[sustran] FW: Intro from FAJ (Forum for Automobile Issues of Japan)

[SUSTRAN Resource Centre]

Dear sustran-discussers,
An introduction and some news from an active sustainable transport advocacy group in Japan.
Paul. 

-----Original Message-----
From:	=?ISO-2022-JP?B?GyRCQj9FRCEhQDUbKEI=?= [SMTP:QWT07203 at nifty.ne.jp]
Sent:	Wednesday, December 30, 1998 9:28 AM
To:	sustran at po.jaring.my
Subject:	INTRO and NEWS from FAJ (Forum for Automobile Issues of Japan)

Dear Mr Paul Barter,

Thank you very much for invitation to SUSTRAN NEWS FLASH. Attached
please find our self-introduction and a short article.

------------------------------

INTRODUCTION and NEWS from FAJ (Forum for Automobile Issues of Japan),
renamed from Demotorization Forum Japan.

INTRODUCTION
* CONTACT: Masashi Tada, e-mail <QWT07203 at nifty.ne.jp>, Minami-ku,
Bessho 3-16-4, Yokohama, 232-0064 Japan. +81-45-712-9095.
* FAJ is an informal network campaigning for human oriented and
sustainable transport. It also requests cutting automobile traffic,
safer walking/cycling and better quality of public transportation
services.

NEWS
A Japanese researcher has estimated demand for motor gasoline up to
2010. It simulates that the demand will still continue to rise in spite
of efforts of introducing "low-fuel" or "cleaner" vehicles.
Increase in total number of vehicles will result in more traffic
congestion, which leads lower energy efficiency and higher emission of
GWG and pollution.
The mutual agreement at Kyoto Conference (COP3) stating that Japan is
to reduce 6% of GWG emission would be an empty promise?

Demand for motor gasoline in Japan:
1990  44.5 Million Kilo-Liters
1995  52.5 MKL
2000  58.6 MKL (Predicted)
2005  59.3 MKL (Predicted)
2010  59.3 MKL (Predicted)
(Shinya Shimomura, "Will Demand for Automotive Fuels Continues to Grow
in Future?" Energy Economics, Vol.24, No.1, 1998.)

This simulation supports the comment from SUSTRAN RESOURCE CENTRE upon
"Vehicle Industry/World Bank Roundtable" as described in SUSTRAN News
Flash #32. Obviously "low-fuel" or "cleaner" vehicle is not a solution
to make transport sustainable. Statistics of average road travel speed
show that the more roads are constructed, the lower speed is observed.
54,000 billions yens (eq. to 540 billions US$) had invested for road
construction during 1991-1994 in Japan, but no mitigation of traffic
congestion has been observed!

Best regards,
Masashi Tada
FAJ                                                              (以上)