Holtzclaw, 1994; Newman and Kenworthy 1989 From 2 households/acre up, each doubling of density reduces driving 25-30%; from 10 households/acre up, each doubling reduces driving 40%. (Holtzclaw, 1994) Number of Freeway Lanes Required to Accommodate the Same Number of Travelers Compared to Various Other Modes

	Equivalent Number of Freeway Lanes
Subway line (Metro)	35
Light rail or bus line	15
Lane of walkers	5
Bicycle lane	2
Suburban street lane	0.3

Lowe, WorldWatch Paper 98 Compared to a typical Nob Hill, San Francisco, apartment, a typical suburban house uses: 5 x the copper pipe 35 x the land 15 x the roadway 4 x the lumber 70 x as much water 5 x as much heating Phillips & Gnaizda, CoEvolution Quarterly, Summer 1980 All quoted from: John Holtzclaw, "Consuming Issues" in The Bike People Suburban sprawl really is killing the planet. The Asphalt Rebellion "The Asphalt Rebellion seems to begin, in just about every state, at a bridge. It is a country bridge: lightly traveled, decades old and starting to fall apart. The local government wants a few modest repairs. The state transportation department comes in, takes a look and declares that the only way to save the bridge is to tear it down and build something much bigger and costlier in its place. A fight ensues. By the time it is over, a mild-mannered mayor or council member or selectman has turned into a rebel." "The Asphalt Rebellion" in Governing: The Magazine of States and Localities Alan Ehrenhalt's article shows that road issues are becoming mainstream in the USA. Pedestrian's Progress The USA spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year to improve road safety. While this investment is clearly making roads safer for drivers, little is being done to improve the safety of pedestrians. Between 1986 and 1995, 6,000 pedestrians were killed and 110,000 injured by automobiles each year. Pedestrians account for 14% of traffic deaths, yet only 1% of federal highway safety funds are spent on pedestrian safety. The other 99% are spent to remove obstacles to traffic flow, which tends to increase average speeds and further endanger pedestrians. Traffic calming, on the other hand, improves pedestrian safety - the Seattle traffic calming program reduced pedestrian accidents by 75%. From a press release on 8 April 1997 by the Environmental Working Group as posted on the Congress on the New Urbanism list The public must insist on stronger measures and more funding to improve pedestrian safety, even if that must come at the expense of automobility. Road Pricing Coming Your Way It began in Singapore more than a decade ago, and it's coming soon to a city near you. Road pricing is now seen by many metropolitan areas as the only cure for road congestion. Pretty much everyone has given up on the idea of building more roads. Local opposition to new road projects has become vociferous and costs have risen beyond what cities can pay. Everyone now acknowledges that new roads relieve congestion only temporarily. Here in the Randstad (Holland's big agglomeration), "the charge for driving into each of the four cities will be set high, at about 15 ecus ($17), between 6am and 10am, but the price will fall to 3 ecus at other times." The Economist, "Living with the Car: No room, no room" 6 December 1997 The Economist may run a little ahead of the rest of the pack, but it's definitely mainstream. When they start publishing this kind of thing, you can be fairly sure it's going to happen. Sure glad I walk to work. New Vehicles Now Less Efficient than Junked Ones US Environmental Protection Agency statistics show that old cars and trucks now being retired are more efficient, on average, than new vehicles being sold. (New York Times, 11 August 1997). The main culprits are gas-guzzling minivans, sport utility vehicles, and pickups. These vehicles now have a 40% market share in the USA. August 14, 1997 electronic version of The Sierra Club Newsletter This is grim news indeed. Gone are the days of steadily-improving fuel consumption figures. The vehicles in question are exempt from fleet-weighted fuel efficiency standards. The Sierra Club is urging the government to raise CAFE standards to 45 mpg for cars and 34 mpg for light trucks. We wish them success. Hey, Butterball! "The most recent edition of NHANES, a massive federal survey of health and nutrition, finds record levels of childhood obesity in spite of the fact that children are consuming fewer calories than they reported on the last NHANES edition 10 years ago. There is a connection here. We have made an environment that makes kids fat." Reported by Nancy Pappas in a newsgroup Casual observation suggests that American kids are the fattest in the world. They are driven everywhere, since the roads are too dangerous for bicycles and it's too far to walk. This is not good for these kids' long-term health. Dying to Go for a Ride? Worldwide, traffic accidents were the ninth largest cause of lost "Disability Adjusted Life Years" in 1990. Worse still, road accidents are projected to rise to third place by 2020, close behind ischaemic heart disease and depression. These grim statistics come from a recently-completed study by the World Health Organization, the World Bank and the Harvard School of Public Health. Every year, 15 million people are injured in traffic accidents, and the toll is rising as developing nations put more cars on the road. Already, traffic accidents are the leading cause of death among males aged 15-44 worldwide. The Global Burden of Disease Study It's not safe out there. Dutch Auto Use Continues to Rise The Dutch ministry for the environment reported that automobile usage increased 11% in 1996. CO2 release in The Netherlands is now 8% above the level in 1990. The official policy is to reduce CO2 emissions to a level slightly below the 1990 level by the year 2000. NOS teletext news, page 106 on 8 September 1997 It's already 1997. I don't think we're going to reach this target. New York: Speed City Transportation Alternatives recently released a study showing that the New York Police Dept. issues only 44 speeding tickets a day on local streets. Pedestrian death and injury rates are above those of London, Paris, Rome and Tokyo, but New York's authorities have taken little action. Speeding is rampant. Motorists routinely exceed the 30 mph (about 50 km/hr) city speed limit by 10 to 20 miles per hour. On Brooklyn's 4th Avenue, motorists were observed driving 53 mph, with speeds in the upper 40s common. On Manhattan's upper Broadway, many motorists drive in the low 50s. Both streets have heavy pedestrian usage and high injury rates. Press Release 23 April 1997 from Transportation Alternatives Contact: Paul Harrison or John Kaehny +1 212-629-8080 One more clarion call to rope in errant motorists and save the sanity and lives of pedestrians. Where is New York Mayor Rudolph "Law 'n Order" Giuliani on this issue? Bangkok Transit Project Canceled The Thai government has canceled the Bangkok Elevated Road and Train