[Carfreeliving] [world-carfree-news_eng] WORLD CARFREE NEWS #27 - DECEMBER 2005

[World Carfree Network]

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WORLD CARFREE NEWS >>>
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Edition no. 27 - December 2005 - English version
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Contents:

QUOTATION OF THE MONTH

IN BRIEF

WORLD NEWS
- SAVE AMTRAK
- CARS CAUSE CLIMATE CHANGE

ANNOUNCEMENTS
- ECOLOGICALLY SOUND TRAVEL: JANUARY 30-31, VIENNA

WORLD CARFREE NETWORK ANNOUNCEMENTS
- WORLD CARFREE NEWS EN ESPANOL
- RESOURCE CENTRE GOES MULTILINGUAL
- ECOTOPIA BIKETOUR 2006 NEEDS YOU!
- TRAINING SEMINAR: MAY 22-26, TABOR, CZECH REP.
- CARBUSTERS HOLIDAY GIFT SUBSCRIPTION

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QUOTATION OF THE MONTH >>
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"The [US] administration is trying to save Amtrak like the Big Bad
Wolf is trying to save Little Red Riding Hood."
    - Democratic Senator Charles E. Schumer


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IN BRIEF >>
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- Dhaka, Bangladesh has backed off at least temporarily from its
longstanding plan to ban rickshaws and other non-motorised vehicles
on eight important roads in the capital city. The government's
decision to make those roads rickshaw-free will apparently not be
implemented before the next general elections. Link:
http://thedailystar.net/2005/11/28/d5112801075.htm

- This year, the Village Bike Project in Ghana will have provided
1,000 people with maintenance training and discounted bikes.
Transport prices in Ghana have more than tripled in the last five
years. Link: www.pcei.org/vbp

- The UK is set to introduce fully accessible coaches, with the hopes
that the whole network will be accessible by 2012. Buses have a
large door, shallow entrance steps, a flat floor and a wheelchair lift.

- On a recent trip to China, George Bush rode a bicycle for 2 km in a
Beijing suburb that was barred to car traffic. Authorities wanted to
recreate the carfree city atmosphere of 30 years ago. Last year,
100,000 people died in car accidents in China.

- In Minneapolis, USA, every candidate who supported a US$153
million highway-building project was defeated in the recent elections.
The Minneapolis Department of Transportation says the project will
not happen until 2023.

- A study published in the journal Injury Prevention found that
people are 400 times more likely to be killed in a car crash than by
terrorism.

- General Motors is set to lay off 30,000 of its US employees, or
around 8% of its total work force.

- Brazilian activist Francisco Anselmo Gomes de Barros set himself
on fire to protest the government's decision to allow sugarcane
monoculture farming and ethanol factories in ecologically sensitive
areas. Barros feared that accidents would poison local rivers near
the Panatal, a 230,000 km2 marsh area, which he himself helped
protect in 1982. Barros died a day later.

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WORLD NEWS >>
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SAVE AMTRAK

The recent firing of Amtrak's president David Gunn by the Board of
Directors has prompted worries that the US government is trying to
break up the national rail company. Gunn was credited with getting
Amtrak back on its feet and up to record ridership levels.
    "The Amtrak Board of Directors has become a front for the Bush
Administration and people who want to destroy Amtrak," says
Representative Jerrold Nadler. "Their goal is to dismantle the
railroad."
    Gunn believes that his firing was due in part to his opposition to
the board's plans to take from Amtrak the tracks in the Northeast
Corridor, from Washington to Boston to New York, by far the busiest
route, and put them in the hands of a state consortium.
    The National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP) is the
main US group working to save Amtrak. Assistant Director David
Johnson says that they are urging US citizens to contact their
Congressional representatives (both House and Senate) and express
support for Gunn and concern for his termination, and urge Congress
to choose a replacement who would be a strong effective leader that
believes in the national system.
    However, it seems that Amtrak is safe, at least for another year.
Only two weeks after the firing, the US government approved US$1.3
billion for the 2006 fiscal year. NARP calls the amount "respectable,"
but the $495 million operating subsidy is "extraordinarily tight" and
well below last year's $570 million.
    At the same time, Amtrak has been without authorisation
legislation since 2002, writes NARP. Amtrak is awaiting a decision on
bill S 1516, which would allow Amtrak to operate from 2006-2011 and
would further develop the national rail network.
    Those interested in taking a more active role should check out
NARP's action alerts, fact sheets and an excellent debunking of
commonly held myths about passenger rail
(www.narprail.org/cms/index.php/resources/more/myths/). NARP
also urges citizens to tell their local governments that there needs to
be a cohesive, national, well-funded passenger-rail network, and that
the federal government should be a partner with states in developing
higher-speed rail, as is done with highways, aviation, and transit.
    Since 1995, transit ridership has grown by 21 percent, versus 16
percent for driving and 12 percent for domestic airlines.
Furthermore, last year, Amtrak carried a record number of
passengers. Although the amount of passenger trains in the US has
greatly decreased in the last 30 years, it is still a vital form of public
transport in a country dominated by car travel.


