Carbusters Oct.-Dec
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Carbusters Oct.-Dec. 2005 m a g a z i n e No. 25 ReGulars 4 Letters Exposing “Green Car” Promoters; Cacti vs. Pedestrians 6 Car Cult Review Four Wheels to Survival; Are You a Speed Freak?; Stroking the Knob 8 World News Lyon Rent-a-Bike; Carfree Dictatorship; Canadian Oil; Carfree Conference 10 Action Bikes Against the G8; Ghost Bikes; Slinging Mud at SUVs 11 Member Group Pro"le Humane City Foundation, Bogotá, Colombia 26 Studies & Reports Mobile Phones; Motorcycles vs. Cars; Who Breathes More Pollution? Matt Wuerker 27 Book Reviews Great Streets by Allan B. Jacobs; The Post- Automobile City by James Kushner Features 12 Living the Good Life Various writers re!ect on carfree island life and the people who have chosen to live there. 16 The World Celebrates Carfreedom From Zagreb to São Paulo, on September 22, World Carfree Day, people take to the streets in celebration. 18 Converging in Budapest Critical Mass bike rides have achieved an unprecedented popularity in Budapest. Justin Hyatt explores why. 20 Defending Mobility Rights World Carfree Network watchdog project highlights car-based discrimination. Arie Farnam takes an in-depth look. 23 Cutting Your Car Use: The Column Anna Semlyen gives advice to those people who have to commute to work day in and day out. 24 Building the City of Clay JH Crawford re!ects on the building of a scale model from clay at Towards Carfree Cities V in Budapest. 2 Carbusters #25 Oct. - Making Moves his 25th glorious issue of Carbusters "nds itself highlighting the injustice su#ered by Critical Mass with a new look and a participants at the hands of New York City police Tnew name...almost. Carbusters is now one o$cers. word, not two. Perhaps These support campaigns fall under the umbrella we were looking for ways to reinvent ourselves of the Mobility Justice Project, introduced by our without actually reinventing ourselves – because own Arie Farnam on page 20. The project speaks up after 25 issues of covering all things carfree, it for those discriminated against because they cannot seems that the world is ever more receptive to the or will not get behind the wheel of a car. message. The latest conference (page 9) introduced us The rising price of petrol is leading governments to the Young Greens (Zö") and their Hungarian around the world to encourage their citizens to drive version of Carbusters. In Budapest, carfree ideas less. Even Bush and Blair gave such pep talks to the are spreading in a concrete way as groups like Zö" populace, as did automobile clubs in both countries. are active making projects on a local level. And People are carpooling, testing out their local public it is clear that Zö" is riding a wave of mounting transport, and maybe cleaning the mud o# that support for cycling and alternative transportation, mountain bike and starting to pedal it around as Justin Hyatt writes on page 18. Critical Mass bike town. Even if saving money is the motivating factor, rides there have swelled to 30,000 participants – a carfree alternatives have become welcome in places sizeable community demanding change from a where the dominance of the automobile was rarely government reluctant to put bike lanes in the city questioned. Still, interest in transforming districts or because it believes there is not enough interest. neighbourhoods into carfree areas has yet to take Next year’s conference in Bogotá, Colombia will hold. be the "rst time that the Towards Carfree Cities This past World Carfree Day, your Prague-based sta# were inundated with press requests from international outlets, such as the BBC, as well as local newspapers and radio stations. The media and Front Cover: the general public are interested in the alternatives. And we are hearing from new groups, Turkey for design by Tanja Eskola example, where the carfree movement is developing Unfortunately, this will be Tanja’s last apace. cover design as she leaves Carbusters to World Carfree Network now has 53 member return to Finland. We have Tanja to thank organisations, after only two years in operation. The for our new look. We’ll miss her creative solidarity among them has been impressive. First there was a support campaign for member group Work for a Better Bangladesh’s "ght against rickshaw Back Cover: bans in Dhaka. Then more recently, we’ve launched by François Meloche a campaign to assist member group Time’s Up! and Readers will notice that there is no text the harassed cyclists of New York City. in the bubble above the driver. We want What started as a simple screening of Still We to know what you think the driver is Ride at Towards Carfree Cities V in Budapest has saying. We will print all of the responses mushroomed into an