http://www.earthisland.org/
Just to mention some of the articles most obviously related to the
car-free movement, articles in the Summer 2008 issue cover the rise
and bumps in implementing congestion pricing, an interview with Katie
Alvord, biofuel prospects, Curitiba.  Of course there's more.

This page was sent to you by: rickrise@....

N.Y./REGION | June 16, 2008
City Room: City to Experiment With Car-Free Streets
Fernanda Santos
A 6.9-mile route, from Lower Manhattan to East 72nd Street via Centre Street,
Lafayette Street, Fourth Avenue and Park Avenue, will be closed to traffic on
Aug. 9, 16, and 23, from 7 a.m. until 1 p.m.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/16/will-summer-streets-work/?ex=121428\
0000&en=5dca04f704420d07&ei=5070&emc=eta1




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Hi all,

I guess you have heard from these songs against quiet cars from the
"National Federation of the Blind". Now a few German newspapers reported
about that. Here are the original sources:

The texts of both songs:
http://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/Publications/bm/bm08/bm0803/bm080311.htm

and from these pages download the mp3:
http://quietcars.nfb.org/quiet%20car%20song.html
http://quietcars.nfb.org/The_Quiet_Car_Crisis.mp3 (716 kb)

http://quietcars.nfb.org/hybrid%20car%20song.html
http://quietcars.nfb.org/Hybrid%20Car%20Song.mp3 (1,327 kb)


A friend commented this:

That means, for the songwriters it is clear that it is the task of children
and dogs to slip away when a (hybrid) car is coming. The songwriters`
criticism is not against this "slip away", but only that nobody tells them
WHEN to slip away.


Markus

Some press reports (in German):
http://www.spiegel.de/auto/aktuell/0,1518,556231,00.html
http://www.autobild.de/artikel/blinde-kritisieren-lautlosen-antrieb_709335.html

=v= Having loud vehicles is so much the norm that we're now
opposed to quieter ones?  Bicycles are even quieter, though.
     <_Jym_>

I can't read Portuguese, but the comic/graphic on the front page and
what I can guess from the words seems to suggest that the site
advocates for carfree living.

http://menos1carro.blogs.sapo.pt/

The CoolTowns blog has a nice map illustrating the extent of the
weekend carfree streets in New York City in today's blog:

http://www.cooltownstudios.com/


Christopher Miller
Montreal QC  Canada

A piece from the Montreal Gazette today about the closing for most of
the summer of a nearly 1 km stretch of Sainte-Catherine Street, one of
Montreal's main commercial streets, in the "East" end Gay Village.
This stretch was carfree on several weekends last year and the year
before in August 2006, for a whole week during the OutGames hosted by
Montreal. To my knowledge this is the first carfree project of any
significance in Montreal, but still far from what has been put n place
in many European cities, or even the Rambla of Barcelona, or South
American cities or even Brisbane...

The affected area, for anyone who would like to find it on Google Maps
or Google Earth or another similar map tool, extends between
45°31'21.77"N by  73°33'8.13"W and  45°30'56.32"N by  73°33'32.03"W.

===========================================================

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=2361efb0-3435-4e9d-bfd8\
-13d8e40f8f77

Terrasses taking shape as Gay Village gears up for strip without cars
ANNE SUTHERLAND, The Gazette
Published: 3 hours ago
The Gay Village is a hive of activity as merchants and construction
crews race against the clock to get 54 outdoor terrasses ready for
tomorrow.
Planks line the sidewalks and workers with hammers, staple guns and
electric drills are banging together extensions to the bars,
restaurants and cafés that line the portion of Ste. Catherine St.
between Berri and Papineau Sts.
Until Sept. 1, terrasses will be allowed to extend beyond the
sidewalks and onto the pavement, which will be closed to vehicular
traffic.

   View Larger Image
Ville Marie borough mayor Benoit Labonté chats with workers
constructing a terrasse yesterday.
DAVE SIDAWAY, THE GAZETTE


Email to a friend

Printer friendly
Font:

"We've got two days to put up eight terrasses and four teams working,"
Dave Raymond said yesterday as he and another member of the
construction battalion connected planks outside the Piazzetta
restaurant at Amherst and Ste. Catherine Sts.
"This is the greatest urban experience in Montreal this summer," said
Ville Marie borough mayor Benoit Labonté, out for a stroll yesterday
on the closed street. "This is not just a borough project, this is a
collective project involving the businesses and the merchants'
association."
Closing Ste. Catherine St. in the Gay Village has been done twice
before on a temporary basis - for two weeks during the 2006 Outgames
and for six long weekends last summer.
Those dress rehearsals allowed the borough and the merchants to iron
out the problems of access for emergency and delivery vehicles and
noise complaints.
As solutions, breakaway plastic poles have been installed allowing
ambulances and fire trucks to barrel through 13 streets that bisect
the closed portion of Ste. Catherine. The delivery of food and liquor
to restaurants and bars will only be allowed between 7:30 and 10:30
a.m. Speakers will not be permitted on terrasses or in windows.
Closing a street does not come cheap for either the city or the
merchants.
Montreal will forfeit $300,000 in parking revenue from unused parking
meters for the duration of the street closing, Labonté said.
Each terrasse costs the merchant $500 - for the city to look inspect
the file, $350 for a surveyor to do the same thing, and $500 for the
SAQ to study the file and issue a permit for outdoor sales.
"We were told these were one- time costs, so if the terrasses are
allowed next year we won't pay again, just the price of a liquor
permit," said Sam Tharani of the Espressonet café.
What could prove more vexing to merchants who sell more wine than beer
is a deal that the Société de Développement Commercial (SDC) du
Village struck with Labatt Brewery to defray the costs of security,
cleanup, marketing and administration.
Labatt gave the SDC $100,000 worth of beer and, in return,
only Labatt products can be sold on terrasses. Each merchant with a
terrasse must purchase Labatt products from the SDC equal to 90 cents
per terrasse chair per day. For example, a bar with a 20-seat terrasse
will have to buy $1,350 worth of Labatt products.
"The total cost of the event is close to $1 million (including the
lost parking revenue) and the rest of the budget will be covered by
the SDC," said Dénis Brossard, president of the Société de
Développement Commercial du Village.
"There are hiccups the first time any event is held," Tharani said.
"This is a great pilot project, but the results have yet to be seen."
asutherland@...


© The Gazette (Montreal) 200



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Excellent presentation on carfree family living by a Seattle couple.

http://tinyurl.com/4wgufb

R
--
Richard Risemberg
http://www.bicyclefixation.com
http://www.newcolonist.com
http://www.rickrise.com







[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi All--

Last year we published Paul Fox's article, "The Road to Carfreedom,"
in Bicycle Fixation ( http://bicyclefixation.com/paulfox.html ).
Today, we're releasing his one-year followup, "The Road to Carfreedom
Part 2."  Check it out at:

http://bicyclefixation.com/paulfox2.html

Thanks, all!

Rick

--
Richard Risemberg
Bicycle Fixation
http://www.bicyclefixation.com





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi all,

here is also an article from today with a similar subject. It mentions WCN`s
AGM, me and my autofrei leben! club. I had a phone call with one of the
authors a few days ago. He said, he personally lives carfree, and he was
very surprised to see that there are carfree organisations. He liked that.

I think, for Germans this article is very surprising, because nobody expects
from the publisher (Springer company, right wing) such an article, which is
so critical with globalization.
Especially for us carfree people it is surprising, because Springer attacked
WCN last summer.

http://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article2128654/Hoher_Oelpreis_stoppt_die_Globalisi\
erung.html

High oil price stops globalisation

The high costs of energy already hinder the traffic of goods and the
mobility of the people. More and more people renounce on the car, airlines
shut down planes, the world commerce gets on the brakes. Indications
increase, that soon the car will not be german`s loved child any more.

(the article starts with some notes and quotes of my experiences with people
at an info-table I had with my carfree club June-1. Then some paragraphs
later the article highlights the marketing success of the new carfree
development in Cologne. Then it is about "empty US highways", the decrease
of car use in USA, the crazy system of world wide transports of goods
because oil prices are so low, and so on)

the sentence about WCN:

The World Carfree Network, a world wide initiative for carfree life,
registered at the weekend during its annual general meeting in Portland a
record number of application for membership from 16 national initiatives.

(I think this whole article is worth to translate.)

cheers from Berlin
Markus
www.autofrei.de | www.autofrei-wohnen.de


----- Original Message -----
From: "Justin Hyatt" <vernichte.dein.auto@...>
To: <carfree_cities@yahoogroups.com>; <wcn-media@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 21, 2008 9:06 PM
Subject: [wcn_media] mass transit in LA gets record high ridership


>
> Hello,
>
> This video talks about people in LA switching to mass transit, stating
> that due to high gas prices, the LA metro/subway system gets 7000 new
> riders each day. that is pretty impressive!
>
> i hope the link works:
>
> http://www.yahoo.com:8135/s/904131
>
> Justin
>
> --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "WCN media working group" group.
> To post to this group, send email to wcn-media@googlegroups.com
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> wcn-media-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
> For more options, visit this group at
> http://groups.google.com/group/wcn-media?hl=en
> -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
>

This page was sent to you by: rickrise@....

Another one for the "will they ever learn?" file: cancelling conservation
easements so people can drive for Big Macs more often. (Corn for ethanol &
animal feed....)


