Image: Ian W Scott via flickr CC

From “Revisiting urban resilience: Echoes from ancient Constantinople can inspire visions for modern green urbanism:

You may love it or loath it, but the contrasts of Istanbul are impossible to ignore. It is a city where history meets modernity, where palaces, mosques and cathedrals lie next to chaotic bazaars, steaming hamam baths and small shops selling things you never need. It is a city that, despite plague, war and economic regression for more than 2000 years has always stood up against the test of time. Today, it is one of the 25 largest cities in the world and the bridge (literally) between Europe and Asia.

2000 years and still relevant
In a new book on urbanism and environmental dynamics, centre researchers Stephan Barthel and Sverker Sörlin have looked at how Constantinople has succeeded to persist and develop despite regularly occurring disturbances. Their findings demonstrate that in the quest for more ecologically sound urbanisation, urban planners of today have a lot to learn from this ancient city. “Our message from having revisited the resilience history of Constantinople during more than three millennia is that the keeping of green space for tacit co-production and community-based relationships to land and water have been essential properties for long-term survival and success”, Barthel and Sörlin say.

Strategic location and smart food production
Constantinople is a city whose origin can be traced back to the establishment of Greek cities and colonies in early antiquity. Eventually it became the capital of the East Roman Empire and since then its role in the region has never really diminished. One answer to this long-term resilience is the city’s capacity to produce significant amounts of food within the urban settlement itself rather than having to rely on others. The productivity of gardening, livestock keeping and fishing proved essential to how well the city could cope in times of stress. Even in periods with population peaks such as the early 6th and 12th centuries, Constantinople was resilient in terms of food and water when trade was cut off. “The rulers of the city invested not only in military infrastructure but also in systems for supplying and storing food and water. And when sieges were efficient and supplies ran dry, there were still possibilities to cultivate food within the city walls and catch fish in the Golden Horn. Hence Constantinople had a variety of options to sustain the city with food.”

Social memory is king
Knowledge and values on how to cope with crises were also kept in multiple groups of the society. This memory of past crises consequently led to new and innovative ways of providing food to the inhabitants. “This shows that another complementary diversifying aspect in sustaining resilience is the ability to store, and possibly transform, insights over time and use them under new circumstances”, Barthel continues. In similar work, Barthel and colleagues have shown how urban gardens can serve as pockets for social-ecological memory.

The missing thing in resilience theory
Barthel and Sörlin’s study not only offers city planners and urban developers an inspirational perspective on how to turn urban areas greener, it also puts urban resilience theory itself under a critical microscope. “What is largely still missing in social-ecological resilience theory is a treatment of cities and urban areas. This includes the historical lessons that can be drawn from distant urban pasts in regard to sustaining ecosystem services during times of hardship and crisis”, Barthel argues. Another futile approach identified in their work is to strive for urban resilience in isolation without taking into account the environmental burdens of cities on the biosphere. There is a lot to learn from ancient history in this regard, not the least to create a fresh critique to research that assumes cities to be floating in an ecological vacuum. “The urban environmental histories of cities like Constantinople are not templates for future planning, but as resources of ideas, wisdom and indeed also grave mistakes. Schools of innovation, architecture, construction and urban planning must be further ‘ecologised’ if sustainable development is to have any iota of meaning”, Barthel and his colleagues conclude.

Source: Stephan Barthel, Sverker Sörlin and John Ljungkvist. 2011. Innovative Memory and Resilient Cities: Echoes from Ancient Constantinople. In Paul Sinclair, Frands Herschend, Christian Isendahl and Gullög Nordquist. (Eds). The Urban Mind, cultural and environmental dynamics, Studies in Global Archaeology 15. Sweden, Uppsala University Press.

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“Janette Sadik-Khan, the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT), spoke via video, on the remarkable improvements which have been made to New York’s streets. New Yorkers have one third of the carbon footprint of an average American, so as Sadik-Khan pointed out, if you want to do the planet a favour, move to New York City. Commuting by bicycle has already been increased by 35% between 2007 and 2008. DOT has a program for quickly and cheaply transforming streets, moving away from car-domination to ‘complete streets’.

“The improvements involve closing lanes to car traffic, painting the street and adding landscaping, and reopening the street to cycle and pedestrian traffic, all within a few weeks. Although further improvements will be undertaken, the rapid change allows people to start using the space, and see the changes as they are being made. The program has been so successful, further works are planned for Broadway Boulevard, such as the pedestrianisation of Times Square, as illustrated.”

NYC Before and After

Ref: Claire Porgand, The Flyer, April 2009 http://www.scapestrategy.com.au/
More Info: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/about/stratplan.shtml

Japanese grocery stores had a problem. They are much smaller than their US counterparts and therefore don’t have room to waste. Watermelons, big and round, wasted a lot of space. Most people would simply tell the grocery stores that watermelons grow round and there is nothing that can be done about it. That is how the vast majority of people would respond. But some Japanese farmers took a different approach. If the supermarkets wanted a square watermelon, they asked themselves, “How can we provide one?” It wasn’t long before they invented the square watermelon.

