[sustran] RV: human scale transportation, may issue

[Carlos Cordero V.]

Asunto: human scale transportation, may issue


>
>The bulletin of haman scale transportation
>May, 1999
>
>
>Pablo Neruda spreads us a bridge...
>
>
>One of the wildest and beautiful shows that i have witnessed took place
>two years ago at five in the afternoon in the bridge that crosses the Pearl
>River in Guang Zhou, China.
>
>The endless tide of cyclists dismounts at the bottom of the bridge
>and they begin to push its vehicles up. Once they reach the peak start
>to return to the pedals and they get lost in the afternoon.
>
>
>Reading again the following text that belongs to the memoirs of Neruda
>reminded everything that.
>
>
>" In Chung King my Chinese friends took me to the bridge of the city. I
have
>loved the bridges all my life. My father, a railman, inspired me great
>respect for them. He never called them bridges. It had been to profane
them.
>He called them works of art, qualifying that didn't grant to the
>paintings, neither to the sculptures, neither of course to my poems. Only
to
>the bridges. My father took me many times to contemplate the wonderful
>viaduct of the Malleco, in the south of Chile. Up to now i had
>thought that the most beautiful bridge in the world was that, spread among
>the southern green of the mountains, high and thin and pure, as a steel
>violin with its tense strings, prepared to be touched by the wind of
>Collipuli. The immense bridge that crosses the river Yang Tse is another
>thing.
>It is the most grandiose work in the Chinese engineering. And it is, also,
>the end of a secular fight. The city of Chung King was divided for
centuries
>for the
>river, an isolation that involved delay, slowness and isolation.
>
>The enthusiasm of my Chinese friends who show me the bridge is
>excessive for the power of my legs. They make me to go up towers and go
down
>abysses, to look at the water that runs for thousands of years,
>crossed today for this hardware store of kilometers. For these rails
>will pass the trains; these roads will be for the cyclists; this enormous
>avenue for the pedestrians. I am overwhelmed by so much greatness"
>
>
>* * *
>
>The memory possesses its own bridges and sometimes it needs a kind
>hand to spread them.
>
>* * *
>
>
>We are very happy for the reception that has had our first Bulletin, we
have
>received correspondence of diverse places. From Anne, a Swedish engineer
>that works in Denmark and Areli of the Bicicletero movement  of Mexico,
also
>by the Amicis of the Bike in Spain or a dozen of new subscribers in Brazil.
>What takes me to think that somehow recent we are a community that is
>gathered in conferences or  heard about each other as a part of something
>bigger.
>
>Initially the bulletin was distributed to near eighty people/organizations
>and now, thanks to the collaborations, we count with more than 200
>addressees, besides people that resend/recycle the bulletin.
>It is important for us to receive your collaborations. Tell us how are
>things going. With the hands of all we build the bulletin. We all know how
>pleasant it is to walk accompanied, our way seems shorter.
>
>Now also we walk in English...
>
>Thanks to the courtesy of Eric Britton of International Ecoplan and his
>software of translation we have a version now in English for all those that
>don't enjoy the pleasure to walk through the life in spanish. Apparently
our
>Brazilian friends are not in trouble with Cervantes.
>
>Ecoplan has an interesting URL that can be seen in www.ecoplan.org
>
>
>Speaking of English...
>
>Every January the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National
>Council of Investigation of the United States carries out their Annual
>Conference in Washington, D.C. It is a a week of presentations, forums,
>seminars, etc. It presents a great variety of results of investigations
>about  transport.
>
>For the next conference, which will be carried out from the 9 to January
13,
>2000, they will  organize sessions with focus in Latin America. The
deadline
>to present proposals is already now! So interested parties  contact
>as soon as possible Chris in czegras at mit.edu
>
>
>Ton Daggers is an old friend of this house. We met each other already some
>years ago in Basel. I was interested in knowing the experience of Holland
>and Ton invited me to spend some days in his house of Utrecht. From then
>on we have shared friendship, work and a drink of Gin every time that I
>visit his country. He worked several years in Nicaragua building bicycles
>and future. Now he is the  Manager of Interface for Cycling Expertise's
>Project  designing  the street 80 in Bogotá. (enclosed you will find  the
>interview. Sorry, only spanish)
>
>
>The Project Ciclobrasil 2000
>
>Some territories enter to my mental geography in bicycle and on foot. Among
>the first ones it is Florianapolis, capital of the State of Santa Catarina,
>to the south of Brazil.
>
>Antonio and Giselle are working in this project that it is based
>on 4 work areas: communication, education, projects and planning. Among the
>initiatives they are planning the organization of the Brazilian
>Congress of Planning of the use of the bicycle ( Velo Tropicalis 2000). We
>will maintain you informed of the advance of the project. Contacts:
>antonmir at zaz.com.br
>
>
>From the bicicleteros of Mexico,
>Areli tells us that in Cuernavaca they call ' Ciclopistas', to what we
>denominate  ' Ciclovías ' in Peru. Well, one name more for the book of the
>impossible ones.
>She will send us Iván Illich last writings so  we defer our comment of '
>Energy and Equity for a next issue.
>
>It seems that in Chile  also exists the term ' Ciclobandas'. We hope the
>Real Spanish Academy remembers the HST language one of these days.
>
>
>Police in wheels
>
>"The Police of Bogotá included in its budget of this year the acquisition
of
>1.000 bicycles for its program of Community Police", this is, to bring near
>the policeman to the community and to face the delinquency from the
bicycle.
>The previous year it began a plan pilot with 440 units and the positive
>result that this hurtled, it has taken them to increase in 1000 more
>bicycles, for a total of 1.440 policemen in bicycle. This example is taking
>by other cities of Colombia which already begin some smaller but equally
>more important programs: Cartagena 100 units, Tolu 30 units, Leticia: 20
>units, Melgar 25 units. The general Director of the Police of Colombia, the
>general Roso Mountain José is aware of the chances to implement  this
>program massively. Of another part, the company INSSA - JD OSSA AND CIA is
>establishing a program of training for policemen, under the consultantship
>of International Police Mountain Bike Association Police on Bikes."
>
>The example that Javier Ossa relates us  reveals a nodal point of the
>urban policy. The relationship among the police forces
>and the population and the role that  plays on it the private sector . Many
>cities in the EE UU (Seattle, Washington D.C. among other) have carried out
>similar programs with great success. Many years ago in Seattle we picked up
>part of this experience. The police pointed out that the success of the
>program rests in the proximity of the police with the neighborhood. We
refer
>here  two types of nearness: The physical (in Lima the municipal police
>acquires bicycles under the same premise) and to a near social relationship
>between authorities and citizens (the silence of the bicycles doesn't
>destroy the tranquility of the neighborhoods and it is friendly with its
>inhabitants)
>
>These programs also avoid or  control the motorization that comes from the
>own police. I never really understood how to controlling the automobile
>congestion buying thousands of automobiles and motorcycles. Many times a
>police women or men with a bicycle and a radio/movile phone is enough.
>
>
>IN THE LIBRARY OF THE INDISPENSABLES ONES
>is John forester and his Effective Cycling. From Santiago,  Edmundo Rojas
>has sent us the spanish version of this classic, recently published in
Chile
>by Be-uve-drais and the  editorial Cuatrovientos.
>
>This is an unavoidable book for the cyclists od muscle and brain and for
all
>those that participate of the promotion of the HST.
>
>The book of Forester is organized distinguishing among the bicycle, the
>cyclist and the cycling (as long as  transportation and sport). We are not
>of course in front of a platitude, but facing a solid intent to define
>principles for the correct and effective use of the machine, to understand
>the user's characteristics and for the development of the controvertible
>theories of Forester on what denominates ' the point of view vehicular
>ciclístico':
>
>"The vehicular-cycling and the cyclist-inferiority views measure cycling
>policies by entirely different criteria. The vehicular-cycling view says
>that cyclists are reasonably safe on the roads if they act and are
>treated as drivers of vehicles, and sees as problems those acts
>(restritive laws, bad highway designs, bikeways, low social status of
>cyclist) of society and gobernment that contradict that principle. The
>cyclist-inferiority view says that motor traffic makes the roads too
>dangerous for cycling, and sees the problems as society's and
>gobernment's failure to do enough to make cycling safe (by building
>bikeways) and to oppose motoring (by high taxes and others
>restrictions). That is the crucial difference, even though both views
>agree about non-roadway problems such as scarcity of secure bicycle
>parking spaces".
>(Effective Cycling, by John Forester; sixth edition, 1993, page 558)
>
>
>In  Forester writings the bicycle is an unsheathed sword, it is
>sustained alone without dedicated infrastructure and on the base of its
>program of training for cyclists. In this sense Forester leans for the
>integreationist theories of the HST, when pointing out that it is not
>required of a special infrastructure but rather efforts should concentrate
>on incorporating the cyclists in the planning pprocess and the analysis
>/understanding of the causes of the accidents, as well as in the
development
>of handling programs in bicycle.
>
>To understand the whole extent the proposals of Forester supposes to
>recognize the context in which they arise. In general, the tendency exists
>inside
>of highly motorized countries (EE UU and Germany are examples) to the
>development of segregated infrastructure that it moves away the cyclists of
>the streets and it transfers the conflict toward the pedestrians, under the
>argument of the security. It is a logic  tributary of an excluding order
>that perceives  the cyclists like anomalous elements of the urban traffic.
>Forester pleads to recover the cyclist's status like driver of a vehicle
>with the same rights and obligations that the other ones.
>
>To acquire John's book Efficient Cycling Forester you can go to:
>
>http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Congress/6554
>Post-office address: Av. Jaime Guzmán 3293, Ñuñoa, Santiago, Chile.
>Electronic mail: bvdrais at yahoo.com      4vientos at netline.cl
>
>Good, this is becoming very long and we all have other things that to do,
>
>A hug from Lima, Carlos
>
>
>Carlos Cordero V.
>CICLORED - Center of advising and training
>for the Transportation and environment
>
>San Juan 242, Lima 33, Peru
>tel: (51) 1 4460175
>telfax (51) 1 4472675
>and mail: ccordero at amauta.rcp.net.pe
>
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