July-September 1993 Volume 1 No. 4
EC0-CITIES IN THE MAKING
In Towards An Eco-City, David Engwicht describes
how people can reverse the social segregation and
environmental damage caused by our car-dominated
transport systems in our cities. Here are some of his
ideas.
"Build healthy neighbourhoods. Before any new
residential development takes place, the boundaries
of the neighbourhood/s and centre/s must be clearly
defined. Then each neighbourhood should become
as self-sufficient as possible. Encourage the
community life of the street through festivals,
markets, gathering places, buskers, soap boxes.
Strengthen the city centre. It is here that the cultural
experiences that take place in microcosm at the
neighbourhood level happen on a grander scale. The
focus of the city centre must be people, diverse
cultural expression, commerce and colourful
exchange.
Optimise exchange efficiency. The goal of the eco-
city is to minimise the costs (resources and time) of
exchange. This can be done by bringing destinations
to the people rather than spending money on road
space, time and resources to transport people to
exchange opportunities. Increase the density of
housing and creatively mix it with job and exchange
opportunities.
Charge the true cost of transport. People who walk,
cycle and use public transport subsidise the costs of
people who drive. We must promote "exchange-
friendly" modes of transport. For example, increase
the safety and attractiveness of walking and
cycleways.
Build the "commons". Cheap energy and the
automobile have dispersed urban life and reduced
the shared domains such as courtyards and
neighbourhood stores. The neighbourhood
promenade is a way of re-building the commons.
This loop connects important activity centres: school,
park, shopping centre, historical spots, transit stops,
day-care centre, library. It has activity centres along
its length such as children's fishing ponds, and it
never crosses a road. Boulder City in Colorado has a
loop which is the social focus of the city. (cont'd on
p. 2)
SMART CARS AND CAR POTATOES
Throughout the industrial world, engineers are
designing and testing futuristic transport systems in
which computer-equipped "smart" cars drive
themselves on "smart" roads. These electronic
devices are supposed to expand the capacity of
existing highways several times over.
In "Road to Nowhere", Worldwatch Institute
researcher Marcia Lowe asks "Should we even want
to expand the capacity of our highways? In a world
increasingly beset by traffic jams, traffic accidents,
and traffic-generated oil dependence, smog, and
global warming, does it make sense to try to
accommodate still more car traffic?"
IVHS, as described by Lowe consists of electronic
communication systems that seek to do five things:
automatically regulate the flow of traffic; give
information to drivers on up-to-the moment road
conditions; take over some of the driving; help track
and guide commercial fleets; and make buses and
car- and vanpools more efficient and convenient to
use.
News stories about Intelligent Vehicle/Highway
Systems (IVHS) have been overwhelmingly
enthusiastic. Dazzled by images of tightly spaced
traffic hurtling along highways that never get
clogged, readers envision themselves reading the
newspaper or even taking a nap while their cars
drive them to work. (cont'd on p. 3)
(cont'd from p. 1)
Lastly, in planning cities, I think it is
essential we consider most those who
are usually considered least, such as
children, the elderly, people with
disabilities. It is crucial to understand
whether the impact of a design or policy
decision will further marginalise these
people or whether it will increase their
participation in the life of the eco-city."
Towards an Eco-City is published by
Envirobook, Sydney, Australia.
(Permculture Journal, Mar-May 93)
SUSTAINABLE DAVIS, CALIFORNIA
"Davis, California is one of the most
astonishing places I've ever come across:
it has a population of 40,000 (which
they're keen to restrict to no more than
50,000), with 40,000 bicycles and just
9,000 cars. There are 70 kilometres of
bike lanes.
It all started back in the sixties when
three students at the University of
California's Agricultural Faculty got
elected on to the Local Council¾and
one of those students is now the Mayor.
A flow of local legislation began to
affect every aspect of life in Davis:
bylaws restrict houses to two storeys
and business premises to four; average
housing densities are much higher than
in similar towns elsewhere in the States;
allotments are made available to all flat
owners without a garden, and organic
vegetable and fruit growing is
enthusiastically encouraged; there is a
twice weekly market, provided for
mainly by local farmers¾'Local Supply
Stimulates Local Growth" is their
favourite slogan.
And it does all seem to have worked.
There are no slums, no ghettoes, very
little unemployment and the lowest
crime rate in the United States.
Planning experts come from far and
wide to see how it's done. The changes
have had the support of the vast
majority of the inhabitants of Davis,
who have discovered for themselves
that thinking and living ecologically
does not mean donning a hair shirt and
renouncing the world. Real quality of
life comes in many different shapes and
sizes.
One of the most striking features for me
[...] is the emphasis placed on public
participation. The local council actively
encourages the involvement of
interested parties at their meetings, and
there is an incredibly strong sense of
community. [...]
Regeneration and urban greening imply
a great deal more than bricks and mortar
or trees and potplants. The success of
such strategies depends on elusive,
nebulous concepts like identification,
familiarity, a sense of place, community,
feeling safe, home territory, and so on.
That intricate web of relationships with
people and places that binds a
community together¾providing
continuity and security¾is almost
impossible for planners and politicians
to deal with, precisely because it's
unquantifiable. And that's why
politicians and planners should always
live among the people they aspire to
serve.