The solution to the problem of round watermelons wasn’t nearly as difficult to solve for those who didn’t assume the problem was impossible to begin with and simply asked how it could be done. It turns out that all you need to do is place them into a square box when they are growing and the watermelon will take on the shape of the box.

To read the full article visit the Lean Thinking Network.

“Errand Bikes, funded by GetAbout Columbia [in the US], are changing the way some Columbia merchants are doing business. Instead of depending on a car for all of their transportation needs, bikes are becoming a popular option. The Errand Bike Program loans new, ready-to-roll bikes to businesses owners or employees so that they can run errands, attend meetings or make deliveries with them. The bikes can also be used to travel back and forth to work to give people the opportunity to try out the bike commuting lifestyle.
“Businesses are allowed to keep the bikes for up to 60 days and if there is not a waiting list they can be kept longer. Janet Godon, PedNet Outreach Coordinator, runs the Errand Bike program and said the goal is to loan the bikes to businesses so they can see if employees will use them for errands, deliveries, meetings or commuting. ‘Because it’s a temporary loan program’, said Godon ‘we hope they use the bike & find it helpful so that they will want to purchase their own or begin riding one from home’.
“That is exactly what happened to Michael Baroli, owner of 9th Street Deli. He received an Errand Bike in September and enjoyed the bike so much that he bought his own for business and personal use. ‘I was too lazy to ride a bike before’, said Baroli. The Errand Bike program showed him that riding a bike was easy and fun. ‘Now I ride my bike every day’. Baroli bought a Journey 6 semi-recumbent bike. ‘I only drive on Sunday’s now to do the heavy errands. Other than that I am on my bike’. Main Squeeze Natural Foods Café has also had an Errand Bike since mid-September and owner Leigh Lockhart has been pleasantly surprised. “We use it a lot more than I thought we would’, she said. ‘Besides bike deliveries, we use it for many errands that we used to walk to do’.
“The Errand Bike has also been saving the business some money. ‘Before the bike we always felt like we need a car here in case we had to make a trip for something we ran out of. Now, we can get to Clover’s on Broadway just as fast as if we had a car’, said Lockhart.”
Ref: Pedestrian & Pedaling Network (PedNet) Columbia, Missouri
www.pednet.org/newsroom/2008/errand-bikes.asp

A real ‘step change’ in city transportation logistics, Freight*Bus marks the integration of passenger and freight transportation. It will have a profound impact on city infrastructure, providing increased passenger and freight capacity, improved convenience and service, whilst reducing congestion, pollution and real costs.

On-Route’ is a radical new urban transportation system concept which would see a Freight*BUS™ optimise the carrying of passengers and freight, thereby tackling the problems of both congestion and pollution.

The Freight*BUS has been designed with a zero-emission propulsion system able to accommodate either a battery fuel-cell system or small bio gas generator to maintain fully charged batteries. It also features other state-of-the art technologies such as distributed wheel motors and completely new inventions, like ceiling-suspended seating and a patent-protected pallet-less lifting and handling device. The ability to turn in its own length & ‘crab steer’ is great for tight fit bus stops & bus station manoeuvres.

This avant-garde concept requires a whole new way of thinking about urban transportation systems; stakeholders are invited to help take this model to the next level.

A multi disciplined design specialist has come up with a radical urban transport proposal, called On-Route, which he believes tackles the two biggest problems caused by city-centre transport today; congestion and pollution. Hugh Frost’s Freight*BUS™ www.freight-bus.co.uk is an innovative new design that combines a passenger-carrying bus with that of freight haulage with the minimum of disruption to either service. It can be reconfigured in seconds by the conductor or driver to carry freight and passengers. Furthermore, passenger space & freight space can be easily adjusted to match demand.

Frost’s proposal was submitted to Transport for London (TfL)’s ‘A New Bus for London’ competition,’ which Mayor of London Boris Johnson launched earlier this year. Although the Freight*BUS was not the final winner of the competition, Hugh Frost, designer and concept originator of the On-Route system www.onroutebus.co.uk and the Freight*BUS still wishes to take his idea to the next level and is now looking for stakeholders to help him do this. These could be in the form of bus or commercial vehicle manufacturers who are interested in developing the Freight*BUS from conceptual state into a full-blown prototype; a municipality which would consider trialling the On-Route system, or stakeholder investors, such as venture capitalists that specialise in environmental transportation solutions.

“Taking London as an example, the most optimistic proposals put the average occupancy of its buses at 25%. However, our calculations show that for around four hours a day, their utilisation drops to as low as 20%,” Frost says. “Despite this, city authorities are tasked with increasing the numbers of vehicles, routes and service frequency to supposedly reduce congestion and improve services. My idea is to put our cities’ buses to good use by using them to provide an alternative city freight system at times of low passenger capacity utilisation. This could reduce the numbers of freight vehicles on city roads by as much as 30%. By using the buses to carry freight in the evening and overnight, the utilisation of these vehicles would be maximised, offering maximum return on investment (ROI) and substantially increased revenue from the vehicles. However, in order to fulfil this dual role, the entire concept of buses, as we know them today, needs to be revisualised.”

