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Case study briefs |
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SMART news |
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About SMART |
 Dear Friend of SMART:Happy New Year and welcome to the inaugural issue of SMART's e-NEWS briefs. In each issue we will profile one local and one international case study on the theme of sustainable transportation and accessibility, selected thematically from our global innovations files. We'll also catch you up with a quick summary of the latest SMART news and events. To learn more about SMART's mission and activities and how to get involved, go to ABOUT SMART. We'd like to hear from you. Please send your comments, questions, related research, favorite innovations, case studies, and collaboration ideas to Susan Zielinski, Managing Director of SMART at susanz@umich.edu. Case study briefsFrom Highways to Walkways: Urban Restoration in SeoulUnder the leadership of Mayor Myung Bak Lee, Seoul has embarked upon an ambitious plan of sustainable urban development with transportation and accessibility at its core. A shining example of Lee's success is the restoration the Cheonggyecheon River in Seoul's city center, formerly covered by six kilometers of elevated highway built at the start of Korea's economic boom in the 1960's. The two-year, US$350 million project began in October, 2003, with demolition of the highway, and was concluded with a grand opening of the Cheonggyecheon in October, 2005. The restored river provides miles of walkways and bikeways, including five of twenty-two bridges reserved exclusively for pedestrians and cyclists. Plans are afoot for more of the same, with three elevated road sections targeted for removal in 2006, and ten more in 2007.
Before and after photos of Cheonggyecheon River project, Seoul, South Korea While some roadways are being removed, those that remain are being used more efficiently: Mayor Lee has encouraged the rapid growth of Seoul's Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system. Median lanes are reserved exclusively for buses, with somewhere between 100 and 200 kilometers of median lanes already functional, and there are plans to continue the expansion. Based on successes such as these, Myung Bak Lee received the "2006 Sustainable Transport Award" in January, 2006. This award is given annually by a group of three organizations: the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, Environmental Defense, and the US Transportation Research Board Committee ABE90. The recipient city is an example of practices that "reduce fuel use, emissions, and traffic accidents, improve mobility for the poor, and enhance the quality of space for pedestrians and bicyclists."
Median lanes for BRT, Seoul, South Korea For more information: Driving without owning: Zipcar in the U.S.Increasing urban congestion? Unbearable costs of parking? High insurance rates? This reality across US cities may sound like a nightmare scenario, but in 1999 it sounded like grounds for creating a business to Zipcar founder Robin Chase. Chase copied a Berlin model for a hassle-free car without the cost of ownership, and Zipcar has grown from three North American locations to eleven in just a few years.
Zipcar - a range of models Free and easy parking How does it work? For a fee of $25 up-front and $50 annually, a new user signs up online. After a computerized check of her driving record, she receives a Zipcard by mail. When she wants to drive, she reserves a car online for pickup at one of Zipcar's convenient locations throughout her city. At reservation time, she walks up to the car and unlocks it with her Zipcard: no line, no hassle, no filling up, no insurance, and no car maintenance. Zipcar estimates that 40 percent of their 80,000 members decide against a car purchase or end up selling their car, and with car use priced per hour, Zipcar users drive less. With solutions like Zipcar, cities might just become cities again rather than parking lots, and with the US population 81 percent urban and increasing to 85 percent by 2020, this looks like a business model with a real future. For more information: Cases selected and presented by John Gearden SMART newsTwo Successful Grant Awards to Develop Accessibility IndexSMART was recently awarded a three-year EPA grant to develop an index assessing and comparing North American metropolitan regions on the basis of accessibility. This novel approach contrasts with the traditional mobility-based approaches of transportation planning. Even more recently, the project gratefully received a grant from the University of Michigan's Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute (GESI). An accessibility perspective focuses on what and how much people can accomplish within a given travel timeframe and budget, rather than how fast they can travel. Ways to achieve more accessibility include: integrated, multi-modal transportation; proximity (smart land use and urban design); and information technology (to reduce or replace trips). This approach favors social equity and environmental sustainability over speed and distance. The project is led by Jonathan Levine, SMART member and Chair of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Michigan's Taubman School of Architecture and Urban Planning. SMART members involved include Carl Simon and Joe Grengs. SMART Members Head to Bangalore, India and Johannesburg, South AfricaSMART members Tom Gladwin, Jonathan Levine, and Susan Zielinski met with top CEO's, government officials, and NGO's in Bangalore, India in early January to explore systems-based analysis and solutions related to New Mobility and accessibility, including New Mobility business opportunities. The collaborative group supporting this work includes Janaagraha (the local host organization), the Confederation of Indian Industry (C.I.I.), The Next Practice, the University of Illinois at Chicago team led by Moira