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
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. family, that we live in a society supercharges V8s, upgrades SUVs Nothing is valued here unless it where a per-son who hates cars is and builds outrageous fast cars costs lots of money and involves for wealthy people. Our business is based on over-the-top vehicles. I, however, ride my bike about three miles to and from work along the beach on a boardwalk and up a small hill. When I "nish work I sail and watch sunsets with my wife. I used to drive every day and got a blood clot in my right leg from the mileage. I have never felt better than I do now and I thoroughly recommend it. In America, cyclists are called “bicyclists.” A burgulary is referred to as being “burgularised.” Why are car drivers not car-ists? Alex Hazzard
4 California, USA Carbusters #25 Oct. - Evangelist Apologises Carman Gentile I read your World News article Eureka, about oil exploit- ation in Israel California, USA [see Carbusters #23]. As an Evangelical Christian who cares Celebrating about this world, I would like Carfree Day to apologise for the actions of I will celebrate many people in the church and the occasion by for the terrible track record that taking my car to Christians and those claiming to work, since there be Christians have when it comes will probably be to the environment. less cars on the Some of us do see the mess beautiful highway. around us and care. My wife and I are working to make an environmentally sound Christian arts community in Germany. It’s a small step, but we want to be a part of the solution, not the problem. If you are the country’s largest foundations, which makes one wonder about the lines of "nance from the Empire itself to the environmentalists involved. Since we are convinced that the “better car” creates a rationale for continuing the Empire of Cars, Sprawl, Asphalt and (supposedly) Cheap Energy – along with all the guns and bombs needed to keep wondering, we don’t have a car, Unsigned the restive natives beaten into so we won’t be buying from Zion shape in the frontier lands where Oil. the oil comes from – and since the Andy Evans Truth Now! “better car” helps postpone the Germany In mid-August, Ecocity Builders day when we can get busy with activists got tired of the incessant the real project of building the Disabled Car Users? drumbeat by a number of carfree city, we were outraged. A segment of the population the United States’ largest Since one can drive farther in that Carbusters readers often environmental organisations the energy-e$cient car, it is worse forget are the physically disabled. calling for better cars so we at inducing sprawl development Not everyone can ride a bicycle. launched a campaign called than cars that are more expensive And disabled people who live “Truth Now!” to drive. That’s the historic in rural areas depend upon Among the groups urging Ford pattern. I admit that our theory private automobiles to get to the Motor Com-pany and Exxon Oil hasn’t processed the emerging urban medical and commercial to shape up their policies, and insanity of people living farther centres. I used to work in physical thus regain consumer con"dence out, but buying more energy- rehabilitation and there are a lot and “market share” and “make consuming vehicles anyway! We more of those folks then most American business more com- are grasping at straws in an ever bicyclists realise. petitive” were the Sierra Club, more perverse intellectual climate It will be a long time before Rainforest Action Network, Global here in the United States. public transit will be available Exchange, Greenpeace and the What galls us most is the to people to live in rural farms, Union of Concern Scientists, enormous expense and energy ranches, etc. Until then, the along with a sort of coordinating represented by the full-page private automobile is the only council called the Apollo Alliance. advertise- ments the “Jumpstart option for many of our fellow All this is backed by some of Ford” and “Exxpose Exxon” citizens.
5 Carbusters #25 Oct. - “Surround every federal highway with giant mounds of crash-absorbing yogurt, and everyone should drive a Ford GT - America’s Ferrari.” - Lawrence Ulrich, CNN Money Magazine
jams. Learn and observe these rules: CAR CULT t Obey police, civil defense auxiliaries, and other authorities. t If you have room, pick up walking evacuees. REVIEW t Don’t crowd or try to beat the other fellow. t If your car becomes disabled, pull another car with little increase try to get o# the road. in your own gas consumption t If tra$c gets stalled, don’t Your car helps shelter you lean on the horn. Your impatience Tests under an actual atomic may become someone else’s explosion in Nevada proved that panic. That can cost lives! modern cars, especially those with turret top construction, give Are You a Speed Freak? a degree of protection against In their weekly “Focus on the blast, heat, and radiation. Corporation” col-umn, Russell Before an attack, roll the Mokhiber and Robert Weissman windows down to equalize of Corporatepredators.org pressures and to prevent glass explore Daimler Chrysler’s ad breakage. Crouch or lie down, campaign for the new Dodge below the level of the win- Charger – which, we are told does dows. After an attack, windows 0 to 60 mph in "ve seconds. should be raised to keep out as Advertisements encourage much dust as possible; it may be readers to go to
6 Carbusters #25 Occtt.. -- highway,” she says. “If you want someone who is self-expressive, someone is launching a vehicle to do that, there are racing tracks genuine and con"dent. 20 feet in the air. They were around where you can take a car.” What about the video on the designed to get you excited and Racing tracks? web site, with the driver knocking tap into that untamed spirit.” “Yes, there are places where down barriers and ripping The campaign is more than you can take your car to race,” Da through fences? just speed, she says. The ideal Sante says. “That is an animated video,” customer, she says, is someone Da Sante says that the she says. “It is clearly fantasy. It’s looking to go out and grab life by demographic for the Charger is a not real people ripping down the horns. 40-to-59-year-old male, married a road. It is more like a game. - Corporatepredators.org with two kids, income from Gaming graphics are popular. It US$65,000 to $90,000, and living is not a television commercial Munching on Metal in the suburbs of a large city. She where it is a real vehicle and In a Merseyside, UK, safari says that the psychographic is
This one is perfect for the types that think o#-roading means driving up “Honey, I always wished on the sidewalk. our car would smell like Who needs nature, bacon and monkey.” when we can “Yes, dear, but here, bottle it and spray smell this old German car it wherever we scent "rst.”
Come with us and sni# the I like how this oil-gas mixture of the East cola spills all German Traband, say the over my trousers makers of this smell in a can. as I cruise down Nothing like an old, German Communist stink to make
7 Carbusters #25 Oct. - world news
the results sent to the control centre; if there is any malfunction, the bike is not o#ered for rent. Demand is at the highest from 7 to 9 am, 12 to 2 pm and 5 to 7 pm. By 2007, there should be 4,000 cycles and up to 400 racks in the city, guaranteeing a rack every 300 metres. - Velov.grandlyon.com on y A Car for a Bus Pass and L BELGIUM - Almost 30,000 families in Flanders have traded éone - Gr thTeheir c Aarmers foicasr an annual pass ques L for bus and rail. Only some 800 Jac returned to owning a car, reports Europe half hour or less are free. the Belgian newspaper De Users must, however, submit Morgen. The Flemish transport Rent-a-Bike Success a EUR 150 deposit. If they keep agency De Lijn has o#ered the FRANCE - Less than three months their bike longer than 24 hours trade o#er since October 2002. after its launch, the Velo’v Grand the deposit is cashed. This year alone, some 11,000 Lyon rent-a-bike programme Providing the service costs Flemish families switched from has some 10,000 registered EUR 1,000 per bike each year; it car to public transport. Anyone users. Since its start on May 19, is fully funded by JC Decaux, the who cancels the registration for it has beeen used for an average billboard multinational, which their second family car receives a of 4,000 trips a day on 2,000 launched and is operating the three-year pass. If you have only public bikes available at 150 bike scheme in exchange for the right one car and unregister that one, stations. to sell advertising space bus and you get bus passes for the whole A prepaid card costs EUR 1 for tram shelters. family. a week and EUR 5 for a year; rental Each time a bike is returned - N-tv.de, August 29 costs EUR 1 per hour. Rides of a to a rack, its tire pressure, brakes, gears and lights are checked and In Brief...
