D
Don Quijote
Guest
(the emphasis in capital letters and quotes is mine)
Source: "Green Urbanism: Learning from European Cities," by Timothy Beatley.
Bicycles as a legitimate form of mobility.
There are few mobility options more environmentally-friendly than bicycles. They are zero emissions,
take up relatively little space, are inexpensive, are available to the young and old alike, and
provide their users with important physical exercise. In the United States and many other developed
countries, we have ignored or "forgotten" this relatively low-tech mobility option. Yet, in many
northern European cities, bicycles are a significant and legitimate mobility option and an
increasingly important part of the transportation mix there.
Bicycle use as a percentage of the modal split is consistently much higher in most of the cities
examined in this study and vigorously promoted as a more environmentally friendly mode, which
provides greater mobility than the automobile (specially for shorter distances). Most of the cities
studied here have developed, and continue to develop, extensive and impressive bicycle networks.
Berlin has 800 kilometers of bike lanes and Frieburg has 410 kilometers. Vienna has more than
doubled its bicycle network since the late 1980s and now has more than 500 kilometers. Copenhagen
has about 300 kilometers of bike lanes and now has a policy of INSTALLING BIKE LANES ALONG ALL
MAJOR STREETS. Bicycle use there has gone up 65 per cent since 1970. These cities show commitment
to making bicycle use easy and safe, and they reveal the key ingredients to building
bicycle-friendly cities.
Bicycle use in these exemplary cities is year-round proposition. Summer use of bicycles is usually
higher in northern cities such as Copenhagen, where 40 per cent of work-commutes are by bicycle
during these months. Nevertheless, in Copenhagen some 70 per cent of those normally bicycling also
bicycle to work during the winter months. Similar experience can be found in Finnish cities,
suggesting that the notion that bicycling is feasible or acceptable only in ideal weather is untrue.
That such high rates of usage can be achieved in northern European cities suggests GREAT PROMISE FOR
AMERICAN CITIES. And, while bicycles are specially promising for shorter trips, it is clear that
many people are prepared to ride their bicycles considerable distances. It has been estimated that
in Copenhagen, an average bicycle commute is 7 kilometer, or about 20 minutes --many commutes are
longer, which indicates that many residential areas will, given facilities and safe routes, be
within a reasonable bicycle commuting range.
A ROAD TO FREEDOM (UNLIKE RUSSIA'S)
Why not build a new system? That offers PROSPERITY, SOCIAL JUSTICE and FREEDOM; that discards the
defects of both Communism and Capitalism; and that places the system at the service of the human
being, and not the other way around. Why not HUMANISM?
Naturally, education and health care should be the maximum priorities; they should be free -or
affordable, in the case of higher education- and accessible to all. Education should emphasize the
learning of English -or Esperanto, if we all ever on it- and literacy... in computers. Likewise,
culture and sports should receive special attention (for example, adopting the affordable child-care
centers; in general, we would have much to learn from the Scandinavian model). A MIXED MODEL, that
includes competition and cooperation, would create a healthy competition, and it would allow to
satisfy the material and human needs of all. (In this way, the cooperative enterprises would be
forced to become more efficient, while capitalist enterprises would be forced to become more humane;
we would have much to learn from the Israeli kibbutz [non-profit cooperatives]; and from the
industrial cooperatives of Mondragon, in the Basque Country [a "workers capitalism"].) We should
seek full employment (for instance, by creating jobs in the construction of the transportation
infrastructure; but, if unemployment persists, the work time could be reduced). Public
transportation should be A1. (The city of Curitiba, in Brazil, offers us a functional model of
transportation; BICYCLE LANES SHOULD BE IMPLEMEMTED ALONG ALL MAJOR STREETS.) The homeless, who now
occupy our better parks, should be incorporated into light but necessary duties, like picking up
litter, in exchange for a decent wage; there should be no homeless. (Again, Curitiba is a model on
this.) Junk food should have a warning label (just like cigarettes), particularly the one destined
to children, and also be taxed to subsidize healthy alternatives. Housing should be available at
popular prices. (Prefabricated multifamily units can help accomplish this; the movement of "new
urbanism" can provide them with a sense of community and quality of life, say by having abundant
green areas.) Public corruption should be treated as "public enemy No.1." TV and radio should be
independent of Big Business and the State. (This is due to two reasons: culturally, because the
ratings make bad programs become "good"... for business; and, politically, because whoever has power
over the media... will be in power; however, people should be able to watch anything on video and
cable; the BBC offers us and example of an independent media.) The "Free Press" should be
democratized, so that, among other things, the censorship of the opinions of the public is
eradicated. Politics should become cheaper to avoid its control by powerful groups (for example,
offering free time on TV to the candidates; we would have much to learn from the political model of
Switzerland [in particular, its political decentralization and its system of referendums]).
Nevertheless, we should never follow neither anything nor anyone -including myself- blindly. And, of
course, everything can be improved. Something to think about: While the prohibition of drugs has
been largely ineffective, different studies show us alternative methods to face that problem -and
the crime associated with them... The final form of this system would be determined by the
acceptance of the people themselves: Each and everyone of these proposals should be submitted to
referendum. And, the basis of everything else: We should learn to live, not FROM, but WITH Nature.
"What worries me is not the violence of the few, but the indifference of the many"
"Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time; the need for man
to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence"
-M.L. King
A COMMENT FROM A FRIEND:
The system you describe sounds awfully good. I'd say no country is on the road you suggest, but it
might be a good thing for world leaders to read your article, since it could give them some goals.
What a wonder it'd be, for example, if George Bush announced some actual long-term goals for the
country, instead of reacting to events in a knee-jerk fashion. I'm picking on George, but much the
same can be said of most any world leader I know of.
