WBCSD Peer Review - Contributions

Mobility 2030: International Peer Review

Peer Review & Recommendations

From the WBCSD

More background

Part 4: Report contributions

This section is given over to comments and observations which put the finger on specific contributions of the report to the Sustainable Mobility debate. In point of fact the report turns up a number of very useful points, however because of its considerable bulk and the focus of attention and resources to drawing up one more grim BAU scenario together with the on-going commentary on ways that technology will be able to respond, these good ideas have tended to get buried in the rest. The goal of this section therefore is precisely for us to ferret out the useful ideas and recommendations of the report, and to see how we can support and build on these in the months ahead.

From: Eric Britton
Sent: Tuesday, August 03, 2004 3:57 PM

While there is certainly considerably more to say and more that we will be hearing from you over the next several weeks under the headings of (a) General Comments and (b) Targeting/Errors/Omissions for our WBCSD Peer Review, it will be useful to turn to the last two rubrics that we have here to develop our thoughts and comments: (c) WBCSD Report Contributions and (d) Recommendations/Next Steps. It is this last to which I hope we shall be giving the most thought and creative interaction of the sort that only a forum such as this can hope to provide. But before we get to that, I would now like to ask you if you spotted any strong ideas that appear in their report that they or someone else should be pursuing.

In this regard, let me assure you that we now have the full attention of the report's sponsors, and while based on long past experience I would doubt that we will be hearing from them directly at this point, as we frame these important comments and recommendations let us bear in mind that our common objective is to turn them into a powerful instrument for sustainability in general and the drive to sustainable mobility more particularly.

Before turning to the full report, I would like to list briefly a handful of point that I found to be potential value in their 29 page Overview Report. After many pages of hopping about with various unsurprising comments on their chosen scenarios, projections and "seven (who can argue) goals toward which we believe society should strive", the report on page 25 finally gets down to something we can maybe work with by way of, they call them, "opportunities"). Let me quote them in the order they appear:

"… important opportunities for increased utilization of bus and bus-like: systems (including paratransit)…"
"… new information technologies into these bus-like systems"
"… important potential for new patterns of vehicle ownership and use (such as carsharing) to become integral parts of the mobility system in many areas."
"An alternative strategy is to adapt the technological and economic characteristics of the transport systems to fit the living choices of the public."
"Moving toward sustainable mobility will involve paying as much attention to institutional frameworks as to (… the inherent potential of any vehicle technology or fuel or the theoretical 'effectiveness' of "'ineffectiveness' of any particular policy lever or action.)"
"… we can support efforts to encourage new approaches to providing improved mobility opportunities in urbanized areas (i.e., carsharing, paratransit, and new mobility systems."

Hmm. If we are looking for areas in which they should now be concentrating some of their considerable resources in the sector hat does so nicely for them, I would like to suggest that they are giving us some encouraging signals here which we might now want to pursue. Moreover on the closing page, they invite "us" to do just this … "And in reviewing the conclusions of their work… the companies have looked at what could be done to accelerate progress on the goals beyond the extensive and diverse actions on which they are already engaged. There are clearly opportunities, but they must sensibly be the result of wider consultation both within the companies and with others. We therefore need to debate both internally and with a range of stakeholders to determine where and how to best focus our activity."

Excellent. Let us consider this as a fine start. And now it is time for us to do as they have asked, and help them figure out what they should be putting resources and brainpower behind now to make real contributions in the troubling area of sustainable mobility… where the contributions are needed and possible in the months and years directly ahead, and not out there in 2030.

Your reactions?

Eric Britton

PS. Gentlemen (alas!), we have a real fundamental problem which certainly is influencing our level of understanding and lucidity in the analysis and recommendations. And that is we are grossly underrepresented in this assembly in terms of female colleagues. And while it is clearly not going to be possible for us to reverse this, may I say, stupid state of affairs in the weeks directly ahead, my bet is that if each of you put your mind and networks to it, we can at least start to do better in this important department, thanks to your recommendations. We males simply miss so much (or as one of my favorite authors so nicely put it: "blind by choice").

Your turn

Let us here from you on this as well. You can either post your comments through the @Forum, or send them direct to us. In both cases they will be integrated into these sections here as well as the final report.

Via Group mail to the New Mobility @Forum

Or post via private mail direct to organizers

May we ask that you sign your notes with your name, titles, institutional affiliation and city/country? You will understand of course why we think it important for all concerned to know who these messages are coming from.

* Click to go to Targeting, Omisions, etc.