CARCARBustR-
Editorial Collective: Tanja Eskola, Randy Ghent, Ste- ven Logan, Stephan von Pohl
Other WCN Sta#: Arie Farnam (Fundraiser), Markus Heller and Jason Kirkpat- rick (Conference Coordinators), Roeland Kuijper (Ecotopia Bike- tour Coordinator), Lucie Lébrová (O!ce Manager), Maria Yliheikkilä (EVS intern)
Contributing Writers: Arie Farnam, Sara Stout, Lisa Logan, Gabrielle Hermann, Ivan Gregov, Rob Zverina Contents Contributing Artists: Francois Meloçhe, Stig, Siris, Andy Singer 14 Awakening the Alliance Disability rights and the carfree movement
Please send subscriptions, letters, articles, artwork, photos, feedback 17 How To Level a Curb and your life’s savings to: Fixing inequalities on the street Car Busters, Krátká 26 100 00 Prague 10, Czech Rep. 18 Bogotá Inspires the South tel: +(420) 274-810-849 fax: +(420) 274-816-727 Model spreads in Latin America and beyond [email protected] www.carbusters.org 19 Successful Road Fighting Submission deadline for issue 21: History of a grassroots movement in Berlin August 15, 2004. Reprints welcome with a credit to Car 22 The End of Space as We Know It? Busters and a reference to Carbusters. The ideology of spacism org. Subscription/membership info and coupon: page 29 and 30. ISSN: 1213-7154 / MK ÈR: E 100018 4 Letters 10 Action! A Hegelian Poem; Horse-free Cities; World Naked Bike Ride; Korean Printed in the Czech Republic on 100% recycled Carbusting Comrades; Sister Cities... Protests; European Bike Day... paper by VAMB. Pre-press by QT Studio. Distributed by Doormouse (Canada); AK Press, 6 Car Cult Review 19 Skill Sharing Desert Moon, Tower/MTS, and Ubiquity (US); INK (UK); and many others. See
Car Busters is a Front cover: By Tanja Eskola. Back cover: World Carfree Day poster by Tanja Eskola. project of World Above: “My Karma Ran Over my Dogma” by Stig. Carfree Network 2 (Worldcarfree.net). Car Busters #20 July-Sept. Issue 20: Carfree Day On the Way
At the beginning of June, the World Carfree Network coordination team went to Berlin to have the last preparation meeting for Towards Carfree Cities IV. Berlin is an inspirational city for us because cycling and other forms of alternative transportation play such an important part in the spirit and life of the city. Bike paths, racks and other infrastructure are everywhere for World Carfree Day 2003, on forming alliances and rallying throughout the city and a diverse the one hand, and its refusal to around the carfree cause. Then, group of people can be seen in close down any streets, even when the time is right to convince Berlin’s bike lanes. temporarily, on the other hand. local governments to make a This bike-friendly culture Unfortunately, Prague is not street carfree or to build carfree culminated in the Sternfahrt, or unique and many other cities housing, the support will be European Bike Day, when close to also su#er similar problems; we there. 250,000 people rode their bikes only highlight it because it is the Even if local councils are through Berlin. city we live and work in everyday. unsupportive, as was the case However, our return to It is not our choice to live a life of in Prague, carfree advocates Prague was a brutal reminder of exhaust(ion) due to the constant should not be discouraged and a reality where city streets are impediments to freely moving take inspiration from cities where free- ways and the car is clearly around. Given this, it is in all our alternative forms of transport the culturally favoured means best interests to work for an are a fundamental, democratic of transportation. Unlike Berlin, alternative model. component of city life, as is the Prague is an unfriendly, if not In her article on bringing case in Bogotá. In her article, dangerous place, to move around together the disability rights Gabrielle Hermann points out in. Cars park on sidewalks and and the carfree movement, how this model is in"uencing the there are only a handful of bike Arie Farnam shows that many entire Latin American region. lanes, none of which are in the people share the same desires In this issue we also o#er city centre. as carfree advocates. Farnam’s solutions and advice, both o!cial This culture was re"ected in example is just one possibilty of and radical, on how to make Prague’s contra- dictory support people from diverse backgrounds
3 Car Busters #20 July-Sept. Letters
“Mommy, is Daddy a Monster?” When I used to ask groups of school children what they thought was wrong with cars, 90% of the hands shot up and they cried in unison: pollution. (The other 10% thought nothing wrong at all.) Talk to the average adult and you get the same result. Let’s say for a moment that someone invented a car that ran on tap water. Hurray, most people would yell, we can drive to the ends of the Earth without feeling guilty. If you could express the evil of cars in percentages (well, you can’t really) I’d give pollution and global warming only 15%; another 15% for killing and maiming thousands upon thousands each year; and, 10% for turning people into monsters the moment they enter their cars (they don’t even have to drive – just play their radio full blast and empty their ashtrays). So that leaves 60% for having systematically destroyed our villages, towns, cities, and country-sides; for having created endless roads, "yovers, shopping malls, gas stations, fast food joints, and parking lots, where Here is how I deal with not driving in cars, by the way...and no one seems to want to harrass me when I’m riding this bicycle! My husband, Jim Spann, and daughter Caitlin Hurley, are in the background. nature was before. Well, I don’t - Gail Spann, chairperson, Texas Bicycle Coalition have to tell you (Car Busters readers know all that). And for me personally, for having almost umbrellas and bicycles are indeed These mayors and their advisors single-handedly destroyed advanced technology and hard need to be interviewed, and everything that was beautiful left to improve on. We hold these to often! We need open and lively over from earlier eras. be self-evident: simple tools that exchanges between our di#erent Does anyone really think fuel- lend themselves to a quality of cultures and policies, but e!cient or non-polluting cars life wonderfully mature, local, exchanges relentlessly focused on would have done any better? and personal – and by extension, speci$cs, not abstractions... like Wolfgang Zuckermann profoundly social. Several of Ivan what makes a city attractive and Avignon, France Illich’s books, available in a dozen livable? languages, elaborate upon this. Your article touches brie"y Henri Michaux’s A Barbarian in on the Kunming-Zurich sister The Importance of Asia nicely compliments. cities and how it helped bring Sister-City Relationships Ignoring the wise counsel together Chinese and Swiss Thanks for the in-depth look at of Chow En-lai, who while planners for a conference and China’s move toward “advanced supporting China’s “four moderni- several transportation projects. I technology vehicles.” Certainly we sations” often saluted China’s would urge planners/urbanists/ can all work toward and celebrate bicycle-friendly cities, the current car busters in every country to this re-markable objective, mayors of Beijing and Shanghai explore similar opportunities. depending on the de$nition! have allowed some restrictions on Sister-city relationships Many of us feel that chopsticks, bicycle use, perhaps reluctantly.
4 Car Busters #20 July-Sept. provide the useful, needed bicycles move one-quarter of pedestrian lanes and sidewalks, infrastructure for a great variety the Earth’s population every and very toxic signs telling of constructive people-to-people day. As Philadelphia’s City pedestrians to keep o#. exchanges and programmes. Representative, I was fortunate Much sunshine to you all, There are close to 100 U.S.- enough to be given one of Dazzle K. Rivera and Mithi Chinese sister cities. Washington- these ‘people movers’ while Manila, Philippines Beijing and Philadelphia-Tiajin are visiting our sister city of Tiajin. among them. The experience made me Ignoring the Fast Lane The latter we utilised to much more aware of what the I called Congressman Jim Philadelphia’s great advantage bicycle has to o#er Americans Oberstar’s o!ce about “The Fast and, in the long run, Tiajin’s. as a healthful, low-cost, space- Act” back in December and was conserving means of everyday told by one of his aides, “Don’t transportation and recreation. It worry, it’ll never pass.” I called has also made me aware of the and wrote an open letter to the need for both the public and Surface Transportation Policy private sector to accommodate Project in Washington DC, which this e!cient vehicle.” was presented to their board John Dowling, co-founder by a former employee Andrea US-Cuba Sister Cities Broaddus. She told me their Association reply was “We don’t have time for You People Are Kidding this...people here all have other Are you freaks for real. Wow it is projects they’re working on.” real amazing what socialism can I wrote Car Busters, Center do to the mind, you guys are like for American Progress and crack heads. So when the world Environmental Defense (which is “Car Free” will you start the was crazy enough to endorse this “Horse Free” world. my god all legislation). I wrote and visited those poor animals that will be local groups and I brought it enslaved by humans. How about up to all my state and national a “human Free” world. Go get a legislators in calls and in person. car and see the world outside No one took me seriously and I that 4 city block area you live in. was resoundingly ignored. sam t Well, it just passed – fast lane [Ed. note: Perhaps sam t can start toll pricing – (April 4, 2004, New a punctuation- free world, given York Times, page 11). Congress (We being the Greater his radical resistance to the use of has just unleashed a new revenue Philadelphia Bicycle Coalition, the question mark.] source for highway agencies all which in early 1983 published across America. They were already an Employers Handbook on the most politically powerful Bicycle Commuting.) Working Hi Carbusting Comrades! entities in state government (due Thank you for your world updates closely with the City’s Director of to gas tax revenue). Now they Commerce, Richard Doran, we [World Carfree News]. They inspire me a lot. sent out copies of the handbook, y
I am from the Philippines. osk complete with a brochure and our W y
We are a tropical country where, , b
regional bike map, to more than er 100 area employers. It’s taken like many Third World countries,
the contrasts of realities are onclust decades, but Philadelphia has z O gradually become a ”bicycling glaring. The usual heartaches capital,” with several hundred scream at our faces – very miles of bike lanes, close to 2,000 poor public transport, private new bike racks citywide, front- vehicle-biased policies, big end bike racks on more than 300 private motor vehicles (usually buses, etc. Let me conclude with owned by traditional politicians) a few lines from Doran’s covering clogging our streets, sidewalks letter of May 11, 1983: predominantly for private “Last year I had the motor vehicles, and very many opportunity to carry out a pedestrian-unfriendly symbols. trade mission to the People’s These include high footbridges Republic of China, where inaccessible to the elderly and disabled, car owners parking on
5 Car Busters #20 July-Sept. “I am the prototypical ‘motorhead.’ I live, breathe, work and love automotive machinery. I wear the badge proudly. My motto is simple: If I’m not burning hydrocarbons, I’m not having fun.”
