M MIITT PPoorrttuuggaall –– IISSTT
2009/03/25 Francisco Furtado
TTrraannssppoorrtt PPoolliiccyy aanndd IInnssttiittuuttiioonnss
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"Lisboa, menina e moça Lisbon, girl and young woman" In the Castelo (1) I put an elbow In Alfama (2), rests my sigh And so I unravel the ball of thread of blue and see on Ribeira (3) I put down my head the pillow of Tejo’s (4) bed with sheets embroided in a hurry On the lightness of a kiss Lisbon, girl and young woman, girl By the light of my eyes (you are) so pure Your breasts are the hills, varina (5) Cry (6) that brings tenderness to my door City embroided with light stitches tablecloth unfolded by the seaside Lisbon, girl and young woman, loved one City, woman of my life On the Terreiro (7) I pass by you But of Graça (8) I see you naked when a pidgeon looks at you, it smiles you are a woman of the streets and on the highest neighborhood of dreams (9) I put the fado that I was able to invent Spirit of life and medronho (10) that makes me sing Lisbon, girl and young woman, girl By the light of my eyes (you are) so pure Your breasts are the hills, varina (5) Cry (6) that brings tenderness to my door City embroided with light stitches tablecloth by the seaside unfolded Lisbon, girl and young woman, loved one City, woman of my life Lisbon, on my love resting City by my hands undressed Lisbon, girl and young woman, loved one City, woman of my life 1- Castelo: means castle but here also it’s neighbourhood. This castle stays on one of the seven Lisbon’s hills. 2- Alfama: a very old neighbourhood, near Castelo and also on a hill. 3- Ribeira: an area by the river side, where the boats were moored and fish was sold. 4- Tejo: Lisbon’s river 5- Varina: woman, fish seller 6- Pregão: sentence that women used to cry out to announce the fish they were selling 7- Terreiro: a large square by the river 8- Graça: another neighbourhood, on another hill. 9- Bairro Alto: literally means “high neighbourhood”, but Bairro Alto is the real name the neighbourhood (of course it’s also on a hill). It has a bohemian tradition and singers used to came here to sing Fado. 10- Medronhos: a small fuit used to make strong alcoholic beverages
Table of Contents Table of Contents .................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 3 Main Problems ........................................................................................................................ 4 Moving from periphery to center, waiting in line..................................................................................... 4 Finding a parking space, anything goes... ................................................................................................. 4 Public Transport, lost in the maze ............................................................................................................ 4 So many People with no House, so many Houses with no People ........................................................... 4
Strategy ................................................................................................................................... 5 Occupy ...................................................................................................................................................... 5 Connect ..................................................................................................................................................... 5 City, Citizens, Economy and Technicians/Professionals ........................................................................... 6
The Political Process ................................................................................................................ 6 “Procedural” Policies ................................................................................................................................ 7 Participatory budget ............................................................................................................................. 7 Urban Districts, pooling Lisbon Freguesias ........................................................................................... 7 Regionalization, again? ......................................................................................................................... 7 “Issues” Policies ........................................................................................................................................ 8 Bicycle sharing and Paths ...................................................................................................................... 8 Green Plan............................................................................................................................................. 9 Closing traffic in Terreiro do Paço ......................................................................................................... 9 Foster cultural-associative meeting points (even the NYT?) ................................................................ 9 Urban Acupuncture, Massive Rehabilitation, Micro Credit and Projects ........................................... 10 Lisbon City of Light, open University for Planning, Transportation and Rebuilding ........................... 11 Integrated Transit Management System ............................................................................................ 11 Mitterrand wife syndrome, lessons from Margaret and Hugo............................................................... 12
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 13 Annex List .............................................................................................................................. 15 1 – IC19 Congestion Newspaper Report ................................................................................................. 15 2 – IC19 Congestion Newspaper Report ................................................................................................. 15
3 – IC19 Congestion Newspaper Report, Republic President tests the Road ......................................... 15 4 – Empty Houses Newspaper Report .................................................................................................... 15 5 – Lisbon city Demographic Study ......................................................................................................... 15 6 – Participatory Budget: What is it? How is the Process? ..................................................................... 15 7- Participatory Budget Newspaper Report ............................................................................................ 15 8 - Participatory Budget report on how it was in 2008 ........................................................................... 15 9 - Participatory Budget Final Budget ..................................................................................................... 15 10 – Urban Districts, pooling the Freguesians, opinion 1 ....................................................................... 15 11 – Urban Districts, pooling the Freguesians, opinion 2 ....................................................................... 15 12 – Modes Efficiencies .......................................................................................................................... 15 13 – Green Plan ....................................................................................................................................... 15 14 - Lisbon Comes Alive, New York Times .............................................................................................. 15 15 – Lisbon Grémio, Police Brutality ....................................................................................................... 15 16 – Urban Acupuncture ......................................................................................................................... 15 17 – Interview with the “Bastonário” of the engineers “Guild” ............................................................. 15 18 – Interview with General Muller Rojas .............................................................................................. 15
Cover – Participatory Budget Cartoon from Câmara Municipal de Lisboa website Back – Sticker from de 2001 election for Lisbon City Municipality
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Introduction The goal of this report is to: enumerate the main problems, from the general public point of view, concerning the transportation system of Lisbon and respective metropolitan area; plus to present a structured approach to the evaluation of possible policies to address those problems. The first thing to be say is that addressing the transportation problems and policies evolves a wide array of subjects, some more obvious like: providing transport infrastructures (roads, rails, parking…), making choices about in which modes to invest, what kind of particular rolling stock/vehicles should be acquired and favored, and what transportation services to foster… But Transportation systems decisions also
beside the technical choices to be made, lies the question on how should the space that we in live be organized. That implies in a large degree to define what society1 broader choices are and what deeply affect and are affected by the land uses and spatial occupation. So
segments of the population should be taken in account, what conflicting interests should be tackled, were to achieve consensus and were to make policies much more aligned with some interest group agenda. In the end the technical choices are instruments of broader policies, and constrain but don´t define the problems. Second,
policy setting is not a turn-key solution but a process. To
identify the set of
2
problems to address , define a list of policies to solve it, and make the institutional design for implementing those policies as to be an integrated process. Institutional design is far from being neutral to the political process and to the policy choices we make. To design policies and institutions in a separate way is like walking in to a dead end, to do it without taking in account the broader political scenario is like driving seeing only 10% of the road. So, in this report we will try to give an integrated set of suggestions not only regarding particular policies addressing transportation3, but to give a “complete
and manage
tool kit” of policies on how to design
a political process towards the end of achieving a more efficient, effective and
sustainable transportation system, that mandatorily demands a better organized and sustainable City too. As much as possible we will try to present real examples
of policies and political processes that were implemented, never took off, are being implemented or are on the forge.
1 2 3
And stating, as Thatcher, that society doesn´t exist is in itself a extremely powerful message on how it should be organized. This in itself is already an important Political statement Like increasing the number of Bus Lanes…
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Main Problems Moving from periphery to center, waiting in line One of the most striking problems is the time consumed in traveling by car (or Bus) from the suburbs of Lisbon to the City center. Either you are from Loures, Amadora, Sintra, Cascais or from the south side, in the peak hour a trip of about 20 Km can take more than one hour. For instance in the IC19, one of the most congested roads in Europe, for a 13 Km distance that takes 15 minutes in free flow situation, requires more than 1 hour travel time in congested periods.4
Finding a parking space, anything goes... Lack of parking is a common complain, the sight of cars parked on the sidewalks, sometimes in double line is part of the urban landscape. There is a lot of time lost finding a place for the car user, for the pedestrian it severely impairs movements5 and security, for the Polis a valuable resource, Space, is lost.6
Public Transport, lost in the maze Lisbon City is served by Carris (Bus and Trams, some touristic services), Metro (the subway). The larger Metropolitan Area is served by CP (commuter train services: Sintra; Cascais; Azambuja), Fertagus (commuter train to south side), and Transtejo (several boat connections to the south side). Besides that there Figure 1 - Parking in Lisbon are several Bus companies that do suburban services. It seems a lot for a region of about 2,5 million people and a city with about 500 000 souls… And if some O-D trips are very well connected, the systems responds poorly to more combined trips (like from A to B, C, D, E and return to A) and some zones (even in the center of the city) are very poorly served.7 Moreover many of the time tables are not adjusted to the needs of many people that don´t have 9 to 5 kind of jobs. So The Car still is for many trips the fastest, and sometimes only, option. Especially for those that live in the suburban areas.
