From smogs at ccsa.asn.au Tue Apr 1 11:30:01 2003
From: smogs at ccsa.asn.au (Robert Murray-Leach)
Date: Tue, 01 Apr 2003 12:00:01 +0930
Subject: [sustran] Re: Article in Guardian Newspaper
In-Reply-To: <5.1.0.14.2.20030329083327.02922840@mail.earthlink.net>
References: <002001c2f5f9$b3f27b70$609944ca@desktop>
<0709A702109DA844B290CEAA959078BD5EE440@MBXSRV04.stf.nus.edu.sg>
<001a01c2f48d$399dbc80$335879a5@earthlink.net>
<5.1.0.14.2.20030328220549.02b85dd0@mail.earthlink.net>
Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.0.20030401114059.0299add0@mail.ccsa.asn.au>
Hi Jack,
while I wouldn't fault your figures on current bus-occupancy in the US,
isn't the point that if you achieved a modal shift from cars to buses that
the occupancy rate of the buses would be much higher than the 11 per bus?
If you have a rate of 2550 people per hour along a road, and they all chose
to use buses, then you could expect occupancy rates of 20 per bus, and
would only need 128 buses per hour. Rather than comparing apples with
apples (ie. a system where car is the predominant mode of transport vs. a
system where buses are the predominant mode of transport) you're comparing
a car-predominant system with a bus-predominant system where user behavior
is still defined as in a car-predominant system.
In relation to your web-site, I was interested to note in the paper
entitled "the only solution to congestion"that while there were some facts
about situations in which light rail was not suitable, there was no mention
of any of the potential negative impacts of cars, and no attempt to balance
the cost-benefits of mass transit vs. cars. The concluding statement
therefore seemed largely unqualified, and also neglected to note that
increased congestion actually lowered several emission types, such as NOX.
"The bottom line is obvious: If we really want to avoid far longer
commuting times, average freeway speeds less than 20 mph, increased
pollution and the endless urban sprawl generated by the escapees from such
mass immobility; we can and we must build adequate new and expanded roads
and freeways. There simply is no rational alternative."
Rob Murray-Leach
At 09:15 AM 29/03/03 -0800, you wrote:
>At 05:47 AM 3/29/03, Debi Goenka wrote:
>
>>
>>We are trying to get some buslanes in Mumbai, and I would like to get
>>some answers. The standard response to bus lanes in Mumbai is that the
>>existing roads are not wide enough - my answer is that in such cases,
>>perhaps such roads should be reserved exclusively for buses!
>
>JM: Well, maybe so, maybe not, but that should be based on comparison of
>how many persons per day the bus system would carry vs for the
>corresponding roadway. And that is exactly the same kind of calculation I
>was illustrating for light rail.
>
>To compare bus vs automobile in the same way compute
>PPHbus = BPD x BAVO
>PPHauto = APD x AAVO
>where BPH = buses per hour past an average point along the busway
> APH = Autos per hour past an average point along the road
> BAVO = Average Vehicle Occupancy of a bus, persons/bus
> AAVO = Average Vehicle Occupancy of an auto,persons/auto.
>The mode providing the higher PPH count is more productive.
>
>For example, using typical US numbers, if the roadway lane were to carry
>1700 vehicle/hour at an average vehicle occupancy of 1.5 persons/vehicle,
>the roadway would be carrying 2550 persons/hour. In the alternative, if
>the average bus occupancy were 11 persons/bus, you would have to run 231
>buses per hour, or one every 15 seconds to provide equivalent transport
>volume, 2550 persons/hour.
>
>All the above numbers are typical for US, except for the 231 buses per
>hour which is very high. You should make this calculation for your own
>numbers for Mumbai. But for typical US numbers, it seems very unlikely
>that a lane could be more productively used as a busway than as a regular
>freeway or expressway lane.
>
>Jack
>www.urbantransport.org
>
Robert Murray-Leach
Green Transport Officer
The Conservation Council of South Australia
120 Wakefield St
Adelaide SA 5000
Tel. (08) 8223 5155
Fax. (08) 8232 4782
E-mail. smogs@ccsa.asn.au
From APHOWES at dm.gov.ae Tue Apr 1 15:13:50 2003
From: APHOWES at dm.gov.ae (Alan Patrick Howes)
Date: Tue, 01 Apr 2003 10:13:50 +0400
Subject: [sustran] FW: Bus Lane Capacities (was: Article in GuardianNewspaper)
Message-ID: <3E03B76D1A819C40A1DFB88287FA9943040F25@RAMMAIL.dm.ae>
This thread is in danger of getting out of control!
For bus lane capacities, the two transit-prof emails quoted below give some very useful background and comment on the Lincoln Tunnel Exclusive Bus Lane (XBL) data found at http://www.panynj.gov/tbt/xblmain.htm - thanks to Colin Leech.
For those looking for arguments for Busway rather than LRT or Metro, look no further than http://www.rppi.org/pu16.pdf . It is written in a North American (mainly low- and medium-density development) context, and rail advocates with blood pressure problems should perhaps avoid reading it. But it does bring together in one place a lot of useful facts and arguments in favour of busways. What it omits is the safety and environmental aspects, which is a pity. More polemic than professional in this respect I am afraid - but I am a stuffy Brit!
--
Alan P Howes, Special Transport Advisor,
Dubai Municipality Public Transport Department
aphowes@dm.gov.ae
http://www.dubaipublictransport.ae/
Tel: +971 4 286 1616 ext 214
Mobile: +971 50 5989661
-----Original Message-----
From: Leech, Colin [mailto:Colin.Leech@transpo.ottawa.on.ca]
Sent: Tue, 01 April, 2003 00:57
To: 'Transit-Prof@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [Transit-Prof] Bus Lane Capacities (was: Article in GuardianNewspaper)
I'm not a member of sustran-discuss, so I cannot post to that list, but feel
free to pass this message along to that list if you wish.
I don't have peak hour figures for the Lincoln Tunnel XBL, but I'm willing
to make a few educated guesses. From everything I've seen including the
material forwarded by Bob Campbell, the lane is pretty much at capacity
today, and bulging at the seams. A normal freeway lane can accommodate
somewhere around 2000 cars/hr. Buses are considered to be the equivalent of
2-3 cars under normal freeway conditions. IIRC the XBL isn't a fully
free-flow freeway (60 mph or 100 km/hr)lane, but has some constraints due to
the spiral approaches to the tunnel, passing through the toll booth area
(although buses don't stop), and the speeds and narrowness of the tunnel
itself (IIRC at one point the Port Authority restricted bus usage to 96"
wide buses, not the 102" wide buses which are pretty much standard today).
So, the guesses of around 600-700 buses/hr that have been mentioned make
sense to me.
It is important to make a distinction between this type of situation
(freeflow highway lane with no stops), and a bus lane in an urban context
with buses stopping to pick up passengers. Here in Ottawa, the downtown
segment of the Transitway operates as bus lanes on Albert and Slater
Streets, with buses stopping every few blocks to board and alight
passengers. We have bus volumes in the 180-200* buses/hr/dir range.
Representatives of other cities have difficulty believing these figures, as
conventional curbside bus lanes generally max out in the 120-140/hr/dir
range. Our geometry is a bit different, and other measures have been taken
to keep the service moving. Nevertheless, we know that we are very close to
capacity under the current operating conditions. The short N-S block lengths
in downtown Ottawa pretty much limit our ability to squeeze out significant
capacity increases via tweaking the traffic signal system further than we
have already done.
* The capacity constraint is during the PM peak, EB on Slater St., when
buses are picking up passengers. We've been around or above 180/hr on this
section for over 15 years. We actually have higher volumes WB in the AM peak
on Albert St. (200/hr range), but the vehicle capacity is higher because the
dwell times at the stops are shorter because most passengers are getting off
the bus.
