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QUOTATION OF THE MONTH |
"About 2 million
construction jobs are gone
permanently because they
had been created by artificial
demand."
Thus wrote Alena Semuels, in an
article in the Los Angeles Times,
discussing the changing trend in
California, which can expect to see
more people choose to live in
higher-density areas in the future.
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| WORLD
CARFREE NETWORK ANNOUNCEMENTS |
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TOWARDS
CARFREE CITIES 2011 IN MEXICO
The tenth Towards
Carfree Cities Conference will
be held in Guadalajara, Mexico, from
5 to 9
September 2011. The theme this year
is "Building Carfree Cities for the
People, by the People", with a focus
on citizen participation and the
sharing of experiences between
campaigners from around the
world. This is the last call
for attendance . Make your travel
arrangements now!
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WORLD
CARFREE MONTHLY NEWS SUMMER DOUBLE
EDITION
You are now reading a double
edition for July and August. The
next issue will come out in
September. For our readers living in
the northern hemisphere, we wish you
a wonderful carfree summer... to
those south of the equator, here's
wishing you a wonderful winter.
Thanks for reading World Carfree
Monthly News and see you soon!
BEHIND
THE SCENES AT WORLD CARFREE NEWS
As we have indicated before, there
were some technical issues to
resolve with the new html version of
this bulletin. We have generally
received positive feedback
concerning the format - from those
who received it. Beginning this
month, we will send a second email
to the list, announcing the new
issue in text format for online
reading, to insure that all our
readers will be in the know.
Riseup,
who provides hosting for this list,
has just let us know they have
increased the permitted size for
outgoing messages. Thanks riseup!
We have also added a new page
that contains the back issues of
the graphical versions in all the
available languages.
BULLETIN
DEVELOPMENT @ WORLD CARFREE
MONTHLY NEWS
Do you have free time and
usable skills that can be used to
help develop the Bulletin? There are
numerous ways the bulletin can still
be developed - we can upgrade the
bulletin website, add new language
versions, provide outreach and look
for more subscribers, apply for
funding ... the only limit is our
imagination. If you have specific
skills or just ideas for further
developing this unique newsletter or
would like to be a part of the
creative process, please get in
touch at bulletin@worldcarfree.net.
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| GENERAL
ANNOUNCEMENTS |
ICLEI
JOB OPENING IN BONN, GERMANY
Ecomobility Project Officer
open position with ICLEI - Local
governments for Sustainability. It
is a full time position starting in
September with an application
deadline of July 31.
Read
more.
CITIES
SOUGHT FOR PARTNERING IN CARFREE
PROJECT
A consortium is currently
seeking committed partner cities for
a Central European project
(financed by the ERDF)
with the aim to build larger
car-free networks within cities
(existing or new). Currently
partnership is sought from Poland,
Slovenia, Slovak Republic, Hungary,
Czech Republic. For more
information, please get in touch
with Joerg.schweitzer@unibo.it.
CYCLO-CAMP
NEAR LINZ IN AUSTRIA
DIY festival and bike repair
workshop will take place from 26 of
July to 1st of August in Ottensheim
near Linz (Austria). This will be a
fun camp organised by various
Austrian bike kitchens.
Read
more.
SUNDAY
STREETS IN SAN FRANCISCO
Keep in mind the fabulous fun
to be had in the carfree Sunday
Streets programme in San Francisco.
The next dates are Civic
Center/Tenderloin (Aug 14), Western
Addition/Fillmore/North Panhandle
(Sept 11), and a new route in
Chinatown/North Beach (September
date to be confirmed).
Read
more
ECOLOGICAL
CAMP IN KHIMKI FOREST
As featured repeatedly in
this bulletin, the resistors to a
construction of a highway through a
forest outside of Moscow have come
up with many creative ideas. They
have now lined up a camp in the
forest to take place from July 28 to
August 6. Please see the details on
the website or get in touch with the
organisers at
savekhimkiforest@gmail.com.
Read
more.
ECOTOPIA
BIKE TOUR STARTING SOON
The Ecotopia Bike Tour will
be starting soon on July 29 and
cycling from Florence, Italy down to
southern Italy, for the whole month
of August. Check up the route
updates as well as a call-out
in eight languages.