An urban community works well when
it integrates all the different facets of
our lives, and allows each of us to work
well as a whole person, not just a bit of a
person who happens to be passing
through. And that wholeness has to
include the natural world, contact with
other species, changing seasons, a view
of the sunset, the cycle of things
growing and dying¾even if it's only in
one's own window box. Without that, a
city has no soul, and people will
continue to leave it in pursuit of that
elusive quality of life in the countryside
or the suburbs."
Excerpt from Jonathon Porritt's Where On
Earth Are We Going? BBC Books, London,
1990, pp. 109-110.
THE HALIFAX PROJECT: ECOPOLIS,
ADELAIDE
The Halifax Project is a "piece of eco-
city" designed specifically for the City of
Adelaide, but could provide a model for
development anywhere.
The importance of the Halifax project is
that it introduces principles of
ecologically sustainable development to
the inner city. Virtually all electricity
used on the site would be generated by
the sun. Extensive use of purified rain-
water and the recycling of waste-water
on the site would help to conserve
Adelaide's scarce water supply.
Buildings would meet the highest
standards of healthy construction and
energy efficient performance. They
would also be constructed from
materials that would require minimum
energy to produce.
Dwelling options range from tiny "bed-
sits" to generous well-located
apartments, but there is no sacrifice in
quality and there are no "ghettos".
Affordable housing is also enhanced by
the proposal to incorporate up to 20% of
self-build accommodation. (cont'd on p.
4)
AUTO-FREE ZONE is published quarterly by Auto-
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Auto-Free Ottawa is a non-profit volunteer 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
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Contributors:
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AFZ Graphic: Cathy Woodgold
Other graphics: New Scientist, Ecopolis
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ISSN 1195-1958
AUTO-FREE OTTAWA ACTIVITIES
UPDATE
Since the last issue of auto-free zone, AFO
commented on the proposal for an
interprovincial bridge, attended meetings on
the South East Sector Transportation Study,
and participated in the Walk for Peace, the
Environment and Social Justice, at
Envirofest, and a Healthy Communities
Conference. Preparations are also under
way for the 2nd Annual "Streets For
People" Celebration in the By Ward Market
on June 26.
Citizens know next to nothing; indeed, subversion of
democracy has reached such remarkable heights that they
do not even know that they know nothing. ¾ Noam
Chomsky
(cont'd from p. 1)
According to Lowe, proponents of IVHS¾chiefly
automotive and electronics industries and transport
research institutions¾have convinced many
policymakers that smart cars and highways can
solve an array of transport problems. Even with
heavy traffic flowing smoothly, they say fuel use,
smog, and accidents will be greatly reduced.
Lowe points out that while the IVHS industry's
claims are impressive, many of them reflect more
conjecture than experience, and raises some crucial
points:
1) What happens when all those cars reach their
exits? Electronic traffic management is designed to
include some city streets, but smart technologies
certainly won't extend to the entire road network: a
ride on a smart highway would only be a brief spurt
in a trip that starts and ends in gridlock.
2) Parking demand would also increase. Cities have
neither the funds or physical space to meet even a
doubling of demand (to provide twice the parking
space in Washington, DC would take nearly 100
million square feet of extra space, at a cost of up to $6
billion).
3) IVHS claims of fuel efficiency pale in comparison
to the potential of other transport modes. Simulation
models and field tests of Advanced Traffic
Management Systems and Advanced Traveller
Information Systems report fuel savings of 3 to 13
percent. Existing public transit technologies reduce
fuel use by several hundred percent.
4) Of the $1 billion IVHS America recommends
spending through 1995, less than 17% is directed to
projects that include alternatives.
5) How many people would benefit from
widespread adoption of IVHS and how many would
be worse off? To take advantage of the intelligent
system, individual drivers would have to acquire the
smart car technology. Would drivers who could only
afford "regular" cars be left in the lurch? And what
about people who don't own an automobile at all?
6) While in much of the world public budgets and
infrastructures are in a state of crisis, how can
governments justify massive spending for projects
whose net benefits to the public have yet to be
established? IVHS America recommends $40 billion
in public infrastructure spending to realize its 20-
year strategic plan. A US General Accounting Office
report acknowledges, "Cost appears to be a looming
concern to the viability of the entire program."
However, if applied to public transit and ride
sharing, IVHS could make these alternatives more
attractive than driving, by giving them priority over
private cars. This approach has been used widely in
the Netherlands with marked success. Preempting
traffic signals has helped buses adhere to tight
schedules, and the resulting improved efficiency has
reduced costs and increased ridership.
IVHS technologies could also be applied to turn
automatic toll collection into "congestion pricing". A
1993 study showed that congestion tolls would cause
a 10- to 20-percent rise in the share of downtown
commuters using public transit.
Lowe recommends that policymakers redirect the
smart-cars juggernaut by: investing only in
advanced traffic management technologies that can
focus on public transit and ride sharing, giving them
priority over solo drivers in cars; using advanced
traveller information systems only for encouraging
non-driving options; applying vehicle identification
devices to collecting congestion tolls and investing
revenues in public transit, cycling and walking; at the
same time, applying compact land use patterns to
further reduce the need for driving.
If smart cars and smart highways don't pay off as
hoped, the United States' extreme dependence on
cars will make it far more vulnerable than its
competitors in Europe and Japan which, because of
more compact land use patterns, can easily fall back
on public transit, cycling and walking.
The risk of system-wide failure is too great, and the
system would require infrastructure that no
government on Earth can afford. Lowe warns that if
robot-like control were to expand highway capacity
as promised, fuel use and smog would increase as
never before.
