Richmond charge parents for driving 4x4s

I haven't posted for a while as I have been off sick, and then have had LOADS of conference type things to go to. Sorry.

I just wanted to comment briefly on Richmond councils plans to charge parents for parking outside the school.

It strikes me as a brilliant idea, and is something I would like to see more councils doing, particularly when they introduce controlled parking zones (CPZ's).

In Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, my sister in law used to "Park & Stride" to school - parking at her brothers house, then walking her kids the final fifteen minutes to the school (along with her brothers children). The system worked very well until the council introduced a CPZ at her brothers house.

She could no longer park outside his house for 30 minutes each morning and each evening without him paying for a visitor pass (which was around £2 a day I think). She now (disappointingly to me) drives her kids the whole way.

I am broadly in favour of CPZ's. When used delicately they can reduce congestion on roads, encourage people to walk further and make streets safer and nicer for walking. All too often, however, the introduction of a CPZ is a blunt instrument - banning all parking from the street, no matter how long they want to park there. I think most people would agree that there is a world of difference between someone parking outside your house for 30 minutes while they walk their children to school, and someone parking outside for the whole day while they go to work, or go shopping.

The blunter CPZ's tend to move the problem on, rather than solving it, and the CPZ has to grow and grow to accommodate the movement.

While I can't find whether the Richmond experiment is within a wider CPZ, it sounds to me like an excellent example of a "delicate tool".

I have met the leader of Richmond council, and he was explaining to me the thinking behind their previous headline grabbing initiative (which was to charge 4x4s more for resident parking). While the increased pollution (CO2) was a major part of the reasoning, larger (more polluting) cars take up more parking space, and cause more road damage (being heavier), so they are asked to pay proportionately more - seems fair to me!

In the Richmond example the charge works out, even for the most expensive cars, at less than 40p per school day. Despite the protestations of the militant AA, I hope most people would agree that this charge is actually very reasonable (remember it is only the biggest most polluting cars that will pay this).

Social Networking for Charities: MyActionAid.com

Last week I went to a peer sharing event organised by oneworld about social networking. The session started with a chat about MyActionaid.org.uk.

Myactionaid is a social network for people raising money for the charity ActionAid.
It allows each fund raiser to blog about their exploits, and add photos etc onto their profile. Supporters can comment, and can donate money (it is mainly about the fundraising at the moment, but there is a plan to become more campaigning too).

The question posed was "is it better to fish in someone else's pond, or create your own?". I.e, are we better trying to get support and campaign on facebook, bebo and myspace (et al) or are we better to create our own network.

I am strongly in favour of the latter (at least for Walk to School 2.0), because I know how tight the firewalls in schools are, but there were some other very good reasons that MyActionAid had found too:

• Beating the FadCycle
  There is a "social network churn" as people move from friends reunited (remember that!) to myspace, to facebook and on to the next thing. Having your own space means you aren't so reliant on the "current big thing", and your campaign continues as the fads change.
  
  Oxfam have found this with "OxJam". Two years ago it was all over Myspace, now they are having to move it all into Facebook.
  
  That said, it is still important to maintain a presence on all the social networks, so you don't get cybersquatted, and people can find you! The "fadcycle" will also become less of a problem as opensocial becomes a standard.
  
  
  
• Encouraging "FadFogies"
  FadFogies are those people who think "social networking is too hard" or "it's not for me". The most prolific blogger on MyActionAid is a 60 something marathon runner. He has never used social networking before, but has become a prolific brand champion.
  
  One of my concerns with Walk to School secondary is that, while all the teens are tech literate, the teachers aren't. MyActionAid's experience suggested to me that perhaps there is hope if we can persuade teachers to take it up.
  
  
• Better engagement
  Myactionaid has measured better (number of visits, level of donations, time spent on site etc) in some months than the "corporate" ActionAid website. This is despite it being less than a year old, and not being promoted through advertising until early January.
  
  It is developing a core of committed supporters that can be called upon to act on their behalf.
  
  
• The competitive element
  Myactionaid encourages (though not overtly) competition about "how much money have I raised". Likewise, oneworld's oneclimate.net asks "how much carbon dioxide can you save" and allows you to compete with your friends to reduce your carbon emissions.

I have to say this is one of the most useful breakfast meetings I have been to - lots of food for thought!

Dismantling a Pedometer

Last night I decided to dismantle a pedometer.

As you would imagine for a charity promoting walking, we have a lot of pedometers knocking about the place, and I was intrigued how they actually work - and particularly if I could make my own (and then maybe turn it into a lesson plan...)

Online I found this site: http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/pedometer
which is great for dismantling an electronic pedometer.

The ones we have in the office are mechanical - like the ones originally designed by Thomas Jefferson almost 200 years ago!

Here is the video I took as I did it (I sped it up as there were some dull bits when I was finding a suitable screwdriver!).




In total there were 23 pieces.

Broadly speaking there is a weighted pendulum (the L shaped arm with a black weight on the end, pivoted at the cog on the right) that swings every time it moves, and then advances the clockwork mechanism. My favourite part is the escapement which allows the cog attached to the pendulum to only rotate one way.

