Når det nærmer seg valg i Norge, iscenesettes en konflikt mellom klima og alt som har med bil å gjøre. Som bilist snakkes du inn i en offerrolle, og den uretten oppfordres du til å rette opp ved hjelp av stemmeseddelen. Nå som valgstøvet har lagt seg, kan vi legge den falske motsetningen bak oss.

Fordi bilen er fantastisk! Den tar deg hvorsomhelst, nårsomhelst, helt uten planlegging. Bilen gjør det mulig å bo billig ett sted og jobbe et annet. Den gjør dermed klassereiser mulig. Den klassereisen kan også markeres overfor omverdenen, ved å oppgradere til BMW.

Som Tracy Chapman synger i sin ikoniske låt, Fast car:

You got a fast car, I want a ticket to anywhere

So I remember when we were driving, driving in your car

Speed so fast, I felt like I was drunk

And I had a feeling that I belonged

I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone

Eller som 50 cent rapper i sin låt 21 questions:

If I went back to a hooptie from a Benz

Would you poof and disappear like some of my friends?

Girl, it’s easy to love me now

Would you love me if I was down and out?

Would you still have love for me?

Could you love me on a bus?

I Norge er bilen et ekstra lag yttertøy, når været er guffent. Bilen er helt avgjørende for livskvaliteten til folk med forflytningsutfordringer. Den er et gutterom for de som ikke har ett, et pusterom for de som trenger det, og en arbeidsplass for veldig mange. Det vil være umulig å opprettholde det norske kulturlandskapet, breddeidretten, friluftslivet og hyttekosen, uten privatbilen.

Bil er frihet, romantikk og kreativitet.

Bortsett fra når den står i kø.

Da er den bare i veien.

Ifølge ytterpunktene Ståle Sørensen og Næringsforeningen i Drammensregionen, lammes Drammen av bilkø. I hvert fall mellom 08–09 og 15–17. Det tar meg i dag 22 minutter å sykle fra Bragernes og hjem til Konnerud på arbeidsdager klokka 15:30, mot 28 minutter om jeg kjører bil. Som bilist står jeg bom stille inn mot Øvre Sund bru, bom stille i Kreftingsgate og bom stille oppover Konnerudgata. Som syklist tråkker jeg forbi. Sånt kan ikke et bilistvennlig kommunestyre være bekjent av! Byens håndverkere må få komme seg på jobb (eller fakturere for bilturen). Døtre må kunne kjøre fedre til sykehuset. Foodora må fram.

Allerede i fjor sommer forklarte en trafikkoperatør byens uforklarlige køkaos til Drammens Tidende med at «Det kan rett og slett virke som om det er for mange biler på de enkelte steder». Og det kommer til å bli verre. Norges bilpark økte med 100.000 i fjor. I juli i år sto det 13.000 biler på Drammen Havn som venter på å bli tatt i bruk.

Det blir altså mange flere nye biler som lover bilisten frihet uten å kunne holde det løftet, i tiden fremover.

Men ikke skyld på klimatiltak. For sykkelen er ingen trussel mot bilen. Så lenge det heter sykebil, politibil og brannbil, vil bilveien brøytes før sykkelveien vinterstid. Bussen er ingen trussel mot bilen. Så lenge kun Island har lavere befolkningstetthet i Europa enn Norge, vil «bussen» både bli én-seters og selvkjørende før den blir samfunnsøkonomisk lønnsom. Selv ikke byråkratene i Brussel er noen reell trussel mot bilen. Så lenge 7 prosent av sysselsettinga i EU er direkte eller indirekte knyttet til bilproduksjon, kommer vi til å ha fri flyt av nye utslippsfrie biler til Norge.

Mer vei lar seg ikke bygge i denne dalen uten å rive hus og hjem. Flere felt i tunellene tar årevis å prosjektere og bygge. Etter Bjørnstjerne Bjørnsonsgate på Strømsø å dømme, hjelper ikke bredere traséer noe særlig heller. Fire flotte felter bygget for å ta unna makstrafikken er allerede sprengt i ettermiddagsrushet. Nattestid blir de samme fire feltene dragracearenaer.

Om noen år er alle parkeringsplassene på Strømsø borte. Grunneierne ønsker å ha mer lukrative ting på sine sentrumstomter, enn parkerte biler. BaneNor skal bygge boliger på Godsterminalen, der det i dag er pendlerparkeringsplass. Pendlerparkeringen erstattes ikke. Skal du parkere ved en togstasjon i Drammen, er framtidsplanen til BaneNor at du må kjøre til Gulskogen eller Brakerøya.

Utfordringene vi bilister i Drammen står overfor, har ingenting med rødgrønne klimatiltak å gjøre. Bilkøen i Drammen kommer av at infrastrukturen innenfor byens geografiske rammer er sprengt. At parkering blir borte er et resultat av at markedskreftene rår. Hvorfor da klage på sykkeltiltak eller kollektivtransport? Alt som får vekk andre bilister fra veien du selv sitter i bilkø på, eller parkeringsplassen du er på jakt etter, er jo bra!