The capacity of the Transitway would be much higher if it were completely
grade-separated from other traffic, and not constrained by the on-street
operations through downtown. We won't know for sure unless we ever do get
off the streets (unlikely for financial reasons), but the estimates are that
the ultimate capacity of a fully-separated busway with station stops could
be about double the 9-10,000 psgrs/hr that we're currently carrying in the
peak direction at the max load point.
I agree entirely with Alan that most cities (at least, most North American
cities) won't ever have to worry about such capacity constraints. Most of
the new LRT systems built in the last 20 years in North America aren't even
carrying 5000 psgrs/hr in the peak hour, peak direction.
I'll reply to Bob's e-mail with more comments on the XBL.
All opinions are my own
--------------
Colin R. Leech - Transit Planner
Planificateur du transport en commun
OC Transpo - Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
(613) 842-3636 ext./poste 2354
Colin.Leech@Transpo.Ottawa.on.ca
-----Original Message-----
From: Leech, Colin [mailto:Colin.Leech@transpo.ottawa.on.ca]
Sent: Tue, 01 April, 2003 01:09
To: 'Transit-Prof@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [Transit-Prof] Bus Lane Capacities (was: Article in GuardianNewspaper)
>From the Port Authority web pages:
> WHAT IS THE XBL?
>
> The XBL (Exclusive Bus Lane) is a dedicated contra-flow bus lane that
> operates weekday mornings between 6:15 a.m. and approximately
> 10:00 a.m.
My understanding is that it only operates in the AM peak, inbound direction,
as a very long "queue jump" approaching the tunnel. The Manhattan side of
the tunnel connects directly to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, so the
outbound buses don't need a comparable lane in the other direction. The
buses exit directly from the terminal into the tunnel, and outbound traffic
from the tunnel spreads out onto several different highways on the NJ side.
Remember that a tunnel or bridge is almost never a traffic capacity
constraint itself. It is the approaches and merges that are constrained, as
multiple lanes of traffic attempt to merge into a smaller number of lanes.
Of course, the toll booths also slow things down.
> Access to the XBL is limited to buses with a seating capacity of
> sixteen or more passengers. To ensure safety, reduce lane overload and
> maximize mass transportation capacity, access to the XBL is limited to
> regular "for hire" public buses. School buses, vans, taxis, limousines
> and other multiple-occupancy vehicles are prohibited.
>
> All empty buses are prohibited from entering the XBL during its entire
> period of operation. This restriction allows the maximum
> utilization of the XBL operation for peak period commuters.
>
> Non-commuter charter buses are not allowed access to the XBL during
> peak period operating times. Charter Buses are only allowed in the XBL
> after 9:00 a.m., which is past the peak commuter hours.
This all tells me that they are close to the capacity of the lane
(consistent with other information I've heard over the years).
> Buses using the XBL must be equipped with E-ZPass. This
> requirement has helped facilitate traffic flow.
The buses don't stop at a toll booth. The tolls are collected electronically
from the EZ-Pass as they pass by.
> The XBL keeps some 10,000 cars off the road each day, easing
> congestion and improving air quality.
This seems low, considering the figures given earlier of 60,000 commuters. I
think somebody goofed on the proofreading.
> A strong economy and increased overall traffic are contributing factors
> to XBL congestion. From 1996 to 1998, we experienced a 4.9%
> increase in bus activity at the Lincoln Tunnel.
Plus added demands after Sept. 11, 2001 (along with PATH and the NJT/Amtrak
rail lines into Manhattan). There were some serious capacity problems for
public transit crossing the Hudson River even before Sept. 11, which were
made much more critical following the loss of the PATH line to Lower
Manhattan.
All opinions are my own
--------------
Colin R. Leech - Transit Planner
Planificateur du transport en commun
OC Transpo - Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
(613) 842-3636 ext./poste 2354
Colin.Leech@Transpo.Ottawa.on.ca
From APHOWES at dm.gov.ae Tue Apr 1 15:24:51 2003
From: APHOWES at dm.gov.ae (Alan Patrick Howes)
Date: Tue, 01 Apr 2003 10:24:51 +0400
Subject: [sustran] Re: Article in Guardian Newspaper
Message-ID: <3E03B76D1A819C40A1DFB88287FA9943040F26@RAMMAIL.dm.ae>
>From Jack Mally's website http://www.urbantransport.org/ -
> "The bottom line is obvious: If we really want to avoid far longer
> commuting times, average freeway speeds less than 20 mph, increased
> pollution and the endless urban sprawl generated by the
> escapees from such
> mass immobility; we can and we must build adequate new and
> expanded roads
> and freeways. There simply is no rational alternative."
Well for starters, here in Dubai we already have 25% of the urban space devoted to roads, thus creating the very sprawl JM apparently wishes to avoid. (I'm with him on that one.) And we still have increasing congestion, and however many roads we build they just fill up with cars. Even here, where gasoline is cheaper than water, the realisation is slowly dawning that the conclusion above is just about as wrong as it can be.
--
Alan P Howes, Special Transport Advisor,
Dubai Municipality Public Transport Department
aphowes@dm.gov.ae
http://www.dubaipublictransport.ae/
Tel: +971 4 286 1616 ext 214
Mobile: +971 50 5989661
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert Murray-Leach [mailto:smogs@ccsa.asn.au]
> Sent: Tue, 01 April, 2003 06:30
> To: sustran-discuss@jca.ax.apc.org
> Subject: [sustran] Re: Article in Guardian Newspaper
>
>
> Hi Jack,
>
> while I wouldn't fault your figures on current bus-occupancy
> in the US,
> isn't the point that if you achieved a modal shift from cars
> to buses that
> the occupancy rate of the buses would be much higher than the
> 11 per bus?
> If you have a rate of 2550 people per hour along a road, and
> they all chose
> to use buses, then you could expect occupancy rates of 20 per
> bus, and
> would only need 128 buses per hour. Rather than comparing apples with
> apples (ie. a system where car is the predominant mode of
> transport vs. a
> system where buses are the predominant mode of transport)
> you're comparing
> a car-predominant system with a bus-predominant system where
> user behavior
> is still defined as in a car-predominant system.
>
> In relation to your web-site, I was interested to note in the paper
> entitled "the only solution to congestion"that while there
> were some facts
> about situations in which light rail was not suitable, there
> was no mention
> of any of the potential negative impacts of cars, and no
> attempt to balance
> the cost-benefits of mass transit vs. cars. The concluding statement
> therefore seemed largely unqualified, and also neglected to note that
> increased congestion actually lowered several emission types,
> such as NOX.
> "The bottom line is obvious: If we really want to avoid far longer
> commuting times, average freeway speeds less than 20 mph, increased
> pollution and the endless urban sprawl generated by the
> escapees from such
> mass immobility; we can and we must build adequate new and
> expanded roads
> and freeways. There simply is no rational alternative."
>
> Rob Murray-Leach
>
>
>
> At 09:15 AM 29/03/03 -0800, you wrote:
> >At 05:47 AM 3/29/03, Debi Goenka wrote:
> >
> >>
> >>We are trying to get some buslanes in Mumbai, and I would
> like to get
> >>some answers. The standard response to bus lanes in Mumbai
> is that the
> >>existing roads are not wide enough - my answer is that in
> such cases,
> >>perhaps such roads should be reserved exclusively for buses!
> >
> >JM: Well, maybe so, maybe not, but that should be based on
> comparison of
> >how many persons per day the bus system would carry vs for the
> >corresponding roadway. And that is exactly the same kind of
> calculation I
> >was illustrating for light rail.
