DOCSLIB.ORG

Citizen Participation for Sustainable Transport: the Case of ''Living City'' In

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Citizen Participation for Sustainable Transport: the Case of ''Living City'' In Journal of Transport Geography 41 (2014) 74–83 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Transport Geography journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jtrangeo Citizen participation for sustainable transport: the case of ‘‘Living City’’ in Santiago, Chile (1997–2012) Lake Sagaris ⇑ Urban Planning and Community Development, Post-Doctoral Fellow Department of Transport Engineering and Logistics, Catholic University of Chile, 4860 Vicuña Mackenna, Santiago, Chile article info abstract Keywords: Twentieth century citizen ‘‘revolts’’ against urban highway projects have influenced thinking about pub- Participation lic transport (Toronto, Vancouver, New York), governance (Portland), and cycling (The Netherlands) to Complexity this day. Less is known, however, about how these emerge in developing countries, and what they can Cycling tell us about citizens’ role in innovation to achieve more sustainable transport systems. This case study Public transport examines a social movement that emerged in opposition to the country’s first major highway concession, Planning in Santiago, Chile (1997), challenging and changing urban planning paradigms. In 2000, the anti-highway Development campaign founded a citizen institution, Living City (Ciudad Viva). Twelve years later, it has become a prize-winning, citizen-led planning institution. Although the role of citizen participation in improving transport systems has become increasingly rec- ognized in recent years, it still tends to be rather ritualistic. This experience offers insight into how stra- tegic approaches to participation can reinforce the role of self-organizing civil society organizations in introducing innovation into existing systems. Findings suggest that traditional large movements, which are mainly useful for one-way communication of information, require support from small groups able to deliberate in a transformative sense, with more attention paid to how new consensuses can be transmit- ted through the relational networks of those involved. Moreover, this experience suggests that thinking about citizens as planners in their own right, rather than as mere participants at specific points in a plan- ning process, opens the way to more effective strategies for innovating in transport, to address the social, environmental, and other challenges humanity faces today. Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction: highway revolts in a developing context Less is known, however, about how these interactions emerge as ‘‘automobility’’ (Beckman, 2001; Urry, 2004) has spread, becom- In the last quarter of the 20th century, citizens in North America ing the ubiquitous face of globalization in developing countries and Europe staged the first major rebellions against the car-cen- today. While private vehicle modal share is high in the North, in tered, city planning paradigm that emerged in the 1960s, consum- the economic ‘‘South’’ it is very low (Table 1). Building infrastruc- ing housing, razing communities with strong ethnic and racial ture for those who already travel most comfortably reinforces identities, and replacing them with the sprawling, suburb-driven inequalities, dedicating expensive facilities to those most privi- cities that characterize many of these places today. These anti- leged, as it segregates, isolates, and excludes those most in need. highway revolts spawned local, regional, and national citizen This is particularly grave, given that this is often an impoverished movements that questioned the foundations of planning processes majority, given the ostensible priority for public finance and state (Cannon, 2012; Johnson, 2009; Ladd, 2008; Mohl, 2002, 2004, resources. 2008; Mohl and Rose, 2012; Schragg, 2004). To this day, their Using a participatory research methodology and some elements far-reaching influence is apparent, for example, in thinking about from complexity theory, this case study examines the Coordinadora public transport (Toronto, Vancouver, New York), governance No a la Costanera Norte, a social movement against the country’s (Portland), and cycling (The Netherlands). first major highway concession. This arose in Santiago, Chile, in 1997, challenging and changing urban planning paradigms. In 2000, campaign leaders founded a permanent organization: Living Tel.: +56 2 2777 3331. City (Ciudad Viva). Twelve years later, it had become a prize- ⇑ E-mail address: [email protected] winning, citizen-led planning institution. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2014.08.011 0966-6923/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. L. Sagaris / Journal of Transport Geography 41 (2014) 74–83 75 Table 1 coalition, the Coordinadora No a la Costanera Norte (1997–2000), Modal share local trips in selected cities (%). to a citizen-led urban planning institution, Living City (2000– City Sustainable Pub. Walking Cycling Private Other 2012). Given the author’s position (as leader and founder) within transport transit (W) (C) transport the organization, it uses participatory action research (PAR) meth- (PT + W + C) (PT) (car) ods and some concepts from complexity to look at the organization Tokyo 88 51 23 14 12 from the inside out, and at transport planning from the outside in: Hong Kong 80 80 11 9 that is, from the perspective of citizens looking at government Bogotá 79 62 15 2 15 6 practices. Mumbai 78 45 27 6 15 7 Beijing 76 23 21 32 21 4 The level of organization of the different citizen groups evolved Delhi 75 42 21 12 19 6 became more sophisticated over time. In particular, during the last Santiago 73 33 37 3 22 5 period of this research (2010–2012), founders were surprised to Curitiba 71 45 21 5 28 1 find that they had left behind the marginal, David versus Goliath Madrid 70 34 36 29 1 Berlin 68 26 29 13 32 role that characterized them during the anti-highway conflict, to Paris 67 62 4 1 32 1 become a respected actor within urban planning and a significant Prague 67 43 23 1 33 reference in growing debates about citizen involvement in plan- Barcelona 64 26 38 35 1 ning and other governance areas. This research sought to both doc- Seoul 63 63 26 11 ument the processes involved and to answer questions about how New York 61 22 39 33 6 London 59 27 30 2 40 1 this had happened. Although the population represented by the Vancouver 44 23 17 4 54 2 diverse organizations was substantial (some 50,000 people in three Chicago 36 16 19 1 63 1 municipal jurisdictions of metropolitan Santiago), the number of Toronto 32 24 6 2 67 1 people actually leading was small, no more than five to 25 people, Sydney 29 11 18 69 2 Melbourne 22 7 13 2 77 1 depending on the group. Nonetheless, impacts were extensive and noted by other local policy makers and researchers. Exploring the Own elaboration using data from Reference section, Journeys, November 2011. intertwined question of how small groups significantly influenced Singapore Transport and Land Authority Academy. http://app.lta.gov.sg/ltaacade- my/Journeys.htm. Accessed 24 February 2014. Beijing: Public transport = 21% bus, policy and how a new kind of civil society actor emerged has moti- 2% rail. Seoul: Public transport = 35% rail, 28% bus. Shanghai: e-bikes have 10% other vated this research. modal share. Taipei: PT = 14% rail, 18% bus. Tokyo: PT = 48% rail, 3% bus. Vancouver This account, then, is the result of a shared reflective process by figures from City of Vancouver Administrative Report, 30 May 2013, http:// leaders of diverse urban communities, who pioneered significant former.vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20130612/documents/cfsc2.pdf, accessed 24- changes in city planning in Santiago over the past 20 years. Consis- Feb-2014. Information for Santiago from SECTRA EOD, available at www.sectra.gob.cl. tent with Stacey and Griffin’s (2005: 27) perspective on insiders’ research into their own organizations, it does not seek ‘‘objective validity’’ but nor is it an ‘‘arbitrary account.’’ Rather, it seeks to make sense to others and participate in a wider tradition of Living City’s experience suggests that even in an apparently thought (Stacey and Griffin, 2005). hostile, authoritarian environment, independent, self-organizing I have, therefore, triangulated data using information from civil society institutions can work with actors in government, uni- other sources, including academic and periodical publications, versities, and the private sector to co-produce significant shifts in external evaluations, and observations from interviews with urban planning, particularly in transportation. Unlike govern- diverse and representative actors from the planning and transport ment-led participatory processes, citizens’ commitment is pro- spheres in Santiago and elsewhere. In particular, I do not evaluate found and far-reaching. ‘‘Small’’ groups accumulate ‘‘large’’ the quality of results, relying instead on three rigorous external results, particularly in positioning cycling on local, regional, and evaluations (Kroeger Claussen, 2009; Sepúlveda, 2005; Valle, national planning agendas, and in raising participation in planning 2003), conducted as part of Living City’s candidacy for awards for as a major public demand. innovation in citizenship and territorial management, received in To achieve these results, Living City has acted as a catalyst, 2002, 2004, and 2010. My conclusions do not seek to establish uni- mobilizing actors throughout the public policy ecology, in favor versal ‘‘laws’’, but rather rules whose usefulness can and should be of more sustainable, socially just transport. Enthusiasm for cycling tested against specific local conditions,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • [email protected]~M Iiidez&HP
