Strategic participation for sustainable transport

Strategic participation for sustainable transport Lake Sagaris, MSc., PhD (c) Planning and Community Development Ciudad Viva, Santiago, Chile.

Transforming Transportation, Washington 2012 Overcoming the challenges of integrating urban transportation systems

The University of Life: It started with a march and...

Ciudad Viva (Living City) was born in the fight of 25 community organizations against a major urban highway concession, Chile’s first, the Costanera Norte (1996-2000).

We saved our neighbourhoods from destruction and voted to continue with new proposals.

...became citizen-led planning.

Practical, realworld experience and the reflection and theoretical development of MSc. and PhD. studies (urban planning) Citizens and government celebrating procycling roundtable, Santiago 20072010.

What’s at stake?

Sustainable transport matters

Going from this

to some version of this...

New living systems require: A new equation: • Citizens x (widespread understanding + articulate demand) = political will to change. •

Academic knowledge: bridging across silos

Experiential knowledge: Recognition of value added

Participatory institutions for bridging: sustainable transport equivalent of Chambers of Commerce.

THE (FATAL) ATTRACTIONS OF AUTOMOBILITY...

•100 •Main

years, billions of dollars in advertising… product (after mortgages) in the financial industry.

•For

users, cars (like cigarettes) promise “freedom”: door-to-door service, user-defined timing, ability to carry cargo (especially children and groceries)

HOW CAN WE CURB THE CAR?

Cycling advocacy exploding worldwide...

•Missing

to date:

•Citizens’

movements and advocacy in favour of all sustainable transport, including public transport and BRT. •We

won’t get more sustainable cities without them...

Practicalities = Policies

Strategic participation 1. Fundamental 1: Making PARTICIPATION strategic 2. Fundamental 2: POLICY STREAMS AND ENTREPRENEURS 3. Fundamental 3: POLICY TRANSPLANTS 4. Planning and implementation: starting from people 5. Putting it together, sustainable transport as part of new systems for living

Fundamental 1: Strategic participation

Well-planned, well-integrated participation builds connections among disparate groups and players, tuning individual voices by providing them with information and incentives to sing out, but above all connecting them, so they function with all the power, inspiration and effectiveness of a welltrained choir.

Mobilizing “ecologies of actors” (or “policy entrepreneurs”)

Involve

much

Co-operate

Partners

Influence

Opponents

Fans little

Outsiders

positive

Utilise

Attitude on the issue

negative

Inform

Source: Tom Godefrooij, ICE/Brabant planners, The Netherlands

TIME is an issue: the onetwo rule of policy innovation •20-

to 30-year cycle for significant policy change, •roughly

four stages.

1. Small innovations, often erroneous and/or imperfect 2. Contagion: problem-solution-crisis 3. “Sexy city”, crisis, or other catalyst 4. Exponential growth, often from one-city level to national policy

The one-two rule: maintain the movement 2/3

Experts (technical staff, academics, NGOs, operators, others)

create pro’s, to counter the contras 3/3 The one-two rule:

CREDIBILITY DEPENDS ON Knowledge Skills Connections Independence

Individuals are good, organizations better Continuity beyond government turnover Independent monitoring and evaluation that other people value, credibility Instant data, which can replace, supplement or complement expensive studies Optimal conditions for successful pilots Accumulate: Skills, knowledge, capacity, relationships, networks.

Fundamental 2: Policy streams and entrepreneurs

Policy not “rationaltechnical�

Reflects framing and agenda setting (Kingdon)

Connecting PROBLEM and POLICY streams How can we resolve

Who’s asking?

Congestion, road safety

City and regional governments, citizens

Air pollution

Governments at all levels, especially regional (metropolitan), CSOs, health actors

Obesity/sedentarism, non-communicable diseases, social determinants of health

Governments, WHO (urban, transport and education systems highly relevant)

Inclusion: access to the city’s benefits (jobs, culture, education, etc.)

International agencies, policy makers, individuals, families and neighbourhoods

Improvement to public spaces, children

Cities, neighbourhoods, people, especially children (nowhere to play), public health especially US)

Social justice -- human, social, economic, environmental rights

Women, disabled, elderly, children, full inclusion -- international agencies, policymakers, citizens.