CHINA - Shezhen China Bicycle, one of China’s for a !ourishing domestic car industry. Government largest producers and main exporter of bicycles, import duties on motorbikes, he says, will hopefully which used to produce more than three million encourage the more than 12 million motorbike bikes a year, has declared bankruptcy. owners to shift to car use. - Týden, August 22 - Ward’s Auto World, July 1
GERMANY - Christian Koch, a German inventor, NIGERIA - Under Sharia Law in the northern state of claims he can make a litre of biodiesel for EUR 0.23. Kano, women and men will not be allowed to travel The ingredients, however, include dead cats and together on public transport, including taxis. Muslim other animals. A 6 kg cat can produce 2.5 litres of cleric Ibrahim Kaliel said in the BBC report, “You have biodiesel, he says. no excuse to carry a woman who is neither your wife - T & E Bulletin, October nor your mother on a motorcycle.” - BBC News, July 27 INDIA - The Supreme Court banned the honking of horns from 10 pm to 6 am. Health experts say noise USA - More bicycles than cars have been sold in pollution is a major cause of heart attacks. the US over the past 12 months. Sales of bicycles - BBC News, July 19 reached 19 million last year. In comparison, 20 million bikes were sold during the oil embargo in VIETNAM - The general director of Daewoo hopes the early 1970s. Mean-while, even President George 8 Carbusters #25 Oct. - and recognise the bene"t of Carfree Conference alternative transportation, both Lands in Budapest Mobility Injustice for the everyday, and in cases of Over 200 people from around the in New Orleans evacuation? - Carbusters world descend-ed on Budapest From the moment the TV footage from July 18-21 for the "fth install- !ashed to an endless !eet of ment in World Carfree Network’s cars escaping New Orleans, the now-annual Towards Carfree car was destined to be a central Car-Lite Dictatorship Cities conference series. The week theme of Hurricane Katrina. was "lled with presentations, MYANMAR – Yangon is a pleasant, Unlike with Hurricane Rita, workshops, project development quiet, laid-back city with few cars. the highways were e#ective in meetings, hands-on activities, One reason is the govern-ment’s evacuating those who had wheels. excur-sions and parties. decision to restrict cars. The "ve But those without, in the absence The "rst day, after participants million inhabitants of the city of public trans-portation, were introduced themselves and their own just 152,533 cars, say o$cial left stranded amidst the rising organisations’ work, featured statistics, or three cars for every waters. Sixty thousand residents sessions such as “The City 100 people. By contrast, some of New Orleans, according to The Repair Project,” “Carfree Living 3 million vehicles ply the roads Economist, did not own cars. in Switzerland,” “Turkish Carfree of Bangkok, in neighbouring The right-wing Competitive Settle-ments: Princess Islands Thailand. “A brand new Toyota Enterprise Institute used this in Istanbul” and “Approaching Land Cruiser, at $300,000, costs six fact as an opportunity to criticise Lenders and Investors: Making times what it would in America.” govern-ment attempts to the Financial Case for Carfree encourage carfree transportation. Unfortunately, Myanmar is Development.” Titled “World Carfree Day: Not a a dictatorship with a ruthless Tuesday and Wednesday Day to Celebrate,” the institute’s policy towards human rights. It is featured presenta-tions in the article claimed that “the lack of also extremely poor. Myanmar’s council chambers of the baroque access to cars can be deadly.” relative poverty looms large when city hall, seated in polished Sam Kazman, head of the it comes to car ownership, and mahogany pews beneath institutAsia/Peaci’s A"utcomobility Project according to The Economist, “that chandeliers and painted cherubs spinned the issue on its head: poverty stems, in large part, from on the ceiling. Oscar Edmundo “Many people may well choose a ludicrous government policies.” Diaz described the remarkable car-free lifestyle, but the notion From the carfree perspective, transformation of Bogotá, that government should impose can one even begin to praise such Colombia’s transporta-tion it in the name of sustainability actions? infrastructure and public space. is crazy. As Hurricane Katrina - The Economist, June 18-24 Cor van der Klaauw explained showed, it can be disastrous as the policies of Groningen, the well.” Who’s Entitled to a Car? Netherlands, where over 50% However, as Hurricane Rita SINGAPORE - From January to of trips are made by bike. Lars approached, hun-dreds of July, new vehicle registration Gemzoe spoke of the importance thousands of motorised would-be rose 20%, to 70,251, from the of public pedestrianised spaces Houston evacuees sat in snail-like same period a year ago. This in and how they bring out the festive, highway conditions in the mid- a Acounfricatry with only 135 vehicles social side in us all. Meanwhile, JH day heat, often running out of per 1,000 inhabitants. Crawford, author of Carfree Cities, gasoline or heading back home For the past 15 years, led participants in building a in desperation. For many, the Singapore has used annual car carfree district out of clay. thought of sitting out a hurricane quotas to manage tra$c and On Thursday, workshops taught in a car on the open road wasn’t preserve precious land space. campaign skills and meetings their idea of “automobility.” On average, cars cost three developed new World Carfree In advance of Katrina, an times as much than in the US. Network projects. The afternoon Amtrak train left New Orleans Twice a month, the government featured three excursions, empty, and Amtrak cancelled all auctions o# a few thousand car including a trip to Margit Island, train service in and out of the city. licen-ces – called Certi"cates of where conference participants Each train could safely evacuate Entitlement (COEs) – allowing drove pedal-powered cars around 600 people, but none of that was buyers to drive the vehicle for 10 the park. That night, the Tom organised until September 2, "ve years. A certi"cate costs S$12,000 Waits-themed Blue Valentines days after the city of New Orleans (EUR 8,000) – only S$551 for a played soul-stirring tunes at the ordered evacuations. motorbike. con-ference closing party, as Rather than claiming there’s These quotas, writes Reuters, participants danced, drank or a lack of cars in an already “have made Singapore, which debated enforcement of the non- tra$c-clogged country, can’t imports all its vehicles, one of the smoking policy. planners learn from New Orleans world’s few major cities free of On Friday, the day after the
9 Carbusters #25 Oct. -
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os: Undeadar os: phot Bikes Against the G8 trailers. At night the group stayed because it lacks "rm targets and This July, the G8 met at in community projects, squats, timetables for action. And once Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland. protest camps or housing co-ops. again, the US has maintained its Once again, it was time for Along the way they showed their opposition to the Kyoto Protocol. the leaders of the eight most support for campaigns such as So there will be enough issues powerful nations to privately the protest against the Coventry for activists at next year’s G8 talk about issues such as airport expansion or Manchester’s summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, climate change and debt relief, Critical Mass bike ride. and another bike ride is in the in!uencing through their Once in Scotland, there was works – check out G8bikeride.org. decisions the lives of millions no rest in sight: the next Critical uk. What better way to combine of people and perepetuating Mass bike rides in Stirling and fun, practical alternatives and environ- mental destruction and Edinburgh were already awaiting political activism? an unjust economic system. the group and its home-built Looking back, Bazmo, a cycle But as in the years before, pedal-powered sound system. caravan participant, concludes: thousands of people met in In fact, bikes played a vital part “Whereas people in their cars are order to protest, blockade and during the counter-actions: isolated, bike riding is the ideal demonstrate alternatives. Among bike trailers brought water and combin-ation of independence them were the rebellious riders food to the blockade of the and inter-dependence. During of the G8 Cycle Caravan, which Faslane nuclear base, during the bike ride, we have started to wanted to show that sustainable Wednesday’s blockades of the rely on each other and trust each transport is e#ective in the face summit itself bike scouts helped other.“ of the summit meeting’s failure with the communication, and at - Sina Arnold to take the necessary level of the Edinburgh “Carnival Against action on climate change . At the Capitalism“ they supported the Slinging Mud at SUVs same time their trip provided street medics when their radio FRANCE – On September 1, opportunities for networking system had broken down. a group called Les Dégon!és between activists and making At the same time, climate (The De!ated) launched an more people familiar with a non- talks during the G8 were urban guerrilla campaign hierarchical way of interaction. disappointing: The group did in Paris, de!ating the tires Around 60 cyclists from the issue a new Action Plan which and smearing mud on the UK, Denmark, the US, Germany promises a range of measures windshields of SUVs parked in and Poland set o# on a two-week to increase energy e$ciency, the otherwise picturesque Paris ride, starting in Brighton in the to encourage diversi"cation neighbourhoods. very south of England on June of energy sources and use “We use the mud to say that if 18, and "nishing in Scotland for of renewables, to promote the owners will not take the four- the time of the summit. Cyclists cleaner use of fossil fuels, and wheel-drives to the countryside, covered some 50 miles a day, with to coordinate research and we will bring the countryside to no motors involved: all luggage development. But environmental the four-wheel-drives,” says the got transported on racks or in groups have criticised the plan group’s masked leader, Sous-
10 Carbusters #25 Oct. - member Group pro"le