base to them,” Farritor says, “We replace that with a robot.” CAR CULT While prototypes have been made, they are not in use anywhere. Farritor says he has applied for a patent and is REVIEW considering what to do next. He is thinking about starting New Red Light Pulls already antagonistic.” a small business and trying Quick Change on Speeders - San Francisco Chronicle to market the robots to road The [San Francisco] Bay Area departments and others across has implemented the $rst tra!c Professor Develops the country who may bene$t signal with the power to punish Robotic Highway Cones from them. speeders, forcing Tami Perry to The orange construction cones - Associated Press brake right in the middle of an and barrels that litter America’s important telephone call. highways may be going high- Ford Goes for “Chick Lit” “I think it’s a bunch of bull,” tech. Ford of Britain has enlisted Perry says of the signal in A University of Nebraska British writer Carole Matthews Pleasanton after it went from professor has deve-loped as part of an unusual marketing green to yellow to red because robotic cones and barrels that campaign. The author, whose she was going over 40 mph in a move according to computer novel The Sweetest Taboo is part 35-mph zone. commands made miles away. of the “chick lit” genre marketed Drivers are met by an They can even be programmed primarily to women, has agreed electronic sign that "ashes the to move on their own at any to have the heroine of her book speed limit. A camera about particular part of the day, says and the female leads in future 350 feet from the intersection Shane Farritor, an assistant stories drive a Ford Fiesta. measures their speed and directs professor of mechanical In Matthews, Ford found the signal to turn red for anyone engineering at the university. a novelist who had a lifelong exceeding the speed limit by “It just seems like a very good love a#air with cars and who more than $ve mph. application for robots,” he says. was eager to lend her name to the company for promotional Chris Bruno, a 41-year-old San The robots are placed at the purposes. In exchange for her Mateo resident who works in bottom of the cones and barrels cooperation in the promotional Pleasanton, says that the city is and are small enough not to deal, Matthews will receive a free asking for trouble. “These guys greatly alter the appearance new Fiesta every six months for don’t know what goes on in the of the seemingly ubiquitous the duration of her contract plus minds of speeders,” he said. “Don’t construction aides. “Normally an undisclosed sum of money. antagonise someone who is there’s a kind of rubbery, black “Every month I write a short story which is shamelessly promoting the Ford Fiesta,” says Matthews, who worked as a secretary and then as a beauty therapist before she became an author. She also thinks that the car industry ignores women’s needs. Besides the usual complaint about being ignored by sales persons who then talk to women’s partners, she says, “I wish car manufacturers would make handles that wouldn’t pull your $ngernails o#.” - Automotive News Europe
Germans in Jams Turn to Sex A third of German motorists Taking a swim: In the Netherlands, a fire on board the ironically named “Sea Trust” gave fantasise about sex when stuck its cargo a quick rinse. The used cars were bound from Antwerp to Lebanon. in tra!c while only 10 percent
6 Car Busters #20 July-Sept. Industry Watch Digging the dirt on your favourite corporations It was recently decided that New Zealand police would hand out 25% more speeding tickets in the next year. Pollution is Good for You Leave No Trace, a non-pro$t that “Anticipating renewed The late Ronald Reagan once promotes outdoor ethics.” accusations that the government said that trees pollute more “In contrast to stereotypes was using the police as uno!cial than cars. The quotable ex-US about sel$sh, insensitive SUV tax collectors,” writes Thomas, “the president could have easily been owners, [people who own a] Police Minister burst into print. a spokesperson for any number of Subaru car are portrayed as Last year, we were told, speeding car companies, including, Subaru, respectful and adventurous was a factor in 167 deaths and the company labeled as one of nature lovers.” 623 serious injuries, and the the ten worst greenwashers of “’Deer Spotting,’ a television estimated social cost of speeding- 2003 by Green Life, a non-pro$t commercial from Subaru’s 2002 related crashes was about $890 organisation, in its “Don’t Be ‘When You Get It, You Get It’ million.” Fooled” Report published in April. campaign, depicts a man and “The previous day, the same “Increasingly, Americans are woman driving an Outback newspaper [...] had a double-page through the forest. They silently basing their purchasing decisions spread on European cars. All four come upon a herd of feeding on the environmental and stories – couched, of course, in deer. The couple stops and social impacts of products and the tractor-manual prose of the observes the tranquil scene, until manufacturers,” writes author automobile industry PR hand- a noisy SUV pulls up alongside Geo# Johnson. “According to out – laboured the point that the Outback and scatters the the Lifestyles of Health and these machines were un-bloody- deer. The SUV’s driver, a man in Sustainability Journal, in 2000, believably fast.” a $shing vest, lowers his window this growing market represented “In the space of half an hour $546 billion globally and $226.8 asks, ‘What are we looking at?’” “Don’t Be Fooled” can be seen (or even, conceivably the same billion in the US. three-minute ad break), we can Sociologist Paul Ray forecasts in its entirety at Thegreenlife.org. - based on Greenlife .org watch a Land Transport Safety that half of all Americans may Authority infomercial in which a become socially conscious physics professor demonstrates consumers within ten years. The The Need for Speed that an extra 5 kmh can be the organic foods and beverages In a recent editorial from the New di#erence between a minor ding market is growing 20-25% Zealand Herald entitled “Speed and a serious crash, and a car per year, while JD Power and kills, and We’re All Too Prepared to advert featuring arty footage Associates projects that sales of Accept It,” Paul Thomas points out of the latest souped-up dream hybrid-electric vehicles will rise the inherent hypocrisies among machine howling down the 400% between 2003 and 2005.” both industry and gover- nment’s It is no surprise that car approach to speeding. y
companies are trying to play oln Z down the dirtier aspects of their vehicles. The report singles out Subaru. “Subaru is the $rst automaker to make minor changes to reclassify a sedan as a truck, thereby setting an unfortunate example for manufacturers looking for a new angle on dodging fuel economy standards.” “For years, Subaru has successfully marketed an environmental commitment and respect for the outdoors. Subaru supports dozens of science, outdoors and environmental organisations, including the American Meteorological Society, the National Ski Patrol and 7 Car Busters ##2019 July July-S-Septept. . World News
Europe FRANCE - Paris’ city council has bicycles. Planners hope to reduce passed a resolu-tion calling for the environ-mental impact of Transport Trends In New a ban of SUVs within city limits. Paris’ tra!c congestion even more If municipal leaders decide to by keeping out those vehicles Member States Causing Alarm accept the proposal in an overall that pollute the most for no EU - Transport trends in the new functional reason. SUVs currently member states of the European make up about 5% of the French Union are a long way from the auto "eet. level of sustainability implicit - E Magazine, June 22 in EU transport policy-making, Film Festival on Track writes European Federation for CZECH REPUBLIC - How do Transport and Environment (T&E) you make a festival come to in a recent bulletin. people instead of the other way On May 1, the EU welcomed round? The organisers of the 10 new mem-bers mainly from International Film Festival for Central and Eastern Europe. T&E Young People seem to have found has published a series of two- plan to reduce the city’s gridlock, a solution. It’s called the cinema page “fact $les” showing the it will go into e#ect at the train, or “cinema on the rails.” state of transport in seven of the beginning of 2006. 10 countries plus Romania and Asia/Paci$c “We have no interest in Bulgaria. having SUVs in the city. They’re “The fact $les show there are Throughout the month of common gaps and a lack of vision dangerous to others and take up too much space,” says Paris’ June, the cinema train will travel for sustainable transport. The around the country stopping National Development Plans Deputy Mayor Denis Baupin. “Our idea is to limit the circulation of in various towns and cities for produced by the acceding states several screenings a day that kids are merely a compilation of meas- the most-polluting vehicles. That means SUVs and lots of other can attend. ures without a broader strategy to The idea of going to see a $lm vehicles that don’t meet European underpin them,” says Mari Jüssi of on a train is a novelty that will pollu-tion standards,” he adds. the Estonian Green Movement. attract kids – and not all of them Since a Socialist-Green The documents show that would be able to come to Zlín for coalition won City Hall in 2001, spending on road schemes is far the annual $lm festival – so the Paris’ government has been more advanced than spending cinema comes to them instead, proactive in setting aside special on public transport, cycling and explains Vítezslav Jandák, the travel lanes for buses and pedestrian projects. In addition, president of the festival. There the hasty privatisation of rail networks in some countries has made it di!cult to get EU funding for improvements to rail networks. In Poland, for example, public transport passenger numbers in cities fell from nine billion in 1985 to 5.5 billion in 2000 (ticket prices for urban public transport tripled in price and car fuels prices fell in the same time period). However, there are some causes for optimism, such as the Gdansk cycle network, and the introduction of low-"oor buses and trams in several Czech cities. - compiled from T&E reports