(Excerpts from article by Marcia D. Lowe published
in World Watch Magazine, May-June 1993)
(cont'd from p. 2)
Shops, schools, pubs and workplaces for most of the
prospective inhabitants would be within 5¾10
minutes walk. Running costs would be low, and
while not expensive to live in, it would be full of
variety. A small market, meeting places, offices and
an Ecology Centre with its educational and tourism
role all contribute to the diversity of the development
and to its economic vitality.
The Halifax Project is based on the following
development Principles for an Ecopolis:
An "Ecopolis" seeks to create patterns of human
settlement in which artificial structures and natural
processes are functionally integrated to satisfy
human needs as part of the dynamic ecological
balance of living systems. Ecopolis seeks to: restore
degraded land; fit the bioregion; balance
development; halt urban sprawl; optimize energy
performance; contribute to the economy; provide
health and security; encourage community; promote
social equity; respect history; enrich the cultural
landscape; and heal the biosphere. To achieve the
first principle above, Ecopolis seeks to contribute to
the repair, replenishment and improvement of air,
water, soil, energy, biomass, food, biodiversity,
habitat, ecolinks, and waste recycling.
(For more info: Urban Ecology Australia Inc., PO Box 3040, Grenfell
St., Adelaide (Tandanya Bioregion), SA5000)
BAMBERTON, BC: HOW DO YOU DEFINE
"SUSTAINABLE"?
Unlike the Halifax Project, which seeks to restore
degraded land and balance development, although
touted as a sustainable community, the first
contradiction of the Bamberton project is that it is a
new town located on the western shore of Saanich
Inlet (Vancouver Island), 32 km from the closest town
of Mill Bay. The Bamberton site consists of 600
hectares of moderate to steep sloping land straddling
the TransCanada Highway, and was previously used
as a cement works. The development will add 12,000
to 15,000 to Vancouver Island by 2010 when the
project is expected to be completed.
Despite claims of sustainable development (a
recognized oxymoron) by South Island Development
Corporation, the project has and continues to be
controversial.
Residents on Vancouver Island fear that a
development three times larger than the largest local
town will inevitably harm the Saanich Inlet, which
has almost no natural flushing action. The
engineering study carried out by UMA Engineering
(which is the consulting firm working on the
Southeast Sector Study in Ottawa) contains only
general data, unsubstantiated by indepth field work
conducted during different seasons and
environmental conditions. Detailed field work has
been promised before each neighbourhood is
approved. Questions about water supply, which is
already strained by existing development, and the
cleanup of toxic wastes on site have not been
satisfactorily answered.
Despite South Island's claims of community
consultation and cooperation, local residents with
opposing views have not been invited back to
community meetings after raising salient issues.
The work of the architectural and planning firm of
Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, which
did the conceptual and detailed planning of
Bamberton's three residential neighbourhoods and
town centre, has often been cited as a model for
sustainable communities (for example, they have
intensified shopping mall parking lots turning them
into town centres imitating nineteenth-century town
squares.) The Bamberton design, however, still relies
heavily on the use of private vehicles. So far little
research and planning activity has focused on
integrating the Bamberton economy into the regional
economy of the Cowichan Valley. The South Island
has yet to realize the importance of integrating urban
and rural areas to create truly sustainable
communities. Obviously, South Island could use
some guidance from the Ecopolis principles being
applied in Adelaide.
(Sources: Planning Action, FPA, Box 4838, Main P.O.,
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2 in CASE STUDY # 2-3
(Committee For A Sustainable Economy); Natural
Life, Oct/Nov 92)
CONSERVATION COOP: LESS PARKING
PLEASE!
The question of how much parking should be
provided by the Conservation Coop housing project
remains unresolved at the time of writing.
The environmentally-sensitive 84-unit cooperative
housing project in Ottawa's Sandy Hill features solar
space heating and hot water, greywater recycling,
stormwater filtering systems, R-2000 insulation
levels, and heat recovery ventilation systems to
ensure indoor air quality. Coop residents will also
enjoy common greenhouse space, garden plots,
composting/recycling facilities, and share workshop,
meeting and laundry areas.
The project design favours pedestrian and bicycle
facilities over automobile parking. City of Ottawa
officials are now deciding how much and what type
of parking facilities (underground, surface, etc.)
should be provided. At the same time, existing
parking requirements are currently under review to
conform to the City's revised "green" official plan.
For more info: Susan Fisher (613) 231-3076 or David
Chernuschenko (613) 562-1067.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT PROGRAM IN
GUELPH, ONTARIO
The Guelph Round Table on the Environment and
the Economy has launched a Green Plan to involve
Guelph citizens in the planning of their city. The
Committee is seeking full participation by the
community. The Green Plan Committee has
published excellent "challenge" papers on five topics
including Transportation, and Land Use and
Development.
The paper on transportation points to the problems
of inadequate public transit, lack of integration of
transportation modes and the lack of real-cost
accounting. The solutions suggested include mixed
communities to prevent further sprawl and transport
demand managements strategies (ride-sharing,
telecommuting, better bike and pedestrian facilities,
less parking in city centre, traffic calming).
