuals and others able to provide financial support or backing
Fundraisers
Green Maps (Toronto has a fine one)
Hospitals and health agencies (including public health)
Including eventual sponsors and sources of active participation and support
International, national, regional environment, mobility, etc. agencies and associations
Local and regional media (old and new)
Local merchants, chambers of commerce, downtown associations
Media: traditional and new
NGOs, Public interest groups, associations
- Environmental, ecological, public health, clean air groups
- Non-motorized transport: Pedestrian, cycling, skating, running groups
- Associations concerned with elderly, handicapped and poor
Out of town commercial centers
Polling organizations
Red Cross, emergency services and public information programs
Schools and educational institutions
Specialized consultancies, working in these areas
Street performers, musicians
Transport user groups
Urban development, public spaces,
Women's groups
Youth, sports and recreation groups

Big House/Open Doors

Do you engage only "friends" in this process? Here the answer if very simple. If all too often in community based or local government events such as car free days, the trend has been to concentrate efforts on organizing the project and various events in close working relationships with people and groups who a priori like the idea, we have now accumulated enough experience to be able to advise a more ambitious course.

We are all basically inertial creatures and as such adverse to change. Especially if we have the impression that the changes are being imposed on us by people who are indifferent to our problems and priorities. Nobody likes that, and if you happen to have some economic or political leverage, you are quite naturally going to use it to block these unwelcome proposals.

The answer to that is to take a Big House/Open Doors approach, and make sure that you bring in all those who are going to be impacted, positively or possibly negatively, from the beginning. In another phrase: better to have them inside the tent.