With all the bad news here with the transit shutdown, highway expansion and
the war in Iraq etc., we stay hopeful by imagining that another world is
possible...
Two new paintings of Illichville, the car-free, sustainable village visualized
by
Roberta Avidor:
http://www.roadkillbill.com/I-can.htmlhttp://www.roadkillbill.com/I-Wedding.html
-Ken Avidor
The article below from NYTimes.com
has been sent to you by rickrise@....
The reductio ad absurdum of suburbia?
rickrise@...
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Home Sweet Hangar
April 9, 2004
By DENNY LEE
OCALA, Fla.
SHORTLY after 9:30 a.m., the first plane comes screeching
in - a four-seat Mooney 201 with orange and brown
pinstripes. It taxis tentatively down the runway before
coming to a stop in front of a large concrete berm. Then
the pilot, Joe Colonna, shuts off the engine, climbs out of
the cockpit and plops down $25 for brunch.
"If you have an airplane," Mr. Colonna says, "you're always
looking for someplace to go."
That's not exactly what his hosts at the Jumbolair Aviation
Estates in Ocala want to hear. Situated deep in the green
heart of Florida's horse country, where the view from 1,000
feet is framed with grassy knolls and open pastures,
Jumbolair is hoping to be the "Cadillac of fly-in
communities," as one aviation expert puts it. It has
million-dollar homes, a stable full of horses, a resident
movie star (John Travolta) and a runway, that, at 7,550
feet, is the longest paved residential airstrip in the
country - and at 250 feet is wider than any runway at
either Kennedy in New York or Los Angeles International.
To entice would-be buyers, Jumbolair's developers, Terri
Jones-Thayer and her husband, Jeremy, invite pilots to fly
in for an all-you-can-eat brunch the first Sunday of every
month. They can talk planes with other pilots, stroll
Jumbolair's green fields and ogle Mr. Travolta's
15,400-square-foot compound, with its mock control tower,
dormitory wing for flight crews and, parked on either side
of the house, his jets - a Gulfstream II and a Boeing 707 -
their noses barely tucked under airport canopies like giant
flying camels.
The air park's master plan calls for some 125 homes to be
built on the estate's 600 acres, most on sites of two and
four acres. Mr. Travolta's neighbors will be able to take
off, touch down and taxi to their front doors, all in their
own jets. But at the moment, there are no neighbors; since
Jumbolair opened three years ago, only 14 of the first 20
house sites have been sold, for an average of $400,000
each. And three of those sites belong to Mr. Travolta.
Ground has been broken on only three homes - one of them
the Thayers'.
According to Living With Your Plane, an online directory of
air parks, there are 478 air-park communities nationwide -
49 more than the number of commercial airports used by
merely frequent fliers. Some, like the Spruce Creek Fly-in
Community near Daytona Beach, Fla., with 1,100 houses and
450 condominium units, have very active runways. At Spruce
Creek, there are 500 planes registered to individuals and
companies. At the other end are places like the Cougar
Mountain Airfield in Yelm, Wash., which has 12 houses
clustered around a tiny grass strip.
Despite the popular image of private-plane owners as
wealthy, "there are very few residential air parks that
cater to jet aircraft," said David Sclair, founder of
Living With Your Plane and publisher of General Aviation
News, a monthly publication for owners of small planes.
"And even fewer that cater to homes in the million-dollar
price range." Indeed, according to a recent survey by
Living With Your Plane, nearly half the residents of air
parks make less than $100,000 a year, and most have homes
valued under $350,000.
Still, Jumbolair has its believers, including Steve Ring,
44, an aviation consultant from Jacksonville, Fla., who is
about to break ground on a 6,000-square-foot home at the
air park. Because the community doesn't yet have a global
positioning system to guide pilots in for an instrument
approach in bad weather, on this rainy spring morning Mr.
Ring has assumed the role of a human control tower. As
pilots near, they broadcast their coordinates to him on a
dedicated frequency, much like truckers on a highway, and
he then sorts out the order in which pilots land.
"This place will get busier than Chicago's O'Hare," Mr.
Ring says, as his leather bomber jacket becomes soaked.
"But maybe not today."
Indeed, Jumbolair has had better mornings. A few minutes
after the Mooney touches down, a heavy downpour blankets
the airstrip and forces other planes to turn around. "The
fog is worse than the rain," mutters Mr. Thayer, who is
standing on the runway to greet guests. As the air park
falls silent, his cellphone begins to vibrate with
cancellations.
"Jumbolair is having a difficult time," said Lenny Ohlsson,
a real estate broker with the Spruce Creek Fly-in Community
near Daytona Beach, Fla., where Mr. Travolta lived before
neighbors sued him over his Gulfstream jet. "They're in the
middle of nowhere."
But then again, when you live in an air park, you're never
more than a plane ride from anywhere.
The market for fly-in homes has always been fairly small,
though demand is increasing, partly because plane ownership
is growing. The number of new piston-powered aircraft - the
smaller planes often favored by private pilots - that were
delivered to owners in 2003 rose to 1,590 from 555 a decade
earlier, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers
Association.
Then there is the growing frustration with commercial
travel. "When we go on a trip, we can walk over to our
plane, jump in, and we're gone," Mr. Ring says. "We don't
have to report to the airport two hours ahead, there's no
baggage search and no heavy screening. Oh, and there's no
rude security people."
For others, air parks are simply an extension of the
American obsession with the open road. "I can hop in my
plane and go to Bermuda anytime I want," says Vern Thomas,
57, a developer from Satellite Beach, Fla., who is planning
to build a 7,000-square-foot weekend home at Jumbolair for
his Bonanza A36. "I like to go to the Bahamas. A friend of
mine has a private island down there. And if you're too
tired to unpack, you can leave your stuff in the jet and
get it the next day. To me, that's an exciting lifestyle."
It's that sense of jet-set luxury the Thayers are trying
to sell, with an assist from Mr. Travolta's star power.
While the actor doesn't actually make appearances at
Jumbolair's Sunday brunches, his presence looms large. The
home he shares with his wife, Kelly Preston, and their two
children is just a stone's throw from the runway, and
photographs of it were recently given a lavish spread in
Architectural Digest, while Mr. Travolta spoke
enthusiastically about his fly-in, fly-out lifestyle. And
the Thayers discreetly suggest he might bring other
Hollywood types with pilot licenses in his wake.
Through a spokesman, Mr. Travolta declined to be
interviewed for this article. But neighbors can certainly
attest to his prolific flying. "Once, Travolta flew out at
7 p.m., presented an award to Elizabeth Taylor in D.C., had
dinner, and got back here by 3 a.m.," says Ms.
Jones-Thayer, an accomplished pilot. "That's what it's all
about. It's like a time machine."
But would anyone want to pay half a million dollars to
listen to jets land in the middle of the night - even if
they belong to movie stars? "Pilots love the sound of plane
engines," Ms. Jones-Thayer says. "For them, it's like the
sound of the ocean."
DESPITE the rain, the brunch gets under way in earnest.
Inside a cavernous ballroom, a piano is playing in a corner
while a small army of black-tie waiters sets up a lavish
buffet that's topped with a dozen dessert pies. Upfront, a
few promotional materials are spread out on a white
tablecloth, next to a color map showing the available lots.
"The Largest & Most Prestigious Aviation Community in
America," a large sign reads.
Several dozen people have braved the soggy morning and made
their way by automobile. Men in golf shirts and khakis bond
over their flying histories. A group of elderly women, all
wearing red hats and purple blouses, arrive as part of a
Sunday outing. The Thayers are busy working the room,
pausing at each table to introduce themselves and talk
about Jumbolair. Mr. Thayer, 50, who runs a jewelry
business when he is not managing the air park, is dressed
casually in a gray ribbed shirt and black trousers. Ms.
Jones-Thayer, 41, is sporting a pink cowboy shirt, white
pants and a ring with a three-carat yellow diamond.
"The mistake that other places make, like Spruce Creek, is
that they make the hangars too small," she says with a
smile. "People are getting bigger and bigger planes. We
have miniestates here."
Robert and Mollie Nelson arrive to check in on their $2
million house, down a taxiway from the Travoltas. Their
7,000-square-foot house, modeled after a Louisiana Low
Country manor, is nearly complete. Instead of a bayou, the
double-decker porch offers a view of the airstrip. Behind
the house, another giant structure is taking shape - a
3,500-square-foot hangar.
"We can probably put three to four Cessnas in here," says
Mr. Nelson, 79, a retired television and radio station
owner from Sarasota, Fla., as he tours his property. But
who wants a Beetle when money can buy a Hummer? "Our goal
is to get a medium-size jet," he says, "or a large
turboplane."
Finally, at 1 p.m., there is a break in the clouds. A
Cessna 172S roars down, followed by a Citation Bravo, then
a special-edition Cirrus SR22, a four-seater worth about
$400,000. About 13 planes form a semicircle at the end of
the runway.
Richard Kane, 38, the pilot of the Cirrus, climbs out of
the cockpit and looks around. He is in the market for a
vacation and retirement home.
"We have a few places we want to check on, but Jumbolair is
a leading contender," says Mr. Kane, who owns a
telecommunications software company in Boca Raton, Fla. He
and his wife, Susan, already own property in the Wellington
Aero Club, a 120-home air park about 250 miles south of
Ocala. It is about a four-hour drive, or an hour-and-a-half
flight in his plane. He mulls over the possibilities.
"Imagine," he says, "flying from one residential air park
to another."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/09/realestate/luxury/09JUMB.html?ex=1082556087&ei\
=1&en=9a22a164fc6a44e3
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Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/10/national/10ALAS.html
> April 10, 2004
> Built With Steel, Perhaps, but Greased With Pork
> By TIMOTHY EGAN
>
> ETCHIKAN, Alaska, April 8 — Even by the standards of Alaska, the land where
schemes and dreams come for new life, two bridges approved under the national
highway bill passed by the House last week are monuments to the imagination.
>
> One, here in Ketchikan, would be among the biggest in the United States: a
mile long, with a top clearance of 200 feet from the water — 80 feet higher than
the Brooklyn Bridge and just 20 feet short of the Golden Gate Bridge. It would
connect this economically depressed, rain-soaked town of 7,845 people to an
island that has about 50 residents and the area's airport, which offers six
flights a day (a few more in summer). It could cost about $200 million.
>
> The other bridge would span an inlet for nearly two miles to tie Anchorage to
a port that has a single regular tenant and almost no homes or businesses. It
would cost up to $2 billion.
>
> These "bridges to nowhere," as critics have dubbed the two costliest of the
high-priority projects in the six-year, $275 billion House bill, are one reason
Republicans are fighting among themselves in shaping the nation's transportation
spending.
>
> President Bush has threatened to use his first veto against any measure that
emerges from a House-Senate conference with a cost of more than $256 billion.
(The Senate version, passed in February, calls for $318 billion and includes
neither of the projects, though their champion on Capitol Hill voices certainty
that they will be added in conference.) Senator John McCain, Republican of
Arizona, has described the legislation as so laden with pork as to betray the
party's principles.
>
> But if this is pork, the Republican behind the House bill says bring it on,
with extra fat. Representative Don Young, Alaska's lone member of the House,
where he is chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, is
already known as Mr. Concrete but would like to wear another title as well.
>
> "I'd like to be a little oinker, myself," Mr. Young told a Republican lunch
crowd here, taking mock offense at the suggestion that Ted Stevens, the Alaska
Republican who is chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, directs more
pork to their state than he does. "If he's the chief porker, I'm upset."
>
> When asked why a town with one main road, a dwindling population and virtually
nowhere to drive to needs a bridge to rival the world's great spans, people here
inevitably respond with two words: Don Young. Mr. Young, mindful that the
highway bill comes up for renewal only once every six years or so, and that the
House Republican Conference imposes three-term limits on committee
chairmanships, says the opportunity to pour so many federal dollars into his
home state comes once in a lifetime, and should be seized.
>
> "If you don't do it now, when are you going to do it?" he said at the
luncheon. "This is the time to take advantage of the position I'm in, along with
Senator Stevens."
>
> He said he would support an increase in the federal tax on gasoline — a "user
fee," he called it — to pay for even more projects than were included in the
newly passed bill.
>
> People here in Ketchikan, in far southeastern Alaska off the coast of British
Columbia, are grateful for Mr. Young's efforts, and they can certainly use the
600 or so jobs that a vast government works project would bring. A veneer mill,
supported by $17 million in federal aid, lies empty and rusting, in search of an
owner. The town's biggest job provider, a pulp mill, shut down in 1997.
>
> But as a transportation solution, the Ketchikan bridge is seen as something of
a joke. It would replace a five-minute ferry crossing.
>
> "Everyone knows it's just a boondoggle that we're getting because we have a
powerful congressman," said Mike Sallee, 57, whose mother homesteaded here and
who now runs a small timber operation. "That ferry of ours has been pretty darn
reliable."
>
> In public hearings on the bridge plan, officials heard few complaints about
the ferry service. The ferry crosses every half-hour in winter and every 15
minutes in summer, when there are two boats available and a third on call. The
crossing one day this week, from the time a visitor picked up his bags at the
airport to his reaching town, took less than 10 minutes — and that included a
wait for the ferry to arrive and dock at the island.
>
> The Gravina Island Access Bridge, as the project is called, has been given a
Golden Fleece award by Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog based in
Washington.
>
> "It's a gold-plated bridge to nowhere," said Keith Ashdown, a spokesman for
the group. "At a time when we have bridges and roads crumbling around the United
States, and traffic congestion worse than ever, why build a $200 million project
that will serve only a few hundred people?"
>
> Mr. Young, whose bill has broad bipartisan support, speaks with passion of how
traffic congestion has robbed the average American of 68 hours a year in lost
time. But he says taking care of Alaska is just as important.
>
> "If I had not done fairly well for our state," he said, "I'd be ashamed of
myself."
>
> As for the merits of the Ketchikan proposal, he said, "It's a bridge to
somewhere." That somewhere is an island with a few miles of dirt roads, an
unlogged sliver of the nation's biggest national forest. Mr. Young hopes the
bridge will spur development in a part of Alaska where, though rain is measured
by the foot (an average of more than 13 feet a year), cruise ships bring nearly
a million tourists annually.
>
> The nation's highway statute gets its money from a trust fund financed by the
18.4-cent-a-gallon federal tax that Americans pay on gasoline. Every time the
legislation is renewed, lawmakers load it with special projects for their
districts, called earmarks. Alaskans get nearly $7 back for every dollar they
put into the fund.
>
> In all, the current House bill would give Alaska $540 million in earmarks,
including down payments of $120 million for the Ketchikan bridge and $200
million for the one at Anchorage. Those two costs alone are more than the total
for earmarked projects in all of 41 other states, according to an analysis by
Taxpayers for Common Sense.
>
> Mr. Young said Alaska had been late to the federal table — it did not join the
Union until 1959 — and needed to play catch-up. With his position as chairman of
the House transportation committee, and with Mr. Stevens driving appropriations
in the Senate, the state can muscle through most of the road projects it dreams
up, he said.
>
> "It's not a good way to legislate, although I got a lot of stuff in it," Mr.
Young told The Anchorage Daily News in December. "I mean I stuffed it like a
turkey."
>
> The bridge in Anchorage would cross Knik Arm, which is clogged by ice blocks
the size of cars for much of the year, and connect the city to an undeveloped
area around Port MacKenzie. In their proposal, state officials said it was
needed for domestic security and to "coordinate operations" between the Port of
Anchorage and the MacKenzie port, which has only one permanent tenant. Promoters
of the bridge now say it is needed to stimulate housing and commercial
development as well.
>
> Here in Ketchikan, a simple bridge to the north of the one now envisioned
would have spanned a gap of only a quarter-mile between the airport and town,
and at only a fraction of the cost. But it was judged too close to the airport
for pilot safety.
>
> Another idea was a bridge with a clearance of 120 feet rather than the 200 now
planned. But that would have forced cruise ships, the only growth industry in
town, to take a different approach to port. After cruise lines threatened to cut
some dockings, the most expensive design offered became the plan of choice.
>
> It calls for a span that will be longer than the George Washington Bridge,
over the Hudson River, and will connect to Gravina Island through a middle
island. Builders will be cutting into the flank of a mountain to anchor it.
>
> Yet the bridge may make for a longer trip to the airport, people here say.
Anyone driving from Ketchikan to catch a plane will have to head south of town,
move past a main drag frequently clogged with tourists, ascend a mountain, cross
the mile-long bridge westbound, then circle north around the back of Gravina
Island to reach the airport. In addition, the airport will have to build a
parking structure, at an estimated cost of $11 million.
>
> "The funny thing, when that big bridge is done, it will take more time to get
to the airport than it does now on our little ferry," said Dale Collins, a
mariner who heads the ship pilots association here. "But it sure will be big.
It's unbelievable, the size of that bridge."
--
Richard Risemberg
http://www.living-room.orghttp://www.newcolonist.com
"Until you stop looking for simple answers, you will not be happy. You
will not even be human."
RR
Investing in a Better Future: A Review of the Fiscal and Competitive
Advantages of Smarter Growth Development Patterns
Synopsis:
> With the collapse of the 1990s stock market bubble and several years of
national economic slowdown, a tense new climate of austerity has sharpened
debates over government spending, economic development, and the physical growth
of states and metropolitan areas.
>
> Leaders in this environment are eager for fiscally prudent ways to
simultaneously support their communities and stimulate their economies.
>
> This paper makes the case that more compact development patterns and investing
in projects to improve urban cores would save taxpayers' money and improve
regions' overall economic performance. To that end, it relies on a review of the
best academic empirical literature to weigh the extent to which a new way of
thinking about growth and development can benefit governments, businesses, and
regions during these fiscally stressed times.
>
> Overall, the review finds that:
>
> * The cost of providing public infrastructure and delivering services can
be reduced through thoughtful design and planning. Several studies suggest that
rational use of more compact development patterns from 2000 to 2025 promise the
following sorts of savings for governments nationwide: 11 percent, or $110
billion, from 25-year road-building costs; 6 percent, or $12.6 billion, from
25-year water and sewer costs; and roughly 3 percent, or $4 billion, for annual
operations and service delivery. School-construction savings are somewhat less.
>
> * Regional economic performance is enhanced when areas are developed with
community benefits and the promotion of vital urban centers in mind. Studies
show that productivity and overall economic performance may be improved to the
extent compact, mixed-use development fosters dense labor markets, vibrant urban
centers, efficient transportation systems, and a high "quality-of-place."
Productivity increases with county employment density. Communities that practice
growth management realize improved personal income shares over time.
>
> * Suburbs also benefit from investment in healthy urban cores. Finally,
studies suggest that to the extent these smarter development patterns foster
equity in regions by improving center-city incomes and vitality, they will also
enhance the economic well-being of the suburbs as well as the city. City income
growth has been shown to increase suburban income, house prices, and population.
Reduced city poverty rates have also been associated with metropolitan income
growth.
>
> In the end, this paper makes the case that during times of tight budgets, more
efficient and beneficial growth strategies make more sense than ever.
>
> As these strategies become more widespread, the challenge for the research
community will be to move beyond the obvious fiscal savings and continue to
quantify the profound effects on economic competitiveness, equity, and quality
of life available through better planning and community design. In the end,
these issues are at the crux of what better development is really all about.