So many People with no House, so many Houses with no People The City of Lisbon as been losing population8 for the past decades, more then 60 000 houses9 in the center are empty, and many more are under used. Many urban infrastructures are neglected (streets, gardens…), and general dynamic is wavering10. Young people are pushed to the suburbs and this demographic movement towards the outer ring just increases the congestion problems and commuter trips, and can be pinpointed as a major cause to the first mentioned problem. Not only are the costs of 4
See Annex 1, 2 and 3 There are specially affected segments like old and disabled people 6 According to a TIS study, Estratégia e Orientações para a Gestão da Mobilidade em Lisboa, about 30% of the parking in Lisbon is illegal 7 See again the mentioned TIS study. You can also try to go from Martim Moniz to Braço de Prata on a weekend and see what time it takes by Public Transportation… more than an hour. 8 See annex 5 9 See Annex 4 10 An unpopulated space doesn´t have advocates on his defence and doesn´t justify the existence of services like schools, so many have been closed in the last years... 5
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lost time in congestion very huge as also the opportunity costs of so much underused space and infrastructure in the Center.
Strategy To address these problems a Strategy is needed, individual policies per se, not framed by a common vision, can only by chance achieve some success. Generally if implemented without this frame they tend to create a chaotic and squizofrenic habitat and a lot of resource misuse11.
Occupy It is necessary to revert the City population decline, to (re)Occupy it with people and activity, to increase it´s demographic density is the key goal to pursue. Only a city filled with people can face the challenges of the XXI century, we sometimes tend to forget that
the most important Resource any
region has is its Citizens. As for transportation an Occupied and denser city means less commuting that leads to less congestion, and less congestion also because mass transit can be more effective and softer modes become an alternative from a transport perspective and not only a weekend activity. These more compact environments allow for scale economies not just in transportation but also in general energy use, waste disposal and the delivery of public services (like education and health care). From the policy acceptance point of view
to offer not only better transport but a City to
enjoy is also a lot more appealing and galvanizing. Connect Is parking really the issue? Maybe the problem as to do with lack of accessibility, not lack of parking. Maybe more parking is not the solution but more intelligent and less city space consuming alternatives.
Before building more parks, tunnels and should try and manage better what we
We must question investments in more infrastructures. bridges, all high resource consumption solutions, we
already have, parking spaces, mass transit rolling stock and infrastructure. Our aim should be to connect every mode, to connect every zone, and to look at Carris, CP, Fertagus, etc.... as a single system to be managed as such and not a collection of entities obeying to different stakeholders. Connecting also means that the citizens should be more directly connected to the decisions, their needs and opinions listened. After all, is for them that the system is made.12
11
They also tend to be used as an instrument of some third party Strategy, sometimes used for opposite ends from those originally intended In the systems managing field the full potential of Computer science, network design, intelligent transportation, logistics, supply chain, operational research should be use. We should make better use of existing goods, and hard work should be done by the brain and not the muscle. When the need for new infrastructure is inescapable, the flexible design approach should be made, Richard de Neufville as an extensive array of Papers on this, see at http://ardent.mit.edu/real_options/Common_course_materials/papers.html
12
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City, Citizens, Economy and Technicians/Professionals “Down Town should be an open shopping mall”13, say that again?14 A City is a space designed for and by the Citizen not the consumer. Without citizens there is no city, without inhabitants there is no dynamic. Citizens of the Polis are the main actors of this story, if they aren´t, then we are talking about something else but not a city15. Commerce, culture, knowledge, work, services are the product of Citizens interactions and relations on the Polis, and Lisbon as everything to be a hub for teaching, learning, cosmopolitanism and several cultural manifestations, but for that it must have a mobilized, proud and empowered Citizenry to properly receive and attract the desired visitors. Economies should be at the service of the Citizen and should be focused in production and management
financial capital16 ability to reproduce itself disconnected from “real” production as lead to a major world crisis and it´s not compatible with the new sustainability paradigm. Above all the role of the State should be to foster and promote more efficient and of goods and services, not financial capital accumulation. In the past two decades the
effective services to the Public and not to play with financial tools and incentives, besides that all strategic sectors (energy, water, mass transportation systems and infrastructure, core of the finance system...) should be firmly under State grip and subject to Popular control.