Global warming/climate change, especially heat island, transport energy

International agencies, lead cities, environmental and other citizens’ groups

Peak oil

Public policy makers, leading edge academics and thinkers (business, media)

Loss of biodiversity

International agencies, environmental groups, biologists

Water quality

International agencies, policy makers, lead cities, environmental and other citizens’ groups

Fundamental 3: Getting the most out of policy transplants

Leverage points Where change happens Level of action

Formal relations

Constitutional level (ground rules)

Legal systems

Policy area level Formal regulations (relations between governmental bodies) Operation level (daily Procedures activities) De Jong et al. The Theory and Practice of Institutional Transformation

Informal practices Value orientations Informal codes

Roles

Who does the leveraging? Our policy entrepreneurs (Kingdon), mavens, connectors (Gladwell and others), “owners�

Passive recipients vs...

Active policy entrepreneurs

A specific kind of communication needed

You have all these allies sitting out there on your buses, walking or riding alongside on their bikes, how to bring them on-board?

Communication

LARGE FORMAL SPACES

FORMAL SPACES LARGE AND SMALL

SMALL GROUPS, FORMAL AND INFORMAL SPACES

Communicationparticipation spectrum

4. Planning and implementation: starting with the right people (the choir director)

Bringing people together: deliberation Small groups and large Ongoing and one-off Multiple feedback mechanisms Genuine integration: of people into processes, of walking and cycling into public transport, of different transport layers within the city, with respect for public spaces.

Don’t call a vet when you need a doctor...

Not communications, marketing, sociology...

We need experts in URBAN SYSTEMS (the spatial dimension) and PEOPLE. INTERACTIONS and RELATIONSHIPS. DIVERSITY. INCLUSION. EMPOWERMENT. Wholistic, bridge-builders, strong participatory skills.

Most common in NGOs and CSOs (civil society organizations), adult education, some health, urban planners (north), anthropologists, human geographers, mediation (law, women’s studies).

Civil society actors KEY Extensive networking, diverse relationships (internal, external), multiple skills.

Horizontal relationships: governments set rules and give orders, the private sector sells, civil society educates and invites people to change.

Low-risk experimentation, small-scale to mid- to large.

CREDIBLE, autonomous, transparent, communicate Outsiders, effective innovators (Jane Jacobs: innovation comes from outside the system).

All over the world...

Global CSOs sowing grassroots change: bottom up, but also middle out, and reaching through the top, down. Interface for Cycling Expertise, ITDP, Embarq...

5. Putting it together... by focusing on people

Remember that sustainable transport is the answer: what if the question is how to live happier, healthier, more socially inclusive lives?

WHO - Public health: new priorities everywhere Social determinants of health Obesity epidemic, under- and over-nutrition Mainstreaming health into every policy area WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, HEALTH NGOS AND HEALTH AUTHORITIES, EG. KENYA, CHILE, INDIA, US, CANADA.

Obesity epidemic, underand over-nutrition The main challenge in public health for the 21st century, in both developed and developing countries Associated with high-calorie, low-nutrient foods And car-based urban (not only transport) systems.

EG. THE ACTIVE LIVING CENTER, US, FINANCING CIVIL SOCIETY AND RESEARCH, PUBLISHING URBAN DESIGN AND OTHER MANUALS TO FIGHT THE OBESITY EPIDEMIC.

OVERWEIGHT & OBESE ADULTS

38% HEALTHY ADULTS

62 %

ACTIVE LIVING RESOURCE CENTER

OBESITY RATES IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1989 LESS THAN 10% OBESE 10-14% OBESE

15-20% OBESE MORE THAN 20% OBESE

NO DATA

ACTIVE LIVING RESOURCE CENTER

OBESITY RATES IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1993 LESS THAN 10% OBESE 10-14% OBESE

15-20% OBESE MORE THAN 20% OBESE

NO DATA

ACTIVE LIVING RESOURCE CENTER

OBESITY RATES IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1997 LESS THAN 10% OBESE 10-14% OBESE

