TOD gone wrong: Stuttgart 21 Protests

http://niciskei.wordpress.com/2010/10/01/tod-gone-wrong/

Commuting and stress: a clinical trial by a journalist

Americans — and commuters in general — are experiencing ever-greater hurdles during their trips to and from work. Human beings spend an unholy number of collective hours sitting in cars and other vehicles, and pay for it in the form of an even unholier amount of emissions, work hours wasted, and money spent on gas, parking, tolls, and car maintenance. Not to mention overall well-being: According to a Gallup-Healthways poll of over 170,000 employed adults in the U.S., the longer it takes you to get to work, the greater your worry, neck and back pain and cholesterol. Plus there’s the fact that longer commutes also translate to decreased life enjoyment and less sleep.

more at the Infrastructurist

Ruimte en Mobiliteit Meeting 17 September

Presentation of Antonio at Meeting 17 September 2010

Present
 Luca, Andrew, Marco, Thomas,  Guowen, Els, Jan, Paul, Leonie, Antonio  and Wendy (minutes)
Roel, Thomas, Mendel (absent with apologies)

Agenda
Introductions across (new: Antonio, Leonie)
Update all with congress visits, books, etc.
Marco to present findings from the congresses he attended.
Presentation by Antonio about his CV and research project (replaces Thomas's presentation, postponed to 8 Nov)

Announcements
Antonio has joined us for 2 years as a post-doc - funding.
Paul is joining us more intensively with us to finish his dissertation.
Former colleague of Guowen is planning to join us. (Yin Min) Same research direction on high speed train. 
2nd Semester we will get a visitor from the US from a Fullbright scholarship (Mike Myers, Georgia Tech, Atlanta). Quantitative, measuring effects of climate changes and policy.
Wendy has completed a book, Megacities for the Megacities Foundation. Ideas to present it at a wider level, PIT, Urban Studies even AISSR.
World HIgh Speed Congress (UIC) in Beijing, Ministry of Railway in China, Guowen wonders if someone is attending.
Paul had 2 workshop in the last weeks. Nice discussion. Paul had an interview with Municipality of Utrecht involved with the Station area. Lodewijk Lacroix is asked to perhaps join us for a meeting/presentation. Somewhere in Nov perhaps on reflection of Stedenbaan / process. 
Idea for different sort of presentations (with feedback of PhD and practice, special meetings with practice partners and interesting speakers). 
Jan was part of one of the workshop of Paul. Workshop was on new ideas for the Zaan corridor, getting more and more focus as possible alternative for Almere. Article can be sent around by Luca. Zaanstad planning department was very interested in keeping contact with academic.
Leonie is writing a new piece of the planning association, discussion societal impact of urbanism from scratch, financial crisis and real estate (To be published soon). Introduced Caroline Altenbourgh to Marco, doing research on climate change and external integration into spatial plans. 
Els announce that confusion between NWO and NICIS PhD to attend 8 Nov conference, there is perhaps not enough room for us except poster presentation. RBAAM in Almere still focusing on the IJ-meer connection. 
Andrew has been organizing  workshop with RuG and UvA for 1st and 2nd year PhD, started in AESOP. Will know by next week definite date. Andrew wrote a paper for CWS dealing with theoretical components about his research and co-ordination of transport and land use.
Antonio has just arrived and is happy to be here.
Marco represented PITs at the book market. Presented some of our research but it seemed to be just for commercial purpose. Discussion ended with publishing dilemmas of researchers.
Luca and  Marco will go the next week to present  COST action. WIll deliver interesting network, try to be at centre of content based on Thomas and Marco's work and initiated by Cecila Silva on accessibility indicators. 
Behavioral aspect of climate change. Networking is the way to complete knowledge, to specialize to have something to offer - Klaartje Mulder. 
Education has just started, 160 first years (unknown mix of planner/geographers). Future model of education could be that Bachelors is focused on Social Sciences with planning as a part of it. Merging of research school could probably lead to more multi-disciplinary rounds.
Luca is on sabbatical, but he just teaches less but spends the hours on research instead. He might want to put his academic experiences in a book.
Marco cannot attend the congresses  


