Transport’07 – The next 50 years 

July 25 to 27, Christchurch . By Bevan Woodward

When my request to the Transport’07 organisers for a reduced conference fee (for a poor, starving, volunteer cycling advocate) was rewarded with an offer of half price, I decided – Yep, I’m going!

However I was a little anxious and wondered if I was entering ‘enemy territory’.  Would I be asked to pledge support to build bigger and better roads?  Would I be overcome with bitumen breath from some of my fellow delegates?

On arrival I couldn’t find a nearby cycle rack, so I defiantly locked my bike to a lamp post right outside the entrance to the Christchurch Conference Centre.  Apart from feeling a little ‘underdressed’ amongst all the suits, it was surprisingly easy to mix with the folk of New Zealand’s transport underworld.

Each day of the conference had four simultaneous streams of 8 papers to choose from.  Each paper was 30 minutes long and here’s a summary of what I learnt from the 22 papers and 6 keynote speakers I attended over the three day duration of the conference:

In essence…

It appears that three issues could come together to cause a radical change in the way we manage our transport systems:

1)   Climate change:  The first day’s keynote speech was entitled “Global Warming is Unequivocal” by Dr Kevin Trenberth from the USA .  It was very convincing. We must reduce our emissions (not reduce the growth, but reduce in real terms)

2)   Peak Oil: Within 3 to 5 years oil prices could go sky high, as supply can’t keep up with the demand. I heard two  speakers say they were unsure about peak oil, but this article leaves me with no doubt.

3)  Worsening congestion: Transport planners are starting to realise that instead of solving congestion, new roading actually encourages greater car use and makes it harder to provide for the sustainable transport modes of public transport, walking & cycling

 The good news is that a bunch of good solutions exist…

1. Reduce the need for people to travel and goods to be transported (eg: mixed use planning, compact urban form, producing locally, work from home, etc.)
2. Integrated planning, taking into account all the modes to move to the more sustainable transport options of public transport, walking & cycling
3. Improve the efficiency and sustainability of each mode (improve vehicle efficiency and emissions, electrify, biofuels, road pricing, car pooling, etc.)  
4. Inter-modal transport (eg: bikes on PT, park & ride, co-ordinate PT services, etc.)

 The bad news is…

A lot of the talk on sustainable transport was aspirational, rather than real measures.   I realised it’s not easy for some transport planners to adapt.  Through training and experience, they have become very good at maximising the capacity of roads for more cars.  But now they’re being asked to reduce the cars on our roads!  Such a change in approach requires different skills and paradigms.  There is a lack of training and support to help transport planners into this new approach.

A few other impressions…

There was a lot of specialist knowledge at the conference, but not a lot of generalist wisdom.  There was quite a lot of talk about "roads Vs public transport", and presenters could often be stereotyped as a "roading" or "rail" or "shipping" or "PT" or "TDM" person. It stood out for me that a holistic approach of considering all modes and working out which were best suited to meeting the desired objectives wasn’t being talked about much. 

There was only one cycling expert speaking at the conference, but that didn’t bother me too much because as I’ve stated above, I believe transport planners have to master all the modes if we’re going to level the playing field and deliver sustainable transport.

Here are a few specific tips…

In order to save money, I had decided to not attend the evening social functions.  However this was a mistake as I realised that these can be important networking opportunities giving you the chance to socialise and strengthen relationships.  Luckily I managed to score a ticket to the main dinner function from another delegate who had to go home early (Thanks Greg!)

When choosing which papers to attend, I suggest you do what Glen Koorey (spot the researcher!) does... read the abstracts in advance.  Sometimes I chose a paper based on its title alone and ended up sitting through a presentation that I would have preferred not to!

Listen to speakers you might be inclined to strongly disagree with.  I found this was a good way to learn about their thinking, and on a positive note, to find the common ground.  For example, I attended the Road Transport Forum paper and was pleasantly surprised to hear them advocate for “sensible road pricing”, which given the London experience makes sense to me.

A concluding thought…

It seems we’re at the cross-roads (how appropriate for a transport conference).   We can continue ‘business as usual’ and watch things get worse (eg: increases in pollution, extreme weather, community severance, vulnerability to oil prices, danger for cyclists and pedestrians, etc.) ultimately ending up with a civilization described by one presenter as “Tribal Trading”.

Or… we can use the approaches described above to help us manage and mitigate the impacts of transport in order to contribute to a sustainable existence – the choice is ours!

Written by Bevan Woodward, I'd welcome your feedback or questions.  In October I will be attending the European Transport Conference in Holland - in the meantime I'm planting many trees to lessen my carbon footprint (and associated guilt!)