Thanks to Charlotte for the photo.

The escapement is composed of the two short brass strips. One stops the cog rotating backwards, and the other (attached to the pendulum the lever) advances the cog forwards one notch each time the pendulum moves. The long silver strip is a hair spring, which acts against the pendulum, pushing it back to resting position.

Incidentally I tested the mechanical pedometer against a Silva electronic pedometer. The silva one registered 1624 steps Vs 3500 steps on the mechanical one...(no I didn't count my steps so I don't know which is more accurate!).

What actually am I doing for Secondary Schools?

If you have actually spoke with me recently you will know that my vision for the Walk to Secondary School Campaign is centred around a whizzy website. I am currently developing the brief for this, and have been talking with school travel advisors, schools and website designers to get an idea of how it could work.

One of the things I have quickly realised is that I need to be talking a lot with the techy types that will understand what is possible within the budget we have. I then came across the Social Innovation Camp - 48 hours of coding a website for social good!

So to cut a long story short I have put forward the idea to this camp. They may choose it, they may not, but if you would like to see what I am proposing, the SIcamp website would be a great place to start. Click on the title above.

Obviously as soon as I have a better idea of a brief, I will get it up here. But for the moment, this will do.

The woman who stops traffic - episode three

I watched the last episode of this channel 4 mini series last night.

Kristen was trying to deal with the people of Durham, where they have a great park and ride, a great cycle network, local amenities and no-one used it. They were still addicted to the car.

Editorially it was more of the same, very interesting but actually not a lot of extra substance than the previous programmes (albeit done on a larger scale, and in the middle of winter). It was great to see her end on a success though, and particularly with the wind and rain forecast on the day!

I also found it interesting that she didn't call on 3rd sector "expert help". In the first episode she made use of Sustrans, the second one called on Living Streets, but the third mainly focused on Durham council itself - which was lovely to see. It was also great to see a school travel advisor getting well deserved attention!

The thing that hit me most about the programme, however, was the adverts in the breaks. There were so many adverts for car insurance! More Than, Tesco, Money Supermaket, Go Compare etc etc. I felt it rather undermined the message of both the programme and the advertisers, but hey - maybe that's just me!

The Woman Who Stops Traffic Hits Boston

Last night saw the second episode of channel 4's "The Woman Who Stops Traffic". Set in Boston, Lincolnshire, Kristen tried to reduce the traffic in the town described as "Britain's Fattest".

Despite some small successes (particularly the number of children and parents walking to school on the day), her intervention didn't work - there was actually more traffic on the day of the car free-day!

From my point of view, I felt it was very brave of channel 4 to show the programme anyway (though the cynic in me thinks it is all part of a bigger story - this week is the "hero takes a knock", next week: "hero returns triumphant").

So what went wrong?

My feeling is that she fundamentally didn't know how to talk to the Bostonians. She was distracted by the tag of "the fattest town in Britain" and assumed that the primary behaviour change driver would be about their health. She was appealing to individuals in a long term manner, rather than the benefits they would see immediately (with health being a useful side effect).

Zoe, one of the mums at the school (who drives in 20 minutes early to ensure she gets a car parking space for the school run!) summed it up when she said "I live for now".

The area had a very strong local identity, so I was surprised she wasn't appealing to feelings of community pride in the same way as she had in Marlow. I think the programme was trying to focus on the different benefits of changing car use over the series, but "health" and "the environment" aren't motivating factors for a lot of people. She would have been better to look at a more self focused attitude - what is in it for me? - to which the answers are "more money" (not spending on petrol); more time (not driving round looking for a parking space); and "more friends" (the social aspects of walking).

There were a number of sequences when I physically cringed at the way she was preaching to the locals. It reminded me of "Marjorie Dawes" of Fat Fighters (Little Britain), in the way she used negative emotions (guilt, emotional blackmail). Again Zoe summed it up: "she nags on a bit".

Overall Boston was somewhere where everyone seemed to feel a bloody minded entitlement to drive. The ray of hope was on the estate where Mandy (the estate matriarch) persuaded everyone to walk to the school, but this was done as a social event, not for the "greater good" of improved health.

The woman who stops traffic - did it work?

So I pondered earlier whether "The woman who stops traffic" on Channel 4 had worked in Marlow long term - has the number of cars on the road dropped sustainably, or just for the one day?

I got a Google alert this morning which answers some of the question...

Bucks free press - TV mom to complain over Marlow documentary

While bearing in mind the sensationalist nature of local papers (though I don't know this one specifically), the suggestion is that the event didn't have a long term impact.

Is that a surprise? no - I don't think so. The "great and the good" seemed quite apathetic and these things take more than a day to get embedded as a habit.

Does it matter? Is it still valuable as a TV programme? Yes - absolutely. This has moved the issue up the agenda, and I have had conversations about traffic with people who have never shown an interest before - as a direct result of the programme.

Unfortunately, one TV programme or one "walk to school" event won't get everyone out of their cars for the school run - oh that life was that simple! That doesn't mean we shouldn't do it, and it doesn't mean we shouldn't celebrate when we do have successes.