Less Talk and More Action Against SUVs
8 Car Busters #20 July-Sept. is no fee and during screenings ehr the train is parked at the railway t en S station of the given town. r - Radio Prague, May 29 Dar Road Builders on the Move UK - Against a background of impassioned debate, a powerful group of motoring and business groups has united to launch a nationwide advertising drive calling for nearly 1,000 miles of motorway to relieve chronic and growing congestion across the UK. The £250,000 crusade is being mounted partly in response to pressure from a rival coalition Cars parked in the bike lane outside of a downtown Toronto, Canada police station. of 29 environmental and social justice groups which have deluged ministers with postcards CHINA - The North Bund viability of the Leventhal-Rado lobbying for more sustainable in Shanghai, including the restoration plan – which also transport. old Jewish ghetto, is facing calls for a boutique hotel, an It also comes at a critical time redevelopment. extensive memorial park and a for future policy, with ministers Almost all the Jews, except carfree pedestrian zone – it would planning this summer major a few descendants of mixed then go to the Shanghai city statements on rail reform and parentage, resettled in New government for consideration road pricing, and a new 10-year York, Los Angeles, Tel Aviv and when they auction the area to transport strategy. elsewhere as the Communists developers. - The Observer, May 16 took power in 1949. They left - New York Times, May 31 Cars Set Sail for Iraq behind a charming neighborhood with row houses, schools, a IRAQ - In addition to the country’s Breathing Easily synagogue, a park and a Little more pressing concerns, the Vienna Cafe. The district is now on Earth Day administrative chaos following KOREA - In celebration of Earth inhabited by working-class the US occupation of Iraq has led Day, a Central Seoul main street Chinese. to a rapid in"ux of used cars. was carfree for a whole day. When Shanghai o!cials Under Saddam Hussein, Thirty-$ve environmental announced urban renewal automobiles carried an import groups hosted a colour-ful array plans for the North Bund almost tari# of close to 100%. Combined of events under the slogan two years ago, they said they with little free capital, this led to “Agriculture of Life, Breathing envisioned a modern business very low levels of motorisation, Earth.” [Although some meaning is and residential district with despite the low price of gasoline. lost in translation here, we can still skyscrapers, apartment buildings, In the 12 months since the US wonder what it would be like to cruise ship docks and an invasion of Iraq, tari#s have breath the Earth. - ed.] not been enforced. This has The street festival included an lead to well over half a billion The Americas Earth Day celebration ceremony, dollars worth of car purchases bicycle riding, "ea markets and coming in from one port alone, inline skate performances. enormous Ferris wheel. according to people familiar with Local governments, civic and But momentum is growing these shipments interviewed by regional environmental groups to preserve the entire the Institute for Transport and across the country also staged neighborhood. An alternate Development Policy (ITDP). events such as bicycle riding, plan has been drawn up by two Since last April, over 250,000 street cleaning, and photo Canadians, Ian Leventhal and cars are estimated as having gone exhibitions. Thomas M. Rado. They formed into Iraq from Aqaba [Jordan]. - Korean Times, April 22 a company called Living Bridge Minivans are particularly popular. that is trying to raise $450 million - ITDP’s Sustainable Transport to preserve at least 50 ghetto Driver Was Text-Messaging Before e-Update, May buildings in a nine-block area. Fatal Crash If district o!cials can be NEW ZEALAND - A driver lost Salvaging Jewish Heritage convinced of the $nancial control of his car and was in China, Block by Block killed while text-messaging, a 9 Car Busters #20 July-Sept. Palmerston North inquest was The Hummer Humbled release told. USA - For years it has been the king As well as texting, Ryan James of the American road – the bane of Cyclists Arrested And Fined at Townsend, 20, had been drinking, environmentalists and the joy of Critical Mass in Montreal and driving above the speed limit, those wanting the biggest, baddest CANADA - Police intervened in a too. car on the high-way. Yet now sales recent Critical Mass in Montreal. Coroner Graham Hubbard said of the Hummer, made famous Police o!cers pulled their cruisers there was a public debate about by Arnold Schwarzenegger, are in front of the ride, got out of the hazards of cellphone use and skidding to a halt. their cars, and began pulling text-messaging while driving. “The H2 has seen its day come cyclists o# their bikes in mid- “They are a dangerous and go. [With rising petrol prices] "ight. One cruiser "ung its doors distraction,” he said. “I don’t it does not seem to make sense open, right in the path of one discount the alcohol level, but I any more,” said Wes Brown, a car of the cyclists. The unfortunate do have to underline the fact that industry analyst. But the Hummer cyclist who slammed into the text-messaging is a dangerous cruiser’s door was handcu#ed and occupation while driving.” Africa taken away. The driver of an oncoming Besides the one arrested, station, are in “no stopping car su#ered serious injuries. three other riders were given zones.” There is no provision in He told police he had no time tickets. The charges ranged from the Highway Tra!c Act to allow to react when approaching running red lights to obstructing for stopping a vehicle in the “no headlights suddenly veered into police. Other riders assembled stopping zone” except in the case his path. The court was told his on the corner were threatened of an emergency. full recovery will take about two with charges if they did not However, The Globe and years. immediately disperse. Mail reported that one parking One eyewitness said that The police even started enforcement supervisor said they Townsend’s car was going about threatening random cyclists tend to cut delivery trucks some 120 kmh when it passed him. who stopped to see what was slack. - New Zealand Herald, June 11 happening. When the ordeal In one study by the Advocacy was over, more than CN$500 Toronto Police’s for Respect for Cyclists, says in charges from the police had “Cycle Right” is a Sham Stehr, it was found that over been doled out. CANADA - On June 7, the Toronto a one-hour period 50 vehicles - Centre for Media Alternatives Police Service announced the parked in a busy bike lane in - commencement of their “Cycle downtown Toronto, causing over Quebec, May 5 Right” campaign under the guise 150 incidents where the bike of providing better safety for lane was not available to the Toronto cyclists. According to a cyclist. Free Trade = More Pollution press release by - compiled from press USA - In early June, the US Darren Stehr, Supreme Court made editor of a ruling allowing the “Get Mexican trucks to Out of the enter US roads Bike Lane” – even if they website, break America’s “Cycle Right more stringent is nothing emissions more than a standards. hypocritical publicity The court stunt by the very same said that thanks people who ignore their to the North America duty and put cyclists’ Free Trade Agreement, the lives at risk everyday.” US had no right to exclude Stehr notes that outside Mexican trucks. Analysts a downtown police station estimate that more than vehicles park in the bike 30,000 Mexican trucks could lanes with impunity. Phone enter the US this summer calls requesting action and by 2010, Mexican resulted in laughter or a run- trucks will emit twice the around. particulate matter and Most bike lanes, like nitrogen oxides as their those outside the police
10 Car Busters #20 July-Sept. Action! t oma ut A
Prague parents defiantly cross one of Prague’s many crosswalks, which are often ineffective at slowing down car drivers.