System (BERTS). The project was way behind schedule and far over budget, and the system was not going to be completed in time for the Asian Games this month. The developer and the government are exchanging accusations. The recent collapse of the Thai currency and real estate market also contributed - the developer was planning to recoup costs by capitalizing on increases in real estate prices near the stations. Various newspaper reports and Railway Gazette International, Sept. 1997, p.613, all as quoted on the Sustran list This is a terrible blow to Bangkok, which suffers from some of the worst traffic congestion and air pollution on the planet. Some people are spending more time in their cars than in their beds. Are Cars a Drug? . . . Recently a local police department ran a sting operation where a plainclothes officer would step into a crosswalk and try to cross a street notorious for flattened pedestrians. When the officer was brushed back by a car, a motorcycle cop would zip out and write a ticket. Drivers were indignant that they would be fined for such a minor offense. Most telling was the excuse they invariably gave, one that will be familiar to bicyclists and motorcyclists everywhere: 'I didn't see him.' This was repeated as a valid excuse even after a passenger in one car said, "I did see him, from a block away." I think the driver didn't want to see the pedestrian. I think he didn't want to be bothered by such a minor detail. Because it would distract him from the essential value of driving, which is monotony. He was stoned on boredom. Quoted from: Richard Risemberg, "Are Cars a Drug?" in The Bike People A Better Drink Than a Fuel? Ethanol brings its own problems when used as a fuel additive. Scientists at Argonne National Laboratory have released a report indicating that while ethanol reduces hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions when used as a fuel additive, it increases the emissions of other pollutants called aldehydes and peroxyacyl nitrates (PAN). PAN is highly toxic to plants and does not break down rapidly. It's also a powerful eye irritant. "Ethanol Causes Pollution, Too, Argonne Scientists Say" Press Release from Argonne National Laboratory Trying to make the internal combustion engine a good neighbor appears to be more difficult than anyone would have supposed 20 years ago. Oxygen Bars in Beijing If you think pollution in L.A. is bad, maybe you should visit Beijing, where air pollution is so bad that people patronize "oxygen bars," where the only mood-altering substance available is pure oxygen. The air quality in this city of 11 million is up to five times worse than L.A. "When I was a little boy in Beijing, the blue sky was really impressive. I can still remember that," said Liang Congjie, president of Friends of Nature, a local environmental group. "Nowadays, it's so hard for you to see the blue." In Beijing, breathing the air for a day is equal to smoking three packs of unfiltered cigarettes. San Francisco Chronicle, 4 May 1997 This is the kind of nightmare scenario the developed world would face today had it not been for the great effort to reduce pollution since Earth Day 1970. In China, coal is one of the major culprits, but private car use has exploded in recent years. China's recent decision to adopt the automobile for passenger transport is little short of terrifying. TransEuropean Nightmare? Eastern Europe has signed up for TEN (TransEuropean Network). TEN is supposed to support the development of a single European market by providing necessary transport infrastructure. While this includes some high-speed trains, it also includes a lot of road building. Now eastern Europe is borrowing money from international organizations (including the World Bank) to build their part of TEN. The roads, of course, will be a great impetus for further development of private car usage in areas that are very poorly equipped to deal with it. "Blueprints for Sustainable Transportation in Central and Eastern Europe" or at the alternate site if the above is off line Eastern Europe should think again and decide to preserve its vast rail networks rather than dismantling them in favor of road construction. There is no need for these countries to fall into the same trap as western Europe. The source given above is loaded with details. Marine Oil Pollution "About 3 to 4 million tonnes of oil enter the oceans each year. Oil spills the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster occur somewhere in the world on average once a year. Even so, 'non-accidental marine transport' (ballast discharge, washing of tanks, bilge pumping, etc.) accounts for twice as much marine oil pollution as accidental spills. Land-based urban and industrial sources account for more than four times as much marine oil pollution as marine accidents. Car exhausts and car oil changes dumped down drains account for more oil entering the oceans than any other source." Greenpeace, "The Environmental Impact of the Car," 1991, pp. 35-38 To put this in perspective, this spillage is roughly equal to all the oil used in the USA in a two-day period. Asphalt Nation How the Automobile Took Over America, and How We Can Take It Back Jane Holtz Kay's recent book is garnering a lot of attention in the USA. A review of the book is available at E-Design On-Line, an excellent site on sustainable development. We suggest that you check their review of the book; the URL is given below. Is Sustainable Mobility in America's Future? Conference: Transportation into the Next Millennium Featuring the Singapore Electronic Road Pricing System, the 9-11 September 1998 conference is being held in Singapore. The organizer is the Centre for Transportation Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Contact: The Conference Secretariat at Centre for Continuing Education Nanyang Technological University, wwwcts@ntu.edu.sg 100 Miles of Gridlock A 1.5 mile drive along the Avenida Paulista in Sao Paulo can take an hour - and that's not during rush hour. Sao Paulo, population 10 million, is choking on traffic. More than 3 million vehicles clog Sao Paulo's 10,000 miles of roadways, and the fleet grows by 600 cars a day. Rush hour traffic jams across the city average 53 miles when everything is working normally. When a failing bridge closed a major artery, a traffic jam nearly 100 miles long formed, crippling the city for 10 hours. Traffic jams cost the city an estimated US$9 billion a year. The city has only two subway lines (used by 2.5 million people a day). Despite this, the city recently decided to spend $1.1 billion on a tunnel that will accommodate only 1,200 cars per hour. According to a local planner, that money could have built a 20-kilometer subway line carrying 45,000 passengers an hour. From the Los Angeles Times, 12 October 1997 We're all going to have to get our priorities straight if we're going to survive as a civilization. And wouldn't it be faster just to walk those 1.5 miles? Lyon: Towards Car-Free Cities

