[sustran] FW: World Turning to Bycycle for Mobility and Exercise

Paul Barter geobpa at nus.edu.sg
Tue Jul 23 10:01:26 JST 2002


----- Original Message -----
From: "kisan mehta" <kisansbc at vsnl.com>
To: "Paul Barter" <geobpa at nus.edu.sg>;
Cc: "kisan mehta" <kisansbc at vsnl.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 20, 2002 9:05 AM
Subject: Fw: World Turning to Bycycle for Mobility and Exercise


> Dear Paul,
>
> The following sent to sustran-discuss bounced.  Would you like to put 
> the same in circulation?  Best wishes  Priya and Kisan
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "kisan mehta" <kisansbc at vsnl.com>
> To: "sustran-discuss" <sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org>
> Cc: "kisan mehta" <kisansbc at vsnl.com>
> Sent: Thursday, July 18, 2002 11:47 AM
> Subject: Re: World Turning to Bycycle for Mobility and Exercise
>
>
> > Dear Colleagues,
> >
> > We do not know whether statistics cited in the piece coauthored by 
> > Lester R. Brown and Janet Larsen (copied below) are of the US or 
> > global. Probably they refer to the US and then to roads reserved for

> > cycles in other countries.  Instances from developing (correctly 
> > poor) countries cannot be relevant as the option for the citizen is 
> > of getting the first mechanical mode of mobility after using walking

> > for movement for ages.  Increase in number of cycles in these 
> > countries where the option of car ownership is restricted to the 
> > richest few cannot give a correct of picture. In fact it is these 
> > poor countries that suffer the most from uncontrolled and state/big 
> > business/multilateral funding agencies supported explosions of 
> > personal motor cars.
> >
> > Such studies do not take us far.  Even in countries where cycling is

> > promoted, through special policy measures, one has to juxtapose the 
> > length of roads restricted to cycles with the total
> > length of roads in that country.   It is clear that motor cars and
> > cycles cannot coexist on roads open to all modes of trafic. Even 
> > public road buses cannot coexist with faster mode of traffic that is

> > motor car,.So roads where all traffic modes are allowed should be 
> > considered out of bounds for cyclists and buses even if their
movement
> is technically not banned.  Computerised traffic
> > management systems are promoted and supported by World
> Bank, Asian Development Bank etc, set up for poverty removal and
> > reduction, to provide uninterrupted speed to fast moving vehicle 
> > again the motor car. The resultant high road fatality rate in which 
> > (according to a WB report) individuals using motor car form only 5% 
> > of deaths (pedestrians/cyclists forming 95%).
> >
> > Another reason in decline in car purchase in the developed countries

