From Copenhagen To Delhi: 'Smart Cities' Call For Smart Solutions - Like Cycling

Click here to access article by Colin Todhunter from East by Northwest. 

Throughout the world, there is now a desire to improve public health and combat climate change. As a result, Copenhagen’s renowned cycle-friendly policies are now serving as a template for some of the world’s most congested cities. 

This piece by Todhunter brought back so many pleasant memories of cycling with my Canadian friends through various parts of Canada. One benefit he didn't elaborate on--because he was focused on cycling as an efficient way of transporting people and as a way to promote a healthy environment--was the personal health benefits of cycling. I'm referring to both physical and mental health. After moving back to the US I have lived in an area that is not conducive to cycling, and also because of my advanced age I no longer cycle. I miss it, and I miss the health benefits--I use to be in such great shape!

Anyway, his description of cycling in Denmark reminded me of Quebec where I cycled in 2005 and found cycling, especially between cities, to be especially convenient and pleasant.

Free public transit in Tallinn is a hit with riders but yields unexpected results

Click here to access article by Sulev Vedler from Citiscope. 

TALLINN, Estonia — Last January, Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia, did something that no other city its size had done before: It made all public transit in the city free for residents.

News Release: Concern as IPCC Bangs the Drum for Geoengineering

Click here to access article from ETC Group. 

It's clear to me that capitalist directors refuse to give up on their system which rewards their tiny numbers with so much wealth and power. They are so addicted to this hideous system that is destroying an ecosystem capable of sustaining human and many other life forms that they cannot imagine any alternative. Hence, they are grasping at their last straw of geo-engineering. 

This solution was inserted in the final paragraph of the Summary for Policymakers (IPCC report):

"It’s the paragraph that should never have been," explained Neth Daño, ETC Group's Asia Director." The explicit purpose of Working Group I is to report on the latest climate science, not to discuss response measures. The report doesn't discuss solar power or electric cars; it doesn't discuss public transport, carbon markets or any other actual or potential policy response to the climate crisis, so why have the authors chosen to devote the  concluding paragraph to this highly speculative and dangerous technofix?”

Well, I think the answer is obvious. Solar power, electric cars, public transportation, and other significant measures would require a very expensive conversion of the existing infrastructures and dramatic cutbacks of fossil fuels in capitalist countries that would severely impact profits in the next few decades. It would also require economies to be on a war footing that would necessitate extensive government planning, controls, and direction. It's so much easier for capitalist directors to continue with business as usual and simply adding a geo-engineering fix which many scientists regard as a fantasy at best, and a dangerous gamble at worst.

Learning from the Netherlands About Bikes

Click here to access article and 13:50 video by James Huang posted on WhoWhatWhy. 

How did the Netherlands get almost everyone out of cars and onto bikes? No, it’s not the hash, and it’s not something particularly about the Dutch character. It has a lot to do with intention, planning and execution. Lessons we all can learn for a cleaner environment and a saner lifestyle.

Not Like Cigarettes?

Click here to access article by Michael Dawson from his blog, Death by Car: capitalism's drive to carmageddon.

He quotes a recent remake made by a Ford executive:

“I never wanted us to be like the tobacco [companies], where our employees would have to apologize to their family and friends for working there. If that happens, we are not going to get the best and brightest.”

Which prompts Dawson to respond:

If Ford’s products are freedom vehicles and wonder machines, why this apparent slip into cigarette talk?

This brief article serves as an introduction to a piece entitled, "Cars & Capitalism" by Yves Engler who last year wrote about how capitalism has resulted in lifestyles oriented around cars (also a book). Engler focuses on the auto industry, but it is probably only the worst example of how a private profit driven industry results in so many disastrous consequences for healthy societies.

The automobile has been heavily promoted by government subsidies to feed profits to capitalists. But then, why would we expect anything different from a ruling class that is made up of capitalists? It really doesn't matter to them if it causes urban sprawl, global warming, exhaustion of cost effective sources of energy, and numerous health problems. Worst of all are the devastating wars that have been and will be waged over access to fossil fuel resources. As long as they get their profit and power fixes, nothing else matters.

The Biggest, Baddest Bike-Share in the World: Hangzhou China

Click here to access brief notes on this video by Elizabeth Press from Street Films. (It has good resolution in full screen viewing.)



The Biggest, Baddest Bike-Share in the World: Hangzhou China from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

Washington’s ‘Bikeshare’ is a Capital Idea

Click here to access article by Sarah Goodyear from Solidarity Economy.
  
...just one day using the CaBi made me see the place in a whole new way. I was aware of the connections between neighborhoods as  I never have been before -- able to move faster than on foot, and without the hassle and time of descending to the Metro.

I spoke with Veronica Davis, a planner and engineer who lives in the Hillcrest neighborhood east of the Anacostia River, about her CaBi experience. "It changes how I look at community," she said. "When I am on the bike, people speak to me and wave at me. When I'm in a car, they can't see me."

Electric Evasions

by Michael Dawson from his blog, Death by Car.


This blogger asks questions about electric cars that the industry refuses to ask in public, and goes on to state:

...capitalists never publicly admit the existence and complexity of all four of these questions.  That is for the obvious reason that capitalism is virtually impossible if these questions are taken seriously.  Making big money almost always requires ignoring one or more of these questions, and the capitalist system as a whole is as heedless of ecological limits as just about any dystopian fantasy one could concoct.

The Return of the Bicycle

from IPS news service. 

The bicycle has many attractions as a form of personal transportation. It alleviates congestion, lowers air pollution, reduces obesity, increases physical fitness, does not emit climate-disrupting carbon dioxide, and is priced within the reach of the billions of people who cannot afford a car.

Will the post-oil future be bicycle-free?

by Kurt Cobb from The Oil Drum. These "campfire" discussions are always fascinating to me because they elicit so many intelligent, thoughtful comments. This one regarding bicycling is not an exception.

U. S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood may soon be nominated for heresy-of-the-year award for an impromptu speech at the 2010 National Bike Summit in March. In that speech he said federal transportation policy will no longer favor automobiles over bicyclists and walkers.

Fixing the Great Mistake of Planning for Cars (3:43m video)

from World Changing. 

Transportation Alternatives director Paul Steely White shows how planning for cars drastically altered Park Avenue in New York City. Watch and see what Park Avenue used to look like, how we ceded it to the automobile, and what we need to do to reclaim the street as a space where people take precedence over traffic.

The Role of the Bicycle In Transit Oriented-Development

from ReConnecting America. This is part one of a series (how many?) on integrating bicycling into any regional bicycling plans. See also part 2, The Bikeway Network.

Portland promotes urban cycling, but costs will be high

from the Christian Science Monitor. The costs will be high? Really? As compared to what--building and maintaining more car roads?

Campaign to boost cycling in Beijing

from The Guardian. It's cars vs bicycles in China.

The Ultimate Eco-Friendly Ride: Bamboo Bikes

By Andrea Reidl of Der Spiegel

Carbon fiber and aluminum are so 2009. This year's best bicycling model is made out of bamboo and hemp. A new generation of manufacturers are coming up with some of the most environmentally friendly transport yet. Lighter, stronger, more comfortable and these bikes have also got a much smaller carbon footprint.