    ---,.---,-.- p - 0 [email protected]~m iiIDEZ&HP //... 0 HTHROIllCASiIG Officers HIGHWAY William L. Garrison, Chairman Jay W. Brown, First Vice Chairman Milton Pikarsky, Second Vice Chairman R E S E A R c i-i W. N. Carey, Jr., Executive Director B 0 A R D Executive Committee Frank C. Hemnger, Urban Mass Transportation Administrator (cx officio) 1 9 7 3 Henrik E. Stafseth, Executive Director, American Association • of State Highway and Transportation Officials (èx officio) • Norbert T. Tiemann, Federal Highway Administrator (ex officio) • Ernst Weber, Chairman, Division of Engineering, National Research Council (ex officio) Charles E. Shumate, Executive Director, Colorado Department of Highways (cx officio, Past Chairman, 1971) Alan M. Voorhees, President, Alan M. Voorhees and Associates, Inc. (cx officio, Past Chairman, 1972) Hendrik W. Bode, Gordon McKay Professor of Systems Engineering, Harvard University Jay W. Brown, Director of Rad.Operations, Florida Department of Transportation W. J. Burmeister, Consultant, Middleton, Wisconsin Douglas B. Fugate, Commissioner, Virginia Department of Highways William L. Garrison, Director, Institute of Transportation and Traffic Engineering, University of California, Berkeley Roger H. Gilman, Director of Planning and Development, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Neil V. Hakala, President, Esso Research and Engineering Company Robert N. Hunter, Chief Engineer, Missouri State Highway Commission George Kramb!es, Operating Manager, Chicago Transit Authority A. Scheffer Lang, Assistant to the President, Association of American Railroads Harold L. Michael, School of Civil Engineering, Purdue University D. Grant Mickle, President, Highway Users Federation for Safety and Mobility John T. Middleton, Consultant, Washington, D.C. James A. Moe, Director, California Department of Transportation • Elliott W.
    [Show full text]
  • Transportation Megaproject Procurement: Benefits and Challenges for Ppps and Alternative Delivery Strategies, and the Resulting Implications for Crossrail
    Transportation Megaproject Procurement: Benefits and Challenges for PPPs and Alternative Delivery Strategies, and the Resulting Implications for Crossrail By Michael A. Kay Bachelor of Arts in Politics New York University, 2004 Submitted to the Department of Urban Studies and Planning and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degrees of Master in City Planning and Master of Science in Transportation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology June 2009 © 2009 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. All Rights Reserved Author …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Department of Urban Studies and Planning Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering May 21, 2009 Certified by ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Frederick P. Salvucci Senior Lecturer, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Thesis Supervisor Accepted by …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Professor Joseph Ferreira Chair, Master in City Planning Committee Department of Urban Studies and Planning Accepted by …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Professor Danielle Veneziano Chairman, Departmental Committee for Graduate Students Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering 1 of 175 2 of 175 Transportation Megaproject Procurement: Benefits and Challenges for PPPs and Alternative Delivery Strategies, and the Resulting Implications for Crossrail By Michael A. Kay Submitted to the Department of Urban Studies and Planning and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
    [Show full text]
  • Central Freeway, San Francisco