> > esp the US can be existence of already very high
> > rate of car ownership to the population.   There is a limit to
> > car ownership for any community.   For citizens residing in
> > countries having very high car rate, can we not say that cycle 
> > ownership is a status symbol to be used by school students or 
> > housewives for local errands?
> >
> > The World Bank bemoaning very low car ownership in a
> poor country now promotes motorisation claiming to provide better 
> mobility to the bulk of citizens.  The Bank approved in June 2002 6 
> lane roads sans pavements in crowded Mumbai (average population 
> density exceeding 27,000 per sq km) where auto exhaust forms 80% of 
> air pollution and public transport provides 88% of total journeys.
> >
> > It should obviously be the net decline in the number of cars
> on road and increase in cycle ownership that can give satisfaction to 
> concerned citizens and environmentalists.
> >
> > While we appreciate the effort gone into writing the `World Turning 
> > to Bicycle for mobility and exercise'  we can say that large scale 
> > and visible change over from motor cars to cycles, other non 
> > motorised modes and public transport can only
> give the community a feeling that car owners have started caring for 
> the protection of the environment more than personal comforts. Best 
> wishes.
> >
>  Kisan Mehta  President  kisansbc at vsnl.com
> Priya Salvi Hon Project Coordinator priya_salvi at yahoo.com Save Bombay 
> Committee 620 Jame Jamshed Road, Dadar East,
> Mumbai 400 014 India
> Tel:   00 91 22  414 9688
> Fax: .00 91 22  415 5536
>
> > ***************************************
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: <owner-public at lists.earth-policy.org>
> > To: <undisclosed-recipients:>
> > Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2002 7:51 PM
> >
> > > Eco-Economy Update 2002-9
> > > For Immediate Release
> > > Copyright Earth Policy Institute 2002
> > > July 17, 2002
> > > Sender: owner-public at lists.earth-policy.org
> > > Precedence: bulk
> > >
> > WORLD TURNING TO BICYCLE FOR MOBILITY AND EXERCISE
> > > Bicycle Sales Top 100 Million In 2000 
> > > http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update13.htm
> > >
> > > Lester R. Brown and Janet Larsen
> > >
> In the year 2000, world bicycle production climbed to 101 million, 
> more than double the 41 million cars produced. Sales of bikes are 
> soaring because they provide affordable mobility for billions of 
> people, increase physical fitness, alleviate traffic congestion, and 
> do not pollute the air or emit climate-disrupting carbon dioxide.
> > >
> A half-century ago, it was widely expected that automobile production 
> would quickly exceed that of bicycles. Indeed by 1965, car production,

> which had been growing rapidly since World War II, was poised to 
> overtake bicycle production. But it never did. Mounting environmental 
> concerns slowed the growth in car output and accelerated that of 
> bikes. Between 1969 and 1970, the year of the first Earth Day,
> bike sales jumped from 25 million to 36 million.
> > >
> Shortly after the first Earth Day, the two oil-price shocks of the 
> 1970s underlined the risks of oil-dependent mobility. Car sales 
> stalled near 30 million from 1973 to 1983. Bicycle sales, meanwhile, 
> jumped from 52 million to 74 million. 
> http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update13_data.htm
> > >
> The bicycle's principal attraction is its low cost. With cars costing 
> easily 100 times as much, the bicycle offers mobility to billions of 
> people who cannot afford a car. The widely affordable bike attracted 
> 960 million buyers during the 1990s, compared with 370 million for the

> car.
> > >
> The bicycle also reduces the amount of land that needs to
> be paved.  Six bicycles typically can fit into the road space used by 
> one .For parking, the advantage is even greater, with 20 bicycles 
> occupying the space required for a car.
>
> As the world automobile fleet expanded and as people
> moved in droves to cities, ever worsening traffic congestion 
> highlighted the inherent conflict between the automobile and the city.

> In London today, the average speed of a car is roughly the same as 
> that of a horse-drawn carriage a century ago. Each year, the average 
> motorist in Bangkok spends the equivalent of 44 working days sitting 
> in a car going nowhere. After a point, more cars mean less mobility. 
> Another attraction of the bicycle is that it does not contribute to 
> the air pollution that claims 3 million lives annually.
> > >
> In recent decades, the densely populated countries of northern Europe 
> have turned to the bicycle to alleviate traffic congestion and reduce 
> air pollution. In Stockholm, one of the world's wealthiest cities, car

> use has declined in recent years. Railroads and buses are increasingly

> linked with pedestrian and bicycle routes. In Sweden's urban areas, 
> roughly 10 percent of all trips are taken by bicycle, about the same 
> number as by public transit. Almost 40 % of trips are on foot. Only 36

