Program - Sustainable Mobility Summit 2010

Conference Program - Sustainable Mobility Summit 2010

The Sustainable Mobility Summit 2010 is a four-day conference featuring Canadian and international experts speaking on the theme of sustainable mobility as a means of transformative change in urban communities. A special one-day forum is being held on November 22 to showcase global best practices in sustainable mobility.

Today’s communities face a number of significant challenges to their quality of life, and sustainable mobility strategies can help them reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, boost physical activity, improve air quality, preserve greenspace, reduce congestion and increase access to opportunity. The Sustainable Mobility Summit 2010 is an opportunity for international experts and participants to exchange ideas, share experiences and enhance cooperation. The Summit explores the idea of sustainable mobility as a key to human and ecosystem health, economic growth, transportation efficiency and quality of life in our communities.

The ACT Canada Sustainable Mobility Summit brings to Canada leading international experts on mobility options, modal integration, sustainable development, travel planning, TDM strategies, policy, health and environment.

Invited speakers include internationally acclaimed experts in sustainable mobility. Invited guest keynote speakers include:



Marcel Acosta	Executive Director, National Capital Planning Commission	Washington	Marcel C. Acosta has more than 25 years of experience in urban and transportation planning. As executive director of the federal government’s central planning agency, he oversees a team of urban planners, architects, historic preservationists, and other professionals who are committed to preserving and enhancing the extraordinary qualities of the National Capital Region (NCR). Mr. Acosta is also a federal appointee to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s Board of Directors, serving as an alternate director. The Metro Board of Directors determines agency policy and provides oversight for the funding, operation, and expansion of transit facilities in the NCR. Before joining NCPC in 2001, Mr. Acosta served as senior vice president of planning and development for the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), the nation’s second largest public transportation system. As CTA’s chief planner, he developed new capital programs and oversaw successful initiatives that increased ridership and reduced operating costs for the city’s bus and rail systems. Prior to CTA, he held the position of deputy commissioner for the Chicago Department of Planning and Development. Mr. Acosta received a master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a 2001 Loeb Fellow of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.

Cassio Taniguschi	Secretary of the Department of Urban and Environmental Development.	Brazil	From 1997 to 2005, Cassio Taniguchi was the mayor of Curitiba, Brazil, a city recognized as a model for good urban planning and progressive ecological policies since the early 70s. Mr. Taniguchi implemented an innovative bus system, created more than two dozen recreational parks that provide natural treatment for stormwater runoff, and increased green areas from 5 square feet per inhabitant to 560 square feet. Previously, Mr. Taniguchi spearheaded the creation of Curitiba's industrial center and led efforts to attract nonpolluting industries. He is now Brazil's secretary of the Department of Urban and Environmental Development.

Guto Indio da Costa	Director of Design and CEO of the Indio da Costa Design Office	Brazil	Architect and designer of the Express Transportation System – TEX. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.Director of Design and CEO of the Índio da Costa Design Office. In 1993, Guto Índio da Costa graduated from the Art Center College of Design in Switzerland, and remained in Europe for several years, gaining experience in prominent and important design offices in Germany, France and Denmark. Returning to Brazil in 1997, he developed critically acclaimed projects, recognized by his refined taste and audacious design application. Guto da Costa was an essential member of the successful Rio Cidade Project, which concentrated efforts in neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro such as Leblon. His team's urban design simplified the approach in the use of public payphones, bus stops, traffic lights and signs. Besides massive approval and local satisfaction, the project won the iF Product Design Award of 1998 and was a runner-up of the Mies van der Rohe Award for Latin America in 2000. The combination of awards honoring his work and the impressive catalog of products conceived by Guto Índio da Costa and his team puts his studio among the most important creators of industrial products in Brazil.

Larry Beasley		Vancouver	Urban Planner, former Vancouver’s director of planning, consultant of the new Abu Dhabi Project. Vancouver, Canada. Larry Beasley is one of the world’s top urban planners. He helped establish the City of Vancouver as one of the most livable cities in the world. Over the past 28 years of civic service, Beasley has served as the city’s senior community planner and as director of the Vancouver Legacies Program, where he raised $3.5 million from the private sector for civic projects. Among his recent initiatives are new land use and transportation plans that are dramatically reshaping Vancouver’s inner city. Larry Beasley is a distinguished practice professor of planning at the University of British Columbia and the founding principal of Beasley and Associates, an international planning consultancy. Previously, he served as director of planning for Vancouver, Canada, where he was known for land use and transportation plans that revitalized the city core and reshaped the surrounding neighborhoods. Beasley currently chairs the National Advisory Committee on Planning, Design and Realty of Ottawa's National Capital Commission. He has been recognized with numerous awards for architecture, city planning, and landscape design, including the Kevin Lynch Award from MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning.