Full report (PDF):
http://www.brookings.edu/urban/pubs/200403_smartgrowth.pdf
--
Richard Risemberg
http://www.living-room.orghttp://www.newcolonist.com
"Until you stop looking for simple answers, you will not be happy. You
will not even be human."
RR
More on auto development in China. Unbelievably, the article reports that
the bicycle lost 23% of total modal share in just four years.
-RL
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>
> China takes to the road with zeal
> Apr 08 2004
> Cindy Sui | AFP | Beijing
>
> http://afr.com/articles/2004/04/07/1081222530713.html
>
> China's roads are undergoing a revolution. The bicycle was once an
> image synonymous with the streets of China but that is fast changing as
> millions of new drivers rush to get behind the wheel.
>
> Li Jiakun, a 23-year-old bank teller, is one of the 11million new
> drivers who hit the nation's roads over the past year - a number that
> is rising by 12.4per cent a year, according to government statistics.
>
> "In China, driving, speaking English and using the computer are the
> three most important skills. I feel like I can do anything in life
> now," she says, giving her driving instructor a hug after getting her
> driver's licence.
>
> China's roads are now the world's deadliest as an army of new drivers
> with little experience takes to the streets, knocking over pedestrians
> and cyclists and spewing exhaust fumes.
>
> Traffic accidents are up sharply, and last year 104,000 people died on
> China's roads, 1.5 times higher than a decade ago and more than double
> the deaths in countries such as the United States, where there are far
> more cars.
>
> Poor driving skills and widespread flouting of traffic laws are listed
> as top reasons, but road safety woes have not deterred new car buyers.
>
> "A car has become the most important thing to buy, after an
> apartment," says Li Tianlu, a masseur who recently forked out 130,000
> yuan ($20,700) for a Mazda 323.
>
> Urban redevelopment across the country has necessitated driving,
> shifting large swathes of the population, including people like Li, to
> the suburbs - ending for many the days when they could pedal to work.
>
> Li the bank teller drives for the same reason people try many things
> in China: it's trendy.
>
> "Everyone's learning, so I decided to learn," says Li, who lives a
> 20-minute bike ride from work. "My father will benefit more than
> anyone else from my licence because now he can drink."
>
> China is feverishly constructing roads and highways, but they still
> cannot keep pace with the explosion of vehicles on the roads, leading
> to traffic jams sometimes lasting all day in urban centres.
>
> China's march to a car-dominated society seems unstoppable. In 2000,
> 63 per cent of all travel in Beijing was done by bicycle, but today it's
> just 40 per cent, according to Shan Lianlong, a traffic expert at the
> Development and Reform Commission's Institute of Transport Research.
>
> The use of motor vehicles, on the other hand, has doubled in thesame
> period, rising from 16per cent to 30 per cent of all trips taken in
> Beijing. Shan says this is partly because of the woefully inadequate
> public transport system.
Exxon/Mobil, the RNC & Widespread Nonviolent Militancy
"Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it
is a merger of state and corporate power" -- Benito Mussolini
"If elected, I will run the government like a business" -- George W.
Bush
Forget for a moment that Exxon/Mobil (XMO) is the main proponent of
greenhouse gas emissions…
Along with Enron, the Exxon/Mobil corporation was the biggest
monetary contributor to George W. Bush's 2000 presidential
campaign.
It has reaped the benefits of record high petroleum oil prices which
have been brought about and sustained by G.W. Bush's energy
policies.
One can easily make the argument that this latest war in Iraq was
fought largely for XMO (and other oil corporations) -- their gas they
sell is tainted with the blood of American soldiers and
Iraqi "collateral damage." But, whether you buy that argument or not,
it is easy to see how closely interrelated corporate policy
(particularly XMO's) is with the government policy. If we have
any
ideals (or hopes for future generations) we must recognize this
situation for what it is -- FASCISM.
It may not be the genocidal fascism of the industrialized Nazi's,
but
this brand of Republican fascism must, nevertheless, be seriously
confronted before it gets bolder and causes more pain and suffering
around the world. This American fascism may not be the genocidal
fascism of the Nazi's, but it empowers the oil corporations and
facilitates a global warming which could wipe out most species on
Earth.
Greenpeace and Adbusters, along with some others, have already called
for an international boycott of Esso/Exxon/Mobil (and there have
already been international days of protest) but… we need to
become
evermore coordinated and vigilant. At the very least we should at
least be able to get every Democrat to boycott the Republican-funding
XMO and, at best, we should be able to put that fascist corporation
out of business by means of widespread nonviolent militant civil
disobedience. We need to fight to win and we need to add populist
elements to the battle. Any one person or group can participate at
their own level in this protest which can include, but is not limited
to, sit-ins, leafleting, creative harassment of all types, and maybe
petty vandalism like graffiti and stopped-up toilets. Don't
forget
(and I'm not recommending this), Gandhi, on multiple occasions,
advocated even suicide (by fasting, walking into clubs, and in
response to Nazism) to draw attention to injustice. And Gandhi
wasn't
even facing ecocide.
The RNC begins August 29th in NYC where up to 2 million people are
expected to protest Bush and his policies. At that time, there and in
cities around the world, a simultaneously coordinated protest of XMO
can send a clear message that we the people are not fooled by oilman
Bush and the corporate fascism he represents. In NYC all of the XMO
stations can be protested throughout the week of the RNC while, in
other cities, high-traffic stations can be engaged during peak rush
hours (4-7 p.m.). The number and ambition of activists in your
community will obviously determine the style and number of protests
in your city, but make sure to write letters to the editor and
contact other media outlets for best results. In some areas
the "flash mob" style of protest could be most effective -- even with
folks unaware of the protest beforehand. Whoever takes charge locally
will largely determine the style of protest -- but everyone who shows
up, literally and figuratively, is worthy of respect and is not to be
dictated to. Leadership in this cause is largely to just get the ball
rolling as effectively as possible -- so spread the word in your
community and get creative with actionable plans. Learn your rights
and take a stand despite the Patriot Act. True patriots revolt
(against a true, clear, corporate fascist entity that we can
destroy). Lay siege, conquer and destroy! Exxon/Mobil must die.
www.stopexxonmobil.org
http://www.rncnotwelcome.org/
pax.protest.net/event.cgi?ID=459252
www.pacificenvironment.org/stopexxonmobil/
http://www.greenpeace.org/international_en/news/details?item_id=439825
www.dontbuyexxonmobil.org/
http://www.counterconvention.org/
www.pressurepoint.org
http://www.vshiva.net/http://www.amnestyusa.org/justearth/http://www.gnn.tv/
www.webprowire.com/summaries/495562.html
www.thehurricaneonline.com/
news/2002/12/06/Opinion/Exxon.Mobil.Protest.Throws.Oil.In.Sadaams.Eyes
www.columbia.edu/cu/cssn/cssn-list/2002/12/00011.html
www.climateark.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=22985
www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=395
http://www.geovrml.org/archive/msg01062.htmlhttp://www.corpwatch.org/news/PND.jsp?articleid=28
www.adbusters.org
www.greenpeace.org
Hi All,
The author of the post below has been banned as incendiary.
Regards,
>Exxon/Mobil, the RNC & Widespread Nonviolent Militancy
>
>"Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it
>is a merger of state and corporate power" -- Benito Mussolini
>
>"If elected, I will run the government like a business" -- George W.
>Bush
>
>Forget for a moment that Exxon/Mobil (XMO) is the main proponent of
>greenhouse gas emissions…
>
>Along with Enron, the Exxon/Mobil corporation was the biggest
>monetary contributor to George W. Bush's 2000 presidential
>campaign.
>It has reaped the benefits of record high petroleum oil prices which
>have been brought about and sustained by G.W. Bush's energy
>policies.
>One can easily make the argument that this latest war in Iraq was
>fought largely for XMO (and other oil corporations) -- their gas they
>sell is tainted with the blood of American soldiers and
>Iraqi "collateral damage." But, whether you buy that argument or not,
>it is easy to see how closely interrelated corporate policy
>(particularly XMO's) is with the government policy. If we have
>any
>ideals (or hopes for future generations) we must recognize this
>situation for what it is -- FASCISM.
>
>It may not be the genocidal fascism of the industrialized Nazi's,
>but
>this brand of Republican fascism must, nevertheless, be seriously
>confronted before it gets bolder and causes more pain and suffering
>around the world. This American fascism may not be the genocidal
>fascism of the Nazi's, but it empowers the oil corporations and
>facilitates a global warming which could wipe out most species on
>Earth.
>
>Greenpeace and Adbusters, along with some others, have already called
>for an international boycott of Esso/Exxon/Mobil (and there have
>already been international days of protest) but… we need to
>become
>evermore coordinated and vigilant. At the very least we should at
>least be able to get every Democrat to boycott the Republican-funding
>XMO and, at best, we should be able to put that fascist corporation
>out of business by means of widespread nonviolent militant civil
>disobedience. We need to fight to win and we need to add populist
>elements to the battle. Any one person or group can participate at
>their own level in this protest which can include, but is not limited
>to, sit-ins, leafleting, creative harassment of all types, and maybe
>petty vandalism like graffiti and stopped-up toilets. Don't
>forget
>(and I'm not recommending this), Gandhi, on multiple occasions,
>advocated even suicide (by fasting, walking into clubs, and in
>response to Nazism) to draw attention to injustice. And Gandhi
>wasn't
>even facing ecocide.
