[sustran] Re: Fwd: CAR BUSTERS BULLETIN #49

[Thomas Krag]

Dear Carbusters,

I just sent you a donation amounting 160 USD
(https://secure.kagi.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/PQ.woa/wa/t?t=CH7P8ATH77H3ADHKD 
).

I was rather surprised to find that in practice this meant that I had to pay
200 USD due to 25% VAT for Denmark (on only found out after I had pressed
the "confirm" button).

It is probably unavoidable that VAT has to be added for products like books
etc. It is, on the other hand, not necessary for donations. In my case I can
probably manage it as I am registered as a private company. But for others
it will be an unnecessary extra expenditure (or meaning that you get less).
I recommend you find out how to avoid this automatic VAT'ing for the
donations.

Best regards

Thomas Krag

----- Original Message -----
From: "Barter, Paul" <paulbarter at nus.edu.sg>
To: <sustran-discuss at jca.apc.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 02, 2003 5:17 AM
Subject: [sustran] Fwd: CAR BUSTERS BULLETIN #49


From: "Car Busters" <info at carbusters.org>
To: carbusters_bulletin_eng at lists.riseup.net
Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2003 00:17:38 +0200
List-Archive: <http://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/carbusters_bulletin_eng>
Subject: [carbusters_bulletin_eng] CAR BUSTERS BULLETIN #49

_________________________

     CAR BUSTERS BULLETIN >>>
     ____________________________________

Edition no. 49 - August 2003 - English version
...........................................................


* DEAR BULLETIN READERS AND SUPPORTERS, *
   Car Busters (currently transforming into World Carfree
Network) needs your help. To ensure that our office and
projects run smoothly in the coming months, we are in great
need of your financial support. Funding that we expected to
come through has either not materialised or has been
delayed. In the month of August, we need to raise an extra
2,000 EUR/USD on top of our normal income.
   A little goes a long way in the Czech Republic. By
contributing 160 EUR/USD, you would pay our office rent for
one month. By giving 375 EUR/USD, you would pay for a full- time staff
member's monthly wages. You can also join us at
one of three membership levels: 30, 50 or 100 EUR/USD.
   Payment options can be found here:
<http://www.carbusters.org/resources/info.php>. Credit card
orders can be made here:
<http://www.carbusters.org/consume_now/> (the 'donations'
field is towards the bottom).
   Thank you very much for your support.
   - The Car Busters/World Carfree Network team


Contents:

BOXERS AND BRIEFS

ACTION ALERT
- HELP SAVE U.S. ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORT FUNDING

WORLD NEWS
- CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE BAKU-CEYHAN PIPELINE CONTINUES
- BRITISH GOVERNMENT DROPS SUPPORT FOR ARUNDEL BYPASS
- EU BEHIND ON KYOTO GOAL, TRANSPORT EMISSIONS TO BLAME
- HORRIFIC TRAFFIC CRASHES IN USA RAISE IMPORTANCE OF
CARFREE AREAS
- BLACK STARS ON BOGOTA STREETS

CAR BUSTERS ANNOUNCEMENTS
- WORLD CARFREE DAY 2003
- JOIN THE DISCUSSION
- CAR BUSTERS PRESS: BARGAIN BASEMENT BOOKS

DISCLAIMER


__________________

     BOXERS AND BRIEFS >>
     __________________________


- The Ford Excursion - the world's largest regular SUV at
19 feet in length (5.8 meters), averaging 10 mpg (16 kpg),
carrying nine people, unable to fit into conventional US
garages, and requiring two parking spaces on city streets -
is rumoured to be discontinued in 2004 as reported by the
BBC.

- In contrast to statements made by Bush administration
officials, the United States Environmental Protection
Agency found that a plan to reduce emissions linked to
global warming could be carried out at little cost.

_______________

     ACTION ALERT >>
     __________________


HELP SAVE U.S. ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORT FUNDING
[compiled from various sources]