by Sara Stout intersections and navigate direct television and print media that routes to useful destinations promote bicycling as practical, umane City Foundation such as shopping districts, environ-mentally friendly and (HCF) is a schools, libraries, parks and fashionable. In addition, the HBogotá, Colombia, non- community centres. Between foundation sponsors contests for pro"t group 30 and 150 citizens participate Bogotá‘s carfree day and other shoring up living standards each month. These bike tours public events, o#ering prizes for and creating a model of urban also introduce riders to historic photography, writing and artwork sustainability. and cultural heritage sites, newly that highlight the bicycle as a Founded in 2001 by architect created public spaces, and stylish urban vehicle. and urban planner Ricardo environmentally sensitive natural Bogotá has seen an increase in Montezuma, the HCF employs areas and how to care for them. bicycle rider-ship from less than more than 20 professionals The Human Mobility 1% of all trips in 2001 to more with a range of expertise in Promotion Campaign uses than 4% today. Tra$c congestion anthropology, economics, the mainstream media to and air pollution levels have engineering, design, political measurably decreased science, law, psychology, and bicycle fatalities and sociology, and architecture. injury rates have declined International volunteers signi"cantly. The United and university students Nations recognised the participate in HCF’s research success of the Human projects and educational Mobility Promotion programmes. Campaign, earning the Since its inception, Humane City Foundation a HCF has been educating best practices award. It has the public about the also been used as a model existence and practicality of in municipalities worldwide, alternative transportation including cities in Mexico, through one of its primary Peru, Ecuador and South programmes, the Human Africa. Mobility Promotion The HCF also teaches Campaign. bicycle-related job skills to Through conferences, young people. public presenta-tions, media In Bogotá, where campaigns, educational unemployment is bike tours and the new widespread, many Safe Routes to Schools young men have few programme, HCF teaches job opportunities other thousands of citizens about than in the paramilitary the importance of respecting or guerrilla armies. Their the natural environment, bike training programme the bene"ts of physical creates alternative work activity, and the life-and- opportunities for these death necessity of alternative young people, teaching transport. them bike repair, frame The foundation leads fabrication, delivery skills evening bicycle tours every and assisting them in month, teaching basic bike "nding employment when maintenance and introducing heighten awareness of the training is completed. riders to the 300 km of Bogotá value of sustainable transport. Now in its second year, this bike paths. While excellent bike While cycling has traditionally programme, in cooperation infrastructure has been built over been stigmatised as a mode with the City of Bogotá, lasts ten the last decade, the bikeways of the poor, the HCF has tried months, and includes mechanical were not commonly used until to change this perception, training, busi-ness education and HCF began promoting the working with designers to internships. It has expanded from network, showing residents how create advertisements for 15 students in its "rst year to 38 to ride safely through di$cult
11 Carbusters #25 Oct. - The Toronto Islands - Toronto, Canada “People [from the mainland] say to me you are so lucky to live on the island and I say, you can have this,“ says Leida Englar, long-time resident of Toron-to’s carfree islands. “Park your car a mile and a half away from home and create an enclave, your community is protected. You park on the outside, you walk and you bicycle on the inside. Your community will be safer.” Living I met Leida and her husband Jerry while visiting family in the nearby sub-urbs. Although I grew up in Toronto, I knew little of the people that inhabited theGood this island and nothing of their long hard battle to protect their homes from city bulldozers. People have been coming to the Toronto Islands carfree archipelago since 1833 when the "rst hotel Life was built. It is only a "ve-minute ferry ride from To- ronto’s bustling downtown, thus a quick getaway from the chaos of the city. But for people like Leida Englar and the 650 Carfree islands around the world fea residents of Ward’s and Algonquin Islands, this is Carbusters takes a closer look at life on carfree not a city getaway. It is their home, but one fought intensely for, as city bulldozers crept closer and closer. that would have seen a bridge built between the The entire archipelago used to be inhabited by mainland and the small airport on the western end more than 5,000 resi-dents. There were shops, a of the archipelago. This bridge would have spelled movie theatre and other thriving businesses. But in the end of the carfree idea. 1953, the Metro Toronto Council assumed control The entire archipelago is only four miles across over the land’s leases and in 1956 decided that by one mile wide. There are no more shops, nor a the entire archipelago should be converted into a movie theatre. The roads within the two residential park. In 1958 and 1959 the city removed most of communities are less than four metres wide and the businesses on the islands and systematically there are no separate side- walks. There is no need demolished and burned many of the homes. An area for them. of 741 acres was demolished. “People move to this beautiful place, but they In 1968-69 the leases expired on many of the don’t make the connection that the violence of the homes on Algonquin and Ward’s Islands. The city car is not there,” says Leida. “Then they have children had ideas about a golf course and amusement park. and realise how safe they are in our community.” “They wouldn’t let you "x up your house because But preserving this area wasn’t – and isn’t – easy. they were trying to destroy the community. They “Why is that becoming so di$cult politically?” were searching our buggies [hand carts],” recalls asks Jerry. Leida. “It is too radical,” Leida quickly responds. It’s like However, the residents refused to go. So began Jerry Mander saying give up your television. Cities over 20 years of legal battle, including a stand-o# are designed for driving.” with the sheri# in July 1980. He was there to issue “But we don’t give up. We keep riding our eviction notices, but when the islanders got word of bicycles, we go to Critical Mass, we keep pressuring his presence they quickly massed and would not let politicians.” him pass. Many people on the island do own cars, they The evictions were delayed again. In 1993, the just keep them on the mainland. Service vehicles remaining residents "nally achieved victory. They are allowed to come over onto the island if they received 99-year leases on their homes with the pay CN$75 for the ferry and leave the island by 3:30 creation of the Toronto Island Land Trust. pm. The ferry has three island destinations – Centre, The Englars have lived on the island since 1973 Hanlan’s, and Ward’s – but only Hanlan’s allows and actively resisted the city’s attempts to demolish vehicles to come over. the rest of the houses. They are also the designers of “I was part of the transportation committee [that the islands’ !ag. decided whether or not] to keep vehicles from the “We islanders value our community. We protect island,” says Leida. “There are people who believe ourselves and we are vigilant with ourselves. We we should have more vehicular access. More and attend public meetings, even though we don’t want more people need their Internet access, or washing to. We invest ourselves politically in our community. machine, or the telephone.” We are part of a community democracy.” The postman, who used to always deliver the The community recently defeated a proposal 12 Carbusters #25 Oct. - Kids outside, being transported to parks, etc., the older ones cycling beside her, others getting out to walk. With the alarms of children’s obesity sounding, it’s hard to "nd an island kid overweight. I am more physically active since my family moved to the island two years ago from the centre of the city. I cycle my two toddlers to swimming, the farm, the beach, to friend’s homes, to church and Living into the city. I shop and rely on my strength and innovative forms of transporting groceries, kids toys, luggage, theGood a three-metre sofa, etc. We’ve moved chain- saws, a children’s table, and chairs on our bikes. We’ve picked up furniture – I’ll never forget the image of my husband in a long winter coat, walking down the Life centre of our “street” pulling an old-fashioned hand cart behind him with our queen-size bed on the cart while the snow gently fell about him. I can’t live the suburban life – shopping, loading ture vibrant and colourful communities. up my car, pulling into a driveway, dashing in and islands in Canada, the US, Croatia and China. out to unload. For some it’s a convenience un- imaginable to give up; for me, it’s a creative test to pack up and get things home. I was shopping one mail on foot, had an electric cart especially built day with a bundle buggy; my son fell asleep (no for the island route. It is easier for him to deliver car to pop him into) so I strapped him on top of packages to residents now. There are also school the full buggy and pushed him to the ferry while buses for the kids. carrying my baby on my chest in a carrier. I felt like Hand carts are for rent at the ferry docks to allow a homeless woman, but it worked – he slept; I got people to bring large goods over, but everywhere home with the groceries. you look on the island, someone has some type of I know my postman extremely well – he used to cargo bike in front of their house. walk his route, now he drives a converted electric At the end of our interview, the Englars show o# golf cart. their !eet of vehicles. “We are a rich family. We are a We aren’t truly carfree. The cars and trucks that "ve-vehicle family, we need "ve garages.” The !eet come to the island scare me – they can’t handle the includes a 4-by-8-foot van cart built by Jerry. “You 10 kmh speed limit and sometimes exceed it. That’s can have a drummer on there,” says Leida. when you’ll hear the mothers and other islanders - Steven Logan screaming at them, arms waving frantically to slow down. We have school buses, church vans and Carfree is stress-free. It’s walking outside your electric golf carts moving bodies that can’t make front door and not looking both ways. No horns the walk. (I rented a 50-person cart from the parks honking when you stop in front of your neighbour’s department to transport elderly relatives from our house or along the road to pick something up or church to our home for our kids’ christening. Most to admire the geese swimming in the lagoon. I attending could walk, but others took it for the stand at my front door and watch my 2½-year-old “Disneyland” experience of it.) son and 1½-year-old daughter walk to daycare by I love it when people unfamiliar to the island ask themselves, eight houses away, worry-free – no me where I park my car – they think I have a garage jumping o# the curb onto the street or on-coming on the island or think it’s insane that I need to walk tra$c (the fastest “tra$c” could be a cyclist speeding 10 minutes to get it. to catch a ferry). I love the varying house designs and especially The daycare worker had a bicycle trailer especially appreciate the pure beauty of a home without an designed for her to carry up to seven kids in it. I’ll unsightly garage box in front. never forget seeing my son in there for the "rst time, I am humbled by the privilege of living here and belly full of giggles as the children were taken to the the e#ect it’s had. island farm with duvets on them. (It was January!) - Janet Heisey
People move to this beautiful place, but they don’t make the connection that the violence of the car is not there. Then they have children and realise how safe they are in our community. - Leida Englar, Toronto Islands, Canada -
13 Carbusters #25 Oct. - Croatian Islands Right after World War II, socialist Yugoslavia connected all inhabited Adriatic islands by daily ferry lines. As the number of cars on the mainland increased over the coming decades, car-ferry routes to some of the bigger islands were introduced. This left smaller islands untouched by four-wheel progress. As a result, among the hundreds of Croatian islands, there are "ve archipelagos that are completely carfree. As the Brijuni and Kornati archipelagos are national parks, with very few inhabitants and limited access even for boats, cars are miles away from here. ogan The North Dalmatian islands of Silba, Olib and
Lisa L Premuda are medium-sized and happen to be on the car-ferry route, but cars are not allowed to disembark there. Silba is a natural park with quite strict rules, so even cycling is forbidden during the summer season! The postman rides the only motorbike. The situation on Olib isn’t so clear. When older people returned from working in the USA, they brought electric cars. Slowly, other inhabitants started to bring their cars from the mainland, which are now only allowed to park at the main dock. (The cars still end up spreading all over the island.) Inhabitants cannot agree on whether to legalise cars or not. Denis, 37 years old, is from Olib and lives in Zadar. ogan “Personally, I would not allow cars to enter Olib, but I