>
>The RNC begins August 29th in NYC where up to 2 million people are
>expected to protest Bush and his policies. At that time, there and in
>cities around the world, a simultaneously coordinated protest of XMO
>can send a clear message that we the people are not fooled by oilman
>Bush and the corporate fascism he represents. In NYC all of the XMO
>stations can be protested throughout the week of the RNC while, in
>other cities, high-traffic stations can be engaged during peak rush
>hours (4-7 p.m.). The number and ambition of activists in your
>community will obviously determine the style and number of protests
>in your city, but make sure to write letters to the editor and
>contact other media outlets for best results. In some areas
>the "flash mob" style of protest could be most effective -- even with
>folks unaware of the protest beforehand. Whoever takes charge locally
>will largely determine the style of protest -- but everyone who shows
>up, literally and figuratively, is worthy of respect and is not to be
>dictated to. Leadership in this cause is largely to just get the ball
>rolling as effectively as possible -- so spread the word in your
>community and get creative with actionable plans. Learn your rights
>and take a stand despite the Patriot Act. True patriots revolt
>(against a true, clear, corporate fascist entity that we can
>destroy). Lay siege, conquer and destroy! Exxon/Mobil must die.
>
>
>
>www.stopexxonmobil.org
>
>http://www.rncnotwelcome.org/
>
>pax.protest.net/event.cgi?ID=459252
>
>www.pacificenvironment.org/stopexxonmobil/
>
>http://www.greenpeace.org/international_en/news/details?item_id=439825
>
>www.dontbuyexxonmobil.org/
>
>http://www.counterconvention.org/
>
>www.pressurepoint.org
>
>http://www.vshiva.net/
>
>http://www.amnestyusa.org/justearth/
>
>http://www.gnn.tv/
>
>www.webprowire.com/summaries/495562.html
>
>www.thehurricaneonline.com/
>news/2002/12/06/Opinion/Exxon.Mobil.Protest.Throws.Oil.In.Sadaams.Eyes
>
>www.columbia.edu/cu/cssn/cssn-list/2002/12/00011.html
>
>www.climateark.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=22985
>
>www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=395
>
>http://www.geovrml.org/archive/msg01062.html
>
>http://www.corpwatch.org/news/PND.jsp?articleid=28
>
>www.adbusters.org
>
>www.greenpeace.org
>
It sounds like the bridge's main usefulness will be as an expensive
place under which for vagrants to troll to be out of the rain - and
barely useful for even that, since such a _high_ bridge doesn't keep
you _very_ dry.
But why think small? In a fiction book that I once started writing,
Ketchikan has a Misty Fjords Bridge, which is briefly used around
2064 for bicycle-messenger-relay deliveries of sensitive war-
intelligence documents between Ketchikan and Mexico. (These
intelligence-unit messengers shun ferries, deeming them to be too
risky due to the enemy operatives lurking on the ferries at that
time.)
But don't worry: Terrorists from Cant-Hong - eager to keep
Ketchikan's timber flowing west rather than east - knock the bridge
down and it stays down.
- TF, who, in non-fiction, cycled Ketchikan's various roads to
nowhere for several days in December 2000.
--- In carfree_cities@yahoogroups.com, Richard Risemberg
<rickrise@e...> wrote:
> http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/10/national/10ALAS.html
(snip)
The article below from NYTimes.com
has been sent to you by rickrise@....
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\----------------------------------------------------------/
Gas Prices Soar, Angelenos Shrug
April 10, 2004
By JOHN M. BRODER
LOS ANGELES, April 9 - It's going to take a lot more than
$2.39-a-gallon gasoline prices to get Angelenos out of
their cars.
"To be honest, I don't even pay attention to what the price
is," Timothy Jameson said as he pumped $20 worth into his
Mitsubishi Spyder at a Shell station in the Sherman Oaks
section.
Mr. Jameson, a voice coach, said he would support more
taxes to expand Los Angeles's runty subway system or to
create more efficient street-level public transit. But
until that far-off day, he said, he needs his car to take
him where he needs to go, the price of gas be damned.
The average price of regular gas in California has shot up
50 cents a gallon since the first of the year, to $2.12,
nearly 40 cents higher than the national average. In many
places in Southern California, the price is higher still.
But Angelenos have not responded by parking their cars and
hopping onto public transit. In fact, ridership on the
Metropolitan Transit Authority's bus and fledgling subway
lines is down from a year ago. M.T.A. officials attribute
the drop to the lingering effects of a 35-day transit
strike last fall. Many riders, the officials say, found
alternative ways to work and have not returned.
Nor does it appear that Southern Californians have
significantly altered their car-buying habits. This is a
state, after all, where the governor drives and promotes
the gas-devouring Hummer.
Jake Harper, who sells Hummers at the Casa Automotive Group
in Sherman Oaks, said customers there were still buying 60
to 80 of the 6,400-pound military-style vehicles a month.
Sales are down from a peak of 100 a month a year ago, but
Casa Automotive continues to sell more Hummers than any
other dealership in the United States.
"Gas mileage?" Mr. Harper said. "It's never been a factor.
A few people bring it up, but it hasn't affected their
behavior."
He said the $52,000 Hummer H2 got 12 miles a gallon on the
highway and perhaps 10 in the city.
"If they ask," he said of prospective customers, "we give
them the answer: it's lousy. That's why it's not on the
window sticker. I can't recall anyone who didn't buy
because of the mileage."
Mr. Harper, who has sold cars for more than 30 years, said
the effect of the current gasoline price spike was nothing
like what he saw in the late 1970's and early 1980's.
"Back then," he said, "people just stopped buying big cars.
Zero. People did change their buying habits. But there's no
indication of that today. People are talking about gas
prices, but they're not doing anything about it."
In fact, while California gas prices are at historic highs
in nominal terms, average prices after inflation are below
those of 1979 to 1982. In 1981, the average price for the
year was $2.42 in today's dollars, almost 15 percent higher
than the current statewide average.
Elizabeth Deakin, director of the University of California
Transportation Center, said gas prices would have to rise
significantly higher to affect drivers' behavior
appreciably. A 50-cent-a-gallon increase, Dr. Deakin noted,
adds only a few pennies a mile, or less than a quarter a
day for most drivers.
"I wouldn't expect that quarter to be something that people
will react strongly to," she said. "Those who would feel it
are already on the bus or walking."
Yet there are some faint stirrings of concern among Los
Angeles commuters. The city transit authority has seen a
marked increase in the number of visits to its ride-sharing
Web site, to 6,431 in March from 2,335 in January, said
David Sutton, executive manager of the authority's Metro
Commute Services. Mr. Sutton was unable to say how many of
those hits had resulted in car-pooling, or whether they had
been inspired by rising gas prices or the frustrations of
dealing with Los Angeles's freeways, congenitally
congested. (Ride-sharers get to use more than 1,000 miles
of car-pool lanes on California freeways.)
In addition, Toyota dealers report waiting lists of two to
three months for the company's popular Prius gas-electric
hybrid model, which gets more than 40 miles a gallon.
Honda, Ford and Toyota are expanding their lines of hybrid
vehicles, though California is still a long way from the
fuel-efficient "hydrogen highway" that Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger envisions.
At the Shell station in Sherman Oaks, Tracii Guns,
guitarist for the heavy-metal band Brides of Destruction,
was filling up his 1999 Corvette - $35 for 14.5 gallons.
"Ouch," he said. "I've been flirting with the idea of
getting a Vespa scooter, or maybe a Mini."
Sam Botnick, director of operations for Vespa of
California, which runs four Southern California scooter
dealerships, said it sold more scooters in March than in
any other month in the last two and a half years. He
attributed the increase in part to the rise in gas prices,
although he said there were probably other factors as well.
The Vespa has its origins in postwar Italy, where gas was
extremely scarce. It gets about 70 miles a gallon and costs
$3,000 to $6,000, depending on the model.
Mr. Botnick said his company's four outlets sold 65
scooters in March. That's almost as many as the Hummers
that Casa Automotive sells in a typical month.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/10/national/10GAS.html?ex=1082895553&ei=1&en=d50b\
7db3de6d58b8
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Not sure if other countries are allowing black boxes to be used to convict
offenders yet or not. Note that even with proof of travelling more than 80
km/h over the speed limit, the driver is only given an 18-month jail term
for killing one person and injuring another.
-RL
> http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/04/14/canada/blackbox_20040414
>
> Car's black box convicts dangerous driver
> Last Updated Wed, 14 Apr 2004 22:36:34
>
> MONTREAL - For the first time in a Canadian court, a data recorder in a
> car was used to convict a man in Montreal of dangerous driving causing
> death.
>
> The data recorder, also known as a black box, records the last few seconds
> of driving before a car's air bag deploys. In an accident in 2001 in
> Montreal, the black box in Eric Gauthier's car proved that he was driving
> 131 km/h in a 50 km/h zone when his vehicle hit Yacine Zinet's car,
> killing him and injuring a passenger.
>
> At the time of the accident, Gauthier, now 26, told police that he was
> driving just over the speed limit when another car ran a red light and
> crashed into his car. But police investigators were suspicious because of
> the heavy damage to the vehicles and the absence of skid marks. They
> petitioned and won the right to use the black box data as evidence.
>
> The black box in Gauthier's Pontiac Sunfire indicated he was driving more
> than 130 km/h, almost three times the speed limit.
>
> Gauthier was sentenced to 18 months in jail for dangerous driving. His
> licence has also been suspended for three years.
>
> Gauthier's family was shocked by the sentence.
>
> The victim's family was surprised, saying nothing could bring Yacine back
> but that justice had been served.
>
> The Crown prosecutor recommended that Gauthier should serve three years in
> jail. Gauthier's defence attorney argued for a 12-to-20-month sentence to
> be served at his parents' home.
>
>Introduce yourself to the group by answering the questions which follow my
>sig and submitting them as your first post to the group.
Hello group. My name is Steve Geller. I live in Berkeley, CA.
I'm not-quite-retired.
>Introductory Profile
>
>1. Which of the following best describes you? Please check one.