Technicians and Professionals play a crucial role in all of this, but it is not up to them to set the policies, they should be instruments of Popular will, clearly defining the impacts of each choice, presenting a pallet of different technical solutions, and coming up with new ones to accommodate the decision made by the People. And the best way to enforce accountability is by involving directly the people in the decisions that concern them and having popular control mechanisms over institutions, processes and elected officials.
The Political Process How to implement this strategy? What particular policies should be pursued and advocated? We will start by presenting a set of methodologies that can be used to manage this process and then we will give several proposals to tackle the “material” problems. The choice was made to focus more on already existing trends and projects, and how they could be leveraged to maximize their effect/output, taking advantage of already existing inertia, instead of coming up with out of the bloom proposals...
13
From the “Down Town Plan” coordinated by ex-city council member Maria José Nogueira Pinto This colloquial language is far beneath what is used by some MIT Professors in their slides for classes in this program. One thing Europeans should embrace from USA philosophy is their plain, simple, direct, very interactive and unaristocratic attitude. The mentioned Down Town Plan is an example of pompous, obese and empty language. On the other and Europeans should keep their, miles away, sophisticated world vision, and problem setting ideology. Both sides of the Atlantic have a lot to learn from each other. 15 Maybe a sophisticated shopping mall, a monument, an historical play ground for tourists or a simple post card, not a CITY... 14
16
A symbol supposed to stand for material goods and services, acting as a converting tool, not an disconnected entity with its one agenda
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“Procedural” Policies Participatory budget Involving and empowering the Citizenry is key, and the Lisbon Municipality already used a very powerful
Lisbon citizens voting on the internet already allocated 5 million€ (5% of the city investment funds) for bicycle paths. tool to achieve this. The Participatory Budget.
In Annex 6 to 9 is presented a definition of what it is, a newspaper report about how it was approved, a report on how the process took place (what were the proposals, number of voters, etc...) and the final more detailed budget. This has a lot of potential, but it was done almost hidden from the public... More information17, more public meetings are needed. The Participatory Budget should also be used as an instrument to revive neighbourhood committees, and incentivize popular grouping around civic movements. The existing institutions, namely the Juntas of Freguesia, should also be more engaged namely because there may lie a source of opposition to the increase of Budget share allocated to this initiative. Urban Districts, pooling Lisbon Freguesias The truth is that the already existing institutions already allow much room for Direct Democracy, but beside lack of information, the main issue is that their scale doesn´t allow for an effective use of
In order to provide better and more services, also to foster popular engagement the existing Juntas should be pooled. Besides resources, so why bother to participate?
using zoning instruments18, more political bargaining considerations should be taken in account. Officials from Juntas can put some resistance, it is important to prevent an united front on their part. They should as much as possible be part of this process. The Communist Party (that rules some of the smaller Juntas) should be brought on board, this could be achieved by properly defining the new districts borders, and more than that by having a greater bargaining on a more broad range of local and national politics (like supporting a national process of regionalization, that they favour so much). If there is too much fighting and resistance a municipal referendum should be made19. In annex 10 and 11 we present some articles about this and a proposal already made for the 2001 municipal elections. Regionalization, again? Of course, another problem to Popular empowerment is that were people sleep, work, vote and live aren´t the same (many times). So a great number of young people that would like to participate in all of this are excluded because they reside outside the City borders, but Lisbon doesn´t end at its administrative borders. A Metropolitan Authority is absolutely needed to manage Transportation as a system not only having jurisdiction over every transport company but also having the appropriated geographical range. It also needs adequate funding and popular legitimacy. The problem is that there was already a referendum on this and we cannot blame the Citizenry for not wanting to multiply the number of “Albertos Joões Jardins”. So... An Idea is to advance with this only in Porto and Lisbon, but 17
It´s not easy to think several ways to achieve this at very low cost like having concerts and parties, cars with loud speakers cruising the city and mega Posters in some public spaces, and above all engaging existing social movements to spread the word… 18 Like the ones we used in the 1st semester for Tppa 19 Even if it’s not legally biding it will add political legitimacy to a controversial project and disarm the opponents
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then the “province” would roar in fury and demand their own regions also. At least the discussion
should be relaunched. Although rightly criticized as corruption breeding grounds the truth is also that “democratic local power” as dramatically improved citizen’s life’s (especially in the “province”) and many rural cities20 only endure due to it. Regionalizing is the next step. This time the pro-region coalition should be better organized, “Experts” should play a bigger role in the public debate21. The three left parties support it (in the last referendum the far left was divided on this issue, not any more), and the center right party is under some pressure from local bosses to also support it. Indeed it is possible to build a regime consensus around this, but a new referendum is unavoidable.
