Posts Tagged ‘transport’
Energy, Transport, Housing & Summer Reading for the PM: Grattan Podcasts
Posted in Opinion, Research by Kate Archdeacon on December 22nd, 2011
Source: Grattan Institute
Australia’s energy future was considered in a seminar series that Grattan Institute ran jointly this year with the Melbourne Energy Institute. Webcasts are available for the final two seminars on the future of solar power and transport.
Grattan’s report Getting the housing we want was launched on November 21 by Cities Program Director Jane-Frances Kelly in conversation with former Victorian Premier, John Brumby. Transcripts and recordings of the launch are available, as is the report.
Every year Grattan Institute produces its Summer Reading List for the Prime Minister. The list contains books and articles that we found stimulating and a pleasure to read, and that we believe the PM, or indeed any Australian, should read over the break. Watch the launch or download the reading list.
www.grattan.edu.au
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The Recharge Scheme: Improving Mobility Access
Posted in Movements by Kate Archdeacon on September 7th, 2011
The RECHARGE Scheme™ is about encouraging local businesses and organisations to provide a power point so you can recharge the battery on your electric wheelchair or scooter, if required. The Scheme was first developed in the Shire of Nillumbik. It is a Disability Services Community Building Program initiative (Metro, Rural and DeafAccess), supported by the Victorian Department of Human Services, in partnership with Local Government. Thousands of organisations and businesses are also proud program partners.
RECHARGE was developed in response to the increasing number of people in Nillumbik with restricted mobility using electric scooters or wheelchairs as a means of transportation. Negotiating the steep roads and footpaths of the area however means that batteries run low more quickly and deter people from travelling longer distances. Through the MetroAccess initiative, we have been able to respond to these needs and draw on the strengths of Local Government and the Community to ensure people who use an electric scooter or wheelchair have more opportunities to participate in their communities.
Based on the community need and subsequent success of the Scheme, many other Victorian councils are joining forces to encourage local businesses and organisations in their area to participate. In November 2010, the RECHARGE Scheme™ received a Commendation by The Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI), as part of its ‘Bold Ideas, Better Lives Challenge’ for a proposed national roll out plan. This is the first significant step towards securing an appropriate Sponsor to fund the national roll out. Pending funding, the Scheme would rolled out Australiawide from 2012.
RECHARGE stickers are displayed on the windows of participating businesses so you can easily find them. There are also RECHARGE stickers placed above or near power points so you can quickly ascertain which power point has been designated for your use. The RECHARGE website also maintains a list of accessibility resources, and the RECHARGE finder lists recharge points in greater Melbourne.
http://www.rechargescheme.org.au/
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GoGet Co-Founder @ Melbourne Sustainability Drinks
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on August 31st, 2011
| 7 September , 2011 | ||
| 6:00 pm | to | 8:00 pm |
Bruce Jeffreys is on a mission to transform our cities by reducing the number of cars on our local streets. With Nic Lowe, Bruce co-founded GoGet CarShare , Australia’s first car sharing program that today is the world’s fastest growing scheme. Operating across Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide, GoGet has 15,000 members sharing 600 vehicles via a 24/7 smart-card enabled booking and access system. GoGet has pioneered a major shift in attitudes to private car ownership in Australia and re-shaped local transport and planning policies. In 2010 GoGet was named the 27th fastest growing private company in Australia (BRW Fast 100) and was a founding member of the International Car Sharing Association.
Wednesday the 7th September from 6 – 8pm
For more information and to RSVP go to the Melbourne Sustainability Drinks website.
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Bike Futures 2011
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on August 24th, 2011
| 12 October , 2011 9:00 am | to | 14 October , 2011 5:00 pm |
With the transport crisis a long-term reality for Australian cities, there has never been a better time to improve livability by embracing the benefits of bicycling. Bikes bring back the human scale of public spaces, changing streets from places to avoid into places to congregate. Delegates will hear how bicycling plays a key role in transforming cities into liveable spaces at Bike Futures 2011 from 12 – 14 October.