>_____ I am do not presently own a car though I have owned a car
> previously.
I own a car, but seldom drive it. I'm about ready to donate it
for a tax break.
Mostly, I get about by bus. I carry a monthly pass.
>2. How long have you been either car-free or used
>non-automotive transport as your principle means of transportation?
Oh, about 10 years, maybe more.
>3. What inspired your decision to reduce or end your reliance on the
>automobile?
I don't like driving in traffic and I don't like hunting for
a parking space. Riding a bus is so much easier, once one learns
how to use the system.
>4. If you owned a car and then gave it up, what process did you go through
>to do so? (e.g., did you go through a process of gradually using the car
>less and less, or did you give up using it all at once -- going cold turkey?)
It's been a process of attrition.
>5. What tools or factors have helped you the most in being able to get
>around without a car? (e.g., living close to transit, living close to
>work, owning a folding bike, joining a car-sharing club or
>co-op, etc.)
I live on a major bus line. When I get rid of the car,
I can still rent one if I need to.
>6. What, if any, factors have made it difficult?
It's been easier, not difficult.
>7. What effect has the way you travel had on the people around you,
>including children, family, and/or friends? Have any of them changed
>their travel behavior or relationship with cars as a result of what
>you're doing?
No change. Most of my friends ride transit too -- or use a bike.
>8. What are the advantages of being car-free and/or getting around without
>using a car?
Freedom. I get where I'm going and don't have to find a
parking space.
>9. What are the disadvantages?
Buses are sometimes late, and crowded. Some bus lines don't
run nights and weekends. Two or three times a year, I get in a
situation when I have to call a cab.
>10. Would you recommend car-free or "car-reduced" living to your friends?
>Why or why not?
Sure. I'm a fairly fanatic transit advocate. I once refused a ride home
from a gathering, preferring to catch a bus. One person whispered
to another "it's his religion."
>11. What differences does travelling without using a car make for you in
>terms of time?
It's slower, of course. But I don't care.
>12. What differences does travelling without using a car make for you in
>terms of money?
Cheaper. Especially with today's gas prices.
>13. If you still use a car please share the general situation affecting
>your use such as finances (share, rent, etc) how often, and the reasons?
I just use the car when I have to haul stuff.
>14. What role should automotive transport play in an overall healthy and
>sustainable system of transportation?
Well, a car is necessary to go places which have no bus service.
I think that a successful bus rider should be ready to walk
in some situations.
I don't hate my car. I just prefer to use transit when I can.
Those of you in the UK may be interested in this event:
Greetings,
Please find below details of an event you may be interested in. This is part
of the Museums and Galleries Month 2004 "Travel and the Art of Travelling".
Please forward to any one else you think might attend.
Thanks
Martin Earnshaw
Transport Research Group
http://www.transportresearch.org.uk/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Commuting: the life sentence?
Museums & Galleries Month 2004: "Travel and the Art of Travelling"
20th May, 7pm
Terrace Room, Museum of London
Tickets: Ł8.00 (Ł6.00 concessions)
The one aspect of the daily grind that is guaranteed to provoke an opinion
is the commute to work. Congested roads, overcrowded trains, packed buses
and sweaty tubes - it's been said that if travel broadens the mind,
commuting shrinks it back. But if it's so bad why do so many of us continue
to do it? Why has the simple act of getting to work become such a major
cause for concern?
Chair: Austin Williams, (Director, Transport Research Group; Technical
Editor, Architects Journal)
Dea Birkett, Guardian columnist
David Young, Project Co-ordinator, SUSTRANS South-East
Timandra Harkness, science writer
Tony Grayling, Associate Director, Institute of Public Policy Research
Email: mail@... or phone 07957 534909 / 020 7505 6711
Hi all,
I seek advice on an idea for a new community-building organization, very
web-based, not necessarily an advocacy group so much as an
expansion-oriented (free membership) expression of the constituency of
those who wish to be carfree or at least "increase the car-free moments in
their lives." It would ideally augment and bolster established groups'
efforts, filling a universal need rather than just adding to the cacophony
of various groups.
I need help designing an interactive website to create essentially a
carfree community online (really, for anyone who wants to reduce their car
use, NO MATTER HOW CAR-DEPENDENT THEY ARE). There would be many resources
on how to get out of the car, why cars are bad for us, etc., without
lambasting car drivers (some of whom can be terribly sensitive about
anything different). Creates the feel for moving together toward a better
way of life and a nicer tomorrow.
I'm very excited about the idea...it dovetails locally into a campaign
that's really important to the future of this town (Berkeley), and ideally
would be scalable (like Craigslist only better...) to the whole world.
My working title is the Car Free Union but I realize that's kind of dorky.
If you have any ideas at all for a name, presentation style, etc., I'd be
superlatively most interested and most grateful. Unless this is clearly
something lots of people are interested in, especially as it's starting
locally, please consider replying off-list.
Jason
http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-me-lopez16apr16,0,3331003.column?coll=\
la-news-columns
> STEVE LOPEZ / POINTS WEST
> A Perch High Above Cars, but Not Noise
> Steve Lopez
>
> April 16, 2004
>
> My plan was to tap out this column while sitting on the platform of the Gold
Line's Sierra Madre station. But I couldn't write because of the noise from the
210 Speedway, which is close enough that you can spit on passing cars.
>
> So I decided to just consider how I would write the column when I got to the
office. But I couldn't think because of the noise.
>
> Maybe I should give it up and just go talk to other passengers, I figured. But
I couldn't hear anyone because of the noise.
>
> The same is true at the Lake and Allen stations. As cars roar by, you feel
like you're in a pit crew at the Daytona 500, waiting to change someone's tires.
The exhaust rises up around you, rifling through to your sinuses. And when a big
rig rumbles past, you have to bite down hard so a molar doesn't rattle loose.
>
> Was this any way to build a railroad?
>
> No region in the entire republic needs more desperately to tease people out of
their cars. And yet had the designers of MTA's Gold Line tried their darndest,
they could not have created a more unpleasant experience.
>
> You try to do the right thing and leave the car behind, and now you're up on
the median strip like a trapped rat with nothing to do but count cars.
>
> I set my watch and started counting.
>
> One minute, 217 cars. And that was just in the eastbound direction.
>
> Del Waterbury, 28, has a noise-abatement system that seems to be a popular
choice among the intrepid souls who keep coming back. He wears a stereo headset
and cranks up the volume.
>
> I asked what music is capable of beating the racket.
>
> "Metallica," he said with a smile.
>
> Hiding out in the stairwell until the train arrives is another way to go.
>
> "Is that to block the noise?" I asked a man in a cowboy hat.
>
> "That's right," said Tex.
>
> Brian Hoffstadt, a federal prosecutor, said he's gotten pretty used to the
noise, but not to the wicked wind that sometimes whips through, making you wish
there were a way to tether yourself to the platform. The whole experience is a
little unsettling, he admitted.
>
> "The first time I took my parents up here they said, 'Wow, you have to stand
in the middle of the freeway.' "
>
> Yes, and if you use the Allen station here in the city of the car, please be
advised that there is no parking. That's right. None. No one has spotted a
pedestrian in that part of town since about 1948, but the MTA apparently thought
they'd suddenly fall from trees and catch the train.
>
> Mary Metz and I tried to have a conversation at the Allen station by shouting
into each other's ear canals. If I'm not mistaken, she warned me to stay away
from the Lake station. It's recessed below the highway, she said, and you have
the sensation that a car could flip out and land on your head.
>
> Please do not get the wrong idea. The experience is much nicer once you get
onto the train, and I'm not telling you to give up on the Gold Line, which
opened last July. I'm trying to get this problem fixed so people aren't driven
away after their first try.
>
> The authority that built the 13.7-mile railway predicted 38,000 daily
boardings. Last month, the Gold Line averaged a measly 14,258, which computes to
roughly 7,000 round-trippers each day.
>
> That means that on any given day in L.A., you can find more people on inline
skates than on a train line that cost $859 million.
>
> The strike didn't help, said MTA spokesman Marc Littman. And don't forget, he
added, that Blue Line ridership began at 19,000 daily boardings and now has
nearly four times that number, so there's hope for similar growth on the Gold.
>
> Not if they don't fix the noise problem.
>
> Another hang-up is that the train slows to a crawl through South Pasadena and
Highland Park neighborhoods, where it would have been tunneled underground if
they had done it right.
>
> But the noise on the 210 platforms is the more annoying problem, admits MTA
official Rick Thorpe, who headed up the authority that built the Gold Line.
>
> "Unfortunately, we couldn't get it out of the freeway," he said. Pasadena city
officials negotiated with Caltrans to move the railroad right of way off city
streets and onto the 210 median.
>
> But couldn't the stations have been designed to block some of the racket?
>
> The canopies help, Thorpe said. And some sound-absorption material is stuffed
up under there.
>
> Look, I'm no engineer. But if someone had asked me, I could have told them a
tin roof and a couple bags of cotton balls wasn't going to cut it.
>
> Thorpe said the MTA will look into solutions sometime soon, and it can throw
as much as $20 million at the problem. Maybe there's a new kind of
sound-absorption material they can buy, he said.
>
> Can we please think bigger than sound-absorption material?
>
> My suggestions include building a sound wall between platform and highway
(this is under consideration), and digging up the fast lane in each direction of
the 210 and planting 40-foot trees (this is not under consideration).
>
> I saved the best for last, though, because it's an idea that will beat back
the noise, transform the experience, and put people to work day and night.
>
> Mariachi bands on every platform.
>
> Do you have any idea how many horns $20 million can buy?
>
> *
>
> Reach Steve Lopez at steve.lopez@....
--
Richard Risemberg
http://www.living-room.orghttp://www.newcolonist.com
"Until you stop looking for simple answers, you will not be happy. You
will not even be human."