Hvordan det nye blå flertallet i kommunestyret skal sørge for at forholdene for bilister ikke bare blir enda dårligere fremover, har de ikke avslørt ennå. De har nøyd seg med å love at de skal «…skal få fart på Drammen».

Med det innsalget, hva passer da bedre enn å redusere bilkøproblemet?

For de som har husk, er det morsomt å se Superbussen sprenge seg ut av telefonkiosken nok en gang. Allerede i 2015 lanserte daværende administrerende direktør i Brakar, Henry Gaarde, Superbussen som et prosjekt som kunne berede grunnen for en bybane. Senere, i 2017 ble tanken om Superbuss oppgradert til fullgod erstatning for bybane, og nå, i 2023, er Superbussen fra Mjøndalen til Brakerøya på banen igjen.

Skjønt, det er jo egentlig ikke snakk om en super buss.

For en super buss er en buss som venter utenfor døra mi om morgenen, etter kvelden i forveien å ha sagt ifra om nøyaktig klokkeslett innenfor mitt innmeldte tidsvindu, at jeg må sette meg inn i bussen for å rekke mitt vanlige tog, tatt i betraktning de fire andre personene som skal plukkes opp på vei til stasjonen. Er det en sjåfør ombord? Kanskje ikke. Fantasi? Ruter skal teste en selvkjørende bestillingsbuss i Groruddalen allerede til høsten.

En super buss er en buss som kjører behagelig fort uten brå bevegelser utenfor byen, for så å bli from som et lam over Bragernes og Strømsø torg fordi den hastighetsbegrenses elektronisk og sensorer merker syklister og gående på vei alle tenkelige og utenkelige retninger rundt den. Utslippsfritt hele tiden, naturligvis. Er det en sjåfør ombord? Helt klart. Men han kan slippe rattet, ta seg en god strekk og fylle kaffe fra termosen på vei over den nye bybrua.

En super buss er en buss som aldri er så fullpakket at det er ubehagelig, men som heller aldri kaster bort samfunnets ressurser på å kjøre rundt nesten tom. Brakar melder at det i gjennomsnitt sitter 11 personer på hver buss (2021-tall), som betyr at det i snitt er 27 sitteplasser og 50 ståplasser som kjører rundt ubenyttet.

Uansett belegg, bussen er egentlig ganske super allerede. Men det er først når også byen er super, at bussens supre potensiale kan utnyttes til fulle.

I rushtiden hjem er Konnerudbussen smekkfull gjennom Nybyen på Strømsø. Da befinner det seg altså ca. 60 personer ombord i bussen, ifølge Brakars data om Golden Dragon elbusser. Om de 60 busspassasjerene i stedet satt alene i hver sin privatbil (gitt at en typisk privatbil er maksimum 5m lang og har minimum 2,5m foran og bak seg til neste bil) ville de lagt beslag på 600 meter vei. Det tilsvarer ganske nøyaktig avstanden fra Bjørnstjerne Bjørnsonsgate til broen over Vestfoldbanen.

Uten bussen ville bilkøen vært dobbelt så lang, med rimelig uheldige ringvirkninger.

En super bilist burde derfor være takknemlig for at andre velger buss, vise den respekt i trafikken og åpenbart støtte tiltak som gjør at flere tar den!

Et supert busselskap belønner de som beviselig fortsetter å bruke bussen, selv om de får lenger å gå som følge av at holdeplasser i Rosenkrantzgata legges ned. For eksempel med lavere billettpris eller gratis hjemkjøring av varer fra sentrum. Eventuelt kan en super fylkeskommune gjøre det, siden de både eier busselskapet og har ansvar for folkehelse. Mer gange forebygger samfunnskostnader, det er folkehelse i hver ekstra meter.

På sitt beste er kollektivtrafikk kultur og historie. I supre byer er det å kjøre kollektivt en lokalpatriotisk handling.

Tenk på Kong Olav på trikken i Oslo, bybanen i Bergen, dobbeldeckerbusser i London, kanalbåter i Venezia, graffiti på t-banen i New York. Listen er lang. Selv om vedtaket om gratis buss i Stavanger ut 2023 er omstridt, bidrar det til å understøtte byens identitet som innovativ.

Å sitte alene i bil i kø, er å isolere seg fra verden. Å sette seg på bussen, sykle eller gå er det motsatte. Som klisjéene tilsier: på sykkel er det vind i håret, til fots kan du høre fuglekvitter. På bussen møter du dine kulturomgivelser, din sosiale samtid.

Løsninger som gir bussen unike fordeler krever tilpasninger. Når bussen står i samme kø som bilistene blir den lavstatus. Når bussen derimot krever litt, setter den seg i respekt og statusen heves, til beste for rekruttering av passasjerer og dermed også til beste for bilistene rundt.

Da blir det en super buss. For å få til det, må vi være en super by, med supre innbyggere. Er vi?

(Link til kronikken med kommentarer i Drammens Tidende)

Naturlig nok mener vi det burde være krav om obligatoriske insentivordninger som Kobla, i byvekstavtalemalen. Kommuner må strekke seg lengre for å skape konkrete fordeler for de som velger å reise aktivt.