Paul Bedford	Urban Mentor and Chief Planner Emeritus, City of Toronto	Toronto	Paul Bedford is an Adjunct Professor of City Planning at the University of Toronto and Ryerson University and an Urban Mentor with Paul Bedford & Associates in Toronto, which includes proactive involvement in a wide variety of public planning issues in numerous capacities primarily within the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. He is a member of the Waterfront Toronto Urban Design Review Panel, a member of the National Capital Commission Planning Advisory Committee in Ottawa, and a futures columnist in the Ontario Planning Journal and a Senior Associate of the Canadian Urban Institute. He is also a member of the CAMH Property Committee guiding the long-term redevelopment of the Queen Street Mental Health and Addiction Facility. Mr. Bedford was the former Chief City Planner for the City of Toronto and is a passionate advocate of transit and city building throughout the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.

Thierry Lansier	Mission Marchés et coopération, Services de la direction générale	Paris	Head of the Cooperation Department at RATP -Autonomous Operator of Parisian Transports. Paris, France.

Jean-François Pronovost	Director général, La route verte, Velo QC	Montreal	Executive Director of Vélo Québec Association and overseer of the development of the Route verte,

Jean-François Gysel	Director, Transport et Chef de Service, Infrastructures et transport international, AECOM	Montreal

George Hazel OBE	MRC McLean Hazel	Scotland	Professor Hazel is Chairman of MRC McLean Hazel (a member of the MMM Group/MRC). He is an Honorary Professor at the Robert Gordon University and was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 2005 for services to transport. He has acted as advisor to government and a range of agencies and local authorities including the Lorry Road User Charging Advisory Group, Transport 2000’s Policy Council and the Commission for Integrated Transport. He was also a member of the UK Secretary of State’s Steering Group on National Road User Charging and was President of the Institution of Highways and Transportation (IHT). He was Chair of the Urban Design Alliance (UDAL) in 2005 and 2006. He is currently advising San Diego, Toronto and the Queensland government in addition to many projects in the UK. Professor Hazel is an expert in policy advice and development and in innovative funding and delivery mechanisms. He has extensive experience of how towns and cities work having written a book in 2004 on “Making Cities Work” and having led the team which produced the Megacities report for Siemens which was launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2007. He has also advised a number of individual towns and cities in the UK, Europe, North America, Australia, Japan and India.

Robert Cervero	Professor and Chair, Department of City and Regional Planning	University of Berkeley	Robert Cervero works in the area of sustainable transportation policy and planning, focusing on the nexus between urban transportation and land-use systems. Besides his academic and directorship appointments at Berkeley, Professor Cervero is also a faculty affiliate of the Energy and Resources Group, the Institute of Transportation Studies, the Center for a Sustainable California, the Berkeley Center for Future Urban Transport, and the Global Metropolitan Studies Center. His current research is on the intersection between infrastructure, place-making, and economic development as well as urban transformations and their impacts on travel behavior. He is a frequent advisor and consultant on transport projects, both in the U.S. and abroad. In 2004, Professor Cervero was the first-ever recipient of the Dale Prize for Excellence in Urban Planning Research. Presently, he is Chairman of the International Association of Urban Environments and the National Advisory Board of the Active Living Research Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Professor Cervero currently serves on the editorial boards of Urban Studies, Journal of the American Planning Association, Journal of Planning Literature, and Journal of Public Transportation. Over the past year, he has conducted professional training workshops in Indonesia through the World Bank Institute as well as for the Ministry of Transportation in Argentina, the West Australia Department of Planning, and the American Planning Association. Professor Cervero is frequently invited to give lectures abroad, having recently keynoted at international conferences in Colombia, Australia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Korea, and China. Books: Development Around Transit, The Transit Metropolis, and others.

Plus many other carefully selected speakers.