Short, clear article on value capture, highways, and railroads…should be
required reading for all government employees and officials and anyone involved
in any way in development or transportation:

http://t.co/Wh3sHfhZ

Rick
--
Richard Risemberg
http://www.bicyclefixation.com
http://www.SustainableCityNews.com
http://gridlogisticsinc.com
http://www.rickrise.com

I've been saying this about the allegedly "mysterious" rise in childhood asthma
for years.

In transit,
Karen Sandness

A joyful musing on bikes in Southeast Asia, and what the Bicycle Millennium can
bring to the rest of the world in these dreary times:

http://t.co/yk2KU2z8

Rick
--
Richard Risemberg
http://www.bicyclefixation.com
http://www.SustainableCityNews.com
http://gridlogisticsinc.com
http://www.rickrise.com

The comments have of course been dominated by a few hardheaded loudmouths who
immediately descend into ad hominems as soon as their unfounded assertions are
challenged, but some excellent positive comments such as the one below have also
been posted.

Rick

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Highland Park-Mount Washington Patch <noreply@...>
> Subject: New comment on Petition Calls for Figueroa Bike Lanes
> Date: January 9, 2013 11:37:24 AM PST
> To: rickrise@...
> Reply-To:
reply+NjJmZmUxZTA1ZTE3MmIyYjM5NDI2MDJjYTk1NGViY2UtNTk5NzAwNw@...
>
> View as Webpage
>
> Hi Richard Risemberg,
>
> GK also commented on Petition Calls for Figueroa Bike Lanes.
>
> "I remember my first trip to China in 1999. At that time, Beijing's streets
had clearly defined areas for cars, bikes and pedestrians. It was an incredible
and highly efficient system because the majority of the people were on bike or
foot. Only a very small percentage had cars. Traffic flowed. The air was clean.
Businesses were flooded with customers coming in and off the street.  Now all of
that has changed. During my last trip to Beijing I saw the devastation that has
come with the masses being able to drive cars. The air was filthy. Streets were
jammed with congestion. The noise pollution was astounding. The car lanes have
grown while the bike lanes have shrunk. There were fewer people on the streets
because everyone was sitting in their cars stuck in traffic. It's now just like
Los Angeles (only worse). They traded a superior transportation system for an
inferior one that we modeled for them and they're paying the price. Just as we
have been paying the price. It's time to ditch the old car-centric
transportation model. We need to get out of cars. Bring on the bike lanes!"
>
> To respond view the comment on Patch.
>
> You received this email because you commented on Petition Calls for Figueroa
Bike Lanes on Highland Park-Mount Washington Patch. To stop receiving updates
for this Article, click here. To manage all of your email updates, click here.
To unsubscribe from all Patch emails, click here.
>
> Privacy Policy
> Patch Media Corporation 584 Broadway, Suite 808, New York, NY 10012
>
>

--
Richard Risemberg
http://www.bicyclefixation.com
http://www.SustainableCityNews.com
http://gridlogisticsinc.com
http://www.rickrise.com








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

From an article aimed at runners looking to lose weight:

"In other words, a mile of driving and 100 calories produce comparable effects."

Full text at:

http://www.runnersworld.com/weight-loss/driving-less-v-eating-less-weight-contro\
l?cm_mmc=NL-Nutrition-_-1163310-_-01102013-_-Do-Less-of-This-To-Lose-Weight


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

I know that I've gained weight since I moved back to the very car-oriented city
of Minneapolis, which is full of "you can't get there from here" situations if
you try to navigate via public transit.

In transit,
Karen Sandness

On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 10:26 AM, Karen Sandness
<sandness.karen@...> wrote:
>
> I know that I've gained weight since I moved back to the very car-oriented
city of Minneapolis, which is full of "you can't get there from here" situations
if you try to navigate via public transit.
>
> In transit,
> Karen Sandness

Oy vey :(.  I've been gaining weight despite being carfree for 10
years and cycling, walking, and taking transit.  Now, I am faced with
having to buy a car in order to get to the train station because a
major bridge is being demolished and replaced, and the detour route is
too dangerous to cycle on; two narrow lanes in an industrial zone
bordered by a toll-road embankment and oil storage tanks, no street
lights, no observable speed limit, no enforcement.  Here's a Google
street view of the worst part http://goo.gl/maps/K7cQc.

-Bob M.
--
If you change the subject line in your reply there's a good chance I
will miss it and neither read nor respond to it.  I do not reply to
e-mail sent privately ("off-list") regarding comments I posted
publicly.  If you want to engage me in conversation about a public
post, do it publicly.