Congress visit:
AESOP (Guowen, Wendy, Els, Leonie, Andrew and Luca attended) will be in Perth next year. A choice has to be made as to who to go due to monetary constraints. Too broad for specific feedback, more for networking. Leonie is president of the planning law and property rights, originated from the tracks but is more focused and gives feedback.
PhD workshop gave good feedback for Els with contacts on her research. The intense focus on her research design was very helpful for her work. Possibility for action participation research seminar from PhD network contacts. Interdisciplinary researches will be interesting to follow more than 1 tracks to widen your network and knowledge.
Luca found that compared to other years, the quality was higher. Good move to make paper compulsory, increases quality. There is a development in the group with the existing and new attendees. The track might do a specific transport workshop before the world congress. 


WCTR, (Andrew and Marco attended) Andrew considered it way too large and difficult to find sessions to attend. Quite quantitative researches. Networking on international level was useful. 


The role of quantitative support systems for decision making processes - workshop attended by ELs in Aalborg, Denmark.
Els will share an interesting article.


Marco suggests that people collect interesting information for dissemination within group. Good to bring in interesting, thought provoking articles, graphs or even books and contact andrew to include it into graph.




Antonio's preliminary ideas for a research project:
- widen association of mobility across fields (culture, academia, land use, economy and finance)
- mobility is so strong that he feels intuitively the (perceived) benefits of mobility should be challenged
- how to develop an integrated solution to build in aspects of wider association, question if mobility is indeed desirable
- transport planner are in the centre of the whole fracas of it all
- why are we not accessibility planners instead?
- to present some PhD work of his


Challenges will be to make such ideas researchable. Approach mobility in representative objects or things at the border of 2 or more discipline. 


Mailing list: COSMOBILITIES

Ruimte en Mobiliteit Meeting 18 June 2010

Present
Mendel, Luca, Andrew, Marco, Thomas,  Guowen, Els, Jan, Paul  and Wendy (minutes)
Roel (absent with apologies)

Agenda

• Short introductions
• Announcements
• Presentation (Andrew): Transition strategies for sustainable integrated transport in the Randstad
• Presentation (Jan): 'Densification' and infrastructure planning

Announcement

• Andrew will take over Els coordinating role for the coming year. Wendy will keep supporting with the website and whenever needed.
• Thomas has contact with Curtin and Melbourne, to build accessibility models, with aim to build one for polycentric region (OV-Randstad). Thomas arranging funds and Jan Scheuerer will be here in July but based out of Goudappel Coffeng. To ask for presentation opportunity. 
• Thomas asked by APPM to participate in group to write about accessibility in Randstad, dealing with planning process and improvements.
• Luca was also involved in Spoorzoneontwikkeling group, possible lobby platform for TOD in Netherlands. 
• Thomas doing research for railway development for North Holland, in contact with Paul and Wendy.
• Paul is organizing a workshop in Zaanstad for MRA and perhaps its good to join up efforts. City region has sensitivity towards spatial development. Rotterdam Blaak will be next workshop topic in September - trying to unravel the success factors and together with private stakeholders.
• Els is going to join a summer course on ex-ante method on evaluation process, followed by a conference in Aalborg, Denmark. Els to pass around information for the group on conference.
• Wendy will have an evaluation symposium in September for her research project and Leonie Janssen-Jansen will be her other supervisor. To add Leonie to join group.
• Andrew's research will probably  have JG (from political science) as supervisor as his focus will also be based on transition theory. JG's group is interested in linking transition to transport/mobility issues.
• Mendel received email from TU Delft, if theme group would like to collaborate on workshops with TU Delft/YA from AESOP/practitioners. Brainstorm & proposals are welcomed. 
• Martin de Jong is comparing land use planning and decision making (NL vs China) - role of culture in decision making (Institutional transplantation) in Delft at 15:30 on 29th June. 
• COST action funding approved. COST Project: cross country networking fund. Research will be linked and possible collaboration and publications. Build up for EU funding. Based from AESOP Transport Planning group for YA. Workshops will be held on current accessibility measures used to support land use planning. Partners: 10 countries, open to others now. Structure of workshop to be homogenous and use results for publication. 
• Post doc advertisement closed this week. All application will be vetted by Marco and Thomas. Appointment has to be soon and for 2 years. International candidate who can easily integrate, possibly participate in new proposals. 
• Application ongoing for NWO sustainability for cities with W. Salet and TU Eindhoven. 
• Kevin Chung - visiting researcher from John Forester has arrived. He will do something in Almere. 
• Possible post-doc from China, but financial issues. Similar topic to Guowen.
• Carey Curtis will spend sabbatical in 2010 here with group. Luca might join her in Perth for collaboration in 2011. Closest group to us in terms of topic and approach. 
• Many of the group will be in AESOP in Finland this July. Luca will chair transport track. 10 min presentation and 20 min discussion. Each session is chaired with moderator. There will be transport planning round table at event but possibly coupled with the Airport City excursion. Interesting papers should be put on blog. Luca can send Thomas program of track.
• World conference on Transport in Lisbon, Portugal. Andrew, Marco and Mendel. 
• CVS congress deadline. 