The Land Use and Development paper suggests that
greater densities, more efficient land use and zoning
changes are needed to curtail the unsustainable
sprawl that continues to consume local farmland and
destroy wetlands
(Guelph Round Table on the Environment and the
Economy, P.O. Box 29045, Eaton Centre Post Office,
55 Wyndham Street North, Guelph, ON N1H 8J4
(519) 763-3814)
"The vehicle also turns its occupants into disadvantaged persons, for it distracts them from the very activities that
made cities happen: the face-to-face exchange of goods, services, information and ideas..." John Roberts
IF CARS ARE HERE TO STAY, THEN HUMANS AREN'T!!
EL NIÑO ROARS BACK AGAINST
THE ODDS
Exceptional floods in the Andes, which
killed nearly one hundred people in
Colombia last week, have been caused
by an unexpected reappearance of El
Niño, a reversal of winds and ocean
currents that periodically engulfs the
Pacific Ocean.
Climatologists thought they had learnt
to predict when El Niño will appear.
When it arrives, normally every three or
four years, it disrupts climate across half
the globe, from East Africa to the shores
of the Americas. But researchers have
been flummoxed by the revival of the
last El Niño, which was thought to have
run its course last summer. [...]
"What has happened this year is very
unusual," says Grant Bigg of the
University of East Anglia's School of
Environmental Studies. "It's definitely a
setback for climate modelling."
During an El Niño, trade winds and
ocean currents that normally flow across
the tropical Pacific from the Americas to
Asia abruptly reverse. They cause
drought in normally wet areas of
Indonesia and Australia; often interrupt
the Indian and East African monsoons;
and bring storms to normally calm
Pacific islands and the arid west coast of
the Americas. Last year, El Niño caused
rivers to burst their banks drowning
several people in southern California.
[...]
Some researchers warn that El Niño
events could become more intense with
global warming. They appear to be
triggered by a build-up of very warm
water in the western Pacific. So, it is
argued, the warmer the oceans, the
greater the potential for El Niño. (New
Scientist, 8 May 93)
CURBING CARBON `CANNOT BE
LEFT TO TAXES'
Taxes on fossil fuels may not be the most
effective means for developed countries
to reduce their emissions of greenhouse
gases according to the International
Energy Agency. In a study called World
Energy Outlook to 2010, the agency says
that for most of the 24 industrialised
countries that make up the OECD, a
concerted effort to improve energy
efficiency would generate bigger returns
than moderate carbon taxes. But the
best option, it concludes, may be "a mix
of policies".
If no measures are taken by OECD
countries to halt emissions, the agency
forecasts that by 2010 their oil
consumption will increase by 20 per cent
of 1990 levels. But the biggest rises in
energy use and carbon emissions will
take place in developing countries
where, compared to 1990 levels, energy
and oil consumption could double as
population and economic activity grow.
[...]
The agency says even with a $36 tax a
barrel, global carbon output would still
rise by 36 per cent of its 1990 levels.
Within the OECD, this tax would leave
carbon emissions significantly above
1990 levels. "The fundamental
conclusion is that carbon taxes alone will
not be able to stabilise emissions, " says
Helga Steeg, the agency's executive
director.
The agency also predicts the likely
outcome if governments back
"commercially available" energy
conservation techniques, such as home
insulation and more efficient car engines
and industrial plant. These would
improve energy efficiency in homes and
businesses by 20 per cent, in industry by
7 per cent and in the transport sector by
10 per cent. By 2010, such measures
would stabilise emissions to 1990 levels
in Europe and North America. (New
Scientist, 8 May 93)
ATMOSPHERIC OZONE HITS A NEW
LOW
New measurements of stratospheric
ozone, which show that global levels
have hit a 14-year low, should bolster
international resolve to fight ozone
depletion say the scientists who did the
survey. The data indicate that ozone
levels in much of the northern
hemisphere were 9 per cent below
normal in December and 11 to 12 per
cent below normal last month. But the
scientists caution against panic. [...]
Stratospheric ozone absorbs much of
the Sun's ultraviolet light. Loss of ozone
and the resulting increase in ultraviolet
radiation at the Earth's surface could
cause a multitude of woes from crop
damage to human cancers. [...]
During the second half of 1992, global
ozone levels were about 4 per cent
below normal, say the scientists. In
December 1992, the average worldwide
ozone level was 280 Dobson units, the
lowest recorded since December 1987. A
normal reading would be 293 Dobson
units. [...]
In the northern hemisphere, the largest
drops in ozone were in the region
stretching from latitude 10 to 60
North¾a band that includes most of
Europe, Asia and the US. In the
southern hemisphere, ozone dropped
most sharply between 10 and 20 South.
Above the equator, levels decreased
only a little. (New Scientist, 1 May 93)
ONTARIO TO BAN USE OF CFCs FOR
COOLING CARS
Toronto¾Two major ozone-depleting
chemicals will not be allowed in car air
conditioners starting in the 1996 model
year under draft Ontario regulations.
The proposal to ban the use of
chlorofluorocarbons and
hydrochlorofluorocarbons in motor
vehicles is part of a broad provincial
effort to cut the 11,100 tonnes of CFCs
that Ontario residents discharge into the
environment annually. [...]
Environment Minister Bud Wildman
blamed the ozone depletion for the 400-
per-cent increase in Canadian skin-
cancer rates among men and the 250-
per-cent rise among women over the
past 25 years. [...]