> >
> >To compare bus vs automobile in the same way compute
> >PPHbus = BPD x BAVO
> >PPHauto = APD x AAVO
> >where BPH = buses per hour past an average point along the busway
> > APH = Autos per hour past an average point along the road
> > BAVO = Average Vehicle Occupancy of a bus, persons/bus
> > AAVO = Average Vehicle Occupancy of an auto,persons/auto.
> >The mode providing the higher PPH count is more productive.
> >
> >For example, using typical US numbers, if the roadway lane
> were to carry
> >1700 vehicle/hour at an average vehicle occupancy of 1.5
> persons/vehicle,
> >the roadway would be carrying 2550 persons/hour. In the
> alternative, if
> >the average bus occupancy were 11 persons/bus, you would
> have to run 231
> >buses per hour, or one every 15 seconds to provide
> equivalent transport
> >volume, 2550 persons/hour.
> >
> >All the above numbers are typical for US, except for the 231
> buses per
> >hour which is very high. You should make this calculation
> for your own
> >numbers for Mumbai. But for typical US numbers, it seems
> very unlikely
> >that a lane could be more productively used as a busway than
> as a regular
> >freeway or expressway lane.
> >
> >Jack
> >www.urbantransport.org
> >
>
> Robert Murray-Leach
> Green Transport Officer
> The Conservation Council of South Australia
> 120 Wakefield St
> Adelaide SA 5000
> Tel. (08) 8223 5155
> Fax. (08) 8232 4782
> E-mail. smogs@ccsa.asn.au
>
>
From geobpa at nus.edu.sg Thu Apr 10 10:46:43 2003
From: geobpa at nus.edu.sg (Paul Barter)
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2003 09:46:43 +0800
Subject: [sustran] FW: CAR BUSTERS MONTHLY E-BULLETIN #45
Message-ID: <0709A702109DA844B290CEAA959078BD5EE666@MBXSRV04.stf.nus.edu.sg>
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-sustran-discuss@jca.ax.apc.org
[mailto:owner-sustran-discuss@jca.ax.apc.org]
Sent: Thursday, 10 April 2003 1:28 AM
To: sustran-discuss-approval@jca.apc.org
Subject: BOUNCE sustran-discuss@jca.ax.apc.org: global taboo header:
/^precedence *: *(bulk|list)/i
...
From: "Car Busters - Editors"
To: englishbulletin-l@ecn.cz
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 2003 17:34:58 +0200
Subject: CAR BUSTERS MONTHLY E-BULLETIN #45
...
Sexy, strident and politically aware, the bulletin flashes onto
screens across the globe, fashionably late and impeccably trim.
Thanks to everyone who participated in the Car Free Cities conference
and made it such a great event, more about this below.
_________________________
CAR BUSTERS BULLETIN >>>
________________________________
Edition no. 45 - April 2003 - English version
.............................................................
Contents:
WORLD NEWS
-CAR COMPANY PROPAGANDA FOILED
-A TERRIBLE ROAD RAGE INCIDENT
-CRITICAL MASS NEWS FROM
-NEW YORK
-HAMILTON
-BRUSSELS
-SANTIAGO
-CORPORATE GREED THREATENS EUROPE'S UNTOUCHED WILDERNESS
ANNOUNCEMENTS
-CARNIVAL AGAINST WAR AND CLIMATE CHAOS
-HOW TO MAKE BIODIESEL
-CONNECTING THE CITY
-WALK21 IV: HEALTH, EQUITY AND ENVIRONMENT
-FANCY A CAR-FREE MEETUP?
CAR BUSTERS ANNOUNCEMENTS
-POST-CONFERENCE REPORT - TOWARDS CAR-FREE CITIES III
-CZECH REPUBLIC LOSES RICHARD
DISCLAIMER
_______________
WORLD NEWS >>
__________________
CAR COMPANY PROPAGANDA FOILED
[spotted by Katie Sobush]
General Motors Canada has pulled an ad campaign suggesting that
transit buses are full of "creeps and weirdos". The company was
responding to a flood of complaints about an advertisement that ran
in Canadian newspapers touting the Chevy Cavalier as "an affordable
alternative" to riding the bus.
Other ads in the campaign, which featured pictures of buses with
messages in their destination cards, suggested that riding the bus
exposed you to "Hours of Hell" and "Bacterial Stew."
"It's a pretty offensive ad", said Marion Town of Better
Environmentally Sound Transportation. She said the ads suggest that
"not only is the bus experience threatening, but it's long."
Strangely, they also promote GM's support for Vancouver's 2010
Olympic bid, which favours effective and environmentally sustainable
transportation like buses.
A TERRIBLE ROAD RAGE INCIDENT
[sent by Howard Peel]
When Stephen Kirwin waved his fist at Carl Baxter, after his bicycle
and trailer narrowly avoided being hit by the car Baxter was driving,
he triggered a terrible road rage incident. Baxter reversed his
Ranger Rover 200m at high speed, intending to run over Kirwin and his
daughter Emily (aged four) who was being towed in the trailer. Both
were seriously injured with Emily not regaining consciousness for six
days. Baxter fled the scene of the attack and already had previous
offences for a 'road rage' attack and reckless driving. He was given
two years in jail for assault and 15 months for dangerous driving,
plus only a two year(!) driving ban, with all sentences to run
concurrently.
Local cyclists feel this sentence does nothing to protect
vulnerable road users and sends the message that even drivers who go
so far as to deliberately use their cars as a weapon can expect to
receive no more then a short ban.
CRITICAL MASS NEWS
Santiago, Chile
[received from Matthias Bauer]
A group of influential bicyclists have had enough of Santiago's foul
air. On the first Tuesday of each month, they clog the city's broad
avenues at rush hour with their pedal-powered machines and shout out
demands for bike paths, bike racks and respect from drivers of buses
and cars. Bicycles, they say, are part of the solution to Santiago's
smog.
"The traffic gets annoying, but we have full control and it is
quite an empowering feeling that these manpowered vehicles can cause
such a scene," said Marion von Dehn, a member of the group,
Movimiento Furiosos Ciclistas. "Occasionally, cars honk in support."
Reports in the Chilean press indicate the government has a sincere
interest in the Furiosos and is committed to making Santiago a better
and safer city. Bicycle friendliness, say the Furiosos, is vital to
the improvement of Santiago.
Peace Rally, March 22 - New York, USA
[based on a report submitted by Aaron Tarfman]
Over 100 people on bicycles created an unofficial parade as they
travelled through the streets while refusing to allow automobiles to
pass. Chants of "Bikes not bombs!" and "No Blood for Oil" filled the
air. Bells were ringing amid lots of hooting and singing. The ride
went north along Eighth Avenue and met the voluminous mass of people
moving down Broadway on the peace rally. At every point where they
reached the march, they stopped and held up signs, or even bikes
sometimes. The ride moved up and down the streets crossing towards
the rally several times to show support. This was the longest running
Critical Mass ride in the group's history.
Pedal For Peace, March 28 - Hamilton, Canada
[based on a report by Randy Kay]
Making their way through wide, one-way streets lacking basic
infrastructure for cyclists, the Mass slows the pace of the city to a
calmer, saner, safer speed. As cities in Iraq are bombarded, some on
the ride equate the profligate burning of fossil fuels with the
burning of human flesh in oil wars. "No more oil/No more war/Time to
take our bikes out more!" goes the chant. From sidewalks, pedestrians
watch in amusement or disbelief as the group glides by.
A cyclist with a knack for alliteration shouts out: "For fossil fuel-
free fun/Bicycles are number one!" On his back a home-made sign "Burn
Fat, Not Fuel." The smiles of the cyclists give indication of just
how liberating a ride like this can be. The lack of safe routes in
the city acts as a deterrent to thousands of would-be cyclists, so,
for some, Critical Mass is their first positive experience cycling
downtown.