Before and after photo
<https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.451567351568230.105545.1902941343
62221&type=3>  of dh - he not only lost 120 pounds, but shifted his parking
space from handi-spot to bike rack, 2 years after back surgery which
followed 5 years of being virtually bedridden.  Cycling is just one part of
the story, but a big one.  Transportation choices not feasible for us in
Scottsdale, AZ, helped save his life when we moved to a ped/bike friendly OR
suburb.  Like hubby, I also
<https://www.facebook.com/CarfreeFamily/photos_stream>  lost pounds, and we
both find ourselves at same weight and (better?) physical condition as when
we were teens.  2013 marks the beginning of our 3rd year as a 7 person
carfree family.  16 year old has logged nearly 1,200 bike commuter miles
since starting a part time job.  Happy pedaling!



Be well,
Annee
Carfree Family <https://www.facebook.com/CarfreeFamily>
Resources for Health <http://www.resourcesforhealth.org/>







From: carfree_cities@yahoogroups.com [mailto:carfree_cities@yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of Karen Sandness
Sent: Friday, January 11, 2013 8:27 AM
To: carfree_cities@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [carfree_cities] Re: Driving Less v. Eating Less for Weight Control





I know that I've gained weight since I moved back to the very car-oriented
city of Minneapolis, which is full of "you can't get there from here"
situations if you try to navigate via public transit.

In transit,
Karen Sandness





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

New on Sustainable City News is Eric Miller's article on development in Dallas,
and how it's a mix of styles and uses that rejuvenate a city:

http://sustainablecitynews.com/dallasmix.html

Regards,

Rick
--
Richard Risemberg
http://www.bicyclefixation.com
http://www.SustainableCityNews.com
http://gridlogisticsinc.com
http://www.rickrise.com

Dear fellow Carfree Cities enthusiasts,

The BICY project, an EU-funded project to increase bicycling in
Central Europe, has its final conference this week in Prague, on
Thursday, January 17  (apologies for late
notice).

Participation is free.

Please write me directly if you're coming, it would be good to hear
from you in advance.

To register, and see the agenda, please visit
http://bicy.it/index.php?id=12&ID1=2138&detail_id=31#j31

Of course, please feel free to invite others.

Kind regards,
Jason Meggs

===
Jason N. Meggs
University of Bologna
DICAM - Transportation Engineering Group
Viale Risorgimento, 2
40136 Bologna, Italy

Office: +39 051 209 3338
Fax: +39 051 209 3337
Mobile: +39 333 1565 787

Email: jason.meggs@...
           jason@...
           jmeggs@...

Web: http://jasonmeggs.com/
Blog: http://meggsreport.com/
Skype: jasonmeggs

USA Phone: +1 510-725-9991

UC Berkeley affiliation:

Environmental Health Science Division
School of Public Health
710 University Hall
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720

very interesting; just look at the graph:

http://rethinkingchildhood.com/2013/01/14/children-freedom-england-germany/

Best,

J.


-----                           ###                            -----
J.H. Crawford
mailbox@...
http://www.carfree.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/carfreecities
Vimeo:   http://vimeo.com/jhcrawford/videos
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/CarfreeCities

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Roa73Q8qZtA&list=UUaqoNWCKnDNh-9FhmgFNgtA&feature\
=player_embedded


-----                           ###                            -----
J.H. Crawford
mailbox@...
http://www.carfree.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/carfreecities
Vimeo:   http://vimeo.com/jhcrawford/videos
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/CarfreeCities

I may have mentioned this before, but I knew a professor in Portland who
received a research fellowship and moved to Japan for two years with his family.
When the time came to return to the U.S., the children, ages 9 and 11, didn't
want to leave Japan, because they had more freedom in Japan than in the States.
They could get around town walking, cycling, or taking transit and didn't have
to wait for rides, as they did in the suburbs of even such a transit-friendly
city as Portland.

Spending most of my elementary school years in a town of 30,000 that was laid
out in a block grid, I had much more freedom than my nieces and nephews did
growing up in typical suburbs of Minneapolis and St. Paul. During the years we
lived on an arterial street, we were not allowed to cross it unaccompanied, but
there were plenty of little used streets, including all the ones that led to our
school. Nobody ever worried about our being abducted, even though there were
abductions in those days, just not nationally publicized ones.

In transit,
Karen Sandness

New studies show that air pollution is getting worse, it's killing people, and
that cars and trucks are the biggest culprits:

> Air pollution in Beijing has been described as "apocalyptic" this week with
people choking their way through murky streets, short of breath and their eyes
stinging from toxic air. But Beijing is just one of hundreds of cities, largely
in Asia, where poisonous air is now the fastest growing cause of death in urban
populations.