“Issues” Policies Bicycle sharing and Paths Bicycle is the most efficient transportation mode from a energy consumption perspective and performs very well from the space consumption22 point of view. It is being increasely used across Europe and it should also be incentivized here. Besides that, investment in bicycle paths is already being made by the Lisbon City Municipality, and also a bold Bike sharing system. In order to properly function in Lisbon it as to be coupled
with “hill” elevators posted in strategic locations to win the steeper inclinations23. Adaptations to Buses, Subway and Trains should also be studied so that bicycles can be easily carried in those vehicles. Figure 2-Bike Path in Paris
The way this is being planned in Lisbon raises some issues. The elevator component is being considered but probably not to the necessary extend. The Bike Sharing and Paths projects are not integrated; further more the Paths Plan is associated with the Green Spaces “department”, and strongly connected with the Green Plan, so these paths will connect the existing gardens... To what extend these paths will be designed as tools for mobility and connected to the main mass transit hubs is not clear. Right now it seems that the bike paths are being used to pull the Green Plan, when originally they were a mere component of that plan. The Paris example suggests a different approach were the bike paths are “minimalist” and share the Bus lanes, cost is minimum and some traffic calming effect can be achieved.
20
This might seem a contradiction but you can get what I mean…
21
The likes of Valentim Loureiro, Isaltino Morais and others should lay low as much as possible, they are smart and they should understand this. 22 See Annex 12, table from TPPA course 23 This could also serve the aged population
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Probably these two concepts are not incompatible and a hybrid solution can be obtained24. There already exist some studies on this, and a formal bikers association is on the forge25. Green Plan Sometimes demised as mere gardening, in reality it is a structural component of the City revival, it can be a tool for much more than “promenading” and be more than a green lung for the Polis. It can be a
wedge to insert the soft modes (Bike, walking, skating...) as a significant component of the Lisbon Transportation System if integrated with the “hills elevators” and mass transit hubs. It also reaches beyond the City and stretches to Cascais and Sintra, so it can be a perfect channel for soft mode across all Metropolitan area26. Although this component doesn´t seems to be very incorporated in the Plan conception, it can be easily attached and actually be the driving force for the plan implementation. Closing traffic in Terreiro do Paço Taking advantage of the construction works recently started traffic was cut in Terreiro do Paço, the objective is to do it in a permanent way. The signal is good but the devil is in the detail. This must be integrated with a wider mobility plan and the City Occupy and Connect process. The “open shopping mall” paradigm should be buried. Foster cultural-associative meeting points (even the NYT?) A new Cultural-Associative cultural scene is emerging in Lisbon, in Annex 14 a New York Times article mentions one good example, the Braço de Prata factory, but there is more: Crew Hussein near Lisbon Coliseum; Bacalhoeiro near Campo das Cebolas and the more militant27 Mouraria Social Center. This last one operates in an old palace that still houses the Popular neighbourhood sport club. They are all located in the heart of the city and are spaces for free debate, innovative culture experiences, and young people getting together. No big corporations and bankrupted Banks were needed, it´s low investment and costs (financially); instead of that labour, creativity, cooperation, sharing and existing Figure 3-Popular Dinner (2Euros) at Mouraria Social Center, it also as a balcony with a wonderfull view.
infrastructures reconversions were used as tools. These are glimpse of a brighter future.
