Event: Academics’ response to the VTP
Cameron kindly sent me this link from Yarra Campaign Against the Tunnel to an event on at Melbourne Uni tomorrow morning – could be interesting.
cheers, Phin
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Leading academics and community representatives will provide responses to the Victorian Transport Plan at a forum to be held by the GAMUT Centre at the University of Melbourne.
The forum will be held at 11 am Wednesday 10 December,University of Melbourne, Room 225, Alice Hoy Building (Education Building, just off Swanston St)
Speakers at the forum will assess the content of the Plan against a set of principles that GAMUT believes should underpin Melbourne’s transport and urban development. These principles recognise the need for:
- annual transport greenhouse emissions to show a downward trend by 2015
- medium and long-term transport sector greenhouse gas emission reduction in the order of 80% below 1990 levels
- transport greenhouse emissions to decrease at a similar rate to other sectors
- alternatives to the private car to address growing social isolation and health problems caused by the lack of access to jobs, services and community
- a substantial mode shift away from private car travel in addition to a rapid move to cleaner vehicles.
The speakers will assess whether it is likely to achieve outcomes consistent with the above principles. GAMUT Director, Professor Nick Low, said GAMUT’s criteria for a plan for a sustainable Melbourne included:
- an immediate moratorium on expansion of the capacity of the freeway network for private cars
- changes in the design and delivery of public transport services, implemented in a short time-frame across most of Melbourne’s existing urban form, to achieve significant modal shift to public transport
- real commitment to shifting a significant proportion of port related freight off roads and onto rail.”
Further details of the participants will be available on Tuesday 9 December, contact John Stone: stoneja@unimelb.edu.au 0405 729 839, or Janet Rice: janeterice@gmail.com, 0432 416 234
All Welcome.
GAMUT: Australasian Centre for the Governance and Management of Urban Transport
The University of Melbourne
(An initiative of the Volvo Research and Educational Foundations)
Did anyone go to this? It came too late for me
I unfortunately missed this session too, but wrote to John Stone and Janet Rice this morning, to see if there is any information that they are sending out. They kindly sent me through a copy of the agenda with the speakers, which you can view here http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg3pd37m_615gsp3kcf4
In addition, Janet also informed me that the event was recorded, and podcasts of all speakers are going to be available shortly on the GAMUT website http://www.abp.unimelb.edu.au/gamut/ – I think they are aiming for early next week so keep a look out for them.
Yes I went – I still have my notes in handwritten form, I’ll type them up when I get a moment.
Thanks Michael, I look forward to your coverage.
From Nicholas Low, Director of GAMUT this morning:
“Thanks for your interest and involvement in GAMUT’s work in establishing the Sustainable Melbourne Alliance for Transport and Urbanism, and the Forum held last Wednesday on what the Victorian Transport Plan would mean for Melbourne.
The Forum was well attended and highly regarded. The podcasts of the talks are now up on the GAMUT website http://www.abp.unimelb.edu.au/gamut/about/news-events/brumby-plan.html. – well worth a listen if you weren’t able to make it, or even if you were! Each talk is only five minutes so is a bite-sized piece of transport wisdom.
Media coverage of the Forum included two articles in The Age on Monday this week, one by Clay Lucas (http://www.theage.com.au/national/on-a-road-to-nowhere-20081214-6y7b.html) and one by Kenneth Davidson (http://business.theage.com.au/business/the-real-plan-is-to-push-us-back-into-cars-20081214-6ybt.html)
We plan to continue our discussions and planning for the formation of the Sustainable Melbourne Alliance early next year. We will let you know the details once people are back on deck after Christmas and the New Year.”