Lisa L own an electric car,” he says. “I wouldn’t mind people bringing cars to the island, if they would use them responsibly.” Five of the inhabited islands of the Sibenik archipelago are carfree. Many of the island’s inhabitants work in the nearby mainland town of Sibenik, so instead of a bus, a ship serves the islands around eight times per day. Although the ferry is 50 years old, it is cheap and always on time in any weather. Zlarin, an island in the Sibenik archipelago,
ac has a network of concrete roads for walking and cycling, but which also makes the island perfect for populating with cars, once a weekly car-ferry is amagajev added to the daily routes. The islanders decided to hold a referendum on ebastijan C S allowing cars, and they voted against. Twenty of the 250 inhabitants own a car, which they have to leave on the mainland. Igor, a 56-year-old pyrotehnician from Zlarin says, “I bought a new car some years ago, and now I have to leave it in the nearby town, exposing it to damage and theft. Now I regret a little bit that I didn’t invest that money in upgrading my boat.” Sebastijan, a 33-year-old artist, spends all of his holidays with his family on the carfree island Prvic. He says, “This island really doesn’t miss cars! And I’m not afraid cars will ever come here, to spoil my holidays. People here even signed a petition against y a a car-ferry!” Prvic has around 500 inhabitants in two y M villages. Nanc Top to bottom: Toronto Island (typical street on Algonquin Island, Three of the 13 inhabited islands in the Ela"ti disem-barking from the ferry); Prvic, Croatia; getting around on archipelago are counted among the most beautiful Gulangyu Island, China On Gulangyu Island there are no high-rises, no o$ce buildings, no motor vehicles, and not even a bicycle. The hilly community is about one kilometre wide and just under two long, and the population of 20,000 gets about almost entirely on foot. Gulangyu Island is actually part of the city of Xiamen, in Fujian province, opposite Taiwan. Gulangyu is an amalgam of Old Havana, a Mexican hill town, the Cinque Terre of Italy, Hawaii, an Austrian village, and a bit of Las Vegas (because of the gaudy lights every evening on every imaginable landmark on both sides of the channel). Freight moves by simple, wooden hand cart, which can be terribly strenuous going up hills, and dangerous when going down, as the carts have no
mechanical brakes. os: Esmonde Kelly There are electric carts that circle the island, but these are ridiculously expensive and aimed squarely all phot at the tourist trade. A 30-minute ride around the island costs 50 Yuan (US$6), far beyond practical range for local use. - Brian Dearle, The New Colonist
And Elsewhere... There are many more carfree islands throughout the world with communities of year-round residents. The islands presented here do not allow privately- owned motor vehicles. The entire island (50km2) of Hydra, Greece, is free of motorised vehi-cles. The population is 3,000 Entire island (50 km²). Leonard Cohen bought a house there and met a woman called Marianne. Buyukada Island, a short ferry ride from Istanbul, has a year- round population of 17,000 residents and visitors get around by bike or on the 304 licensed horse- drawn carriages. There are number of carfree islands o# the coast of Germany in the North Sea. One of the largest is Juist. It is 0.5 km in width and 17 km in length and has a population of 1,790. O# the cost of Gothenburg, Sweden orld Carfree Day just keeps on spreading. We received many Wstories and reports both from "rst-time The World Celebrates events as well as from veteran carfree day organisers. Here we publish a selection of reports from activists around the world, - Pippa Gallop but many other events were registered via our World Carfree Day web page
16 Carbusters #25 Oct. - and win parents’ con"dence, some bicycles were donated to teachers who are leading the campaign. The World Celebrates Children will be taught about tra$c safety and riding in bike lanes.
member +bc, which repaired bikes, and Chain Gang, Vancouver, Canada who set up a multimedia stand. Vancouver’s carfree day street festival picked up In comparison with previous years there has on the momentum gener-ated by the successful been more inter-est in the event and more people Carfree Commercial Drive Festival [see Action attended. Still, most passing cy-clists didn’t know pages, Carbusters #24]. Event partners were about carfree day, but a free t-shirt saying “We start the City of Vancouver, Better Environ-mentally with the bicycle to change the way we move around Sound Transportation, and the Gastown Business town” will keep their minds Improvement Society. refreshed! About 100 volunteers helped close four city - Flora Bianchi blocks to make way for 45 info booths and displays, 12 sculptures from old car parts, and 10 “climate- Barcelona, Spain friendlier” vehicles. Concerts were held throughout Hundreds of cyclists the day; overall, the festival attracted about 8,000 gathered for a Critical people. Mass, using banners Celebrations began with a parade to the main expressing their desire stage led by the Carnival Band. Entertainment also for bike lanes and raising included a Planet-Friendly Fashion Show, a “bicy-cle awareness of the impact wedding” by a local theatre troupe and “Consider the cars have on our everyday Journey,” a blessing for alternative transportation. lives. They also spoke for Except for a city bus that took a wrong turn and pedestrian rights and drove through the event site, a bystander who criticised the fact that jumped onstage while the security guard took a Barcelona is no longer break and several residents and business-people organising a carfree who complained about the lack of parking, the day, but just a general event generally went o# as planned. Exhibitors were sustainable mobility week. happy with the turnout and public feedback was During the ride, several positive about all the things to see and do. In the bicycle stencils were future, we could have larger crowds if the event was painted on the streets on a weekend. where bike lanes should Further information at
by Justin Hyatt from all directions. The large rounding the next turn. It was a historical square was full of sensation and talk in the town f you have ever been on a people, who then poured into the began to turn to the issues of bicycle in the streets of Budapest on their bikes, cycling in the streets of Budapest. IHungarian capital, you and rode through the city for probably remember all two hours. Disbelief soon turned A Hungarian Recipe? the bumps you hit and the times into excitement, as the next day When most cities are excited to you had to get o! your bike to reports con"rmed 4,000 riders. get a few hun-dred people to carry it over curbs or up stairs. For Earth Day, April 22, 2005, show up, how is it that Budapest If you were not lucky enough the trend continued. Hero’s has become the scene of Critical to be in a bike lane, then Square, 6 pm. Nobody could Mass participants rocketing into you certainly remember the yet say if last year’s ride was "ve digit numbers? screeching, the din and the fumes just a strange coincidence of What exactly is happening in of cars that raced past you or space, time and a spontaneous this city, that up to last year wasn’t cut you o!. It is likely you were arrangement of bodies on particularly known for its cycling not yet aware of the mounting bikes. But it was not so. If you culture or for the conduciveness Central European bicycle activism happened to be driving a car of its streets or heavy road movement. at this time, and you didn’t pay tra#c to the bicycle? Is there a “Mounting” might be an attention to news reports of an special Hungarian recipe for this? understatement; “explosive” unprecedented number of bikers Perhaps Bicycle Paprikash? should be the correct term. In on Budapest’s streets, you were One of the key players in spring 2004, a Critical Mass ride out of luck. No less than 10,000 organising Budapest’s Critical took place to coincide with World citizens got on their bikes that Masses is a bike courier who goes Water Day. Approximately 40 day and joined what was certainly by the name of Kükü. While he is people showed up, and the ride one of the largest Critical Mass a strong force in the organisation, was no more than 30 minutes rides in history. we "nd out that there are a lot long. The next scheduled Critical It lasted around three hours, of actors who come together to Mass ride was for World Carfree covering a large area of the city, make this phenomenon happen. Day on September 22. For anyone touching Keleti Railway Station, But to understand the forces at who participated in the small the Elizabeth Bridge, the west work, we need to consider that in spring ride, a surprise awaited side of the Castle District and Budapest, a city of roughly two them at Hero’s Square at 6 pm on Moscow Square. During some million people, there are many that Wednesday night. parts of the ride, there were was who would like to ride their bike Hundreds if not thousands of such a multitude of people that more often, but they are afraid to people seemed to be converging one had to walk one’s bike until venture out into the hazardous
18 Carbusters #25 Oct. - city tra#c. Thus, with the proper ride. organising and promotion of the Next, 100 o#cial “tra#c event, many people will gladly organisers” wore orange t-shirts coalesce with snowball-gathering with the Critical Mass imprint and speed, especially when they are the word “organiser” on it. The no longer left alone to brave the police required that organisers tra#c, but $anked by fellow riders on bikes would make sure that on all sides. everything goes smoothly, Even if Budapest – the city the $ow of bicycles sticks to and its bikers – is the right time the designated route, and that at the right place, there are still situations involving irate drivers some essential requirements can be handled in the most to organising such an event. e#cient manner. For the fall Fortunately, Kükü was willing to ride the number of organisers share some of the secrets. increased to 250. Cooperating Like any healthy organisation with the police has been or campaign, many people are important and without problems, needed to do many tasks, and even if it is annoying to have several groups work in their them zooming back and forth on respective areas to create one their motorcycles. large movement. In the case As many di!erent groups of the Critical Mass in April, rallied their own people to take this involved up to 40 people main messenger companies also on top of the main organising wore messages on their courier and dissemination of tasks. This packs announcing Critical Mass. group was made up of members The Internet wasn’t spared of several NGOs, such as Zö" either, when
19 Carbusters #25 Oct. - international metropolis heralds a new stage for the carfree movement. The old axiom states that truth always goes through three stages: ridicule, violent oppression and then acceptance. Now, our movement has had a taste of stage two, and that is likely to require a strategy for mutual assistance and, when necessary, political action. “When human rights abuses become so obvious, the international community needs to speak up,” says Brian Smith, a media specialist from the American environmental movement and an active member of World Carfree Network. “O#cials are used to hearing complaints from local organisations, but when they begin to hear from people around the world, a local problem becomes
0 an international embarrassment.” Smith dubbed the campaign working group the “Mobility Justice Project” and the name has stuck. New York police began their crackdown on cyclists on August 27, 2004, and have continued arresting cyclists at every monthly Critical Mass since then. The campaign to stop the arrests of cyclists in New York City is gathering steam, generating hundreds and probably thousands of letters of protest to Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Defending Mobility Rights Worldwide watchdog "ghts discrimination against people who do not or cannot drive the almighty automobile.
