WORLD CARFREE NEWS >>>
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Edition no. 15 - December 2004 - English version
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Contents:
QUOTATION OF THE MONTH
ACTION ALERT!
- SAVE THE RICKSHAWS OF DHAKA
IN BRIEF
WORLD NEWS
- HYDROGEN, HO!
- LONDON CABS STEP UP RICKSHAW WAR
- IS THE EU PROMOTING TRUCKS?
- CARFREE FUNERAL
ANNOUNCEMENTS
- TOWARDS CARFREE CITIES V, BUDAPEST: CALL FOR CONTENT
- ROAD BLOCK'S WISH LIST
- CYCLE TO THE G8 SUMMIT!
- WEBMASTER STEVE'S BRAND-SPANKIN'-NEW CARBUSTERS.ORG
- CELEBRATION AS RESISTANCE
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QUOTATION OF THE MONTH >>
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"He took a can of petrol out of the boot and set fire to his own car."
- Witness in Tehran, Iran, describing a motorist's response to getting a
parking ticket.
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ACTION ALERT >>
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SAVE THE RICKSHAWS OF DHAKA
The World Bank is urging Dhaka, Bangladesh, to outlaw one of the most
efficient and beautiful forms of transport, the bicycle rickshaw, on a
total of eight main roads. In Dhaka, most journeys are made on foot, and
bicycle rickshaws are the main form of vehicular transport. Rickshaws are
an efficient, non-polluting way to move around, and for many people without
job skills, pulling a rickshaw is the only option other than begging or
crime. It is estimated that five million people in Bangladesh are dependent
on the income of rickshaw pullers for their survival. Make December the
month to fight for the rickshaw. Tell the World Bank what you think of
their idea: <
www.worldcarfree.net/dhaka>
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IN BRIEF >>
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- More often than not, train travel is faster and cheaper than travel by
car. An independent test by the German magazine Focus found that for 12 of
18 studied routes, a family of four travels more cheaply by train, with
seven of the studied routes faster by train than by car.
- Carfree in Las Vegas? Two new development projects in Las Vegas, a city
known for its sprawling size and mile-wide boulevards, will be
pedestrian-oriented. "The goal is to create a pedestrian village where you
walk, where there's stores and shopping in a beautiful environment with no
cars," one of the developers said. But although some people are comparing
it to New York, don't expect to find Greenwhich Village - the developments
will include hotels and other Las Vegas-style attractions and will be
geared towards tourists as much as locals.
- Thousands of users of New York's Central Park rejoiced last week when the
Mayor took a historic step towards reducing car access to the park's
Central Park's Loop Drive. Besides limiting the hours when cars will have
access, five entrances will be permanently closed to cars and speed limits
will be reduced. Activists are now pushing for a complete car ban. More
info at <
www.transalt.org/campaigns/cpark>.
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WORLD NEWS >>
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HYDROGEN HO!
The world's largest hydrogen fuelling station was opened on Berlin's
Messedamm recently. It is also Europe's first public fuelling station
containing a pump dispensing hydrogen.
The pump belongs to Aral, Linde AG and Hydro/GHW are providing the
technical facilities for changing water into hydrogen. The necessary energy
is delivered by Vattenfall, which fittingly produces the electricity from
hydropower. 16 hydrogen cars were provided by BMW,
Opel, Ford and DaimlerChrysler. The cars are available to business partners
who will test them in daily use. Berlin's public transport company is
participating with two hydrogen buses.
But not everyone is enthusiastic. Although Daniel Kluge of the German
Traffic Club welcomed the Federal Government's engagement in renewale
energy, he claimed that other transport problems are being ignored. "the
government is riding around on this idea of The Future." CO2 emissions
should be reduced immediately, he claimed.
Greenpeace automobile expert Wolfgang Lohbeck took a step further,
calling the hydrogen fuelling station simply "irrelevent". It solves no
problems, he claimed, and is headed in the wrong direction: The production
of hydrogen requires three times as much energy as is gained by its use.
