The document discusses the "political economy of car dependence" and analyzes it through the lens of "systems of provision" (SoP). It identifies 5 key elements that contribute to car dependence: 1) the automotive industry, 2) provision of car infrastructure, 3) car-dependent land use patterns, 4) provision of public transport, and 5) cultures of consumption. It argues that car dependence is entrenched across many sectors of society/economy and can only be addressed through a holistic understanding of the interconnections between these elements.
Presentation argues that vehicle miles of travel (VMT) is the key measure of transportation sustainability. Urbanized areas the size of San Antonio have reduced VMT per capita by building light rail systems and compact growth. It is recommended that San Antonio significantly increase transit funding, reduce impervious cover for parking, built light rail and manage growth.
Based on the mandate given in SDG 11, calling for promoting an affordable and sustainable transport, globally all nations are trying to come out with an agenda and a vision for achieving carbon neutrality. Nations must make commitment to promote emissions-free mobility as a fundamental human right; doing the best things for humanity and society to lead towards a better and sustainable future and proactively promoting a paradigm shift towards electrification and creating a hydrogen based society for bringing sustainability. Sustainable transport is known for its distinct and numerous social and economic benefits for the communities, cities, environment and ecology. Studies made and analysis carried out has concluded that; Sustainable transport can help create large number of jobs; improve commuter safety through investment in bicycle lanes; reduce use of fossil fuel ; minimize pollution and congestion, making cities walkable; and making access to employment and social opportunities more affordable and efficient besides decarbonizing cities and making urban settlements more livable and sustainable. Sustainable transportation offers a practical opportunity and simple method of saving people's time, improving people’s health increasing household income and making cities great places for happy, healthy and more productive living besides making investment in sustainable transport, a 'win-win' option and opportunity for all stake holders.’ Decarbonizing, Carbon Neutrality and Zero-Carbon must remain the prime agenda to redefine, promote and achieve the sustainable transportation in urban areas and to achieve the mandate/goals given in SDG11. Planet earth looks at how nations can minimize travel and make it sustainable for making human settlements more peaceful and livable.
Conceptualizing Sustainable Transportation for City of Pune, India.IJERA Editor
Pune the second largest city of Maharashtra state of Indian union is witnessing large scale urban sprawl and its
negative ramifications in last couple of decades. Urban sprawl is defined as dispersed and discontinuous
suburban land development associated with low population densities and high auto dependence. This
phenomenon is adversely affecting sustainability of the city because of its negative environmental, social and
economic impacts. It saps local resources, destroys open space and farmland, and increases the energy
consumption of mobility by promoting long travel distances. Another problem is high levels of traffic
congestion and harmful emissions causing environmental pollution. There is a plethora of research that sought
to address the issue of urban sustainability and combat sprawl; little has been done on developing analytical
tools that could be used to assess the future of urban sustainability for Indian cities and for Pune in particular.
This paper explores that how particular land use development patterns or the expansion of the current urban
transportation infrastructure are likely to impact urban sustainability.
Presentation argues that vehicle miles of travel (VMT) is the key measure of transportation sustainability. Urbanized areas the size of San Antonio have reduced VMT per capita by building light rail systems and compact growth. It is recommended that San Antonio significantly increase transit funding, reduce impervious cover for parking, built light rail and manage growth.
Based on the mandate given in SDG 11, calling for promoting an affordable and sustainable transport, globally all nations are trying to come out with an agenda and a vision for achieving carbon neutrality. Nations must make commitment to promote emissions-free mobility as a fundamental human right; doing the best things for humanity and society to lead towards a better and sustainable future and proactively promoting a paradigm shift towards electrification and creating a hydrogen based society for bringing sustainability. Sustainable transport is known for its distinct and numerous social and economic benefits for the communities, cities, environment and ecology. Studies made and analysis carried out has concluded that; Sustainable transport can help create large number of jobs; improve commuter safety through investment in bicycle lanes; reduce use of fossil fuel ; minimize pollution and congestion, making cities walkable; and making access to employment and social opportunities more affordable and efficient besides decarbonizing cities and making urban settlements more livable and sustainable. Sustainable transportation offers a practical opportunity and simple method of saving people's time, improving people’s health increasing household income and making cities great places for happy, healthy and more productive living besides making investment in sustainable transport, a 'win-win' option and opportunity for all stake holders.’ Decarbonizing, Carbon Neutrality and Zero-Carbon must remain the prime agenda to redefine, promote and achieve the sustainable transportation in urban areas and to achieve the mandate/goals given in SDG11. Planet earth looks at how nations can minimize travel and make it sustainable for making human settlements more peaceful and livable.
