WORLD CARFREE NEWS >>>
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Edition no. 10 - July 2004 - English version
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Contents:
IN BRIEF
WORLD NEWS
- EU ACCESSION LEADS TO MORE TRUCKS ON THE ROADS
- WORLD BANK TO BE MORE SELECTIVE IN OIL, GAS LOANS
- EU CLEAN AIR RULES TO RAISE PETROL PRICES
- AMERICANS DISCOVER SMALLER CARS
- CARFREE EVENTS ACROSS GERMANY
- LONDON MAYOR RE-ELECTED
NETWORK ANNOUNCEMENTS
- TOWARDS CARFREE CITIES IV, BERLIN - JULY 19-24
- STEERING COMMITTEE AND ADVISORY BOARD
- CAR BUSTERS MAGAZINE IS HERE
- WORLD CARFREE DAY 2004
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IN BRIEF >>
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- A car dealer from Arizona hopes to be the first to sell Chinese-made cars
in the United States. David Shelburg and his privately held company, China
Motor Corp., want to cash in on China's fast-growing auto industry and
cheap labour costs, but analysts point out that most Chinese cars have far
inferior quality and may have difficulty meeting US standards for pollution
and safety.
- Britain's transport chief says the owners of urban four-wheel-drive
vehicles should pay more taxes, branding them irresponsible and dangerous.
David Begg suggested that their these drivers should pay higher car tax and
congestion charges. "If people want to cause damage to the environment,
create congestion and continue to threaten the safety of other road users
by driving these vehicles around then they should be made to pay for it,"
he said.
- BRT, or Bus Rapid Transit, has come to the United States. Already a
successful cheaper alternative to building rail (as in Bogota, Colombia,
and Curitiba, Brazil), this form of public transport has now debuted along
a seven-mile stretch of road in Las Vegas, Nevada. Buses travel in their
own lane, bypassing car traffic. Transit planners from around the country
are watching whether the system will catch on in the land of the automobile.
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WORLD NEWS >>
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EU ACCESSION LEADS TO MORE TRUCKS ON THE ROADS
Ever since the Czech Republic joined the EU on May 1, some border crossings
on the Czech-German border have seen a 30% increase in trucks. The reason:
before EU accession, trucks crossing from the Czech Republic into Germany
often faced day-long waits for border inspections, so they opted for a
faster alternative, going by rail from Lovosice north of Prague all the way
to Dresden. With the inspections gone, the trucks are back on the road. And
with no motorway between Prague and Dresden, this means several thousand
trucks every day rumbling along surface roads through towns and villages in
Bohemia and Saxony.
The rail link, called RoLa (for Rollenden Landstrasse), is to be
terminated by August, unless lawsuits by German and Czech citizens' groups
are successful. The Czech Ministry of Transport has indicated that it may
be willing to continue funding the rail link, but the train will continue
to lose money and not attract customers until trucks are forbidden from
using local roads or from traveling at night as suggested by the German
group Lebenswertes Erzgebirge. Before May, the trains ran at 75% capacity.
Now that number is 9%.
WORLD BANK TO BE MORE SELECTIVE IN OIL, GAS LOANS
The World Bank will continue to fund oil, coal and mining projects but will
be more selective, it said in response to a review that recommended it
phase out support for such projects.
World Bank President James Wolfensohn commissioned the independent
review in 2000, following concerns by environmental and human rights groups
that its participation in oil, coal and mining contributed to poverty
instead of alleviated it. The review suggested the bank radically change
its approach to funding such projects and even stop supporting some.
In the past year, World Bank affiliates helped fund two criticised
private sector oil projects - the Chad-Cameroon and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan
pipelines - which both carry crude thousands of kilometers overland to the
sea.
The bank said it would dramatically increase its support for more
environmentally friendly renewable energies and clean energy sources like
natural gas. It said its participation in oil, coal and mining projects is
expected to remain relatively small at less than 5% of its total lending
per year.
Environmental groups said the bank's response was unclear and ignored
the recommendation to get out of oil and coal. "The World Bank's response
is fuzzy and lacks clarity," said Jon Sohn, campaign director for Friends
of the Earth.
EU CLEAN AIR RULES TO RAISE PETROL PRICES
A change in European Union gasoline specifications next year aimed at
reducing air pollution will restrict the pool of blending components for
the motor fuel and make production more expensive, analysts and traders say.