World Naked Bike Ride the Prague-based group, Auto- was ”being considerate means More than 29 cities throughout Mat, initiated a di#erent kind being safe.” the world celebrated World of Critical Mass – mothers and - Auto-Mat Naked Bike ride in June, including fathers deftly dodging cars while São Paolo, where two riders pushing their baby carriages. Was Lenin Carfree? showed up on a cold, cloudy day; Competitors with physical Russian cities had a string of Zaragoza, Spain where 400 nude disabilities also took part in successful carfree events in the ciyclists biked for an hour through this dangerous and obstacle- $rst half of this year. It began the city centre, and; Chicago ridden rally along the sidewalks in Belgorod where the city where 250 bikers foiled a police [pavements] and pedestrian council accepted a proposal for plot to stop the event (according crossings of one Prague neigh- quarterly Carfree Days. The $rst to Worldnakedbikeride.org). bourhood. Prague mothers, and one took place on March 18. One In Appldoorn, The also fathers, wanted to bring city o!cial in attendance said Netherlands, one rider, Rens attention to the parked cars that “we need to think about transit Duijsens, reports continual crowd Prague’s sidewalks. problems more thoroughly, if we demands by the police to put The main slogan of the week on clothes. But, after one such demand, he says, “we lost sight iclonudista of the police, and o# went the C clothes again.” “There is nudity in the paper. There is nudity in advertisements. There is nudity on the bill- boards. There is nudity on TV (we were nude on TV), but not in real life!” - compiled from various reports
Car-Dodging Baby Carriages in Prague As part of a week of street safety organised by the European Economic Commission of the UN, The fourth annual Ciclonudista in Zaragoza, Spain attracted more than 400 cyclists.
11 Car Busters #20 July-Sept. are able to go without cars today.” pedestrians and even car owners the construction, which will One month later, Moscow were positive about it. St. contaminate fresh water sources, had its largest Critical Mass ever. Petersburg is known not only for include the otter, leopard cat, It was organised and supported its famous architecture, but also and Korean sable. by the Carfree Russia movement, for city o!cials’ plans to ban bike This prompted the formation Muscovites for the Tram, and usage on central streets and close of “Friends of the Salamander,” other ecogroups and activists. The tram lines. which gathered 170,000 initiative met with support from After the success of these signatures throughout Korea in the city’s biking community, and events, it was decided to continue support of a lawsuit against KTX about 150 people gathered in one to promote the Critical Mass idea on behalf of the salamander. The of Moscow’s central squares. all over the Russian Federation court turned it down because a Moscow and Nizhny and in neigh- bouring countries. salamander has no right to sue, Novgorod were also the site for - Carfree Russia but Green Korea is appealing the “Transportation Game.” In the decision. A group of children Moscow, 18 pairs of people raced Koreans Protest visited the construction site and across two districts for three and to Protect Forest sang a song for heavy equipment half hours using $ve types of local In the name of the Korean clawed and wrote a letter to it. mass transit, completing tasks at salamander and the white-naped Also, a Korean Buddhist nun each of the four control points. crane, Green Korea has tried to named Jiyul has conducted a Inspired by the huge success sue the Kyungbu high speed train series of hunger strikes in protest in Moscow, St. Petersburg (KTX), which is supposed to pass of the KTX construction at conducted its own Critical through Chunsung Mountain, Chunsung Mountain. Mass. It was the $rst strongly located in Kyung-nam Yang-san. “It’s a really hard struggle,” pronounced carfree action Aside from the salamander says Hahm Eun Hye who works in former Leningrad. In spite and the crane, animals whose with Green Korea, “because KTX is of expectations, city o!cials, homes will be endangered by supported by the government.”
by Lisa Logan him, and enthusiasm, he was encouraged Amsterdam: to con- tinue it into the fourth In May, New York The Bicycling year. City celebrated Capitol of “The mission of the Bicycle Bike Month. And Europe. Film Festival,” says Barbur, May 13 to 16, the Brendt “is not to villify car drivers or fourth annual Barbur, suburbanites.” Bicycle Film Festival the festival “I think New York is a perfect held screenings organiser, city to limit car usage. We are at the Anthology decided to the ‘New Amsterdam.’ That is the Film Archives in start the name of New York from before, so Manhattan’s East Bicycle Film I think we can use it as a model. Village honouring Festival after The city is essentially "at and [is bicycle culture. being hit by a a] high-density [environment].” Films featured bus while he “At work and in other places, this $rst night included Drag was riding his bike. This accident I think economics works with Race New York City, which sees made him angry, and organising movement. When things are cyclists narrowly outwitting tra!c the festival was his way of taking stagnating, that’s when things through Manhattan’s busiest action. He wanted to celebrate fail. I think if you have a city that’s routes and Bike Thief, a comical bicycles in a non-political, and stagnating, when move- ment experiment in stealing one’s “fun” way. He originally planned can’t happen, when merchandise own bike. Other $lms included to only hold one festival as a way can’t move from here to there, the animated Bike Ride, where to give back to the community, you have an economy within a the protagonist rides 50 miles to but when the screenings were city that is being hurt.” see the girl who quickly dumps received with success and Although many people say
12 Car Busters #20 July-Sept. CCelebrelebraatingting EEururopeanopean BikeBike DaDayy On Sunday, June 6, 250,000 cyclists cruised through the city of Berlin as part of European Bike Day, or Sternfahrt, and made it clear that the bicycle has even more potential to be promoted as a means of transport. The European Bike Day is a demonstration that welcomes everyone, says the ride’s organisers, ADFC, and is not about speed or athletic ability. The motto for the festival was “Respect for Bicycle Riders.” Sternfahrt organisers hope that the demon- stration will encourage the creation of a better urban cycling infrastructure that better accounts for the number of people who cycle on a daily basis. For the $rst time, all 16 routes (with 75 check points) met in
13 Car Busters #20 July-Sept. Awakening the Alliance n Although the carfree and disability-rights movements share many goals when it comes to city space, communication between the two movements has been limited. In this article, Arie Farnam, a freelance journalist who is legally blind, takes on both issues and comes up with some
14 Car Busters #20 July-Sept. by Arie Farnam That was the $rst time, but photographer Kurt Vinion and I not the last, that I encountered backpacked across the Ukraine approached the editor’s o!ce car-centred employment by train for the Monitor and with the discrimination. It can happen Magnum Photos. We hiked Iusual job-interview jitters. At to anyone, not just people who around the Carpathian Mountains the end of my physically can’t drive. It happens doing a story on the successful last year in college, my dream was to people who are too poor to inter-ethnic communities there, to be a newspaper journalist. I own a car. You can’t tramped the had already survived two slave- get a job because streets of Kiev for labour summer internships, and I you don’t have a “ a documentary wanted the paid rookie reporter car. You can’t buy Drivers project about job at this regional Wisconsin a car because you automatically street children paper. can’t get a job. This assume that any and sought out The editor skimmed over predicament a#ects the secretive my portfolio brie"y, not really millions of people pedestrian not illegal mining appearing to read it. Then, he in the United States clearly marked out communities in put his elbows on his polished alone. Then, there Eastern Ukraine. hardwood desk and looked at me are those who for as blind (with a Certainly, long and hard. At last, he said, whatever reason white cane) can see traveling by train “It says here that you are legally (ecological awareness, ” and bus in the blind.” fear of accidents or sleet and rain of a I nodded. “That’s right, but it general interest in Ukrainian spring doesn’t interfere with my work,” I more human, carfree societies) wasn’t easy, but my pro$ciency in said. “The only minor di!culty is don’t own cars or drive. We are all local languages more than made that I can’t drive.” likely to run up against this kind up for our cumbersome mobility. I had spent a summer riding of discrimin-ation, especially in At times, I have found that a around rural Oregon on my employment, sooner or later. car would even be a hindrance. In chunky bicycle covering two In fact, I am one of the lucky the Amazon, for example, there beats (environment and courts) ones. Given the tough US anti- aren’t many roads, so I traveled for the La Grande Observer. discrimination laws protecting by bus across the Andes and then My chunky old bike was $tted people with disabilities, I probably on foot with occasional help from with a sign that said, “Caution: could have sued this particular a donkey. But I am not writing all Visually Impaired Rider.” It caused car-bigot. Many people who don’t this to brag about how I “showed” some confusion and hilarity at drive for less obvious reasons that editor back in Appleton intersections but it got the job (such as wanting to live in a more because, to be perfectly honest, done. I had also worked as a environmentally friendly way) I’m not absolutely certain that reporter for The Prague Post in don’t have that protection. I didn’t it would be possible for me to the Czech Republic using public sue, mainly because I was too be a full-"edged, professional transportation. I had lived in busy moving on with my career. I journalist without a car...in the Southwestern Siberia (which I got a job with The Nation in New United States. reached on the Trans-Siberian York a month later and, well, that I left my country because the Railroad) and hitchhiked from little Wisconsin newspaper just infrastructure and professional Zimbabwe to Malawi. I didn’t wasn’t on my radar anymore. culture in the US is extraordinarily consider not being able to drive a I am now the Central Europe car-dominant and I now live in major problem. and Balkans stringer for The the Czech Republic permanently. But, this editor shook his head. Christian Science Monitor, a I sometimes jokingly call myself “I just don’t believe there is such national and international a “transportation refugee,” kind a thing as a blind journalist,” publication. I have covered of like people who leave their he declared, $dgeting with his Balkan war zones, tracked the countries because they are poor papers a bit. “I mean, how would coal-mining ma$a across the are called “economic refugees.” you get to a $re 40 miles out of Ukraine, shot a documentary $lm And it isn’t all a joke. When I town if you can’t drive?” about Romany ghettos in Central $rst came to Europe I truly felt “I would ride with the Europe and even took a side trip like a refugee discovering a free photographer,” I shot back, even to the Ecuadorian Amazon to write country. Suddenly, for the $rst though I knew I was doomed. about the Kichwa tribes. There time in my life, I could simply get “I’m sorry, but that’s just not most certainly is such a thing as a up and go visit a friend in another good enough,” he said, slapping legally blind journalist without a town any time I wanted to. The down my $le with $nality. car. freedom and independence is >> In the spring of 2002,
