It was Chooseday just before Christmas and some Chooseday folk had met for a drink. At about 7pm we went to the bus stop to catch the 48 or 49 to Emersons Green. They should come every 15 mins or so. An hour later we and about 40 others were still waiting.

Then someone said ‘anyone want to share a taxi’. Well enough was enough and we jumped in. That was OK until our co-passenger got out at Fishponds (fare £10, which we split)_ and then the driver said it would be a total of £25 to Emersons Green. Why so much? ‘Because it is outside the city boundary’, was the reply. Ugh! How can we get a sensible system of transport with the boundaries we have?

A few days later we heard that the various local authorities still could not agree on a joint strategic transport authority - and despair began to set in.

Since then I have travelled quite extensively by bus on a route (the X62) that has proved both reliable and friendly. So the picture is mixed and one bad story tends to  obliterate several good ones in our minds. But this we have decided… Chooseday needs to get real, collect evidence from the people of the city about their experience of transport and present this evidence to the authorities. And this we shall do with your help. More news about this soon.

By the way I just booked a train ticket to Oban in Scotland for a holiday. it cost £25 - the same price the taxi charged to get from the city centre to Emersons Green!

I have been in a polar bear this week. It is a strange world, and very hot despite freezing conditions. We have been handing out leaflets about Chooseday in Broadmead and the polar bear seems to have acquired the name Chooseday. People dont quite know how the bear works. Is it robotic? Are there two people in there, they say? But they all sense this is about climate change. Many want to ’smooth’ it, others have not been so kind and have given it a surreptitious kick! But it certainly attracts attention. Would you like to have the bear appear somewhere? Let us know. It seems a great way to advertise the campaign.

The Guardian have launched Environment Weekly on their website this week. it is a podcast and they chose Chooseday as a feature in their first edition.You can listen to it from http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/ethicalliving/2007/12/environment_weekly_launches.html 

I dont know if you saw the article in the Evening Post on Wednesday about the new showcase bus route, but it began with these words:

“Perhaps it was a coincidence, but rush hour traffic through East Bristol seemed particularly light yesterday”.

The implication was that it was because people were trying out the new showcase bus route.

I wondered if it was because it was Chooseday. And it may not have been anything at all because there is an enormous variation in traffic on a daily basis.

I have noticed how the idea of Chooseday grabs hold of people. Once they get the idea it seems to stick with them and I suspect Chooseday might already be having far more affect on the city than we might think or be able to measure.

A fascinating item in the Evening Post yesterday suggests that Bristol people are more concerned about climate change than the residents of any other UK city. Three quarters of those polled in an online yougov survey said that they were ready to change their lifestyles in response to this urgent environmental challenge. Asked what they would do if they had power as ‘Lord Mayor for the day’ over a third said they would improve public transport so people could use their cars less.

We live in days when the people must lead the way. Our various authorities are not yet serious or radical enough. Their existing plans will not solve the problem and take far too long to implement. We need to do something now, and by doing so we will give our leaders the confidence to act decisively. Tell your friends and let’s build action on Chooseday.

Yesterday was quite a test. It poured with rain all day and was cold. I know one gallant Choosedayer who waited an hour and a half on Colston Avenue for a bus. Two failed to show and the one that finally came had taken half an hour to get down Park Street. In a way that shows the problem well. The buses could not move because the whole city centre had ground to halt. When it rains everyone dives into their cars and the roads stop. One friend of mine, aged 87, who has never had a car and walks all around the city said to me one day, ‘It’s not the buses that are the problem, Chris, its the cars’. Yesterday was a vivid illustration.

What we need is a step change in behaviour - and that is just what Chooseday aims to promote.

I woke up this Chooseday morning, the first Chooseday after our launch, half expecting the streets to be clear of cars, filled with cyclists, pedestrians, and well-patronized buses. But of course, despite the hundreds or perhaps thousands likely taking part, the streets looked much as they usually do in Bristol- congested and polluted, with the invisible carbon rising up into the atmosphere and heating the planet.

It’s easy to become disillusioned and depressed by the scale of the problem that we face. It’s easy to remain in denial and blame other people and other countries for the problem. Yet individual actions can and do make a difference. And ultimately as individuals we have power over only ourselves. Yet one stone dropped in a pond has ripples- our actions can help establish new social norms that can lead to a future zero carbon society. We should never lose sight of that future.