The car industry, he said, is using this project to distract the public
from the fact that it is doing nothing in order to reduce fuel consumption.
Indeed, according to Lohbeck, the car manufacturers used their hydrogen
concept to beat back the full implementation of 3-liter engines.
Indicative of the double-sided nature of progress was the fact that
Minister Stolpe had difficulties in using the new technology. It took him
several attempts to fill up a blue Ford with liquid hydrogen.
LONDON CABS STEP UP RICKSHAW WAR
[
www.thisislondon.co.uk]
The war between London's black cab and rickshaw drivers was stepped up
today as the taxi industry released film revealing the dangers of
travelling in one of the pedal-powered vehicles.
In a simulated collision with a car two rickshaw "passengers" were
hurled on to the vehicle's bonnet. The head of one crash-test dummy smashed
into the car, the other was dragged along the road by the force of the
impact.
The aim of the video and report is to support taxi drivers' campaign
against rickshaws. The London Taxi Drivers Association wants rickshaws
banned altogether - not "legitimised" with regulations.
However the capital's largest rickshaw firm, Bugbugs, said: "All
rickshaws that we have have been specifically designed for passenger
transport and have passed stringent tests. We have been running them for
six years and have never had a smashup with anyone hurt."
IS THE EU PROMOTING TRUCKS?
[By WCN, compiled from sources]
Many Central and Eastern European countries thought that, when they joined
the EU in May, they would reap the benefits of economic development. But
that development has its dark side - truck traffic has increased
significantly as transporters find that it is easier to bring goods to
Western Europe by travelling through 'cheaper' countries. Ironically, much
of this traffic originates even further east, meaning that most of the new
traffic is so-called 'transit traffic.'
In the Czech Republic, truck transit has increased by 20-30 percent
since May. Since the country does not have a well-developed motorway
network, this means that some towns have several thousand trucks a day
thundering down city streets.
And the European Union's policies may be making matters worse. Although
the promised completion of motorways will remove trucks from city roads,
air quality will undoubtedly worsen, and accidents will increase. In the
meantime, funding has all but disappeared for truck-train systems, such as
the 'rolling highway' which allowed trucks to take the train from Prague to
Dresden (thereby avoiding highway jams), which was forced to shut down for
lack of customers and funding.
Local officials now want to increase road tolls in order to ease
congestion on national highways, but the move would be contrary to European
Union regulations and could bring sanctions. At an Oct. 7 meeting in
Luxembourg, European transport ministers rejected a Czech proposal to
increase highway tolls, claiming the tariffs contradict the principles of
the free movement of goods.
"Under the current situation the transport system may collapse because
we are the least expensive," Czech Minister of Economy Martin Jahn said.
"Transport flows must be divided justly."
Other countries have shown widespread resistance to truck transit.
Voters in Switzerland (not part of the EU) recently voted not to build
another tunnel through the Alps, which many felt would only increase truck
traffic. In neighbouring Austria, citizens blocked highways for several
days this year in protest of poor air quality and the constant thundering
of trucks. They called on their government to stand up to the EU in matters
of truck transit.
CARFREE FUNERAL
[ed. note: although this item is a little out of date, we just learned of
it recently and thought it would be worth sharing with our readers]
Mike Woodin, the Green Party's Principal Speaker, was buried near his
Oxford home at Wolvercote Cemetery in funeral procession that included
bikes decorated with Green ribbons and other mourners on foot, respecting
Mike's wishes that the funeral be as car-free as possible.
Dr Mike Woodin had held the post of Principal Speaker - the figurehead
who fulfils the public and media role performed by the leader of more
conventional parties - for most of the last eight years, most recently
jointly with his close colleague Caroline Lucas MEP.
He was diagnosed with secondary cancer of the lungs shortly before the
party's spring conference in March this year. He underwent chemotherapy at
the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, continuing with Green Party duties
between spells in hospital.