Ruimte en Mobiliteit Meeting 19 March 2010

Present
Roel, Mendel, Luca, Marco, Els, Jan  and Wendy (minutes)

Agenda

• Announcements
• Presentation (Wendy): Results from Interviews/Workshop NICIS KEI: Barriers for Transit Oriented Development in Netherlands
• Presentation (Els): Theoretical model over technocratic and communicative approach conflict.

Announcement

• 15 Apr Railforum Matchmaking - Stakeholders from rail transport (Rail to Tram, Public Organisation) looking for students who are interested and busy with their issues and topics. (http://www.railpedia.nl), good for networking and knowledge exchange.
• Bachelor thesis (topics: Tram 1 and Amsterdam Habour) needs supervision and to be judged in April.
• Planning voor Ruimte en Mobiliteit, min 70 students applied. Syllabus has been revolutionized according to criticism from students from the year before (literature list and assignments). Blog will be set up for students as discussion platform and dissemination point (able to leave discussion point, view multimedia bits and track participation). New form of education will be more interactive and students will be judged on new criteria as in module guidebook. Students will be guided with an existing project to make the educational process more concrete and tangible.
• Marco is promoted. He will begin in 1st April with his new research. 
• Contact with Programma Spoorzone Ontwikkeling from VROM. Updates will follow.
• Jan has contact with Vereiniging Deltametropool for the tool SprintStad (serious gaming). Looking together with Paul Chorus to see if it is feasible to make deliverable products. 
• Verkeer and vervoer congress in Aalborg in end August. PhD workshop in Denmark.
• COST application in Brussels (Marco & Cecilia from Portugal), to be used for networking and travel costs for research initiatives. Luca is formal chair for this application. 
• Sustainable cities group in UvA (inter/intra faculty, inter discipline), Luca is leading the Mobility cluster (research and education).  Similar initiative will be set up on national level, with Peter Nijkamp (NWO) leading discovery phase. Inter and trans discipline approach.  Research institutes showing trend of inter/trans-discipline tendencies.
• Bereikbaarheid Randstad (3e ronde) - 2.5 year for 2 postdocs position. TU Eindhoven submitting an application together with our group. 
• Restructuring of Bachelor education, chance to identify what is interesting for us. Grouping of certain courses or new educational forms. 
• AMIDSt is now AISSR, with some concrete changes for the PhD students. More formal steps and products will be required. Compulsory educational courses are missing for planning subjects. Discussion needed what theory and method courses are required. NETHUR can still be pursued. 