Now in its third year Bike Futures has become the key annual professional development for national and local leaders, planners, designers and builders to use bike transport and recreation to advance their communities. Bike riders have emerged as a critical indicator species of livability. In towns and cities around the world business and civic leaders, questing for the secret to attracting talent and innovation, are reaching for the Bike Plan.
Bike Futures 2011 will discuss how to take the next steps from providing bike infrastructure – essential for mobility – to changing the ways cities work. When Bike Plans are done well, we know we will find a healthy social and economic ecology. There is little doubt that bikes subtly but powerfully transform the street, calming it, warming it, making it magnetic to people and their conversation and commerce. Bike Futures 2011 will bring together world leading experts as well as some of Australia’s leading practitioners on how to best respond to the issues confronting communities as they embrace the bicycle revolution.
Keynote speakers:
- Gil Penalosa is an internationally renowned liveable city advisor and is passionate about creating cities for people. He is Executive Director of the Canadian non-profit organization 8-80 Cities and also works as Senior Consultant for the renowned Danish firm Gehl Architects.
- Gordon Price is the Director of The City Program at Simon Fraser University. Gordon has served many terms as a City Councillor in Vancouver, BC. As the Vancouver Sun declared when Price stepped down from the City Council, “‘Councillor Bikeways’ has done more than any other elected official to shape the city and the way we use it”.
The three-day conference is presented by the Bicycle Network and hosted by Bicycle Victoria.
Wed 12 – Fri 14 October 2011
Etihad Stadium, Melbourne
http://bikefutures.conferenceworks.net.au/
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Mineral Water in Eco-Kegs, Delivered by Bike
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on August 11th, 2011
Source: Broadsheet
Image courtesy dhmsco
From “Kegs, Bikes and Bubbles: dhmsco’s Mineral Water Revolution” by Hilary McNevin:
We got to thinking about the environmental impact of buying imported mineral water in glass bottles and found a company with a bright idea and a three-wheeled bike. A keg of mineral water built into a Danish Christiania three-wheeler bike – it’s pimped, it’s got a brolly, it’s looking good and it’s coming to a market, café or restaurant near you.
The Daylesford and Hepburn Mineral Springs Company (dhmsco) have taken a simple and very logical idea and are literally taking it to the streets. Founders and directors of dhmsco, Mitch Watson and Brylie Rankine have been selling their mineral water, which is sourced from the Daylesford spring naturally carbonated, to their customers in customary bottles, but have now taken the next step of providing restaurants and cafes mineral water in recyclable eco-kegs.
[...]
The beauty of serving water through a reticulation system such as a keg is that, while cutting down packaging to a minimum, it also eases the costs and environmental impacts of travel and shipping. The water can be sold by the glass or bottle in the restaurant and the bottles Watson supplies to the restaurants are made in Spotswood, Melbourne, rather than being manufactured overseas and shipped to Australia.
The next step is to make more Melburnians aware of the quality of dhmsco’s mineral water and the notion of the mineral water keg, which is delivered on via the keg bike.
[...]
Restaurants in Melbourne to have dhmsco mineral water on tap so far include, Little Creatures, Dandelion, The Corner Shop and Ladro. Watson is also in the process of developing syrups to add to the water in classic flavours such as cucumber, hawthorn, elderflower, natural tonic and rosehip (he’s also working on a nettle syrup but acknowledges it’s not quite ready to go).
There is the opportunity to check out the dhmsco keg bike, taste the water and the syrups at the Melbourne farmers markets (mfm.com.au) each Saturday from mid-August at its various locations. “We want people to try the syrups and tell us what they think,” explains Watson. “We’re doing research.”
Read the full article by Hilary McNevin on Broadsheet.
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Ausbike 2011 Melbourne Bike Expo
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on August 5th, 2011
| 20 August , 2011 | ||
| 21 August , 2011 |
Ausbike was born out of necessity; before the Melbourne Ausbike Bike Show 2009, Australia had no national cycling trade expo. The show was such a success that this year there will be hundreds of exhibitors from Australia and around the world. Not only has the content of the show increased, but so has the length. The show will open on Saturday the 20th of August 2011 and run until the 22nd of August 2011, with the first two days reserved as a public-only event and the last day trade-only.