international campaign Editorial Collective: Carbusters, Krátká 26 Tanja Eskola, Randy Ghent, Steven Logan, Stephan von Pohl, Gandalf 100 00 Prague 10, Czech Republic Tätting, Vincent Aronio de Romblay tel: +(420) 274-810-849 [email protected] fax: +(420) 274-772-017 www.carbusters.org Other World Carfree Network Sta#: Subscription info: page 29 and 30. Arie Farnam (Fundraiser), Kamila Blazková (O$ce Manager), ISSN: 1213-7154 / MK ÈR: E 100018 Roeland Kuijper (EVS intern), Radka Tichavská (accountant) Printed in the Czech Republic on 100% recycled paper by Pematisk, Prague. Distributed by Doormouse (Canada); AK Press, Desert Moon, Small Changes, Tower/MTS, and Ubiquity (US); Contributors: Central Books (UK); and many others. See <www.carbusters.org/distribution> for a partial list Pedro Alveano, Sina Arnold, John Bacher, Flora Bianchi, Barbara Constan- of distribution outlets. This publication was funded in part by the European Commission via the European Voluntary tine, JH Crawford, Nacho Duran, Arie Farnam, Pippa Gallop, Ivan Gregov, Service and other programmes. The contents do not necessarily re!ect the position of the Janet Heisey, Justin Hyatt, Darija Ivetic, Scott Larkin, Marta Pombo, Mari- European Commission or its national agency. ana Rillo, Anna Semlyen, Sara Stout, Quito para Todos, Uladzimir Valodzin Reprints welcome with a credit to Carbusters and a reference to Carbusters.org. Carbusters Magazine www.worldcarfree.net is a project of: Please send letters, article proposals, artwork, and photos to: 3 Carbusters #25 Oct. - letters Cacti vs. Pedestrians pouring concrete. Since walking regarded as a bit eccentric. Here in Texas there is much in the right-of-way is free, it just Ryano o$cial noise that people need to can’t be important. Tokyo, Japan walk more, but there is a general Some of us hope to change consensus that there is nowhere this situation. Dumbers, er, Hummers to walk. This is odd because Amy Babich A comment about your the city and state own land on Texas, USA observations on the US price of both sides of most of our roads. petrol rising to a realistic level for This is public land set aside for Keep the Name the "rst time (it is now over US$3). transportation purposes. It’s the After discovering your magazine The problem is that the US place where a sidewalk would be, several years ago, I "nally brought economy is predi- cated on cheap if there were a sidewalk. In short, it myself to purchase a copy, along petroleum prices, a belief that is the pedestrian right-of-way. with a few books and other natural resources are limitless, This means that we can have a ammunition (and made a small and a suspicion of government place to walk at very low cost. All donation). Apart from being action. The government has the city has to do is to a$rm the very impressed with the quality had its head up its ass since the public to walk in the pedestrian of the magazine and wishing 1973 oil crisis and has done little right-of-way, and the obligation I had subscribed much earlier, to educate the public about the of landowners and the city to I was struck by one person’s necessity of weaning itself from keep the right-of-way walkable. comment that Carbusters was foreign oil. Legislators have set But so far, the city of Austin an inappropriate name for a the tax policy to favour “gas takes the view that the right of magazine trying to convince guzzling” SUVs and have let the homeowners to plant cactus people not to drive their cars. auto manufacturers slide on the in the pedestrian right-of-way Correct me if I’m wrong, CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel overrides the right of the public but I suspect that most of your Economy) standards. to walk safely. Pedestrians, readers are already convinced So, while a car like the including children, must walk in that car culture is taking us in the Smart which is built in an the street with the cars. wrong direction, and that your environmentally friendly fashion Texas has passed the Safe greatest value is as an asset to us and gets 60 mpg is being built Routes to School Act and Austin’s both as a source of information, and sold throughout the rest mayor says the city is going to and a source of moti-vation of the world, Detroit sells the be the "tness and clean energy for maintaining momentum in citizens of the USA Dumbers, er, capital of the world. this move-ment. If so, you can Hummers. Meanwhile, the city blithely be as critical and cynical about Michael Bannerman gives away public transportation cars as you like! It’s up to the USA land, for the purposes of rest of us readers to remember, A Rhetorical Question planting cacti because walking when talking to neighbours and The company I work for is not considered transportation.