Conference programme
19.00-22.00 Opening reception for academic workshop (see workshop programme)
Sunday 2 April
09.00-17.00 Academic workshop (see workshop programme)
19.00 -22.00 Opening reception and conference registration
Monday 3 April
Conference opening
09.00-09.15 Opening of the conference by Dr hc Arne Wittlöv, Chairman of the Board of Volvo Research and Educational Foundations (VREF), Sweden.
09.15-09.45 Presentation of outcome of previous conference and ongoing activities supported by Volvo Research and Educational Foundations, by Professor Bengt Kasemo, Chairman of the Scientific Council of VREF, Sweden.
09.45-10.00 Questions raised within FUT concerning Politics, Research, Trade and Industry, and the Definition of sustainable mobility - and how this might change over time, by Mr Måns Lönnroth, CEO, MISTRA, The Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research, and member of the Board of VREF, Sweden
The definitions of big cities, systems and complexity will also be discussed in order to set the parameters of the conference.
10.00-10.30 Coffee break
Session 1: What is a good transport system and why is it good?
Moderator: Mr Ulf Wickbom, columnist and author, Sweden
The future urban transport systems aim to provide good sustainable mobility for private and public transport of people and goods. But what is then good, for whom, when and what and in what time scale?
During this session we will discuss the characteristics of good transport systems viewed by different stakeholders in different time frames.
We want to contribute to the development of a mutual understanding among key players of what must be taken into account in the improvement of existing systems and in the development of future systems.
How do we build sustainable urban mobility of value for people, industry, service and the environment at large.
We hope that this will give different key players valuable facts and arguments for evaluation of and decisions about transport system investments.
10.30-11.00 Mr Stéphane Lecler, Councillor of the Deputy Mayor in charge of transport, City of Paris, Hôtel de Ville – Bureau, Paris, France
“Sharing urban space to achieve sustainable mobility: the Paris experience"
11.00-11.30 Professor Francesco Filippi, Professor of Transport and Logistics, Director of the Research Center for Transport and Logistics, DITS University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy
“Making distribution logistics in big cities more sustainable: rail transport solutions”
11.30-12.00 Professor Kevin O’Connor, Professor of Urban Planning, The University of Melbourne, Australia
“What is a Good transport System? A Production and Consumption Perspective”
12.00-12.15 Summary
12.15-13.30 Lunch at Göteborg Convention Centre
Session 2: The path to achieving a good system - what is generic and what is specific knowledge.
Moderator: Mr Ulf Wickbom, columnist and author, Sweden
The urban areas have developed over time and under different conditions. What know-how can we transfer and what is specific? The session will analyse know - how about the development of different cities and regions and identify generic facts as well as specific ones.
To make future urban transport systems successful it is important to understand what knowledge that can be transferred between cities concerning interaction between stakeholders, transport systems, management of systems, decision makers as well as technology, and what knowledge that is specific to a particular setting.
Transferability concerns then concepts, ideas and details.
But it also concerns the technological transferability that is relatively easy (hard science) compared with the soft technology that may be location specific.
How do we assess success and sell the ideas - the issue of communication of ideas is important together with leadership?
13.30-14.00 Dr Geetam Tiwari, TRIPP Chair Associate Professor for Transportation PlanningTransportation Research and Injury Prevention Programme/Civil Engineering Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India
14.00-14.30 Dr Xavier Godard, director of research in INRETS, France
“Coping with paratransit in developing cities, a scheme of complementarity with institutional transport”
14.30-15.00 Professor Pan Haixiao, Department of Urban Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
“Urban Transport Development in Shanghai”
15.00-15.30 Coffee break
15.30-16.00 Summary
17.30-22.30 Transportation for Social activities and dinner at the Elfsborgs Fortress
Key Note speaker: Mr Fredrik Arp, President and CEO, Volvo Car Corporation, Sweden
Tuesday 4 April
Session 3: What is the barrier to the transfer of know-how?
Moderator: Mr Ulf Wickbom, columnist and author, Sweden
Professionals as well as individuals differ in ideology and cultural and historical background resulting in disagreements that may prevent transfer of know-how.
There are real or virtual obstacles or barriers to transfer this know-how in reasonable time to interested parties.
This will influence the pace at with which we develop and implement urban transport systems suited for sustainable mobility.
Some obstacles may be related to professional and cultural differences and disagreements and others may be related to lack of channels and means to transfer and exchange know-how.
We need to know which ones the barriers are.
Then we need to know what concepts that are important to develop to make global and local experts cooperate to lower the barriers.
Finally, what are the necessary conditions for real change - perceptions of the problems and solutions - again the importance of communication and learning.
09.00-09.30 Professor Carlos F. Daganzo, The Robert Horonjeff Professor ,Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Berkeley, USA
09.30-10.00 Mr Tom Opiyo, Lecturer, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya
“Impediments to innovative development of sustainable urban transport in sub-Sahara: the Kenyan experiment”
10.00-10.30 Coffee break
10.30-11.00
11.00-11.30 Professor John Robinson, Sustainable Development Research Initiative (SDRI) in the Institute of Resources, Environment and Sustainability, and Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
“Pathways to Sustainable Mobility: Two examples at different scales”
11.30-13.00 Lunch at Göteborg Convention Centre
13.00-13.30 Mr Jorma Halonen, Executive Vice President and Deputy CEO, AB Volvo, Sweden
13.30-15.00 Discussions
15.00-15.30 Coffee break
18.30-19.00 Transportation to the old Theatre Storan
19.00-22.00 Dinner at the old Theatre Storan
Wednesday 5 April
Session 4: How, why and when to change mindsets to create sustainable transport?
Moderator: Mr Ulf Wickbom, columnist and author, Sweden
Efficiency and effectiveness in transport systems are requested to ensure use of as few resources as possible and still provide a good life for the city dwellers.
Changes in future urban transports may generate for example fewer taxes, which influence the political systems and/or fundaments for societies.
What are then the benefits of sustainable transport - common benefits and individual goals - how can these be reconciled with notions of uncertainty, risk and resilience in any system?
Is the complexity of it all the reason that mind changes do not occur very often? Resistance to mind changes may also be a general human reaction based on fear or uncertainty.
The big challenge is then to understand why the fear occurs and what could change the views.
And a question is how we can engage the important stakeholders and get their involvement, including them "buying in" to proposals?
09.30-10.00 Professor Elliot Sclar, Professor of Urban Planning, Director of the Center for Sustainable Urban Development-Earth Institute Columbia University, USA
"Future Urban Transport and achieving the Millennium Development Goals: Some Lessons from Nairobi."
10.00-10.30 Professor Sir Peter Hall, Bartlett Professor of Planning and Regeneration, University College London, UK
“Imagining a post-automobile age”
10.30-11.00 Coffee Break
11.00-11.30 Mr Bernt Nielsen, Director of Public Transport, Traffic and Public Transport Authority, Göteborg, Sweden
”Development of the urban transport system: the Göteborg experience”
11.30-12.00 Professor Bengt Kasemo, Summary and discussion of continuation
12.00-13.30 Lunch at Göteborg Convention Centre
Volvo activity during the afternoon - a trip through Gothenburg to Volvo and their safety and Environmental Centre - Volvo Car Brand Experience Center.