In a concession to car drivers, Ontario
decided against requiring all cars to be
retrofitted with air conditioners that do
not use CFCs. Earlier this year, British
Columbia said it would force car owners
to have the retrofits, at a cost estimated
at $200 to $1,500 a vehicle. (Globe and
Mail, 19 May 93)
DISASTER LINGERS ON IN ALASKA
Four years after the Exxon Valdez
emptied its load of crude oil into the icy
waters of Alaska's Prince William
Sound, all has not returned to normal as
some of those reporting on the Shetland
accident suggest. [...]
Even after the mass of oil has gone,
there are less visible effects that linger
on. "It's still a disaster for the local
people," says Pam Miller of the
Wilderness Society in Anchorage. "It's
like being the family of a murder
victim." (New Scientist, 16 Jan 93)
SPECIES AFTER SPECIES SUFFERS
FROM ALASKA'S SPILL
Jawless fish, brain-damaged seals, birds
that don't breed and killer whales that
have mysteriously gone missing: these
are some of the legacies of the Exxon
Valdez disaster. In Anchorage last
week, scientists who have spent nearly
four years monitoring the effects of the
Exxon oil spill revealed damage no one
had foreseen, and forecast problems for
years to come.
At 38 000 tonnes, the Exxon spill was
small compared with many. But it has
been the subject of more research than
any other. Until recently, protracted
legal wrangling held up the release of
any findings. Now, with several seasons
of field-work completed, scientists have
been able to paint a detailed picture of
the damage in Prince William Sound.
[...]
During the spill, public sympathy
focused mostly on the birds and
mammals. But in Alaska, concern
centred on the fish that are vital to its
economy and in the diets of many
animals. Pink salmon, the most
important species, lay their eggs in the
tidal reaches of streams that run into the
sound. Many eggs died both in 1989 and
1990.
The death toll for eggs was even higher
in 1991 and 1992: 40 per cent died in
streams that had been oiled, a figure
twice that for those in unpolluted
streams. These eggs were laid by the
salmon that had survived in the first two
years. [...]
Almost 40 per cent of the salmon that
did hatch had withered muscles and
deformities of the fins. Others grew
slowly because much of their energy
was spent in detoxifying the
hydrocarbons they had ingested. Slow
growth reduces a fish's chances of
survival. [...]
Herring arrived to spawn in Prince
William Sound shortly after the spill
occurred. Because they laid their eggs
on contaminated shorelines, the
developing embryos were constantly
exposed to oil. Huge numbers that
hatched into the oil were severely
deformed, with kinked spines and
misshapen fins. Many had tiny jaws or
no jaws at all.
Adult herring showed signs of internal
haemorrhaging. The juvenile herring
that fed in oiled areas of the sound
returned to breed for the first time last
year. Many of their eggs did not hatch.
If this is the result of genetic damage,
the herring could face a long-term
decline.
What happened to many species will
never be known. "Lots of species were
not studied and even for those studied
some questions remain unanswered,"
says Evelyn Biggs, a fisheries biologist
with the fish and game department. "It's
a puzzle with a lot of pieces missing."
(New Scientist, 11 Feb 93)
DIED
Bob Van Brocklin, former mayor of
Cordova, an Alaskan town hit hard by
the Exxon Valdez oil spill; apparently of
suicide; in Cordova. Townspeople
blamed the spill's lingering social and
economic effects for his distress. (Globe
and Mail, 8 May 1993)
VALDEZ SPILL WASN'T SO BAD,
CLAIMS EXXON (see book review of
The Cancer Industry, p. 11)
With armed police at the door and a
battery of lawyers looking on, one of
America's most reviled environmental
"villains" stood up in Atlanta last week
to tell its side of the story. On neutral
territory, at a meeting of the American
Society for Testing and Materials, the oil
giant Exxon claimed that the massive
spill from its tanker Exxon Valdez in
1989 has had little lasting effect on the
wildlife of Prince William Sound.
Scientists hired by Exxon to look at the
effects of 35 000 tonnes of crude oil in
the cold Alaskan waters produced study
after study which contradicted the
findings of government researchers who
have spent four years assessing the
damage.
The scientists working for the six
government agencies that investigated
the damage accused Exxon researchers
of being selective with their data and
ignoring "hot spots" of contamination
because they fell outside randomly
chosen study sites, while at the same
time making sweeping statements about
recovery based on a few selected sites.
"There are clear instances where Exxon
has chosen to select and emphasise some
data and ignored others," says Jeff Short
of the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
[...]
Michael Fry, a seabird expert [...] goes
further: "Exxon did almost no studies in
1989¾they were out cleaning up the oil.
They designed their studies over the
winter and did them very carefully...
Where the government scientists had
shown there was no effect they designed
studies to support this. Where the
government found effects they designed
their studies to counter them. Exxon
selectively funded studies with an
apparently unlimited budget to prove
specific points." (New Scientist, 8 May
93)
`GOOD' AIR CAN KILL YOU
New York¾Air pollution by extremely
tiny particles can raise the risk of early
death, even when the pollution falls
within legally acceptable limits, a study
found.
The research, which tracked more than
8,000 adults for about 15 years, linked
the pollution chiefly to deaths from
heart and lung disease.
The fine particles, small enough to be
inhaled into the lungs, result mostly
from burning of fossil fuels for power
generation, steel production, other
industry, automobiles and home heating
with wood, coal or oil, said chief author
C. Arden Pope.
Pope, a visiting scientist in the
environmental health department at the
Harvard School of Public Health, said
the result confirms prior studies.