Men det er flere måter å skape og fordele goder til de som gjør en innsats på, enn bare gjennom Kobla. Forskning har slått fast at tilgang på parkeringsplass er et av de godene som vi vet er avgjørende for hvorvidt bilen brukes som transportmiddel på reisen til og fra jobb. Det har kommuner tatt konsekvensen av, ved å innføre restriksjoner og høye parkeringsavgifter.

Greit nok, men hva med insentiver? Hvor er gulrota?

Parkeringsplasser kan være et «eksklusivt gode» tilgjengelig kun dersom bilisten anstrenger seg det lille ekstra for å redusere sin privatbilbruk. De mest attraktive parkeringsplassene (feks nære togstasjonen etter at pendlerparkeringen på Godsterminalen fjernes), kunne forbeholdes bilister som beviselig samkjører. Samkjøring utnytter den ledige kapasiteten som biler med bare én person i utgjør i trafikken. Samkjøring er et tiltak som alle de som forteller at bussen stopper for langt unna, kan prøve å gjennomføre.

Parkeringsteknologi er såvidt nevnt i utkastet som Drammen kommune har lagt ut på høring. Vi antar at det blant annet peker på parkeringsappene.

Å nå bilisten er ekstremt vanskelig. Parkeringsappen er en av få kanaler bilister må forholde seg til. Vi mener en parkeringsstrategi bør inkludere hvordan ta i bruk ikke bare parkeringsplassene, men også parkeringsappene som bilister er nødt til å ta i bruk, på en aktiv måte i arbeidet med på nå nullvekstmålet.

Å kreve at parkeringsaktørene tilbyr åpne data om kapasitet, kostnader og liknende, slik for eksempel banker må som følge av PSD2, vil gjøre det mulig for en samlende «biløkonomiapp» å gi bilisten totalinnsikt i utgiftene forbundet med egne bilvaner. Bilisten vil kunne dermed få et mer bevissthet forhold til hvor dyr deres egen bilbruk er, og et mer reelt beslutningsgrunnlag for hvordan organisere sin reisehverdag. Dette ville være et sterkt virkemiddel i å tilrettelegge for bildeling.

En fremoverlent parkeringsstrategi bør inneholde planer om å utforske slike muligheter, gjennom piloter eller liknende. Derfor har vi meldt dette inn til Drammen kommunes parkeringsstrategi.

Og så krysser vi fingra!

Bompengekrangelen startet for omtrent 8 år siden. Utenom datostemplingen, er det umulig å se forskjell på avisinnlegg fra da og nå. Det er dessverre en samfunnsdebatt som kjører med brekket på.

Ikke rart, en bomring har motstridende mål. Den skal både hente inn midler for å nedbetale lån tatt opp av kommunen for å bygge infrastruktur og samtidig påvirke befolkningen til i mindre grad å bruke privatbil inn til sentrum. Lykkes kommunen med påvirkning, mislykkes kommunen med inntjening. Og omvendt. Litt som slagordet Toyota hadde på bussene i Drammen for lenge siden: «Trygg og spennende!».

Bompenger er en betydelig kostnad for folk med dårlig råd som er avhengig av bil. Men bompenger er også en ubetydelig kostnad for folk med god råd uansett om de trenger bil eller ei. Det gjør bomringen usosial og ineffektiv.

Forrige uke slapp Stavangers ordfører bomben om gratis kollektivtransport for kommunens innbyggere. Motargumentene likner på bompengekrangelen: ineffektiv og usosial. Ineffektiv, fordi forskning viser at tiltak som dette ikke reduserer CO2 utslipp, og usosial, fordi Stavangers rikeste mann får busse gratis for penger som kunne kommet til nytte på annet vis.

Her er det rom for å tenke nytt: Hver av oss går, sykler, toger, biler og busser med en samling sensorer i lomma: smartmobilen. Samtidig som bilskilt eller autopassbrikke på bilen du sitter i passerer et bomsnitt på vei inn mot sentrum, vet mobilen din det også. Men i motsetning til bilskilt eller autopassbrikke, er mobilen personlig. Med mobilen i miksen kan vi se individet som skal inn i sentrum og kjøretøyet de har valgt i sammenheng.

Se for deg en hjelpepleier med aleneansvar for to barn som kommunen har plassert i hver sin barnehage. Hver gang bilen hans passerer bomsnittet, gjør mobilen hans et oppslag i kommunens databaser, sikret med BankID, finner ut at inntektsnivå og ugunstig barnehagetildeling gir grunnlag for refusjon av bompenger, og melder det til bomselskapet. Mens eiendomsmekleren som kjører diesel-SUV alene fra Konnerud til kontoret på Bragernes? Fullpris. Med mindre hun tar med tre venninner som også skal ned til byen. Da fordeles kostnaden for den ene bompasseringen på alle fire ombord, fordi mobilene deres vet at de alle fire passerte bomsnittet på samme tidspunkt som SUVen.

Hva?! Bompenger delt på fire! Det blir jo billigere enn bussen!!?