BUSINESS | June 21, 2008
U.S. May Free Up More Land for Corn Crops
By DAVID STREITFELD
Midwest floods have washed out millions of acres of corn, and many are urging
Washington to allow corn to be grown on protected land and to roll back
requirements for ethanol production.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/21/business/21ethanol.html?ex=1214712000&en=dfaff\
61364836159&ei=5070&emc=eta1




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ABOUT THIS E-MAIL
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

(Sorry to post to the list, but a listmember was trying to telephone
me, but my cellphone reception prevented clear communication).

A celui qui m'a telephone de France il y a une heure: les reseaux
mobiles aux EU ne sont de haute qaulite; je vous en prie pardon.
Faire moi la grace de m'addresser un courrier electronique, en
francais s'il vous plait, a l'addresse suivante:

rickrise@....

J'attends vos nouvelles.

Merci,

Richard

--
Richard Risemberg
http://www.bicyclefixation.com
http://www.newcolonist.com
http://www.rickrise.com







[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

--- In carfree_cities@yahoogroups.com, "Markus Heller" <heller@...>

> I think, for Germans this article is very surprising, because
nobody expects
> from the publisher (Springer company, right wing) such an article,
which is
> so critical with globalization.
> Especially for us carfree people it is surprising, because Springer
attacked
> WCN last summer.
>
> http://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article2128654/
Hoher_Oelpreis_stoppt_die_Globalisierung.html


What a lovely article! The only thing I disagree with is that
globalization requires fossil fuels. We are globalising right on this
email list, sending emails all over the globe. The shipping boss says
their boats are going at half power and saving lots of fuel. (But
still going faster than half speed, I bet). They have even done tests
with kites which can reduce fuel consumption by 50%.
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/01/beluga_shipping.html

The right wing is moving quite quickly on many green issues and on
peak oil. Last year the Murdoch newspapers started publishing
favorable articles about bicycling, notably in the Times (London). I
think a lot of people in the fossil industry just wanted to squeeze
every last drop out of an unsustainable lifestyle on the way out. But
at a certain point even the silliest people will realise that you
will be considered a clown by the public unless you move on.

Erik Sandblom

http://www.praguepost.com/articles/2008/06/11/czech-trams-head-for-washington.ph\
p

Washington, D.C., has set its sights on a streetcar line --- and has
gone so far as to invest nearly $10 million (160 million Kc() for three
trams from the Czech Republic. But there's a hitch. Although the trams,
or streetcars, were bought three years ago, the track on which the trams
will run has yet to be built in the U.S. capital.

--------

This foreign report highlights the incompetence and dithering endemic to
the "democratic" process of the U.S. legislature. They can vote to spend
other people's money but can't stop dithering over where to put the
rails in "their" district of Columbia.

Despite the "fuel" (fool?) crisis, I suspect that the trams will be
rusting away for years before any rails are laid.




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

http://local.theoildrum.com/node/3580
Transmilenio Bus Rapid Transit

Interesting video on Bogota's mass transit solution.
Notable points - small neighborhood feeder buses (free) transfer
passengers to stations (collect fares), where they transfer to large
articulated buses that travel in reserved lanes between major stations.
In addition, several stations have secure bicycle storage facilities
(free). They estimate that every 30 bikers saves them one trip of a
feeder bus.

Cities that are considering multimodal transit might benefit from a
similar strategy.

Hello,

This video talks about people in LA switching to mass transit, stating
that due to high gas prices, the LA metro/subway system gets 7000 new
riders each day. that is pretty impressive!

i hope the link works:

http://www.yahoo.com:8135/s/904131

Justin

I sent this to a Brazilian friend and this is her response: 




It is about the hydrogen car. It produces water vapor when in operation, that is
the reason for the cartoon.

The message discusses that hydrogen does not grow in trees and it needs to be
produced and the production of hydrogen may produces more carbon emissions than
the car running on fossil fuel....



----- Original Message -----
Subject: [carfree_cities] Portuguese CarFree website?
Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:08:01
From: chbuckeye <coleridge3150@...>
To:  <carfree_cities@yahoogroups.com>

             I can't read Portuguese, but the comic/graphic on the front
page and
what I can guess from the words seems to suggest that the site
advocates for carfree living.

  http://menos1carro. blogs.sapo. pt/






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hello,

I also sent this to a Brazilian friend, and came up with this:

Hi Justin,

That's right the title means: One less car.