(Ottawa Citizen, 17 May 1993)
CHAREST EXEMPTS DRAG RACES
FROM BAN ON LEADED FUEL
Canada's Environment Minister Jean
Charest exempted car racing sports from
using leaded gasoline. Lead is a soft,
dense and malleable heavy metal. Lead
fumes enter the lunds and pass directly
into the bloodstream. Toxicological
chronic effects associated with lead
poisoning from this pathway have long
been documented. To the possible
future Prime Minister of Canada: Is the
health of the general public less
important than the profit of a few racing
car drivers? (Globe and Mail, Letter to
the Editor from Sidney Joseph,
Thornhill, ON, 9 June 93)
STEPS TOWARDS AUTO-FREEDOM...
LUTRAQ ALTERNATIVE
Several initial studies have been
completed providing further detail on
the LUTRAQ (Land Use, Transportation,
Air Quality) alternative to suburban
sprawl and the proposed Western
Bypass freeway near Portland, Oregon.
Coordinated by 1000 Friends of Oregon,
the LUTRAQ project helps show how
coordinated, ecologically-sensitive land
use and transportation policies can be
developed for a large metropolitan
region. The plan envisions mixed-use,
transit-oriented developments (TODs)
along new light rail lines near Portland.
Additional demand management
measures would be adopted to further
reduce automobile traffic.
According to recent modelling, the
LUTRAQ alternative would increase the
share of commute trips made by transit
by 45 percent over the Bypass
alternative. It would increase overall
bicycle and foot travel by 22 percent,
while reducing automobile trips per
household by 7 percent. 35 percent of
households in the new TODs would
choose to own only one car, while more
than 9 percent would not own a car at
all.
The regional Metro Council is currently
preparing a draft environmental impact
statement comparing LUTRAQ with
three pro-freeway alternatives.
To receive LUTRAQ Update, write 1000
Friends of Oregon, 534 SW Third
Avenue, Suite 300, Portland, OR 97204
(503) 497-1000. (Urban Ecology, Spring
1993)
BRINGING BACK LIGHT RAIL
AC Transit, serving Alameda and
Contra Costa counties, recently
completed an "Alternative Modes
Analysis" studying the possibility of
replacing diesel buses with light rail or
electric trolley buses on 7 popular East
Bay routes. Many of these corridors
were used by Key System trains until
the 1950s.
The study suggested electric trolleys for
routes which present engineering
difficulties for rail or are too narrow to
support a separate rail transitway, and a
route to the Oakland Airport. Building
a light-rail line could double transit
ridership in the San Pablo Avenue
corridor by the year 2010, the study
found, and would also provide marked
improvements in ridership and speed of
service on other routes.
AC Transit is under pressure to switch
to alternatives other than diesel buses
in order to comply with federal, state
and regional air quality standards.
(Urban Ecology, Spring 1993)
PEDESTRIAN-ORIENTED STREET
IMPROVEMENTS
The San Francisco Planning Commission
is considering a five-year Downtown
Pedestrian Street Improvement
Program, to be funded out of a half-cent
sales tax for transportation passed by
voters in 1989.
The draft $10 million plan envisions new
street furniture, major tree plantings,
wider sidewalks, and street corners that
flare out to provide more space for
pedestrians. Eventually portions of
some streets may be partially closed to
traffic. The Commission will decide
whether to approve the plan later this
year. (San Francisco Chronicle via Urban
Ecology, Spring 1993)
I-80 LAWSUIT UPDATE
Urban Ecology (Berkeley, CA), the
Sierra Club, Golden Gate Audubon and
Auto-Free Bay Area Coalition filed a suit
in September 1992 before the First
District Court of Appeals in San
Francisco to seek proper environmental
study of a $318 million dollar project to
widen a 17-mile stretch of I-80 through
the East Bay. The purpose of the suit is
also to force the study of alternatives
such as rail transit and traffic reduction
policies. A stay of construction has been
requested as additional legal issues come
before the court. (Urban Ecology, Spring
1993)
FLORENCE REDEEMS ITSELF FROM
CAR MENACE
Florence's centre is closed to all
incoming traffic, except cars owned by
the few hardy remaining residents of
the "historic centre", taxis, buses,
scooters and bicycles. Up in his office in
the Palazzo Vecchio, overlooking the
tranquil Piazza della Signoria, Mayor
Massimo Bogiankino says, "It's a
transformation, isn't it? We can't turn
back now. This has to be the future for
Florence." (London Observer Service)
COSTS OF THE CAR REVISITED
HOW TO KICK THE CAR HABIT
Doug Woodard, St. Catharines
Informed people have long agreed that the mass use
of cars imposes intolerable costs on society and on
individuals. Pollution Probe's 1991 study The Costs of
the Car estimates that each car costs the public $2000
more than the taxes and fees paid by its owner, and
this does not cover the more indirect costs of urban
sprawl. The car does not impose only financial
burdens, but it distorts and degrades our entire social
structure by ensuring that a high proportion of social
interaction are with people who we will seldom or
never see again, providing a social environment in
which irresponsibility pays.
But mass car use has gutted our urban transit
systems, made bicycling inconvenient and
dangerous, and bloated our cities to sizes too large
and scattered for comfortable walking. Anyone
trying to kick the car habit now does so almost alone
and has to pay all the costs of a nonconformist up
front, while the car junkies fit comfortably into the
accepted pattern of our society and are heavily
subsidized. There is a terrible temptation to buy a car
to fit in with the standard lifestyle and to enjoy the
privileges of mobility and access which in our society
are reserved for car owners¾but then if one does,
the cost of each extra kilometre driven seems trivial,
and one is gradually and almost irresistibly drawn
into the standard pattern of heavy car use.