On July 24, the US House of Representatives' Committee on
Appropriations unveiled its 2004 Transportation & Treasury
Spending Bill. If it passes without modification through a
number of stages in both houses of Congress, it would:
- cut passenger rail (AMTRAK) to half its minimum operating
budget (to $900 million from the $1.8 billion it needs to
maintain its skeletal existing services);
- eliminate the popular Transportation Enhancements
programme; and
- boost highway spending to $33.8 billion, an increase of
$4.5 billion over the President's request and $6.1 billion
over the 2003 budget.
   The bill would direct AMTRAK to eliminate its national
passenger rail system. A few profitable corridors in the
Northeast and the West Coast would be maintained but
possibly privatised. This would leave the United States as
the only industrialised nation without national passenger
rail service.
   One major problem is that Congress members see support
for AMTRAK as a "subsidy" - rail is expected to somehow
turn a profit - while the much larger expenditures on
highways and air-industry bail-outs are couched in the more
neutral or positive language of "expenditures" or "economic
investment" and have no profit-making expectations. Another
problem is that Congress members still think that more
money spent on highways will help solve road congestion.
This is no longer a credible argument. As various studies
on traffic generation have shown, road building would in
most cases have the opposite effect: The more road capacity
is increased, the more traffic expands to fill the
available space. To solve traffic congestion, we would do
better to reduce road capacity than to expand it.
   Bare-bones highlights of the bill can be found here:
<http://www.house.gov/appropriations/news/108_1/04ttfull2.ht
m>. Analysis regarding the slashing of Transportation
Enhancements can be found here:
<http://www.americabikes.org/saveenhancements.asp>.
   Since 1991, the Transportation Enhancements program has
built 8,000 bicycle and pedestrian projects in communities
large and small across the US.
   "Transportation Enhancements account for less than two
cents of every Federal surface transportation dollar," says
Keith Laughlin, President of the Rails-to-Trails
Conservancy. "For less than two cents per dollar we get a
popular program that supports locally-initiated
transportation projects in communities across America.
Those who would eliminate this program believe that every
single Federal penny should be spent on highways. I urge
Congress to reject such short-sighted thinking."
   If you are a US citizen, please call or write your
congressional representatives as soon as possible and urge
them to cut highway spending, fund AMTRAK for at least $1.8
billion and preserve and expand the Transportation
Enhancements programme. (Congressional Switchboard number:
(202) 224-3121; President Bush: (202) 456-1111.)    But
don't stop there; it's even more important to join
organised political efforts to save and expand US
alternative transport.

_______________

     WORLD NEWS >>
     __________________


CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE BAKU-CEYHAN PIPELINE CONTINUES
[from London Rising Tide]

In the early morning of July 10, Earth First! and other
concerned individuals blockaded AMEC's office in
Warrington, UK for three hours, demanding that the company
pull out of the Baku pipeline project. AMEC has a 200- million-pound
contract to build the Georgian part of the
pipeline.
   The activists mounted a large tripod and a chain of
people locked themselves together across the entrance. The
action prevented around 250 vehicles from entering the
complex, causing deliveries to be cancelled and making
company workers climb over locked-on people and a banner
proclaiming "Stop Baku Pipeline" to get to work. After
three hours and absolutely no action on the part of the
three baffled and slightly bored police, the protest packed
up and went to the pub, retrieving the materials, with no
arrests.
   One week before, an AMEC construction site in Manchester
mysteriously sprouted slogans all over the hoardings, such
as "AMEC Murderers," "AMEC Out of Baku," "Stop the Baku
pipeline," as well as the entrance being liquid-metalled
shut.
   On Monday, July 14, Friends of the Earth and European
Green MP Jean Lambert presented a section of pipeline to
the Department For International Development covered with
over 4,000 letters from members of the public protesting
against the Baku Ceyhan pipeline. For background
information on the Baku-Ceyhan-Tbilisi Pipeline go to
www.baku.org.uk or www.risingtide.org.uk.


BRITISH GOVERNMENT DROPS SUPPORT FOR ARUNDEL BYPASS
[spotted by Richard Lane]

A victory has been won by the campaign to halt the second
Arundel Bypass, west of Brighton, UK. At the last minute,
and against all expectations, the British Government
dropped its support for the environmentally destructive
scheme, as well as for the equally disastrous proposed
Worthing Bypass across the South Downs behind Cissbury
Ring. Arundel and South Downs MP Howard Flight was
certainly caught by surprise, having sent out a statement
to local press earlier in the week welcoming 'the
government announcement to proceed with a bypass for
Arundel.'
   Early July saw a flurry of media interest in the Arundel
protest camp at Tortington Common, with reports everywhere
from BBC TV and Meridian to the Evening Argus, The Times
and The Guardian. A hint as to the reasons why the
government backed down in West Sussex, while ploughing
ahead with road plans elsewhere in the country, came in a
report on the Evening Standard website. Written before the
announcement, and seemingly expecting the Arundel road to
be given the green light, it added: "The government will be
desperate to avoid clashes with committed activists such as
'Swampy' - so-called 'king of the eco-warriors.' It is
still nervous of provoking the kind of confrontations that
created ugly scenes at Twyford Down and the Newbury Bypass
in the late nineties."
   We've said it before and we'll say it again: direct
action works!