15-20% OBESE MORE THAN 20% OBESE

ACTIVE LIVING RESOURCE CENTER

OBESITY RATES IN THE UNITED STATES IN 2000 LESS THAN 10% OBESE 10-14% OBESE

15-20% OBESE MORE THAN 20% OBESE

ACTIVE LIVING RESOURCE CENTER

OBESITY RATES IN THE UNITED STATES IN 2001 LESS THAN 10% OBESE 10-14% OBESE

15-20% OBESE MORE THAN 20% OBESE MORE THAN 25% OBESE

ACTIVE LIVING RESOURCE CENTER

Developing countries too

SOBREPESO, OBESIDAD Y OBESIDAD MÓRBIDA

NACIONAL: 89.4% HOMBRES: 87.9% MUJERES: 90.8%

Sedentarismo en Chile Sobrepeso 43% > en Hombres Obesidad 25% > en Mujeres Ob.Mórbida 2.3% > en Mujeres FUENTE : ENCUESTA NACIONAL DE SALUD 2003

What about healthy transport?

Health measures: Bans on pro-car advertising Health warnings on cars: “Driving causes cancer, obesity, heart attacks, diabetes 2 and other disabling and fatal conditions.”

Ban on cars in “sensitive” areas:

•

congested, polluted, vulnerable population (residential, commercial)

•

needy population, especially children, desperate for places to play and move,

•

low-income and high-density living spaces...

Healthy transport-only roads and districts: Imagine the savings in infrastructure if ST has its own roads!

Not as crazy as you might think After all, as Peùalosa reminds us, we’re building our cities for a hundred years Some cities have already started, and They are succeeding with cigarettes...

Transport/land use/public space Take short trips OFF buses and metros and improve comfort Limit space on roads, discourage car use for short journeys, give whole roads to buses and active transport, improve walking and cycling access as part of projects Improve quality, expand catchment area: walking 1 km in 15 minutes, cycling or cycling-rickshaw-taxi 5 km, added comfort (loads), reduced costs (stations more spaced out) Add green: to corridors, bus-ways, access ways, roofs of stops and service buildings. Think water.

We are already seeing (relatively) isolated examples of these shifts.

We need to mobilize them more often, more coherently, in more diverse spaces...

Arguments for reduced car use Increasingly cars are used for short trips (under 5 km) – from 41% (Santiago) to as much as 75% (New YorkManhattan).

Drivers at high risk for heart attacks, road rage and other physical and mental health problems Children spend long hours being shunted from one place to another by car, limiting their physical, mental and social development

For “road diets” and “complete streets”

Arguments for Women Trip-chaining makes public transit expensive Multiple roles, particularly shopping and children, make public transit very uncomfortable for tasks involving cargo Double duties leave little time for health-related activities.

To foster cycle use Public transit as “back-up” for bad weather, ill health, cycle breakdown, getting over physical barriers (hills, highways).

Saves money – makes car ownership unnecessary and can save on feeder services and station costs Multiple health benefits from both cycling and public transit use.

For Social Justice and Inclusion FOTO JOSÉ IGNACIO MOLINA

Learning to see the whole picture: Fitting the pieces together Walking and cycling: short distances from 07 km, including transport ingress and egress trips

Public transport: medium to long distances, medium to high density, concentrated destinations

Car: Long distances, low density

concept: Tom Godefrooij, I-CE.

•A

City

Hong Kong Santiago Amsterdam Sao Paulo New York Berlin Delhi Copenhagen London Toronto Stuttgart Chicago

Powerful Alliance is possible Modal share local trips in Selected Cities (%) Sustainable Pub. Tr. Walking Cycling Car/ mot, Transport (PT) (W) (C) cycle (PT + W + C)

84 73 67 66 62 61 57 51 50 44 40 12

46

38

0

16

33

37

3

27

15

26

26

34

29

37

0

34

54

8

0.4

32

25

26

10

39

42

n.d.

15

29

12

19

20

49

19

30

1

50

35

9

15

21

4

59

6

5

1

88

55

…and necessary

When will we see these kinds of movements advocating for public transport too?

When we work together!

Walking, cycling, public transit are complementary modes.

Better conditions for all three offer potential for strong, complementary effects – and better reviews from the public.

Campaigning and design information from walking- and cycling-inclusive planners can significantly improve public transit’s image and facilities.

Participation by active, well organized citizens and their organizations is a STRATEGIC NECESSITY

We live the city of our dreams, from the first moment we dare to dream and build it, together.