24
These
For example, nice paths in the Green Plan Corridors and the “Paris” approach in the rest of the city.
25
There as being growing support for this mode, as the Participatory Budget result suggests, these sites have some information http://bicicletanacidade.blogspot.com/, http://massacriticapt.net/?q=sobre-a-massa-critica/massa-critica-em-lisboa, the best way to tackle the security issue is also to listen the people that actually already bike in the city... 26 In this Web page there are details about how this process is, http://lisboaverde.cm-lisboa.pt/index.php?id=3939. In Annex 13 some info is also available. 27 The author of this report introduced a debate there with the theme “Who wants to resurrect the electrical car?”
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Spaces should first of all be defended from arid predatory activities28, second they should be held high as good examples to fallow. They play a key role in generating a new positive dynamic. Urban Acupuncture, Massive Rehabilitation, Micro Credit and Projects Until now ongoing projects were mentioned, but the Strategic core hasn´t been touched. Occupy the city with people, rehabilitate the degraded urban infrastructure. Rehabilitate the 60.000 abandoned houses, plus the others also ruined and underused houses is Key. Lisbon Municipality also has setup a special plan to deal with this29, and adopted the interesting concept of urban acupunctured30. But a more massive investment is needed, and
this is the only issue for each large financing
from the State should be used,
besides all the benefits already mentioned this would also
create a lot of jobs, and for a very useful end in sight, and not just merely pump money back to the economy... The “Bastonário” of the Engineers Guild is defending this strongly31, and the Construction Workers Union made a similar proposal. General Public sympathy toward this is huge, and the Political party that picks this banner as a lot to win. Besides habitation, a tender for micro projects should be launched (from bars, small commerce, innovative services, etc... let a thousand flowers blossom!), credit should be given for this projects (including for rehabilitation of the buildings) at good conditions and many of the spaces owned by the City should be leased for this use. This would imply a initial large investment but as the micro-credit
This would give many young unemployed, highly qualified people a chance to start a project of their own, framed in a larger more comprehensive project. This is the experience shows these small loans have higher return rates than commercial credit32.
kind of investment that is worthwhile. City hall, Central government, Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Engineers and Architects Guild, should form a Committee to oversee this Plan: Rehabilitation of Buildings to be sold at low margins with supported credit, and the tender for micro projects coupled with the leasing of the spaces owned by not just City Hall, but also the Central State and Caixa. If it is necessary to divert State funds from other Mega-Projects to this one then so be it, a spontaneous coalition is already converging. The Citizenry should be rallied to this cause. The other projects lack popular support and are crippled with the high financing leverage they require, they look colossal but they have feet of clay. If needed, decisive action can bring them down.
28
The Lisbon Grémio shut down is a dark story, see Annex 15. This is being led by the ex Arquitects Guild President, and now Lisbon city council member. 30 For more details see annex 16 and http://habitacao.cm-lisboa.pt/ 29
31 32
See annex 17 See http://humanshelpinghumans.org/
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Lisbon City of Light, open University for Planning, Transportation and Rebuilding Not everything in the “Down Town Plan” is bad. One of the proposals is that a Rehabilitation Scholl should be mounted taking advantage of the works that would be necessary to rehabilitate the “Pombalinos” buildings of Baixa. This idea should be taken and expanded, to also include the Urban Planning and Transportation fields. In 2010 SENSEable City Laboratory33, an MIT Program, after exploring Rome and Copenhagen plans to come to Lisbon, the 12th World Conference on Transportation
these are wonderful opportunities to project Lisbon as an Hub for science and research in this fields. Our culture and weather are Research34 will also take place in Lisbon,
extremely welcoming, combined with technical proficiency, plus the ability to provide a fertile experiment ground for innovative technologies35 the appeal should be irresistible. Here I cannot escape to also mention the SAAL36 experience put in place in the hot years of the Revolution, we should not reproduce, but draw lessons from this initiative on how Expert/Professionals and the Popular movement can work together in the pursue of a better society, by satisfying some pretty basic necessities. Integrated Transit Management System A combined management system for all the transit systems in Lisbon might seem a bit ambitious, but actually there is a research project undergoing with this aim. It´s called City Motion37, integrated in the
This should be fully backed not just by academia, but also by the main stakeholder, the State and respective transportation companies. If needed, Popular MIT-Portugal program.