Fifth anniversary ride, March 28 - Brussels, Belgium
[sent by Stephane]
We were 130 cyclists in the town (a record for the CM in Brussels!),
ready for a trip to the centre of the city. We passed through five
years of bad and good transport improvements into the town, our
biggest problem being the paving stones, which seem to be the new
leitmotiv here. We finished the fair with the blocking of the Bourse
Square, which is a very central concourse. We stayed there for 20-25
minutes, the cops came but 15 minutes too late.
More info and also pictures can be found at
.
CORPORATE GREED THREATENS EUROPE'S UNTOUCHED WILDERNESS [Sourced from
CorpWatch and International Rivers Network]
The Icelandic government plans to construct a large hydropower
project in Iceland's Eastern Highlands, one of Europe's largest
remaining wilderness areas, in order to supply power to a US aluminum
smelter owned by Alcoa.
The Kahranjukar Project involves building miles of roads, boring a
series of tunnels, diverting dozens of rivers to create three
reservoirs and erect nine dams, including one that is 630 feet tall
(Europe's highest).
US-based Alcoa is the world's largest aluminum producer and is
moving to Iceland not to expand production, but to cut costs. It is
closing smelters in the US and moving to Iceland where the government
is offering dirt-cheap electricity. It's not just cheap power that
draws Alcoa to Iceland: Iceland's reliance on geothermal power has
given it an exemption from the Kyoto Protocol's fossil fuel
emissions, which would allow Alcoa's smelter to operate without
having to pay penalties for any carbon dioxide emissions.
According to an independent analysis commissioned by Iceland's
Nature Conservation Agency, it will likely produce annual losses of
$36 million. The group has led a strong campaign against Karahnjukar
for several years.
For more information, please visit .
Also go to
to send a
free fax to Alcoa telling them to withdraw from their destructive
project.
_____________________
ANNOUNCEMENTS >>
_____________________________
CARNIVAL AGAINST WAR AND CLIMATE CHAOS
[a reminder from London Rising Tide ]
You are invited to be part of the carnival taking place outside BP's
Annual General Meeting at 10am, 24 April 2003 at the Royal Festival
Hall, Belvedere Road, South Bank, London. If you're despairing over
the carnage this installment of the war on terror has wrought, don't
forget how close we came to preventing it. Countless people across
the world have seen the war machine stripped bare for the first time,
seen the intimate connections between the military, government, big
oil and capitalism itself. And instead of staring dazedly at their TV
screens, they're getting up and getting active, which is a cause for
celebration in the midst of all the darkness. The Carnival Against
Oil Wars and Climate Chaos will be another sign of that spirit of DIY
resistance.
There will be a Critical Mass bike ride as part of the day's fun
and games, meeting at 9.30am at BP's new headquarters - 1, St. James'
Square, SW1 - and ending up at the Carnival.
HOW TO MAKE BIODIESEL
[Low-Impact Living Initiative ]
May 12-14 2003 at Redfield Community, Buckinghamshire
Cost: GBP 150 waged, GBP100 unwaged. Discounts for 'Friends of LILI'.
All meals and accommodation included.
Learn how to produce your own cheap, carbon-neutral diesel - no
need for alterations to your engine. This course covers everything
from a small home-made plant, to commercial-scale biodiesel
production.
Low-Impact Living Initiative (LILI) is dedicated to helping
protect the global environment by promoting sustainable alternatives
to various aspects of everyday life. Contact us to find out more
about our installations, courses, presentations and manuals.
Contact: LILI, Redfield Community, Buckingham Road, Winslow, Bucks,
MK18 3LZ tel / fax: (01296) 714184
CONNECTING THE CITY
[picked from the Planum Newsletter ]
The Fifth Biennial of Towns and Town Planners in Europe will be held
in Barcelona in April 10,11 and 12, 2003. It will explore the spatial
impacts of transportation and other networks supplying resources such
as information, materials or energy and the challenges they create
for spatial planning.
More details on
WALK21 IV: HEALTH, EQUITY AND ENVIRONMENT
[sent by Ellen Vanderslice]
The 4th International Conference on Walking in the 21st Century will
be held May 1-3 at the Portland Marriott Downtown in Portland,
Oregon. Featured speakers include the Surgeon General of the United
States Dr. Richard Carmona, Jan Gehl and many others. Wednesday,
April 9, is the last day to register for the conference at the
regular rate of $385 ($325 for NGOs/non profits, $250 students). For
registration information, visit
, or e-mail
. More about the conference can be found online
at .
FANCY A CAR-FREE MEETUP?
[from Laura Craft ]
Meetup creates real-world group gatherings about anything anywhere.
They've built a technology and a network of venues (cafes, bars,
etc.) that can help any interest group easily organise local monthly
meetups in over 545 cities across 34 countries. Meetup with other
local individuals interested in plotting the removal of the
automobile from your city!
People interested in car-free cities worldwide are invited. 11
have signed up so far.
Click to .
_________________________________
CAR BUSTERS ANNOUNCEMENTS >>
______________________________________
POST-CONFERENCE REPORT - TOWARDS CAR-FREE CITIES III
Sixty participants from across Europe and beyond descended on Prague
April 17-22, a week packed with presentations, round-table strategy
sessions, a press conference and official public day, a walking tour,
a bike ride, and finally, a big closing party and concert.
Featured presenters included J.H. Crawford (author of "Carfree
Cities" and publisher of Carfree.com), Oscar Edmundo Diaz (organiser
of the now-famous car-free days in Bogota, Colombia), Lars Gemzoe (co-
author of "New City Spaces" and "Public Spaces - Public Life",
Copenhagen, Denmark), Kirstin Miller (of Ecocity Builders, Berkeley,
USA), and John Whitelegg (Professor of Environmental Studies, author
and transport consultant, Lancaster, UK).
Above all, the high-energy, productive week resulted in the
forging of invaluable interpersonal contacts and collaborations and a
strengthening of the international Car Busters network. The network,
it was decided, will hold a Towards Car-Free Cities conference
annually in Central Europe - with TCFC IV to be held in July, August
or September 2004, possibly in Berlin or somewhere in Poland. The
network will use the name Car Busters in some situations, but also
gain flexibility by utilising a second, more conservative-sounding
name where appropriate. That second name is still undecided but could
be something like Car-Free International or the Towards Car-Free
Cities Network (suggestions welcome).
Aside from the continuing conference series, a number of
collaborative projects were prioritised for the coming year and the
long-term, such as a website aimed at officials and planners, and the
founding of a Car-Free Institute based in Venice. The conference also
wrote a proposal for a coordinated global World Car-Free Days
programme, which was then delivered in person by Oscar Edmundo Diaz
to the European Union in Brussels and the United Nations in New York.
Discussions are continuing with vigour on
, which is open to anyone working on
issues of transport and urbanism. Following discussions, a second
list, , has been created for
those interested in establishing one or more explicitly car-free
ecovillages in Europe or elsewhere.
CZECH REPUBLIC LOSES RICHARD
Today, with tear-pricked eyes we watched Rich as he lazily cycled
down Kratka for the last time. We'll miss his rapier wit and awe-
inspiring culinary skills around these parts. All the Car Busters
family wish him the best of luck in York. May your next homebrew be
the best one yet Rich, we the citizens of Prague salute you.
___________________
DISCLAIMER >>
__________________
Despite the gloomy nature of some of the news items here and the
continuing terror caused by the US industro-military complex
worldwide, life goes on. And life is great. So you're not alone, keep
on doing what you're doing, stay on smiling, be nice to people, these
are the most revolutionary things we can do.