Conceptualizing Sustainable Transportation for City of Pune, India.IJERA Editor
Pune the second largest city of Maharashtra state of Indian union is witnessing large scale urban sprawl and its
negative ramifications in last couple of decades. Urban sprawl is defined as dispersed and discontinuous
suburban land development associated with low population densities and high auto dependence. This
phenomenon is adversely affecting sustainability of the city because of its negative environmental, social and
economic impacts. It saps local resources, destroys open space and farmland, and increases the energy
consumption of mobility by promoting long travel distances. Another problem is high levels of traffic
congestion and harmful emissions causing environmental pollution. There is a plethora of research that sought
to address the issue of urban sustainability and combat sprawl; little has been done on developing analytical
tools that could be used to assess the future of urban sustainability for Indian cities and for Pune in particular.
This paper explores that how particular land use development patterns or the expansion of the current urban
transportation infrastructure are likely to impact urban sustainability.
Guest presentation delivered by Gayle Wooton of Cardiff University, 25 November 2015.
Abstract: despite rising levels of urban mobility, access to places, activities and services has become increasingly difficult, particularly for the marginalised urban poor who face long distances or unaffordable travel costs in order to reach places of employment, education or leisure. In cities where access to private travel is uncommon, mass transport systems are essential elements allowing citizens to participate in everyday activities. Following successes in Curitiba and Bogota, mass transit systems such as bus rapid transit have been implemented in many Latin American cities (Medellin, Buenos Aires, Lima), while others are implementing metro systems (Quito, Panama City, Guadalajara, Santiago de Chile). Many such systems are unevenly distributed throughout the city however, with poorer neighbourhoods often poorly connected to the city centre where the majority of jobs and opportunities are located.
In tandem, many Latin American nations have been debating rights-based approaches to tackling social inequality. Ecuador and Brazil have adopted the Right to the City concept as part of their constitutions and Mexico City is developing a similar city charter. A human rights dimension is relevant to the provision of transport systems recognising that ‘the right to mobility is universal to all human beings, and essential for the effective practical realisation of most other basic human rights’ (CEMR 2007). Despite this link, rights-based approaches to social equity have not been studied in the context of mass transport systems. My research attempts to address to what extent rights-based approaches have been, or can be, integrated into decisions about mass transport investment, through the case study of Quito and plans for a new metro line and connecting metrocable routes. This presentation would present preliminary analysis following fieldwork in early 2015.
Bio: Gayle Wootton is a trained planner with a background in ecology, environmental impacts and assessments. Before returning to full-time education in 2013 to undertake her PhD in Inclusive Urban Mobilities, she worked for ten years for organisations involved with providing environmental and sustainability advice to the land-use and transport planning systems of England and Wales. Gayle has previously worked as a Research Officer for the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI), ran a £10m European-funded Regeneration Programme for the Welsh Government, and advised on strategic plans for the Countryside Council for Wales and the Environment Agency Wales. Now in the third year of her PhD, Gayle is also Chair of Planning Aid Wales, the postgraduate representative for UTSG and has teaching responsibilities on modules relating to transport economics and sustainable mobility.
Existing Condition of Urban Mobility in Kathmandu ValleyIJRTEMJOURNAL
Mobility of the city is very important for livable cities. General impression of the people regarding
the urban mobility in Kathmandu Valley is very bad. Perception of the people is gathered through the
questionnaire from people of Kathmandu. Various indicators are grouped in six categories namely -
environmental criteria, social/cultural sustainability, economic criteria,
infrastructure/engineering/technological, institutional sustainability and good governance. Questionnaire survey
was conducted to assess the people’s perception of three districts of Kathmandu Valley. This study deals the
people’s perception. Finding of the study will be useful for developing the sustainability criteria for urban
transportation and consider the various policy decision regarding the efficient mobility of Kathmandu Valley.
Finding shows that mobility situation of Kathmandu Valley is not good and indicates the need of improvement.
Sustainable Urban Transport Planning Considering Different Stakeholder Groups...BME
Sustainable urban transport requires smart and environmentally-friendly technical solutions. It also needs to meet the demands of different user groups, including current and potential future users, in order to avoid opposition of the citizens and to support sustainable development decisions. While these requirements are well-known, conducting full surveys of user needs and preferences are tedious and costly, and the interests of different user groups may be contradictory. We therefore developed a methodology based on the prevalent Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), which is capable of dealing with the inconsistencies and uncertainties of users’ responses by applying an Interval Analytic Hierarchy Process (IAHP) through comparing the results of passengers to reference stakeholder groups. For a case study in Mersin, a coastal city in southern Turkey with 1.7 Million inhabitants, three groups were surveyed with questionnaires: 40 users of the public transport system, 40 non-users, and 17 experts. Based on interval pairwise comparison matrices, consisting of whole judgments of all groups, the IAHP methodology could attain a consensual preference ranking for a future public transportation system between the three groups. A sensitivity analysis revealed that the factor ranking was very stable.
