World Streets - Guadalajara: Sustainable transport, Sustainable cities 2011

 

World Streets

What happened in Guadalajara on the topic of sustainable transport, sustainable cities from 3 to 10 September 2011?

Draft in haste:

Just back from a challenging three-week round of events  conferences and workshops which took me to several cities in Taiwan, back to Paris for a few hectic days and then on to Guadalajara Mexico for a week - presenting, listening, inspecting, reflecting and from time to time commenting in a variety of settings on my usual sustainable development/sustainable transportation public policy conundrum.  Let me see if I can give you quickly a feel for what happened in Guadalajara in a way that will I hope be sufficiently compact and interesting to make it worth your time.  And if you are also curious about how things worked out in happened in Taiwan (no less interesting), please let me know and I can prepare a similar synopsis of what happened there.

The Conference:

I was invited to provide a keynote address on the topic of "Better Cities with a Lot Fewer Cars", to kick off a weeklong festival of events, discussions, and presentations in the context of their program Hacia CiudadesLibres de Autos/Towards Carfree Cities.  My chosen theme was deep democracy and the need for immediate action. You can see the full program at http://carfree.mx/mx/

Guadalajara as a leading example:

Guadalajara is an absolutely perfect example of the dilemma of sustainable transportation in all its ugly varieties.  Unrelenting, cascading  growth in car ownership and car use as the main transport mode to and around the center, impossible and increasing burdens on the citizens of the city, with government at all levels stubbornly sticking to the old mobility agenda of mindlessly building yet more roads, more bridges, more tunnels and more parking facilities, and on the part of the responsible authorities over the last fifteen years little understanding -- no check that, NO understanding -- of the all too often proved fact that there is no way in the world in which they or anyone else can deal with the mounting problems of cars, traffic and all that goes with them, without a major course change. 

To put this into context, one of the most knowledgeable people with whom I met looked me in the eye and said, "Eric, I am ashamed of my city.  And I ashamed of us for letting it get to this point."  (To which I could  only say, and said, that being ashamed is the important first step in the process of turning the situation around.  The important thing is the next step, and that is what we spent the week talking about and planning.)

Guadalajara is in its own way a perfect case, and if as a result of the energy and ideas that were set out and vigorously discussed during the course of the meeting by many participants looking at this from a wide variety of angles and experience, I am prudently optimistic that some kind of new policy can be achieved. This will provide a powerful example for cities across Mexico, Latin America, and the developing countries more generally.  A bit like New York and the song "if you could do it there you can do it anywhere", and indeed I am optimistic that there is every chance that the fast-growing new consensus will be able to make a difference in Guadalajara in the two or three years directly ahead.  Turn for my part, if I can lend a hand in this process in any way, be sure that I will do it.

 

Looking back on our busy we together from Paris, I can honestly say that it was one of the most successful international conferences I have ever had the pleasure to attend.  The organizers combined ideas, enthusiasm, originality, a taste for complexity and contradiction, openness of mind, critical thinking and a chaotic style of organization and adaptation  in which every single time at the last minute they ended up pulling the rabbit out of the hat.  It was a great event: it created a strong sense of family and sharing among all who came to Guadalajara,  and not only did we all enjoy it greatly, but I also think that discussions and different points of view that were expressed really did help all present to take a couple of good steps in the right direction of better understanding what at least some parts of public policy can and should be.  The variety of people and views was great, as it should be. There were many young people who showed themselves to be very active, creative and thoughtful -- and anyone who says that our young people around the world today are not going to be up to the future challenges of sustainable cities, sustainable transportation and sustainable lives, all I can tell you is that they are a lot better than my generation and probably yours.

The Master Classes/Stress Test:

In the wings of the conference I was invited to give a weeklong series of early morning Master Classes, which on this occasion brought together a group of close to thirty people working in local government or in public agencies who met with me from 8 to 10 o'clock every morning of the week, in order to explore together  the concepts of sustainable development and sustainable transportation from a practical perspective.  What we were trying to do was to work together to get a much more specific feel for the working end of the concepts of sustainability and development, as a necessary step in order to come up with what I call a "stress test ", of a sort which we can apply to review, class and finally decide on transportation projects from a consistent perspective, which of course is today notably not the case in most countries, Mexico and Guadalajara included.

If you are interested, we will be following up on this in considerable detail in the weeks and months ahead, so please let me know so we can keep you in the loop.

Media:

Here the organizers and their team were consistently, unstoppably creative.  To give an idea As an example of the quality of their work and their contribution, let me point you to a series of very short videos which they prepared and which you can find at . . .

 

Announcing the conference:

·         Program announcement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEbkDEs41mQ

·         By foot in the city: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie0DJBjgjFk&feature=related

·         Environmental challenges: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNKrHZunLzI&feature=related

·         Love at the wheel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gHMBXezR1Q&feature=related

 

Making important points about sustainable transport and sustainable cities in 15 seconds or less:

·         Inclusive transport: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PraNEUo5nAY&feature=related

·         More inclusive transport: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya7icH0B2cg&feature=related

·         The joys of parking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO3zIq5Gyfw&NR=1

·         The joys of crossing a road: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjPQP4ykbP8&feature=related

·         Nice to bike: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFVn1owH1Xo&feature=related

 

Two quick bits of me on sustainable transport, Guadalajara and beautiful cities:

·         90 seconds in Spanish: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16xTVbCnt4g

·         A quick on-street,  in-transit, sitting-in-a-garden interview that covers some of the main lines of my thinking and contribution at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj9D_F5ql0c

 

Let me close with a word of deep appreciation to all those who organize this great event and participated, and for the terrific support that we received over the course of our busy week in Guadalajara. I intend to write up the broad lines of my presentations and what I learned over the course of my week there in the coming days (I hope) and will publish it on World Streets.