Ja, men ikke uten at du har gjort noe for å fortjene det. Og kanskje det er samfunnsøkonomisk mer gunstig å belønne fire venninner i en SUV på steder der grunnlaget for kollektivtransport er tynt, enn å drifte en bussrute som blir lite brukt?

Å la sin mobil brukes på denne måten, må være frivillig og styrt med en app. Mens rabatter og refundering følger individet og er frivillig, må bompenger følge bilen og være obligatorisk. Men det som virkelig åpner positive muligheter, er at mobilen vet når du reiser på andre måter enn privatbil. Om du går, sykler eller busser dit du skal, og dermed både unngår utslipp og forebygger egne kostbare helseplager, kan du bevise det med mobilen din.

Kanskje du belønnes med gratis cortado for å gå mer enn 4km inn til sentrum? Gratis buss, ikke til alle året rundt som i Stavanger, men om vinteren og kun til de som har syklet over 50% av arbeidsdagene i sommerhalvåret? Kanskje belønningens størrelse varierer med reiselengde, slik som bonuspoengene til flyselskapene og kan veksles inn i praktiske fordeler som anledning til å parkere nærmere togstasjonen? Eller kanskje bonusen kan være rabatt på bompenger på en regnværsdag, fordi du syklet når det var sol? Rabatt på bompenger, fordi du har begynt å gå tur i skogen tre ganger i uka?

Det ville vært en bomring å bli glad i!

Ikke overbevist? Du er kanskje ikke så opptatt av verken miljøet, egen lommebok eller egen helse? Vel, hvis en bonusring sørger for at flere andre folk sykler, busser og går, betyr jo det færre andre biler på veien enn den du sitter i selv. Det betyr mindre bilkø for deg.

Refusjoner, rabatter og belønning står i konflikt med kravet om nedbetaling av lån, med mindre hele det årlige lånebeløpet fordeles på de bompasseringene som ikke kvalifiserer til refusjon, rabatt eller belønning.

Umulig! Altfor radikalt!

Vel, prinsippet kommer fra forsikringsverdenen, så hvor radikalt kan det være? Det kalles bonus-malus på fint, men er ikke annet enn at premien som skal betales av en kunde justeres i henhold til deres individuelle skadehistorikk. Hvis totalbyrden for nedbetaling av kommunens infrastrukturlån flyttes fra reiser som fortjener å refunderes, rabatteres og belønnes, til de som ikke gjør det, holdes summen av bonus og malus konstant!

Tåkeprat! Luftslott!

Nei. Puslespill.

Stavanger kommune tør å eksperimentere. I mai i fjor etterlyste daværende styreleder i Drammensregionens Næringsforening, Terje Gundersen, og Høyres gruppeleder, Kristin Surlien, en idédugnad på hvordan man kan gjøre brukerbetaling digital og sosial, i denne avisen. Drammen kan prøve et annet, billigere eksperiment: vi kan starte med en bonusring og vente med bomring. Hvis drammensere høster nok gulrot (bonusring), kanskje vi slipper pisk (bomring)!

Elon Musk is building a conceptual brand framework to leap-frog his big tech rivals. Yes, the rebranding of Twitter to X on its surface seems haphazard, irreverant and self-congratulatory. But you’re missing the big… eh omnipotent picture.

Follow me on this:

The Musk child is named X. Put another way: ChildX. Following the same logic, Elon could be designated ManX, and his wife at any given time, WomanX. The Tesla lineup already includes a ModelX, but that’s a little too specific. Going in a more meta direction along the lines of MovementX or MobilityX would be a possibility, especially taking into account Teslas autonomous ambitions, but better to stay on brand and keep things banal, so: CarX.

Starlink, the Musk-owned company that has 4500 satellites in orbit, controls an information distribution network that spans the Earth. Combine Twitter/X with Starlink and the result is content published to the entire globe bypassing petty considerations like nation states and government control. Far fetched? Well, it scares the Chinese. And would it be free speech? Or just Musk-aligned?

Expand Twitter/X with the «everything app»-functionality that Musk has proclaimed will be its evolution, and there is no need (or room) for anything else on the Starlink network. And when Twitter/X+Starlink offers everything to everyone, it won’t remain limited by something as trivial as a phone for long. Enter Neuralink, the brain interface company also owned by Musk. With Twitter/X+Starlink+Neuralink, Musk can potentially reach directly into every brain on the planet. Add SpaceX and he’s in our heads even if we go off-planet. No escape.

Up there with Star Wars and Star Trek, this is world-building worthy of sci-if greatness.

Next step: secure the rights to the name EarthX from the environmentalists and/or game developers that own them at present, and rebrand X to EarthX. The result: a brand framework to match the omnipotency of the plot:

ManX, WomanX, ChildX, CarX, EarthX, SpaceX.

Big tech loves Big associations. Google spawned Alphabet, an attempt at owning the building blocks of language. Zuckerberg rebranded to Meta, both an aloof abstraction and an ill-fated attempt to pocket the metaverse-as-alternative-to-this-universe. Apple’s i-everything, signifying intimacy, focuses on You the Ultimate Individual. Still a Big association, albeit in the Big Ego sense.