The post: Porque razão os peões deve(ria)m desrespeitar as regras II
Means: For what reasons pedestrians should not respect the rules II

Basically, he demonstrates that pedestrians have to wait 17 times
longer than drivers. His experience was in downtown Lisbon in an area
full of people, shops and offices. As a pedestrian, he measured the
time lost waiting for cars. As a driver he measured the time lost
waiting for pedestrians.

cheers,
Luis


On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 3:56 PM, N Schneider <nschneider2015@...> wrote:
> I sent this to a Brazilian friend and this is her response:
>
> It is about the hydrogen car. It produces water vapor when in operation,
> that is
> the reason for the cartoon.
>
> The message discusses that hydrogen does not grow in trees and it needs to
> be
> produced and the production of hydrogen may produces more carbon emissions
> than
> the car running on fossil fuel....
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> Subject: [carfree_cities] Portuguese CarFree website?
> Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:08:01
> From: chbuckeye <coleridge3150@...>
> To: <carfree_cities@yahoogroups.com>
>
> I can't read Portuguese, but the comic/graphic on the front
> page and
> what I can guess from the words seems to suggest that the site
> advocates for carfree living.
>
> http://menos1carro. blogs.sapo. pt/
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>

A June 26 report by Jeff Rubin of CIBC Wolrd Markets predicts a trend
to North Americans abandoning cars in favour of public transit in
large numbers, via Treehugger and the Wall Street Journal.

The original report in PDF version:

http://research.cibcwm.com/economic_public/download/sjun08.pdf

The online Wall Street Journal article:

June 26, 2008, 11:12 am
Oil Shock: Analyst Predicts $7 Gas, “Mass Exodus” of U.S. Cars
Posted by Keith Johnson
Oil at $135? That was just the opening skirmish in the “peak oil”
wars. The latest smart money? $200 oil in 2010, with gasoline at $7 a
gallon. And that is going to turn Americans into car-shunning
Europeans once and for all—poor Americans, at least.

That’s the latest gloomy forecast from Jeff Rubin at Canadian
brokerage CIBC World Markets, who just afew months ago figured $200
oil would be a thing of the distant future—like 2012.



Attention-grabber (CIBC)
Mr. Rubin laughs off recent attempts to take the steam out of global
oil markets. Saudi production promises of 200,000 barrels a day
doesn’t dent the 4 million barrel-per-day decline from aging fields
every year, for starters. And it will just be “gobbled up” by
increasing domestic consumption in Saudi Arabia, like other oil-
producing countries that subsidize fuel.

So what about China’s flirtation with market reality by unwinding some
fuel subsidies? No luck in curbing demand or prices, either. Not only
does China’s recent move translate into $3.25 a gallon gas—still a
steal, relatively speaking—it’s given fresh legs to beleaguered
Chinese refiners who’ve been operating in the red, thanks to Chinese
price controls. So now they are producing even more gasoline and
fueling even more cars than they were before. The upshot?

Over the next four years, we are likely to witness the greatest mass
exodus of vehicles off America’s highways in history. By 2012, there
should be some 10 million fewer vehicles on American roadways than
there are today—a decline that dwarfs all previous adjustments
including those during the two OPEC oil shocks.

And who will be parking their cars? The 57 million American households
that have both cars and access to something resembling public transit.
Gasoline at $7 begins to approach prices Europeans have paid for
years, meaning that chunk of America “will start to act more and more
like Europeans,” Mr. Rubin says. Not soccer moms in a minivan—soccer
fans, searching for tokens:

Our analysis suggests that about half of the number of cars coming off
the road in the next four years will be from low income households who
have access to public transit. At their current driving habits,
filling up the tank will have risen from about 7% of their income to
20%, an increase that will see many start taking the bus.

Gas prices already appear to be reshaping suburbia. But what Mr. Rubin
is predicting is a far bigger shock to the American system. Europe has
had decades to develop a society based on expensive energy. What will
happen if Americans suddenly are forced to shoulder European-style
energy prices — but without the European-style society to cope with
them?

Permalink | Trackback URL:
http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2008/06/26/oil-shock-analyst-predicts-\
7-gas-mass-exodus-of-us-cars/trackback/


Christopher Miller
Montreal QC  Canada


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi,

Just to confirm, yes the blog -- as its title indicates -- is an anti-
autocentric blog from Portugal; the subtitle calls it a "Sustainable
mobility blog. For the environment, for cities, for people". Along
with the most recent post referred to in Justin's message, the recent
postings have been about:

25 June:
It's always worth remembering: driving fast costs... and lots!
- oft-repeated points about things that make driving more -- or less--
expensive

24 June:
Trains for what?
- Complains about people criticising construction of a TGV in Portugal
but saying nothing about the 1200 km of roads the current government
has built or about the continuing dismantlement of the railways,
contrary to the European tendency.

23 June:
Yet more proof of our bizarre obsession for the car
- European data: Portuguese families are in second place among the EU
27 for the portion of their income spent on traveling by car. This
disproves the myth that the percentage spent on car travel is related
to relative richness: Italy is first in the ranking and Bulgaria last.
Also, the poorest 20% of familes spends 8.1% on transport whereas the
richest 20% spends 14.4% of income on transport.

22 June:
Could this be the same country?
- "Is it possible for a country that has the money to build a highway,
that is going to include a 5.6 km tunnel, in a mountainous region (the
most expensive area for construction), in a place where there is
already an IP (Note by CM: I don't know what this would be), and a
place where there is already a parallel highway 20 km to the north, is
the same one that doesn't have the money to carry out improvements on
its main railway line to bring the train into the centre of a regional
capital (which certainly would not necessitate a tunnel of that size)?"