by Arie Farnam
orld Carfree Network is putting policy- makers around the world Won notice. We have had enough of the widespread abuse of the rights of pedestrians, cyclists and public transport users; of policies that make those who don’t own cars second-class citizens; and of the careless disregard for the devastating e!ects of car-based transport on our communities, our environment and the planet’s climate. It is time to take coordinated international action. At the Towards Carfree Cities V conference in Budapest, participants watched the "lm Still We Ride, which documents the aggressive crackdown by New York City police against cyclists involved with Critical Mass rides. The documentary and the personal testimony of a cyclist who was arrested in New York motivated the conference to launch a letter-writing and media campaign to protest the mass arrests and rough treatment of cyclists in that city. Given our network’s experiences with campaigning to save cycle rickshaws in Bangladesh earlier this year, the Mobility Justice Project working group quickly decided that one more campaign on one more issue isn’t going to be enough. The criminalisation of cycling in a major
20 Carbusters #25 Oct. - Commissioner Raymond Kelly. Plans are in the works to train international legal observers in New York to act as a monitoring force on behalf of our network. The Goals of the “We have to keep Critical Mass going in New Mobility Justice Project York City,” says Barbara Ross, a New York cyclist who has been arrested twice. “Critical Mass helps people t To claim equal rights to public who normally are too scared to bike in tra#c on the streets and public funds for city streets. After three times at Critical Mass, they those who use transport modes are comfortable riding on a city street on their own other than cars and soon enough a bike commuter is born, maybe t To focus public attention on even down the road a bike activist. That’s what’s the most grievous costs of car- happened to me and I’ve seen it happen countless dependent transport systems times.” t To assist cyclists, pedestrians, Ross and others in New York were initially transit users and grassroots surprised and then elated to learn that people groups who face repression, around the world have heard about and care about with international campaigns their situation. t To expose undemocratic “We are shocked by this crackdown in New York,” and deceitful policies used to says Giselle Xavier, a prominent bicycle advocate perpetuate car dependence in Brazil who supports the campaign. “The US is supposed to be a democracy, but this is inconsistent. We don’t want the US police to give a bad example to ours, so they might start arresting cyclists, too.” What We Can Do Meanwhile, a lively discussion is underway to develop and de"ne the larger Mobility Justice t Mass letter-writing campaigns to policy-makers and newspapers t Media outreach in many forms t International legal observer missions t Negotiations with policy- makers Project, which plans to assist local grassroots groups t Publication of open letters to wherever pedestrians, cyclists, transit users and o#cials people in the carfree movement face repression, t Information campaigns and as well as to "ght for responsible policies at the "lm screenings international level. t Systematic monitoring and “Mobility justice in Brazil would mean that if publishing of online “mobility 80% of the population cannot a!ord a car, then rights” reports 60% to 80% of the transport budget should be allocated for public transport and non-motorised transport,” Xavier says. “This is what was done in Current Campaigns poor neighbourhoods in Bogotá – good schools with good access to public transport and free, good- t Save the cycle rickshaws of quality bicycle parking. It works.” Bangladesh from being banned Lela Gary of Canada’s Air Pollution Coalition says from major roads. governments must be held responsible for the unfair t Stop the arrests and imbalance in transport. harassment of cyclists in “Governments have subsidised the car so heavily New York City, return their at the expense of everything else that they have con"scated bikes and drop the caused car addiction,” she says. “Mobility justice is lawsuit forbidding activists to connected to transportation balance. At present, talk about Critical Mass. in North America, there is no such balance. Car transport is almost 95%, public transport is 4.5% and walking and cycling accounts for the rest. There is no Proposals for the justice in this situation for people who cannot a!ord Mobility Justice Project cars, and that includes new immigrants, seniors and lower income families. And now that gas prices have t Expose how the lack of skyrocketed, it has become a problem even for the public transportation (which middle class.” doubles as an evacuation JH Crawford, an urban-planning author based system) created an avoidable in Portugal, emphasises the connection between mobility justice and climate change. “We can no
21 Carbusters #25 Oct. - (continued from previous page) A $eet of police cars and motorcycles surrounds the cyclists in the square and a helicopter circles overhead. Armoured police mass at the edges and o#cers are heard giving orders to “arrest anyone with a bicycle” once the signal is given. A police van blares out an endlessly repeating feed: “It is dangerous and illegal to ride a bicycle in a procession on the public streets within NYC if a eitzler permit has not been issued by the er M et New York Police Department. If you P choose to ride in a procession this evening you will be arrested and your bicycle will be seized. Thank you for your cooperation.” The besieged cyclists don’t move. Finally, the police grow tired of waiting for them to make the "rst move, and they press forward, using strips of orange netting to catch the cyclists standing in the square. Some do run and, mostly, they get away. It is mainly the quiet and the slow who are taken. This has been happening every month now since August 2004. eitzler
The cyclists know what to expect, er M et so there are alternative meeting P points. Even as the police put handcu!s on this group, other groups of cyclists still make their way along the streets, sometimes a few dozen, sometimes even a few hundred. Police caravans speed in pursuit, pushing other tra#c to the sides. All the while, the metal buzzard chatters above, searching for the fugitives on two wheels. At one busy intersection, a group of cyclists stop at a light, as the cars rumble by sluggishly. In a sudden rush, a group of police swoop in from behind. A journalist on the sidewalk begins om) .c
snapping pictures. A few cyclists vie speed forward against the light
and throw themselves into the idethemo procession of cars. Those that er remain – the slow, the careful and tillw
those who follow the rules – are esy of S t caught in the orange netting. our
Chaos erupts, as police yank riders os c from their bikes, throw them to the ground and force their faces into the oily pavement. A journalist eelie (all phot om S T
22 Carbusters #25 Oct. - t wtano Dear Anna, sustainable travel Commuting to my work by car tricky. Ideally, is driving me crazy! I sit in tra#c choose core hours and look around at all the other if you want to use lonely faces, one person to a car, public transport. and want to know how I can get Many commuters myself out of this tra#c-clogged need to drop o! mess. children at childcare Signed, or school. Choose these Frustrated Commuter close-by or en route, and try to avoid peak congestion. Could Dear FC, your kids travel independently Commuting trips are "rst on a walking or cycling bus journeys and so crucial in organised by the school or with a determining travel patterns for babysitter or another parent? the rest of the day. Smart employers make a The choice involves two massive impact with an active just players – the indivi-dual worker workplace travel plan. Motivated and the company. There is also an by the costs of parking space, in-teraction with business travel such plans include home working, plans callencouraged 18% of drivers and child drop o!s. tele- or video-conferencing, to change how they traveled to A personal decision is “How compressed working (doing work. can I access appropriate work and hours ahead for a day o!), $exi- Individual marketing is a living wage?” Make sure you time, a car club, car-pooling and the gold standard. Also called are not working to drive! Getting organised car sharing with taxi individualised travel planning, rid of a car could save a day’s net back-up. There also are allow- this is where a travel-to-work wages every week. ances for delivery and green expert helps each employee I used to commute 40 miles travel – cycle allowances, public work out alternatives to single by train. As well as taking two transport discount cards or a car commuting, providing maps hours out of my day, the "rst hour green traveler lottery for cash. and the appropriate routes to of work went to cover the fare! Plus appropriate bike parking, walk, cycle, public transport Not e#cient, even if I did read en travel information, visitor maps times and costs or "nds a lift route. I am now self employed with non-car directions, priority sharer. This makes choices easy locally. It’s so convenient. parking for car sharers, folding and transparent. Workplace car Home production includes bikes, interest-free travel loans, clubs are e!ective in replacing telework by