pressure should be rallied to implement this scheme. But to manage such a system besides a sophisticated IT tool, probably a change in Stakeholders is needed. Like a merging of Metro, Carris, CP suburban lines and Transtejo into a single company, this might sound a bit heretical, but cannot be easily discarded, after all in
Paris RATP38 manages the Subway, Tram, Buses and some RER lines, it is a model system, from the user perspective, completely integrated. This should be put in public debate, in the mean while the current government intermodality measures (integrated ticketing, new and improved interfaces) initiatives should proceed, and what happened in Oporto can also be taken as a more milled example for the City of Light. Anyway, Lisbon City Municipality and the, to be created, Metropolitan Authority39, should be stakeholders in these companies, starting now. Still the medium term goal must be an RATP like integration, this will minimize transaction costs and interface discontinuities, optimize network design and provide scale economies. Operations run by 33
See http://senseable.mit.edu/ http://www.wctrs.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=39&Itemid=60 35 Allways priveliging low cost solutions, and intensive use of IT and operational research. 34
36
See Annex 18 See na overview in: http://www.mitportugal.org/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=166&Itemid=1 38 See http://www.ratp.fr/ 37
39
An effective one, not the one that exists only in paper today.
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Private companies should return gradually to Public hands. Unions40 should be partners in this process, and different companies’ cultures should be tackled with care but not used as excuse not to move forward with the merging.
Mitterrand wife syndrome, lessons from Margaret and Hugo In our classes, Professor José Viegas, more than once told us the story about an interview with Danielle Mitterrand (ex French President wife). Danielle said in the interview “Soon after being elected, Mitterrand came to me and told me: I am the President, and still I have absolutely no power...”. It´s easy to enumerate decisions, but even when you are the French President your power is not just constitutionally constrained, but undermined by institutional inertia, capture by agents, an much more powerful than that, private interests. How can status quo Institutions be instruments of change? Getting them involved in the decision making process is a way, consensus building is another, applying competitive pressure41 another. But sometimes existing Institutions and powerful pressure groups have so much power and capture the processes in such a way that there is no option than have a full fledge fight. Especially when paradigm shifts are at stake and deep restructuring are proposed some resistance will
it will get pretty nasty. It can sound drastic but that’s part of the Historical Process, fixing big problems and crisis always involves some form or another of high intensity social conflicts. If you are not up to it, then you should give the inevitably build up, and
place to some one that is up to the task. Instead of cruising on air I will present two concrete examples of how, Revolutionary changes can happen without derailing to civil war, but also how head on conflicts are unavoidable.
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, war name “Iron Lady”, was UK prime minister from 1979 to 1990 in this 11 years period she not only lead a profound social-economical transforming process in the UK, but her actions were determinant in the triumph of the Conservative Revolution that triumphed in the 80th, the Cherry on top of the cake being the USSR disintegration in 1991. Society? "There's no such thing as society... There are individual men and women and there are families.” Of course there was resistance, but she was eager. Trade unions have deep roots in British politics and society, the Labour party was founded, financed and controlled by Unions42... The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) was the strongest in the country, in 1974 they went on strike and overthrew Heaths conservative Government. To implement her Strategy first she had to overcome this obstacle, in 1984 a pretext emerged, all miners went on strike... This strike lasted for a entire year, there were marches, picket lines 10.000 strong, confront with Police, but she didn´t budge. The fight was not for some pit closures, it was to break the back of the Union. She held the line and won... The defeat of the miners opened the way for neo-liberal
40
“Blue Colar” workers like, Bus drivers, suggestions, namely in the operational field should be taken in account. Having worked in construction I know from firsthand that years of accumulated experience are an precious source of Knowledge. 41 Not just by threatening to privatize, but also the prospect of restructuring or even eliminating them… 42 until she managed to break their back, then came the so called New labour Business Friendly
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politics: privatizing, labour laws de regulation, welfare relaxation... It was a paradigm shift from the social-contract of the post second world war years.