15 Car Busters #20 July-Sept. 1. The Car Environment to wait, and assume that their Although some people with gestures will be seen and heeded mobility disabilities (i.e., in time. But, all too often, people people using wheelchairs or who look quite “normal” cannot other mobility aids) use cars see the car, let alone the driver’s and some need some sort of hand. About 10% of the world’s motorised individual transport, population has impairments that people with physical disabilities, make navigating a car-intensive almost without exception, $nd environment dangerous. Consider environments built for cars that a person may be able to see extremely di!cult (and often a car coming, but not know how impossible) to navigate. Curbs, far away it is, due to lack of depth gutters, potholes, etc. make perception. A driver may assume getting from point A to point B that a person with tunnel vision across an intersection a major can see them because they are prevent discrimination against under- taking for anyone using looking in their general direction. people with disabilities, but a wheelchair. The broad spacing Drivers often assume that they almost nowhere are there laws of a car-dominant environment can swing around a right-hand prohibiting discrimination on the makes mobility especially di!cult turn without stopping because road. About 15% of the human for people who cannot walk long the the pedestrians will move out population has some sort of distances. of the way, even if their backs are disability, many more can not to the vehicle. This doesn’t work drive for a variety of physical on deaf people, and neither does 2. Dangerous Drivers reasons. This means that there the horn or the screeching breaks For people with visual and is a substantial portion of the that the driver ends up trying hearing impairments, every driver population which is forever next. is dangerous. Drivers assume that excluded in the car-dominant any pedestrian not clearly marked culture. Where there is little or out as blind (with a white cane) 3. Equal Access to the World no public transportation, people can see and hear their car clearly. It has often been said that with otherwise mild disabilities Yet, 90% of people who are disabilities are not within the become severely disabled in considered “legally blind” are not individual with some physical terms of their mobility. The actually totally blind and most di#erence, but created by a predicament of trying to get do not carry a white cane. Drivers society that does not allow around without the ability to use small hand gestures to wave for such di#erences. There are drive, in a society that assumes pedestrians past or tell them laws in many countries that that every respectable adult
NO EXIT © Andy Singer
16 Car Busters #20 July-Sept. How to Level a Curb n Grassroots Direct Action Gets the Goods
by Ivan Gregov backyard before the real action. But even if you !nish within an et’s get concrete! The hour, you will probably have to purpose of this deal with the police for the !rst Laction is to provoke town 10 minutes. So make sure your authorities (and group has enough members: two public opinion) to start building to four people for breaking the bike lanes, or to improve old ones. old concrete (remember you have It can be a good tool for activists two curbs to do!); another one or in the cities of Eastern and two people to mix new concrete; Southeastern Europe, where it signi!cant intersection, such as one person to talk to the press was successfully tested in Zagreb, one frequently used by cyclists during the action, and; lastly, one Croatia. or in the vicinity of a school, person who is good at talking to High (non-leveled) curbs are university, town centre, etc. It is the police. the main obstacle for continuous best if you can level a curb that Don’t stop car tra"c while you bike transportation, and curb obstructs a bike lane (if you have work. leveling is a precondition for bike such a situation) to make it more lanes. functional. [Ed. note: This is true only where When you !nd a good spot the bike lane for your action, check what the is above street level. However, the curbs are made of, as some types tactic is also useful for facilitating of concrete or stone are harder wheelchair access to side-walks than others. Avoid curbs made of (pavements).] If curbs aren’t stone. Try to level two curbs on leveled, the authorities have an each side of the street. excuse not to continue bike lanes You will also need tools, across pavements and streets. cement and some gravel or Did I mention that in most sand (please check and bring countries you can’t get o"cial all the tools shown here). The permission for a curb leveling approximate cost for all of this action? So, you have to be quick, is EUR 50-70. Use a sturdy bike and kind to police o"cers, too. trailer or handcart to bring Ideas for negotiation might be supplies to the location. that “we have the right to provide Don’t forget to invite the our means of transportation,” or press as your action may make a “we are saving public funds.” headline or a spot on the evening A couple of things can help news! But be careful how you in these situations. Making your invite them because you don’t group known to the media or Leveling hundreds of curbs will want the police to stop the action dressing up in “workers’ uniforms” require xx thousand euros from before you have even started. (or similar police-puzzling tactics) city funds. In the case of Zagreb, will buy you more time. the city had to pay EUR 400 to The Action! Curbstone can be removed by level a single curb! Remember that you have to loosening its connection to the Remember an important detail be quick and well organised. pavement and adjacent curbs about this action in the media If necessary, practice in your (with a hammer and chisel), and public eyes: activists don’t or by breaking it into pieces. destroy, or just talk, or demand Try combining both methods. change; they actually a#ect quick and visible change (something Breaking cement into pieces is positive) – at least at one very hard to do. It demands a intersection. Maybe that would be three- to !ve-kilogram hammer or a welcome change in your town’s pick and the strongest person in public life. your group. What Do You Use heavy leather (or, better yet, rubber, if you’re vegetarian) Need for This Action? protective gloves to avoid hand First, you need to choose a injuries. Also, only use chisels
17 Car Busters #20 July-Sept. Bogotá Inspires the South n Car Busters readers are no strangers to Bogotá and its remarkable accomplishments. However, Bogotá’s success, suggests Gabrielle Hermann, is inspiring transport planners throughout Latin America and beyond.
by Gabrielle Hermann OM -R any despair that developing countries are becoming M eithaupt/GTZ CD cheap imitations of American cities, ed Br anfr with sprawling suburbs and M choked-up highways. Recent news out of China about restricted bicycle access and increased motorisation only feeds this fear. There are signs, however, that a more sustainable model of urban development is gaining prominence as word about Bogotá, Colombia’s Carfree area in the city centre of Santiago, Chile. transformation reaches high-level decision-makers in developing countries. Enrique Peñalosa – the former mann Mayor of Bogotá who has been ielle Her
instrumental in Bogotá’s building abr G of parks, bicycle paths, and the Bus Rapid Transit system Transmilenio – endorses the “Bogotá model” in developing cities around the world. His stump speech, which has been given in Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, China, Ghana, South Africa, and several Latin American countries, talks about public space as dignity for poor people, highways as “monuments to inequality,” and The Trans-Milenio Bus Rapid Transit, which has imfluenced transport planning throughout bicycle paths as an indicator for Colombia and across Latin America. a healthy, equitable society. He suggests that questions about OM -R transportation relate to the values of a society, and that developing countries need to blaze their om/GTZ CD own path toward development. l Fjellstr ar
If cities are designed for the K comfort and accessibility of pedestrians, bicyclists and children, a more equitable and just society will result. The winds of activism and communication have brought Bogotá’s story to many cities around the world, dispersing seeds of ideas that include carfree A days, bicycle paths and a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system known as Transmilenio. Perhaps the seed 18 Car Busters #20 July-Sept. to bear the most fruit has been restrictions on cars have been and safer cities. Even though BRT. Jakarta opened its !rst BRT less successful at capturing the Peñalosa challenges assumptions line earlier this year, while Tehran, attention of policy makers in about what development should Santiago, Lima, Quito and !ve other countries because doing look like, his message is inspiring Colombian so would risk angering and sensible for cities that are cities are poised the small but powerful growing exponentially, and in to open systems elite that own and rely which the majority of citizens in the next few “If cities are designed on automobiles. On the rely on public and nonmotorised years. Lima is other hand, the success transport. a !ne example for the accessibility of Bogotá’s bicycle So, how are the lessons from of a city deeply of pedestrians, paths has caught on Bogotá a#ecting the politics in$uenced bicyclists and and several cities such and transportation decisions by Bogotá’s as Santiago and Lima of other cities? To answer these example. The children, a more are building them in questions, let’s look at Lima, a city current mayor equitable and just conjunction with BRT. of comparable size (7 million) to of Lima was There is also a potential Bogotá. With 80% of its citizens elected on ” for carfree days to using public transport, Lima is one a pro-metro $ourish of the platform against the incumbent in the Andean least car- who had plans to build a region. Already Transmilenio-style BRT system. there is talk of However, once he went to Bogotá Quito