> However, the Lancet study found that it was specifically the type of air
pollution caused by car and truck exhaust that was doing the most health damage

http://t.co/C3bP3xQw

Rick
--
Richard Risemberg
http://www.bicyclefixation.com
http://www.SustainableCityNews.com
http://gridlogisticsinc.com
http://www.rickrise.com

Thanks, Rick.

Remember that cardiologist Dr. Reeves had a simple prescription to dramatically
reduce deaths from heart disease: stop burning fossil fuels:

http://www.carfree.com/papers/PresentationDrReeves.pdf

J.



>
>
>New studies show that air pollution is getting worse, it's killing people, and
that cars and trucks are the biggest culprits:
>
>> Air pollution in Beijing has been described as "apocalyptic" this week with
people choking their way through murky streets, short of breath and their eyes
stinging from toxic air. But Beijing is just one of hundreds of cities, largely
in Asia, where poisonous air is now the fastest growing cause of death in urban
populations.
>
>> However, the Lancet study found that it was specifically the type of air
pollution caused by car and truck exhaust that was doing the most health damage
>
><http://t.co/C3bP3xQw>http://t.co/C3bP3xQw
>
>Rick
>--
>Richard Risemberg
><http://www.bicyclefixation.com>http://www.bicyclefixation.com
>http://www.SustainableCityNews.com
><http://gridlogisticsinc.com>http://gridlogisticsinc.com
>http://www.rickrise.com
>
>



-----                           ###                            -----
J.H. Crawford
mailbox@...
http://www.carfree.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/carfreecities
Vimeo:   http://vimeo.com/jhcrawford/videos
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/CarfreeCities

When I spent two weeks in Beijing in 1990, it was a nearly car-free city. Sure,
certain high officials rode around in chauffeured cars, but ordinary people rode
bicycles in a city that is flat and on the edge of a desert, so no hills or
frequent rainstorms to contend with. Much of the freight was carried in pedicabs
or horse-drawn vehicles. Instead of gas stations, there were makeshift roadside
businesses that repaired bicycles and patched up flat tires. There was a
rudimentary subway system and plenty of buses.

There was air some air pollution, most notably from coal-powered furnaces. We
learned why the teacups in our rooms were covered, because any boiled water that
we drew from the thermos bottles in each room in order to cool it ended up with
black specks in it otherwise.

But visibility was fine, and you could see the blue sky.

It was disheartening to learn a few years later that the Chinese government was
encouraging car ownership, building freeways, and banning bicycles from many
streets. If they had been smart, as opposed to eager to catch up with the West,
they would have used that money to create the world's best subway system and
switch over to non-petroleum buses.

Well, they got what they wanted.

In transit,
Karen Sandness

Frpm Tracy Davis, a must-read for those on this list:

"The disturbing and sometimes tragic challenge of walking in America":

  ow.ly/2ulhKN

Inlcluding mention of an inhuman law in Virginia that charges pedestrians hit by
cars wiht "interfering with traffic"!

Rick
--
Richard Risemberg
http://www.bicyclefixation.com
http://www.SustainableCityNews.com
http://gridlogisticsinc.com
http://www.rickrise.com

One of SCN's perennial contributors, Debra Efroymson of Sri Lanka, is back with
an article on how "We All Depend on the Kindness of Strangers":

http://www.sustainablecitynews.com/strangers.html

Something to think about tomorrow, as many US urban groups are celebrating
Martin Luther King Jr. with a "Day of Service," bringing strangers together to
better their neighborhoods.

Cheers,

Rick
--
Richard Risemberg
http://www.bicyclefixation.com
http://www.SustainableCityNews.com
http://gridlogisticsinc.com
http://www.rickrise.com

Not to dispute the gravity of China's air pollution, but cities all over the
country are scrambling to build massive subway systems (perhaps too eagerly, as
noted by some financial analysts; see
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/17/us-china-economy-infrastructure-idUSBR\
E8BG14L20121217), and at least in Chengdu (and thus I'd reckon in other Chinese
cities as well) all city buses and taxis run on compressed natural gas.

Nonetheless, as we all know, car ownership rates here are skyrocketing, making
it harder for everybody to get around via other means of transport. It's a
vicious cycle.

Jane


________________________________
  From: Karen Sandness <sandness.karen@...>
To: carfree_cities@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2013 1:17 AM
Subject: [carfree_cities] Re: Air Pollution now major cause death of death


 
When I spent two weeks in Beijing in 1990, it was a nearly car-free city. Sure,
certain high officials rode around in chauffeured cars, but ordinary people rode
bicycles in a city that is flat and on the edge of a desert, so no hills or
frequent rainstorms to contend with. Much of the freight was carried in pedicabs
or horse-drawn vehicles. Instead of gas stations, there were makeshift roadside
businesses that repaired bicycles and patched up flat tires. There was a
rudimentary subway system and plenty of buses.

