Much of what makes, what will make all these sharing arrangements work is above all a combination of excellent organization on the one hand, and a culture change (which hs to be demonstrated and communicated) on the other. We will see this in our time together in Kaohsiung as we get together to examine how these two important pillars are combine -- both through examining a certain number of telling (and different) examples, and also looking at all this in more abstract and general terms.

That said, the third indispensable pillar of the success of shared transport, as opposed to whatever else may be available, will be because it is able to offer real economic advantages. This is a challenge but as we look around at the more successful sharing projects in the world, we can see how this part of the problem solving exercise works.

The forth and last pillar has to do with technology, and this indeed holds a vital key. The technology vector resides in expertise and capability above all in the area of communications and logistics. Thus if we can think of a bus or taxi or even a car as a mountain, and the would-be shared traveler as Mohamed, the idea in this case will be to use technology to bring the mountain to Mohammed.

The section of the work plan is still under discussion, but we wanted to make sure that from the beginning all of you who may be interested in following this, and eventually in participating in the Kaohsiung conference or other events over 2010, understand that we are not ignoring nor underestimating the importance of this key component of the shared transport solution.

More follows: