January-March 1995 No. 10
ASPHYXIATION BY ASPHALT
Past issues of auto-free zone have focussed
on urban topics. This issue, whose theme is
Roads vs Nature, is no different because
wilderness preservation is an urban issue.
Roads built to and within cities and
suburbs require that gravel and sand be mined
and trucked from remote areas to urban centres.
Oil drilling in rainforests and the Arctic is done
to fuel the cars we drive to and from our homes.
Thanks to various forms of technology,
every remote corner of the Earth has become
accessible to humans.
None of these places are treated with respect, let
alone with a view to sustainability. Natural areas
are still perceived by many urban dwellers as
dispensable because "no one" lives there.
Even without taking a deep ecology view
that "wilderness" and other species must be
preserved for their own sake, it is becoming
increasingly accepted that natural areas must be
preserved for the health of the planet.
In order to live more sustainably, without
disproportionate energy-inputs and waste of
resources, our cities, suburbs and towns must be
redesigned so that people can have access to the
goods and services they need daily without
using up finite fossil fuels in a two-ton box of
metal, glass and plastic.
As corporate farmland becomes depleted
through the use of petrochemicals, by regreening
our cities we could grow more of our food
locally, thereby reducing the need for networks
of transcontinental highways to truck southern
produce north. As our cities and suburbs became
more healthy, stress-free places, fewer people
would feel the need to escape to cottage country
on weekends in their cars taking with them all
the comforts of their urban homes.
Wilderness, or at least what remains of it,
should be preserved and only be accessible to, as
Reed Noss says, those willing to travel long
distances on foot. -LS
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF...
RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA¾In September 1994, the Ford Motor Company presented
the College of Engineering, Center for Environmental Research and Technology, a
$10,000,000.00 gift. Allan D. Gilmour, Vice Chairman of the Ford Motor Company and
Helen Petrauskas, Ford's Vice President of Environmental and Safety Engineering,
traveled to the University of California at Riverside, California today to attend the
ceremony announcing the donation.
The money will be used to fund environmental programs, student scholarships,
research, and development at the College of Engineering. Although many of the
distinguished speakers referred to Riverside's smoggy air, none mentioned that two
thirds of the air pollution is contributed by the very industry donating the funds to
study the problem.
After the presentation, a woman approached Ford Vice Chairman Gilmour and
engaged him in conversation. She then asked him, "What would happen if the Federal
Government required that the tailpipe emissions of each motor vehicle be vented back
into the interior of the vehicle creating the emissions?" Confused, Gilmour sought
clarification. He asked if she meant venting emissions at the driver. "Yes," she replied,
"into the interior of the vehicle that produced those emissions."
"Why, we'd all be dead," he replied, somewhat taken aback.
"Well," the woman replied, "I am a bicycle commuter. Each day when I ride and when
I have to stop at traffic lights, I breathe what comes out of those tailpipes. The drivers
and I are both traveling. It doesn't seem right that vehicles foul the air I breathe.
Where is any sense of responsibility?"
Gilmour tried to modify that negative concept by describing that industry is creating
cleaner cars, cars whose emissions are cleaner that the surrounding air. The woman
repeated the question to include the newer, cleaner vehicles. After a moment, he
repeated his answer: "We'd all be dead."
His interrogator added that she had no intention of being unkind. She just wanted to
be able to breathe clean air when she rode her bicycle.
That woman was me.
Eleanor Lippman, 1440 Timberlane Drive, Riverside CA 92506
(909) 684-3513; e-mail: elippman@aol.com
(Eleanor wrote this article for "CommuniCABO", fall 1994, newsletter for the
California Association of Bicycling Organizations, PO Box 2684, Dublin, CA 94568.)
From David Engwicht's Reclaiming Our Cities and Towns: Better Living
With Less Traffic
CARS ON STREETS: RIGHT OR PRIVILEGE?
For over 10,000 years, streets in cities belonged to the people for social interaction,
recreation and to provide access to people, goods and places. Beasts of burden were
allowed on the streets provided that they did not bite or consistute a danger to life or
limb of other road users.
Today, by default, society has granted freedom of the streets to a beast of burden
which annually kills 250,000 to 500,000 people and maims millions more. Also, the
carcinogenic gases that rise from the automobile excreta kill an estimated 30,000
people in the US alone, are killing the forests of Europe, cause crop losses of $1.9
billion to $4.5 billion for just four cash crops in the US, and are not only degrading
marine life in the Atlantic coastal waters, but are also the major human-made
contributor to the greenhouse effect. As well, the sounds these new beasts make chase
people from the streets and sometimes, even from their homes. Many people who
cannot escape are literally sent crazy by the noise. As well as having a ferocious
appetite for fuel these new beasts occupy almost three times more space (for parking)
than the space occupied by their owner's home.
The facts are that the automobile was never granted rights to the streets. It took them
by stealth.
(Reclaiming Our Cities and Towns: Better Living With Less Traffic, 1993, p. 94 - New
Society Publishers, PO Box 189, Gabriola Island, BC, 1-800-567-6772).
auto-free zone is published quarterly by Auto-Free Ottawa, Box
57006, 797 Somerset St. W., Ottawa-Rideau Bioregion, ON
K1R 1A1, Canada, and is mailed to subscribers or members of
Auto-Free Ottawa (see form inside last page).
Auto-Free Ottawa is a grassroots group, whose mandate is to
draw public attention to the full costs of our car-dominated
transportation system, and to point out ecologically
sustainable and socially beneficial alternatives.
Opinions expressed in AFZ do not necessarily reflect those of
Auto-Free Ottawa members. Readers are encouraged to
submit articles, announcements, and graphics. Articles should
be submitted on diskette (WP 5.1) and limited to 1,000 words.
Letters to AFZ must be marked "For publication" (include
address and phone number which will not be published), and
are subject to selection and editing.
Articles reprinted from other publications are abridged to
save space.
Reproduction of editorial content is welcome provided that
credit is given to the author and issue of publication. Please
send a copy of reprinted articles to Auto-Free Ottawa for our
files.
Editor:
Lucy Segatti
Thanks to the following for contributing articles (original
or borrowed), graphics, ideas or their time: Angela Bischoff,
Peter Childs, Eric Darwin, Anne Hansen, Linda Hoad, Henry
Kock, John Odlum, Charles Shrubsole, Jane Stratton-Zimmer,
Larry Tyldsley, Catherine Verrall, Michael Vandeman,
Andrew Van Iterson
Thanks to Zippy Print (Albert Street) for their support!
AFZ Graphic: Cathy Woodgold
Other graphics: Nancy Shaver
Advertising: For information on advertising rates, please con-
tact Auto-Free Ottawa at the address above or at (613) 234-
0923.
AFZ is printed on unbleached, 100% post-consumer recycled
paper.
Deadline for next issue: Spring equinox 1995 (March 21).
ISSN 1195-1958
A BIG "THANK YOU!" TO EMMA
AND KATHRYN BARTON WHO
RAISED $50.00 OF PLEDGES IN
THE WALK FOR PEACE, THE
ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIAL
JUSTICE LAST SUMMER. AUTO-
FREE OTTAWA RECEIVED $15.00
AS A RESULT OF THEIR EFFORTS,
WHICH WE WILL PUT TO WORK
TO MAKE OUR
NEIGHBOURHOODS AND THE
PLANET A LITTLE GREENER FOR
YOUNG AND FUTURE
GENERATIONS.
WHY PICK ON ROADS? - Jasper Carlton, Biodiversity Legal Foundation
Once a grand wilderness of animal trails, most of
North America has been transformed into a maze of
roads. Those animal trails became Indian trails, then
the routes of early trappers...wagon trails...dirt
roads...paved highways...and finally interstate
highways¾the distressways of our modern society.
Over 4 million miles of pavement now smother the
earth in the United States alone.
Wider and wider stretches of asphalt and concrete
become collecting pools for more and more
stinkmobiles, traveling at faster and faster speeds.
Homo erectus asphaltus is driving itself to oblivion, and
taking with it the planet's natural diversity.
It is difficult to find any place, no matter how rugged,
that a motorized vehicle of some sort cannot reach.
Roads of one form or another now threaten the
biological integrity of every wilderness on the
continent. The most effective way to protect wild,
natural areas is to deny motorized access by
humans¾access made possible by roads. The easiest
way to restore areas to wilderness often times is to
close the roads.
The planning and construction of roads, particularly
paved highways, largely determines how society
uses land, air and water. Traditionally, in road
planning, natural wildlands are not given adequate
consideration, as economy prevails over ecology.
Transportation systems, as part of the land-use
planning process, should be radically changed or
dismantled now to prevent any additional impact on
remaining natural areas and to allow wilderness
restoration throughout this continent. [...]
The natural environment all over the planet is being
reduced to little more than gasping biotic fragments.
Thousands of species are being extirpated from local
areas each day and are headed for eventual
extinction. Over 6,000 native US vertebrate,
invertebrate and plant species are now biologically
threatened or endangered. It is time to draw lines
and save all that remains and restore what we can.
Expanding human use of the last, large, natural
diverse ecosystems in North America¾and, indeed,
on Earth¾is accelerating the extinction of animal
and plant species. Many of the most biologically
diverse of these ecosystems, particularly in Hawaii
and the southern United States, are collapsing.
Tropical moist rainforests and Pacific Northwest old-
growth forests are not the only ecosystems in which
large numbers of species are under grave threat. In
short, all remaining natural areas, no matter how
small or large, should be saved from
development¾particularly from roads, which act as
a magnet to cancerous development.
(Biodiversity Legal Foundation, PO Box 18327,
Boulder, CO 80308-1327 (303) 442-3037) (Preserve
Appalachian Wilderness, 1992)
BIODIVERSITY, WILDERNESS AND ECOLOGICAL CITIES - Mike Carr
The environmental movement (and ultimately all of
society) is going to have to seriously re-adjust its
goals, values and behaviour if conservation
biologists and landscape ecologists are correct in
their estimates about the vase size of protected
wilderness areas needed to sustain biological
diversity.
Since the 1987 publication of "Our Common Future",
the report of the U.N. World Commission on
Environment and Development, governments,
politicians and also many in the environmental
movement have come to accept the Commission's
figure of 12% total land mass as a goal for wilderness
area protection. [...]
Simply put, the argument is that if we can achieve
12% protected wilderness areas set aside from
human disturbances then we will be able to ensure
that the patterns, processes and biological diversity
necessary for evolution will continue. The average
stands at about 4%. Still, with effort the 12% goal
seemed reachable and since the goal was suggested
by the United Nations it seemed credible to many.
[...]
Protecting Biodiversity: How Much Is Enough?
As far back as 1970, Eugene Odum, whose ecology
textbooks are used in universities throughout North
America, estimated that 40% of the State of Georgia
should be managed as natural areas. Two years later,
along with H.T. Odum, he suggested that managing
half of southern Florida as natural area and half as
cultural land was optimal. Currently, Reed Noss and
Michael Soule, while recognizing that each region
must be assessed individually, suggest at least half of
the land area of the 48 lower states be encompassed
for management as wilderness areas. Given the
fragmented condition of the United States, much of
this land would have to be restored to wilderness
through ecological regeneration, which would
include, for example, the removal of roads, the
removal of exotics and the replanting of native
species. For areas in Canada that have more wild
land remaining, they recommend higher targets. In
British Columbia, Jeff McNeely (who has admitted
making a mistake by recommending 12% protected
areas to the Brundtland Commission) suggested 70%
of land mass as protected areas as a reasonable
figure for B.C.
These much higher figures represent the best efforts
of conservation biologists to estimate how much
wilderness really needs to be protected if we are truly
concerned with conserving both the biological
diversity necessary to support age-old evolutionary
processes and patterns, as well as ecological
functions. [...]
A Revolution in Planning: Cores and Corridors
Conservation biology has helped to reveal that the
global extinction crisis is much deeper than most of
us (even those in the environmental movement) have
feared. Perhaps, this crisis discipline will also help to
awaken us all to the urgency of action and the depth
of behaviour change needed to effectively address
this mess. The study of biodiversity is still in its early
stages. Yet, since the extinction crisis is already upon
us, there soon may be very little left to study. [...]
The vision and promise of a system of regional and
inter-regional protected areas connected by
ecological corridors opens up the prospect of
planning on a continental scale. This broad vision
can only really be actualized with the ongoing,
informed involvement of people in communities and
regions everywhere in the mapping and design of
reserve proposals.
Soule, Noss and others with a wide variety of
scientific and activist backgrounds have established a
society called The Wildlands Project. They seek to
bring together ecologists, biologists, conservationists,
indigenous peoples and anyone else willing to
protect and restore evolutionary processes and
biological diversity. Their vision encompasses a
continental regeneration over several human
generations so that "vast unbroken forests and
flowing plains again thrive and support pre-
Columbian populations of plants and animals" and
"humans dwell with respect, harmony and affection
for the land¾no longer as strangers and aliens on
this continent".
They propose and work to promote a system of core
reserves linked by biological corridors that allow for
the dispersal of wide-ranging species for the
purposes of genetic exchange between populations,
and enabling the migration of organisms in response
to climate change. Buffers would also be established
around core reserves to protect their integrity from
disruptive human activities. These buffers would
become true multiple-use zones where only human
activity compatible with the protection of core
reserves and corridors would be planned. They
would be transitional zones between protected areas
and zones of more intensive human agricultural and
industrial activity. [...]
Ecological Cities in Regenerated Regions
The concept of ecological cores and corridors is not
exclusive to The Wildlands Project initiators. Many
individuals and groups are now discussing
preservation and restoration projects in urban, rural
and wilderness environments. However, The
Wildlands Project is the first to envision this kind of
planning on the scale of an entire continent. Yet,
there is no discussion in their literature to date that I
am aware of that deals with cities. However, it is not
difficult for those of us concerned with advancing
ecological city concepts and projects to make the
conceptual leap and integrate the vision of self-
supporting ecological cities with the vision of a
restored, biologically diverse and healthy continent.
There are precedents for these visions of healthy
cities "in place" within regional ecologies such as in
the earlier works of Patrick Geddes, Lewis Mumford,
and Benton MacKaye. MacKaye viewed what he
called "metropolitan civilization" as a "flood"
overwhelming the natural, indigenous world. He
saw that this flood of civilization was destroying
both city environments as well as the surrounding
hinterlands in one single process.
A New Yorker, MacKaye analyzed the "industrial
watershed" of New York City. At that time 75 years
ago New York was the harbinger of the automobile
age. MacKaye clearly understood the relationship of
cities to wilderness. He saw the wilderness as
containing both the psychological and natural forces
needed to stem the tide of civilization. For MacKaye,
the "primeval world" contained the source of life
itself. The biological and spiritual "key" to the
restoration of New York's industrial watershed lay in
the mountain wilderness of New England.
MacKaye's "New Exploration" derived its creative
imaginative power from within the heart of the New
England wilderness of those mountains. The
Appalachian Trail built by hundreds of local
volunteer groups and individuals inspired by
MacKaye's vision of the eastern mountains as the
backbone of a regenerated Appalachia remains intact
today.
Today, at the height of the automobile age we can see
for ourselves the connection between urban sprawl,
expressways, highways, roads, and the
fragmentation of wilderness habitat. In a healthy
continent and ecological society, cities too would
have their cores and corridors of intense but safe and
healthy human development including urban
agriculture and forestry through which the cities
would be largely self-reliant in food and fibre. Within
the cities, however, natural remnant and restored
wilderness areas connected to each other via
waterways would also connect to the reserves
outside the cities so that the spirit of the wilderness
may also blow through healthy, alive cities. (City
Magazine, Fall/Winter 93, 1464 Wellington Cres.,
Winnipeg, MB, R3N 0B3)
THE ECOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF ROADS or THE ROAD TO DESTRUCTION - Reed Noss, PhD
Nothing is worse for sensitive wildlife than a road.
Over the last few decades, studies in a variety of
terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems have
demonstrated that many of the most pervasive
threats to biological diversity¾habitat destruction
and fragmentation, edge effects, exotic species
invasions, pollution and overhunting¾are
aggravated by roads. Roads have been implicated as
mortality sinks for animals ranging from snakes to
wolves, as displacement factors affecting animal
distribution and movement patterns, as populations
fragmenting factors, as sources of sediments that clog
streams and destroy fisheries, as sources of
delterious edge effects, and as access corridors that
encourage development, logging, poaching of rare
plants and animals. [...]
Despite heightened recognition (by informed people)
of the harmful effects of roads, road density
continues to increase in the US and other countries.
Federal, state and local transportation departments
devote huge budgets to construction and upgrading
of roads. Multinational lending institutions, such as
the World Bank, finance roads into pristine
rainforest, which usher in a flood of settlers who
destroy both the rainforest and the indigenous
cultures. Public land-managing agencies build
thousands of miles of roads each year to support
their resource extraction activities, at a net cost to the
taxpayer. [...]
Direct effects, such as flattened fauna, are easy to see.
In contrast, many indirect effects of roads are
cumulative and involve changes in community
structure and ecological processes that are not well
understood. Yet, these long-term effects signal a
deterioration in ecosystems that far surpasses in
importance the visual and olfactory insult to us of a
bloated deer by the roadside.
DIRECT EFFECTS
Roadkills
The above statement notwithstanding, roadkill can
have a significant impact on wildlife populations.
The Humane Society of the US and the Urban
Wildlife Research Center have arrived at a
conservative figure of one million animals killed each
day on highways in the United States. These statistics
do not account for animals that crawl off the road to
die after being hit. Also, roadkill statistics are
invariably biased toward mammals, against reptiles,
amphibians, and probably birds, and do not include
invertebrates at all (who wants to count the insects
smashed on windshields and grills?). [...]
Fragmentation and Isolation of Populations
Some species of animals simply refuse to cross
barriers as wide as a road. For these species, a road
effectively cuts the population in half. A network of
road fragments the population further. The
remaining small populations are then vulnerable to
all the problems associated with rarity: genetic
deterioration from inbreeding and random drift in
gene frequencies, environmental catastrophes,
fluctuations in habitat conditions, and demographic
stochasticity (i.e., chance variation in age and sex
ratios). Thus, roads contribute to what many
conservation biologists consider the major threat to
biological diversity: habitat fragmentation. Such
fragmentation may be especially ominous in the face
of rapid climate change. If organisms are prevented
from migrating to track shifting climatic conditions,
and cannot adapt quickly enough because of limited
genetic variation, then extinction is inevitable. [...]
Pollution
Pollution from roads begins with construction. An
immediate impact is noise from construction
equipment, and noise remains a problem along
highways with heavy traffic. Animals respond to
noise pollution by altering activity patterns, and with
an increase in heart rate and production of stress
hormones. [...]
Vehicles emit a variety of pollutants, including heavy
metals, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide, all of
which may have serious cumulative effects.
Combustion of gasoline containing tetraethyl lead,
and wear of tires containing lead oxide, result in lead
contamination of roadsides. Although unleaded
gasoline now accounts for more than half of all
gasoline used in the US, lead persists in soils and the
food web for long periods. [...]
Many studies have documented increasing levels of
lead in plants with proximity to roads, and with
increases in traffic volume. Plant roots take up lead
from the soil, and leaves take it up from
contaminated air or from particulate matter on the
leaf surface. This lead moves up the food chain, with
sometimes severe toxic effects on animals, including
reproductive impairment, renal abnormalities, and
increased mortality rates. Food chain effects can
switch between aquatic and terrestrial pathways.
Lead concentrations in tadpoles living near
highways can be high enough to cause physiological
and reproductive impairment in birds and mammals
that prey on tadpoles. [...]
Impacts on Hydrology and Aquatic Habitats
Road construction alters the hydrology of
watersheds through changes in water quantity and
quality, stream channel morphology, and ground
water levels. Paved roads increase the amount of
impervious surface in a watershed, resulting in
substantial increases in peak runoff and storm
discharges. That usually means flooding
downstream. [...]
INDIRECT EFFECTS
Access
The most insidious of all effects of roads is the access
they provide to humans and their tools of
destruction. Let's face it, the vast majority of humans
do not know how to behave in natural environments.
Fearful of experiencing Nature on its own terms, they
bring along their chainsaws, ATVs, guns, dogs, and
ghettoblasters. They harass virtually every creature
they meet, and leave their mark on every place they
visit. The more inaccessible we can keep our
remaining wild areas to these cretins, the safer and
healthier these areas will be. Those humans who
respect the land are willing to walk long distances. If
this is an "elitist" attitude, so be it; the health of the
land demands restrictions on human access and
behavior. [...]
Cumulative Effects
The net, cumulative effect of roads is to diminish the
native diversity of ecosystems everywhere. Habitats
in many different places around the world are
invaded by virtually the same set of cosmopolitan
weeds. Regions gradually are homogenized¾they
lose their "character". Every place of similar climate
begins to look the same, and most ecosystems are
incomplete and missing the apex of the food chain.
The end result is an impoverishment of global
biodiversity.
(Copies of Noss' complete article are available from
Preserve Appalachian Wilderness, 117 Main St.,
Brattleboro, VT 05301, USA)
Abstract of a paper to be presented by Mike Vandeman at
the 8th International VELO-CITY Conference in Basel,
Switzerland, September, 1995:
Appropriate and Inappropriate Use of Bicycles:
Mountain Biking Versus Wildlife
Humans believe that they own, and have a right to
dominate, every square inch of the Earth. The
consequence is that wildlife species are being driven to
extinction at an enormous rate, comparable to that of any
of the greatest mass extinctions in the Earth's history. This
process threatens our enjoyment of life, the availability of
foods, medicines, and other useful chemicals, and even
our survival as a species. Bicyclists, like everyone else,
must choose whether they want to continue this ancient,
human-centered tradition, or help create a new biocentric
ethic that cherishes and protects biodiversity. In our
righteous enthusiasm for the bicycle, let's not forget that
it is a machine, and that it can do harm as well as good.
Let's use the bicycle to replace motor vehicles, not to
expand man's already excessive reach into wildlife
habitat!
"DRIVE-IN" BIRDERS - Anne Hansen
Carloads came for Bewick's wren is the title of a recent
article by Peter Whelan, the Toronto Globe and Mail's
weekly bird-watching columnist (May 21/94). He
was referring to the deluge of motorized birders to a
private residence near Point Pelee. In another article,
he talked about the World Series of Birding,
including a 1,200 kilometer one-day drive all over
Ontario by a team of participants.
This ritual has more in common with car-racing than
birding.
Author Wendell Berry wonders about nature-lovers
who "want to run their recreational engines in clean,
fresh air". At Rondeau Provincial Park, I saw a
recreational vehicle bearing a vanity license plate
saying WE BIRD. Later, after having hitched my bike
at the entrance of a walking trail, a shouting motorist
inquired whether the rare Townsend's warbler had
been seen nearby. And there were bicycles on his car
rack! Get a life, buddy: You're not going to see
anything until you get out of that car that's uglifying
the park and fouling the air.
When "we bird" by car, we pollute the air, fragment
habitat, and kill millions of animals. Cars generate
sprawl that devours wetlands, meadows, forests and
farmland. Greenpeace says that it wasn't the ship
captain's driving that caused the Exxon Valdex oil
spill: it was ours.
It's bad enough that, in the absence of public transit,
we have to drive to provincial parks and rural
birding hotspots. But must we also drive in them,
through them and all over them? If birding by foot,
bicycle or canoe is too much of an effort, then why
don't we just stay home and watch "nature"
programs on TV?
American wilderness defender Edward Abbey
wondered how we can get the "indolent motorized
masses out of their backbreaking upholstered
wheelchairs". He said that "we have agreed not to
drive our automobiles into cathedrals, concert halls,
art museums, legislative assemblies, private
bedrooms and the other sanctums of our culture; we
should treat our national parks with the same
deference."
ROADS OR NATURE
Outer Ring Road in St. John's, Newfoundland: An 18-
km, four-lane divided highway is being built for
$110-million mostly in federal funds to alleviate non-
existent downtown traffic jams.
The road will run directly through the centre of
Canada's second largest urban park, C.A. Pippy
Park, which is a wintering ground for moose and
protects the headwaters of three rivers that support
world-renowned populations of brown trout. (Globe
and Mail, 1 Sept 94)
Male grizzlies need 4,000 square kilometres of
ranging area, and females about 1,000. But reaching
breeding age (six to eight years) is getting harder as
roads and traffic intensify.
From 1973 to 1979, 14 grizzlies died on Jasper
highways. Roadkill went up in the 1980s, and 27
more were killed by last year. Double that number
have been killed outside park boundaries, according
to biologist Brian Horesji. (NOW, 22-28 Sept 94)
AIR POLLUTION WORSENS IN THE EAST'S
PARKS
Industrial pollution is ruining scenic views in Great
Smoky Mountains and many national parks in the
east, covering them with an "acid haze" and making
summer air quality worse than Los Angeles. While
air quality is improving or holding steady in most
parks in the west, visitors to parks in the east are
breathing the same hazy air as in neighbouring cities.
Over the ten-year study period, summer haze soared
39% in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in
Tennessee and 37% in Virginia's Shenandoah
National Park.
Summertime sulfate concentrations in the air at those
two parks exceeded levels found in Los Angeles.
Sulfate is the main component of acid rain¾a
problem at Mount Mitchell and other heavily
forested parks. Most sulfates come from coal-burning
power plants and other industries. For the Smokies,
the ozone-depleting pollution comes from the
industrial midwest and the Tennessee Valley. North
Carolina officials have sought federal help for years
to cut pollution from faraway industrial
smokestacks, but have reached no agreements. Only
15% of the park's pollution comes from nearby
industries, according to the 1990 figures.
Researchers sampled air quality in 12 national parks
twice a week from 1982 to 1992. For example, if
visitors to the Great Smokies could see 12 miles away
in 1982, they could see only eight miles away in 1992.
(Earth First! Journal, Samhain 1994)
PANDORA'S AMERICAN HIGHWAY - Elena Wilken
The Pan-American Highway runs unbroken from
Alaska to the shore of Magellan's Strait, save for one
gap: the 185-km expanse of Central America's largest
remaining continuous rain forest. The Darien forest,
which spans the Panama-Colombia border, covers
1.6 million hectares. Hoping to increase trade and
tourism, Colombia and other South American
countries, as well as South American corporations,
are eager to complete the highway.
Conservationists and people who live in the forest
fear that the project will damage the ecology and
indigenous cultures of the Darien.
As the geographical bridge between two continents,
the forest is home to species from both eco-systems
and a number of species unique to the area. Over
30,000 indigenous people for the Kuna and Choco
groups also live there. For them, the Darien is far
more than just a source of beauty and recreation.
Rafael Harris, a Kuna chief, says, "For me, the forest
is my pharmacy. If I have sores on my legs, I go to
the forest and get the medicine I need to cure them.
The forest is also a great refrigerator. It keeps the
food I need fresh. We Kuna need the forest, and we
use it and take much from it. But we can take what
we need without having to destroy everything."
In Latin America, road construction has tended to
increase access to forested areas, allowing colonizers
to move in and clear the land for cultivation. Since
1947, forest cover in Panama has fallen from 70% of
the country to 30%. Over three quarters of Colombia
was forest in 1960; now less than half of that cover
remains.
In Panama, where most of the Darien lies, the Kuna
and the Choco people live on semi-autonomous
homelands where they retain rights to the land and
its above-ground resources. Leaders of the six largest
indigenous groups in the Darien have formed a
political organization to oppose the highway, the
Indigenous Pan-American Highway Commission. In
December 1993, the Commission called on the
government to reject the idea of building the road,
and to halt all feasibility studies in the area.
Indigenous leaders are also working with
international conservation groups to block
construction. In Colombia, indigenous groups are
less integrated into the political mainstream, but a
Choco group was successful in halting construction
of an earlier section of the highway, by lying down in
front of the bulldozers.
Colombia has a strong export sector, and is well-
situated to exploit a north-south trade route. Both
business and the government are eager to complete
the highway. Panama is more concerned about
maintaining internal stability, a crucial asset for its
international banking operations. Fears that the
highway could increase drug trafficking and illegal
immigration have dampened Panamanian interest in
the project.
In October 1993, a trade agreement between the two
countries called for an assessment of the impact of
three possible routes: along either the Atlantic or
Pacific coasts, or through the middle of the forest.
Preliminary results show that the middle route is the
shortest and the cheapest, but it is also likely to be
the most damaging to the forest. The coastal routes
would do extensive damage as well.
The highway would have to cross several large rivers
and swamps, so it would require expensive
engineering. The lowest estimated cost of
construction is US$300 million, but actual costs
would probably be much higher. Neither Colombia
nor Panama have the resources to foot such a bill and
there are as yet no firm commitments of outside
funding. Staunch indigenous resistance backed by
international pressure could discourage construction.
(World Watch Nov/Dec 94)
Prime Minister Chrétien is promoting a continental
integrated highway system in Latin America to
support trade under NAFTA. If you you think that
the environmental, economic and social costs of
continental highway expansion, let the PM and his
colleagues know, postage-free: House of Commons,
Ottawa K1A 0A5.
HOW TO STOP A ROAD: THE (NO) BSAR ACTION GROUP - Catherine Verrall
The Brantford Southern Access Road was first
planned nearly 30 years ago as an expressway. In
1973, the citizens rose up and persuaded the
Province of Ontario to cancel it, but City Hall kept
quietly grinding away on plans for a 4-lane "limited
access roadway" along the original route¾a ring
road not around, but through the City. The province
long ago agreed to pay 75% of the $42 million cost,
and construction was to begin in the fall of 1992.
The BSAR freeway would plough through older
residential neighbourhoods, through areas
contaminated by former industries, beside and across
the old canal which flows into the Grand River. It
would destroy critical woodlots and greenspace. It
would sever walking, cycling and wheelchair
transportation routes heavily used by the
community. It would encourage urban sprawl and
further degrade the downtown area. Part of the
BSAR would go through the Glebe¾land within
Brantford owned by the Six Nations Indians. And the
BSAR, based on outmoded population projections
and planning values, is simply not needed. Various
alternatives could meet Brantford's transportation
needs far more efficiently.
The (NO) BSAR Action Group started nearly 3 years
ago in April 1992, after I, a newcomer to Brantford,
heard by chance that the BSAR was soon to run
beside our home. The chief engineer said, "The time
for public input is past." But today, construction on
the BSAR has still not begun, and it still has
formidable hoops to jump through.
Critical to our success has been assistance from two
sources. Traditional people from the Six Nations
Confederacy offered to help us. They see themselves
as entrusted by the Creator to be protective of the
Earth. They see this road as further degradation of
the Earth, and especially the Grand River¾their
drinking water. The City had made a deal with the
Six Nations' elected Band Council, but the majority of
Six Nations people are traditional, so they had not
been told.
Also, the Canadian Environmental Law Association
(CELA) has given us ongoing assistance at minimal
cost. They see the BSAR as a classic example of
environmental destruction through unnecessary
road-building and contempt for community values.
One by one, we built a working core of about 20
people dedicated to stopping the BSAR. We entered
into a storm of activities: knocking on doors; meeting
every week for 2 years¾sometimes every day;
making 58 speeches to City Council; distributing
1,200 flyers; inspiring 130 letters-to-the-Editor
against the BSAR (there were 13 for it); making
thousands of phone calls to fill the City Council
chamber everytime we spoke; fighting apathy and
fear ("You can't fight City Hall." "If I put a sign in my
window, I might lose my job¾or not get one.");
plodding through reports extracted with great
difficulty from the Engineering Department; filing
masses of information; and keeping a daily log of all
our activities. Children made posters to adorn our
public meetings, and one morning the City woke up
to hundreds of dazzling yellow NO BSAR signs
posted along main routes and circling City Hall.
The group process has been most important. We
collected names and phone numbers of our
expanding network We've cherished each person as
an individual having something valuable to
contribute. Decisions have always been made
collectively. Speeches and letters have been created
out of the magic of group discussion.
Early on, we asked the Minister of Environment Ruth
Grier, for a bump-up to an Individual Environmental
Assessment. But we had missed the deadline by one
year. In addition to the omissions and inadequacies
of the Class Environmental Study, our strongest case
was that the affected public had not been informed.
Meanwhile, the Six Nations Confederacy insisted:
"We will not allow the BSAR to touch our land."
On November 2, 1992, the Hon. Ruth Grier ordered
independent Environmental Assessment Advisory
Committee Hearings (EAAC). After receiving 9
presentations for the BSAR and 78 presentations
against the BSAR, the EAAC report came out totally
in our favour. It concluded that "fundamental and
reasonable concerns have been raised about the
BSAR", and recommended that "construction of the
road should not proceed unless: the dispute over the
use of Native lands is resolved, and there has been a
new assessment, with opportunities for meaningful
public consultation, of Brantford's transportation
needs including a full evaluation of alternatives to
the BSAR."
Over a year later, the new Minister of Environment
Bud Wildman, gave his guarded decision. One small
section of the BSAR is allowed to complete a 4-lane
link to Hwy 403. The rest of the BSAR cannot
proceed until the City prepares an Addendum to the
original Environmental Study Report resolving the
Native and environmental concerns. Then the public
could legally ask for a bump-up to a full
environmental assessment with the new 30-day
review period.
The seeds of citizen participation sown in the NO
BSAR struggle have been part of a new blossoming
in Brantford. Since November 14, we have a new 27-
year-old mayor, Chris Friel. Mayor Friel opposes the
BSAR and soundly defeated the former mayor who
was chief public proponent for the BSAR. Marguerite
Ceschi-Smith, a member of our core group, is now on
City Council representing the ward most devastated
by the BSAR plans over the last 30 years. The other
two new councillors are friendly. Thanks to a pre-
election survey initiated by the Ontario Better
Transportation Coalition, Brantford City Council
now has a majority who believe the BSAR is NOT "a
wise investment for Brantford's transportation
needs".
But we're not there yet. The short section to Hwy 403
will probably begin soon, with a far more massive
design than needed. Brantford is just beginning a
new Transportation Study process which will require
earnest input and vigilance. Working against the
BSAR has opened our eyes to a host of other
interconnected issues. Transporation consultant Joell
Vanderwagen showed us how land-use planning
decisions affect transportation. So in 1993, we formed
a citizens' committee to pressure the City for an
Official Plan Review with much public input. We
have fanned out into other groups working on: clean
water and air for future generations; sewer systems
and progressive alternatives for dealing with waste
and storm runoff; protection of rare plants and
habitats; social justice, and economic
development¾both dependent upon equitable
transportation. We need to strengthen alternatives to
the car, so we have started a Transit Users' Group
and are now fighting yet another parking lot.
The struggle to build a "healthy community" never
ends. But we're on our way in Brantford!
ROAD MORATORIA AROUND THE WORLD
ROAD BUILDING IN BRITAIN
CURTAILED
Motorway building is good for the
environment¾because of all the trees
that are planted alongside the new roads.
Or so thought John MacGregor, who until
three months ago was Britain's transport
secretary. This is a view that finds little
favour in the latest report of the Royal
Commission on Environmental Pollution.
Since 1992, when Britain accepted the
concept of sustainable development at the
Earth Summit in Rio, the Department of
Transport (DoT) has been fighting a
rearguard action to defend its road
building programme. Britain's blueprint
for achieving sustainable development
states that if growth in road traffic
continues unabated there would be
"unacceptable economic and
environmental consequences".
MacGregor tried to have this phrase
deleted.
The commission spells out the DoT's
failings and challenges it to clean up its
act. Fundamental restructuring of the
department is needed to reflect the
different approach "which a sustainable
transport policy will involve," it says. [...]
The commission points out that building
roads itself generates traffic. One
estimate is that 40% of the traffic on the
M25, London's orbital road, was
generated by the new road. The
department's own standing advisory
committee on trunk roads has submitted
a report that also links new roads with
new traffic. Embarassed by this
conclusion, the department has been
sitting on the report for the best part of a
year. It even refused to give the
commission a copy. [...]
The department is changing. In April, all
its road builders were hived off to the
"semidetached" Highways Agency, which
may limit their influence on policy. And
MacGregor's successor, Mawhinney, who
is a former health minister and medical
physicist, may not be so likely to dismiss
the commission's report out of hand. But
as the commission says, it remains to be
seen if these changes will help the
department "develop a less road-
dominated ethos." (New Scientist, 12 Nov
94)
SWISS VOTERS LEAD POLITICIANS
Swiss voters passed an initiative to halt all
new construction of major roads if they
are intended to increase capacity.
(International Bicycle Fund News, 1994/2)
U-TURN ON ROADS POLICY - Rebecca
Smithers
The Government is to review the way it
plans new roads in its most radical road
policy shift for decades, after accepting
criticism in a long-awaited report that
new schemes generate at least 20% more
traffic. [...] The Government also
announced that four major road schemes
earmarked to start in the next two years
will no longer proceed with public
funding, while two others will be
postponed. (The Guardian, 25 Dec 94)
REPORT SLAMS OFFICIAL TRAFFIC
FORECASTS
The independent Standing Advisory
Committee on Trunk Road Assessment
told the Department of Transport that
building new roads generates traffic, and
that more than half of the DoT's forecasts
are out by more than 20%. The number of
vehicles which it predicts will use a road
determines whether the road built will be
a modest bypass or a six-lane motorway.
The forecasts are also the most important
element in persuading the Treasury to
finance the road. (New Scientist, 7 Jan 95)
CITIZEN ACTION AGAINST ROADS
IN ONTARIO - Wayne Roberts
1994 was the year the movement to stop
new roads and cut back existing ones hit
the streets around the world.
"We've reached the saturation point of
tolerance," says Tom Samuels, staffer for
the Better Transportation Coalition.
Unfortunately, this was also the year of
the NDP's proposed billion-dollar toll-
raod expressway, Highway 407, to be
built with public loan guarantees for
privat profit on good farmland north of
Toronto. Not to worry, says Samuels, it
will go broke. [...]
And the government can only get away
with it because there are no communities
there, he says. [...]
All successful municipal candidates [in
Toronto] signed a statement pledging a
moratorium on road widenings. Resident
groups are now working with Samuels to
develop traffic calming plans for
Etobicoke areas.
Brantford's municipal elections saw a
surprise win by a 27-year-old queasy
about a planned superhighway.
In Lowville and Milton, both near
Guelph, townspeople blocked proposed
road widenings of their main street and
ordered their streets narrowed.
Similar upsets are in the works in Eden
Mills and Hamilton, Samuels says.
Road Ends
The end of the road may even be on the
horizon in the asphalted States, where the
congressional accounting office estimates
the time lost in traffic jams at $100 billion
a year.
The Sierra Club is meeting success with
its demand to limit roads through
national parks.
Congress is soon expected to pass a Forest
Biodiversity and Clearcut Prohibition Act,
which in one of its subclauses prohibits
any new roads through federal lands. [...]
Anti-Road Show
The growing anti-road show confirms the
seemingly Alice In Wonderland logic that
has traffic planners shaking their heads. It
seems that people take to the road for the
same reason adventurers climb Mount
Everest¾because it's there.
But the flip side of "build it and they will
come" is "don't build it and they won't
come." This is what some traffic engineers
refer to as "the case of the missing traffic".
[...] Part of this is just common sense,
Parkinson's Law applied to traffic¾the
number of cars expands or contracts
according to the pavement available.
Mainly, however, it's because only a small
minority of car trip¾the standard
estimate is 25%¾are commutes to work,
that is, necessary.
In the U.S., where such trends are closely
monitored, 63% of car trips are less than
two miles. [...] Wisdom, an increasing
number of planners now concede, should
direct efforts toward making walking and
bicycling safer and more enjoyable ways
of traveling two miles.
The easiest way to do that is to limit street
access to cars and to transform streets into
safe, congenial and visually pleasing
places to be¾which is what "living
streets" is all about. [...]
"What excites me is the way this
empowers ordinary people, gives people
belief in themselves instead of giving that
up to experts who know, and who will
solve our problems for us.
"It's not just about getting back to mother
nature. It's getting back to human nature,
and our need for street life and
neighbourhoods, which we've forgotten."
(NOW, 29 Dec 94-4 Jan 95)
CALL FOR A ROAD MORATORIUM IN ONTARIO
The Better Transportation Coalition is dedicated to attaining a road moratorium in the province of Ontario
within the near future. However, this goal is possible only if a critical mass of vocal, unified and dedicated
advocates is developed. As such, an integral aspect of the BTC's campaign is the sharing of information among
ourselves and other organizations, groups and individuals from across Ontario, who are interested in
achieving a road moratorium. The BTC is extending an invitation for starting a dialogue on a road moratorium.
Any feedback in the form of data, stories, names, ideas, personal experiences, etc. would be much appreciated.
For more info, contact Tom Samuels at: BTC, 517 College St., Ste. 325, Toronto, ON M6G 4A2
416-961-5767, Fax: 961-5850, or tsamuels@web.apc.org.
HIGHWAY MANIA HITS ONTARIO!
The following letter was written by AFO members Anne Hansen and Henry Kock. Many of the points raised apply to
Highway 416 south of Ottawa-Carleton, and Highway 407 north of Toronto. We are reprinting it here in the hope that
other AFO members will be inspired to remind our elected representatives that not all of us agree that our tax dollars
should continue to be spent subsidizing road-building, oil drilling and car manufacturing.
Premier Bob Rae
Room 281, Legislative Building
Queen's Park, Toronto M7A 1A1
Re: Highway 404
The Ontario Ministry of Transportation is pursuing a "route planning" process for a proposed extension of Highway 404, in the Uxbridge area.
The Premier's Council on Health, Well-being and Social Justice advises that "Urban sprawl is one of the greatest threats to the natural
environment and the long-term sustainability of urban communities in North America... It cannot continue to be sustained, economically or
environmentally... To develop healthier urban and suburban communities, Ontario must reduce its dependence on the automobile."
Will this advice be heeded? If not, what is the function of the Premier's Council?
The route being explored is likely to negatively affect the Jim Baillie and Emily Hamilton Nature Reserves, and the provincially significant
Uxbridge Brook wetland complex. Local residents reportedly feel no need for a new highway, and are in fact opposed to the plan.
If the Ontario government is seeking to improve transportation and reduce massive subsidies to motorists, it must:
- foster a reliable, diverse public transit nework, including light-rail, buses and bike-communiting facilities;
- implement full-cost transportation pricing (e.g., no more free parking and cheap gas);
- enact land use policies that facilitate access to shopping, work, school and play without a car (no more strip malls);
- establish planning agencies dedicated solely to improving pedestrian and bicycle systems;
- make roadway improvements that accommodate rather than marginalize non-car users.
If, on the other hand, your government seeks to serve the auto and oil manufacturers over the public interest, and increase pollution at the same
time, it should build more highways.
Plans for Highway 404 are a waste of our tax dollars. Is your government planning to scrap this unwanted project?
Will your government make public the details concerning the $1 billion contract signed with a consortium to building Highway 407? An article in
the Globe and Mail (Nov. 24/94) says that the Ministry of Transportation is not providing any information on this. Why? We expect to know how
our tax dollars are misused.
c.c. Your local MPP
THE AUTO-FREE MOVEMENT GROWS AROUND THE WORLD!
Lyon, France - Over the past 18 months
Pour Une Ville Sans Voiture has organized
bike demos, discussions, open-air repair
workshops and published an outstanding
magazine of anti-car articles. Each
demonstration focuses on a different
theme: air pollution, children as victims
of cars, noise, space taken up by cars in
streets.
To reclaim their space, once a month they
are now turning their streets into dining
rooms by taking their tables, chairs, table
settings and plenty of "bonne bouffe" into
the streets.
The Lyon group is in the midst of
compiling an international review of
sustainable transportation groups and
their activities.
Regroupement Pour Une Ville Sans Voitures
(RVV), 20, rue Cavenne, F-69007 Lyon,
France Fax: (33) 78 28 57 78.
THE MOST BICYCLE-FRIENDLY CITY
Strasbourg - The high bicycling
consciousness in this city means that 15%
of trips are by bicycle. Strasbourg has a
new large inner city mall, municipal
bicycle rental facilities, and extensive bike
parking. (Le Monde à Bicyclette, autumn
94)
OXFORD'S FIGHT AGAINST CARS
The fight against the downtown car rages
in Oxford, where cycling and pedestrian
groups have gathered 20,000 signatures
calling for a ban on cars downtown. In
addition, every Friday afternoon
hundreds of cyclists converge on the
downtown to paralyze car traffic. (Le
Monde à Bicyclette, autumn 94)
PARAMEDICS ON BICYCLES
Paramedics in Phoenix, AZ use specially
equipped bicycles for parades, festivals
and sports events, in order to provide
emergency service more quickly than
motorized paramedics could.
(International Bicycle Fund News, 1994/2)
BICYCLE RACKS ON BUSES IN
EDMONTON
Ardent cyclist, committed activist and
now Edmonton City Councillor Tooker
Gomberg paid to have front-end bicycle
racks installed on Edmonton buses. To
reduce Edmonton's debt, Gomberg had
asked all city employees and elected
officials to take a 5% pay cut. In the end,
only Gomberg agreed to do so, and
insisted that his $1,500 be used for bicycle
facilities. Transit commissions in Seattle,
Washington and Phoenix, Arizona have
equipped all their buses with bike racks.
Portland, Oregon, Mountain View and
Santa Barbara, California, and
Willimantic, Connecticut are some of the
other municipalities equipped with bike
racks on buses. (Le Monde à Bicyclette,
autumn 94)
TORONTO MUST BANISH CARS BY
2032
A report issued by the Canadian Urban
Institute concluded that cities without
cars are feasible, desirable and even
necessary. "You had a bunch of skeptics
who finished up by saying that this study
has changed their views of the world,"
said Richard Gilbert, president of the
Toronto-based Institute, "and it's a
scenario that should be pursued."
While residents are more concerned with
the sheer aggravation of cars that zip
along their streets, it will likely be
environmental concerns that will dictate
tighter controls on auto use, Gilbert says.
In this new city, the report portrayed the
greater Toronto area as being without
personal cars by 2032. It envisages
community buses on suburban residential
streets, streetcars, high-speed trains
between cities, car rentals for outside the
city, electric-powered taxis, company-
owned minibuses and van pools. Streets
once busy with cars would become
teeming pedestrian malls, a press of street
vendors, shoppers, business people,
cyclists and parents pushing prams.
(Toronto Star, 2 Nov 94)
For copies of the report: Canadian Urban
Institute, 2nd floor, West Tower, City
Hall, Toronto, M5H 2N1 416-397-0082,
Fax: 397-0276
TRAFFIC CALMING IN TORONTO -
Wayne Roberts
An expert in traffic calming, Tom
Samuels of the Better Transportation
Coalition, thinks Not In My Front Yard
will do to traffic dumping in the 1990s
what Not In My Back Yard did to garbage
dumping in the 80s.
Although people may like speeding
through other neighbourhoods, they
don't want cars speeding through theirs.
And although purists might call this
hypocrisy, the double standard at least
raises the standard of neighbourhood
higher than it has been before and throws
a monkey wrench on the drafting tables
of traffic engineers.
"It's not coming from environmentalists,
planners, architects or doctors. It's coming
from housewives and parents. They want
community. They want their kids to be
safe from the number one child-killer
today¾the car¾which hits one child in
10 before the age of 14, most of them less
than half a kilometre from home. It's
coming from all walks of life. That's why
it works." [...]
In Toronto, 20 neighbourhoods have
applied to city council to have their
streets "traffic calmed", set up with special
planters, kiosks, art displays, curbs, speed
bumps, multiple stop signs and the like to
give pedestrians a leg up on cars.
In car havens, like Scarborough, residents
bordering on Toronto have stopped rush-
hour drivers from taking shortcuts
through their neighbourhoods by
banning left-hand turns. (NOW, 29 Dec
94-4 Jan 95)
FRIENDS OF THE MARKET FORMED
Over the past year or so, members of Auto-
Free Ottawa have been discussing the idea of reducing
car traffic in the By Ward Market. The Market is an
ideal place to start the move to a car-free city as it is
already relatively pedestrian-friendly. Members have
been out in the Market canvassing support for the idea
of closing By Ward and William Streets on weekends
during the summer, on a trial basis. Nearly 1,000
signatures have been gathered in support of a petition
requesting such a closure. This will soon be delivered
to City Council.
The response from shoppers has been
overwhelmingly supportive. Business people in the
area have been less than enthusiastic. They equate car
traffic with business. Proving that a car-free Market
will be viable, and involving these local interests in a
positive way will be a big challenge. This project is
expected to run over the course of the next several
years and results will likely take years to realize. But
for an auto-free Ottawa, we have to start somewhere.
As an extension of the petition-signing
campaign, a coalition of members from Auto-Free
Ottawa, OttaWalk and other community groups has
been formed. This new coalition, Friends of the
Market, is planning to hold a public forum on the
subject of traffic in the Market. Several prominent local
architects have expressed an interest in this project and
planning for the one-day forum, which is scheduled
for the first half of June 1995, is already well
underway.
An often-heard nix to the idea of barring cars
from William and By Ward Streets is the problem of
transporting purchases (e.g. flats of flowers or bags of
fruit) to cars parked in the surrounding parking areas.
To show that alternative ways of doing things can be
worked out, the Friends of the Market coalition plans
to find funds for the construction of a pedal-powered
vehicle suitable for transporting such goods. Using this
vehicle, coalition members plan to offer porter services
in the area next summer.
For this and for other work surrounding the
forum, more coalition members will be needed. If
you would like to get involved, you are most
welcome. Please call 723-2325.
TRAFFIC CALMING IN CENTRETOWN WEST - Eric Darwin
"Traffic calming" is the latest buzzwork in planning
circles. In the area just west of the downtown Ottawa
core, consultants have been hired to do a parking
study and traffic management study for the Somerset
Heights area.
The basic tools of traffic calming include street
narrowings, street closures, diversions, mazes, stop
signs and various other prohibitions. The consultants
in the Centretown West study area have some newer
tools that are designed to be more subtle, yet effective
at traffic calming.
The most intriguing idea is to turn ordinary
intersections into mini-traffic circles, by constructing a
6+ foot diameter concrete curb ring in the centre of the
intersection. The centre of the ring can be grassed or
paved. Motorists approaching the intersection must
slow down in order to drive around the concrete curb
ring. Motorists turning left must drive 270 degrees
around the circle, since the concrete ring is so sized to
prevent sneaking diagonally to the left around the
ring. Amazingly enough, any stop signs at the
intersection are removed, since motorists
automatically slow down. Motorists seem to intuitively
understand the manoeuvres required (i.e. unlike some
other traffic calming attempts, motorists do not get
confused and frustrated). Measurements taken at
intersections with stop signs show high levels of
disregard for the signs, and motorists tend to speed up
after the sign in an attempt to regain time lost at the
stop. But for the circle, motorists don't actually come to
a stop, and therefore, they don't speed up in the
following mid-block. The circles seem to be perfect
traffic calming devices since they are cheap, easily
understood, effective, and self-enforcing.
The "sleeping policeman" is the original self-enforcing
device that everyone is familiar with. This takes the
form of a steep bump about six inches high running
across the traffic lane. The updated version of the
speed bump extends the size of the bump into a hump
about 12 feet across and gently rising about 6-8" high.
The hump is not such an obvious challenge to the
motorist, since vehicle traffic at slow to moderate
speeds doesn't even need to slow down, but motorists
going too fast get a nasty bump. Like the sleeping
policeman, it's self-enforcing; but it's also friendlier to
snowplows, bicycles and slow-moving vehicles.
Toronto streetcar tracks are set in concrete, flush to the
asphalt pavement. Despite warning signs, motorists
use the track area just like any other car lane. In
Amsterdam, the streetcar tracks are set in concrete
raised 8 inches above the asphalt, with a very steep
slope joining the two surfaces. Cars can cross the
streetcar right-of-way, but it requires considerable
effort and determination. The result: streetcars speed
along a clear portion of the road. Public transit gets
effective priority over the private motorist. Why can't
we give pedestrians similar priority over cars at
intersections?
At intersections of residential streets, and maybe even
at intersections of residential streets to collector streets
and regional roads, the pedestrian concrete sidewalk
should continue straight across the traffic lanes.
Motorists would have to slow down, climb over the
sidewalk, proceed through the intersection, and climb
over the sidewalk on the other side of the intersection.
The crossings would be similar to the speed humps in
that they are self-enforcing, non-frustrating traffic
calming measures. The message would clearly be
conveyed that we perceive our residential precincts to
be for pedestrians, cyclists, and not for speeders.
Intersection priority would return to the pedestrian
from the motorist.
If traffic calming is to be more than just a bandaid to
festering traffic-caused problems, it needs to be applied
more rigorously to the day-to-day activities of our
municipal planners and engineers. For example, there
is a pedestrian crossover on Preston Street. It will be
replaced by a full set of traffic signals costing at least
$40,000. Yet the engineers cheerfully admit that the
traffic levels at the intersection don't warrant signals,
and won't help pedestrians cross the street elsewhere
in the area. Pedestrians will, of course, largely ignore
the signal, since it requires a lengthy wait before the
light turns green, and pedestrians will continue to
cross the street at each of the other nearby
intersections.
At the same time the Region and City are ignoring the
Preston Street planning study that recommended
building peninsulas out from the curb to narrow
Preston to two travelled lanes. Each peninsula would
have a tree or other "street furniture". The regional
traffic department approved the narrowings in
principle, since the current and projected volumes on
Preston won't require four traffic lanes.
It seems to have escaped the traffic department people
that perhaps the $40,000 so readily approved for an
admittedly unwarranted traffic signal could be better
used to construct the narrowings at several locations
near the current pedestrian crossover.
To be relevant, traffic calming has to escape the
"special effects" category and become part of the daily
planning practice. When the city totally reconstructs
streets (it does several a year), it should cease to
rebuild them the way they were, and design in traffic-
calming features from the very beginning, as well as
tree planting and other good things residents want.
The cost of "traffic calming" retrofits pales into
insignificance compared to the millions and millions
spent each year to build streets on the old traditional
model: too wide, too smooth, over-lit. The natural
result of the old model is more and more traffic
travelling too fast, and the consequent banishing of the
pedestrian and cyclist.
I suggest that it will be necessary to go right back to
the basics of how we design and build our streets and
sidewalks. Engineers direct water and slush over to the
pedestrian, and away from the sacred car. Sidewalk
design compounds the problem by dipping and roller-
coastering. Why not reverse the slope of the road so
that water drains to the centre line, where the
catchbasins could be located? Splashed pedestrians
and flooded sidewalks would become a thing of the
unenlightened past, the slope of the road to the centre
line, and to each catchbasin, would result in a road
surface that gently undulates and thus slows traffic.
Sounds downright logical to me. Too logical, probably.
Coupled with some more overtly pedestrian-friendly
features like raised sidewalks at intersections, trees
planted along the curb line, and we might actually find
the friendly city we so tragically designed out of
existence.
OTTAWANS GO AUTO-FREE
CONGRATULATIONS to Linda Hoad and Larry
Tyldsley who went car-free in 1994.
"I got rid of my car. I'm going to be rich," Linda Hoad
was telling everyone last August when she junked her
car. So far she has saved at least $200 (she spent $14
each on bike tires). Linda says she has more free time
and enjoys not having to shovel snow or scrape ice.
She is now looking forward to the cycling season!
Larry Tyldsley sold his car and found freedom! Larry
says: "Freedom 55 - Who needs insurance company
slavery! I've discovered how to find freedom right
now. No insurance, no snow shovelling, no traffic
jams. Snowstorms are only anticipated with
excitement, and with the money I was wasting on
insurance, upkeep and purchase costs, I will have
Freedom 55 without giving hundreds of thousands of
dollars to conglomerates."
AUTO-FREE OTTAWA ACTIVITIES UPDATE
A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL THOSE PEOPLE WHO WORKED
ON OUR NEW LITERATURE AND NEW PROJECTS!!!!!
Coming soon: Russell McCormon has been busy getting a menu set
up for Auto-Free Ottawa accessible through Freenet.
Sue Collis and Daniel Aarons from Food Not Bombs have asked
AFO to endorse their Nobody's Bike Project. The project involves
collecting and reconditioning bikes to be given away to low-income
people, refugee groups, women's shelters, etc. They are looking for
support from a wide range of groups.
Jane Stratton-Zimmer and Carolyn Luce announced the formation
of Friends of the Market (see p. 13) to organize public forums on an
auto-free By Ward Market.
5,000 copies of a new pamphlet, designed and written by Caroline
Vanneste, Nancy Shaver and Lucy Segatti (with cover graphic by
Nancy Shaver), are going to be distributed over the coming months.
We need help to ensure widespread distribution! To volunteer,
please call 565-3676.
Neale MacMillan and Charles Shrubsole have both agreed to
represent AFO on TEAP (RMOC'S Transportation Environment
Action Plan).
Carolyn Luce volunteered to keep us up-to-date on the Laurier
Street public meetings.
An Activist Club is being formed to recruit people to do the
following: distribution of pamphlets; postering; calling and writing
to new regional and city councillors; letters to the editor; media
events.
Depaving Project: Turning Grey to Green
A small committee has formed to look for paved areas in the city
that could be converted to greenspace.
FEEL LIKE VOLUNTEERING??? CALL 565-3676
IF CARS ARE HERE TO STAY THEN HUMANS AREN'T
DRIVERS CAN DAMAGE YOUR HEALTH
Traffic pollution is linked with heart and lung disease, asthma and
hay fever attacks and it may cause cancers, says a group of eight
leading specialists in environmental pollution, health and transport.
It is even linked to the common cold. [...]
Road traffic is the major source of air pollution in towns and cities.
The report says that the predicted doubling of the number of
vehicles on the road by 2025 will outweigh the benefits of catalytic
converters. [...] The report calls for better public transport, and
measures to curb the volume of traffic. (New Scientist, 13 August
1994)
KILLER SMOG STALKS THE BOULEVARDS
PARIS¾More people die from heart and lung disease on smoggy
days, say French researchers. The mortality patterns they identified
in a six-year study of air pollution in Paris are similar to those seen
in cities in the US, Britain and Brazil. [...]
Their report concludes that health effects linked directly to smog
are "sufficient to justify measures to control atmospheric pollution
and preventative measures". (New Scientist, 15 Oct 94)
CARBON MONOXIDE BLOWS OVER WINDY CITY
In December, carbon monoxide levels in Chicago were so high all
over the city that people were reporting their detectors were going
off. While the air quality was indeed poor, the response was that
"First Alert" will be decreasing the sensitivity of their carbon
monoxide detectors. (John Odlum via freenet)
DROWSY DRIVERS CAUSE OF MANY FATAL CRASHES
Washington¾Drowsy drivers may cause as many accidents as
drunken drivers¾30% of fatal crashes in one study¾and at least
one American in every 20 has caused an accident by nodding off at
the wheel, sleep researchers say.
Don't blame boring highways and long drives for drowsing and
driving, said Thomas Roth, a researcher at Henry Ford Hospital in
Detroit. Instead, he said, blame a stubborn unwillingness to submit
to slumber and a hyperactive US lifestyle with inadequate time for
sleep. (Globe and Mail, 8 Dec 94)
BUYING INTO GOOD INTENTIONS - Wayne Roberts,
Imperial Oil donates to Safe Kids Canada, and runs Safe Kids
Buckle Up ads during prime time in a bid to identify with parents
who rank family values and the welfare of their kids as priority
concerns. [...]
Preventable injuries, as distinct from diseases, are responsible for
half the yearly child death and injury toll, and cost about $13 billion
a year. [...]
It's always been true that the road to hell is paved with good
intentions.
If evil were confined to bad people trying to do terrible things for
awful reasons, it would be easy to control. Self-indulgence and
superficiality are bigger problems than insincerity and self-interest.
Imperial Oil has a normal desire to identify itself with kids in safely
buckled carseats, and it doesn't sponsor slideshows of seals or otters
drenched in oil after the disaster caused by the parent company's
Exxon Valdez.
What else is odd? That the buckle-up campaign grossly distorts the
real dangers kids face with cars.
As the statistics from Safe Kids Canada make clear, the real
innocents among the 1,372 children who die from preventable
injuries each year are the poor, and pedestrians and cyclists struck
down by cars.
I asked Safe Kids' Valerie Tibbles why the campaign focused on
seatbelts instead of safe streets, and why Safe Kids didn't promote
pedestrian-friendly but car-hostile "living streets", which are
becoming increasingly common in Europe.
"Kids and cars don't mix, whether it's inside or outside of cars," she
tells me. "It's an area that hasn't had a lot of attention."
Imperial Oil spokesperson Ken Hubley says, "We wouldn't view it
as very productive" if Safe Kids pushed reducing car use. The
campaign, he says, "provides a forum where we can be viewed in
society as a good corporate citizen. Imperial has always been one of
the top corporate donors in the country." (NOW, 17-23 Nov 94)
PARKING GLUT LEECHES FROM THE PUBLIC PURSE - Angela Bischoff
Few would argue that free parking means subsidized
parking, but how many know that paid parking is also
subsidized by the public purse?
Underground, heated parkades cost $15,000 to $25,000
per stall to build. If a parker were to pay $125 per
month, that's just $1,500 per year¾only a portion of
the real cost. Who ends up paying? The public, that's
who.
If you subtract revenues from expenditures (1993 City
of Edmonton budget) for Parking Operations for the
City, you come up with a loss¾or a tax subsidy¾of
$2,347,000! Should taxpayers carry this burden? No.
Drivers should pay the full costs of parking at those
facilities.
The problem stems from an oversupply of parking,
which exceeds demand by two to one in the
downtown core, contrary to popular belief. A parking
glut pushes prices down.
The concealed costs of parking are surprisingly large.
A recent study by the Transportation Research Board
estimates that residential parking requirements add
more than $600 per year ($50 per month) to the
average cost of rental housing¾regardless of whether
or not the residents use the parking facilities.
Perhaps if employers or landlords offered their
employees and residents the cash equivalent of
parking space, we'd see less incentive to drive.
The City should pursue the authority to tax private
parking operations, pushing prices up across the
board to better reflect the true costs. (EcoCity Report,
summer 94)
PHASING OUT SUBSIDIES TO MOTOR TRAFFIC - Charles Shrubsole
All levels of government are squeezed for funds and
are looking for ways to cut expenses. Unfortunately
they are failing to see what should be obvious, that
cutting subsidies to motor transport would be one of
the most effective way to save money. This subsidy
has been estimated to amount to about $2,750 per
vehicle per year in direct quantifiable public subsidy
(CRD Task Group on Atmospheric Change, Victoria,
B.C., 1992), not counting long term effects and indirect
costs like environmental and social costs. Users of
motor transport should bear the full cost of road
construction and maintenance and other costs related
to motor transport, which should no longer be paid for
out of general revenue. Subsidies to motoring should
be phased out.
PHASE I
The first step in eliminating public subsidies to
motoring would be to set up a Crown corporation,
Ontario Motorroads Ltd. or whatever, which we will
call the 'Company' from now on. Initially the
Company would take over all limited-access
highways, that is, all roads which have the movement
of motor traffic as their sole purpose, and the Ministry
of Transport functions concerned with them. By the
end of a specified transition period it would be
required to meet all its expenses from user fees of
various types, such as surcharges on motor fuels,
licenses and permits, tolls, electronic road pricing, and
so forth. These service charges would of course be
subject to PST and GST.
The legal status of the Company would be much like
that of a railway. It would pay municipal taxes on its
installations. The Company would establish vehicle
standards and regulations for road users. To enforce
compliance with the rules of the road, it could have its
own police force, like the railway police, or contract for
the services of the Ontario Provincial Police.
The Company's fee schedule would be subject to the
approval of a suitable regulatory body, which would
be required by law to take into account the Company's
obligation to cover all its expenses from user fees. It
should also consider fairness to various classes of
users. While users pay only a small part of road costs,
some pay more and some less than their share of that
portion. Rural and small-town drivers subsidize city
motorists, and owners of private cars and light trucks
subsidize heavy vehicles. Studies have estimated that
damage to roads increases proportionally to the fifth
power of vehicle weight, so a vehicle that weighs twice
as much will cause 32 times as much wear and tear on
the road.
The same body would also rule on applications to
abandon uneconomic roads. The Company would be
obliged to rehabilitate for other uses the land occupied
by abandoned roads. Some of the rehabilitation cost
could be recouped by selling the former right-of-way
for public transit or railway lines, or for building sites.
PHASE II
Having the Company take over limited-access
highways would be only a start towards getting
motorists to pay their own way and not travel largely
at the expense of the general public, which includes
those who cannot afford a car as well as those who
resent their taxes being used to promote an activity
which they consider undesirable. It does not take into
account the cost of measures (other than the
construction of limited-access highways) taken within
cities to facilitate the movement of motor traffic.
Separating the cost of these measures, which should be
borne by road users, from public works for the benefit
of all, which are a legitimate application of general
revenue, is a bit more complicated.
To help unravel this complication, it is useful to make a
distinction between streets, for access to onlying
properties, and roads, for moving traffic. Whether we
drive or not, we need streets so goods and services can
be delivered, garbage picked up, and so forth. Streets
and concession roads, their rural equivalent, are a
legitimate municipal expense. Not so roads. The
complication is that some thoroughfares serve both
purposes and some basis must be devised for a fair
division of costs between the Company and the
municipality, and hence between motorists and the
general public. Perhaps the best approach is to let a
certain width, required for the 'street' function, belong
to the municipality, and the rest be the property and
responsibility of the Company. The municipality
would pay a share of maintenance costs proportional
to its share of the total width.
Corner cutaways and right-turn cutoffs would of
course become Company property. The Company
would also take over all signs and signals for
regulating traffic and absorb most municipal transport
department employees, except for those needed to
manage street maintenance, and public transit in cities
where it is responsibility of the municipal transport
department.
Once the Company has taken responsibility for all
motor traffic, it should be obliged to reimburse OHIP
for the medical costs of traffic victims.
IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC TRANSIT
In the long run, public transit should gain many more
customers once we stop paying people not to use it,
and perhaps could support itself from the farebox
without public subsidy. It is undesirable to subsidize
any form of transport; rather, we should encourage
non-transport solutions to problems, such as living
closer to your job or finding a job closer to home, and
shopping locally. In the short run transit will need
increased subsidies. The ridership increase will not
happen overnight while having to pay the full cost of
road use will cause an immediate sharp rise in
operating costs. These interim subsidies should be
paid on the basis of transit system output, so much per
km or vehicle-hour of service or, better, per passenger.
Paying a subsidy related to road costs would amount
to subsidizing road use with public funds, which is
what we are trying to eliminate, and would not
encourage public transit operators to economize on
road charges by using different types of vehicles or
escape them entirely by building their own networks.
A temporary exemption from municipal taxes for such
transit installations would also be in order.
Big buses are hard on roads and would have to pay
heavy fees to use them. Smaller, lighter buses should
not have to pay as much. Run more often to provide
the same capacity, they would provide more
convenient service and attract more customers. These
economies might offset the higher labour costs.
Other means of public transit would to a greater or less
extent or other escape these fees. Obviously subways
and other public transit lines that have their own
rights-of-way independent of the road system would
be totally exempt. Where streetcar tracks are imbedded
in roads, the paving around the track is generally the
responsibility of the transit company. Therefore, this
part of the road should be considered the property of
the transit operation, which should charge the
Company a fee for its use by motor traffic, or segregate
it from road traffic if adequate payment is not
forthcoming. Trolleybuses are limited to stretches of
road which are wired for its operation, unlike motor
buses, which can go anywhere. Therefore it is easy to
determine how much actual use they make of
Company roads, and they should not be charged for
travel on city streets or on rights-of-way owned by the
transit operation.
The Province should make funds available to help
public transit expand vehicle fleets to handle increased
ridership, buy new types of vehicle, and build
independent rights-of-way for transit operation,
perhaps by lending money to transit operations at
provincial interest rates.
PRIVATE-SECTOR SUBSIDIES
These policies would largely eliminate direct public
subsidies to motor traffic, but the private sector also
subsidizes car use, mainly by providing free parking
for workers and customers. This also results in public
costs through reduced tax receipts.
Parking for workers should be considered a taxable
benefit for those who actually use it, as it is in
Germany.
There is really no free parking for customers, it is paid
for in the cost of the goods they buy. What is unfair is
that those who arrive on foot or by public transit and
do not use the 'free' parking also pay higher prices to
subsidize those who do. As the cost of providing this
parking is considered a legitimate business expense,
no tax is paid on it. To stop this loss of tax revenue,
and in the process encourage a fair deal for
non-motorists, provision of free or subsidized
customer parking should be disallowed as a business
expense. The cost of customer parking should be
allowed as an expense only if a charge is made for it,
and then only to offset income from parking fees.
Residential parking should also be charged for
separately on a full-cost basis. Only those who actually
use it should have to pay.
This is just a once-over-lightly treatment of the parking
question; the whole subject demands fuller treatment
in a separate article.
BENEFITS
These proposals would increase the cost of motoring
but decrease all manner of other personal costs.
Municipal taxes, and hence rents, could be much lower
if the tax-exempt status of motor roads were ended
and the burden of building and maintaining them
lifted from municipal budgets. By reducing the cost of
doing business this should also reduce retail prices,
which would be further reduced once the cost of
parking space was shifted from customers in general
to those who actually use it. The rate of sales tax paid
on purchases could also be much lower if the Province
were to stop financing roads from general revenue.
Welfare payments could be reduced to correspond
with the reduced cost of living without hardship to
recipients, further reducing the need for tax revenue.
With more customers to support it, public transit
should get better. Just about all measures transit
companies might take to reduce or eliminate road
charges would also enhance the comfort and
convenience of the service. Transit could become
self-supporting from fares, relieving provincial and
municipal taxpayers of the cost of transit subsidies.
With the cost of doing business reduced, more retailers
would be able to stay in business, especially those that
are marginally profitable because they cater to
minority interests or tastes. This would give shoppers
a wider variety of goods to choose from. Once car
ownership and use were no longer highly subsidized,
more customers would decide to rely on the improved
public transit rather than own a car, and thereby have
thousands of dollars more to spend on other things.
Non-car-related businesses would prosper
accordingly.
The demand for parking space would be reduced;
there would be fewer motorists, and not as many of
them would want it when they have to pay for it as
when they got it free. Parking would be easier to find
for those willing to pay the price. Some land now used
for parking would be put to more productive use as it
became surplus to requirements, effectively increasing
the density of development and reducing the need for
transport.
The balance between car and transit use will shift
towards transit use, which is inherently more
economical, and towards local travel on foot, which is
even cheaper, once travellers have to pay their full
costs. This will favour local and downtown retail trade
over car-oriented suburban malls.
Reducing motor traffic would reduce air pollution and
noise. A shift towards electric transit technologies
would also help in both respects. There would be less
loss of life and limb from traffic mishaps.
Altogether, life should become more pleasant in
cleaner, quieter, safer, more affordable, more
prosperous, livelier cities.
OTTAWA: COMMUTER RAIL, WORLD FAIRS AND WINTER CYCLING
EXPO 2005: A WORLD'S FAIR ON
LEBRETON FLATS
A very active group of people is lobbying to
have Ottawa chosen as the site of a World's Fair in
2005. They already have the guarded support of most
municipalities in the region (sometimes without public
notification and comment). They have visited Paris to
lobby the international community. They are also
seeking the support of the Federal Government who
must decide in February if Canada will seek a Fair, and
which city should be the host.
Expo has not been able to answer questions
raised over 2 years ago on the full costs in hosting a
fair, or on community impacts. They are only now
negotiating avenues for meaningful community
representation on the board.
If a Fair were to occur, it would likely be held
on LeBreton Flats and the Islands: 75% of its
attendance would draw from a target population
within a 10-hour drive. Up to 50% of the people
attending the fair would use their cars to get here. This
would require upgrades to Highway 416 and either
417 or 550, as well 11,000 to 15,000 new parking
spaces: 3,328 adjacent to the site and the rest at or
near existing park-and-rides. Use of the private
automobile is so embedded that 1% of the Fair's
operating revenues are expected to come from parking
fees. It is assumed that 35% of fair-goers will use public
transit requiring upgrades to public transit and the
airport.
(cont'd next page)
COMMUTER RAIL SURVIVES CONSULTANT'S
REPORT - Linda Hoad
On Tuesday January 17 1995, members of the
public, regional representatives and local MPP Evelyn
Gigantes, made it clear that they wanted all the facts
about commuter rail examined.
Consultants, staff, senior bureaucrats and
politicians met during the day to review the
consultant's report, to hear CP Rail's response to the
report, and to hammer out what should happen next.
Over 100 people attended the final Public Advisory
Committee meeting of the Interprovincial Commuter
Rail Appraisal Study at RMOC headquarters in the
evening to learn what had been decided and to express
their views.
Briefly, the consultants and CP Rail agreed
that start-up ridership would be between 8,000 and
10,000 people a day. (GO service has been started with
ridership in the 3,500 to 5,000 range.) All parties
agreed that this is a firm basis on which to proceed,
and staff of the transportation departments and
ministries agreed to seek the support of the regional
councils and ministers of transportation to fund
further studies. CP Rail agreed to prepare a more
detailed start-up proposal with firm capital costs, and
to negotiate operating costs with the regional
governments.
Councillors Alex Cullen and Linda Davis voiced their
strong support for further study. MPP Evelyn Gigantes
indicated in a press release that she is committed to
seeing that further work be undertaken to develop a
(Expo cont'd)
All these upgrades are referred to as the "legacies of
the fair" by the organisers, though they are not going
to pay for them: taxpayers will¾probably through
re-direction of existing infrastructure funding, and
possibly taxation. It is argued that the more rapid
development of new infrastructure required for the fair
will advance regional economic development. It is also
proposed that the media coverage will be a significant
boost to the area's tourism and other businesses.
A fair¾if it's going to occur¾will require government
support and public money. It is also going to require
the active participation of citizens at every level. Let's
make sure it reflects and promotes the kind of region,
and regional economy we want. Let's also make sure
the public and the local community understands the
full costs.
Finally, let's make sure the community, especially the
local community, is involved in a meaningful way.
Auto-Free Ottawa is part of a Neighbours Coalition
that is working for meaningful board representation
for "Neighbours of the Site". This is but the first step in
developing a truly community-based fair that reflects
our vision for this region. We hope the participation
by the "Neighbours of the Site" is resolved, and
resolved quickly. What we do regarding Expo will
depend on how, and how soon this happens.
What do you think about Expo 2005? Want to keep
updated? Want to ensure that your vision becomes
part of the Fair? Write auto-free zone with your
comments, concerns or interests. Together we'll make
a difference!
(Rail cont'd)
reasonable working plan for interprovincial commuter
rail. Cheryl Parrott stated that the Hintonburg
Community Association is opposed to an arterial road
or to a bus transitway in the rail corridor but fully
supports the commuter rail proposal. A straw vote of
those present at the meeting indicated overwhelming
support for commuter rail.
The only negative note was provided by Marc
Croteau, Chair of the Communauté urbaine de
l'Outaouais, who reiterated his council's position that
the proposal is too expensive and that therefore the
council did not wish to pursue the matter further.
However, M. Croteau and other politicians in Quebec
have agreed to meet with CP Rail to discuss their
concerns about costs and benefits.
Representatives of several citizens' groups from the
Outaouais who have been part of the Public Advisory
Committee voiced strong support for the proposal.
Councillor Linda Davis agreed to use an existing
intra-regional committee to try to resolve the
differences between the RMOC and the CUO over
interprovincial travel; i.e., bridges or commuter rail.
The next step will happen in early March, when a
report requesting funding to pursue the commuter rail
proposal will be brought to the RMOC Transportation
Committee. If you want to see commuter rail service in
our region, please write or phone your regional
councillor (even if s/he supports commuter rail)
and/or Chair Peter Clark. It wouldn't hurt to let your
provincial and federal representative know about your
views as well, since all levels of government will be
involved in the decision (and the funding)!
To receive a list of Regional Councillors' phone
numbers, call the Regional Clerk at 560-6090.
City of Ottawa's
WINTER CYCLING DEMONSTRATION PROJECT
In partnership with the Ottawa Cycling Advisory Group
and the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton, the City
of Ottawa has set up a winter cycling demonstration project
to provide a safe, high quality, winter cycling environment
that is seen as a normal part of the transportation system.
Volunteer winter cyclists have been invited to "test ride"
selected routes and report on riding conditions on a weekly
basis.
This information will be used to improve winter
maintenance standards for roads designated as winter
cycling routes in Ottawa.
For more information, call George Assaff, Dept. of
Engineering and Works at 564-1142.
SUSTAINABLE EVENTS
AUTO-FREE OTTAWA MEETINGS
We will be alternating business meetings with
informal meetings to give new and old members a
chance to mingle and talk about whatever-without
having to stick to an agenda.
The next two meetings will be held on:
Wed. Feb. 22 at 7 p.m.-a working meeting at Paul
Davis'-for location call 231-2966.
Wed. March 22 at 6 p.m.-a potluck at Carolyn Luce's-
for location call 241-8176.
SECOND MUNICIPAL LEADERS' SUMMIT ON
CLIMATE CHANGE
27-29 March 1995 in Berlin, Germany
For info on the Summit, contact ICLEI (International
Council for Local Environmental Initiatives), 8th floor,
East Tower, City Hall, Toronto, Canada M5H 2N2 416-
392-1462, Fax: 416-1478.
ONTARIO ENVIRONMENT NETWORK
CONFERENCE
March 31 to April 2, 1994
Cedar Glen Conference Centre in Bolton. Highlights
include caucus meetings (including air, energy and
land use), provincial election action plans and
workshops on the Environmental Bill of Rights).
Contact: Jill Stewart, OEN, 27 Douglas St., Guelph, ON
N1H 2S7 519-837-2565, Fax: 519-837-8113, e-mail:
oen@web.apc.org
8th INTERNATIONAL VELO-CITY CONFERENCE
26-30 September 1995, Basel, Switzerland
For info: Velo-City Conference '95, PO Box CH-4124
Schonenbuch, Switzerland. Tel/Fax: +41 61 481 65 65.
THE GLOBAL RESTORATION FAIR!
April 21 to September 21, 1995
In late 1992, the Union of Concerned Scientists
published a statement signed by 2,000 scientists (102
Nobel laureates) including these words:
"No more than one or a few decades remain before
the chance to avert the threats we now confront will
be lost and the prospects for humanity immeasurably
diminished. A new ethic is required, a new attitude
toward discharging our responsibility for caring for
ourselves and for the earth. This ethic must motivate
a great movement, convincing reluctant leaders and
reluctant peoples themselves to effect needed
change."
Considering the rate at which human population
growth and the profligate expenditure of the planet's
natural capital are accelerating, the conservative
approach is to concentrate hard¾in one decade, not a
few decades¾on making a U-turn that will avoid the
abyss toward which humanity is speeding, and on
redefining progress and security. The environmental
degradation that has fuelled economic growth since
the beginning of the Industrial Revolution can in no
way be repeated.
Our best present efforts are only slowing the rate at
which things get worse. The most important move is to
turn away from the abyss and to regenerate
environmental capital instead of continuing to destroy
it¾to mobilize for the restoration of natural and
human systems. The U-turn requires, ASAP, CPR for
the Earth¾conservation, protection and restoration.
The Global Restoration Fair, at the new Presidio
National Park in 1995 will dramatize ways to achieve a
sustainable, peaceful, equitable society in time.
Future generations cannot survive on the pitiful dregs
our present habits will leave them, in what amount to
grand larceny against the future. Global CPR can stop
it. For more info: Global CPR/Fair, Earth Island, 300
Broadway, San Francisco, CA 94133-3312.
CARS ARE RUINING MY LIFE AND OUR BIOSPHERE!
Sign me up, and ...................................................................................send a complimentary copy to:
___ $20.00 individual or family ___ $10.00 un/underwaged
___ $50.00 corporate/institutional ___ donation (sorry, we don't issue tax receipts)
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
Name Name
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
Address Address
Tel: (h)___________________(w)______________________ (e-mail) __________________
AUTO-FREE OTTAWA, Box 57006, 797 Somerset St. W., Ottawa River Bioregion, Ontario K1R 1A1 (613) 234-0923