RR
This same problem comes up on BART (our excessively-expensive, domineering
local rail system in the San Francisco Bay Area).
Suburban expansions typically fall in "free"way right of way. The new
Dublin station, reportedly, was so bad on noise that people missed their
trains as they hid in the stairwells and couldn't hear the trains come in.
I often carry "sound goggles" to protect my ears on BART, even though I
don't spend a lot of time on the "free"way-adjacent platforms.
Basically, BART itself causes permanent, incremental hearing damage which
cannot be corrected with a hearing aid. Last I checked (5 years ago?) the
OSHA standard for that was 80 dBA, and BART is regularly over that,
sometimes close to 100 in the tunnels particularly as you open doors
between cars.
Don't get me started about BART.
Can someone confirm that the technology exists for light rail to make less
noise than buses, and that BART is sorely poorly designed (in this as well
as many more here-unmentioned places)?
Jason
p.s. Also advisable to protect ourselves from traffic noise. I was being
fitted with custom ear plugs for this purpose (California law is very
stupid and arguably won't let you use one-size-fits-all ear protection,
even though it's typically less effective at blocking noise than custom
plugs). The technician told me in his graduate work he studied taxi
drivers and they typically had hearing damage in their left ear, quite
possibly from sitting next to an open window. I've heard that cars
generally (e.g., riding on "free"ways at high speed) are a major cause of
hearing damage. This can manifest later in life after the damage has
ignorantly been done, greatly isolating one from the world and one's
families. One more BAD THING ABOUT CARS.
On Mon, 19 Apr 2004, Richard Risemberg wrote:
>
>
http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-me-lopez16apr16,0,3331003.column?coll=\
la-news-columns
> > STEVE LOPEZ / POINTS WEST
> > A Perch High Above Cars, but Not Noise
> > Steve Lopez
> >
> > April 16, 2004
> >
> > My plan was to tap out this column while sitting on the platform of the Gold
Line's Sierra Madre station. But I couldn't write because of the noise from the
210 Speedway, which is close enough that you can spit on passing cars.
> >
> > So I decided to just consider how I would write the column when I got to the
office. But I couldn't think because of the noise.
> >
> > Maybe I should give it up and just go talk to other passengers, I figured.
But I couldn't hear anyone because of the noise.
> >
> > The same is true at the Lake and Allen stations. As cars roar by, you feel
like you're in a pit crew at the Daytona 500, waiting to change someone's tires.
The exhaust rises up around you, rifling through to your sinuses. And when a big
rig rumbles past, you have to bite down hard so a molar doesn't rattle loose.
> >
> > Was this any way to build a railroad?
> >
> > No region in the entire republic needs more desperately to tease people out
of their cars. And yet had the designers of MTA's Gold Line tried their
darndest, they could not have created a more unpleasant experience.
> >
> > You try to do the right thing and leave the car behind, and now you're up on
the median strip like a trapped rat with nothing to do but count cars.
> >
> > I set my watch and started counting.
> >
> > One minute, 217 cars. And that was just in the eastbound direction.
> >
> > Del Waterbury, 28, has a noise-abatement system that seems to be a popular
choice among the intrepid souls who keep coming back. He wears a stereo headset
and cranks up the volume.
> >
> > I asked what music is capable of beating the racket.
> >
> > "Metallica," he said with a smile.
> >
> > Hiding out in the stairwell until the train arrives is another way to go.
> >
> > "Is that to block the noise?" I asked a man in a cowboy hat.
> >
> > "That's right," said Tex.
> >
> > Brian Hoffstadt, a federal prosecutor, said he's gotten pretty used to the
noise, but not to the wicked wind that sometimes whips through, making you wish
there were a way to tether yourself to the platform. The whole experience is a
little unsettling, he admitted.
> >
> > "The first time I took my parents up here they said, 'Wow, you have to stand
in the middle of the freeway.' "
> >
> > Yes, and if you use the Allen station here in the city of the car, please be
advised that there is no parking. That's right. None. No one has spotted a
pedestrian in that part of town since about 1948, but the MTA apparently thought
they'd suddenly fall from trees and catch the train.
> >
> > Mary Metz and I tried to have a conversation at the Allen station by
shouting into each other's ear canals. If I'm not mistaken, she warned me to
stay away from the Lake station. It's recessed below the highway, she said, and
you have the sensation that a car could flip out and land on your head.
> >
> > Please do not get the wrong idea. The experience is much nicer once you get
onto the train, and I'm not telling you to give up on the Gold Line, which
opened last July. I'm trying to get this problem fixed so people aren't driven
away after their first try.
> >
> > The authority that built the 13.7-mile railway predicted 38,000 daily
boardings. Last month, the Gold Line averaged a measly 14,258, which computes to
roughly 7,000 round-trippers each day.
> >
> > That means that on any given day in L.A., you can find more people on inline
skates than on a train line that cost $859 million.
> >
> > The strike didn't help, said MTA spokesman Marc Littman. And don't forget,
he added, that Blue Line ridership began at 19,000 daily boardings and now has
nearly four times that number, so there's hope for similar growth on the Gold.
> >
> > Not if they don't fix the noise problem.
> >
> > Another hang-up is that the train slows to a crawl through South Pasadena
and Highland Park neighborhoods, where it would have been tunneled underground
if they had done it right.
> >
> > But the noise on the 210 platforms is the more annoying problem, admits MTA
official Rick Thorpe, who headed up the authority that built the Gold Line.
> >
> > "Unfortunately, we couldn't get it out of the freeway," he said. Pasadena
city officials negotiated with Caltrans to move the railroad right of way off
city streets and onto the 210 median.
> >
> > But couldn't the stations have been designed to block some of the racket?
> >
> > The canopies help, Thorpe said. And some sound-absorption material is
stuffed up under there.
> >
> > Look, I'm no engineer. But if someone had asked me, I could have told them a
tin roof and a couple bags of cotton balls wasn't going to cut it.
> >
> > Thorpe said the MTA will look into solutions sometime soon, and it can throw
as much as $20 million at the problem. Maybe there's a new kind of
sound-absorption material they can buy, he said.
> >
> > Can we please think bigger than sound-absorption material?
> >
> > My suggestions include building a sound wall between platform and highway
(this is under consideration), and digging up the fast lane in each direction of
the 210 and planting 40-foot trees (this is not under consideration).
> >
> > I saved the best for last, though, because it's an idea that will beat back
the noise, transform the experience, and put people to work day and night.
> >
> > Mariachi bands on every platform.
> >
> > Do you have any idea how many horns $20 million can buy?
> >
> > *
> >
> > Reach Steve Lopez at steve.lopez@....
>
>
> --
> Richard Risemberg
> http://www.living-room.org
> http://www.newcolonist.com
>
> "Until you stop looking for simple answers, you will not be happy. You
> will not even be human."
>
> RR
>
>
>
> To Post a message, send it to: carfree_cities@eGroups.com
> To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to:
carfree_cities-unsubscribe@eGroups.com
> Group address: http://www.egroups.com/group/carfree_cities/
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
Jason Meggs wrote:
> Basically, BART itself causes permanent, incremental hearing damage which
> cannot be corrected with a hearing aid. Last I checked (5 years ago?) the
> OSHA standard for that was 80 dBA, and BART is regularly over that,
> sometimes close to 100 in the tunnels particularly as you open doors
> between cars.
>
LA's Red Line subway (BART equivalent, though not as extensive) is very
very quiet--quietest transit (as opposed to intercity) train I've been
on. Inside or outside the train. Likewise the Blue and Gold lines,
though most of their stations are outdoors and, on the Gold, three of
them in freeways.
So it's possible, even in the US.
BART has the best seats of any transit system I've been on anywhere,
though--almost as good as shinkansen.
Richard
--
Richard Risemberg
http://www.living-room.orghttp://www.newcolonist.com
"Until you stop looking for simple answers, you will not be happy. You
will not even be human."
RR
I don't know who this "carfree crawford" is (other than a censor),
but I would like to know in what way the author censored
was "incendiary". Suggesting low-level vandalism and petty
harassment in response to corporate/fascist ecocide is hardly
incendiary -- nor is envoking the practices of Gandhi. Did the
poster lie about anything or suggest a violent uprising? Hardly!
Censorship, however, IS incendiary and Crawford should be ashamed.
Wishy-washy liberals will never change anything and in fact work
against qualitative change. Voting, recycling, and patting yourself
on the back for fundraisers -- just doesn't work. We need to put the
fun in revolution (if we want to see one occur) and petty pranks
should be tolerated by those who want to see change. Otherwise, the
pressure will only build and when the system crashes it will be
nastier than it needed to be.
By the way, I think a Critical Mass bicycling event would work well
with a Exxon/Mobil RNC protest. Have fun and lighten up.
--- In carfree_cities@yahoogroups.com, "J.H. Crawford" <mailbox@c...>
wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> The author of the post below has been banned as incendiary.
>
> Regards,
>
>
>
> >Exxon/Mobil, the RNC & Widespread Nonviolent Militancy
> >
> >"Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because
it
> >is a merger of state and corporate power" -- Benito Mussolini
> >
> >"If elected, I will run the government like a business" -- George
W.
> >Bush
> >
> >Forget for a moment that Exxon/Mobil (XMO) is the main proponent
of
> >greenhouse gas emissions…
> >
> >Along with Enron, the Exxon/Mobil corporation was the biggest
> >monetary contributor to George W. Bush's 2000 presidential
> >campaign.
> >It has reaped the benefits of record high petroleum oil prices
which
> >have been brought about and sustained by G.W. Bush's energy
> >policies.