taking up and saw how well Transmilenio the carfree day worked, he changed his policy tradition, while to one that favoured BRT over at least !ve metro. There is a fair amount of Colombian cities consensus among transportation already join in with planners that BRT is a more Bogotá one day in sensible option than metro for February to restrict most developing countries. BRT cars. can achieve the same capacity as Bogotá’s most metro systems at a fraction transformation has been a dependent cities in Latin America, of the cost. That money saved on gift to carfree city advocates. and yet, paradoxically, it has some BRT can then be spent on needed Activists can point to Bogotá, of the worst tra"c. Attempts to services such as health care, which is a poor and large city build a metro only resulted in education, or even the building of troubled by civil war, as proof millions of dollars in debts and bicycle paths and a 10 km-long metro located in a parks. sparsely populated upper-class Finally, after suburb. To this day, the metro three and a half has never functioned as anything years of touring more than a free joy-ride for cities, meeting residents and meanwhile Lima with government has no regulated public transit o"cials, and system. The result is pure chaos, speaking at as nearly 300,000 polluting public universities, transport vehicles (mini-vans, Peñalosa and mini-buses and taxis) reign free Oscar Diaz’s and viciously compete for a !xed message has number of passengers. Their started to sink in pro!ts and quality of life are so at higher levels bad that even some of the private of government. bus operators are pressuring Still, time will the municipality to regulate the tell if the more radical aspects that prioritising people over cars system through a Transmilenio- of Bogotá’s transformation can can reap economic, political and style system. Many work 12-hour take root and grow in political environmental rewards. Peñalosa’s shifts and sleep in their vehicles environments that lack visionary message strikes right at the core during the week. Building a BRT and bold leaders like Peñalosa. of what leaders in developing system in conjunction with bicycle The prioritisation of public countries care most about: paths could literally transform space, pedestrian avenues and eliminating poverty, job creation, the entire city of Lima, making it
19 Car Busters #20 July-Sept. Ecotopia Biketour 2004 n From Vienna to The Netherlands in 40 days
by Roeland Kuijper lots of local organic vegetables would like to forget about the rest for dinner, wood to get the !re of the day but then… disaster oly Moses, what a ride! started, and bought some beer struck and Mark’s bike got stolen Vienna, 1st of for us. Now that’s what we call out of a garden with biketour H July, Biketour a nice accommodation! For me people around..??!!. Mark had to kicked o# with a literally personally, every sleeping place go back to England but came smashing “ONE LESS CAR” was like a surprise, and often I back for the last part of the tour! action. Towing “the golden car” thought: “wow, this is the best The next day we gathered in the behind our bikes through the and coolest accommodation park Kampa close to the Vltava streets using about 6 bikes plus which we river to prepare for a 3-person tandem and a guy on had!” and the the body painted a high bike in front, leading the places kept on “ bike ride. People rest of the Biketour procession. getting better. quote here... were a bit shy in We dragged the unholy ness onto Ofcoures not all the beginning but the square from the alternative accomodations when the !rst rough WUK center where we turned it were as nice brushes drew cold into an art piece with an artistic, as they could lines on our hot rhythmic car destruction theatre. have been: the bodies, everyone If there were any doubts about arrangements got in the right positive group vibes before, for Prague were mood. It turned out they got shattered into pieces not optimal. We to be a very colorful together with the car glass. arrived very late at ” kind of Critical Mass This was a surprisingly nice !rst our meetingpoint whiched made it to taste of Biketour for most of the and while we were national television.. people. Almost right after, we waiting under a bridge in the From Prague we mainly started our “Demonstration of center, thunderclouds gathered followed the Elbe through its Sustainable Transport” along above us. We had to splitt our magni!cent valley and enjoyed a planned extension of the group in two. After a wet ride changes in the landscape as A5 highway, dressed up with where we had to stick together, we approached Germany. colorful placards against this evil with two more $at tires, one We passed the border and development. We spend the night group arrived at their remote headed for Dresden where by an Austrian farmer who made accommodation. Everybody was had an appointment with our us feel at home in no time. He had happy to !nally be there and 20 Car Busters #20 July-Sept. beloved Uli. We have to put a mining brown coal, a three-year in Prague… What’s the thing special thanks here for Uli and period of arti!cial deserti!cation with capital cities? We went to her Mother. everything was has to take place. They pump our sport hall accommodation perfectly prepared and we felt groundwater out to a depth of on the site where our friend and very welcome on our two days 70 meters. Vattenfall didn’t get a carfree architect Markus Heller is of stay in Dresden. On our arrival, green light for mining the brown planning the 1st carfree quarter of a delicious soup and salad plus coals but has anyway started the Berlin. Unfortunately the German bread, rolls, lots of spreads, and all extraction from the groundwater. secret service is thinking about organic, Supporting a local group Several hundred huge pumps building a new o"ce on the exact against the building of another places systematically, about 70 same place. What a coincidence, bridge in Dresden was the action meters away from each other, right? for the next day. The bridge are pumping 750 liters A MINUTE Ofcourse we visitted the all would just increase the overall out of this rich biotope. After the famous Towards Car-Free Cities amount of tra"c passing through mining there will be a big acid IV Conference which started the city. Same old story: “We need lake surrounded by a 70-meter with a spectacular presentation this bridge, it is good for (y)our deep and several kilometers long of all participants. Great People, economy.” We made placards and desert. Vattenfall has to restore Great Workshops, Great food, gathered on a beautiful meadow the area in a similar state (which Great evening programme and bank where the bridge is planned. took Mother Earth several million Great new worldwide contacts. In We did a kind of Critical Mass bike years, so this is impossible) short: It was a Great and usefull ride but with police guidance. We Sollution: they plant genetically Conference! went to the center and unfurled modi!ed, monocultural, fast JANUN, a German green a giant banner, which shows a growing threes. This means that youth network, organized the huge pink bridge in position. We it takes up to 75 years till the route from the Wendlandcamp, tried to raise public awareness by groundwater is back on its old a anti nuclear activist camp handing out lea$ets. level. It’s an absolute disaster.. with a long history, loads of The border cross from Czech We went to see the closing open interesting people and more Republic to Germany was a cast mine. The size of this disaster great workshops,. They planned pleasant change of bike paths. shocked me deeply. This horror some actions on the way like We were going through an area has been going on in this region anti road protest in Lunenburg called Lauzits, the name indicates for years and the result is 13 and a consumer-critic action in that there should be lots of billion cubic meters of missing water in the area. We headed for ground water The forest we Lacoma, a kind of protest eco- drove through in this area, were village that is resisting structural monstrous monocultures. Please demolishment. The people living support friends of Lacoma: http:// there are incredible wood artists, www.lacoma.de/english.html ecologists, students but most of A few days later we arrived all very sweet and open. Their in Berlin at about 9 in the problem: a Swedish company evening, Thunderclouds started Vattenfall owns the land and gathering above us like they did the village. They are interested only in the brown coals, which are under the village and the huge wetlands belonging to it. Sweden is told to be a clean and enlightened country, but Vattenfall is buying up the most polluting and destructive energy projects in Eastern Europe. In the meanwhile they keep advertising with how green and clean they are. The wetlands behind the village form a protected natural area. An environmental impact assessment has shown that the e swamps house a huge number yt
of endangered species; some of abursk them are on the “red”-list. But in istina Sk cases of economical interest this r red list is ripped to pieces and o: K burned together with the brown phot coals. In order to actually start
21 Car Busters #20 July-Sept. Is This the End of Space As
by Steven Logan
I think ogan
ne morning, the people en L ev t awoke from a S O!tful sleep to discover that space had disappeared and left behind a note that read, “the spacist did it.” Who exactly is a spacist and what was it that he, she, or it did?
Readers might be asking themselves how exactly is it possible for space to disappear. What would remain if space was gone? The desperation of the situation I am about to describe calls for a radical re-interpretation In our frantic desires to of space that has a face, feelings penetrate space with greater autonomy and freedom to choose and a heartbeat. technological prowess, we fail the kind of life it would like to live. For example, we might imagine to see how we are very much Instead space’s lot in life is a tar- space as a small deer drinking corrupting space and denying its soaked destiny of water from a pond in a green meadow. Unfortunately, we must then also imagine the deer hunter – speed – waiting to eradicate our little deer. The hunter does not care about the deer’s feelings, only about the speed and accuracy with which he can conduct the kill. Of course, only a deranged writer would imagine the space around him to be like a little deer, but perhaps by imagining space in this way, we will realise that space has become a simple blur whose guts are seen through the stained blue windshield of an a#ectionately and ironically named Explorer that runs down our little deer crossing from one meadow to the next.
What About Those Spacists? The demented children of a society that ignores space are, to take one example, spacists who park their cars where they please – on sidewalks, crosswalks, and pleasant, grassy areas – because they certainly do not perceive space as a gentle deer, but an inconvenient obstacle to their iron beasts of speed.