Ausbike 2011 covers all kinds of cycling including: Road, Track, Time Trial, Mountain Bikes, Cross Country, BMX, Trials, Kids, Toddlers, even Unicycles! Not only will bikes be showing but also an unimaginable array of accessories to go with your bike and your lifestyle. This show is an absolute must-not-miss event for anyone interested in bikes or who works in the bicycle industry.
Ausbike 2011 Melbourne Bike Expo has an exhibition space of over 10,000sqm and an expected 10,000 bicycle enthusiasts and 2500 trade experts will attend the show. Visitors will be able to:
- See brands from around the world and speak to those who know them best
- View a fantastic collection of vintage bikes proudly put on display by many of the premier collectors of Melbourne
- Try out some of the new bikes for 2011/12 bikes
- Catch the BMX comps
- Look at the new cycling fashion trends including urban and sports
Trade registration is open, public tickets are on sale now.
www.ausbike.com.au
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D.I.Y Bike Workshop
Posted in Events, Movements by paula on August 1st, 2011
| 13 August , 2011 | ||
| 2:00 pm | to | 3:30 pm |
With hands on guidance from Port Phillip EcoCentre staff, learn how to maintain your bicycle including fixing punctures, taking wheels off (and putting them back on!), adjusting brakes, saddles and handlebars.
In the event of poor weather, this event will be run indoors, nearby the SeaBaths – look out for more information on the A-Frame in front of the Seabaths (on the foreshore).
Saturday, 13 August
2pm-3.30pm
Location: St Kilda Sea Baths, next to bike path along foreshore
Cost: $10
Bookings essential. Phone: 9534 0670
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Encouraging Sustainability-Related Behaviours: Transport
Posted in Movements, Opinion, Research by Kate Archdeacon on July 8th, 2011
Source: Awake
Image: Richard Drdul vial flickr CC
Getting People from A to B: This is the second in a series of articles summarising research into efforts to encourage specific areas of sustainability-related behaviours.
There is little doubt about the benefits of reducing the amount of travel that people undertake in cars. Decreased traffic congestion and pollution, more exercise, and less need for expensive infrastructure investment are just some of the positive societal outcomes of more people choosing alternatives to private car travel. For some people, driving is almost the only choice, such as where there are significant structural barriers. A lack of public transport infrastructure is an obvious example. However, for a large proportion of car trips, internal perceptions and motivations appear to be the main barrier. For instance many studies have shown that up to half of car trips are less than 2km in distance. It is these situations, where perception and motivation are the key barriers, which offer some of the best opportunities to increase non-car travel.
Those wishing to encourage more sustainable transport choices face a number of challenges. For a start, car use is a classic “social dilemma”. Social dilemmas occur where there is a clash between immediate self-interest and long-term collective interests. People generally gain a lot of personal benefit from driving their cars. The car gives them flexibility, speed, privacy and comfort, all of which are highly desirable attributes. By asking them to give up their car for the sake of such things as reducing pollution and infrastructure costs, we are asking them to act for the good of the whole community. The other option is to be able to demonstrate the personal benefits of the proposed alternative, to the extent that these outweigh the benefits of car use.
Which leads to the next significant barrier to car use – habits. It has been clearly demonstrated that transport choices are highly habitual. This means that they are behaviours which are undertaken repetitively, with limited decision processing each time. We decided a long time ago that this was the best way to get from A to B, and now we no longer have to think about it each time, instead just relying on a kind of unconscious autopilot to direct our behaviour. In fact, a study found that the stronger a persons travel habit is, the less time they spend examining information presented to them about different ways of travelling. As a result, even if the personal benefits of public transport rise considerably, people with a strong car habit are unlikely to seriously consider or even notice, as they are generally not consciously deciding on mode of transport. For example, an improvement in local public transport services may simply go unnoticed by those who are committed to driving. In a review of this subject, leading Danish researcher John Thogerson concluded that “due to the force of habit, decisions may be repeated even though important conditions have changed and made a non-chosen alternative more preferable”.