phone, text, letter, lockers, showers, on-site facilities company cars and cut the need e-mail or web as well as child care, (e.g., kitchen, canteen, nursery, for car commuting. Figures bed and breakfast and writing. cash machine), park-and-ride, etc. from the MOSES (Mobility Not everyone can work from To work well, the plan must be Services for Urban Sustainability) home. Could changing jobs run by one full-time employee per Report in 2005 taken from or moving closer to work be 500 sta! members. German and Swedish exam- desirable? There might be a re- The "rm must not discriminate ples are interesting. Following location deal to help cover costs. against non-drivers or give the introduction of a car club, Choose your job by looking at drivers perks or higher allowances employees reduced private car the whole deal: pay, prospects than non-car users. To properly use for work purposes by 40-60%. and quality of life, including allocate space there must be car Although the overall mileage accessibility and business driving parking permits and charges, did not fall, because car club cars levels. Favour sites with links to even cash back to those who tend to be smaller and newer, cyling or walking routes or public give up parking rights. Research there was a reduction in CO2 transport. funded by the UK Department emissions of 40-50%. Shift workers often "nd of Transport found that travel 23 Carbusters #25 Oct. - 23 Carbusters #25 Oct. - The Young Hungarian Greens (Zö") sponsored the maquette project and undertook the preparations. Just two days before starting, we identi"ed two potential sites, and Zö" obtained photographs and maps at a scale of 1:500. In a real design e!ort, urban planning would be complete before starting the design of streets and buildings. Actual planning results might invalidate what we created, but the maquette building was still a good test of the process. Ten members of Zö" and BuildingBuilding thethe CCitityy ofof seven urban design students from Istanbul served as facilitators for the process. They helped others to build the maquette and also did much of the actual by JH Crawford clients express their needs and work themselves. The objective hopes. was to assure that practical, n the second day of I am developing a method safe, beautiful neighbourhoods Towards Carfree that involves thousands of people are built at a human scale and OCities V in Budapest, some designing a carfree district on will serve as a hearth for the 35 confer- the site itself. The construction of development of a strong sense of ence participants began work on a clay maquette was the closest community. a maquette (scale model) from approach to a test of this idea that I explained to the facilitators potter’s clay. This scale model was feasible. that I am advocating a method depicted an area northwest of We tested both participatory that would assemble the future Buda-pest’s city centre, and we design and the prospects for residents on the site and help hoped that it might catalyse a return to medieval street them arrange their community the building of an actual carfree arrange- ments. The process also on a large scale in a single day. district on that site. tested the willingness and ability Some preparatory work would I was seeking to test the ability of ordinary people to design be required, so that people of ordinary citizens to design their spaces that satisfy the technical understand the range of design own environments. Ever since requirements of a carfree district. choices available for a fairly the failure of Modernist urban We also showed that people high dense carfree district. The planning, people have sought a with brief train-ing can help process would begin with the way to plan cities that others to design a carfree area. arrangement of people into more e!ectively meet the needs communities and the regulation of their citizens. Unfortunately, Preparation of density gradations across the the dominant place of the auto- mobile is hardly ever questioned; but a number of people have explored the feasibility of involving future residents in the planning of their city. Christopher Alexander, an architect best known for his 1977 A Pattern Language, has explored this possibility for years. He identi"ed 253 patterns that characterise successful human settlements. He hoped that these patterns would guide ordinary people in designing their own spaces. He also worked with groups of citizens to design a broad range of neighbourhoods and houses that would help his 24 Carbusters #25 Oct. - sites. This would be followed by with features of the site. The redone. The large square and the location of the main squares, obvious "rst task was to build church had to be rearranged, a few major buildings, and the a station at the crossing of the and the church was ultimately major streets. In succeeding two rail lines, which became moved to another square. The phases, design of small areas the district hub. We determined design of the area around the would use similar methods, with that the existing central station those involved working directly ugly concrete faced the tightest on the site. drainage canal constraints. I showed the Reference Design was both a “ People engaged Once the from Carfree Cities and described problem and an amphitheatre had the advantages in medieval opportunity. I in the process and been modeled, a patterns of city design, which suggested that willingly expressed workable design include human-scaled and unique our decisions for the main buildings, streets with a cozy regarding this themselves square soon sense of enclosure, and interior canal would in clay. The creativity emerged. An courtyards to provide greenery a!ect everything that people brought arcade was built and light. The characteristic radial we did in the to connect the arrangement of streets is suited district and that to the process was square with the to a district served by a transport the water could canal-side and halt at the centre. be an asset if we ” integrate the area. relocated the The amphitheatre First Steps canal. was connected The "rst task was to choose We decided to move the directly into the square, bringing one of the two sites. Justin canal into the body of the district this historical feature back into Hyatt of Zö" described the sites and to make it wide enough daily use. and showed the photographs to have streets with trees on and maps. After a fairly brief both sides. Several partici-pants Unfolding of the Design discussion, we chose the site explored possible locations, using I was interested in testing the which was a little farther from buildings at scale to mark the theory that design sequences, the city centre than ideal, but the edges of the street that would when correctly applied, can lead crossing of two passenger rail be formed, to give a feeling for to a good result. While this was lines there compensated for this. the space. The chosen route was not a true test of that theory, I did, The east half of the site could not pencilled in. whenever it came time to suggest be redeveloped due to Roman Failing to immediately model an approach to the group, try to ruins and existing buildings, and place all of the existing apply the design sequences that I so we decided to model the features proved to be a minor am still developing. other half of the site, which was error once it became apparent People immediately complicated only by the ruins of a that the amphitheatre ruins, understood the need to build Roman amphitheatre and a large which had to be preserved, out from the district centre and drainage canal running parallel to greatly a!ected the design of the to work down in scale elements. the railroad. Photographs showed area northwest of the station. The major radial streets were the that the site was very $at. In fact, the original design for most important elements laid As we assembled the base a main square just north of the down after the centre had been map, we became more familiar train station had to be completely established at the train station. The participants were always in$uenced by what had gone before, except for a few times when people built an element they wanted to include and then sought a place to "t it in. This did not seem to hurt the process. The in$uence of the comparatively few site features was profound, especially the gentle curve of the north-south rail line and the amphitheatre. It was clear that everyone understood that the precise location of the canal a!ected all further decisions. The east-west rail line was a major barrier, and