> % are by car.
> > >
> In the Netherlands, bicycles account for up to half of all trips in 
> some cities. Extensive bike paths and lanes in both the Netherlands 
> (almost 19,000 kilometers) and Germany (over 31,000 kilometers) 
> connect rural and urban areas. These networks offer the cyclist 
> separate right-of-way, making for safer trips and less direct 
> competition with cars and trucks.
>
> In Copenhagen, one third of the population commutes to work by cycle. 
> By 2005, Copenhagen's innovative city-bike program will provide 3,000 
> bicycles for free use within the city. Bike use there is expected to 
> continue growing as city planners increase already high car parking 
> fees by 3 % annually over the next 15 years, impose high fuel taxes 
> and vehicle registration costs, and concentrate future development 
> around rail lines.
> > >
> In many cities in the United States, bikes provide mobility that cars 
> cannot match. More than four fifths of all urban police departments 
> now have some of their force on bicycles. Officers on bikes can 
> usually reach the scene of a crime before those in squad cars, 
> typically making 50 percent more arrests per day. For fiscally 
> sensitive city managers, the low cost of operating a bicycle and the 
> high productivity of an officer using one is a winning combination.
> > >
> Urban bicycle messenger services are now common in large cities.  For 
> firms that market on the Internet, quick delivery means more 
> customers.In a city like New York, where this creates an enormous 
> potential for the use of bicycle messengers, an estimated 300 bicycle 
> messenger firms compete for $700 million worth of business each year.
> > >
> Land scarcity is also driving the world toward the bicycle, 
> particularly in densely populated Asia, where half the world lives. In

> heavily populated, affluent Japan, the bicycle plays a strategic role.

> In Tokyo, where 90 % of workers commute by rail, 30 % use a bicycle to

> reach their local rail station.
> > >
> When the Chinese government announced in 1994 that it was going to 
> develop an automobile-centered transportation system, the policy was 
> quickly challenged by a group of eminent scientists who produced a 
> white paper indicating several reasons this approach would not work. 
> The first reason was that China did not have enough land both to build

> the roads, highways, and parking lots needed for automobiles and to 
> feed its people. The scientists argued instead for a 
> rail/bicycle-based transport system.
> > >
> Although some cities in China, such as Beijing and Shanghai, are 
> restricting bicycle use in favor of the car, bike ownership throughout

> the country is still on the rise. Automobile ownership in China is 
> measured in the millions, but bicycle ownership is in the hundreds of 
> millions.
> > >
> >  Bicycles are also used to transport goods. In rural Africa
> where women use bicycles to transport farm produce to
> market, the resulting market expansion has raised farm output. In 
> Ghana, bikes help HIV/AIDS educators reach 50 percent more people than

> those on foot.
> > >
> For decades, the United States largely ignored the bicycle
> in transport system planning as federal funds were channeled almost 
> exclusively into highway construction. This began to change in 1991 
> when Congress passed landmark legislation recognizing the role of the 
> bicycle in the development of transport systems and requiring each 
> state to have a bicycle coordinator. From 1992 through 1997, more than

> $1 billion of federal funds were invested in bicycle infrastructure. 
> In New Jersey, this translated into an 800-mile statewide network of
> bicycle trails.
> > >
> This new federal commitment helped boost U.S. bike sales
> from 15 million in 1991 to 21 million in 2000. When
> President Clinton signed the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st 
> Century in 1998, he set the stage for further integration of bicycles 
> into transportation planning.
>
> Bicycles are gaining popularity in industrial countries because they 
> provide exercise. With half or more of adults now overweight in 
> countries like the United States, Russia, Germany and the United 
> Kingdom, obesity is one of the world's leading public health problems.

> In the United States, obesity-related deaths currently total 300,000 a

> year, fast approaching the 420,000 for cigarette smoking.
> > >
> The bicycle's role in the world transport system is expanding. Not 
> only does it provide low-cost mobility, but in cities it often 
> provides more mobility than the automobile. Because it provides 
> mobility and exercise, does not pollute the air or disrupt the h's 
> climate, and is efficient in its use of land, the bicycle is emerging 
> as the transport vehicle of the future.
> > >
> Additional data and information sources at www.earth-policy.org or 
> contact > jlarsen at earth-policy.org
> > For reprint permission contact rjkauffman at earth-policy.org
> > >
>
>




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