[Carfreeliving] BeyondChron article on Car Free Day

[Dave Snyder]

http://www.beyondchron.org/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=110&twindow=&mad=&sdetail=2481&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=

or below:

Car Free San Francisco
Alison Stevens Rodrigues 16.SEP.05

For San Francisco, Sept. 22, 2005 will signify more than the first 
day of autumn; it also will mark the city's fourth Car Free Day 
celebration, an event in which roughly 1,500 other cities around the 
world will take part. According to the Car Busters Web site, their 
Prague, Czech Republic-based organization initiated the world's first 
global Car Free Day in 2000, when "the actions of four continents 
reclaimed our streets and our lives from the automobile."

 From there, Car Free Day developed into a movement, particularly in 
Europe where many countries observe Mobility Week - seven days of 
activities, "facilitating widespread debate on the necessity for 
changes in behavior in relation to mobility and in particular the use 
of the private car."

This year's theme for European Mobility Week will be Clever 
Commuting. With this focus, "European Mobility Week wants to 
contribute to reducing traffic congestion, transport-related 
greenhouse gases and improving the health and quality of life of 
European citizens," reads the official European Mobility Week's Web 
site.

Similar are the goals of the Transportation Working Group for San 
Francisco's Green Party, said Sue Vaughan, the group's director. 
Vaughan, who is helping organize two car-free events here in San 
Francisco, said one of the Sierra Club's planks calls for the end of 
the car as our country's dominant form of mobility.

Planning should happen around public transportation, walking and 
biking, Vaughan said. Instead, the Metropolitan Transportation 
Commission predicts an increase in traffic of 25 percent by 2030, she 
said.

"That's absurd; the planet wouldn't have enough energy to sustain 
it," said Vaughan.

The Sierra Club representative further explained that while Saudi 
Arabia currently pumps 10.5 million gallons of oil per day, its goal 
is to produce 12.5 million barrels a day by 2009. That goal also is 
absurd, according to Vaughan who said that it is a goal based on 
consumer desire rather than on what is underground.
"How can we pump what's not there?" Vaughan questioned. "And when we 
run out of oil, how are we going to meet our daily needs without 
cars?"

These are some of the concerns that Vaughan hopes will spark 
intelligent conversation and possible solutions at two Car Free Day 
events, the first being a power-point presentation on September 20 
where Richard Heinberg, expert on peak oil, will discuss how to avoid 
oil wars, terrorism and economic collapse. Then on September 22, a 
screening of the award-winning documentary, "The End of Suburbia: Oil 
Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream," will be followed 
by a panel discussion with District 5 Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, Dave 
Room of the Post Carbon Institute, and Leah Shahum of the San 
Francisco Bicycle Coalition as panelists.

When asked why San Francisco is not devoting an entire week to 
sustainable transportation and being car free, the coalition's 
program director, Andy Thornley, said that we in the U.S. are used to 
living in an individualistic society and to getting what we want. 
Cars lend themselves to that way of thinking.

Such anthropocentricism dates back to World War II with the beginning 
of a Federal transportation policy that "over-emphasizes the use of 
the automobile for travel at the expense of other modes," said 
Patrick McDonough, the Car Free Day Chairperson for North Carolina's 
advocacy group, The Village Project.

According to Thornley, it goes back even further, to more than 100 
years ago when Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. and oil companies forced 
people into cars. With the replacement of buses for trolley cars came 
the systematic dismantling of transportation, he said.

"It was a political maneuver that pandered to people's convenience," 
said Thornley.

Unfortunately, the convenience factor is something that many are not 
willing to sacrifice, which is partly why, according to Vaughan, San 
Francisco does not have a free transit system like Chapel Hill, N.C. 
has, or even a free downtown transit system like Seattle has.

"The financial commitment needs to be there, which means the public 
and political support of transit needs to be firm, not tenuous, and 
there for the long haul," McDonough said. "We [in Chapel Hill] have a 
political climate that is conducive to this type of commitment."

The fact that San Francisco's political climate in not as committed 
exposes exactly where the progressivism in this city ends, said a 
frustrated Vaughan.

"You know, people here will fight against war and they'll fight in 
favor of gay rights and women's rights; but they draw the line at 
their cars and parking."

Still, Vaughan remains hopeful that the sense of shared obligation 
for public transportation, which she and Thornley feel is largely 
missing in this country, will someday come to pass. That is why 
Vaughan soon will be hosting a program called, Car Free Talk, which 
will begin airing on Public Access Television in October or November 
of this year.

As Vaughan sees it, the Bush Administration has offered us a solution 
to the energy crisis - a war that will not be over in our lifetime.

"But I want to find a more peaceful solution, one that's better for 
the planet environmentally."

Richard Heinberg speaking on Peak Oil and How to Avoid Oil Wars, 
Terrorism and Economic Collapse
Tuesday, September 20, 7 p.m., New College Theater, 777 Valencia St., 
San Francisco
The End of Suburbia: Movie & Panel Discussion
Thursday, September 22, 6p.m., The Red Victorian Bed and Breakfast, 
1665 Haight St., San Francisco
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