gmane.politics.activism.carfree-cities

London congestion charge zone to be halved

Erik Sandblom — 2008-11-27T17:24:57

The Times: London congestion charge zone slashed by Boris Johnson http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5244993.ece The extension, covering Kensington and Chelsea and part of Westminster, will not be removed until Spring 2010 while Mr Johnson undertakes the legal process of rescinding the scheme. ... Among businesses, 86 per cent supported the extension's removal. But a separate TfL survey of a balanced sample of 2,000 Londoners showed 45 per cent in favour of keeping some form of charging in the extension, while only 41 per cent supported removal. ... Transport for London admitted that traffic and air pollution would rise inside the western extension area when the charge was removed. The number of cars entering the extension area has fallen by 30,000 a day since the charge was introduced in February last year. Mr Johnson plans to tackle congestion by re-phasing traffic lights to add one or two seconds to each green phase for vehicles. Pedestrians, however, will have to wait longer fo

Crowd-Source a Car-Free Documetary?

Chris — 2008-11-26T19:04:40

I wanted to post this question to this list to tap into the expertise and wisdom that I've been reading for a couple of years now. My name is Chris Holt and I run a website (www.scaledown.ca) dedicated to furthering the discussion of making my hometown (Windsor, Ontario - across the river from Detroit) a livable, walkable city. Windsor's also known as the "Automotive Capital of Canada" and currently experiencing the worst economic outook in our history, which makes my project even more poiniant. I am at the beginning of a 12 month "experiment" where I'm filming the transition of a young family (myself and my two kids) going from an autocentric lifestyle to a carfree one. We're using this springboard to examine our cultures devotion to the automobile and the ramifications and costs (social, economic and health-wise) of that devotion. Somewhere in there I would also like to highlight my communities reliance on the ever increasing sales of cars and the unsustainability of that fact (Windsor is

"Cars Are the New Smoking"

Richard Risemberg — 2008-11-26T15:09:26

Interesting: http://www.squawkfox.com/2008/07/25/cars-are-the-new-smoking/ Rick -- Richard Risemberg http://www.bicyclefixation.com http://www.newcolonist.com http://www.rickrise.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

in case you thought you had anything to be thankful for

J.H. Crawford — 2008-11-26T14:31:16

Hi All, There's this cheerful note this morning. Joel http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/11/25-1 Wednesday, November 26, 2008 Published on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 by The Guardian/UK One Shot Left The latest science suggests that preventing runaway climate change means total decarbonisation. by George Monbiot George Bush is behaving like a furious defaulter whose home is about to be repossessed. Smashing the porcelain, ripping the doors off their hinges, he is determined that there will be nothing worth owning by the time the bastards kick him out. His midnight regulations, opening America's wilderness to logging and mining, trashing pollution controls, tearing up conservation laws, will do almost as much damage in the last 60 days of his presidency as he achieved in the foregoing 3000(1). His backers among them the nastiest pollutocrats in America are calling in their favours. But this last binge of vandalism is also the Bush presidency reduced to its essentials. Destruction is no

free public transport

J.H. Crawford — 2008-11-22T20:50:07

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/11/22-3 Published on Saturday, November 22, 2008 by CommonDreams.org An Alternative to the Auto Bailout by Reede Stockton As the Big Three US automakers ramp up their pressure on Congress to cough up $25 billion in bailout money, the absence of a long term vision for economic recovery has never been more clear. The outgoing Bush administration and Congress are careening from bailout proposal to bailout proposal, putting hundreds of billions into the hands of the same people that created this toxic economic brew. Naomi Klein has recently detailed the horrifying parallels between the "free-fraud" zone created by the Bush administration in Iraq and the Treasury Department's handling of the bank bailout (http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2008/10/bailout-profiteers). As tempting as it is to offer bailout money to the US automakers in return for fleet-wide mileage reductions, changes in the mix of their fleets to include more hybrids and electric vehicles, and to supp

Cycling Boom in London

Richard Risemberg — 2008-11-22T15:26:57

A quote: And a link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5209077.ece Rick -- Richard Risemberg http://www.bicyclefixation.com http://www.newcolonist.com http://www.rickrise.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

oil

J.H. Crawford — 2008-11-21T15:13:26

Hi All, See: http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/20/news/companies/okeefe_oil_stocks.fortune/index.htm on oil supply prospects. Best, Joel The case for buying oil stocks Investor Daily: Even with gas prices in free fall and the global economy sputtering, now may be the time to bulk up on oil shares (if you dare). By Brian O'Keefe, senior editor Last Updated: November 21, 2008: 7:26 AM ET NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Last week, the Paris-based International Energy Agency released its World Energy Outlook 2008 - a 578-page book full of future supply, demand, and price estimates which this year also included an eagerly-awaited study of 800 of the world's largest oil fields. Here's the executive summary: Buy oil stocks. Considering that the price of oil has plummeted from $147 a barrel in early July to below $50 and that the global economic slowdown is putting a major damper on demand, that might not seem like such a good idea. But as the IEA study makes clear, the long-term supply and demand picture for oil con