> >One can easily make the argument that this latest war in Iraq was
> >fought largely for XMO (and other oil corporations) -- their gas
they
> >sell is tainted with the blood of American soldiers and
> >Iraqi "collateral damage." But, whether you buy that argument or
not,
> >it is easy to see how closely interrelated corporate policy
> >(particularly XMO's) is with the government policy. If we have
> >any
> >ideals (or hopes for future generations) we must recognize this
> >situation for what it is -- FASCISM.
> >
> >It may not be the genocidal fascism of the industrialized Nazi's,
> >but
> >this brand of Republican fascism must, nevertheless, be seriously
> >confronted before it gets bolder and causes more pain and
suffering
> >around the world. This American fascism may not be the genocidal
> >fascism of the Nazi's, but it empowers the oil corporations and
> >facilitates a global warming which could wipe out most species on
> >Earth.
> >
> >Greenpeace and Adbusters, along with some others, have already
called
> >for an international boycott of Esso/Exxon/Mobil (and there have
> >already been international days of protest) but… we need to
> >become
> >evermore coordinated and vigilant. At the very least we should at
> >least be able to get every Democrat to boycott the Republican-
funding
> >XMO and, at best, we should be able to put that fascist
corporation
> >out of business by means of widespread nonviolent militant civil
> >disobedience. We need to fight to win and we need to add populist
> >elements to the battle. Any one person or group can participate at
> >their own level in this protest which can include, but is not
limited
> >to, sit-ins, leafleting, creative harassment of all types, and
maybe
> >petty vandalism like graffiti and stopped-up toilets. Don't
> >forget
> >(and I'm not recommending this), Gandhi, on multiple occasions,
> >advocated even suicide (by fasting, walking into clubs, and in
> >response to Nazism) to draw attention to injustice. And Gandhi
> >wasn't
> >even facing ecocide.
> >
> >The RNC begins August 29th in NYC where up to 2 million people are
> >expected to protest Bush and his policies. At that time, there and
in
> >cities around the world, a simultaneously coordinated protest of
XMO
> >can send a clear message that we the people are not fooled by
oilman
> >Bush and the corporate fascism he represents. In NYC all of the
XMO
> >stations can be protested throughout the week of the RNC while, in
> >other cities, high-traffic stations can be engaged during peak
rush
> >hours (4-7 p.m.). The number and ambition of activists in your
> >community will obviously determine the style and number of
protests
> >in your city, but make sure to write letters to the editor and
> >contact other media outlets for best results. In some areas
> >the "flash mob" style of protest could be most effective -- even
with
> >folks unaware of the protest beforehand. Whoever takes charge
locally
> >will largely determine the style of protest -- but everyone who
shows
> >up, literally and figuratively, is worthy of respect and is not to
be
> >dictated to. Leadership in this cause is largely to just get the
ball
> >rolling as effectively as possible -- so spread the word in your
> >community and get creative with actionable plans. Learn your
rights
> >and take a stand despite the Patriot Act. True patriots revolt
> >(against a true, clear, corporate fascist entity that we can
> >destroy). Lay siege, conquer and destroy! Exxon/Mobil must die.
> >
> >
> >
> >www.stopexxonmobil.org
> >
> >http://www.rncnotwelcome.org/
> >
> >pax.protest.net/event.cgi?ID=459252
> >
> >www.pacificenvironment.org/stopexxonmobil/
> >
> >http://www.greenpeace.org/international_en/news/details?
item_id=439825
> >
> >www.dontbuyexxonmobil.org/
> >
> >http://www.counterconvention.org/
> >
> >www.pressurepoint.org
> >
> >http://www.vshiva.net/
> >
> >http://www.amnestyusa.org/justearth/
> >
> >http://www.gnn.tv/
> >
> >www.webprowire.com/summaries/495562.html
> >
> >www.thehurricaneonline.com/
>
>news/2002/12/06/Opinion/Exxon.Mobil.Protest.Throws.Oil.In.Sadaams.Eye
s
> >
> >www.columbia.edu/cu/cssn/cssn-list/2002/12/00011.html
> >
> >www.climateark.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=22985
> >
> >www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=395
> >
> >http://www.geovrml.org/archive/msg01062.html
> >
> >http://www.corpwatch.org/news/PND.jsp?articleid=28
> >
> >www.adbusters.org
> >
> >www.greenpeace.org
> >
Hi All,
Somebody who doesn't even sign his posts accused me of
all kinds of nasty things.
Just FYI, "CarfreeCrawford" is me, the owner of this group.
If you don't like how I run it, go start your own group.
It's free.
The reason I banned the original poster, some while back
was for this:
> >True patriots revolt
> >(against a true, clear, corporate fascist entity that we can
> >destroy). Lay siege, conquer and destroy! Exxon/Mobil must die.
which I think almost any reasonable person would acknowledge
is incendiary.
Regards,
-- ### --
J.H. Crawford Carfree Cities
mailbox@... http://www.carfree.com
This exchange is a little like a Gogol character wondering by mistake into a
Chekhov play. Wrong script, wrong set -- try the theatre down the road,
mate.
Simon (:))
On 20/4/04 8:40 pm, "shimshammaam" <shimshammaam@...> wrote:
> I don't know who this "carfree crawford" is (other than a censor),
> but I would like to know in what way the author censored
> was "incendiary".
Dear John
Certainly a hoaxer, possibly a neo-con provoker. It's the failure to self
identify which is the clue - as ever. I respect your civility but I can't
think why you even bother to explain your decision. You wouldn't feel the
need to explain yourself to a virus spreader. Anonymous abuse is no better -
perhaps worse. Simon
On 20/4/04 9:10 pm, "J.H. Crawford" <mailbox@...> wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> Somebody who doesn't even sign his posts accused me of
> all kinds of nasty things.
--- In carfree_cities@yahoogroups.com, "shimshammaam"
<shimshammaam@y...> wrote:
> I don't know who this "carfree crawford" is (other than a censor),
TF: THANK YOU, yeahyeahmamma/shimshammaam! And when these types of
censors delete us from their lists, they only see us again anyhow
because creating another ID is so easy! We have a field day about
these sorts of things on CyclingFieldofHonor, which you might want to
move to after we get our second IDs deleted by Mr. Crawford. I
disagree with some of the statements in your posts, but I'll defend
to the death your right to make them (at least until I see some of
your proposed vandalism actually occur as a result of your promotion
of it; then I'll report you.
- Tom Frost Jr.
----------------------------------------
Carfree_Cities member for exactly one night a few months ago.
----------------------------------------
Owner-fanner of http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CyclingFieldofHonor ,
where ad hominem attacks are encouraged (although I spend most of my
mouse-potatoing time on more constructive lists - not that
CyclingFieldofHonor wasn't founded for a constructive purpose, i.e.
freeing the other lists from the invective).
----------------------------------------
Promoter of the Bicyclists' Rights Triad (the _real_ one, i.e. the
one at http://www.newmilfordbike.com/Triad.htm , not the various
versions that Mr. Crawford allowed to slander the name "Bicyclists'
Rights Triad" with for weeks after he deleted the originator of the
thread, me - posts which, I understand, Yahoo's rules allow me to
demand be deleted, _if_ I were enough of a censor to want them
deleted).
I ride BART (San Francisco) & Tri-Met (Portland OR) regularly.
I use the same "in the ear" headphones, with the same music source.
On Tri-Met, I can hear music/speech clearly the whole ride at moderate
level, even going through tunnels.
On BART at any volume level (that I'm willing to try ;) through much
of the city I can't hear music/speech. It's INCREDIBLY loud.
Jason, it sounds like you actually have some numbers - are sound
levels measured on BART?
>On BART at any volume level (that I'm willing to try ;) through much
>of the city I can't hear music/speech. It's INCREDIBLY loud.
There's a long curve in the tunnel coming into downtown Berkeley
from the north. The screeching is loud enough to hurt my ears.
The same effect is seen on the Breda streetcars in San Francisco.
Even the electric buses have a lot of whine and tire noise.
Life in the big city ...
Hi All,
I was surprised by how loud the rubber-tired metros
in Lyon were when I visited in 1997. They are probably
somewhat quieter than steel-wheeled metros, but there's
a lot of noise as they accelerate out of stations, and
this is related to the tires, which aren't yet anywhere
near squealing but are still making a lot of noise.
There are reasons for hope on the steel-wheel front:
Perfectly round wheels are VERY much quieter than
worn wheels. If the system is arranged so that wheels
never slip or slide (possible with computer control),
then wheel roundness should be maintained.
The application of cobalt or zinc to wheels may help
to preserve their roundness.
I have not yet seen this, but there is in principle
no reason that wheels have to be fixed to the axles,
which is what causes the familiar curve screech, as
the wheels turn the same speed while moving around a
curve with rails of different lengths. If the wheels
can turn independently, then they don't screech.
I agree that train noise can be very serious. It's
worth spending money to fix this.
I would point out that I lived on a steep hill in
San Francisco just as diesel buses were being replaced
by trolley buses. While the trolley buses are not
silent, they are very much quieter than the diesels,
and they have plenty of power to climb hills, which
the diesels do not.
Regards,
-- ### --
J.H. Crawford Carfree Cities
mailbox@... http://www.carfree.com
News from VTPI.
-RL
-----Original Message-----
From: Todd Alexander Litman [mailto:litman@...]
Sent: April 21, 2004 9:50 AM
Subject: Comprehensive Evaluation of Rail Transit Benefits - Media
Release
MEDIA RELEASE
21 April 2004
Rail Transit Benefits Study:
New study finds that cities with rail transit systems have significantly
less traffic congestion, lower traffic accident rates, and lower consumer
costs
* * * * * * *
A new study released today by the Victoria Transport Policy Institute shows
that rail transit systems can significantly improve transportation system
performance.