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, is the current president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, he holds the office since 1998. During this 11 years Venezuelan society has been reshaped and all of Latin-America is being swept by a left leaning wind of change. Independence towards the USA is stronger than ever43. Is project was of reasserting national independence, and use part of the country huge resources (mainly Oil) to raise life standards for 80% of the population that was marginalized, but also to empower them and bring them to the political arena. To do that PVDSA44 (a then, in paper, public company) executives, top union bosses, corporate media and the Oligarchy in general had to be willing to share not only the resources they had taken as their own, but also their monopoly on political power. At the same time he had to challenge the grip the USA had on Latin-America Politics. Based in part of the army, plus a broad and rather diffuse popular movement coalition he was able to face a Coup d’état in 2002, were for two days he was held in captivity, and a total lockout that lasted for three months in 2003. Only after defeating the Coup and the Bosses lockout was he able to mobilize the PDVSA resources, and the full army power, to implement the Missions, a comprehensive set of social policies from health care, education, food support, etc... This successful example was key in fallowing changes in Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Argentina... In Annex 18 you can hear a clip of an interview45 with General Muller Rojas, one of the main “Bolivarian” ideologues, and PSUV46 vice-president, he talks about the challenges of overcoming entrenched Burocracy.
So... You can pick your Champion, but you can´t run from the Fight
Conclusion This report is not exempted from passion and some romanticism, when implementing change, in moderate doses, this two components are determinant to galvanize support around the Cause, or Vision. Moreover, many of the choices made here, or departing assumptions are of political nature, framed for what one considers should be a minimally decent Society, and what are the most pressing priorities. Still when we choose to address Congestion and Transportation problems, we are already making some choices and assumptions on how should society work. If we use the Sustainability buzz word, and are honest about it, it implies a lot more assumptions and Political choices, so in the end to have a coherent Strategy many of the choices made in this report are directly derived from those base assumptions. To put in other words, the
Strategy that was presented is fully compatible with solving Congestion problems, addressing Sustainability and improving Democracy. Maybe some Sacred Cows are questioned but you simply cannot keep the cake and eat it at the same time. 43
15 years ago Cuban representatives were not even invited to South-American summits, know they are welcomed presence...
44
The Venezuelan Oil Company 45 This interview was conducted in person by this report author 46 Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela
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The purpose of the report wasn´t to present solutions to the congestion problems, but It was impossible to pass without a “recepies” policies section. It could have been greatly extended; but the choice was made to stick to ongoing processes that have some potential, and some other core, very obvious proposals. Besides in the end, as argued, the ultimate decisions should stay with the People, that is not to say that Public Officials and Technicians shouldn’t, and indeed they must, serve as advocates of some particular policies in the public Arena. More than anything else this report was design to provide some information and structured thinking for those who will read it, hopefully they might find it useful, and if it might help them reach their own conclusions it would be great. I end with a simple collection of key buzz words/guidelines for the future, Creativity-Flexibility-Innovation-Labour-System-Integrated Management/Design-Sharing-Paradigm ShiftBrain Power-Real Value
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Annex List 1 – IC19 Congestion Newspaper Report 2 – IC19 Congestion Newspaper Report 3 – IC19 Congestion Newspaper Report, Republic President tests the Road 4 – Empty Houses Newspaper Report 5 – Lisbon city Demographic Study 6 – Participatory Budget: What is it? How is the Process? 7- Participatory Budget Newspaper Report 8 - Participatory Budget report on how it was in 2008 9 - Participatory Budget Final Budget 10 – Urban Districts, pooling the Freguesians, opinion 1 11 – Urban Districts, pooling the Freguesians, opinion 2 12 – Modes Efficiencies 13 – Green Plan 14 - Lisbon Comes Alive, New York Times 15 – Lisbon Grémio, Police Brutality 16 – Urban Acupuncture 17 – Interview with the “Bastonário” of the engineers “Guild” 18 – Interview with General Muller Rojas
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