Exploitation Update
Within the CIVITAS initiative the term ‘Exploitation’ is used to describe how cities can ensure the long-term sustainability of their measure objectives. In other words, by finding ongoing sources of funding for measures, the transport benefits delivered for each city by SMILE can be made truly sustainable. In many cases the cities are already finding partners or budgets to maintain or expand their measures, but the cities may also require assistance with this activity.
In order to assist cities with their thinking and planning in this area, an Exploitation Training event was held as part of the CIVITAS SMILE consortium meeting in Tallinn on June 11 2008. Dr Chris Humphrey of Transport & Travel Research Ltd (TTR), presented the workshop and introduced the Exploitation Model as a method for helping cities to get more value from their investments in sustainable transport. The model does this by encouraging cities to think about their measure objectives in the context of a continuous cycle of transport improvements and innovations. The Model uses a three-phase approach, consisting of Planning, Project and Partnership Phases (see the diagram on page 3). Chris talked through the phases of the model and opened up the floor for discussion at various points during the workshop. The feedback from delegates on the workshop was very good, including the comment that this was the first time that one delegate had been able to understand this theme! Chris has been invited to moderate a Roundtable Session on the theme of Exploitation at the CIVITAS Forum in Bologna in November 2008.