21 June:
Nothing new on the west coast
- Despite the snail's pace growth of the economy, high family debt and
fuel prices rising, car sales have gone up 7.7 percent (11.7% in the
first trimester).
- Criticises the monomaniacal view of the car as the only possible
means of transport: the PM sees electric cars as the solution of the
future, but no-one mentions public transports and train stations are
being moved from the downtowns to the outskirts...

18 June
Hydrogen cars
- Criticises hydrogen or electric cars as solutions, because of their
inevitable high demand for energy to power them (which undoes any
progress made in low-power light bulbs and other energy-saving
measures) and the fact that if they don't pollute *inside* cities,
they pollute *outside* of them because of their power sources.

14 June:
What the country needs is more parallel highways
- He sarcastically disagrees and invites the prime minister to explain
to the Irish that despite going from a poor country to one of the
world's richest, they have made the wrong decisions, since instead of
having parallel highways like Portugal, they don't even have a single
highway between their two major cities...

Just a taste of the kinds of entries on this blog, which goes back to
November 2006. Many links to blogs and sites on sustainable mobility,
including the World Carfree Network and Carfree Cities.


On 27-Jun-08, at 2:19 PM, Justin Hyatt wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I also sent this to a Brazilian friend, and came up with this:
>
> Hi Justin,
>
> That's right the title means: One less car.
>
> The post: Porque razão os peões deve(ria)m desrespeitar as regras II
> Means: For what reasons pedestrians should not respect the rules II
>
> Basically, he demonstrates that pedestrians have to wait 17 times
> longer than drivers. His experience was in downtown Lisbon in an area
> full of people, shops and offices. As a pedestrian, he measured the
> time lost waiting for cars. As a driver he measured the time lost
> waiting for pedestrians.
>
>
> .



Christopher Miller
Montreal QC  Canada



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/27/opinion/27krugman.html?ref=opinion

> June 27, 2008
> OP-ED COLUMNIST
> Fuels on the Hill
>
> By PAUL KRUGMAN
> Congress has always had a soft spot for “experts” who tell members
> what they want to hear, whether it’s supply-side economists
> declaring that tax cuts increase revenue or climate-change skeptics
> insisting that global warming is a myth.
>
> Right now, the welcome mat is out for analysts who claim that out-
> of-control speculators are responsible for $4-a-gallon gas.
>
> Back in May, Michael Masters, a hedge fund manager, made a big
> splash when he told a Senate committee that speculation is the main
> cause of rising prices for oil and other raw materials. He
> presented charts showing the growth of the oil futures market, in
> which investors buy and sell promises to deliver oil at a later
> date, and claimed that “the increase in demand from index
> speculators” — his term for institutional investors who buy
> commodity futures — “is almost equal to the increase in demand from
> China.”
>
> Many economists scoffed: Mr. Masters was making the bizarre claim
> that betting on a higher price of oil — for that is what it means
> to buy a futures contract — is equivalent to actually burning the
> stuff.
>
> But members of Congress liked what they heard, and since that
> testimony much of Capitol Hill has jumped on the blame-the-
> speculators bandwagon.
>
> Somewhat surprisingly, Republicans have been at least as willing as
> Democrats to denounce evil speculators. But it turns out that
> conservative faith in free markets somehow evaporates when it comes
> to oil. For example, National Review has been publishing articles
> blaming speculators for high oil prices for years, ever since the
> price passed $50 a barrel.
>
> And it was John McCain, not Barack Obama, who recently said this:
> “While a few reckless speculators are counting their paper profits,
> most Americans are coming up on the short end — using more and more
> of their hard-earned paychecks to buy gas.”
>
> Why are politicians so eager to pin the blame for oil prices on
> speculators? Because it lets them believe that we don’t have to
> adapt to a world of expensive gas.
>
> Indeed, this past Monday Mr. Masters assured a House subcommittee
> that a return to the days of cheap oil is more or less there for
> the asking. If Congress passed legislation restricting speculation,
> he said, gasoline prices would fall almost 50 percent in a matter
> of weeks.
>
> O.K., let’s talk about the reality.
>
> Is speculation playing a role in high oil prices? It’s not out of
> the question. Economists were right to scoff at Mr. Masters —
> buying a futures contract doesn’t directly reduce the supply of oil
> to consumers — but under some circumstances, speculation in the oil
> futures market can indirectly raise prices, encouraging producers
> and other players to hoard oil rather than making it available for
> use.
>
> Whether that’s happening now is a subject of highly technical
> dispute. (Readers who want to wonk themselves out can go to my
> blog, krugman.blogs.nytimes.com, and follow the links.) Suffice it
> to say that some economists, myself included, make much of the fact
> that the usual telltale signs of a speculative price boom are
> missing. But other economists argue, in effect, that absence of
> evidence isn’t solid evidence of absence.
>
> What about those who argue that speculative excess is the only way
> to explain the speed with which oil prices have risen? Well, I have
> two words for them: iron ore.
>
> You see, iron ore isn’t traded on a global exchange; its price is
> set in direct deals between producers and consumers. So there’s no
> easy way to speculate on ore prices. Yet the price of iron ore,
> like that of oil, has surged over the past year. In particular, the
> price Chinese steel makers pay to Australian mines has just jumped
> 96 percent. This suggests that growing demand from emerging
> economies, not speculation, is the real story behind rising prices
> of raw materials, oil included.
>
> In any case, one thing is clear: the hyperventilation over oil-
> market speculation is distracting us from the real issues.
>
> Regulating futures markets more tightly isn’t a bad idea, but it
> won’t bring back the days of cheap oil. Nothing will. Oil prices
> will fluctuate in the coming years — I wouldn’t be surprised if
> they slip for a while as consumers drive less, switch to more fuel-
> efficient cars, and so on — but the long-term trend is surely up.
>
> Most of the adjustment to higher oil prices will take place through
> private initiative, but the government can help the private sector
> in a variety of ways, such as helping develop alternative-energy
> technologies and new methods of conservation and expanding the
> availability of public transit.
>
> But we won’t have even the beginnings of a rational energy policy
> if we listen to people who assure us that we can just wish high oil
> prices away.
>