[end]
____________________________________________
CAR BUSTERS
Kratka 26, 100 00 Praha 10, Czech Republic
tel: +(420) 274-810-849 - fax: +(420) 274-816-727
-
____________________________________________
Car Busters Worldwide Contact Directory
Register your group on-line now:
From geobpa at nus.edu.sg Tue Apr 15 10:47:40 2003
From: geobpa at nus.edu.sg (Paul Barter)
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2003 09:47:40 +0800
Subject: [sustran] FW: Land Value Taxation Event 23/04/03
Message-ID: <0709A702109DA844B290CEAA959078BD5EE6FD@MBXSRV04.stf.nus.edu.sg>
Dear sustran-discussers
Any thoughts on this topic of using land value taxation to help fund transport infrastructure below as it might apply in low-income or middle-income contexts? Does anyone know of successful cases in Asia or Latin America (or anywhere for that matter)? What's the catch?
Paul
-----Original Message-----
From: Glenn Lyons [mailto:Glenn.Lyons@UWE.AC.UK]
Sent: Monday, 14 April 2003 8:46 PM
To: UTSG@JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Subject: Land Value Taxation Event 23/04/03
On behalf of the Transport Planning Society I would like to invite UTSG
list members to consider attending the following evening meeting on
Wednesday 23 April in London - two high-level speakers will be presenting
the case for a radical change to the nature and scale of funding transport
delivery which has positive connotations for land use development and
regeneration besides:
"Land Values: A Funding and Planning Tool for Transport"
DAVE WETZEL Vice-Chair, Transport for London and
FRED HARRISON Director, Centre for Land Policy Studies
Chair: Prof Glenn Lyons, UWE, Bristol
6.30pm
at
Telford Theatre, Institution of Civil Engineers,
1 Great George Street, LONDON SW1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The current funding and investment crisis in Britain's transport system
could be addressed by treating land values as the revenue base argues Dave
Wetzel.
A south London property developer has estimated that land values around the
stations on the Jubilee Line extension have increased by ?13bn when the
cost of the extension itself was only ?3.5bn.
The spin off benefits from land value capture will assist with regeneration
- acting as an incentive to bring unused, idle sites back into use and
avoid the extra costs for transport created by urban sprawl.
Fred Harrison surveys the impact of the Government's 10-year plan to show
the scale of land value increases and the deadweight losses that flow from
funding transport out of existing taxes. He also indicates how land values
can offer a sensitive planning tool for measuring the impact of proposed
transport infrastructure.
Demand for places will be high. If you are planning to attend please notify:
Ann Scannell, Engineering Division, Institution of Civil Engineers, 1 Great
George Street, London SW1P 3AA. Telephone 020 7665 2229 or Fax 020 7799
1325 or on email Ann.Scannell@ice.org.uk
TPS MEMBERS FREE, PLEASE BRING YOUR MEMBERSHIP CARD
NON-MEMBERS WILL BE ASKED TO MAKE A DONATION OF ?5 ___________________________________
Professor Glenn Lyons
Unit for Transport and Society
Faculty of the Built Environment
University of the West of England
Frenchay Campus
Coldharbour Lane
BRISTOL BS16 1QY
Tel 0117 344 3219
Mobile 07748 768404
Fax 0117 344 3899
Email Glenn.Lyons@uwe.ac.uk
Web www.transport.uwe.ac.uk
___________________________________
From townsend at central.murdoch.edu.au Tue Apr 15 12:58:08 2003
From: townsend at central.murdoch.edu.au (Craig Townsend)
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2003 11:58:08 +0800
Subject: [sustran] Re: FW: Land Value Taxation Event 23/04/03
In-Reply-To: <0709A702109DA844B290CEAA959078BD5EE6FD@MBXSRV04.stf.nus.edu.sg>
References: <0709A702109DA844B290CEAA959078BD5EE6FD@MBXSRV04.stf.nus.edu.sg>
Message-ID: <1050379088.3e9b83500f8cd@wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au>
Dear Paul,
I can tell you that in Thailand, land ownership is concentrated in the
hands of a very rich elite which tends to be exempt from taxation and often
holds powerful positions. In Bangkok, there is no land valuation based on
market values, and no progressive land tax. Transport infrastructure projects
become a way of increasing private land values and private wealth. The lack of
accurate information about land values (and bubble real estate market)
contributed to the financial crisis that began in 1997 and spread to
neighbouring countries. The World Bank attempted to build land valuation
capacity in Thailand in the wake of the crisis: I'm not sure if it was
successful, but I doubt it. These matters are more political than technical. I
would be interested to hear whether land value taxation exists in any other
low or middle income cities. What about in Jakarta and KL?
Craig
Quoting Paul Barter :
> Dear sustran-discussers
> Any thoughts on this topic of using land value taxation to help fund
> transport infrastructure below as it might apply in low-income or
> middle-income contexts? Does anyone know of successful cases in Asia or Latin
> America (or anywhere for that matter)? What's the catch?
> Paul
From sujit at vsnl.com Tue Apr 22 00:26:32 2003
From: sujit at vsnl.com (Sujit Patwardhan)
Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 20:56:32 +0530
Subject: [sustran] Randy Kennedy in the New York Times
Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.0.20030421203525.025647f0@202.54.10.1>
21 April 2003
Dear Sustraners,
Here's an interesting and informative article on Ken Livingstone's
congestion pricing for London, from the New York Times.
If you have difficulty in reading the text please log onto the site at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/20/magazine/20TRAFFIC.html?ei=1&en=a457218b2f4a3f48&ex=1051850095&pagewanted=print&position=
Good wishes,
--
Sujit Patwardhan
PARISAR,
Pune,
India
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Day the Traffic Disappeared
April 20, 2003
The Day the Traffic Disappeared
By RANDY KENNEDY
When Queen Elizabeth opened the new City Hall in London last year, some
observers compared the building, designed by the architect Norman Foster,
to a giant eye. And that is exactly what it looks like -- a glassy
postmodern eyeball on the south bank of the Thames, staring across the
river at its staid Georgian and Victorian neighbors as if to say, ''Welcome
to the 21st century.'' Atop the building is a semicircular penthouse called
London's Living Room, walled with windows that offer a commanding view of
the city below. The idea behind this room is to offer a place for Londoners
to gather, if only through the medium of a television camera, for the kinds
of serious, big-family sit-downs that go along with governing a sometimes
dysfunctional city of more than seven million -- a city so decentralized,
in fact, that until three years ago it never had an elected mayor.
On an unusually bright morning earlier this year, that mayor, Ken
Livingstone, strides into the room before a bank of cameras, and with an
unusually pleased look on his dour face, announces a coup, one that has
eluded dozens of large cities like New York, Los Angeles and Paris. He has
not conquered crime or poverty, but he may very well have hobbled an urban
enemy seemingly just as invincible: the car. Livingstone has just begun the
world's most radical experiment in reclaiming the city from the tyranny of
the automobile, a power struggle that cities have been losing in
humiliating fashion for more than half a century. Since well before his
election, he has been warning Londoners that far too many of them (about
250,000 a day) are trying to drive into far too small a place -- central
London -- polluting the air, choking commerce, slowly strangling their own
livelihood. To stop them, the mayor decided to draw a line, literally.
The line formed a lopsided oval around eight square miles of the
historic inner city. Almost anyone who drove across the line during
business hours -- in fact, almost anyone who moved or even parked a car on
the street within it after Feb. 17 -- instantly owed the city of London $:5
(about $8) a day for every day it happened. If a driver failed to pay, one
of more than 700 vulturelike video cameras perched throughout the zone
would capture his license plate number and relay it to a computer, leading
to a huge fine. And if the driver declined to pay those fines? The mayor
vowed, only half-jokingly, that the city would relentlessly track his car
down, clamp it, tow it away and crush it -- ''with or without the driver
inside.'' Few would be exempt, not even volunteer social workers, teachers,
foreign diplomats or undercover police officers.