Thirty-eight year-old Dr Woodin lived in Oxford with his wife Deborah
and two young children. He taught psychology at Balliol College, Oxford. He
was one of the first Green Party city councillors elected in England and
was Leader of the Green Group on Oxford City Council.
You can contribute to a book of condolences for Mike either by sending
an email to <miketribute@???> or visiting the Oxford Green
Party website.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS >>
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TOWARDS CARFREE CITIES V, BUDAPEST: CALL FOR CONTENT
The fifth conference in the Towards Carfree Cities series will take place
in Budapest, Hungary, from July 18-21, 2005. July 22 will be
the World Carfree Network annual general meeting, and optional excursions
will take place on July 23. The conference will be hosted by the
Budapest-based Clean Air Action Group, with organising support from World
Carfree Network's Prague office. The first planning meeting, involving
organisers of the 2004 Berlin conference, will take place in Budapest on
December 11. Following that meeting, the beginnings of a conference website
will be posted to <
www.worldcarfree.net/conference>.
As the programme is under development, now is the time to submit your
ideas for speakers, workshops, activities, etc. Please send a brief
description of your idea to Judit Madarassy: <madarassy@???>.
Questions about facilities and accommodation should go to Maria Somodi:
<somodi@???>. In both cases, please use "TCFC V" as the subject line.
ROAD BLOCK'S WISH LIST
A new anti-roads alliance in the UK - Road Block - is in the process of
being set up, due to the government's reversal of the enormous success of
the 1990s roads protest movement in defeating road building plans. Road
Block is committed to reversing this road building trend, especially
because of the urgency of climate change. At the moment the group is
fundraising, and needs some help to set up an office, which will open in
January in Totnes, Devon. If you have any computers, laptops, fax machines,
printers, filing cabinets, desks, that you could donate (assuming they're
within practical shipping distance), or want to make a financial donation,
please contact <office@???>.
CYCLE TO THE G8 SUMMIT!
Join the G8CycleCarvan! A spontaneously formed group of activists and
cyclists have come together to organise an exciting cycle tour from London
to Edinburgh arriving in Edinburgh on July 6, 2005, in time to join the
protests against the G8.
The G8 - which represents the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Japan,
Russia, Canada and the president of the European Union - will be holding
its 2005 summit at Gleneagles Hotel, Perthshire, Scotland from July 6-8.
The organisation group for demonstrations against the G8 this year has made
climate change the main focus of its campaigning.
The cycle tour will include a diverse range of human powered vehicles
and trailers, and the group would especially like to hear from
recumbent-riding and trumpet-playing tandem riders. See
<
www.g8cyclecaravan.org> for all the info.
WEBMASTER STEVE'S BRAND-SPANKIN'-NEW CARBUSTERS.ORG
As of December 4, Carbusters.org has been redesigned as the home site of
Car Busters magazine. Other World Carfree Network projects (such as our
mail- and web-order Resource Centre of books, videos, etc.) have moooooved
to the main barn at Worldcarfree.net. This is all thanks to the dedicated
electronic tinkering of WCN webmaster Steve von Pohl. [wild applause]
CELEBRATION AS RESISTANCE
[submitted by Carmen Mills, carmen@???]
I am currently assembling a little roadshow called "Celebration as
Resistance: Bicycle Activism and the Politics of Partying" (or is that too
grandiose a title? nevermind...).
Can you help me? I'm collecting images of street parties, squats,
Critical Mass, etc., from around the world.
I am a founding reptile with the Dinosaurs Against Fossil fuels (see
Dinosaurs Against Fossil Fuels: <bikesexual.org/dinos> or Extinction Stinks
- the video: <vancouver.indymedia.org/news/2002/07/13535.php/default.htm>.
I'm also founder of "Momentum: The Magazine for Self-Propelled People"
<
www.momentummagazine.com>...recently evolved into a compact public
party-throwing machine. Any help you can offer will be returned manyfold in
spicy karmic goodness.
[end]
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"La bicicletta è il veicolo più rapido nella via della delinquenza; perchè
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-Cesare Lombroso-