With this in the mind, the Freight*Bus has been designed to allow varying combinations of passenger & freight space to match demand. In full passenger configuration, it provides seating for up to 90 passengers – that’s 43 more than the bendy-bus and standing room for a further 40 passengers. With standing room only on the lower deck, it could accommodate 150 people with 52 seated. Meanwhile, in its full freight configuration the Freight*BUS is designed to accommodate 35 freight pods (equivalent to 35 europallets).

Loaded with other State-of-the-Art Technology

 

The Freight*BUS combines a number of completely new ideas, patents for which have already been applied, combined with leading-edge technology that is already proven in automotive applications or is undergoing extensive on-road trials.

The design of Freight*BUS will readily accommodate battery or fuel cell technology. The 200mm deep space in the main floor of the bus will house batteries or fuel cells and the accompanying hydrogen storage tanks (if required). Indeed, it is envisaged that when fuel cell technology is affordable, that the fleet could be easily switched to this propulsion system, while keeping the drive motors and control systems in place. Similarly, its re-configurable interior design could even be broadly applied to existing vehicles built with combustion engines. However, it is the designer’s view that the latest and emerging advances in battery technology will make the re-fit and the use of hydrogen and fuel cells unnecessary. Freight*BUS would also feature the very latest in other emission-saving technology , such as distributed wheel motors which can be as much as 50% more efficient that central motors.

With the latest battery technology, an 80% recharge is possible in around 1 minute. This could be done at bus stations or other major stops, with a recharge point built into key bus stops. These 1 minute recharges do not seriously affect battery life and can be performed within the duration of a standard stop. Alternatively, in the short term, the electric drive & battery storage system could be ‘hybridised’ with a small, efficient, clean burning LPG fuelled, 2 litre generator to top up batteries on the move. Adopting the all battery concept will enable off peak green energy to be stored in the vast reservoir of battery energy that would be created by large fleets of the Freight*Bus.

In respect of carriage versatility, seating is suspended from the ceiling and can be configured for almost any combination of passenger & freight space between these limits. This is achieved by designing the seating to be folded away. In fact, each 2 person seat (on both decks) can be folded into the ceiling in seconds. Seats are fixed to the ceiling through special anti-vibration mounts to improve ride quality. In terms of the vehicle’s freight-carrying capabilities, a pallet-less lifting & handling device is key to easy loading/unloading. Indeed, a crucial part of the interior design is a compact, low cost pod handling system, which has patent protection.

Route Consolidation

When looking at the idea of consolidation in relation to bus routes and passenger transport, Frost quickly realised that not only were there opportunities to improve bus routing & linking with other transport services and types using consolidation principals, but that there is an even bigger opportunity to use the buses for freight as well as passenger movement that would reduce the numbers of goods vehicles on city roads (especially light goods vans which are responsible for 15% of all UK carbon emissions from all forms of transportation) by as much as 50%. He remarks: “We looked at passenger & freight systems end to end and concluded that there is sufficient overlap to be able to build on and integrate existing infrastructure of both passenger & freight systems. However, it will be necessary to develop consolidation centres and cross-docks for freight movement, and hubs for passenger and freight delivery and collection. Many of these elements already exist and can be linked into existing infrastructure such as bus/rail stations & depots; haulage/sorting depots etc. Hubs would also be located at major bus stops, and concentrations of retail, commercial & light industrial units.

 

Frost points to studies which have already been carried out in London showing that the implementation of alternative freight systems, including the use of ‘Consolidation Centres’ in city areas can give exceptional results. One such study found a 68% reduction in construction vehicles entering the City of London for the project, an average journey time reduction of 2 hours, a circa 75% reduction of CO2 emissions, and a 10% reduction in local distribution journey times. The On-Route Bus supports the existing aims of the London Freight Plan as set out of in the Mayor of London’s existing Transport Strategy.

For more details of the On-Route and Freight*BUS concept, see

www.onroutebus.co.uk

 

 

Hugh Frost

His presentation was recorded and can be accessed at:
http://www.sustainweb.org/audio/ cuba-1.mp3
http://www.sustainweb.org/audio/ cuba-2.mp3
http://www.sustainweb.org/audio/ cuba-3.mp3
http://www.sustainweb.org/audio/ cuba-4.mp3

Please bear in mind these are huge files, so you should only stream the audio rather than downloading the files.

ChronoCity is a parcel-delivery service in Strasbourg that uses electric-powered handcarts for the routes through the inner-city, combining a consolidation hub with “clean” vehicle use.

The handcarts have a power reserve of 12 hours which is enough for two delivery routes, and take up similar footpath space to a motorised wheelchair. They are distributed through the city by electric courier vans and collect as well as distribute parcels.

ChronoCity is an initiative of ChronoPost express courier service and Predit, a government-funded program for research, experimentation and innovation in land transport. The pilot program was successful and analysis has shown further improvements for the service would integrate the combined use of the vans with the handcarts.

The project is interesting because it was designed for and applied to the existing situation in the city. In addition, it has shown that what would appear to be a slow way of moving things around a city has been more efficient for the service provider, produces better environmental results and also returns an increased economic yield.