In this Big context, X represents the unknown. Musk is going for something just as Big, but more edgy than the competition. With his Basic+X strategy, Musk is saying the future of the prefix (Man, Woman, Child, Car, Earth, Space) is his to explore.

Pretty cool, and yet, the rebranding has been widely ridiculed.

How could Musk have done things differently? Well, for one, he could have referenced Gestalt. Gestalt psychology, gestaltism, was a school of psychology in the early twentieth century in Austria and Germany. In short, it is a theory of holistic perception that has been highly influential, especially in art.

This 5 Gestalt Principles are:

• Proximity
• Similarity
• Continuity
• Closure
• Connectedness

The Basic+X Musk Suite of Rebranded Entities adheres perfectly to these principles on many levels, and referencing a pre-war Austrian/German theory would have been perfectly on-brand for an eccentric billionaire.

Furthermore, he should have kept the term «tweets» as a nod to the Twitterati. Because in reality, it would have been an evil anachronism. I mean, when the entire human population is directly brain-linked to its Supreme Leader on Mars, any opinions could rightly be likened to the futile tweets of a small bird. Agree?

No wonder.

In Norway, toll rings around city centres are used to 1. raise funds to pay off loans taken out by the municipality to build infrastructure, and at the same time 2. to reduce the amount of private cars driven into the city centre. If the municipality succeeds in influencing its citizens to leave their cars at home when they commute to work, the municipality’s ability to cover its loan payments is reduced. And vice versa.

These two ambitions are obviously mutually exclusive.

A bit like the slogan Toyota had on buses in my home town of Drammen, Norway a long time ago: “Safe and exciting!”.

Tolls are a significant cost for people who can’t afford to rely on a car. But tolls are also an insignificant cost for people with good money, regardless of whether they need a car or not. That makes the toll ring both unsocial and ineffective.

Last week, Stavanger’s mayor dropped a mobilitybomb: free public transport for the municipality’s residents for the rest of 2023. The counter-arguments to this initiative, are similar to the toll dispute: ineffective and anti-social. Inefficient, because research shows that measures like this do not reduce CO2 emissions, and unsocial, because Stavanger’s richest man gets to take the bus for free for money that the municipality could have used in other ways.

The parties involved are locked in a dispute. That means the rest of us, should do some rethinking.

Each of us walks, cycles, trains, cars and buses with a collection of sensors in our pockets: the smart mobile. At the same exact time as the number plate or autopass tag on the car you’re sitting in, passes a toll on the way into the city centre, your mobile knows it too. But in contrast to license plates or autopass tags, the mobile phone is personal. With the mobile in the mix, we can see the individual going into the city center and the vehicle they have chosen in context.

Heres are a couple of contrasting use cases:

Imagine a nurse with sole responsibility for two children that the municipality has had to place in two different public kindergardens. Every time this nurses car passes the toll, his mobile phone does a lookup in the municipality’s databases, secured with BankID, finds out that his income level and unfavorable kindergarten allocation provide grounds for refunding his toll costs, and reports it to the toll company.

While the estate agent who drives a diesel SUV alone from up on the hill to her office down in the city centre? Full price at the toll. Unless she brings along three friends who are also going down to the city. Then the cost of the one toll crossing could be distributed among all four onboard, because their mobiles know that all four passed the toll section at the same time as the SUV.

What?! The toll divided by four! That means carpooling could be cheaper than the bus!!?

Yes, but not without unless you have made an effort to deserve it. And perhaps it is economically more beneficial to reward four people for carpooling in an SUV in places where the basis for public transport is thin, than to operate a bus route that is rarely used?

Allowing one’s mobile phone to be used in this way must be voluntary and managed with an app. While discounts and refunds follow the individual and are voluntary, tolls must follow the car and be mandatory. But what really opens up positive possibilities is that the mobile phone knows when you travel by other means than your private car. If you walk, cycle or take the bus where you are going, and thus both avoid emissions and reduce the potential for your own costly health problems, you can prove it with your mobile phone.

Maybe you are rewarded with a free cortado for walking more than 4km into the city centre? Free bus, not for everyone all year round like in Stavanger, but in winter and only for those who have cycled more than 50% of the working days in the summer? Perhaps the size of the reward varies with the length of the journey, like bonus points for the airlines, and can be exchanged for practical advantages such as the opportunity to park closer to the train station? Or maybe the bonus could be a discount on tolls on a rainy day, because you cycled when it was sunny? Discount on tolls, because you’ve started walking in the forest three times a week?

That would be a toll ring to fall in love with! A bonus ring!

Not convinced? Perhaps you are not too concerned about either the environment, your own wallet or your own health? Well, if a bonus ring ensures that more other people cycle, take buses and walk, that means fewer other cars on the road than the one you’re sitting in yourself. That means less queues for you.

Refunds, discounts and rewards are in conflict with the loan repayment requirement, unless the entire annual loan amount is distributed among the toll crossings that do not qualify for refunds, discounts or rewards.

Impossible! Too radical!

