World Carfree News #91 - December 2011 - English Version
"No one's advocating for putting [the freeway] back".
Thus spoke John Norquist, who as mayor of Milwaukee, WI, USA,
presided over the demolition of the Park East Freeway in 2002.
This comes at a time when many other freeways are under
consideration for a similar fate.
Read
more.
Looking for hard-hitting inspiration? Do you want to catch up
any recent articles or check out some of the quality writing
that has been a part of the Carbusters movement for the last 13
years? Don't forget to browse the website or download the back
issues. Many of the articles found there are as valid now as
when they were first written!
Read more
SEND US YOUR NEWS!
A lot of the news featured in World Carfree Monthly News is sent by our readers - people who enjoy the news service and contribute valuable news items every month. Please consider regularly contributing worthwhile news items that you think would be of interest to others. The concept of carfree is what makes this a unique newsletter, but any news related to sustainable transport and affiliated subjects is welcome. Note that we also welcome pictures. Keep an eye on the call for submissions roughly a week before publication.
Get in touch at bulletin@worldcarfree.net
NOTE ON THIS ISSUE
We have been working on ironing out some of the design issues,
so the format is slightly different. In case everything doesn't
look quite perfect, please excuse us! That is also the reason
this issue comes out a few days later. We plan to keep refining
it. You may see the version on the website also looks slightly
different from the email version. Feedback is always welcome!
There is a proposal to create a compact, carfree, 125 acre
village, on a site totaling 500 acres in southern Piscataquis
County, Maine, USA. Currently investors have already made
commitments that amount to 1/8 of the total amount needed.
Anyone interested in this project is requested to get in touch
with the initiators.
Watch a slide
show. Connect on facebook.
Write to tracygayton@gmail.com.
World Streets is opening the Safe Streets Challenge, to run
between 2012 and 2015. An introduction and a description of what
is to come are already available on a dedicated website as well
as facebook page.
Read
more
An interactive Road deaths map is available that shows all of
the deaths that occurred on US and UK streets in the first
decade of the 21st Century. The zoomable map breaks down data by
specific location, year of crash, age of deceased, and mode of
transport. The organisation RoadPeace has also created a video
commemorating cyclists killed in London in 2011. Watch
it.
Read more US
UK
Carfree Times #64 has just been released. It is the last
Carfree Times issue this year, and according to author Joel
Crawford, "Carfree.com as a whole will have served about 1.2
million pages and 95 GB of files in 2011."
Read more
ELIMINATE HORN HONKING!
Horn honking is a nuisance to many people. Horns going off at night disturbs everyone.
A New York resident decided she would take it no more and has
launched a petition to get this technology eliminated and bring
about saner air waves for everyone. There are alternative
technologies that are already available.
So please take a moment to go to the petition and sign it. Pass
it onto your friends who would also like to put a end to useless
noise pollution.
You will sleep better tonight!
The petition is located here.
Delhi leaders announced plans for a congestion charge to ease
traffic woes in the city. The 150-rupee fee, which would be
imposed on private vehicles entering central city areas during
the day, will encourage the use public transportation instead.
Motor-vehicle traffic in Delhi has doubled in the last five
years. In the meantime, India is posting its lowest car sales in
a decade with a drop of 23.8 percent in October 2011.
Read
more
In the Indian state of Bihar, it has been noticed that
providing students with bikes increases school attendance. The
Mukhyamantri Balika Cycling Yojna project gives female students
in the state of Bihar 2,000 rupees so that they can buy a
bicycle to travel to school. Since the project began, 871,000
girls have started cycling to school, and the number of girls
enrolled in school has increased from 160,000 to 490,000 over
the last seven years.
Read
more
China matures as an automobile society. The 100 millionth
vehicle was added to China’s streets late this year; that number
is expected to reach 200 million by the year 2020, by which time
private cars are also expected to be the primary means of
transportation. Some have questioned the strategy of car bans
and would rather see the automobile embraced, including some
within the government.
Read
more
By 2012 Beijing is set to reach 5 million cars. It is already
the country's most congested city.
Read
more
A world away, Sacramento’s State Route 275, once a mile-long
stretch of freeway, has been converted into the Tower Bridge
Gateway, a landscaped boulevard featuring wide sidewalks, bike
lanes, trees, street-level pedestrian crossings, and 35 mph
speed limits.
Read
more
At a sport's outing in Japan, a number of luxary cars
(including 8 Ferraris) were all involved in a pile-up crash that
spared humans, but cost $3.85 million. The cars were moving at
140-160 km/h at the time this happened.
Read
more
After Paris's successful bike hire system Velib', the city has
just now launched a short term public car rental system, called
Autolib' - which is the first car rental system of this scale in
a European capital. Autolib' has 1120 stations and 3000 electric
Bluecars.
Read
more
A new study put out by the European Cyclists' Federation (ECF) investigates the potential of cycling to reduce emissions. This is the first study to take into account emissions related to production, maintenance and the fuel of the bicycle.
The study comes to show that
cycling emissions are ten times lower than those of a
passenger car and e-bikes have emissions in the same range as
ordinary bikes.
The full study is
downloadable here.
ISOMETRIC BIKE DRAWING
A French collaborative bike mechanics workshop, called
"Velorution Ile de France) has created a high-quality isometric
biked drawing. The image above is only a portion of what is
available.
The image is free to reproduce and modify. Illustrations are not
captioned, they can be described in any language. Commercial use
is prohibited.
Find drawing here.
The drawing with French captions also available here.
Read about Velorution
(in French)
Carfree.com has launched its own Youtube channel - "Carfree
Cities". The small but growing collection of carfree themed
videos includes "Occupy All Streets" as well as portraits of
several urban areas. More videos are expected in the near
future.
Watch
more
2012 CYCLISTS IN INDIA CALENDAR
A 2012 desktop calendar that features portraits of everyday
cyclists in India is available for download as a free, printable
PDF. The photographs and accompanying texts describe the daily
transportation stories of street vendors, a sewage cleaner, a
postal worker, a student, a milkman, a recycler, a software
engineer, and more.
Download
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Bulletin #91 by Justin Hyatt
and Jane Voodikon
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