22 Car Busters #20 July-Sept. concrete nightmares and parking with too many cars and no nice Do the automakers, lot fevers. Unfortunately, the shops, and remark that the those unrepentant spacists, violence of speed has become the street is depressing. Yet, what if, contemplate whether or not their destination itself. Space is a mere after further thought in light of mostly awkward vehicles will afterthought. spacism, we remarked that the !t into the spaces they are sent This line of thought is the street itself is depressed? out into? Since the answer is a essence of spacism, where Why don’t we think of resounding no, then we should spacists say to the space that they the space when a fast food institute, in addition to parking are des-troying, “you are small, chain splatters its advertising and speeding tickets, a system of insigni!cant, and unimpor-tant; innards, in the form of a giant aesthetic and spatial violations. billboard, over the side of a 19th- Cars are the global foot look how we triumph over you!” century building? We should soldiers on the front line in the I hear your objection: don’t be thoughtfully considering war against space. They destroy be ridiculous, no-body talks to how we have o#ended that the aesthetic and historical space! But isn’t this precisely the space’s aesthetic sensibility and sensibility of a street, bringing problem? To live in a more just depressed it. along with them the hammer and world and destab-ilise spacism is When a hypermarket and sickle of spacism. Unlike the Iron to start thinking of space as if it parking lot colonise space, did Curtain that hung along de!ned were a living being (it needn’t be their architects ever think of the national borders during the a furry, little deer in all cases). kind of existence that the space tyranny of another of humanity’s wanted to live? Of course not! isms, the Steel Machines remain Depressed Spaces Space is denied its right to a !rmly in place, and in space, To make this more clear for our fruitful and ful!lling life as the without any easily discernable readers, let us take the example storm troopers of construction of street spaces. We often walk arrive and pour out the concrete. down a busy, polluted street
23 Car Busters #20 July-Sept. Skill Sharing out t a S ar S HoHoww ttoo MMakeake aa SStrtreeteet
by Sara Stout least for a day. Portland, but rates vary widely. The details of the permit New York City’s block party permit aybe you’re longing to process are bound to vary from fee is $15, while Seattle charges see the city to city but in their essentials $94 and requires a $200 cleaning M streets of your city free will be pretty similar. For a deposit. Don’t be discouraged by of cars, but block party – a street closure expenses. Chances are you will you’re waiting for the mayor to on a residential street – you will be able to !nd some organisation declare a carfree day. Or maybe need to get signed permission or individual willing to sponsor you’ve thought about eliminating from all adjacent property own- your carfree event. Often the the car tra"c from your favourite ers. Closures on high-volume transportation department intersection by having a Reclaim streets are “commu-nity events” will even waive fees if your the Streets party, but, like me, you and require greater community event promotes alternative live in a place where automobile and political support, as well transportation. right-of-way is so sacred that any as a bit more paperwork and It is best to obtain a street unauthorised blocking of tra"c advance planning. A large city closure permit application early is likely to result in an attack from like New York might require that on, so you can get an idea of riot cops with all the trimmings, applications for community what you will need to do and like pepper spray, verbal abuse, events are submitted a year in what some of your expenses will bruised limbs, arrest and hefty advance. In Port-land, applications be. Think big! Consider applying !nes. are accepted up to a month in for a huge street closure permit You don’t necessarily have advance for community events to transform your city’s central to risk bodily harm from law and two weeks in advance for arterial street into a pedestrian enforcement or be the mayor of block parties. The general rule plaza for the day. By applying your city to liberate the streets seems to be, the bigger the street for a big street closure, you will from motor vehicles. If you’re closure, the more ad-vance notice become very familiar with the willing to jump through a few everyone likes to have. permit process and you will then hoops by applying for a permit, Permit fees for street closures be poised to close streets to car chances are you too can transform may be nom-inal, like they are in tra"c throughout the year. Make your streets into carfree zones, at 24 Car Busters #20 July-Sept. sure to include some side streets out t
in your appli-cation, so that if a S ar your big street closure permit is S denied, you can still have a block party. Once you are well-versed with the procedures, write up a programme that details how to navigate the permit process in your town and distribute widely.
Twelve Steps to Street Closure 1. Pick a date and time for the carfree event. 2. Get a permit application from your city’s trans- portation department. Some cities will have a web-site with the permit process The Mississippi Street Fair is the biggest street closure in Portland without corporate sponsorship. This was the scene from the most recent fair on May 20. and application on-line and a phone number for questions. our property to car tra"c on the from the neighbourhood associa- 3. Write a short letter about day/evening of xx between the tion that presides over the area. It who will bene!t from this street hours of xx. Make columns on is best to write a letter for them to closure. the petition for (printed) name, sign, so they don’t have to do too 4. Create a petition for a signature, address and date. much work and to clarify for them representative from each 5. Go out and drum up those what will happen and how their adjacent property to sign, stating signatures. community will bene!t. something like this: We, the 6. For a community event, you’ll 7. Obtain liability insurance from undersigned, are in favour of probably need a letter of support the neighbour-hood or district closing the street adjacent to hipple W id ig Br
The alternative to officially organised street closures are informal gatherings, such as this unpermitted street brunch (also pictured on previous page).
25 Car Busters #20 July-Sept. Studies & Reports
Give the Roads to the People Want to truly control tra"c? Then remove the barriers separating pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists. So says Ben Hamilton- Baillie, the author of “Initiating a Revolution in Road and Streetscape Design across the Regions.” The orderly nature of many streets gives drivers the impression that the streets are there for them. As an alternative, Hamilton-Baillie The open road of the future?
tion expenditures, 19% smaller 2004 American Journal of Public portion of house-hold budgets Health.
26 Car Busters #20 July-Sept. Book Reviews
Tra"c Life The Age Of The Bicycle S. Wehner ed., Wandering Soliton, Vancouver, 2004; Miriam Webster, Zinka Press, Penn., USA, 1998; ISBN ISBN: 0-9734022-0-2 0-9647171-2-3
Tra"c Life, edited by German-born Canadian Wow, what a ride! When I got my hands on this book resident and took a question-ing look Stephan at the cover, I couldn’t have Wehrner, dreamed that this book was addresses “the going to put a spell on me nuisance of like “Sizzling Love #3” did to cars and the Helen… problems of I read it in one breath. I tra"c” through totally lost responsibility, time 254 pages of and my sense of reality, only to stories, poems, get it back in an enlightened drawings, state eight hours later. cartoons, This book takes you on a colour photos, and other documentation which trip to Tinny Waters, Texas, will cheer those in the growing global anti-car where like magic, the cars suddenly stop running. subculture. Nobody knows how or why; but oddly enough there Big names include Ray Bradbury and Harlan is no real panic. Ellison, both of whom have classic stories reprinted, and Andy Singer, whose “No Exit” cartoons are icons People start walking and riding their bikes of the carfree movement. Also notable are Ken to work. The production from a high variety of Avidor’s Roadkill Bill comic commentaries, Kenneth human-powered vehicles becomes a new booming De Crescenzo’s understated but evocative “My Ride,” business. Tinny Waters changes, as tea shops burgeon on the interstates and rush-hour tra"c and the goes by on bicycles and tricycles at an average practical speed of eight miles an hour. Right Nature begins reclaiming her territory, as the air of Way clears up. People get physical exercise and, without Manifesto. even thinking about it, start a healthy new life. Other pleasant The highways and several other roads which surprises had been impassable bor-ders, can now be crossed are colour wherever anyone wants to. Even old people hit the streets at their own speed, without the fear or risk of being run over by a speeding car. Murder and crime rates decline considerably. Racism is now only a bad dream from “the age of the automobile” where, to a great extent, roads played the role of borders between “black and white.” Big shopping malls and monopolising corporations go broke and small businesses sprout up everywhere. The people living in Tinny Waters form a multicultural society. People admire the small things which they never used to see on their daily commute to and from work. They can smell scents again and !nally get to know the people who had been living next to them in Tinny Waters for years. I could really feel community life in Tinny Waters growing page by page. But...not everything in this book is roses and sunshine. From the chapter “The War for the World: Three Sculp- tural Views” by Jeff Mann, inspired by ads that use the Readers will also encounter a truly strange and cowboy image to sell trucks. scarily realistic mirror world called “Hogville,” in
27 Car Busters #20 July-Sept. Carfree Cities now in paperback EUR 30 / US$30 / £21 Resources shipping included
carfree.org.ru carbusters.org The famous “One Less Car” sticker is multilingual. Show drivers that your bike is not a part of the traffic problem. If you can’t find a bike sticker in your own language, send us the translation and we’ll make the famous sticker even more famous!