Despite Chris’s modesty, he deserves a great deal of credit for hatching the Chooseday idea, and bringing it to fruition. In the space of only a few months, an idea that sounded rather quirky and abstract has become a major campaign in Bristol, with public backing from the council and some of the biggest employers in the City. So thanks to Chris, for sticking with his idea, and having the perseverance to spread the idea around Bristol. Go Chooseday!

We now have huge banners on the Council House and by Bristol Royal Infirmary. Others may follow soon. The last week or so has seen several of the biggest employers in the city firmly commit to Chooseday and promote it among their employees. These include Bristol City Council, the United Bristol Healthcare Trust and Bristol University, who together account for perhaps 25,000 people. In addition we have several private organisations who have agreed to adopt Chooseday, such as Beachcroft LLP and Bevan Brittan. Many existing environmental and community groups are also on board - see our list of supporters.

One thing I would like to make clear is that we intend to keep Chooseday independent. Just because the Council, or anyone else, has a large banner does not mean they are running it. They are simply welcome partners along with so many others in this venture. Our aim is to build the biggest partnership Bristol has seen! In the process we shall make sure to keep Chooseday independent. That means that we will owe nothing to, nor seek to promote any major organisation, political party or faith community. Our driving concern will always remain our response to climate change and the environmental challenge.

By the way if you know a public building that would like to have a banner, please let us know.

One of the unfortunate things about the Points West story is that it made it looked like Chooseday was all about me (Chris Sunderland) and there was little evidence of the great team that has now come together to take Chooseday forward. This team is growing by the day, and there are loads of more informal supporters, but I thought you would like to see some of us. The photo on our front page shows (left to right)

Josh Hart - working at the grassroots with young people, community groups and existing environmental campaigners

Vala Ragnarsdottir- a long term supporter of Chooseday and leading environmental campaigner who ran our Chooseday cafe for us

Jo Foster - who is managing our relationship with the media

Penny Gane - who is one of the most experienced, high level environmental advocates in the city and is managing our corporate work

Simon Bale - our webmaster and also recently appointed Chair of Bristol Partnership

 Chris Sunderland - that’s me

Many of you will have seen the coverage of the launch. We have had articles in the Evening Post, Western Daily Press and a piece on Points West, which can at this point still be seen on the BBC website. Chooseday has certainly got out there and people are talking about it. One thing that might interest readers of this blog is how the ‘Points West’ piece actually happened.

Malcolm Frith and his cameraman Dave turned up at my house at a quarter to seven on launchday. They were to film me cycling in, so we did several shots, then they left me to cycle down the Bristol to Bath cycle track, while they sped off in their cars and said they would meet me where the track emerges in Old Market. All went well for me. I cycled quite gently and it was a beautiful morning. I arrived at the end of the track at 7.20am and waited. No sign of them. I waited some more, then phoned. Ah, said Malcolm, I didn’t realise the traffic was so bad. We are stuck on the ring road. I laughed rather despairingly realising this could make us late for the party in Colston Avenue and we had loads to set up.They finally turned up about 20 mins late, rushing because we were now all late. I said to Malcolm, ‘So there’s your story. I cycled down a beautiful track and arrived here on time, full of health and you….well what shall we say?’ He didn’t run the piece like that sadly, but that is what happened.

Thirty of us met together to generate ideas and action about Chooseday, led by Vala Ragnarsdottir and using the World Cafe style of discussion. People came up with a huge number of ideas about how Chooseday might catch the public imagination, how we might speak of it, measure its impact, use art, video, celebrity, have Chooseday awards etc together with several proposals for canny communication. i dont want to go into too many details because I hope we will use many of them and I would like to keep the element of surprise!

We also talked about Chooseday beyond the car campaign and what it might mean in a neighbourhood as people re-imagined their lifestyles in response to the environmental challenge. Everybody seems to think that local neighbourhoods will find new life as travel becomes more precious and there were many ideas for how Chooseday might encourage this. Our overall line ‘Chooseday - a different kind of day’ seems particularly attractive to people. Some spoke of how it may become a sort of treat day, where all sorts of people do something special in their neighbourhoods, perhaps a ‘talk to a neighbour day’ or a ‘mend day’ or perhaps have an ‘eating together event’.

As a result of the Cafe I can see Chooseday working at two levels. We run a series of public campaigns, beginning with ‘Tuesdays without cars’ at a city-wide level, but in neighbourhoods Chooseday becomes a focus for all sorts of healthy, enriching and climate-friendly lifestyle intiatives. What do you think? Sounds exciting to me!