Well, the principle comes from the world of insurance, so how radical can it be? The fancy term is bonus-malus, but its nothing more than the premium to be paid by a customer being adjusted according to their individual claim history. If the total burden for repayment of the municipality’s infrastructure loan is shifted from journeys that deserve to be reimbursed, discounted and rewarded, to those that do not, the sum of bonus and malus is kept at a constant!

Bullshit! That’s what we call a castle in the air in Norwegian!

No.

It’s a jigsaw puzzle.

Stavanger municipality dares to experiment. In May last year, the then chairman of the Drammen Region’s Business Association, Terje Gundersen, and the Høyre’s group leader, Kristin Surlien, called for a brainstorming session on how to make tolling smarter and more socially acceptable, in this newspaper. Drammen can try another, cheaper experiment: we can start with a bonus ring and wait with a toll ring. If enough people in Drammen are motivated by carrots (a bonus ring), maybe we will evade the stick (a toll ring)!

For citizens of Drammen, Norway blessed with a functioning memory, it’s fun to see the concept of a Superbus blasting out of a phone booth, once again. In 2015, the then managing director of Brakar, Henry Gaarde, launched the Superbus as a project that could prepare the ground for a light rail. Later, in 2017, the idea of a Superbus was upgraded to a replacement for a light rail trams, and now, in 2023, the Superbus from nearby Mjøndalen to Brakerøya, where our new major hospital is nearing completion, is back.

Although… it’s not really a Superbus now, is it?

Because a Superbus would be a bus that waits outside my door in the morning, after having informed me the evening before, about the exact time within my registered time window, that I have to get on the bus waiting outside my door, to catch my regular train, taking into account the four other people to be picked up on the way to the station. Is there a driver on board this Superbus? Maybe not. Science fiction? Oslo’s public transport provider, Ruter, will test a self-driving bus-on-demand in the borough of Groruddalen this autumn.

A Superbus would be a bus that drives comfortably fast without sudden movements outside the city, then becomes cautious like bull in a china store through the city centre. It’s speed would be electronically limited, while it’s sensors detect cyclists and pedestrians travelling at all imaginable and unimaginable vectors around it. Emission-free all the time, of course. Is there a driver on board? Clearly. But he can let go of the wheel, take a good stretch and fill up coffee from his thermos while the Superbus crosses the new city bridge.

A Superbus would be a bus that is never so packed that it’s uncomfortable, but also never wastes public resources driving around almost empty. Our local public transport provider, Brakar reports that, on average, 11 people sit on each bus (2021 figures), which means that there are an average of 27 seats and 50 standing spots in each bus rolling around unused.

Regardless of the occupancy, the bus is actually pretty great already. But it’s only when the city is also super, that the superb potential of a bus can be utilized to the full.

At rush hour home, the local Konnerud bus is packed through through the Nybyen area. At that time, there are approx. 60 people on board the bus, according to Brakar’s data on Golden Dragon electric buses. If those 60 bus passengers instead sat alone in each of their private cars (given that a typical private car is a maximum of 5m long and has a minimum of 2.5m in front of and behind it to the next car) they would take up 600 meters of road. That corresponds quite precisely to the distance from Bjørnstjerne Bjørnsonsgate to the bridge over the Vestfoldbanen, at each end of the Nybyen area.

So without the bus, today’s daily car jam through Nybyen would have been twice as long. Imagine the unfortunate knock-on effects of that!

A super motorist should therefore be grateful that others choose the bus, show it respect in traffic and obviously support measures that motivate more people use it!

A super bus company would reward those who continue to use the bus, even if they have to walk longer as a result of the newly deleted bus stops in Rosenkrantzgata. Rewards could be a lower ticket price or free home delivery of goods from the city centre. Alternatively, a super county council could reward those who continue to take the bus, since they both own the bus company and are responsible for measures to improve public health in the community. There are public health benefits in every extra metre of walking.

At its best, public transport is culture and history.

In big cities, taking public transport is a local patriotic act. Think of the iconic photograph of King Olav of Norway paying for his ticket on the tram in Oslo, the light rail in Bergen, double-decker buses in London, canal boats in Venice, graffiti on the subway in New York. The list is long. Although the recent decision to make public transport free in Stavanger is controversial, it helps to support the city’s identity as innovative.

To sit alone in a car in a queue is to isolate yourself from the world. Getting on the bus, cycling or walking is the opposite. As the clichés suggest: on a bike you feel the wind in your hair, on foot you can hear birds chirping. On the bus, you are faced ewith your contemporary cultural surroundings.

Solutions that give the bus unique advantages require adaptations. When the bus sits in the same queue as the motorists, it becomes low status. When, on the other hand, the bus demands a little of its surroundings, it earns respect and its status is raised, to the benefit of recruiting passengers and thus also to the benefit of motorists around.

Then and only then, it can be called a Superbus. To achieve that, we must be a super city, with super residents. Are we?