For the Final of the European Student Parliament in Copenhagen in June 2014, I created a preparation kit. My working group of around 10 young students from all over Europe was asked to develop new ideas for future mobility in cities.
In my overview I touched several topics, such as understanding cities, relevance of mobility, current challenges and perspectives for the future.
More information on my blog: hoffmannmartin.eu/youth-science-finals-of-the-european-student-parliaments/
This paper is a report on the recent special session of papers presented at the Regional Studies Association (RSA) Annual Conference in Dublin, entitled ‘Beyond Smart & Data-Driven City-Regions: Rethinking Stakeholder-Helixes Strategies’. The session was a collaboration between the Urban Transformations ESRC programme at the University of Oxford and the Future Cities Catapult.
Presented at the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) Annual International Conference, 27-29 August 2014.
www.rgs.org/WhatsOn/ConferencesAndSeminars/Annual+International+Conference/Annual+international+conference.htm
Earliest Galaxies in the JADES Origins Field: Luminosity Function and Cosmic ...Sérgio Sacani
We characterize the earliest galaxy population in the JADES Origins Field (JOF), the deepest
imaging field observed with JWST. We make use of the ancillary Hubble optical images (5 filters
spanning 0.4−0.9µm) and novel JWST images with 14 filters spanning 0.8−5µm, including 7 mediumband filters, and reaching total exposure times of up to 46 hours per filter. We combine all our data
at > 2.3µm to construct an ultradeep image, reaching as deep as ≈ 31.4 AB mag in the stack and
30.3-31.0 AB mag (5σ, r = 0.1” circular aperture) in individual filters. We measure photometric
redshifts and use robust selection criteria to identify a sample of eight galaxy candidates at redshifts
z = 11.5 − 15. These objects show compact half-light radii of R1/2 ∼ 50 − 200pc, stellar masses of
M⋆ ∼ 107−108M⊙, and star-formation rates of SFR ∼ 0.1−1 M⊙ yr−1
. Our search finds no candidates
at 15 < z < 20, placing upper limits at these redshifts. We develop a forward modeling approach to
infer the properties of the evolving luminosity function without binning in redshift or luminosity that
marginalizes over the photometric redshift uncertainty of our candidate galaxies and incorporates the
impact of non-detections. We find a z = 12 luminosity function in good agreement with prior results,
and that the luminosity function normalization and UV luminosity density decline by a factor of ∼ 2.5
from z = 12 to z = 14. We discuss the possible implications of our results in the context of theoretical
models for evolution of the dark matter halo mass function.
Professional air quality monitoring systems provide immediate, on-site data for analysis, compliance, and decision-making.
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Abstract: despite rising levels of urban mobility, access to places, activities and services has become increasingly difficult, particularly for the marginalised urban poor who face long distances or unaffordable travel costs in order to reach places of employment, education or leisure. In cities where access to private travel is uncommon, mass transport systems are essential elements allowing citizens to participate in everyday activities. Following successes in Curitiba and Bogota, mass transit systems such as bus rapid transit have been implemented in many Latin American cities (Medellin, Buenos Aires, Lima), while others are implementing metro systems (Quito, Panama City, Guadalajara, Santiago de Chile). Many such systems are unevenly distributed throughout the city however, with poorer neighbourhoods often poorly connected to the city centre where the majority of jobs and opportunities are located.
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Mobility of the city is very important for livable cities. General impression of the people regarding
the urban mobility in Kathmandu Valley is very bad. Perception of the people is gathered through the
questionnaire from people of Kathmandu. Various indicators are grouped in six categories namely -
environmental criteria, social/cultural sustainability, economic criteria,
infrastructure/engineering/technological, institutional sustainability and good governance. Questionnaire survey
was conducted to assess the people’s perception of three districts of Kathmandu Valley. This study deals the
people’s perception. Finding of the study will be useful for developing the sustainability criteria for urban
transportation and consider the various policy decision regarding the efficient mobility of Kathmandu Valley.
Finding shows that mobility situation of Kathmandu Valley is not good and indicates the need of improvement.
