[sustran] Major overhaul of @World Car Free Day site in preparation for September events

[EcoPlan]

Dear Colleagues,

Barely one month from the combined World/European Car Free Day push of 21
and 22 September, we have been hard at work in an attempt to render our
@World Car Free Day site at http://ecoplan.org/carfreeday more inviting,
easier and more useful as an information, planning and international
collaborative tool.  A number of changes have already been made and more are
in progress; however we feel that the new site is now far enough along in
its development that it should already prove useful to any of you who are
thinking about or working on car free day projects and programs in your
cities.

At this point we should like to invite your comments and suggestions,
including if you have any news on your projects and plans for this year.
The site is already a very rich source of information both for planning and
research purposes, and in this respect we would like to draw your attention
in particular to the new Search functions which are considerably more
powerful and extensive. At this point, they provide coverage of more than a
dozen leading international sources that deal with our topic, but if you
have others which you feel should be included in our regular weekly search
routine, let us now and we will add them to our search list.

Let me close this note with a word on the current of resistance that we are
seeing in a number of places, including in some leading European cities and
concerned institutions to the car free day programs that are currently
underway.  It is our position that we need to listen to what these people
are saying, and even if we may not ultimately agree with their conclusions,
we should be aware that they are serious people and have some things to say
which we must take into consideration.  So let's honor those who may not
agree with all our great ideas, and learn to listen to and learn from them.
We probably have a thing or two to learn.

Finally, I would like to make one point which we have always tried to keep
to the fore in our work on this concept over the last dozen years, and that
is that the objective of a car free day is above all to set the stage for
significant changes in the transportation infrastructure and delivery
arrangements of that place.  And since the people and groups who are
presently being significantly underserved by today's arrangements in most of
our cites are, in fact, close to a majority, there is every reason that
these major changes should be getting underway immediately and with massive
public support.  If a car free day serves to make this point, then it is
doing its job.  If it's only a transient hiccup in the daily life of the
city and an annoyance to many of the people that live and work there, then
it's probably more trouble than it's worth.

I look forward to your feedback and continuing support of this fine concept.

Eric Britton

ecopl at n ___  technology, economy, society  ___
Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France
Eric.Britton at ecoplan.org     URL www.ecoplan.org
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