    Shifting Urban Priorities: The Removal of Inner City Freeways in the United States By Francesca Napolitan BA in Architecture University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, California (2002) Submitted to the Department of Urban Studies and Planning in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master in City Planning at the MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY June 2007 @ 2007 Francesca Napolitan All Rights Reserved The author hereby grants to MIT the permission to reproduce and distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of the thesis document in whole or in part. Author V_ _1 Department offJrban Studies and Planning "---A ,--IMay 24, 2007 Certified by P. Christopher Zegras Assistant Profe sor Department ofVrban Studies and Planning Thesis Supervisor Accepted by Professor Langley Keyes Chair, MCP Committee MASSACHUSETTS INSTITTE Department OF TECHNOLOGY of Urban Studies and Planning JUL 18 2007 ROTCH LIBRARIES Shifting Urban Priorities: The Removal of Inner City Freeways in the United States By Francesca Napolitan Submitted to the Department of Urban Studies and Planning on May 24, 2007 in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master in City Planning ABSTRACT The United States Interstate Highway System transformed the nation's cities and countryside, accelerating suburbanization and leading to unprecedented levels of motorized mobility. While the interstate highways brought undeniable benefits, they also imparted social, environmental and aesthetic costs. Growing opposition to the paving of cities in the name of improved mobility resulted in a "freeway revolt" movement. Much of the original interstate infrastructure built in the 1950s and 1960s is reaching or is past the end of its useful life - requiring large investments for rehabilitation.
    [Show full text]
  • Planning in Santiago Chile, 1997-2012
    Citizens, Complexity and the City Lessons from citizen participation in urban (transport) planning in Santiago Chile, 1997-2012 By Lake Sagaris A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Geography and Planning University of Toronto © Lake Sagaris, 1 June 2013 Citizens, Complexity and the City Lessons from citizen participation in urban (transport) planning in Santiago Chile, 1997-2012 Lake Sagaris Doctor of Philosophy Department of Geography and Planning,University of Toronto, 2013 Abstract Twentieth century, citizen “revolts” against highway projects have influenced thinking about public transport (Toronto, Vancouver, New York), governance (Portland), and cycling (The Netherlands) to this day. Less is known about how these emerge in developing countries, and what they can tell us about citizens’ role in innovation to achieve more socially just, good and livable cities. Using a complexity-based approach, this dissertation explores lessons from an anti-highway movement in Santiago, Chile (1997), which challenged authoritarian planning paradigms inherited from the Pinochet regime (1973-1990). In 2000, these leaders of diverse communities founded a citizen institution, Living City (Ciudad Viva), which today is a prize-winning, citizen-led planning institution. Participation is recognized as important to community development, health and urban planning. Nonetheless, a rich literature notes many limitations. Is improving participation just a matter of “getting the process right”?
    [Show full text]
  • Joel Roberts'
    The Problem of the Road: The Road and the Street in the Twentieth Century American Road Novel Joel David Roberts PHD 2019 ABSTRACT This thesis offers a historiography of the twentieth century American road novel, arguing that it consistently presents the road as a problem of governmental order. Road narrative scholarship to date has read the twentieth century American road novel as an extension of the frontier narrative. In contrast to this, I analyse novels by Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Chester Himes, Richard Wright, Ann Petry, Ralph Ellison, Thomas Pynchon, Samuel Delany, Gerald Vizenor, and Leslie Marmon Silko to argue that they both participate in and resist the orderly discourse of the road through three key phases: city planning, urban crisis, and the Oil Crisis. Relatedly, I suggest that these authors also identify that the order of the road is imposed upon black communities in America. In these texts, the road narrative’s assertion of order is made upon the black life of the street – of gathering together and of the riot. I trace the historical destruction of street life by the development of the road in these texts, arguing that the Great Migration formed the life of the streets upon which the order of the automobile and its road was asserted, as the discourse of the road developed in the early twentieth century as a component of city planning. This, I suggest, can be illuminated via a reading of Hammett, Chandler, Himes, Wright, Petry, and Ellison. I then argue that the rebellions of the 1960s occasioned the emergence of a discourse of the road as productive of ‘urban crisis’, as well as representing a return of street life, as charted by Pynchon.