Las Catalinas - (Nearly) Car Free town under development in Costa Rica

chasbrew — 2008-11-20T18:54:29

I wanted to make this group aware of a project I am working on in Costa Rica. It is intended to be a seaside resort town. There is a public road that passes through the town, which will have vehicles. But beyond that our intention is to make it largely car-free. New Urbanist designers and architects have been very much involved in the work to date. Frankly from their point of view I am rather extreme in my anti-car tendencies! Anyway I thought that you in this group might find the project of interest and might have some thoughts to offer. I hope that we can create quite a remarkably wonderful place here. And the fact that it is a resort town, rather than a regular work-a-day town, I believe gives us some extra degrees of freedom in trying some things (such as restrictions on car use)that would be harder to do in another setting. We don't have an real website up yet but I created a little site here where you can find some basic information: http://lascatalinas.wordpress.com/ We also h

Fwd: VTPI News Traffic Safety Special Edition

J.H. Crawford — 2008-11-20T15:17:07

----- ### ----- J.H. Crawford Carfree Cities mailbox-WdiPhmTxsBdBDgjK7y7TUQ< at >public.gmane.org http://www.carfree.com

45 Days in Jail for Driver who Rode Around with Cyclist on the Hood of his Car

laurbanista — 2008-11-20T11:08:13

Road Rage Against Cyclist Last summer, the Oregonian reported an incident between a cyclist and a deranged driver in Portland: Jason Scott Rehnberg, 37, yelled at the car to slow down, and apparently angered by the remark, the driver chased the cyclist. He rode his bike into the neighborhood to escape and after a while, probably thinking he was safe, he went back on the road where the incident first happened. But the driver saw Rehnberg and backed his car to try to hit him. Read on for the rest of the story, including a video of Rehnberg on the hood of the car... Like in the Movies, Except Without a Stuntman After jumping off his bike just in time to avoid being hit, "Rehnberg and two other witnesses tried to block the car, saying they wanted to get the license plate. Millican allegedly drove at the three and struck Rehnberg, who was thrown onto the hood. Rehnberg held onto the windshield wipers as the car traveled at a high rate of speed and took a turn." A witness took this video at: http://www.treehugg

Progress in New York City

J.H. Crawford — 2008-11-19T15:41:14

Hi All, You must see this video: http://local.theoildrum.com/node/4711 New York is actually doing something! Best, Joel ----- ### ----- J.H. Crawford Carfree Cities mailbox-WdiPhmTxsBdBDgjK7y7TUQ< at >public.gmane.org http://www.carfree.com

recycling big-box stores

J.H. Crawford — 2008-11-16T20:36:59

Hi All, This is moderately interesting: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/13/AR2008111303039.html?hpid=topnews Best, Joel Big Box & Beyond Today's Temples of Consumption Don't Have To Be Tomorrow's Ruins. What's in Store? By Joel Garreau Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, November 16, 2008; Page M01 For the purposes of this morning's discussion, the amazing thing about the Spam Museum -- as in the meat product -- is not that it exists. It's that it was created out of an abandoned Kmart. "The renovation of the Kmart building into what you see here today has the drama of a great epic," says Julie Craven, publicity representative for Spam in Austin, Minn. "We are going to be in this building for a long, long time. . . . We love it here." This report comes to you courtesy of Julia Christensen, a 32-year-old artist whose book, "Big Box Reuse," is being published this month by MIT Press. Its news is that those who gaze at the big-box stores of Rockville Pike or Manassas a

Parking Meters & Bicycling

Richard Risemberg — 2008-11-14T00:46:08

The following blog post developed rather suddenly over the course of the last hour, after I'd written to my local councilmember in regard to the removal of parking meters on Larchmont Boulevard (to be replaced by pay stations) and its effect on bike parking. http://www.bicyclefixation.com/blog/archives/00000243.html Pretty good news in my book. Rick -- Richard Risemberg Bicycle Fixation http://www.bicyclefixation.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