The idea behind his assault on automotive freedom was neither new
nor very hard to understand. If a finite resource is free, human beings
tend to use it all up, regardless of the consequences. If it has a cost,
they tend to use it more rationally. Livingstone, a far-left Socialist, won
his mayoralty largely on the promise of applying this tough-love theory to
London's streets. But in the weeks just before the ''congestion charge''
began, it sometimes seemed that he was the only one who believed it would
work. The newspapers were full of derisive nicknames for it, like
''Ken-gestion'' and ''Carmaggedon.'' Samantha Bond, the actress who plays
Miss Moneypenny in the most recent James Bond movies, became the
sympathetic face of the opposition, presiding over a protest with hints of
civil disobedience at the West End theater where -- somehow fittingly --
''Les Miserables'' was being staged. Tony Blair's government, which had
given London and other British cities permission to levy such traffic
charges in the first place, carefully distanced itself from the plan. And
the bookmaking firm William Hill, one of London's most able arbiters of
public sentiment, began offering 4-to-1 odds that it would fail by the end
of the year. (The odds that Livingstone would be out of office before the
end of his term were put at 10 to 1.)
On this sunny Tuesday morning, however, it appears that the mayor
has beaten at least the first of those odds. The number of cars entering
the cordon zone the day before, the first day of the charge, dropped by
about 60,000, remarkable even in the context of a school holiday. One
automobile group estimated that average speeds in central London had
doubled, nothing less than a miracle in the world of road policy.
Livingstone, addressing his public in a droopy suit, bright blue tie and a
pair of sensible thick-soled walking shoes, declares it ''the best day
we've had in traffic flow in living memory'' and reports that he has even
taken a call from the government's transport minister, John Spellar, a
Labor Party archenemy who had helped to expel Livingstone from the party
three years earlier when he launched his renegade mayoral bid.
Livingstone's eyes twinkle as he relates the conversation. ''He
said, 'Clearly the devil looks after his own,' and we had a good laugh,''
the mayor says.
When a reporter asks whether the mayor has truly considered the
consequences of the scheme failing, especially with his re-election
campaign only a year away, Livingstone's nasal Cockney voice, already as
affectless as a door buzzer, drops to a full deadpan. ''I never consider my
own future when making political decisions,'' he says. He pauses for
effect. ''How can you be so cynical?''
As television crews troop out to the balcony to shoot the light
traffic wheeling around the Tower of London, a good laugh is had all around
the living room.
The exchange, however, goes straight to the heart of cities' tangled
history with the automobile -- undoubtedly the most inefficient, and most
aggressively defended, means ever conceived for transporting large numbers
of people through crowded places. The idea of using a price tag to regulate
driving into crowded places has been around for years, but its progress has
been slowed by two problems, one big, the other gigantic. The first was
simply technical: how would you charge for entry into entire cities or
neighborhoods without putting tollbooths everywhere and causing more
congestion? That obstacle has now been largely overcome with high-speed
electronic tolls, sharpshooter cameras (originally developed for
antiterrorism purposes in London) and even the development of satellite
tracking of cars.
The gigantic problem is political. Since at least the end of World
War II, the battle between cars and cities, a battle over the shape of the
city itself, has been an epic mismatch. An oversimplified chronology would
read something like this: the car helps to create sprawl; sprawl siphons
people and political power away from the hearts of cities; the car returns
to attack the city, which was never designed to accommodate so many; the
city is forced to transform itself, ceding sidewalks to streets, trolley
tracks to traffic lanes, parks to parking lots, whole neighborhoods to
expressways.
In the United States, the critic Lewis Mumford foresaw a grim end to
the whole process: ''a tomb of concrete roads and ramps covering the dead
corpse of a city.'' While the effects have not been quite that dire yet,
the imbalance remains tremendous. On a purely human level, it can be
witnessed any weekday in Times Square, where armies of angry pedestrians
crowd around S.U.V.'s pinioned in crosswalks, the drivers inside easily
outnumbered 100 to 1.
But those drivers and the people who profit from them in cities --
principally garage owners, automobile clubs and road builders -- have had
tremendous political influence over the years. They have portrayed
unfettered access to public tax-supported roads as something like a modern
amendment to the rights of man. And while it may be in the long-term
interests of drivers to pay for using some roads in order to make them
passable again, to put that money into subsidizing more efficient
conveyances like trains and buses, city leaders have long viewed
administering that corrective as something close to electoral suicide. Even
the most crusading anti-car mayors -- like John V. Lindsay in New York, who
came within weeks of ordering a Midtown traffic ban in the early 1970's,
and Edward I. Koch after him, who came almost as close to imposing tolls on
the free East River bridges -- have ultimately backed down or lost their
battles.
Though it might seem like a relatively new phenomenon, saturation
traffic has existed in many cities for decades, virtually unchanged.
Depending on whom you believe, it is incredibly destructive, costing London
alone over $300 million a year in lost productivity and revenue just
because of congestion in the tiny central portion of the city. (One New
York City study in the late 1990's found that traffic problems in Manhattan
cost the city as much as $4 billion a year in lost productivity.)
With its mazelike medieval streets, London was a city plagued with
congestion long before the car. In his diaries, Samuel Pepys twice recorded
being stuck in 17th-century horse-and-buggy jams. When the car came along,
the original notion was that such age-old transportation problems could be
solved if enough new roads were built to handle cities' needs, a strategy
called ''predict and provide.'' But by the 1960's, only a half-century
after the car came into common use, economists and traffic planners were
starting to notice that new roads seemed only to create more traffic.
By 1977, when the British punk band the Jam recorded ''London
Traffic'' (''No one knows the answer/No one seems to care/Take a look at
our city/Take the traffic elsewhere''), the average speed of a car in
central London was 12 miles an hour, or a little faster than the top
running speed of a domestic pig. At the turn of the millennium, more than
two decades later, many Londoners could only look back on those congested
years with nostalgia. The average speed had dropped to less than nine miles
per hour for the first time in modern record-keeping, meaning that car
travel through Britain's capital was generally as slow as by coach a
century ago.
''We're addicted, really,'' Bev Ramsden, a veteran taxi driver and
dispatcher, told me one wet weekday morning, inching down the A4 highway
through the gray margins of Hammersmith, nowhere near the most congested
part of the city. ''Like addicts, I think we're getting to the point where
we're realizing how crazy this is. Someone's got to do something.''
It will probably go down as one of the stranger chapters in the
history of traffic policy that the man who finally did something is a
former lefty radical (once known as Red Ken) applying conservative
free-market ideas. In a way, of course, it all makes complete sense: the
congestion charge is classic Robin Hood socialism, taking from the
comfortable Londoner commuting by Bentley and giving to the commoner
hanging from the strap of a packed double-decker bus. But don't
misunderstand. While he is a crusader, Livingstone is also a famously
foot-sure career politician as interested as any in re-election. Despite
his quip for the television cameras, he did not launch his assault without
making a lot of practical calculations about its effect on his future. That
morning, in fact, waiting downstairs for him in a cavernous boardroom was a
group of strategists who were highly paid to do just that. It was telling
that most of these strategists were not from London at all but from a place
with much worse traffic problems and a much more treacherous political
climate for trying to solve them: New York City. (Average traffic speed:
about seven miles per hour, no faster than a running possum.)