CARS CAUSE CLIMATE CHANGE
[compiled from World Carfree Network press release and other
sources]

On November 28, World Carfree Network issued a press release
urging the representatives of over 180 nations, who are currently
meeting in Montreal for the first summit on climate change since the
Kyoto Protocol came into effect, to acknowledge that cars produce
more greenhouse gas emissions than any other source.
    "Cars are one of the primary factors disrupting the planet's
climate," says Augustin Villegas, a network organiser in Mexico. "If
world governments want to combat climate change, the first step is to
build infrastructure for walking, cycling and rail transport, instead
of destroying it." Mexico's rail infrastructure was largely
dismantled in 2000, and now the Bush administration is considering
doing the same with the US rail company Amtrak.
    Most world governments tend to avoid the issue of systemic
dependence on private cars. Even the European Union, which is the
most proactive in combating climate change, has chosen to focus on
biofuels for cars, which reduce emissions far less than would a shift
to public and non-motorised transport.
    What is more, automakers are not even meeting their targets to cut
emissions in new cars. Speaking to the UN Environment Programme
and DaimlerChrysler's Environmental Forum, Jos Dings, Director of
European Federation for Transport and Environment, urged industry
to focus on more fuel-efficient cars, rather than on alternative fuels.
The car preferences of the western businesses, he says, largely
determine which cars people in the developing world will be driving
in 20 years. "We are exporting a carbon and fuel cost time bomb to
the developing world."
    Industry will not meet 2005 EU standards of new cars emitting no
more than 120 grams of CO2 per kilometre.
    On of the issues of the UN meeting is what to do beyond 2012,
when the current agreement ends. The United States has said it will
not make extra pledges beyond 2012.
    For the full text of the press release, see www.worldcarfree.net.

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ANNOUNCEMENTS >>
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ECOLOGICALLY SOUND TRAVEL: JANUARY 30-31, VIENNA

Subtitled ìChallenges and Innovations Facing Environment,
Transport and Tourism,î this conference will be organised within the
context of the Austrian EU presidency and in collaboration with
various Austrian governmental agencies. Winners of a best practices
competition will be presented at the conference, in the categories of
regions and destinations, transport and mobility enterprises, tour
operators, accommodation facilities and consumer-orientated
initiatives. For more info, see www.eco-travel.at (site in German and
English versions).

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WORLD CARFREE NETWORK ANNOUNCEMENTS >>
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WORLD CARFREE NEWS EN ESPANOL

This month's World Carfree News will be translated into Spanish for
the first time. Let all of your Spanish-speaking friends know that
they can have carfree news in their e-mail boxes every month! To
subscribe, send a blank e-mail to world-carfree-news_spa-
subscribe at lists.riseup.net.


RESOURCE CENTRE GOES MULTILINGUAL

World Carfree Network's Resource Centre
(www.worldcarfree.net/resources/) seeks ideas for expanding its
range of resources into languages other than English. If you have any
ideas of specific books, videos, stickers or other materials that you
think should be made available, please contact
orders at worldcarfree.net.


ECOTOPIA BIKETOUR 2006 NEEDS YOU!

The route of Ecotopia Biketour 2006 has been decided and inside
sources say it may be the most interesting yet. It will start in
Lithuania in early July, go through Poland and then make a stop at
the Ecotopia summer camp in Zvolen, Slovakia. After that it will work
its way to Hungary, Slovenia and end up in an as-yet-undecided
Italian city, just in time to celebrate World Carfree Day.
    If you want to help make this happen and live in any of the
countries along the route, go to www.thebiketour.net or contact us at
info at worldcarfree.net.


TRAINING SEMINAR: MAY 22-26, TABOR, CZECH REP.

World Carfree Network will hold a five-day series of skill trainings
and meetings in Tabor, Czech Republic, at two main venues: the
University of South Bohemia and CESTA (Cultural Exchange Station
in Tabor). On-line registration opens December 12.
    The primary goal is capacity building of World Carfree Network
member organisations. The list of expert-led trainings to be offered
is in the process of being finalised. It will include topics such as
campaign strategy, fundraising, media work and public
communication, volunteer coordination, meeting facilitation,
magazine distribution, video shooting and editing, etc. If you have
ideas of trainings that would be most useful to your group (whether
listed here or not), please send them to info at worldcarfree.net.
    The event will also include project meetings for Ecotopia Biketour
2006 and the Visegrad Publications Project, among others. (See
www.worldcarfree.net/projects for descriptions of these.) If you have
a meeting in mind that you'd like to take place here, please write to
the e-mail address above.
    For more information, see www.worldcarfree.net/tabor2006/.


CARBUSTERS HOLIDAY GIFT SUBSCRIPTION

Help us reach our goal of doubling subscriptions to Carbusters
magazine by the end of 2006 by sending your carfree (or car-full)
friends and relatives a subscription to the only international
magazine dedicated to the carfree movement.
    If you make an order by December 10, your gift recipient will
receive issue #25 and a gift card, along with the subscription
extending through 2006. That's five issues for the price of four.
More information at www.carbusters.org/subscribe.

...

Bulletin #27 by Steven Logan. Send your submissions for the next
bulletin to info at worldcarfree.net by the end of the month.

[end]


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WORLD CARFREE NETWORK
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tel: +(420) 274-810-849 - fax: +(420) 274-772-017
<info at worldcarfree.net>  - <http://www.worldcarfree.net>
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