25 Carbusters #25 Oct. - Studies & Reports On Congested Roads, Who levels of diluted diesel exhaust no safety bene"t to such devices. Breathes in More Pollution? comparable to the air they would Using mobile phone records Carbusters #1 reported that inhale cycling on a congested city of 744 drivers who had accidents motorists breathe in up to three road. Six hours after exposure to in Perth, Australia, the Insurance times more pollution than the fumes, damage was detected Institute for Highway Safety cyclists, based on a 1997 study to the men’s blood vessels. concluded that talking while by the Institute for European Instead of calling for restrictions driving, whether using hands-free Environmental Policy (D. Taylor on car use, Newby called for bike devices or not, poses the same and M. Fergusson, “Road User lanes to be located away from risks. Exposure to Air Pollu-tion: A major roads. “It’s the cognitive overload Literature Review for ETA and However, the British Heart that sometimes occurs when DETR”). Foundation has clari"ed its you’re engaging in a conversation The study claimed that cars position. Its website states: “For that is the source of the most cyclists, the bene"ts to their o!er little or no protection from distraction more so than the heart health from regular exercise pollution, that motorists are manipulation of the device,” says far outweighs risk from pollution, driving in a “tunnel of pollution,” Rae Tyson, a spokesman for the which has yet to be directly and that cyclists on the edge of National Highway Tra#c Safety proven.” the road are exposed to much Administration in the New York The jury’s still out on whether lower pollution levels. Times. motorists or cyclists breathe in However, that study “was Transport Canada also warns more pollution on congested about ambient concentrations against mobile phone use, but roads. It may be that, on average, of pollution rather that uptake,” still o!ers tips for drivers who they come out about equal. study co-author Malcolm really have no choice but to make Fergusson told Carbusters on that call while cruising down the October 10. “It was noted that Shut Up and Drive highway. Drivers are advised to the elevated respiration levels Although using hands-free “keep calls short and factual. of cyclists were an unknown but mobile phone devices while Emotional or thought-provoking potentially important variable driving might appear to be a safe conversations are distracting. that needed further study.” alternative to holding a phone Recent research suggests that The pollution “uptake” issue in your hands, a new study decisions made while driving and reached the British public on published in July in the British talking on a mobile phone are not August 21, when the Sunday Medical Journal suggests there is always good decisions.” Times ran an interview with David The study notes that restrictive Newby of the British Heart measures on mobile phone Foundation, who plans use are hard to enforce, but to publish a paper on that this study could change the subject in the journal things. Circulation (www.circ. According to a 2002 ahajournals.org). Harvard University study, Newby claimed that mobile phone use causes “cyclists breathe two to 2,600 tra#c deaths annually. three times as much air Are Motorcycles “Better” as car drivers,” implying than Automobiles? that they also breathe in World Carfree Network two to three times more member Konstantinos pollution (ignoring the Tsourlakis from Greece’s “pollution tunnel” factor). PEZEE pedestrian rights “Cycling through organisation has submitted congested tra#c exposes a report questioning the cyclist to high levels motorbikes as being of air pollution, especially “better” than cars and thus as the exercise of cycling an acceptable part of the increases breathing and carfree or at least “car- the individual’s exposure,” lite” movement. In many said Newby. countries motorcycles are The heart doctor had common means of transport 15 healthy men cycle on because they are cheaper exercise bikes for an hour while being exposed to 26 Carbusters #25 Oct. - Reviews Great Streets impression as a beautiful face, (he looks at Paseo de Gracia), but Allan B. Jacobs, MIT Press, 1995 and we "rst see the whole rather he also covers Rome and Paris (he ISBN 0%262%60023%4 than a particular feature. They calls the Champs-Elysees perhaps draw us in, raise our curiosity. the best known street in the How do we On my "rst visit to Europe, just world). measure out of college, I visited Paris. The He doesn’t just focus on beauty? A architecture and layout of the Europe, though. The book scientist could streets fascinated me. I came to also includes a few streets in take speci"c the Seine and looked back and the United States and bicycle measurements saw Boulevard St. Michel (one of boulevards in Beijing. and come to the streets in the book). Streets are for people, writes some vague Although I was exhausted from Jacobs, and although he doesn’t conclusions, the $ight and my hotel was across appear to have any particular but isn’t the river, I backtracked and hung quarrels with automobiles (which beauty out among the crowds on the only makes his subliminal anti- rather some-thing immediate, boulevard. The streets were full of car writing more credible), the subjective? There is rarely just one bookstalls, interesting shops, and great streets he chooses are never feature alone that makes a face cafes with tables on the street car-dominated. The higher-speed beautiful, such as bright eyes or and people sitting talking (about boulevards in the book always glowing skin. It is a combination philosophy I imagined). The alive have a dual purpose, one part of things in which the whole is and energetic street was a sharp for people and one part separate greater than the sum of the parts. contast to the dominance of the for cars, so that tra#c never Similarly, in reading Allan B. car on North American streets. interferes with the humanity of Jacobs’ book Great Streets, it Here, there was a great sense of the street. is clear that there is no single intimacy, like a huge living room. Jacobs shows that tra#c element or combination of Of course, the Parisian girls didn’t calming keeps cars tame and at elements that makes a great hurt my impression, either. the same time makes motorists street. Each is unique. Even Jacobs focuses for the most feel like they are trespassing though streets are arti"cially part on European streets. He and upsetting the balance of designed by people, great streets writes that Barcelona has the the street. Great streets may still strike us with the same strong largest number of great streets purposefully cause confusion in
The Post-Automobile City “here’s the how-to guide I’ve been boundaries – will have di#culty Legal Mechanisms to Establish looking for.” "shing the useful data from the the Pedestrian-Friendly City, Although, Kushner opens with complicated text. James A. Kushner, Carolina a warning that a “post-automobile That’s too bad, because there Academic Press, 2004, ISBN city” is not necessarily a carfree is a lot of useful information 1-59460-001-5 city, my expectations turned out buried in there, but there is to be too high and the answers precious little explication and With a title I had hoped for were few and elaboration. Some of the case like this, I far between. Most of the book studies presented are covered was looking was either nothing new (for me, only cursorily, where some extra forward to anyway), or far too confusing to de-tail would have been of use. engaging understand. Kushner does describe reading and Anyone already familiar some real-life methods for to learning with the ins and outs of urban creating people-friendly places many practical planning – including, I assume, – woonerfs, urban growth methods most ac-tivists and citizens boundaries, car sharing, limited- for actually actively engaged in local transit access streets – but you’ll need to putting into practice what we and housing issues – will "nd little follow the footnotes and "nd the here at Carbusters preach. There’s new here. source text to learn more. so much theory out there – so On the other hand, readers In fact, it looks as if the many books about how great it new to urban planning – anyone footnotes (which often take up would be to have carfree cities not already familiar with terms half the page) are the real place – that the book’s very down-to- like New Urbanism, zoning, to go for information: anyone earth subtitle made me think, smart growth, transit-oriented interested in the history of car development or urban growth 27 Carbusters #25 Oct. - Source* on DVD The story of oil in Azerbaijan See video section for details. EUR 20 / US$24 Resources shipping included
The End of the Road Street Reclaiming Non"ction Wolfgang Zuckermann, 1991, 300 pages Creating Livable Streets and Vibrant Communities EUR 8.50, £7, US$10, AU$14, or CZK 250 David Engwicht, 1999, 207 pages Asphalt Nation There are half a billion cars on the EUR 20, £14, US$23, AU$32, or CZK 580 How the Automobile Took Over America planet, and this book takes a long, Celebrates the potential of streets and How We Can Take It Back hard look at the contrast between the to become vibrant centres of culture Jane Holtz Kay, 1998, 440 pages image and the reality of this fact. and community and shows how you EUR 20, £14, US$23, AU$32, or CZK 580 Zuckermann offers 33 “ways out” of can make it happen. Includes a sim- Asphalt Nation is a powerful examina- our car dependence, including pedes- ple programme to reduce traffic by tion of how the car has ravaged trianisation, alternative transport, 30 percent and shows how reducing Amer-ica’s cities and landscape over restructuring public transport and citywide traffic is as simple as re- the past 100 years, together with a re-arranging our lives. ducing rubbish. compelling strategy for reversing our dependency. Demonstrating that there For Love of the Automobile Village Wisdom: Future Cities are econom-ic, political, architectural, Looking Back Into the History of Our Desires Richard Register and Brady Peeks, ed., 227 pages and personal solutions, Kay shows that Wolfgang Sachs, 1992, 227 pages, hardcover EUR 17, £12, US$20, AU$27or CZK 500 radical change is possible. EUR 35, £25, US$40, AU$68, or CZK 1,180 Reflections on the concept of ecological cities.