From January 1, 2005, new European Union specifications demand that the
fuel must have a maximum 35% aromatic content, down from 42%. Aromatics in
petrol contribute to ground-level ozone pollution, and some aromatics are
believed to be cancer-causing.
Higher-octane gasoline used for performance vehicles is likely to see
the largest increase in costs, traders said. Components with low aromatic
content will be needed to dilute the presence of high aromatic components
in the gasoline pool like reformate and cracked naphtha.
The UK is the only European country that already has a 35% aromatic
limit on its gasoline.
AMERICANS DISCOVER SMALLER CARS
Higher gas prices caused by the Iraq war have started to push Americans
towards smaller cars. American cars weigh on average 700 pounds (320 kg)
more than 15 years ago, but today such efficient models as BMW's
Mini-Cooper and Mercedes' Smart are seeing an increase in sales. The Prius
hybrid has an eight-month waiting list. Are Americans finally cutting their
oil addiction? The Christian Science Monitor newspaper is calling for
higher gas prices, and presidential candidate John Kerry is calling for
independence from Middle Eastern oil.
CARFREE EVENTS ACROSS GERMANY
In June, Germany saw almost a million participate in carfree events. First,
on June 6 almost 250,000 cyclists (and some rollerbladers and wheelchair
users) converged on Berlin for the annual "Sternfahrt" organised by the
German Bicycle Club (ADFC). The ride ended at the Brandenburg Gate with a
party and eco-festival. The ADFC is already planning a "Kreisfahrt" for
September 18, in relation with World Carfree Day. For this ride,
participants will ride in a circle around the whole city.
<
www.adfc-berlin.de/sternfahrt.cm>
On June 20, Mobil ohne Auto organised a country-wide carfree day, with
some 250 towns participating. The goal was to promote alternatives to car
driving - actions included the blocking of the B 27 highway between
Heilbronn and Mosbach, a crossborder "Natürlich Mobil am Bodensee"
(Naturally Mobile on Lake Constance), a bicycle repair contest in
Karlsruhe, and free public transport in several cities. <
www.mobilohneauto.de>
LONDON MAYOR RE-ELECTED
Ken Livingstone, the London Mayor who introduced the London Congestion
Charge, has been re-elected. Congestion charging was initially criticised
by many people, but quickly became popular. In over a year the scheme has
been able to reduce traffic while increasing bus service. Livingstone has
promised an extension to the Congestion Charge, free bus fares for children
and young people in education (up to 18 years old), and new rail and tram
lines.
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NETWORK ANNOUNCEMENTS >>
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TOWARDS CARFREE CITIES IV, BERLIN - JULY 19-24
[Register today: <
www.worldcarfree.net/conference/>]
There have been some last-minute changes to the programme, so if you are
coming make sure to check the most recent list of speakers on the web. And
if you are not coming, it's never too late to register! Other new
highlights are a screening of the movie 'The End of Suburbia' and a
conference closing party on the Friday with Cuban and ska music and a DJ.
Any last-minute communication with conference organisers should be sent to
tcfc4conference@???.
STEERING COMMITTEE AND ADVISORY BOARD
We are still accepting nominations for the network's Steering Committee and
Advisory Board. See <
http://www.worldcarfree.net/about_us/> for details.
Decisions will be made at the network's Annual General Meeting in Berlin on
July 23. Nominations and supporting information should be sent to
tcfc4conference@???.
CAR BUSTERS MAGAZINE IS HERE
Issue #20 is hot off the presses and is already in the mail to you, dear
subscribers. For those of you whose subscription has expired, you can renew
at <
www.carbusters.org/magazine/> - we'll also be bringing plenty of copies
with us to the conference. And we're already looking for submissions to our
next issue: news items, announcements, action reports, feature articles and
art and graphics.
WORLD CARFREE DAY 2004
We are expanding the links on our World Carfree Day web page at
<
http://www.worldcarfree.net/wcfd>, and discussion about good organising
techniques have been happening on the carfree_network listserve. Let's all
make this September 22 one of the most original and widespread carfree
events ever.
[end]
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la passione del pedale trascina al furto, alla truffa, alla grassazione!"
-Cesare Lombroso-