Some have proposed that car use downtown in rush
hours be forbidden, or that special permits should
have to be displayed on a car used downtown in
rush hours, or even (and now we're getting
somewhere!) that the car driver's bus pass should
have to be displayed on any car driven downtown in
rush hours. All these ideas are at once too severe
(because they don't allow for special circumstances,
emergencies, and visitors from outside the city) and
too weak, because they don't change the car-use
system and the pressures that people feel to keep up
the car habit, and they don't, except for the last
mentioned, strengthen the alternatives to car use.
Suppose that we required any car owner living in an
area served by urban transit to present a transit pass
good for one year when renewing his or her car
registration for the year. Then the transit system
would be well financed and always available, while
the car owner's marginal cost of using public transit
would be zero. Whenever he or she was sitting
frustrated in a traffic jam breathing exhaust fumes, or
searching frantically for a parking space, the transit
pass would be burning a hole in the owner's pocket,
saying, "I'm here! Get rid of all this aggravation!"
If we suppose that car use by urban dwellers would
be reduced by half without cutting the number of
cars, each driver would save on average about $300
to $400 per year in insurance (assuming a
competitive market in insurance and a little
government regulatory encouragement to see that
insurance savings were passed on to car owners with
transit passes rather than car owners in general),
plus about $400 per year in gas and maintenance. In
St. Catharines, a year's supply of bus passes costs
about $500. So our hypothetical urban car owner is
already ahead about $200 to $300, and we haven't
counted parking yet. The higher transit costs in big
cities like Toronto would be compensated for by the
saving of their very high parking fees. As a taxpayer
and citizen, our car owner would save about $1000.
How does it work out for the transit system? St.
Catharines Transit's annual budget is just over
$8,000,000, about half paid by fares and the rest by
city and provincial subsidies. If St. Catharines has the
average Ontario proportion of cars, its citizens would
own about 75,000 of them with say 60,000 in the area
served by urban transit. Transit revenues would go
up by about $30,000,000, which is to say they would
be multiplied by almost five. This would pay for
doubling frequency and doubling route mileage at
the
same time. Replacing 7,000 km per car carrying 1.3
people means that we have to replace 564,000,000
person kms of capacity. Our 400 extra bus drives and
their equipment would supply about 640,000,000
passenger kms with no standees. Even allowing for
traffic concentrated in rush hours, no increase in
farebox revenues and no increase in bus passes
bought by those who were not car owners but
assuming proportionate public subsidies as at
present, the civic and provincial treasuries would still
be ahead.
It is important to remember that back in the 1930s
when almost everyone took the bus or trolley, transit
systems made profits from farebox revenues, and
fares were no more proportionately (or less) than
they are today. If we can get back to mass transit use,
we can get back to transit profits. And if we make
marginal costs to the user favour transit over the car,
we CAN get back to mass use of public transit as the
preferred system.
Would this make good provincial policy? What do
you think?
SUSTAINABLE CITIES EVENTS CALENDAR
FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PERMACULTURE CONFERENCE
Copenhagen, Denmark, August 25-29, 1993
Topics include bioregionalism, urban permaculture, co-housing and eco-villages, soil,
renewable energy, new economics, agro-forestry and temperate permaculture. For info:
Permakulturgruppen I Danmark, Baggesensgade 6 kld, 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark. Fax
+45 3124 2028.
REGIONAL AUTO-FREE CITIES CONFERENCE
In Toronto, next fall? Transportation Options: (416) 960-0026
14TH INTERNATIONAL PEDESTRIANS CONFERENCE¾15-17 September 1993
Theme: The Transportation/Land-Use Connection, Go Boulder, Box 791, Boulder, CO
80306 (303) 441-4260
INTERNATIONAL HEALTHY CITIES CONFERENCE
December 8-11, 1993, San Francisco, USA
For information: International Healthy Cities and Communities Conference
2151 Berkeley Way, Annex 11, 3rd Floor, Berkeley, CA 94704 USA, (510) 540-2960
FAX: 540-3472
THIRD INTERNATIONAL AUTO-FREE CITIES CONFERENCE
1994 - Amsterdam, Holland
"WIN-WIN TRANSPORTATION" REPORT
For a copy of Komanoff and Ketcham's 100-page report on the full costs of "Win-Win
Transportation" is available from Transportation Alternatives, 92 St. Mark's Place,
NY NY 10009 (212) 475-4600.
ALL ROADS LEAD TO OTTAWA
STREETS FOR PEOPLE IN THE BY WARD
MARKET
Auto-Free Ottawa will be holding the second annual
"Streets For People" Celebration in the By Ward
Market between 1 and 3 p.m. on June 26 to promote
the trial closure of William and By Ward Streets on
weekends.
Meanwhile in Toronto, City Council is considering
a plan to reduce car traffic around the St. Lawrence
Market.
A public information meeting on successfully
pedestrianized areas in other cities and a six-year
proposal to reduce the number of cars in the Market
is planned for the fall.
Southeast Sector Transportation Study
The "Problem/Need Identification Report" is now
available. For a copy or meeting information,
contact: Janet Snider/Marguerite Lewis, UMA
Engineering Ltd. at 739-3339, FAX: 739-5504.