"Comprehensive Evaluation of Rail Transit Benefits" by Todd Litman analyzed
the impacts of different types of transit on urban transportation patterns.
The study found that cities with large rail transit systems have on average:
· 400% higher per capita transit ridership.
· 390% higher transit commute mode split.
· 36% lower per-capita traffic fatalities.
· 14% lower per capita consumer transportation expenditures.
· 19% smaller portion of household budgets devoted to transportation.
· 21% less per capita motor vehicle mileage.
· 33% lower transit operating costs per passenger-mile.
· 58% higher transit service cost recovery.
The study calculates that the additional costs of rail transit systems are
repaid several times over by economic savings provided to governments,
businesses and consumers from reduced road and parking facility costs,
vehicle cost savings, reduced traffic accident costs, and congestion cost
savings.
This study critiques 'Great Rail Disasters,' a report published earlier
this year by Randal O'Toole of the Center for the American Dream, which
claimed that rail transit investments are not cost effective. According to
'Comprehensive Evaluation of Rail Transit Benefits,' O'Toole's report
failed to correctly categorize transit systems and violated other basic
evaluation principles.
* * * * * * *
The executive summary is available at: http://www.vtpi.org/railben.htm
The full report is available at: http://www.vtpi.org/railben.pdf
For information contact: Todd Litman
Victoria Transport Policy Institute
Email: litman@...
Phone: 250-360-1560
Fax: 250-360-1560
Website: www.vtpi.org
* * * * * * *
The Victoria Transport Policy Institute is an independent research
organization dedicated to developing innovative transportation analysis and
problem solving. The VTPI website (www.vtpi.org) has many resources
addressing a wide range of transport planning and policy issues.
PLEASE FORWARD TO ANYBODY INTERESTED IN THIS ISSUE
I believe that Mr Crawford is the moderator of this forum.
I have certainly enjoyed his even handed approach to this task, where he
happily debates, discusses any points or criticisms of his book.
The posts on this forum are generally thoughtful and interesting with calm,
wry but powerfully argued ideas and beliefs.
If the banned post had been written in a such a thoughtful manner all the
points could have been made and the member wouldn't have been banned. There
are often links and information about passive (and legal!) protests and
demonstrations in this forum and I hope that they continue to be posted.
You can of course keep changing your ID and abusing the open access of this
forum. Please don't.
This is Mr Crawfords Forum, you can start your own forum if you feel this
one doesn't suit your needs.
Matt :)
_________________________________________________________________
Watch LIVE baseball games on your computer with MLB.TV, included with MSN
Premium!
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/mlb&pgmarket=en-us/go/onm00200439ave/direct/0\
1/
Hi All,
See the Christian Science Monitor article on today's attack
in Jeddah.
Readers of Carfree Times may recall my assessment of bin Laden's
goal: Saudi Arabia an Islamic republic, bin Laden head Ayatollah.
The article suggests that Al Qaeda is actually quite weak, and
that this attack is a desperate last gasp. We'll soon know.
War going badly in Iraq, OBL running Saudi Arabia--Carl Rove's
worst nightmare.
Regards,
Christian Science Monnitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0422/p05s01-wome.html
from the April 22, 2004 edition
Saudi bomb: a shift in Al Qaeda tactics
By Faiza Saleh Ambah
Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA Suspected Al Qaeda militants struck their first major
Saudi target Wednesday when a suicide car bomber blew himself up in front of
national police security headquarters.
The attack is seen by Saudi analysts as a tactical shift in a growing
confrontation here between Islamist militants linked to Al Qaeda and the Saudi
government.
"The militants previously did not attack security forces. They only fought them
in self-defense. They were on the defensive. Now they're going on the
offensive," says Abdullah Bjad al-Otaibi, a columnist with al-Riyadh, a daily
newspaper in the capital.
"Previously their target was Americans and Westerners in Saudi Arabia. Now their
war is also against the security forces," says Mr. Otaibi. Militants struck two
housing compounds last year killing more than 50 people.
Last December, an Al Qaeda group claimed responsibility for attempting to
assassinate Lt. Col Ibrahim al-Dhaleh, a senior Saudi security officer, by
blowing up his car. He escaped. The scale of Wednesday's attack on the police
headquarters, and the indiscriminate destruction, is characterized as an
audacious shift.
"This is a strategic change in Al Qaeda's tactics. This is their first direct
attack on both a Saudi and a security target," says Saudi lawyer Abdul-Rahman
al-Lahem.
The attack in Riyadh comes within days of a major crackdown on militants which
netted eight suspects, weapons caches, and five booby-trapped cars laden with
more than four tons of explosives.
Last month, a militant group linked to Al Qaeda vowed to avenge the killing of a
leading Al Qaeda figure in Saudi Arabia and said it would start targeting Saudi
security forces if they continued to hunt down Muslim fighters.
Last week, the US State Department ordered nonessential personnel out of Saudi
Arabia and the US Embassy in Riyadh urged all Americans to leave the country,
based on information of possible attacks against Western targets.
Mr. Lahem says Wednesday's attack was in response to the recent successes of the
Saudi security forces against local militants. "The security forces were making
good progress and the ball was in Al Qaeda's court. They were trying to prove
that they are still a presence to be reckoned with."
Since the May residential compound bombings, Saudi police have launched a
massive crackdown, rounding up hundreds of suspects and setting up road blocks
and checkpoints in the major cities. They've also circulated thousands of
booklets with photos of 26 suspects wanted in connection with the
housing-complex bombings, offering close to $2 million for help in foiling
terrorist attacks.
Following last week's shootouts, in which six members of the security forces
were killed, police used helicopters and a massive manhunt in and around Riyadh
in search of the suspects. Police "located their hideouts and smoked them out of
their holes," the Saudi Press Agency reported on Sunday.
-- ### --
J.H. Crawford Carfree Cities
mailbox@... http://www.carfree.com
Hi all,
We are very fortunate to have Randy Ghent of the World Carfree Network
visiting from the Czech Republic. He is giving his slide show
presentation around the Bay Area over the next two weeks. Additional
venues are being added or confirmed, but the latest list is posted at:
http://www.bclu.org/morocco/
Flyers are being posted there if you wish to print and post. Please do!
Randy will also describe the upcoming Towards Carfree Cities IV conference
(which a number of local activists including myself plan to attend) and
will have the latest Car Busters magazine (an excellent issue!) as well as
other books and resources available.
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:
"Medieval Urbanism in Morocco: Lessons for the Modern World"
Getting lost in the maze of Morocco's medinas (medieval pedestrian cities)
offers us a rare opportunity to immerse ourselves in the history of urban
form, experiencing the past first-hand in the present. Through this
exercise that awakens all the senses, we temporarily distance ourselves
from contemporary urban design, giving us the perspective to recognise its
many failings. In the process, we learn how a dense, compact urban habitat
can be built without dependence on motorised or mechanised transport,
while providing the necessary preconditions for a rich and vibrant public
life.
Randy Ghent co-founded Car Busters (now World Carfree Network) in 1997 in
Lyon, France, while working as a coordinator of the Towards Car-Free
Cities conference. Since 1997, he has been based in Lyon, Melbourne and
Prague as a full-time staff member of the Car Busters/World Carfree
Network staff. From 1998-2000, he was European Correspondent for Adbusters
magazine. From 1992-1997 he was office manager of the Alliance for a
Paving Moratorium/Fossil Fuels Policy Action Institute in California,
where he served as office manager and editor of the Auto-Free Times.
Enjoy!
Jason Meggs
(510) 486-1528
P.S. Showings are coming up in Berkeley, San Francisco, Palo Alto, and
possibly Marin, with one already having occurred in Oakland.
For more info on the upcoming Towards Carfree Cities IV conference, set
for July 19-24 at Humboldt University in Berlin. (Yes, Germany, not
northern California! :) check out:
http://www.worldcarfree.net/conference/
Thanks!
PLEASE FORWARD.
Lack of noise is a huge advantage for medium speed maglev.(less than
100 mph) In addition they benefit from a large reduction in the
track maintenance needed. These systems are not much more expensive
to build than automated guideway transit or monorails. They are
almost silent at speeds less than 70 mph making then ideal for urban
applications. Hi speed maglev (over 200 mph) makes less sense
especially in countries with excellent hi-speed train systems
already in place. See the the Urban Maglev Yahoo group for more
info.
Best Regards,
Tim Prescott
--- In carfree_cities@yahoogroups.com, "J.H. Crawford"
<mailbox@c...> wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> I was surprised by how loud the rubber-tired metros
> in Lyon were when I visited in 1997. They are probably
> somewhat quieter than steel-wheeled metros, but there's
> a lot of noise as they accelerate out of stations, and
> this is related to the tires, which aren't yet anywhere
> near squealing but are still making a lot of noise.
>
> There are reasons for hope on the steel-wheel front:
>
> Perfectly round wheels are VERY much quieter than
> worn wheels. If the system is arranged so that wheels
> never slip or slide (possible with computer control),
> then wheel roundness should be maintained.
>
> The application of cobalt or zinc to wheels may help
> to preserve their roundness.
>
> I have not yet seen this, but there is in principle
> no reason that wheels have to be fixed to the axles,
> which is what causes the familiar curve screech, as
> the wheels turn the same speed while moving around a
> curve with rails of different lengths. If the wheels
> can turn independently, then they don't screech.
>
> I agree that train noise can be very serious. It's
> worth spending money to fix this.
>
> I would point out that I lived on a steep hill in
> San Francisco just as diesel buses were being replaced
> by trolley buses. While the trolley buses are not
> silent, they are very much quieter than the diesels,
> and they have plenty of power to climb hills, which
> the diesels do not.
>
> Regards,
>
>
> --
### --
>
> J.H. Crawford Carfree
Cities
> mailbox@c... http://www.carfree.com
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