A third factor which works against the adoption of car alternatives is the gap between knowledge and behaviour. While providing information about the consequences of car use and possible alternatives can increase peoples awareness of the issues, this does not have a strong relationship with the likelihood that they will change their mode of travel. One particular study which attempted to change transport behaviour resulted in the following finding. “Some powerful methods of influence available in psychology were used: individually directed feedback, dealing both with environmental and financial consequences, self-registration, and commitment. Nevertheless, no change in actual transport behaviour was brought about. These measures proved insufficient to stimulate drivers to leave their cars. The car is too strongly linked to feelings of independence and convenience for that to happen”.
So we are up against some pretty significant barriers when it comes to convincing people to change the way in which they get around. Fortunately, there are some things which work.
Changing Places: Responsive housing, mobility systems, and networked intelligence for future cities
Posted in Events, Research, Visions by Kate Archdeacon on July 7th, 2011
| 22 July , 2011 | ||
| 6:15 pm | to | 7:15 pm |
CityHome Image, © Daekwon Park for MIT Media Lab
Changing Places: Responsive housing, mobility systems, and networked intelligence for future cities
Professor Kent Larson, Director of the Changing Places Research Group, MIT Media Lab
To meet the profound sustainability, demographic, and health challenges of the future, new strategies must be found for creating responsive places where people live and work, and the mobility systems that connect them.
Professor Kent Larson will present the work of his MIT Media Lab research group to explore the intersection of high-performance housing with urban mobility-on-demand systems, including persuasive electric bike-lane vehicles to encourage exercise, the transformable live-work “CityHome” that functions as if it were much larger, and autonomous parking/charging technology. He will also review the group’s “Living Lab” experiments to better understand and respond to human activity in natural environments including sensing, algorithms, and interfaces for proactive health and energy conservation.
Friday 22 July 2011
6.15pm-7.15pm
Prince Philip Theatre
Ground Floor, Architecture Building
The University of Melbourne
To RSVP or to find out more about the lecture, go to the Melbourne School of Design site.
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Better Place: EV Network for Canberra 2012
Posted in Movements by Kate Archdeacon on July 5th, 2011
Source: Climate Spectator
From “Green Deals: EV Pricing Takes Shape” by Giles Parkinson & Samson Adams:
Electric vehicle network operator Better Place has formally sealed a deal to bring the first switchable battery vehicle, the Renault Fluence ZE, to Australia next year, and to provide a new model for managing the costs of transportation. The deal between Better Place and Renault extends an arrangement in Israel and other countries, where the car manufacturer agrees to import the Fluence and use the Better Place infrastructure to charge the vehicle, as well as the battery swapping stations, which Better Place says will take as little time as it does to fill a car with petrol.
The first cars will be deployed when the Canberra network is launched in early 2012. The pricing arrangements for the five-seater Renault have not yet been announced, but it is expected to be around $30,000 for the car only, comparable with other medium-sized cars. Better Place will then offer a battery leasing arrangement that will include the cost of the battery, access to charging stations at home and in public areas, and the cost of the electricity, as well as navigation services, 24-hour customer service and support.
Better place argues that a “fixed price for mobility” will free car owners from the constant volatility of petrol prices, and the cost or repairs of a vehicle engine with hundreds of moving parts. “When you buy a petrol car you are effectively signing a contract to bring it back to the oil cartel once or twice a week and promise to buy petrol at whatever price they say,” Better Place Australia CEO Evan Thornley said. “Our subscription will cover everything and it will be competitive with petrol.”
It is expected that the Better Place arrangement will be attractive for consumers who currently spend $80 or more a week on petrol. In Israel, the Renault Fluence is being sold for $33,100, with monthly subscription priced at $350 for an annual 23,000km package, or up to $430 for a 30,000km package. The network will be open for other EVs to charge their cars, but Better Place is confident that other manufacturers will eventually produce EVs specially tailored to its network and its rechargeable battery model.
Read the full article on Climate Spectator or visit Better Place Australia.
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