(Link to the Norwegian language article with comments in Drammens Tidende)

When I facilitate a workshop IRL, I´m on my feet at the whiteboard (or whatever flat vertical surface is available) armed with markers and post-its. The point of a workshop is to create. Either a new strategy, a new product idea, a new way of working together or maybe just reaching an agreement. This creation is a shared abstract construction. This abstraction is shared in the minds of each participant. But all humans are unique, and so each individual will have their own understanding of the abstraction. My function as facilitator, is to make this abstraction as concrete as possible, by structuring input from the group into a visual representation of the idea being discussed. My ambition is that the abstraction being created by the group is identical in the mind of each individual. Often, I start a workshop by explaining to the group that what I am writing and drawing on the whiteboard is the summary report of the meeting, on-the-fly. If they don’t agree with what they see on the whiteboard, they must speak up. This structuring of input and alignment of understanding, is what Miro and the like try to reproduce in video meetings, and fail. As in all video meetings, so many of the complicated nuances of human interaction are lost. But for workshops in particular, video has unsurmountable problems.

Firstly, the anonymity afforded by remoteness makes it difficult to instill ownership in all participants. Have you ever had an IRL meeting where the focus of the meeting is a wall-mounted monitor showing the screen of the meeting owner’s laptop, while they update their spreadsheet or word document according to the input from the group? Then you know the document on the monitor is owned by the meeting leader, not the group. The result of the meeting becomes the meeting owner’s, not the group’s. And zoning out is super easy.

The manual nature of markers, whiteboards and postits on the other hand, lowers the threshold for participants in IRL workshops jumping up and writing themselves if they don’t agree with what they see. A document on a laptop cannot be updated without the meeting owner looking down at their screen and keyboard. My focus, as facilitator of an IRL workshop is on whatever someone in the group is communicating with mouth, face and body. My focus is on them, not a laptop.

When I lead an IRL workshop, I know where every participant has their attention. Sometimes I have an expressed set of rules: no laptops, no phones. Other times group culture and mild shaming is enough. In video meetings, of course, rules or norms like these are in no way enforceable. Furthermore, the subtle ways in which I coax opinions from less commanding participants, while pausing those that take up too much space, are impossible during video meetings. I can mute someone, but it’s a hostile act. And I can ask someone to voice their opinion with a question, but it risks putting them on-the-spot at a moment that I am not able to discern would make them uncomfortable or not.

So I am thankful as h*** for the end of the pandemic. Video meetings are great, if the point is a basic exchange of preferably pre-thought out information.

But what will the inevitable metaverseful 3D future bring? Strapping a heavy contraption to my workshop participant’s faces, will do me no favors. And avatars? Forget about it. I need to trust what I see. And if there is one thing I feel slipping away as a result of mediating technology, it’s trust in what you see.

So for now, whenever something is to be created by a group of people, I insist on an old fashioned IRL workshop.

In 2022, there are many folders to access. Let’s say that the bank and my familiy doctor know a lot about me, we have important customer relationships and I can arrange a one-on-one chat with both Stine Louise and Shirin. They both have folders about me.

But I know them and I trust them.

The folder with my name on it at Google’s headquarters is much fatter and more detailed.

And I don´t know or trust them.

Sure, my folder at Google is anonymous, I think, but if you splice together where the “subject’s” phone is located each night and which FB-groups the “subject” is part of, it´s not difficult to narrow down the candidates for who the “subject” might be.

Hold on! Kobla also registers where you travel, fully automatically! Isn’t that just as bad?

No. Kobla does not have a business model of the same type as Google and Facebook. Our clients are municipalities, regions and other actors who are given the responsibility to act on behalf of their community. Our customers offer Kobla to the population because they have a responsibility for both the people and the environment in their geographic area.

Kobla only remembers bonus points and statistics, no location data is ever sent to the cloud. Kobla only collects bonus points and totals to the servers, so that you can take part in competitions and win prizes. We have no commercial interest in anything else. All location data is lost when the app is deleted. You can also delete registered trips yourself at any time. They are gone forever.

“Why not scoop up behavioral data? After all, there is money to be made.” said the banker we had a meeting with.

Maybe so.

But we want to influence, and to influence we must have trust. To earn user trust we can’t fool around with their data. That is why we have a contract with each of our users:

1. There will be no sale of behavioral data from Kobla
2. There will be no advertisements in Kobla

№1:

Selling knowledge about you is Google´s and Facebook’s business model. Free products such as Facebook, Instagram and Google are data mining tools. They gather information about what it takes to grab your attention and get you to click. The functionality that the American mega-corporations offer “for free” in exchange for information about each and every one of us, is necessary infrastructure for modern people’s lives in 2022. So Google and Facebook have us in their grip, sucking out information.

Kobla is not camouflage. Kobla is something you have on your phone. Kobla doesn´t have you. The app learns about you for you and doesn’t share it.

Kobla does not learn about you from others.

But Kobla is free too!

No. Kobla is not free. We have paying customers, elected public actors, who purchase Kobla on behalf of the people who have elected them, and distribute the app free of charge to the people. The people who have elected them are our users. Kobla is free for you as a user, not because we take information about your behavior from you and sell it to advertisers (the Google method), but because Kobla is paid for by the community you are a part of.