Publication of article

Finally, my paper about Mediated Planning Support was published. You can read and refer to it under the following information:

http://envplan.com/epb/editorials/b3601com.pdf

Sustainable Accessibility in the Randstad

Our group member, Marco (Drs. M.C.G. (Marco) te Brömmelstroet) recently did an interview with our Faculty communication department regarding the 2 new positions (Post Doc and PhD) awarded to the group by the NWO (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek - Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research). The research consortium in which Marco will be a part of will involve other academic partners in researching sustainable accessibility within the Randstad as commissioned by the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management.


Congratulations to Marco!


Excerpt from Site (in Dutch)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gepubliceerd op 1 december 2009

Het NWO-programma Duurzame Bereikbaarheid Randstad moet maatregelen opleveren die de duurzame bereikbaarheid van de Randstad op langere termijn kunnen garanderen

Een postdoc en een promovendus van de Faculteit der Maatschappij- en Gedragswetenschappen werken mee aan interuniversitaire NWO-onderzoeksprogramma's die zijn gericht op de duurzame bereikbaarheid van de Randstad.

Het NWO-programma Duurzame Bereikbaarheid Randstad is een initiatief van het ministerie van Verkeer en Waterstaat. Het daagt de beste academische onderzoeksgroepen in Nederland uit hun visie te geven over maatregelen die de duurzame bereikbaarheid van de Randstad op langere termijn (2030 tot 2040) kunnen garanderen.

In de tweede ronde van het NWO-programma zijn drie projecten geselecteerd: Klimaatverandering en ruimtelijke ontwikkeling, Integrale duurzame bereikbaarheidsstrategiëen en Innovatief prijsbeleid voor duurzame mobiliteit. Voor het tweede project, waarin de mogelijkheden voor het verkleinen van autoafhankelijkheid in de Randstad worden bestudeerd, mag de FMG een promovendus aanleveren.

Erkenning voor de zachte kant van de wetenschap

Een FMG-postdoc gaat aan de slag in het onderzoeksprojectKlimaatverandering en ruimtelijke ontwikkeling. Naar alle waarschijnlijkheid is dat Marco te Brömmelstroet (afdeling Geografie, Planologie en Internationale Ontwikkelingsstudies), die eind maart zijn proefschrift verdedigt. Hij richt zich in zijn promotieonderzoek op ruimte- en mobiliteitsplanning en dan met name op de informatieoverdracht op dat gebied. ‘Er is nog vaak een hardnekkig, ideaal-typisch model van de wetenschap: de wetenschap levert kennis en modellen aan, en de praktijk gebruikt deze om gesignaleerde problemen op te lossen. Dat is in de praktijk niet het geval. Gebruikers en ontwikkelaars van kennis moeten met elkaar in dialoog komen en blijven om ervoor te zorgen dat de ontwikkelde kennis daadwerkelijk wordt ingezet. Zoals een Chinees spreekwoord zegt: Tell me and I'll forget, show me and I might remember, involve me and I will understand.'
Te Brömmelstroet is blij dat NWO zijn bijdrage waardeert met een subsidie. ‘Onze onderzoeksgroep Planning, Institutions and Transforming richt zich op de "zachte" kant van de wetenschap zoals ik die net heb omschreven. Voorheen toonde NWO daar weinig belangstelling voor, maar het lijkt er nu op dat dat verandert. Die erkenning voor ons werk is een doorbraak.'

Auteur: Esther van Bochove, afdeling Communicatie FMG

How Governments Gets a Job Done

Papers and Presentations of Seminar

The draft papers of the scientific participants of the seminar on the changing role of Transport Models in Urban Planning Practice are published online. Also, all presentations can be found. Sadly, the video recordings failed to deliver useful output.

You can find everything by clicking on the title of this message!

Talk of the Town - Column Thomas

Dear Ruimte & Mobiliteit adepts,

This is the link (http://www.dezwijger.nl/page/7380/nl) to the 'talk of the town' meeting where I will read out a column about how a trip from Breda to Amsterdam will look like in 2040. The meeting is on november 17th and starts at 18.00 hrs.. It will be in Dutch. If you have any suggestions for my column let me know.

Best wishes,

Thomas