Only a few months after his election in the summer of 2000,
Livingstone began courting Robert R. Kiley, a former C.I.A. official,
business leader and transit expert, who as head of the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority in New York in the 1980's was credited with
resurrecting the city's graffiti-scarred subway system, now considered one
of the best in the world. Kiley, given the new title of London's transport
commissioner, brought with him another former top New York transit
official, Jay Walder, who had become an expert on road pricing at Harvard
and in Singapore, where a smaller but much more costly congestion-charging
system in place for more than 25 years has cut car ownership to 1 in 10
city residents. When Kiley arrived in London, most of the attention focused
on his transit credentials and how he would use them to rescue the ailing
London Underground, an effort in which he and Livingstone, fighting Blair's
government, have been largely unsuccessful. But Kiley told me later that he
was equally interested in coming to London because of Livingstone's
determination to try to right the relationship between the city and the
car. If it worked, Kiley knew, it would be seen as a model around the
world, and especially back in New York, where more than 250,000 vehicles
crowd into the 8.5-square-mile heart of Manhattan in three hours every
morning, roughly the same number that enter the eight square miles of
central London over the course of an entire workday.
As the leader of a business alliance in the 1990's, Kiley advocated
road pricing for Manhattan, but he received no support from Mayor Rudolph
W. Giuliani, whose voting base in Queens and Staten Island practically
lived in their cars. In many ways London was an interesting parallel, more
like New York than any other American city in its atypical transportation
landscape. In both cities, as packed as the roads can be, more than 80
percent of workers take some form of mass transit into the central city
every weekday morning. In London, as in New York, some drivers are poor.
But most tend to have money -- enough to generate political pressure to
protect their choice. They are also affluent enough, Kiley points out, to
be persuaded to spend a little money to save them something much more
valuable: their time.
''We knew all along that the motorist advocates and writers for the
newspapers and libertarians and people who are really locked into cars
would be critical, but I think the majority of Londoners supported
congestion-charging right up to opening day,'' Kiley said later in his
office, with a poster of the Brooklyn Bridge behind his desk. ''Would I
call it a popular measure? Probably not. But I think that Londoners have
long since concluded that someone had to take this dragon on.''
Sitting there that day, as the dragon was being cowed on the streets
below, Kiley told me that he had spoken at length about fighting it with
another very important potential St. George, one in some ways a lot like
Livingstone -- a political outsider who takes the subway to work, who
strongly supports the idea of road pricing and who views the prerogatives
of driving from a much more jaundiced 21st-century perspective. His name
was Michael R. Bloomberg, and he was the mayor of New York City.
Though not mentioned in ''The Power Broker,'' Robert A. Caro's
biography of the master road builder Robert Moses, one of the more iconic
clashes in the long war between the car and the city took place in New
York, with Moses playing a role. He and other planners wanted to slice a
highway through the middle of Washington Square Park, the heart of
Greenwich Village. It is now hard to believe such a plan was ever seriously
proposed, but in 1958 it came close to happening.
At the time, photographed defiantly on the City Hall steps with a
giant prop key to lock traffic out of the park, a Tammany Hall leader
framed a question that was only then starting to be asked in earnest. Would
we, he asked, ''plan and develop our cities in accordance with the needs
and wishes of the people who live in them or for the convenience of the
vehicles which pass through them?'' The highway through the park was
eventually scrapped, but in New York that question, until very recently,
has been answered almost always in favor of the passing cars. From 1924 to
1965, car lanes into Manhattan grew from 68 to 120, according to one count,
while the number of cars on the street went from 390,000 a day in 1946
(considered intolerable at the time) to more than a million by the end of
the 1990's. And that is not because travel has been made more efficient. In
fact, it has often been the opposite. In 1907, with trolleys and traffic
lanes, the Brooklyn Bridge carried 426,000 people a day; now, with space
only for cars, it carries far less than half that number and is often
jammed. Convoys of trucks rumble down the decaying streets of Chinatown on
their way to New Jersey because tolls on the Verrazano Narrows Bridge would
cost them an average of $33 per trip to take the highways that are better
designed for them. Many traffic experts see Bloomberg as the last, best
chance -- at least for the foreseeable future -- for anything to change.
When he was campaigning, he sought the advice of car skeptics like Kiley.
Samuel I. Schwartz, an engineer who worked on East River bridge tolls under
both Lindsay and Koch, wrote much of Bloomberg's stridently anti-car
campaign platform himself. And Schwartz, who coined the quintessential New
York warning ''Don't Even THINK of Parking Here,'' is no moderate on the
issue. He advocates charging trucks $50 for using Manhattan as a
pass-through and, were it technically possible, $25 a minute for people who
want to cruise Fifth Avenue during the height of the holiday season.
(''They want to see the Rock Center Christmas tree from their car?'' he
says. ''If they do, they should pay for that great privilege.'')
After his election, Bloomberg seemed to be moving in that direction.
He decided, in the face of mounting attacks by powerful garage owners, to
maintain most of an emergency traffic ban that Giuliani started after the
Sept. 11 attacks, preventing single-occupant cars from crossing into much
of Manhattan during the morning rush. He has ended the age-old tradition of
free Sunday parking in many neighborhoods (including his own, the Upper
East Side) and banned turns on some busy crosstown streets -- small changes
but ones met with shrieks of protest. His transportation commissioner, Iris
Weinshall, even went to London last summer to talk to Kiley and Livingstone
about the congestion charge.
But there seems to be a growing sense that Bloomberg could end up
among the near-miss mayors on any kind of serious traffic reform. In large
part, this is because he has already spent a career's worth of political
capital by raising property taxes to fix the city's enormous budget gap,
for example, and by banning smoking in bars, a move that would probably get
Livingstone sacked in London. Bloomberg and his staff are so nervous about
traffic issues that they do not like to talk about them even privately
anymore. One city official told me of his particular nightmare: trying to
write the speech that Bloomberg would deliver when he cut the ribbons on
the new Brooklyn Bridge toll plaza: ''What's he going to say? 'Ladies and
gentlemen, these things that've been free for decades and decades. I'm the
guy who's going to make you pay for them! Thank you for your support!'''
Kiley says he still believes that Bloomberg could sell a congestion
charge, especially in a city where so many take mass transit and only half
of the people living at the epicenter of the problem even own cars.
''That's not a bad place to start,'' he says, ''when you know that half the
people in Manhattan are going to be with you, almost by definition.''
For all the rest, he adds, ''Bloomberg could use the analogy of,
well, look what a difference government has actually made to the subway
system. Now we've got to take the next step because we have a subway that's
working better, a commuter rail system that's in good shape and lots of
room on buses. We've got to really start managing road use. That could be
his message.''
Would the message work? New York might not be ready to hear it yet,
and the messenger might be killed. But inevitably the city will have to
listen, and the brave politician who forces it to come to its senses will
be heralded as a visionary. ''Fifth Avenue'' has always had a dull ring to
it. What about ''Bloomberg Promenade''?
Randy Kennedy, a reporter for the Metro Section of The Times, writes the
Tunnel Vision column about the New York subway system.
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sujit Patwardhan.
PARISAR,
Yamuna, ICS Colony, Ganeshkhind Road, Pune 411 007
Tel: 5537955
Email: sujit@vsnl.com
*****************************************************************
In nature there are neither Rewards nor Punishments---
there are Consequences.
*****************************************************************
From geobpa at nus.edu.sg Fri Apr 25 11:07:24 2003
From: geobpa at nus.edu.sg (Paul Barter)
Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 10:07:24 +0800
Subject: [sustran] FW: Sustainable Transport E-Update 6
Message-ID: <0709A702109DA844B290CEAA959078BD5EE81B@MBXSRV04.stf.nus.edu.sg>
The latest edition is out of the Sustainable Transport E-Update (#6),
the Bulletin of the Institute for Transportation & Development Policy
(ITDP). As usual it is full of stimulating, inspiring news.