--
Richard Risemberg
http://www.bicyclefixation.com
http://www.newcolonist.com
http://www.rickrise.com

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From the Coolhunting blog today, June 26:


Ride the City
by Doug Black, 27 June 2008


To those who enjoy their status as breathing, sentient beings, riding
a bicycle in New York City can be daunting. Aggressive taxis, delivery
trucks and carelessly opened doors create a minefield that makes
casual cyclists want to hang up their Schwinn. But New York can be
safely navigated. Though it's painfully inferior to European cities,
it does have a growing network of relatively safe bike lanes (thanks
largely in part to Mayor Bloomberg). Ride the City, currently in beta
form, is a site launched earlier this month to help aid the process.

Much like Google Maps or HopStop, Ride the City takes two addresses
and details the shortest route between them. But unlike the
aforementioned sites, it zeroes in on existing bicycle lanes and
ignores inhospitable roads like the Queens Midtown tunnel or the BQE.
Users can choose between the most direct route, the "safe route" (as
many bike lanes as are convenient) and the "safest route" (more bike
lanes, especially designated "greenways"). RTC adds "caution" signs as
well when the route traverses portions that have a history of accidents.

I used the site to map out a ride to work, and it was remarkably close
to the route I've painstakingly devised over numerous trips back and
forth. It did, however, faithfully abide by the direction of traffic
on a couple portions where I usually go against the tide. Which isn't
a bad thing. It's comforting to know that the site treasures my well-
being even more than I do.

(Link to Ride the City:)
http://www.ridethecity.com/index.php


Christopher Miller
Montreal QC  Canada



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

From last year on the Copenhagenize blog:

http://www.copenhagenize.com/2007/11/cyclists-are-better-shoppers-than.html



24 NOVEMBER 2007
Cyclists Are Better Shoppers Than Motorists



It has come to our attention that in some cities where bike culture is
still only budding, there is resistance from the community - namely
commerce - towards such things as bike lanes and bike infrastructure
in general.

Back in the 1960's in Copenhagen, a radical idea was born.
Pedestrianising the city centre. There was very vocal resistance from
the shops. There were even cries of "we're not Italians! We don't want
to walk around the town!" The car was king.

It happened anyway. The world's longest pedestrian street was born -
Strøget - and others followed. One of the early strokes of genius by
legendary urban planner Jan Gehl.

Did commerce suffer? Not at all. On the contrary. Pedestrian and
bicycle access without motor vechicles created the ideal shopping
concept. Sales increased.



It remains the case to this day, especially with the massive
investment in bike infrastructure over the past 40 years, providing
even more access to the city and her neighbourhoods for cyclists.

Stats and Studies for use by bike advocates
The idea that ‘vitality of commercial enterprises = access by car’ is
really rather old school. Those motorists who arrive at a supermarket
or department store are not better customers than those who arrive by
bike or with public transport, just because they can carry more goods
home in their vehicles.

On the contrary. The contribution made by customers who arrive by
public transport, bicycle and on foot is greatly underestimated. Not
to mention the negative impact for our towns and cities and for the
urban environment of building of large supermarkets and thousands of
parking places on the periphery of urban centres.

It turns out that cyclists are better customers in many categories.



A study carried out in Münster, in Germany, reveals a number of newly
discovered statistics. The study concerned three large supermarkets
and a department store which also sold other goods.