For Love of the Automobile fiction/Kids Nonfiction Looking Back Into the History of Our Desires Wolfgang Sachs, 1992, 227 pages, hardcover The Age of the Bicycle Asphalt Nation EUR 40, £28, US$40, AU$68, or CZK 1,180 Miriam Webster, 1998, 270 pages EUR 10, £7, US$10, AU$18, or CZK 250 Jane Holtz Kay, 1998, 440 pages EUR 23, £16, US$23, AU$40, or CZK 670 The Geography of Nowhere A quirky novel of love, magic, river gods and the James Howard Kunstler, 1994, 304 pages mysterious end of the Automobile Age. Combining Bike Cult EUR 17, £12, US$17, AU$29, or CZK 500 fairytale possibilities with sharp social satire to produce The Ultimate Guide to Human-Powered Vehicles a novel to entertain children and adults alike. David Perry, 1995, 570 pages Home from Nowhere EUR 32, £22, US$32, AU$55, or CZK 935 Remaking Our Everyday World for the 21st Century Alice in Underland James Howard Kunstler, 1998, 320 pages Wolfgang Zuckermann, 1999 Carfree Cities EUR 17, £12, US$17, AU$29, or CZK 500 EUR 10, £7, US$10, AU$18, J.H. Crawford, 2000, 324 pages or CZK 250 hardcover: EUR 40, £28, US$40, AU$68, or CZK 1,180 Life Between Buildings “A curious mixture of nonsense, paperback: EUR 30, £21, US$30, AU$52, or CZK 885 Jan Gehl, 2001, 202 pages, fourth English edition social satire and surrealist fairy EUR 20, £14, US$20, AU$35, or CZK 500 tale, which takes the classical Alice Car Busters Graphics Book through the dreary landscape of Car Busters, 1999, 44 pages New City Spaces suburban America.” Entertaining and insightful. EUR 5, £3.50, US$5, AU$9, CZK 125 Jan Gehl and Lars Gemzøe, 2001, 263 pages hardcover: EUR 55, £38, US$55, AU$95, or CZK 1,620 Critical Mass Bicycling’s Defiant Celebration Family Mouse Behind the Wheel Street Reclaiming Wolfgang Zuckermann, 1992, 30 pages Chris Carlsson, editor, 2002, 256 pages Creating Livable Streets and Vibrant Communities hardcover: EUR 10, £7, US$10, AU$18, or CZK 250 EUR 23, £16, US$23, AU$40, or CZK 670 David Engwicht, 1999, 207 pages EUR 23, £16, US$23, AU$40, or CZK 670 This colourful book teaches children the problems of car Cutting Your Car Use culture through the eyes of a family Save Money, Be Healthy, Be Green! of anthropo-morphised forest mice, Sustainability and Cities who decide to buy a car, build a road Anna Semlyen, 2000, 160 pages Overcoming Automobile Dependence into their previously intact forest EUR 10, £7, US$10, AU$18, or CZK 250 Peter Newman and Jeff Kenworthy, 1999, 350 pages home, and eventually, create an EUR 46, £32, US$46, AU$80, or CZK 1,350 Direct Action Manual urban hell. An eye-opener complete with the obligatory moralistic Earth First!, 1998, 152 pages Wise Fool Basics message. EUR 6, £4, US$6, AU$10, or CZK 150 K. Ruby, Wise Fool, 1999, 96 pages EUR 13, £9, US$13, AU$22 or CZK 375 Divorce Your Car Ending the Love Affair With the Automobile The Little Driver Katie Alvord, 2000, 320 pages “Freesources” Martin Wagner, 2003, 56 pages EUR 20, £14, US$20, AU$35, or CZK 500 EUR 10, £7, US$10, AU$18, or CZK 250 A growing selection of free texts available in several Joe always dreamt of driving his own languages and file formats from
Hot off the press: Among our new line of Car Busters postcards, the above designs expand our range of consumer products for the entire family! An assortment of ten postcards costs EUR 5 / US$5 / £3.50.
28 Car Busters #20 July-Sept. Not !nding what you’re looking for? Payment Instructions Our members/subscribers get a 10% discount at
Shipping is included in all listed prices (surface rate outside Europe). Videos, Etc. Stickers We accept US, British, French and Australian cheques. Credit card payments can be made at
Member: EUR 30, £20, US$30, AU$50, CZK 600 Return of the Scorcher 1992, 30 min., PAL or NTSC format Supporter: EUR 50, £35, US$50, AU$80, CZK 1000 EUR 25, £17.50, US$25, or CZK 735 “Cancer Warning” Stickers Saviour: EUR 100, £70, US$100, AU$160, CZK Big hard-to-remove stickers for cars. A look at bike culture around the world Membership benefits/premiums are described on the following Available in French, German, English, Spanish, with beautiful and inspiring scenes of page. bike use filmed in China, The Nether- Serbo-Croatian and Czech. lands, Denmark and the USA. For 15 stickers: EUR 3, £2, US$3, AU$5, or CZK 80 The prices above are calculated for “Over-Developed World” residents, in each of the currencies that we accept. Single copies cost MATE Booklet and Map EUR/US$4 or equivalent. Eastern Europeans and “Global South” DRIVING residents wanting magazine subscriptions or single copies can pay (Map of Activities on Transport in START: WALKING! BIKING! USING PUBLIC TRANSPORT! 1/3 the Western rate. Europe), A SEED Europe, 2000 EUR 7, £4, US$7, AU$12, CZK 200 Distribution Orders (5 or more copies): EUR/US$2.60 each or A comprehensive guide to what is Stop-Sign Improvement equivalent (you sell at EUR/US$4 and keep the difference). In Eastern happening in the spider-like murky web One: EUR 0.75, £0.50, US$0.75, AU$1.50 or CZK 25 of European transport, including an Ten: EUR 6, £4, US$6, AU$11 or CZK 180 overview of TENs and TINA projects. Forty-six centimetres long. Bright red. These big glossy vinyl stickers are just the right size to go under the word “STOP” on stop signs. Perfect for In a Hurry? Car Busters Order from Carbusters.org. Press Car Busters Back Bulk Discount: Ten or more “CARtoons” and/or “Roadkill Bill” books, any combination, for half price. t-shirts Issues CARtoons Have an incomplete collection? Andy Singer, 2001, 100 pages, optional CD-ROM Looking for a perfect gift? Not contains high-resolution TIF images of all graphics coming soon! knowing how to best invest your Book: EUR 10, £7, US$10, AU$18, or CZK 150 money for long-term growth? Well, CD-ROM: EUR 4, £2.50, US$4, AU$8, or CZK 80 look no further! Get any back issue of Car Busters for a mere A personal and provocative EUR 2 / US$2 / £1.40. Or get a complete set look at our relationship with the (18 issues so far) for EUR 20 / US$20 / £14 car, from Ford’s first as-sembly (Western Rate) or EUR 10 / US$10 (Eastern Rate). lines to today’s “drive-through” Shipping included Or order an assort-ment of 100 magazines for society. Features seven pithy in all listed prices. EUR 100 / US$100 / £70. chapter texts and a compilation of hard-hitting quotations, plus 90 of Singer’s infamous graphics (available for free nonprofit reuse).
Roadkill Bill Ken Avidor, 2001, 108 pages EUR 10, £7, US$10, AU$18, or CZK 150 It’s the comic strip that looks at cars, technology and philosophy from the viewpoint of a frequently squashed rodent. Here the wonderful, provoca-tive, amusing and sometimes gruesome cartoons are collect-ed together for the first time. Avidor gives voice to the suffer-ing soul of humanity that feels bulldozed and paved over by in-dustrial technology
29 Car Busters #20 July-Sept. 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.
tINTERNATIONAL QUARTERLY MAGAZINE tWORLD CARFREE DAY COORDINATION tECOTOPIA BIKETOUR 2004 tPRINT AND ON%LINE RESOURCE CENTRE tMONTHLY E%MAIL NEWS BULLETIN tINDEPENDENT BOOK PUBLISHING tANNUAL CONFERENCES tWORLDWIDE CONTACT DIRECTORY tAUTOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
JOIN WORLD CARFREE NETWORK!
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 book out of three: Andy Singer’s CARtoons, Ken o US$26/EUR26* - Subscription Only: 8 Issues Avidor’s Roadkill Bill, 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 books or resources: ______out of three: CARtoons, Roadkill Bill, The Little Driver. (circle two)] ______. o Saviour - US$100/EUR100/£70* o I want to receive your monthly e-mail bulletin, [includes a two-year magazine subscription, a copy of Carfree Cities by JH Crawford, and one book out of three: CARtoons, Roadkill Bill, so here’s my e-mail address (written clearly): _ or The Little Driver. (circle one)] ______. Name: ALID Address: PRICES V Signature: Date: * or the equivalent in AUD or CND. ChequesTHROUGH: Car Busters accepts US, F r2004ench, British and Australian cheques. Credit card payments can be made on the Carbusters.org website. Other payment options are listed on p. 29.
30 # ä World CarfreeC arNet Bustwersork ,20 K r á tk Julyá 26,-Sept 100. 00 Prague 10, Czech Republic - e-mail: [email protected] - website: www.worldcarfree.net Announcements
World Carfree Day environment-polluting activi-ties. World Carfree Network As September 22 approaches and The aim of the present conference Announcements carfree day plans are underway, it is to stimu-late such a process. is comforting to know that there Participation in the conference are easily accessible resources is free. More information and Towards Carfree Cities IV: on-line to help peo-ple organise registration form can be found at July 19-24 in Berlin an event which will bring real
31 Car Busters #20 July-Sept.