Sustainable Urban Transport Planning Considering Different Stakeholder Groups...BME
Sustainable urban transport requires smart and environmentally-friendly technical solutions. It also needs to meet the demands of different user groups, including current and potential future users, in order to avoid opposition of the citizens and to support sustainable development decisions. While these requirements are well-known, conducting full surveys of user needs and preferences are tedious and costly, and the interests of different user groups may be contradictory. We therefore developed a methodology based on the prevalent Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), which is capable of dealing with the inconsistencies and uncertainties of users’ responses by applying an Interval Analytic Hierarchy Process (IAHP) through comparing the results of passengers to reference stakeholder groups. For a case study in Mersin, a coastal city in southern Turkey with 1.7 Million inhabitants, three groups were surveyed with questionnaires: 40 users of the public transport system, 40 non-users, and 17 experts. Based on interval pairwise comparison matrices, consisting of whole judgments of all groups, the IAHP methodology could attain a consensual preference ranking for a future public transportation system between the three groups. A sensitivity analysis revealed that the factor ranking was very stable.
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www.rgs.org/WhatsOn/ConferencesAndSeminars/Annual+International+Conference/Annual+international+conference.htm
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infer the properties of the evolving luminosity function without binning in redshift or luminosity that
marginalizes over the photometric redshift uncertainty of our candidate galaxies and incorporates the
impact of non-detections. We find a z = 12 luminosity function in good agreement with prior results,
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MiRNA
Length (23-25 nt)
Trans acting
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Translation inhibition
Si RNA
Length 21 nt.
Cis acting
Bind with target Mrna in perfect complementary sequence
Piwi-RNA
Length ; 25 to 36 nt.
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Regulates trnasposomes activity
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Unwinding of double stranded Si RNA by ATP independent Helicase
Active component of RISC is Ago proteins( ENDONUCLEASE) which cleave target MRNA.
DICER: endonuclease (RNase Family III)
Argonaute: Central Component of the RNA-Induced Silencing Complex (RISC)
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MiRNA:
The Double-stranded RNAs are naturally produced in eukaryotic cells during development, and they have a key role in regulating gene expression .
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The system of car provision: elements of a political economy of car dependence
1. Sustainability Research Institute
SCHOOL OF EARTH & ENVIRONMENT
The system of car provision:
elements of a political economy of car
dependence
Giulio Mattioli*, Cameron Roberts, Julia Steinberger, & Andrew Brown
*Sustainability Research Institute &
Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds
G.Mattioli@leeds.ac.uk
20th Conference of the Association for Heterodox Economics
6th July 2018
2. The ‘Living Well Within Limits’
research project (2017-2021)
• Interdisciplinary project
• How to decouple energy/CO2 use from human well-being?
• Question typically approached using neoclassical lenses
(utility theory, ‘green growth’)
leading to standard sets of questions and answers
2
3. Research question:
What influence do social and technical
provisioning systems have on the levels of
resource use associated with well-being?
(in two sectors: electricity and passenger transport)
A conceptual pathway around
mainstream economics
1. Needs-based understanding of human well-
being;
2. “Satisfiers” of human needs as flexible,
culturally & historically specific;
3. Provisioning systems and heterodox economic
view of supply chains;