№2:

What conclusions do Facebook, Google and Apple draw about me? Am I easily tricked or hopelessly vain? Which boxes am I placed in so that it becomes easier for marketing departments around the world to book space in my attention?

It is our experience that advertising as a business model opens up unwanted extra agendas. Advertising is fundamentally about wanting to steer behavior in the direction of actions that advertisers want. We think that would be to mess up the purpose of Kobla. We want to influence, yes, for the good of your finances and your health, no doubt, but mainly for the good of our shared environment — because these three overlap.

Ten urban areas in Norway have committed to zero growth in car traffic until 2030. Certain cities will reduce car use by 20–30 per cent. The elected officials have spoken — they say “more people, fewer cars”. The Norwegian goal of zero growth in private car travel, is backed up by rewards for those regions that manage to reach it.

We may offer discounts and coupons from partners, but that is the closest we will get to advertising. It will not be the case that we make money from your clicks in Kobla.

Have you read The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Roboff? Nine Reasons to Delete Social Media Now by Jaron Lanier? Or have you seen the Social Dilemma on Netflix? Kobla’s ambition is to be precisely that good way of using technology that the protagonists in these cultural products acknowledge is possible.

If your city or region uses Kobla, you can register journeys automatically in the Kobla app, if you want. If you do so, you will get an overview of costs, time use and environmental emissions associated with your own travel habits. You will also receive tips and information that is relevant to how to change your travel routine in the direction you want. You can also participate in competitions with family and friends or colleagues at work, by scoring bonus points. All this without compromising your privacy.

With Kobla, privacy is prioritized from the start and designed in. We believe that your trust in your phone should be absolute.

You have our word.

Americans are funny people. They´ll resist authorities that tell them vaccination will save their lives, but they´ll happily follow a million dollars wherever it might lead them, regardless of the odds.

But it doesn´t have to be money either. tasty food will do nicely. At one point during the pandemic, the donut chain Krispy Kreme offered a free donut every day of the year to everyone who got vaccinated. Restaurants are all in: Nathan’s Famous gave out free hotdogs and Ledo Pizza free cheese pizza, just for showing your vaccination card.

No wonder I was a little disappointed to not have received anything complimentary with my two doses of Pfizer here in Norway. I waited for 20 minutes and did feel a hint of historical buzz, yes, but it felt far from a Shot-of-a-Lifetime.

Nevermind. My motivation came from within anyway.

Bonuses and raffle tickets are measures we also use in Kobla. Our prizes are closer to donuts than millions in value, but we have one thing in common with the American vaccine lotteries: the prize money is actually peanuts compared to the societal costs of people not doing what the prizes are a reward for. The cost of applying mandatory vaccination or by some other means getting people to come to the vaccination sites in a state like Ohio, would run to tens of millions. Or for Kobla’s part: The cost of introducing and operating Kobla in a city is tiny compared to the societal cost of not reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.

Kobla is just starting out. We are looking forward to measuring how much effect each spent euro, dollar or krone on Kobla, has on transport decisions people make. Of course, we believe that the numbers work out in Kobla’s favor. :-)

What we are trying to do with the Kobla app and our campaigns is to create the basis for motivation to travel by more sustainable means than alone in a fossile fuel powered private car. Truth be told, environmental concerns do not create enough motivation in enough people to push people to leave their cars in the garage. Influencing someone where there is no genuine self-interest, is impossible. But thankfully, saving money and improving personal health overlaps with commuting in a way that is better for the environment. It´s that simple. Therefore: If you want to save money or use your work journey to improve your health, Kobla makes it easier for you. Kobla asks open questions. “How would your day be if you cycled to work?” or “How can you reduce the disadvantages of biking or walking to work, and cultivate the advantages?”

And Kobla can give answers: “You would save NOK 650 a week by walking or biking” or “You could bike the equivalent of a spinning lesson every day and really get in shape”.

By all means, maybe we’ll get donuts too. Maybe your city can offer you a donut or a cappuccino that you can take with you on the way to work if you leave your car at home. It would be a shame to miss out on that free cappu, right? And when the city rewards you in this way, isn´t natural to give something back? For example, a few more car-free days?

These methods have a collective term; gamification. Even if the term originates from the world of computer games, gamification is really just about playing on human nature.

The Kobla app can clarify habits or patterns and help you identify where money can be saved, calories burned, emissions reduced. Kobla focuses on goals that are practical, specific and realistic, and we follows up with affirmations and positive reinforcement. In between, Kobla summarizes; allows the user to look back on their week, assess, reflect and possibly change going forward. There are no threats of doomsday in Kobla. It is about providing knowledge about your habits, consequences and opportunities. Plus a dose of friendly competition. In Kobla you can be the best family, the best in the street, the best in the city — or at least not the worst in the class.

Raffles, competitions and tantalizing prizes can seem like banal measures compared to planning work, regulation and building infrastructure. But cycle paths and public transport lanes cost a fortune compared to what it costs to use Kobla to motivate citizens to use existing options (walking, public transport, own bicycle, carpooling).

Ask yourself:

Would a new bike path somewhere get you cycling, or a new bathroom scale?