Wolfgang Zuckermann has written an interesting and useful compendium of most of what is known about reducing automobile usage. The book is divided into two parts: the world car crisis, and techniques that can be used to improve the situation. Zuckermann correctly understands that the advent of the car is one of the world-changing events in history and that we have not really got our heads around the problem yet. In particular, he understands that the status of those riding in cars is much higher than that of those on foot or in buses or on bikes. The bulk of the book is devoted to specific techniques which help reduce car usage. He offers 33 solutions divided into eight main categories: Make people aware of the true costs of cars Traffic calming Human powered solutions Increasing occupancy of cars and vans (paratransit) Technical improvements to rail-based systems Raising the costs of driving Changing our patterns of land use Finding the right place for the car Zuckermann assumes that there is a "right place" for the car, and that includes within cities, albeit at a much smaller scale than what is usual today. He urges that the rich nations "stop giving bad advice and dirty cars to Third World countries." He calls for consciousness-raising for those who drive, to make them aware of the consequences of their actions. This is not a detailed manual about how to implement any one of the solutions. Rather, it is an overview of the possibilities we have at hand. He gives examples of the solutions in practice, and what some of the boomerang effects have been. This book is a worthwhile read for anyone seeking a source book on reduced automobile dependence. Wolfgang Zuckermann End of the Road: From World Car Crisis to Sustainable Transportation (Post Mills, Vermont, USA: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 1991) Subscribe to Car-Free Times Car-Free Times is published four times a year on the Crawford Systems World Wide Web site, carfree.com If you would like to receive free e-mail notification of each new issue, please send e-mail with the word Subscribe in the subject line. You will receive automatic e-mail notification of each new issue, with the URL for the new issue. We do not share our mailing list. Contact Information

J.H. Crawford, President
Crawford Systems
Tel.	+31 20 638 5115
E-mail	Send e-mail
URL	http://www.carfree.com/

Carfree Times Home
Carfree Times Back Issues (1-12)
Continue on to Car-Free Times Issue 3
About the book: Carfree Cities