[Carfreeliving] Fwd: [world-carfree-news_eng] WORLD CARFREE NEWS #23 - AUGUST 2005

[Dave Snyder]

>Dear readers,
>Thanks to all of those who have sent in contributions for this and 
>past bulletins. Other ways to contribute to our work, might see you 
>joining World Carfree Network or subscribing to Car Busters magazine.
>   For more information visit <http://www.worldcarfree.net/support/>.
>
>________________________
>
>WORLD CARFREE NEWS >>>
>____________________________________
>
>Edition no. 23 - August 2005 - English version
>...........................................................
>
>
>Contents:
>
>QUOTATION OF THE MONTH
>
>IN BRIEF
>
>WORLD NEWS
>- CHINA'S RAGE: THE BICYCLE VERSUS THE AUTOMOBILE
>- US TRANSPORT BILL APPROVED
>- PEAK PLATINUM: THE HYDROGEN CAR
>
>NETWORK ANNOUNCEMENTS
>- TCFC V: BUDAPEST CONFERENCE REPORT
>
>GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
>- VELO MONDIAL 2006, CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA, MARCH 5-10, 2006
>- SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
>- HAVE YOUR SAY IN IMPROVING THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT
>
>DISCLAIMER
>
>__________________
>
>QUOTATION OF THE MONTH >>
>__________________________
>
>
>"A car does a service for a man as it does for a woman. Men need to 
>be educated in design. Women need to be educated in the car culture."
>    - Genevieve Gorder, television actress, in Celebrity Car Magazine
>
>__________________
>
>IN BRIEF >>
>__________________________
>
>
>- Ukranian president Victor Yuschenko has disbanded the country's 
>traffic police department because they are too corrupt.
>
>- In the wake of the attacks on the London Underground, cycling 
>trips are up by 50,000 a week.
>
>- If you walk up to a "drive-thru" window [where people can order 
>burgers and coffee without getting out of their cars] at Dunkin' 
>Donuts you will not get served.
>
>- Polish Environment Minister Tomasz Podgajniak called his country's 
>plans for a new motorway network behind the times because the 
>"automotive industry is not so crucial for the development of the 
>economy as it used to be."
>
>- Chrysler is organising street parties (called "Rock the Block") 
>for Chrysler owners only. For US$95 owners can learn cigar rolling 
>and improve their golf swing.
>
>- Denmark's vehicle registration tax is EUR16,000, the highest in Europe.
>
>- The Indian state of Gujarat, writes the Institute for 
>Transportatation and Development Policy, is promoting bike lanes in 
>the capital, Ahmedabad.
>
>- David Piper, the new head of General Motors Powertrain Europe, was 
>hit and killed by a car, a day before he was scheduled to assume his 
>new duties. He was riding his bicycle.
>
>
>_______________
>
>WORLD NEWS >>
>__________________
>
>
>CHINA'S RAGE: THE BICYCLE VERSUS THE AUTOMOBILE
>[submitted by Daniel Lerch and edited from "The Washington Post" report]
>
>A minor traffic incident on a Sunday afternoon in Chizhou, China 
>sparked a riot that evolved over eight chaotic hours into an 
>"expression of rage against the Chinese Communist Party's new 
>fascination with businessmen, profits and economic growth," reports 
>the Washington Post.
>    The following is the Post's account of what happened:
>    Liu Liang, a computer student, was pedaling his bicycle by the 
>downtown vegetable market. Driving down the same street was Wu 
>Junxing, deputy manager of a hospital.
>    Liu's bicycle and Wu's sedan collided, sending Liu crashing to 
>the ground. Almost immediately, witnesses said, Liu, 22, and Wu, 34, 
>began arguing over who was at fault. In the heat of the dispute, 
>they said, Liu damaged one of Wu's side-view mirrors, prompting Wu's 
>bodyguards to beat the young man, leaving him bleeding from his 
>mouth and ears.
>    After they saw what happened to Liu, Chizhou's self-described 
>"common people" rose up against what they saw as their local 
>government's willingness to side with rich outside investors [Wu was 
>not from the area] against Chizhou's own. By the end of the evening, 
>10,000 Chizhou residents had filled the streets.
>    "When anger boils up in your heart so long, it has to burst," 
>said a Chizhou man who was part of the crowd that night.
>    By 5 pm, the mob turned its attention to Wu's sedan, overturning 
>it, pummeling it with rocks and then setting it afire with cigarette 
>lighters, the witnesses said. Two police cars suffered the same fate 
>an hour later, they added, and the police van was also trashed and
>set ablaze.
>    The crowd cheered and shouted at the sight of government vehicles burning.
>    Before calm returned to the streets, the disturbance had become a 
>political rebellion against the increasingly intimate connection in 
>modern China between big money and the Communist government.
>
>
>US TRANSPORTATION BILL APPROVED
>
>The US House of Representatives has approved a US$286.4 billion 
>highway and transit bill over the 2004-2009 period, including $50 
>billion for bus, train and other transit programs. It is expected to 
>be signed into law.
>    Despite committed efforts within Congress, says director Anne 
>Canby of the Surface Transportation Policy Project, the bill did not 
>raise transit's share of total funding, increase eligibility for 
>passenger rail investment, or promote more walking and bicycling. 
>Under the current bill, 80 percent of the money will go to road 
>projects, 18 percent to mass transportation and the remainder to 
>transportation safety and other projects, such as $2.3 million for 
>landscaping on the Ronald Reagan Freeway in California.
>   "Congress also missed several opportunities to help families deal 
>with rising gas prices, curb the nation's growing oil dependency and 
>accelerate efforts to reduce climate altering emissions," says Canby.
>    "This bill takes little action to improve energy security," says 
>Michael Replogle, Director of Environment Defense. "More than ever, 
>it will be up to state and local officials to put in place 
>transportation policy that protects our health and environment."
>
>
>PEAK PLATINUM: THE HYDROGEN CAR
>[submitted by Jason Meggs]
>
>As the car industry puts billions of dollars into developing 
>so-called clean hydrogen- powered vehicles, The Financial Times 
>reports that "the new fuel comes with its own built-in commodity 
>crisis."
>    "Today's experimental hydrogen fuel cells use so much platinum 
>that there is not enough of the precious metal to replace all the 
>world's petrol engines."
>    "With the current type of technology we know already that 
>platinum supplies will not be sufficient," says Kazuo Okamoto, 
>Toyota's new head of research and development.
>    "At the current 60 grams or so of platinum in each fuel cell," 
>writes The Financial Times, "the world's 780 million cars and trucks 
>would use 46,800 tons of the metal, just below the 47,570 tons 
>estimated to be still in the ground"
>    "If fuel cells power 80 per cent of cars by 2050, miners will be 
>unable to extract platinum fast enough."
>    Furthermore, a London Department of Transport study found that 
>there are "significant environmental impacts associated with 
>platinum mining and refining."
>   
>
>________________________
>
>    WORLD CARFREE NETWORK ANNOUNCEMENTS >>
>      __________________________________________
>
>
>TCFC V: BUDAPEST CONFERENCE REPORT
>
>After all of the presentations, workshops and informal meetings over 
>food, the fifth Towards Carfree Cities conference in Budapest, 
>Hungary, lived up to the standards set by the four previous 
>conferences. Clean Air Action Group were excellent hosts and 
>organisers, bringing together Hungarian activists and politicians, 
>along with international guests. The Hungarian press, television and 
>radio media covered the conference extensively.
>    At the Annual General Meeting, a new steering committee and 
>advisory board were approved. Their profiles are on our website at 
><www.worldcarfree.net/about_us/>.
>    The conference also gave participants the opportunity to develop 
>projects, both existing and developing.
>    A handful of groups from Poland, Hungary and Slovakia launched 
>The Visegrad Mobile Resource Centre, a three-year project, supported 
>by the Visegrad Fund, that will see translations of resources into 
>Czech, Slovak, Polish and Hungarian, and the creation of a Car 
>Busters anthology and a cutting your car use type book, also in 
>these four languages.
>    There was a meeting for the carfree area pilot project and 
>discussions are continuing on-line. A new press working group was 
>established, in the hopes of building on the success of the WCN 
>publicity campaign about the Bangladeshi rickshaw drivers. Their 
>first task will be to react to the current Critical Mass crackdowns 
>and police abuse of cyclists in New York City.
>    Thanks to Clean Air Action Group for their hard work, and also to 
>the Hungarian Young Greens, whose participation and contribution 
>made the conference productive and exciting, and gave all a richer 
>perspective on life in Budapest.
>
>
>___________________
>
>ANNOUNCEMENTS >>
>______________________________
>
>
>VELO MONDIAL 2006, CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA, MARCH 5-10, 2006
>
>The Velo Mondial 2006 Marketplace is a venue for innovative 
>bicycle-friendly, sustainable transport and non-motorised transport 
>projects from cities and towns across the world. Velo Mondial would 
>like to feature a wide range of projects and research, highlighting 
>successes as well as failures, and achievements as well as the 
>problems encountered. Presented in case study format, they can be 
>projects underway, or recently concluded, or research into the 
>impact of projects that have been implemented.
>    The deadline to submit an abstract is August 12, 2005 and 
>successful authors will be notified by September 23, 2005.
>    Visit <www.velomondial2006.com> for further conference 
>information and to submit
>an abstract.
>
>
>SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
>
>Interested in staying informed about sustainable transport 
>initiatives in the developing world? Check out the Sustainable 
>Transport e-Update, published bi-monthly by the Institute for 
>Transportation and Development Policy. The e-Update typically offers 
>five to eight short news briefs covering regional initiatives 
>ranging from Bus Rapid Transit to bicycle safety and planning to 
>urban revitalization. The latest issue visits India, Ecuador, China, 
>and more. To view the full stories, visit <www.itdp.org/index.html>.
>
>
>HAVE YOUR SAY IN IMPROVING THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT
>[submitted by Todd Edelman]
>
>The European Commission is seeking public opinion on the state of 
>the urban environment and how to improve it. The information 
>provided by the public will [in theory] form part of the 
>Commission's strategy trategy aimed at improving the quality of the 
>urban environment.
>    The consultation document which the public can give comments is 
>available in many languages at 
>http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/urban/public_consultation_2005.htm.
>
>
>___________________
>
>      DISCLAIMER >>
>      __________________
>
>We have heard enough about the hyper-green rhetoric of the hydrogen 
>economy, hybrids and sustainabilty. Why does not anyone hype the 
>bike-lane economy? Why aren't billions of dollars poured into a high 
>tech network of bike lanes? Why did we invent cars anyway?
>
>- Steven Logan
>
>[end]
>
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