EU BEHIND ON KYOTO GOAL, TRANSPORT EMISSIONS TO BLAME
[from ITDP's Sustainable Transport e-Update]

The European Environmental Agency found that greenhouse gas
emissions rose for the second year in a row, moving the EU
further away from meeting its emissions reductions
commitment under the Kyoto Protocol. Emissions from the
transport sector, paired with a cold winter that led to
more electricity use, were blamed for the increase. While
the results are certainly disappointing, at least the EU is
participating in the Kyoto Protocol and performing yearly
monitoring studies that point to the specific areas where
emissions targets are not being met.


HORRIFIC TRAFFIC CRASHES IN USA RAISE IMPORTANCE OF CARFREE
AREAS

On July 16, an 86-year-old man drove his vehicle into an
outdoor market in Santa Monica, USA killing 10 people and
injuring 69 others. Eleven days later in Florida, a 79-year- old man
drove his vehicle into an outdoor market, sending
six people to the hospital.
   Instead of these events creating political pressure to
redesign communities for people - ensuring independent
mobility for all, regardless of age or physical ability -
the overwhelming response has been limited to having people
take car keys away from their elderly parents and
instructing physicians to report to authorities people who
should no longer be driving. However, there is now some
awareness of the need for making some public spaces
carfree.


BLACK STARS ON BOGOTA STREETS

More than 1,500 black stars have been painted on the
streets of Bogota, Colombia, as a stark reminder of each
pedestrian death caused by car crashes over the last five
years. The educational campaign asks Bogota, "We are
getting used to this; what's the matter with us?" The
campaign aims to reduce the death rate by 10%.

___________________

     CAR BUSTERS ANNOUNCEMENTS >>
     __________________________________


WORLD CARFREE DAY 2003

September 22 is World Carfree Day - less than two months
away! We have big plans for local activities in Prague, but
we haven't had the resources to provide much infrastructure
and global coordination. So we encourage you to organise
locally and independently, and to report back with your
plans and post-event reports. As for 2004, we have been
providing significant input on the direction of the EU and
UN carfree day programmes, and we will let you know when we
have good news to report. In the meantime, join the
listserve below to share carfree day organising ideas with
others around the world. All the best and good luck!


JOIN THE DISCUSSION

Are you interested in having a say in the transformation of
Car Busters into a more decentralised international
network? Might your local organisation want to be a part of
it all and gain a voice at the international level? If so,
you may want to join the discussion at
carfree_network at lists.riseup.net. The listserve, rather
than a place for general postings, is devoted to
discussing/organising current and future projects of the
network and the global carfree movement. Those interested
in getting more involved in World Carfree Network projects
are especially encouraged to join. To subscribe, just send
an e-mail to <carfree_network-subscribe at lists.riseup.net>.


CAR BUSTERS PRESS: BARGAIN BASEMENT BOOKS
[bulk discounts on 'CARtoons' and 'Roadkill Bill']

It's Summer Cleaning Time at Car Busters - we are trying to
clean up our cluttered office and raise extra money to
cover our operating costs. How can you help? Carbusters
publishes two books - Andy Singer's 'CARtoons' and Ken
Avidor's 'Roadkill Bill' - and these books are piled up in
our office - under desks, on top of bookshelves, in every
corner, we are even resting our monitors on them. Why not
purchase a bunch from us? You could give them to friends as
gifts, or your organisation could sell them to your members
or to the public at community events. (World Carfree Day is
coming in September!)
   If you order more than ten copies, we'll let you have
them for half-price. That's 5 EUR/USD per book, instead of
the normal 10 EUR/USD. You can then sell them at the cover
price. And you won't have to pay extra for shipping. A
description of the books and more info can be found at
<http://www.carbusters.org/press>. Contact us if you're
interested, at <info at carbusters.org>.

_____________________

     DISCLAIMER >>
     _____________________________


Despite the existence of the
<http://www.carbusters.org/consume_now> web page, the
aforementioned Car Busters Press announcement should in no
way be construed as an endorsement of excessive personal
consumption. Bulletin recipients who purchase Car Busters
Press products are encouraged to distribute and dispense
with said products forthwith.


[end]

____________________________________________

CAR BUSTERS
Kratka 26, 100 00 Prague 10, Czech Republic
tel: +(420) 274-810-849 - fax: +(420) 274-816-727 <info at carbusters.org>
- <http://www.carbusters.org>
____________________________________________