Revamping Transport - Best Sesion I've had so Far!!!!

Now that was a wonderful session!

A transportation lecture, exactly how it's supposed to be:  

Clear, Concise, Intelligent, and Honest.

The presenter not only knew his subject matter inside and out but was also willing to admit the limits of his knowledge and ability to answer questions. That's a rare gift. Plus, he listened carefully to questions and answered them well without straying too far from the topic. Also rare to find in the intellectual community that has been gathered here. More often they just like to hear themselves speak.

He began with a description of the problems with urban transportation, which most of us over-look when thinking about the issues; the inefficiencies of use, the lack of logic in planning and manner in which scientific knowledge is ignored by policy planners.

For example, the amount of kilometers traveled on average by single occupancy vehicles over short distances which could be avoided. In short, if you're going to the supermarket you needn't go 5 times a week for 5 short trips, but instead could go once a week and buy what is needed for the whole week. Huge possibility for improvement here...ahem...Mom and Dad ;-)

In addition to the inefficient manner in which we've been using personal transport he addressed public transportation and what could be done to both improve cost AND environmental impact at the same time. Their goal being to completely electrify urban transport would not only protect against fluctuations in fossil fuel prices, but also to create a cheaper, more pleasant system to live near.

All of his arguments were backed up with sound statistics which came from the study his university did on their own rather than relying on secondary data of questionable validity. This way we could all see where his arguments were coming from.

Finally, he debunked a few myths and misconceptions, which pervade in the minds of all people when considering how to change the transport system such as: people love their cars too much and will not give them up. He showed that in fact it's only roughly 20% of people who love their cars so much that they're not willing to listen to any arguments pertaining to a changing transport system. 80% of people is more than enough to keep the conversation going.

The fellow was from the Stockholm Environment Institute of York.

His name I didn't get because I came late but he was Awesome!

This is the first session I've been to that made me glad I came all the way from Taiwan to hear this stuff. It's about friggin' time! :-)