There was air some air pollution, most notably from coal-powered furnaces. We
learned why the teacups in our rooms were covered, because any boiled water that
we drew from the thermos bottles in each room in order to cool it ended up with
black specks in it otherwise.

But visibility was fine, and you could see the blue sky.

It was disheartening to learn a few years later that the Chinese government was
encouraging car ownership, building freeways, and banning bicycles from many
streets. If they had been smart, as opposed to eager to catch up with the West,
they would have used that money to create the world's best subway system and
switch over to non-petroleum buses.

Well, they got what they wanted.

In transit,
Karen Sandness


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

Possibly the best article of the new year, the Project for Public Spaces
presents what should be a manifesto for America in "Place Capital: Re-connecting
Economy With Community":

http://t.co/Xmp6LCdY

Rick
--
Richard Risemberg
http://www.bicyclefixation.com
http://www.SustainableCityNews.com
http://gridlogisticsinc.com
http://www.rickrise.com

Major changes in UK guidelines for street building, speed limits, more. If this
is followed through on, it will bring major and beneficial changes for all
communities…let's hope for the best.

http://t.co/YqcrPqel

Rick
--
Richard Risemberg
http://www.bicyclefixation.com
http://www.SustainableCityNews.com
http://gridlogisticsinc.com
http://www.rickrise.com

Talk of tearing down the end of I-280 in San Francisco and replacing it with a
street level boulevard, community development, and a high-speed rail terminal:

http://bit.ly/VgEVlz

Rick
--
Richard Risemberg
http://www.bicyclefixation.com
http://www.SustainableCityNews.com
http://gridlogisticsinc.com
http://www.rickrise.com

It has 44 units, bike parking, two carsharing slots, some retail. Developer
promises to manage building to ensure that it is marketed to carfree families
(which is about 50% of the population in the area).

http://walkingbostonian.blogspot.com/2013/01/back-to-future-building-homes-for.h\
tml

Rick
--
Richard Risemberg
http://www.bicyclefixation.com
http://www.SustainableCityNews.com
http://gridlogisticsinc.com
http://www.rickrise.com

The ZEN district in Palermo is to be rebuilt from scratch (thank god):

http://www.livablecities.org/articles/proposal-urban-regeneration-suburb-zen-pal\
ermo-italy

However, they're missing the chance to make it carfree instead of car-lite.

oh, well; they can just do it over again in another 40 years.

J.


-----                           ###                            -----
J.H. Crawford
mailbox@...
http://www.carfree.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/carfreecities
Vimeo:   http://vimeo.com/jhcrawford/videos
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/CarfreeCities

Doing a major overhall and update to the Website BikeCommute.com
<http://bikecommute.com> . Ported over 1,000 bicycle commute bios to our
new server and datbase
Visit us to read the bios and post yours


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

Peak oil, the end of cheap oil, vested interests, and media imbecility and,
often, duplicity:

http://t.co/lUXBMorc

Rick
--
Richard Risemberg
http://www.bicyclefixation.com
http://www.SustainableCityNews.com
http://gridlogisticsinc.com
http://www.rickrise.com

Latin American cities investing in bikes, transit as car-owning minority takes
over street space:

http://t.co/nsF9RkRH

Rick
--
Richard Risemberg
http://www.bicyclefixation.com
http://www.SustainableCityNews.com
http://gridlogisticsinc.com
http://www.rickrise.com

via @TracyDavis: Automobile-centric development, the credit scam, bubbles, and a
sustainable economy:

http://t.co/ru307pCe

Somewhat related article on private driving subsidy:

http://t.co/SolWMevm

Rick
--
Richard Risemberg
http://www.bicyclefixation.com
http://www.SustainableCityNews.com
http://gridlogisticsinc.com
http://www.rickrise.com

Dallas article on how tearing down freeways eases congestion and revives
economies--with reality-based examples:

http://t.co/JN98lQom

Gut feelings aren't facts--freeways cause congestion and bankrupt cities.

Rick
--
Richard Risemberg
http://www.bicyclefixation.com
http://www.SustainableCityNews.com
http://gridlogisticsinc.com
http://www.rickrise.com

Hi All,

If you have steady nerves, you'd better watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIP0O1NJVZA

This is 90 minutes or so. I was going to watch the first 15 minutes. I watched
up to the Q&A.

We really should discuss this.

Best,

J.


-----                           ###                            -----
J.H. Crawford
mailbox@...
http://www.carfree.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/carfreecities
Vimeo:   http://vimeo.com/jhcrawford/videos
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/CarfreeCities