4. Energy services rather than energy supply.
Idea
1
Idea
4
Idea
2
Idea
3
4. The political economy of
car dependence
a ‘car dependent transport system’ = one in which high levels of car use have
become a key satisfier of human needs, largely displacing less carbon intensive
alternatives (Mattioli, 2016)
[narrowed down the scope: no freight, no air travel / shipping, no efficiency of
vehicles/fuels]
Our work:
investigating the political economy of car dependence, adopting a SoP approach
critical literature review in a number of fields
4
5. The ‘Systems of Provision’
(SoP) approach
• approach to concrete research within political economy that originated in
consumption studies (Fine, 2002; Fine & Leopold, 1993; Fine et al., 2018)
• recognises the specificities of any one provisioning process, whilst at the same
time incorporating understanding of the more general dynamics of the capitalist
system
• applied to e.g. housing and water (Bayliss et al., 2013)
Key lessons (for our work):
1. ‘vertical’ analysis framework
understand consumption as closely related to production (and vice-versa)
significant factors vary by SoP - no factors with general applicability
2. significance of history
“prevailing state of affairs rests heavily on past forms of provision” (Fine et al., 2018, p.40)
3. inductive approach
5
6. Identifying the
‘elements’ of a SoP
• “Each SoP consists of the multiplicity of factors that lead to and shape
consumption. These are wide-ranging…” (Fine et al., 2018, p.30)
• “… by their nature, SoPs are unique. The SoP approach, then, is necessarily
heavily inductive in application, leaving researchers to identify the nature,
scope and content of particular SoPs in practice” (p.33)
• “… not simple, not least in identifying where one SoP begins and the other
ends” (p.33)
• for research purposes it is usually necessary to shine a spotlight on the
elements of the SoP that are of particular relevance to the issue under
consideration” (p.34)
6
8. 1. Production:
the automotive industry
high capital intensity / large economies
of scale
endemic overcapacity / overproduction
low / declining profit margins
need for continued expansion of the
market
8
(Nieuwenhuis & Wells, 2003; Orsato & Wells, 2007; Wells, 2010; 2013; Wells & Orsato, 2005; Wells et al.,
2012)
production of all-steel car bodies
9. 2. The provision of car
infrastructure
• the appropriation of road space for
car use in the early phases of
motorisation: from ‘shared’ to ‘car
dominated’ space
• physical and social reconstruction of
city streets (as motor thoroughfares)
resulting restrictions and
immobilizations for other modes
• the state creating ‘use value’ for the
car-as-commodity? Making cars
‘worth buying’
• ultimately creating the need for cars
9
10. 2. The provision of car
infrastructure
Road building legitimized in multiple
and contradictory ways:
required BY & FOR economic growth
for popular consumerism & regional
development
solution to problems (congestion,
safety) caused by motorisation
mainstream economics appraisal
tools (CBA, value of travel time
savings)
At the same time:
road network expansion results in
increased car ownership/use
(‘induced demand’)
tends to fuel self-reinforcing cycle
economic interests (‘road lobby’)
stand to benefit from it…
…and actually influence policy-
making
10
• road network expansion enables accommodation of mass vehicle production
• the public sector aspect of car dependence
11. 3. Car-dependent land use
patterns
• the built environment strongly influences car ownership and use
• low density, low street connectivity, monofunctionality → car dependence
• ‘urban sprawl’ typically presented as unintentional outcome of market and policy
‘distortions’, and lack of planning
• alternative Eco-Marxist perspective (Gonzalez 2005; 2006)
1930s US sprawl actively promoted/subsidized by federal government with
‘hidden welfare state’ instruments (Howard, 1993; Logemann, 2002)
‘stimulus’ to demand for consumer durables & energy, to absorb
overproduction in key industries
environmental inefficiency of sprawl = a feature, not a bug
12. 4.The provision of public
transport
• car dependent land-use patterns make PT provision more difficult,
put higher coordination burden on viable public transit
• in suburbia PT can provide ‘anywhere-to-anywhere’ service that is competitive
with the car only with ‘multi-modal network planning’ (Mees, 2010):
system based on high frequency, transfers, coordinated timetables, multi-
modal integration, cross-subsidization
requires public control of ‘strategic’ & ‘tactical’ level of PT provision
(operational level can be private/tendered) ►political economy dimension
• since 1980s-1990s: push towards deregulation / privatisation of PT:
UK since 1985: most extreme example
EU: since 1995 green paper (but didn’t get as far)
Global South: from traditional to ‘informal’ public transport service
13. 5. Cultures of consumption:
the ‘car’ culture
Individual factors predisposing drivers to prefer car travel over alternatives
emotional and psychological attachment for driving
habits, embeddedness of car in everyday practices
Macro-level cultural repertoires / ‘techno-tales’:
from road transport as embodying modernity & progressivism…
…to mundane necessity for which there is no alternative
The material culture of the car commodity:
from class distinction to (sub)cultural distinction (Gartman, 2004)
from signifier of ‘freedom’ to ‘cocooning’ (appeal as personal space)
(Wells & Xenias, 2015)
15. Conclusions
• entrenched in several key sectors of society/economy
• ‘escaping car dependence’ only possible if we understand interconnections
• addressing only one aspect means being foiled by all others
• links with some broader dynamics of capitalism (e.g. overproduction,
deregulation/privatisation)…
• …but some of the key factors are specific (e.g. built environment)
• applying heterodox economic ideas to environmentally unsustainable
production-consumption patterns: promising area (where mainstream economics
has failed)
• SoP useful to integrate insights from different fields/disciplines
15
16. • http://lili.leeds.ac.uk
• Twitter: @liliproj
Sustainability Research Institute
SCHOOL OF EARTH & ENVIRONMENT
Thank you for your attention!
G.Mattioli@leeds.ac.uk
http://lili.leeds.ac.uk
@liliproj
18. References
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