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Planning, Cities and Economic Recovery: Mobility in a time of global disruption

Held on the 12th Nov 2020

at 1pm to
2pm

, Online


Add to Calendar 2020-11-12 13:00:00 2020-11-12 14:00:00 Australia/Sydney Planning, Cities and Economic Recovery: Mobility in a time of global disruption The 2020 Abercrombie Lecture celebrating World Urbanism Day. Online Webinar
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Venue:

Online Webinar

Summary:

The 2020 Abercrombie Lecture celebrating World Urbanism Day.

Presenter(s):

  • Professor Donald Shoup, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Dr Rana Roy, Public Policy Economist
  • Hosted by: Professor Elaine Stratford, University of Tasmania

In the aftermath of the Second World War, English planner Sir Patrick Abercrombie led a radical effort to reconstruct the United Kingdom’s devastated cities. His prescient ideas and exceptional forethought galvanised a generation of planners and left a legacy that is still resonating in the 21st century. The Greater London Plan 1944 has since become known as The Abercrombie Plan. Firmly rooted in ideas (and ideals) for post-war reconstruction, the plan addressed a range of issues, including transportation, housing, infrastructure coordination and the provision of green space.

Abercrombie HeadshotHeld since 2006, the biennial Abercrombie Lecture is a partnership between the Abercrombie Family, Planning Institute Australia, and the University of Tasmania. It celebrates the achievements of Sir Patrick Abercrombie and carries forward an ambition to radically improve the world’s cities, with a specific focus on Tasmania.

This year’s Abercrombie lecture is co-delivered by world-recognised economist Rana Roy, and world authority on parking and cities, Donald Shoup. It will fill a void in the current public and political debate and features a panel discussion with Natasha Cica, a change expert and cultural leader based in Australia and Europe. The coronavirus (COVID-19) has profoundly disrupted global economies, and Tasmania is no exception. While still in the midst of the pandemic, leaders are now considering the critically important task of economic recovery. Many have turned to the role of infrastructure, including road building, in stimulating economic investment. But a cadre of scholars, thought leaders, practitioners and activists are pointing to bigger questions of how people move around towns and cities. Critical questions include: Who wins and who loses in post-COVID19 recovery? Is there a future for cities, and what is the role of transportation, parking and active and healthy communities?

The University of Tasmania’s Special and Rare Collection holds a collection of books and plans of Abercrombie’s, donated by Sir Patrick’s son, the late Neil Abercrombie, who was Town and Country Planning Commissioner in Tasmania for nearly two decades from 1956.

Distinguished Research Professor Donald Shoup

Shoup HeadshotDonald Shoup is Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Urban Planning at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research has focused on transportation, public finance, and land economics, with emphasis on how parking policies affect cities, the economy, and the environment. In his landmark 2005 book, The High Cost of Free Parking, Shoup recommended that cities should (1) charge fair market prices for on-street parking, (2) spend the revenue to improve public services in the metered neighborhoods, and (3) remove off-street parking requirements. In his 2018 book, Parking and the City, Shoup and his co-authors examined the results where cities have adopted these policies. The successful outcomes show this trio of reforms may be the simplest, cheapest, and fastest way to improve city life, protect the environment, and promote social justice.

Shoup is a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners and an Honorary Professor at the Beijing Transportation Research Center. The American Planning Association gave Shoup its National Excellence Award for a Planning Pioneer and the American Collegiate Schools of Planning gave him its Distinguished Educator Award.

Dr Rana Roy

Rana HeadshotDr Rana Roy is one of the foremost global experts in the field of public economics, with noted contributions to the literature on social costs and benefits. He has served in senior roles in several government agencies including the Tasmanian Department of Premier and Cabinet, the Australian Productivity Commission, the Australian Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the UK Department of Trade and Industry, as the Chief Economist of the European Commission’s think-tank on infrastructure, ECIS, and as a Board Member of Transport for London. Since April 1997, he has run his own economics consultancy, based initially in London, UK, and now in Hobart, Tasmania, with a client list including several major local, national, European and international government agencies.

Dr Roy will speak to the “living legacy” of Abercrombie: his contribution to the radical spatial and economic reconstruction of London and Britain, alongside the contributions of Keynes, Beveridge, Butler, and others, in the context of the Second World War and its aftermath, and the relevance of this historical experience to the challenges and opportunities that we face in the 2020s.

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