Carfree Cities The Geography of Nowhere Wise Fool Basics J.H. Crawford, 2000, 324 pages James Howard Kunstler, 1994, 304 pages K. Ruby, Wise Fool, 1999, 96 pages EUR 30, £21, US$35, AU$50, or CZK 890 EUR 14.50, £10, US$17, AU$23, or CZK 425 EUR 11, £8, US$13, AU$18 or CZK 325 An unapologetic argument for carfree Creative direct action techniques – puppets, theatre, etc. cities combined with a detailed and well thought-out plan, Carfree Cities Home from Nowhere Remaking Our Everyday World for the 21st Century outlines a city structure carefully James Howard Kunstler, 1998, 320 pages designed to minimise environmental Fiction/Kids EUR 14.50, £10, US$17, AU$23, or CZK 425 impact and maximise quality of life. Kunstler offers a way back from the It gives practical suggestions for The Age of the Bicycle “tragic sprawlscape of cartoon archi- implementing Crawford’s carfree Miriam Webster, 1998, 270 pages tecture, junked cities, and ravaged design in new and existing cities. EUR 8.50, £7, US$10, AU$18, or CZK 250 countryside” that he described in his book The Geography of Nowhere. Alice in Underland Car Busters Graphics Book Kunstler calls for the restoration of Wolfgang Zuckermann, 1999 Car Busters, 1999, 44 pages traditional architecture, sensible urban EUR 8.50, £7, US$10, AU$18, or CZK 250 EUR 5, £4, US$6, AU$9, CZK 150 design principles, and the development Our graphics book brings together all of public spaces for social interaction. the best graphics on file at Car Busters Family Mouse Behind the Wheel from the artists you see in the maga- Wolfgang Zuckermann, 1992, Life Between Buildings 30 pages zine. Includes information on how to Jan Gehl, 2001, 202 pages, fourth English edition hardcover: EUR 8.50, £7, US$10, produce attractive posters and leaflets. EUR 17, £12, US$20, AU$27, or CZK 500 AU$18, or CZK 250 The graphics can be reproduced freely A classic is republished and revised. Colourful illustrated book teaches (for non-profit purposes) by activist First published in 1971, this book is children the problems of car culture groups for their leaflets, posters, news- still the best source for understanding through the eyes of a family of mice letters, etc. how people use urban public spaces. who decide to buy a car, with all the A standard textbook in many archi- consequences... Critical Mass tecture and planning schools around Bicycling’s Defiant Celebration the world, it is still the undisputed Chris Carlsson, editor, 2002, 256 pages introduction to the interplay between The Little Driver EUR 20, £14, US$23, AU$32, or CZK 580 public space design and social life. Martin Wagner, 2003, 56 pages A pushy and irreverent collection of EUR 8.50, £7, US$10, AU$18, or CZK 250 inkworthy social critique and opti- mistic celebration. Four dozen con- Making Their Own Plans Brett Bloom and Ava Bromberg, eds., tributors document, define and drive 2004, 128 pages home the beauty of a quiet ride with “Freesources” EUR 11, £8, US$13, AU$18, CZK 325 a thousand friends, the anarchy of A growing selection of free texts available at
28 Carbusters #25 Oct. - Not "nding what you’re looking for? Payment Instructions Our members/subscribers get a 10% discount at
The City Repair Project: Country 4 Issues 8 Issues Transforming Space into Place Australia 20 Dollars 32.50 Dollars 2004, 13.5 min., DVD Czech Rep. 160 Korun 260 Korun EUR 8.50, £7, US$10, AU$14 or CZK 250 Eurozone 16 Euro 26 Euro Highlights the incredible work of The City Repair Project UK 10 Pounds 16 Pounds in Portland, Oregon, USA, as featured in Carbusters #21. US 16 Dollars 26 Dollars Autoschreck / Car-Fright 1994, English or German, PAL only “Cancer Warning” Stickers Memberships EUR 20, £14, US$24, AU$32, CZK 600 15 stickers: EUR 3, £2, US$3.50, AU$5, or CZK 90 Michael Hartmann walks straight over Big hard-to-remove stickers for cars. Member: EUR 30, £20, US$30, AU$50, CZK 600 the cars illegally parked on the sidewalk. Supporter: EUR 50, £35, US$50, AU$80, CZK 1000 A documentary about a man discharged Saviour: EUR 100, £70, US$100, AU$160, CZK 2000 from a mental hospital for being perfectly (or at least somewhat) normal. Membership benefits/premiums are described on the next page.
The prices above are calculated for “Over-Developed World” We Are Tra#c! residents, in each of the currencies that we accept. Single copies 1999, 50 min., PAL or NTSC format cost EUR/US$4 or equivalent. Eastern Europeans and “Global EUR 21, £15, US$25, AU$33 or CZK 620 South” residents wanting magazine subscriptions or single copies A chronicle of the Critical Mass bicycle can pay 1/3 the Western rate. movement, now a monthly ritual in over Available in French, German, English, Spanish, Serbo- 100 different cities in 14 different coun- Croatian and Czech. Distribution Orders (5 or more copies): EUR/US$2.60 each or tries around the world. equivalent (you sell at EUR/US$4 and keep the difference). Stop-Sign Improvement In Eastern Europe and the “Global South,” you buy at EUR/US$1 Return of the Scorcher One: EUR 0.85, £0.60, US$1, AU$1.30 or CZK 25 and sell at EUR/US$1.50. This is beginning to sound like the stock 1992, 30 min., PAL or NTSC format Ten: EUR 6.25, £4.25, US$7.50, AU$10 or CZK 180 market... EUR 21, £15, US$25, AU$33 or CZK 620 Forty-six centimetres long. Bright red. These big glossy Before automobiles ruled the roads, cyclists were referred to as “Scorchers” because of their blazing speed. Filled with inspiring scenes of bike use around the world. The DRIVING START: WALKING! BIKING! USING PUBLIC TRANSPORT! video that gave us the term “Critical Mass.” In a Hurry? Order from worldcarfree.net/resources. vinyl stickers are just the right size to go under the word “STOP” on stop signs. Carbusters Press Carbusters Bulk Discount: Ten or more CARtoons and/or Roadkill Bill books, any combination, for half price. T-Shirts Back Issues CARtoons Towards Carfree Cities Have an incomplete collection? Andy Singer, 2001, 100 pages, optional CD-ROM EUR 8.50, £7, US$10, AU$14 or CZK 250 Looking for a perfect gift? Don’t contains high-resolution TIF images of all graphics Yellow, orange, red, forest green, beige; XS, S, M, L know how to best invest your money Book: EUR 8.50, £7, US$10, AU$14 or CZK 250 for long-term growth? Well, look no CD-ROM: EUR 4, £3, US$5, further! Get any back issue of Car Busters AU$6.75 or CZK 80 for a mere A personal and provocative look EUR 2 / US$2.50 / £1.75. Or get a complete set at our relationship with the car, for EUR 20 / US$25 / £17.50 (Western Rate) or from Ford’s first assembly lines to EUR 10 / US$12.50 (Eastern Rate). Or order an to-day’s “drive-through” society. assort-ment of 100 issues for EUR 90 / US$110 Features seven pithy chapter texts and a compilation of hard-hitting quotations, plus 90 of Singer’s [front] [back] Shipping included infamous graphics. in all listed prices.
Roadkill Bill Ken Avidor, 2001, 108 pages “Carfree” “Parasites” EUR 8.50, £7, US$10, AU$14, or CZK 250 EUR 8.50, £7, US$10, AU$14 or CZK 250 EUR 8.50, £7, US$10, AU$14 or CZK 250 Black, red, light blue; men: S, M, L, XL; women: S, M, L Black ink on red shirt, white ink on black shirt; It’s the comic strip that looks at men: S, M, L, XL; women: S, M, L cars, technology and philosophy from the viewpoint of a frequently squashed rodent. In Roadkill Bill, the wonderful, provocative, amus-ing and sometimes gruesome carfree car-toons are collected together for the first time. Avidor gives voice to the suffering soul of humanity that feels bulldozed and paved over by industrial technology run amok.
29 Carbusters #25 Oct. - WORLD CARFREE NETWORK WORKS TO BUILD AND MAINTAIN THE GLOBAL CARFREE MOVEMENT. ITS PROJECTS AND PUBLICATIONS ASSIST PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD TAKING ON CAR CULTURE AND PROMOTING ALTERNATIVE WAYS OF LIFE. WE AIM TO FACILITATE EXCHANGE AND COOPERATION AMONG ACTIVISTS AND CAMPAIGNERS, REACH OUT TO THE PUBLIC, INSPIRE NEW ACTIVISTS AND CHANGE THE WORLD.
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o Member - US$30/EUR30/£20* o US$16/EUR16* - Subscription Only: 4 Issues includes a one-year magazine subscription, an assortment of bike stickers and one of these books: Ken Avidor’s Roadkill Bill, Andy Singer’s o US$26/EUR26* - Subscription Only: 8 Issues CARtoons, or Martin Wagner’s The Little Driver. (circle one) o ______- Donator (Economic Liberty Rate) o Supporter - US$50/EUR50/£35* o I’m enclosing ______for the following books includes a one-year magazine subscription and two of these books: CARtoons, Roadkill Bill, or The Little Driver. (circle two) or resources: ______
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30 Carbusters #25 Oct. - ä World Carfree Network, Krátká 26, 100 00 Prague 10, Czech Republic - e-mail: [email protected] - website: www.worldcarfree.net Announcements
HabitatJAM: December 1-3 Ecotopia Biketour 2006: Leading up to the World Urban Somewhere to Slovakia Form next June, the government In summer 2006 the 17th annual of Canada, IBM and UN HABITAT biketour and mobile eco- are holding a 72-hour Internet community will wend its way Hosting Proposals Sought for event for 100,000 people to to Slovakia from either Italy or Towards Carfree Cities VII discuss, debate and collaborate Lithuania, and then Until December 10, World on urban sustainability issues it might just keep on going – to Carfree Network is accepting that a!ect their daily lives. One of destinations unknown. The tour hosting proposals for the seventh the organisers, Linda Nowlan, is begins before July 1 and lasts at conference in the Towards Carfree looking for experts to participate least six weeks, but people can Cities series, which is to be held in in one or more of the 30-minute join or leave anywhere along the 2007. Proposals are not limited to sessions, on various sub-themes. way. To learn more, visit
31 Carbusters #25 Oct. -