Eric Britton is a sustainability advocate who works as an adviser to government and industry on matters involving technological, environmental and social changes which are creating new circumstances for decisions of public policy and private practice. His life work is a commitment to the principles of sustainable development and social justice. An American living in Paris, he has worked with cities, ministries, public agencies, NGOs and transportation companies on five continents, as well as for the United Nations, European Commission, and OECD. In 1988 he founded the New Mobility Agenda, an open self-organizing collaborative network bringing together people of many backgrounds and from many countries who join forces to support new thinking and world-wide collaborative problem-solving on issues and strategies for sustainable transport in cities.
Born in Mississippi, his university education took him to Amherst College, Columbia Graduate Faculties, University of Rome, combining studies in the physical sciences, international affairs, and economics. Britton is a founding editor of the Journal of World Transport Policy & Practice, winner of the 2000 Stockholm Challenge Environment Award and of the 2002 World Technology Environment Award.
I would like to start with Steve Heminger's excellent suggestion of yesterday afternoon that "Our guiding principle for financing the 21st Century transportation system ought to be "user pays" ", but take it one step further – and this on the grounds that one of the most valued contributions of a very good idea is that it may lay the groundwork for an even better one. So in the spirit, might we not jiggle this idea just a bit and take as our guiding principle "beneficiary pays"? Now ugly though this phrase may be I propose that it takes… Read more
The one thing we can be entirely sure of is that if we are to succeed with this challenge, it will be in very different ways than those we have relied on in the past, back in the long-ago, worn out 20th century if you will. This is one of these issues in which we have to be especially smart and flexible. The biggest challenge is the one in our heads. To get the job done we are going to have to execute a major paradigm shift when it comes to finding ways to bring additional funding into the sector,… Read more
“Lessons from beyond our borders?” Not quite finished with this one yet. One month later to the day our guide Lisa Caruso posed to our panel on 26 January, I am now ready to respond as promised. My initial response (http://transportation.nationaljournal.com/2009/01/transportation-beyond-our-borders.php#1264848 ) was to indicate that, rather than try to provide my own personal best answers, I would instead reach out to our long established international new mobility network and ask one hundred of my colleagues who are right in the middle of these issues in their own cities and countries to share with us their answers. (It occurred to… Read more
"What can we learn...?" When our friends From the National Journal asked us this intriguing question on the 26th of January, I indicated to you at the time that my contribution was going to be to reach out to one hundred or so of my distinguished international colleagues working in our sector in various parts of the world and to ask them what they might have to share with us on this topic. Right from the horse’s mouth, if you will. I would now like to share with you a brief interim report of what we have managed to achieve thus far.… Read more
We seem to be getting caught in one of our traditional spats for between partisans of opposing philosophies concerning the respective roles of public and private sector. As we all know this is a dynamite question and certainly one that is worth a discussion topic of its own. Each of us has doubtless their own political and strategic philosophy on all this, and while I am aching to give you my own (Executive Summary: new sources of finance including fair charging for access to the public right-of-way, value capture in its many variants, full cost pricing for energy, new transparent and… Read more
Decidedly our international colleagues continue to come back to support the idea that if America is looking for great new ideas, including that America itself may not be a bad place to start. This latest in this morning from Michael Yeates of Brisbane Australia. I quote: * * * * * "Thanks Eric and Peter (http://transportation.nationaljournal.com/2009/01/transportation-beyond-our-borders.php#1267536) ... excellent. There seem to be several problematic issues here however so may I use some examples? A. It seems that aside from the occasional occurrence of a real leader, and then somewhat contrary to ideas of democracy, innovation has first to get noticed and overcome objections and obstructions… Read more
Peter Wiederkehr, formerly director of the OECD EST! program for "Environmentally Sustainable Transportation", who is currently senior adviser to the Austrian government on transportation and environmental policy, picked up the phone this morning and called me in Paris to tell me the following (my paraphrase): "Eric, I think you and your colleagues on that National Journal transportation expert panel are asking some great questions about international experience that the incoming Obama team and the US more generally will do well to know more about. There are, as you know, many great ones out there and this will surely be… Read more
On Pat Jones’s “The (Foreign) Language of Transportation Innovation” That is both an interesting piece and very nicely said. Thanks Pat. Your piece brings up two points, one of which substantive than the other organizational, both of which I would like to comment briefly. On the grounds of substance, I can only agree with you that there certainly significant part of our infrastructure which has traditionally been funded by taxpayers and then used freely willy-nilly by anyone who happens to want to access it, that should be deeply rethought. And as you say international experience makes it clear… Read more
Great question, thanks for asking it. But as I was sweating out the details of my contribution, it suddenly occurred to me that I had a unique opportunity to report back to you on this far more usefully than in my own words. All it would take would be for me to step back and find a way to offer this bully pulpit in some efficient way to the thousand or so well-paced colleagues in countries in cities around the world with whom we regularly work and exchange ideas on just these matters under the New Mobility Agenda collaborative program -- leaving them… Read more
What about one to ten dollars a gallon? $1.67 is an interesting number, but suppose we look instead at a broad range of possible prices -- for example something in the order of anywhere from one to ten dollars a gallon. Now that is an interesting question. What does a spread like this mean for national policy? And If you are uncomfortable working with that huge range, well you better get used to it because it is just one example of what we call the New Normal. That's the kind of thing that we need to be prepared to look… Read more
Tear down those walls, Secretary LaHood! Contribution to the National Journal Transportation Panel - by Eric Britton, 12 Jan. 2009, New Mobility Partnerships, Paris and Los Angeles Summary: The greatest single challenge before our new Secretary of Transportation faces will be to tear down the walls of the past that have worked to hold back the development of a more effective and more sustainable transportation system for the United States. The challenge facing his team is nothing less than that of reinventing transportation, which is exactly what we need to do now. And in the process seizing this probably once-in-a-lifetime opportunity… Read more
"Has Mass Transit Finally Arrived? Part II" - by Eric Britton, 11 January 2009 New Mobility Partnerships, Paris and Los Angeles I have been getting some pretty rough treatment from some of my most distinguished transportation colleagues concerning my earlier contribution to this panel under the heading of "Has mass transit finally arrived?" (22 December, see http:// nationaljournal.newmobility.org). I have no doubt I deserved it, but let me see if I can respond here to their three main challenges. · The first is that they assure me that my harsh words about the role of "mass transit" will serve to… Read more
"Has Mass Transit Finally Arrived"? I for one certainly hope not. And since I may be the only voice here that expresses this view, I better be ready to justify it. Let’s try a better question. "Has mass transit finally arrived" . . . is an example of a pretty good kick-off question. But as everybody knows one of the most useful attributes of a good question is that opens the way for something better, for example to a great question. In this case the great question is "Have viable new mobility options finally arrived"? There is a huge difference… Read more
Responding to the challenge: I’d like to start from the beginning with this question. So rather than talk prescription or recommendations in this first communication, I would like to concentrate on process. In this spirit I propose to open with a few thoughts on what we mean by this word infrastructure, then on to a word on transport in cities (that being where the people are), followed by a quick look at who we are (and who we should be if we are to get this job done right). Finally, a modest proposal to create an appropriate base to guide the… Read more
12.00 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";} What about one to ten dollars a gallon? $1.67 is an interesting number, but suppose we look instead at a broad range of possible prices -- for example something in the order of anywhere from one to ten dollars a gallon. Now that is an interesting question. What does a spread like this mean for national policy? And If you are uncomfortable working with that huge range,… Read more
Related Link: http://www.newmobility.org