Cyclists purchase smaller quantities each time they go, obviously.
Which means, just as obviously, that cyclists go to shops more
regularly - 11 times a month on average, as opposed to seven times a
month for motorists in Münster - and are thereby more exposed to the
temptation that shops love to inflict upon us.

Motorists are in the minority in shops in urban areas - between 25 to
40 % of customers, depending on the day of the week.

Barely 25 % of motorists leave a shop with two or more bags of goods
(as opposed to 17 % of cyclists). Therefore, 75% of motorists have
nothing to prevent them from using other transport forms. The study
concluded that a large number of motorists could do without their cars
when shopping, leaving them open to using another mode of transport.

Another study, this time in Berlin, showed a massive increase in cross-
neighbourhood movement when they introduced a 30 km/h speed limit for
cars, except on major routes. People were simply using their bikes and
the public transport to get around and they found themselves more
mobile as a result. Up to 40% in some cases, for trips between home
and the shops.

Similarly, a survey carried out in Strasbourg indicated more than 30%
increase of visits to the shopping area of the city after
pedestrianisation and closureto through traffic in the town centre.

A survey carried out among consumers in Bern, Switzerland, established
the ratio between the value of purchases made and the parking area
used by each customer over a year. The profitability was highest in
the case of the cyclists.

€7500 per square metre for cyclists.
€6625 for motorists.

Cyclists increase sales. Period.




WHEELED INTO CYBERSPACE ON A TAILWIND BY ZAKKALICIOUSNESS AT 22:39



Christopher Miller
Montreal QC  Canada



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/wellbeing/story/0,,2287337,00.html

Ethical living


Two wheels


Carlton Reid
Thursday June 26, 2008
The Guardian

Some might say that Mikael Colville-Andersen, owner of the Copenhagen
Cycle Chic blog, has photographed a disproportionate number of
beautiful women cycling in short skirts. To be fair, however, he
features photos of Copenhagen's male cyclists, too. Just as long as
they are stylish. Colville-Andersen is The Sartorialist on two wheels.
His website shows that you don't have to wear Lycra to get to the
office on time on a bike. Cycling in civvies is the done thing in
Copenhagen, he says, so we shouldn't scare off potential newbies by
fixating on "proper" cycle clothing or the necessity for showers -
something that Bristol should take note of, having been announced last
week as Britain's first designated Cycling City. And don't mention the
H word. Copenhagen's cyclists aren't into helmets. To find out why,
you have to visit Colville-Andersen's other Copenhagen-themed blog,
albeit one that's not quite so popular - too few photos of women
cycling in high heels, no doubt. Copenhagenize.com is "life in the
world's cycling capital".

Article continues





Colville-Andersen ends lots of his posts with the dictum
"Copenhagenize the planet". He wants cycling to be recognised as a
normal way of getting around town. "So many people in other countries
have been brainwashed into believing that cycling is just a sport or a
hobby and haven't entertained the thought that it could be a daily
transport activity," he tells me. "So many Copenhageners ride in
style, on normal bikes and in normal clothes. Even those who are not
chic ride with an ease and elegance that borders on poetry."
There are YouTube videos that show this "poetry in motion".
Copenhagenize.com links to one from the Netherlands that focuses just
on the school-run. Hordes of young cyclists weave in and out of each
other's trajectories as they ride to school. Similar scenes can be
witnessed in Copenhagen each day .
Copenhagen hasn't always been wall-to-wall bikes. Its first purpose-
built, segregated cycle path was created only 25 years ago. Colville-
Andersen says the city's bike culture was built almost from scratch.
There was a political will to make it happen, funds were allocated.
Funds are still allocated. "We're not bike-friendly because it's a
flat city. We ride lots because of visionary political decisions."
These political decisions were unpopular at the time. Now Danes can't
remember a time before mass bicycle culture. Cycle use in Copenhagen
is 36% (the UK average is 2%). City officials want to see this rise to
50% by 2015, when it is hoped the city will become the world's
environmental capital. To reach this target, Copenhagen is closing
major thoroughfares to cars, creating bike motorways in their place.
Thirty thousand bikes a day, and only 15,000 cars, use Nørrebro
Street, making it a prime candidate for closure to cars. Copenhagen
also operates a "green wave" system on some streets: if you ride at a
steady speed, you'll hit green lights all the way. The city's vice-
mayor has proposed that when the pollution levels rise too high, all
the traffic lights at the edge of the city will turn red, stranding
cars in official gridlock.
It is this sort of radical thinking - and acknowledgement that such
ideas will be unpopular at first - that will be needed by local
politicians in Bristol, and in the 11 towns that were last week given
"cycling demonstration town" status - Blackpool, Cambridge, Chester,
Colchester, Leighton-Linslade, Shrewsbury, Southend, Southport with
Ainsdale, Stoke, Woking and York.
Bristol wants to create a Velib-style on-street bike rental network,
modelled on the successful Paris scheme. It also plans to build a
"state-of-the-art facility for cyclists in the city centre providing
showers, bike parking and lockers so commuters can have a wash and
brush up before starting work".
Why are British cycle planners fixated on personal hygiene? Cycling
short distances across town in normal clothes isn't a sweat-fest.
Installing showers reinforces the view that cycling is difficult,
smelly and, well, different. Copenhagen doesn't force its biking
populace to bathe: it takes space from cars and gives it over to
bicycle and pedestrian use. The true test for England's latest cycling
demonstration towns won't be which one can install the plushest
shower, but whether they can ignore the pleas of motorists and truly
"Copenhagenize" their streets.


