Inconvenience with public transit: A barrier to innovation and change

Feb 4, 2009

Inconvenience with public transit: A barrier to innovation and change

With the end of the disastrous two-month public transit strike in Canada’s National Capital, people are wondering what can OC Transpo do to regain its former popularity among commuters. Mike Kesterton of the Globe and Mail has pointed us to an interesting story by Fox News about novel technologies that would make public transit more convenient, eliminating some of the current barriers:

TransitTracker
"For commuters who have to choose between breakfast and catching the bus, companies such as TransitTracker keep tags on buses and trains so you can track them online or on your cell phone.

The system follows your ride's actual location — not an estimated schedule — so you know exactly when it will arrive at your station or stop." It’s currently being used in Portland, Oregon.

iNap
"Once you're on that train or bus, you can finally get back to what matters most: going back to sleep.

Thanks to an ingenious iPhone application called iNap (get it here) , the phone's built-in GPS device will track your location (as long as you're above ground) and set off an alarm when you're near your destination — not too soon, not too late, leaving you little excuse to be grumpy when you actually arrive."

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Our project: Making it happen - the transition to a sustainable society

This blog is a continuation of a project at the University of Ottawa Telfer School of Management dealing with innovation, public policy, and climate change. We are not developing another vision for a sustainable society. We want to focus on the implementation and the barriers to change and innovation, hence the title "Making it happen". (See Post “The start of a new project”)

We have divided the project into two broad steps. The first step is to review various sustainable visions for regions. See our following Posts:
Setting sustainability and environmental targets (1): Recent announcements on GHG emissions
Setting sustainability and environmental targets (2): the dimensions of sustainability
and
Setting sustainability and environmental targets (3): Ottawa’s “Choosing our future”

The next broad set of activities is to parse out what needs to happen if we are to achieve these visions and identify the barriers - institutional, social, behavioural - to make the change happen, i.e. “What’s stopping us from becoming a sustainable society?”

The intent is to design improved policy interventions.

So, in addition to continue looking at sustainable visions, our posts have examined through past examples and case studies how various technologies and changes are implemented. And we will look at barriers and obstacles.

We invite you to share your experiences with the difficulties of implementing new technologies and changes to address the challenge of climate change, and how these can be overcome. Post a comment!

Our Team

ANDRE POTWOROWSKI is an adjunct professor at the Telfer School of Managemnent at the University of Ottawa, and a management consultant in environmental research management, innovation, and environmental policies. He has been working in the environment field since the mid-70s, when he was part of the original Conserver Society study at the Science Council of Canada. He is president of TMA Technology Management Associates, and Managing Partner, Science and Technology of the Professional Development Institute

TOM BRZUSTOWSKI, Chair of our Advisory Board during the project, was the RBC Chair in Innovation and Technology Commercialization at the Telfer School, and is the past President of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. He authored a book on productivity and innovation, "The Way Ahead: Meeting Canada's Productivity Challenge", and more recently "Why we need more INNOVATION IN CANADA: and what we must do to get it."

Making it happen - the transition to a sustainable society

Feb 4, 2009