    [Show full text]
  • The End of the Road: the State of Urban Elevated Expressways in the United States
    Brookings Mountain West Publications Publications (BMW) 2016 The End of the Road: The State of Urban Elevated Expressways in the United States Daniel Waqar University of Nevada, Las Vegas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/brookings_pubs Part of the Public Policy Commons, Transportation Commons, and the Urban Studies Commons Repository Citation Waqar, D. (2016). The End of the Road: The State of Urban Elevated Expressways in the United States. 1-16. Available at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/brookings_pubs/32 This Capstone Project is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Capstone Project in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. This Capstone Project has been accepted for inclusion in Brookings Mountain West Publications by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The End of the Road: The State of Urban Elevated Expressways in the United States Daniel Waqar Brookings Mountain West University of Nevada, Las Vegas May 26, 2016 Table of Contents Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • “Setting Atlanta in Motion”: the Making and Unmaking Of
    “SETTING ATLANTA IN MOTION”: THE MAKING AND UNMAKING OF ATLANTA’S “PUBLIC” TRANSIT, 1952-1981 By ICHIRO MIYATA (Under the Direction of Bryant Simon) ABSTRACT This dissertation investigates the ways in which the making of a public transit system in Atlanta ended up not resolving, but instead perpetuating, and even accelerating, the city’s uneven development among the suburbs, center city, and affluent intown neighborhoods. It examines how the different actors, commercial civic elites, suburban county residents, and intown neighborhood residents produced and deployed their own configurations of the concept of “public,” and how these varied and frequently incompatible ideas conceived of, and affected, the public transportation system. Early planning demonstrated that the major beneficiaries of the transit plan would be the white middle class and downtown businesses. Advocates argued that public transit would perform its role as a “public” service by easing or eliminating the traffic congestion which threatened to deteriorate economic growth, while at the same time it would contribute to the convenience of suburban commuters. This concept of “public,” however, was fundamentally at odds with the notion held by African-Americans and suburban county residents. Each of these groups held a substantial stake in public transit and its impact on their neighborhoods. Failure to reconcile the conflicting understandings of “public” resulted in Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) losing in 1968 two county referendums to begin construction. Conversely, the victory of the public transit referendum in 1971 was a direct result of MARTA’s new plan, which included a 15-cent flat rate fare, a rail route to the poor African American neighborhoods in Northwestern Atlanta, and incorporation of the existing Atlanta Transit System’s bus network.
    [Show full text]
  • Baltimore's East-West Expressway and the Construction of the "Highway to Nowhere." (338 Pp.)
    "…and never the twain shall meet": Baltimore's east-west expressway and the construction of the "Highway to Nowhere." A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts Andrew M. Giguere June 2009 © 2009 Andrew M. Giguere. All Rights Reserved. 2 This thesis titled "…and never the twain shall meet": Baltimore's east-west expressway and the construction of the "Highway to Nowhere." by ANDREW M. GIGUERE has been approved for the Department of Geography and the College of Arts and Sciences by Geoffrey L. Buckley Associate Professor of Geography Benjamin M. Ogles Dean, College of Arts and Sciences 3 ABSTRACT GIGUERE, ANDREW M., M.A., June 2009, Geography "…and never the twain shall meet": Baltimore's east-west expressway and the construction of the "Highway to Nowhere." (338 pp.) Director of Thesis: Geoffrey L. Buckley Baltimore, Maryland is home to a six-lane super-highway in miniature colloquially known as the “Highway to Nowhere.” Part of a controversial plan to erect an east-west highway through the heart of the city, the “Highway to Nowhere” is a remnant of expressway construction projects halted by a city-wide “freeway revolt” during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Using archival research and resident interviews, this thesis explores the planning and development of the “Highway to Nowhere” and the roles played by anti-highway community organizations such as the Relocation Action Movement (RAM), the Movement Against Destruction (MAD), the Society for the Preservation of Federal Hill and Fells Point and the Southeast Council Against the Road (SCAR).
    [Show full text]