Zellner (see "Speaker Series" below), the Illinois Institute of Technology's Institute of Design, the Ford Motor Company, and the Ford Mobility Masters Project. Immediately following the Bangalore event, Tom Gladwin, and Susan Zielinski met in Johannesburg South Africa with key industry representatives to catalyze and accelerate integrated sustainable transportation strategies in nine South African cities in preparation for the World cup 2010 and beyond. This initiative is being undertaken in partnership with the Prince of Wales' Business and the Environment Program, and Barloworld. SMART Speaker Series: Highlights and Future DirectionsThanks to the National Science Foundation's Human and Social Dynamics program, SMART's 2006 Learning Community Speaker Series was a great success. Speakers included: Robin Chase of Meadow Networks on emerging information technologies and new transportation services; Eric Miller from Civil Engineering at the University of Toronto on agent-based transportation and accessibility modeling; and Jeb Brugmann of The Next Practice on emerging New Mobility markets at the Base of the Pyramid. It also featured a dynamic and diverse panel from the University of Illinois at Chicago focused on integrated dimensions of sustainable transportation, accessibility, and land use. Panelists included: Kazuya Kawamura, Jane Lin, Yandan Lu, P.S. Sriraj, Vonu Thakuriah, and Moira Zellner. Thanks to those who participated in and enriched the process. For 2007, the roster looks just as exciting. Watch for details in upcoming emails. New Transportation Center at UMICHStarting in the summer of 2007, the University of Michigan will have a new Tier1 University Transportation Center thanks to funding from the US DOT. Housed at UMTRI (member of SMART), the Center's theme will be "safety and mobility throughout the lifespan" and will focus on both young and older adult users of transportation systems. The Center will be directed by David W. Eby, a Research Associate Professor, and will be guided by an Executive Committee comprised of U-M faculty (including SMART members Peter Sweatman and Jonathan Levine), an External Advisory Board comprised of non-U-M stakeholders, and center faculty and students from around the University. SMART at LargeOver the past year, SMART has presented, advised, and published on a variety of topics, including: Sustainable Mobility and complex systems, accessibility, and New Mobility markets in global city regions. Smart members' publishing activity included: Zoned Out: Regulation, Markets, and Choices in Transportation and Metropolitan Land Use, a book by Jonathan Levine; and "New Mobility: The Next Generation of Sustainable Urban Transportation", an article by Susan Zielinski in the Bridges Magazine of the National Academy of Engineers. Presentations were given at the Brookings Institution Growth and Built Environment Conference in Washington, at the Frontiers of Engineering Conference in Dearborn, at the New York State Public Transit Association in Cooperstown, at the "Innovations for A New West" conference in Aspen, and more. About SMARTSMART is an inter-disciplinary initiative that focuses on sustainable transportation and accessibility in city regions of the world. It is a project of CARSS (the Center for Advancing Research and Solutions for Society*) at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. SMART takes a unique systems approach to understanding and transforming the future of urban mobility and accessibility. Moving beyond the technical fix alone, it "connects the dots," bringing together the various disciplines and sectors, the players, the theoretical approaches and the practical applications required to tackle urban transportation's growing complexity, sophistication, impacts, and opportunities. Through collaborative, trans-disciplinary, multi-sectoral research, through on-the ground projects, and through academic programs, SMART concentrates in four main research and action areas: • Systems-based analysis and solution-building • Accessibility-based planning and policy making • Sustainability - environmental, social, and economic • New Mobility markets - identifying and developing new markets and business models SMART is both timely and relevant as the global challenge of urban mobility becomes rapidly more vexing and complex. The accelerating pace of urbanization, population growth, globalization, and demographic shifts is leading increasingly to transportation systems that threaten climate, environment, biodiversity, energy security, social equity, productivity, and urban competitiveness. Yet the vital role of mobility and accessibility to meeting our daily personal and business needs cannot be denied. SMART's innovative, integrative, applied approach carves a unique niche as a go-to place for whole systems solution-building that works to address the mobility and accessibility challenges of the 21st century. Born at the Center for the Study of Complex Systems, SMART brings together the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise, the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning (TCAUP), the Ross School of Business, the School of Natural Resources & Environment (SNRE), the Institute for Social Research (ISR), the department of Applied Mechanics and Mechanical Engineering (and Wu Manufacturing Research Center), the Ford School of Public Policy, the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP), the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI), the school of Literature Science & the Arts (LS & A), and the Ford Motor Company, along with a range of other academic and industry partners. * CARSS was established in January, 2003 to extend and strengthen the intellectual and methodological foundations of social and behavioral science, and the degree to which that science is applied to addressing society's most pressing problems and abiding dilemmas (http://www.isr.umich.edu/carss/). |