California economy loses $28 billion yearly to health effects of pollution

2008-11-13T23:58:36

This story was sent to you by: Rick -------------------- California economy loses $28 billion yearly to health effects of pollution -------------------- Most of the losses are attributable to 3,000 annual deaths, a Cal State Fullerton study says. The study underscores the economic benefits of meeting federal air quality standards. Louis Sahagun November 13 2008 The California economy loses about $28 billion annually due to premature deaths and illnesses linked to ozone and particulates spewed from hundreds of locations in the South Coast and San Joaquin air basins, according to findings released Wednesday by a Cal State Fullerton research team. The complete article can be viewed at: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-pollute13-2008nov13,0,3895359.story Visit latimes.com at http://www.latimes.com

No Auto Industry Bailout, Support Henry Waxman

Jym Dyer — 2008-11-13T20:56:57

=v= Congress, and especially Nancy Pelosi, are working hard on an American auto-industry bailout. There's word of a European auto-industry bailout that would follow in its wake. =v= So far I haven't seen any enviro group step up to the plate to oppose this. Credo, however, has just recently set up a web page for Americans to email our Congressional representative (e.g. Pelosi) to demand support for Harry Waxman rather than a climate change-denier from General Motors, and it has wording to suggest not bailing out the auto industry. You can add your own words about not bailing out the auto industry (I did). =v= The URL for this page is below, embedded in a form letter. <_Jym_> =------------8<-------------Cut-Here-------------8<------------= Subject: We need real solutions to fight climate change. Dear Friend, Global climate change is perhaps the greatest challenge of our generation. What we do (or don't do) affects not only our nation, but the world. You might thank that, with a new president pois

Introduction

J.H. Crawford — 2008-11-12T19:19:00

Hi All, The Introduction is now on line in PDF format, which shows the basic format of the entire book: http://www.carfree.com/cdm/0_03.pdf Best, Joel ----- ### ----- J.H. Crawford Carfree Cities mailbox-WdiPhmTxsBdBDgjK7y7TUQ< at >public.gmane.org http://www.carfree.com

Oil Projections

Richard Risemberg — 2008-11-12T14:24:23

Good article from the Guardian. Sadly, it's only after a long disquisition on how we must invest to extract ever more oil over the next forty years that they throw in these chilling paragraphs on global warming and energy efficiency: Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/nov/12/oil-gas-companies- credit-crunch Rick -- Richard Risemberg http://www.bicyclefixation.com http://www.newcolonist.com http://www.rickrise.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Carfree Design Manual

J.H. Crawford — 2008-11-04T14:09:08

Hi All, Just a short note on this election day to say that Carfree Design Manual is finally on press. It will take them two days to print it all. We should have books in the EU in December. The USA will have books about two months later (due to shipping times). Best, Joel ----- ### ----- J.H. Crawford Carfree Cities mailbox-WdiPhmTxsBdBDgjK7y7TUQ< at >public.gmane.org http://www.carfree.com

USA Today Notices Bike Racks

Richard Risemberg — 2008-11-03T14:08:40

USA Today just published an article on arty bike racks, and quoted me at the end (though, inevitably, it wasn't a very direct quote abut "close enough"): http://tinyurl.com/6mhgkc Some good pix and overall a good article, not too patronizing, though the rag did file it under "News: Offbeat." Oh, well.... Rick -- Richard Risemberg Bicycle Fixation http://www.bicyclefixation.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

1. NYT - bikes on campus, 2. Chinese courtyard housing complexes

Christopher Miller — 2008-10-21T18:35:39

1. An article from the New York Times (via CoolTowns blog) on the success of free bike programmes on some US college campuses: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/20/education/20bikes.html?_r=1&oref=slogin ========================================================= With Free Bikes, Challenging Car Culture on Campus By KATIE ZEZIMA Published: October 19, 2008 BIDDEFORD, Me. — When Kylie Galliani started at the University of New England in August, she was given a key to her dorm, a class schedule and something more unusual: a $480 bicycle. (photos and comments link deleted) “I was like, ‘A free bike, no catch?’ ” Ms. Galliani, 17, a freshman from Fort Bragg, Calif., asked. “It’s really an ideal way to get around the campus.” University administrators and students nationwide are increasingly feeling that way too. The University of New England and Ripon College in Wisconsin are giving free bikes to freshmen who promise to leave their cars at home. Other colleges are setting up f

Monbiot's 100-year Committee Plan

Richard Risemberg — 2008-10-21T15:33:52

Very pertinent: http://tinyurl.com/5ogsjp Rick -- Richard Risemberg http://www.bicyclefixation.com http://www.newcolonist.com http://www.rickrise.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]