Lower Impact Vehicle Symposium Seeking Minimal Impact Solutions to Personal Mobility 2007
	Friday, April 13th, 2007 University of California, DavisMemorial Union II Purpose Background Call for Presentations, Posters, and/or Vehicles Schedule Contacts
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Purpose: Goals for the LIV symposium

At this Symposium we will discuss the potential for moving towards the creation of local, low-speed, lightweight mode networks to compliment regional fast and heavy vehicle networks.  Without this separation, lower impact modes (walking, biking, and Lower Impact Vehicles using (LIVing)) will always be more dangerous on roads that prioritize the movement of cars and allow them to travel at speeds much higher than walking or biking speeds.  To this end, we are gathering community leaders, planners, developers, engineers, and advocates to discuss the potential for LIVs and for local transportation networks designed around the Lower Impact Mode concept. Lower Impact Modes (LIMs) range from walking to use of low speed vehicles (LSVs) as defined in the U.S. Federal vehicle code.

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Background: The issues that motivated the creation of the LIV symposium

More and more people all over the world either yearn for or have come to expect the lifestyle opportunities that personal automobiles provide. Here in the US, personal automobiles have become overbuilt behemoths to increase passenger safety and as a statement of class. Yet, communities bemoan the collective problems entailed by the mass use of large personal vehicles: congestion, increased risk of injury and death on roadways (especially to non-motorists), increased health risks both from air pollution and sedentary lifestyles, increased risk of climate change, and even far reaching political consequences from energy dependence. This symposium seeks to advance the potential of developing lower impact vehicle markets in communities by bringing vehicle prototypes and policy-makers together in one place for discussion and action.

Communities which choose Lower Impact Vehicles (vehicles that are lighter, smaller, and do not travel as fast as most automobiles) for local travel have the potential to address these collective problems simultaneously. Lower Impact Vehicles (LIVs), like all lower impact modes such as walking and cycling, are lower impact by virtue of their relative per capita energy consumption, pollution production, road and parking footprint, safety impacts, etc. vis a vis today’s standard personal vehicles. Many of the beneficial impacts of choosing LIVs over the status quo are external to the private costs and benefits. Without prioritizing and improving the safety and convenience of Lower Impact Vehicles, they will continue to present less private utility to the majority of travelers than their higher impact counterparts and the collective problems of automobility are likely to persist. Concurrently, without significant evidence that people would prefer to use such lower impact vehicles, communities will remain reluctant to invest significant resources towards developing separate networks or even just designating a strategic subset of existing roads to prioritize them.

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Call for Presentations, Posters, and/or Vehicles

We are seeking presentations and posters that involve moving towards a community-level vision of lower impact transportation. We invite discussion about both new community developments and retrofitting existing community travel networks to better accomodate LIVs. All presentations and posters must relate to the LIV Symposium purpose and background as described above. We also welcome lower impact vehicle displays and related presentations. Please fill out our proposal form to submit a presentation, poster, or vehicle display and mail it to LIVsymposium@gmail.com. Proposal Form (MS Word Document)

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Schedule

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Contacts

Co Chair: Chris Congleton,
cdcong@ucdavis.edu

Co Chair: Eric Van Gelder,
eevangelder@ucdavis.edu

Institute of Transportation Engineers UC Davis Chapter President: Nicholas Linesch,

njlinesch@ucdavis.edu

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