-Charles
http://webspawner.com/users/donquijote
Source: "Green Urbanism: Learning from European Cities," by Timothy Beatley.
Bicycles as a legitimate form of mobility.
There are few mobility options more environmentally-friendly than bicycles. They are zero emissions,
take up relatively little space, are inexpensive, are available to the young and old alike, and
provide their users with important physical exercise. In the United States and many other developed
countries, we have ignored or "forgotten" this relatively low-tech mobility option. Yet, in many
northern European cities, bicycles are a significant and legitimate mobility option and an
increasingly important part of the transportation mix there.
Bicycle use as a percentage of the modal split is consistently much higher in most of the cities
examined in this study and vigorously promoted as a more environmentally friendly mode, which
provides greater mobility than the automobile (specially for shorter distances). Most of the cities
studied here have developed, and continue to develop, extensive and impressive bicycle networks.
Berlin has 800 kilometers of bike lanes and Frieburg has 410 kilometers. Vienna has more than
doubled its bicycle network since the late 1980s and now has more than 500 kilometers. Copenhagen
has about 300 kilometers of bike lanes and now has a policy of INSTALLING BIKE LANES ALONG ALL
MAJOR STREETS. Bicycle use there has gone up 65 per cent since 1970. These cities show commitment
to making bicycle use easy and safe, and they reveal the key ingredients to building
bicycle-friendly cities.
Bicycle use in these exemplary cities is year-round proposition. Summer use of bicycles is usually
higher in northern cities such as Copenhagen, where 40 per cent of work-commutes are by bicycle
during these months. Nevertheless, in Copenhagen some 70 per cent of those normally bicycling also
bicycle to work during the winter months. Similar experience can be found in Finnish cities,
suggesting that the notion that bicycling is feasible or acceptable only in ideal weather is untrue.
That such high rates of usage can be achieved in northern European cities suggests GREAT PROMISE FOR
AMERICAN CITIES. And, while bicycles are specially promising for shorter trips, it is clear that
many people are prepared to ride their bicycles considerable distances. It has been estimated that
in Copenhagen, an average bicycle commute is 7 kilometer, or about 20 minutes --many commutes are
longer, which indicates that many residential areas will, given facilities and safe routes, be
within a reasonable bicycle commuting range.
A ROAD TO FREEDOM (UNLIKE RUSSIA'S)
Why not build a new system? That offers PROSPERITY, SOCIAL JUSTICE and FREEDOM; that discards the
defects of both Communism and Capitalism; and that places the system at the service of the human
being, and not the other way around. Why not HUMANISM?
Naturally, education and health care should be the maximum priorities; they should be free -or
affordable, in the case of higher education- and accessible to all. Education should emphasize the
learning of English -or Esperanto, if we all ever on it- and literacy... in computers. Likewise,
culture and sports should receive special attention (for example, adopting the affordable child-care
centers; in general, we would have much to learn from the Scandinavian model). A MIXED MODEL, that
includes competition and cooperation, would create a healthy competition, and it would allow to
satisfy the material and human needs of all. (In this way, the cooperative enterprises would be
forced to become more efficient, while capitalist enterprises would be forced to become more humane;
we would have much to learn from the Israeli kibbutz [non-profit cooperatives]; and from the
industrial cooperatives of Mondragon, in the Basque Country [a "workers capitalism"].) We should
seek full employment (for instance, by creating jobs in the construction of the transportation
infrastructure; but, if unemployment persists, the work time could be reduced). Public
transportation should be A1. (The city of Curitiba, in Brazil, offers us a functional model of
transportation; BICYCLE LANES SHOULD BE IMPLEMEMTED ALONG ALL MAJOR STREETS.) The homeless, who now
occupy our better parks, should be incorporated into light but necessary duties, like picking up
litter, in exchange for a decent wage; there should be no homeless. (Again, Curitiba is a model on
this.) Junk food should have a warning label (just like cigarettes), particularly the one destined
to children, and also be taxed to subsidize healthy alternatives. Housing should be available at
popular prices. (Prefabricated multifamily units can help accomplish this; the movement of "new
urbanism" can provide them with a sense of community and quality of life, say by having abundant
green areas.) Public corruption should be treated as "public enemy No.1." TV and radio should be
independent of Big Business and the State. (This is due to two reasons: culturally, because the
ratings make bad programs become "good"... for business; and, politically, because whoever has power
over the media... will be in power; however, people should be able to watch anything on video and
cable; the BBC offers us and example of an independent media.) The "Free Press" should be
democratized, so that, among other things, the censorship of the opinions of the public is
eradicated. Politics should become cheaper to avoid its control by powerful groups (for example,
offering free time on TV to the candidates; we would have much to learn from the political model of
Switzerland [in particular, its political decentralization and its system of referendums]).
Nevertheless, we should never follow neither anything nor anyone -including myself- blindly. And, of
course, everything can be improved. Something to think about: While the prohibition of drugs has
been largely ineffective, different studies show us alternative methods to face that problem -and
the crime associated with them... The final form of this system would be determined by the
acceptance of the people themselves: Each and everyone of these proposals should be submitted to
referendum. And, the basis of everything else: We should learn to live, not FROM, but WITH Nature.
"What worries me is not the violence of the few, but the indifference of the many"
"Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time; the need for man
to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence"
-M.L. King
A COMMENT FROM A FRIEND:
The system you describe sounds awfully good. I'd say no country is on the road you suggest, but it
might be a good thing for world leaders to read your article, since it could give them some goals.
What a wonder it'd be, for example, if George Bush announced some actual long-term goals for the
country, instead of reacting to events in a knee-jerk fashion. I'm picking on George, but much the
same can be said of most any world leader I know of.
-Charles
http://webspawner.com/users/donquijote