Please go to http://www.itdp.org/STe/ste6/index.html to see it in full.
In This Issue
Seoul to Raze Elevated Highway, Giving Way to Revitalized City Center
Cape Town Announces BRT and Bicycle Corridor
Sports Utility Vehicles, Pickups and Minivans Now 50% of US Vehicle
Sales
What Future for Iraqi Oil?
First Car-Free Sunday Announced in Quito
Livingstone Discusses Expansion as Congestion Pricing Increases in
Popularity
Draft EU Accession Treaty Endorses CEE Roadbuilding
Czech D47 Highway Contract Collapses
Accra Bicycle Caravan Events Grow
Becak Modernization in Yogyakarta
Air Pollution in the Megacities of Asia
Senegal Officials to Visit French BRT Systems
Proceedings of the International Seminar on Human Mobility
Upcoming Events
From geobpa at nus.edu.sg Wed Apr 30 16:56:55 2003
From: geobpa at nus.edu.sg (Paul Barter)
Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 15:56:55 +0800
Subject: [sustran] FW: Thousands bike for clean air in Manila
Message-ID: <0709A702109DA844B290CEAA959078BD7EC18A@MBXSRV04.stf.nus.edu.sg>
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Tuesday, 29 April 2003 7:48 PM
To: Clean Air Initiative -- Asia
Subject: [cai-asia] Thousands bike for clean air
This is an article forwarded by the Firefly Brigade, a member of the
Clean Air
Initiative for Asian Cities in the Philippines.
Last Sunday's Ride was featured in page A29 of yesterday's Inquirer.
Here's
the article:
::::::::::::::::
Fireflies Tour: Thousands bike for clean air
Posted: 7:34 AM (Manila Time) | Apr. 28, 2003
By Luige del Puerto
Inquirer News Service
EVERY TIME Dinna Louise Dayao goes out biking, she knows she exposes
herself
to polluted air and reckless drivers. But she bikes all the same, she
said,
to "affirm that cycling is efficient, environmentally sensible and a
healthy
means of transport."
Together with more than 2,000 bikers, Dinna, a freelance writer, battled
the
relentless summer heat and toured seven cities in Metro Manila Sunday to
spread the gospel of biking.
They called the event, the "Tour of the Fireflies," a tribute to the
light-carrying creatures that are disappearing fast in urban centers.
"Fireflies are very sensitive insects, and very beautiful too. They are,
however, dying in Metro Manila because of pollution," Dinna told the
Inquirer.
"Like them, we are dying too, albeit slowly, because of pollution. We
bike
to show everyone that we want clean air, now" she said.
Metro Manila has more than two million motor vehicles, which produce 75
percent of the air pollution in the capital. Next to New Delhi, Shanghai
and
Mexico City, Metro Manila is one of the most polluted cities in the
world.
Many of those who joined the tour were first-timers. Among them was
Jasper
Manlapaz, a footballer. Jasper rides his bike to work.
"When you choose to bike, you help the environment by not producing
toxic
fumes. In the process you also exercise your heart, ensuring a healthy
life," he said.
Another first-timer was Ayran Arellano, a 5-year-old boy. His father
Ridan
brought him along with his elder brother Ayrl. Dressed like a firefly,
Ayran
has yet to understand the politics of biking, but he loves to bike, says
his
dad. "I want my children to grow up in a pollution-free city with biking
lanes," Ridan said.
The veteran cylist Roberto Abellar Sarreal, a pollster, missed the tour
this
year due to an inguinal hernia operation. At 74, he has been the oldest
racer in the tour.
Riding in a support vehicle, Sarreal said biking has kept him healthy.
He
calls on senior citizens to do the same. "Next year, I'll be on," he
said.
Catrina Rasha Ricardo won this year's best firefly costume competition.
For
her prize, she will fly to Bangkok, courtesy of Lufthansa Airlines, in
an
all-expense paid three-day trip.
Started in 1999, the Tour of the Fireflies has been urging people to
ride
bikes, instead of cars. Firefly Brigade, the tour organizer, said the
government would do well to promote biking as an alternative
transportation
system.
The key to this, the group said, is an efficient local bicycle traffic
lane,
like the 66-kilometer bikeway network constructed in Marikina through a
World Bank grant.
The brigade is now working on transforming the University of the
Philippines
in Diliman into a calmer and safer "bike" campus. The campus oval has
been
rendered "car-free" on Sundays so people can walk and ride bikes without
fear of getting bumped or sideswiped by a car.
Indeed, the benefits of biking are endless, contends the group.
Bikes are pollution free. They don't burn anything, except calories.
Bikes
are cheap. Maintenance is cheap. In fact, more and more workers are
buying
bikes to save on fare.
Yet the biggest winner in biking is ultimately one's health, everyone
agrees. By the time one gets to the office, he or she would have toned
his
or her muscles, circulated oxygen to his or her body efficiently, and
exercised his or her heart. #
::::::::::::::::
The Firefly Brigade is grateful for your support. We look forward to
working
with you on future projects.
Peace and pedals!
Dinna Louise C. Dayao
Member, Publicity Committee
The Firefly Brigade (www.fireflybrigade.org)
Tels. 813 1715, 0917 462 9132
From pascaldesmond at eircom.net Wed Apr 30 19:16:32 2003
From: pascaldesmond at eircom.net (Pascal Desmond)
Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 11:16:32 +0100
Subject: [sustran] Re: FW: Thousands bike for clean air in Manila
In-Reply-To: <0709A702109DA844B290CEAA959078BD7EC18A@MBXSRV04.stf.nus.edu.sg>
References: <0709A702109DA844B290CEAA959078BD7EC18A@MBXSRV04.stf.nus.edu.sg>
Message-ID:
At 3:56 pm +0800 30/4/03, Paul Barter wrote:
>-----Original Message-----
>Sent: Tuesday, 29 April 2003 7:48 PM
>To: Clean Air Initiative -- Asia
>Subject: [cai-asia] Thousands bike for clean air
>
>This is an article forwarded by the Firefly Brigade, a member of the
>Clean Air
>Initiative for Asian Cities in the Philippines.
[SNIP]
>Catrina Rasha Ricardo won this year's best firefly costume competition.
>For
>her prize, she will fly to Bangkok, courtesy of Lufthansa Airlines, in
>an
>all-expense paid three-day trip.
As a "clean air initiative", I'm a bit surprised at the prize. This
will throw a bucket load of pollutants into the atmosphere around
both Manila and Bangkok. Additionally, this prize will contribute to
ozone layer damage, albeit slight. And, I expect, the winner won't
find much clean air in Bangkok when she gets there.
This sort of prize is quite common among environment protection
groups. A few years ago in the U.K. the Royal Society for the
Protection of Birds, when subscriptions were approaching one million,
offered an inducement of a Land Rover Discovery for the one millionth
member. At present this organisation is lobbying hard against a new
airport for London at Cliffe in the Thames estuary because it would
harm poor little birds http://www.rspb.org.uk/noairport/index.asp
However, a 5 minute search of its wwwsite [along with knowledge of
the organisation stretching back over the last 10 years] revealed
nothing about aviation in general.
There are other examples, too, such as a peatland campaign in Ireland
which gave out 'save our bogs' bumper stickers. Such freebies
reinforce western society's attitudes towards the environment: "Let's
be nice to birds and bees and leaves on trees but tough luck on those
people who [more often than not] have no economic choice but to
inhale our waste".
Environmental campaigners need to be acutely aware that sometimes
their actions can appear as 'do as I say, not as I do'. This can
undermine their cause.
Sl?n agus Beannacht [Irish for Take care and Best wishes]
Pascal