Read
more.
JOB
OPENING IN ARIZONA - SAFE ROUTE TO
SCHOOLS
Prescott Alternative
Transportation is announcing the
open position for Program
Coordinator in the Yavapai area.
This is a 30 hour work week. Please
apply by August 5 or earlier.
Read
more.
A
FUTURE BEYOND THE CAR?
An extended deadline has been
announced for articles devoted to
this subject in a special edition to
be released by World Transport and
Policy Practice. The new deadline
for articles between 2 and 5
thousand words is August 30.
Read
more.
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| ACTION |
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SUPPORT A
TIGHTENING OF THE LAW TO PREVENT
FATAL ACCIDENTS!
There is a campaign and petition
underway in Italy to bring to the
law books a more stringent approach
to fatalities on the road. In order
to both act as a deterrent and to
mete out appropriate justice, the
proposal suggests the following:
- Change of name from
"Involuntary manslaughter" to
"road murder"
- Increasing jail time from 3-10
years to 8-18 years
- Arrest in flagrante delicto
(currently no precautionary
measure)
- Permanent driver's license
revocation as opposed to
temporary withdrawal
These are measures sought to be
applied to cases where drivers cause
death or serious injury while under
the influence of drugs or alcohol.
The proposal has been submitted to
the Transport Committee of the House
of Representatives of Italian
Parliament. The organisers are
currently collecting support in this
petition.
While the petition is only open to
signatures of Italian residents, you
may read the dedicated translation
of the site (in English). You
may also support the process by
sending a letter supporting the
cause to the President of the
Transports Committee, Mr. Valducci
Mario, at valducci_m@camera.it.
Please let him know that people in
other parts of the world can benefit
greatly from a positive model put
forward by the Italians. You may
also send a message directly through
the Italian parliamentary website.
Please remember: Tighter regulations
can save lives!
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| IN THE
NEWS |
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The
town of Aubagne, France, with a
population of 100,000, is going to
install a streetcar which will be
usable by the population free of
charge. It is hailed by Carfree
France as the first free
streetcar in the world.
Read
more.
Trends in the housing market are
being detected in California, where
it is expected that more people will
be living in denser urban areas.
This also implies a major change for
the construction industry.
Read
more.
Seattle transportation is under
threat of cuts. Unless more funding
comes in, a total of 600,000 hours
of transit service will be removed
over the next two years.
Read
more.
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Although
pedestrian overpasses have been
built with an eye to improve
vehicular traffic flow, one driver
in Kunming, China felt so
overburdened by the the congestion
that he actually drove his car over
such a pedestrian overpass. This
ridiculous action was also caught on
video.
Read
more.
A cyclist in London was the object
of road rage, and his aggressor was
caught red-handed on video. The
cyclist was preparing for a charity
ride to Paris.
Read
more
Copenhagen agreed to allow for the
creation of 1726 new parking spaces
- for cars. Car ownership is only
17.7% on average.
Read
more.
Voters in Switzerland rejected a
proposal to put a second road tunnel
through the Gotthard mountain. This
is seen as a triumph for rail
development.
Read
more.
Two school pupils in the UK who
organised a mass petition calling
for more train services to their
home town have finally seen their
efforts pay off.
Read
more.
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| REPORTS |
WELL TO
WHEEL ASSESSMENT FOR VEHICLES
A study ordered by the Commission
has recommended the EU’s approach to
regulating car and van emissions
should be changed, as it is not
helping to keep the environmental
impact of road vehicles to a
minimum. The study was undertaken by
the Dutch consultancy CE Delft.
While specifically dealing with the
impact of electric vehicles, the
results could have more far-reaching
consequences, according to Transport
& Environment.
Read
more.
FULL
REPORT ON BIKE SHARING
There is a new full report on bike
sharing in Europe, courtesy of the
Choice Mobility group in Germany.
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| MEDIA &
NETWORKING |
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CRASH
BOOM BANG!
Check out this video
gone viral of a NYC cyclist not
happy with being ticketed for riding
his bike NOT in the bike lane. He
subsequently took a tour of the many
obstructions to be found there.
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