Christopher Miller
Montreal QC  Canada



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

| [New York City] does have a growing network of relatively
| safe bike lanes (thanks largely in part to Mayor Bloomberg).

=v= Bloomie has been no friend to bicyclists.  Under his watch,
the NYPD has increased its harrassment of bicyclists and have
taken to seizing locked, parked bicycles (a Giuliani-era law
designed to roust the homeless by seizing "abandoned property"
has been misapplied to parked, locked, bicycles).  NYC has been
a great biking city for years, and I've always been far more
concerned with theft than a shortage of double-parking lanes,
oops, I mean bike lanes.

=v= Though parking remains a huge problem, there has been some
considerable improvement in greenways, expanded carfree hours
in the parks, and the proposed carfree Summer Streets.  If a
politician must be credited, all this has been going on since
Janette Sadik-Khan was put in charge of the Department of
Transportation last year.  I think the true credit belongs,
though, to the vibrant and visionary bicycle activist community
that has been tirelessly pushing on these issues for years.
     <_Jym_>

Copenhagen's cycling culture was "invented" in the last 25 years?

How, then, to explain the scene in The Counterfeit Traitor, a movie of
the early 1960s that takes place during World War II, in which
Copenhagen cyclists on the spur of the moment help William Holden
escape the Germans by filling the street with two-wheeled traffic and
blocking the pursuers?

Europe has always seemed more bicycle-friendly than the U.S. Look at
old British films or period pieces such as The Long Day Closes: lots
of bikes. Even as a child in the late 1950s, I heard a woman who had
taken a bicycle trip through Europe give a presentation at my church's
annual dinner and tell of the network of youth hostels that served non-
automotive travelers.

Perhaps it is more accurate to say that Europe temporarily lost its
cycling culture in a brief infatuation with the car and is recovering
from that bit of madness as their environmental and social
consciousness develops.

In transit,
Karen Sandness

I think this is probably a result of how many people (and sadly this
is also true of many journalists, who should be paying more attention
to historical context) seem to judge everything in terms of what we
are habituated to in our own times, i.e., in this case, a very car-
centric transportation economy. You see this so often in reactions by
the average "Joe" or "Jane" to media reports of even the most timid
steps to (re-)introduce an emphasis on streetcars, trains and bicycles
and try to edge away from the overwhelming hegemony of the automobile:
for so many people, it is unimaginable that there could be any other
way to move around. This leads to disparaging comments we often see by
some politicians, in editorials, in letters to the editor, or in radio
or online opinion forums, about tramways being quaint 19th century
technology unfit for our times, or bicycles being impossible as a
means of getting anywhere or doing anything serious (and even being
"unprofessional", as I have seen in more than one comment). Even the
Treehugger blog,which you might think has its priorities straight, is
hopelessly enamored with the idea of the "green car", i.e. anything,
but any alternative fuel or power source, please please please!!! to
let us keep on driving everywhere.


Christopher Miller
Montreal QC  Canada

================================================

On 28-Jun-08, at 6:28 PM, Karen Sandness wrote:

> Copenhagen's cycling culture was "invented" in the last 25 years?
>
> How, then, to explain the scene in The Counterfeit Traitor, a movie of
> the early 1960s that takes place during World War II, in which
> Copenhagen cyclists on the spur of the moment help William Holden
> escape the Germans by filling the street with two-wheeled traffic and
> blocking the pursuers?
>
> Europe has always seemed more bicycle-friendly than the U.S. Look at
> old British films or period pieces such as The Long Day Closes: lots
> of bikes. Even as a child in the late 1950s, I heard a woman who had
> taken a bicycle trip through Europe give a presentation at my church's
> annual dinner and tell of the network of youth hostels that served
> non-
> automotive travelers.
>
> Perhaps it is more accurate to say that Europe temporarily lost its
> cycling culture in a brief infatuation with the car and is recovering
> from that bit of madness as their environmental and social
> consciousness develops.
>
> In transit,
> Karen Sandness
>
>
>





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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<http://news.gmane.org/thread.php?group=gmane.politics.activism.carfree-cities>l\
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Thanks,

Joel



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J.H. Crawford                                         Carfree Cities
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