Cycling Transportation Network and
Comprehensive Cycling Plan
For information, contact: Daphne Hope, 564-4448 or
John McKenzie, 560-6001 x 2783.
CALL-IN LINE FOR YOUR COMMENTS: 230-9045
INTERPROVINCIAL BRIDGES
For a copy of the Study progress report or public
meeting information, contact: Gabriel Ahad,
Communications Officer, Transportation Dept.,
RMOC 560-2064 x 1911
Written comments can be sent to: Michel Gravel,
Interprovincial Bridge Study Project Manager, Delcan
Corporation, 2001 Thurston Drive, P.O. Box 8004,
Ottawa K1G 3H6
Ecovision has drawn up a petition against the bridges.
For info, call the Communities before Cars Coaliton at
725-3767 or Andrea Prazmowski of Ecovision at 233-
5647.
TRANSPORTATION ENVIRONMENT ACTION
PLAN (TEAP) (RMOC Citizens' Advisory Group)
For information on meetings or to join a working
group, call John McKenzie at 560-2064 x 2783.
CAR CULTURE
CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT IT
Stripped to its essentials, contemporary advertising has three salient characteristics. It preys on the weaknesses of
its host. It creates an insatiable hunger. And it leads to debilitating over-consumption. In the biological realm,
things of that nature are called parasites.
Restraining the excesses of marketers and limiting commercials to their legitimate role of informing consumers
would require fundamental reforms in the industry, changes that will not come about without a well-organized
grassroots movement. The advertising industry is a formidable foe on the march around the world, and
advertisers are masters at the slippery art of public relations.
Advertising's Achilles heel is its willingness to push products demonstrably dangerous to human health, and this
is the area where activists have been most successful and best organized. Tobacco ads are or soon will be banished
from television throughout the Western democracies, and alcohol commercials are under attack as never before.
Alternatively, consumers could take aim at trumped-up corporate environmental claims. Since 1989, marketers
have been painting their products "green" in an attempt to defuse citizen anger at corporate ecological
transgressions. In 1990, for example, the oil company Texaco offered Americans "free" tree seedlings to plant for
the good of the environment; to qualify, a customer had to buy eight or more gallons of gasoline. Unmentioned in
the marketing literature was the fact that it takes a typical tree about four years to store as much carbon dioxide as
is released in refining and burning eight gallons of fuel, and that most tree seedlings planted by amateurs promptly
die. (Excerpted from Alan Thein Durning's article published in World Watch Magazine, May-June 1993) (See book
review below)
BOOKS REVIEWED BY ANNE HANSEN, Toronto
HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH? THE CONSUMER SOCIETY AND THE FUTURE OF THE EARTH
by Alan Durning, Worldwatch Institute, W.W. Norton, 1992, 200 pages.
Henry David Thoreau said that a man (what about a woman?) is rich in proportion to the things he can afford to
be without.
In How Much is Enough?, Alan Durning describes how we, the "richest" fifth of humanity, have become
impoverished by our affluence.
In a few generations, we have become car-drivers, television watchers, mall shoppers, and throwaway buyers. In
so doing, we are not any happier than our predecessors, and have poisoned the air and water, changed the climate,
destroyed habitats and washed away topsoil.
Consuming is the organizing principle of North American life, our leading pastime and primary means of self-
expression. Durning says that, since 1950, humanity has consumed as many goods and services as all previous
generations put together (measured in constant dollars). And, since 1940, Americans alone have used up as large a
share of the earth's mineral resources as did everyone before them combined!
This trend has occurred at great expense to most of humanity, whose basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter go
unmet.
We in the "consumer class" (whose members have an income of over $7,500 a year) live in climate-controlled
buildings with abundant hot water. Consumers travel in cars and planes, use throwaways, and feed on a high
meat/sugar/fat diet of processed food and soft drinks. (There's also the "rich"¾the top corporate executives who
"earn 93 times as much as the factory workers they employ"!)
Durning wrote How Much is Enough? because he saw consumption as the sacred cow of the three most serious
issues facing humanity. Population and technological change are frequently discussed, but the subject of
consumption is usually met with silence.
Breaking the silence requires us to question the prevailing definition of progress: evermore consumption. We
must also reject television and advertising as our dominant cultural force.
Durning is hopeful that, because of its shallow historical roots, consumerism will be a passing fad. "One way or
the other¾either because we choose to abandon it, or because it devours its own ecological
supports¾consumerism is likely to be short-lived value system," he says.
THE CANCER INDUSTRY: UNRAVELLING THE POLITICS
by Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D., Paragon House, New York, 1989, 500 pages
The Cancer Industry is a compelling exposé of the vested interests controlling public opinion and cancer treatment.
The book offers a readable balance of politics and science.
The author a public relations director at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York City in the early
1970s, says he was fired for refusing to "collaborate in falsifying evidence" on the benefits of laetrile treatment.
Dr. Moss questions the credibility of the U.S. "war on cancer", when the same government (particularly the
military) "simultaneously spreads millions of pounds of cancer-causing substances into the air, the soil and the
water". He confirms what many people already suspect: that much cancer comes from industry: petrochemical,
automotive, nuclear, etc.
The Cancer Industry reveals that executives from some of the most polluting, carcinogenic industries hold strategic
board-of-director positions at major cancer institutions. Sloan-Kettering itself was named after two influential
General Motors executives who contributed millions of dollars to the institution. Its policies are made by
representatives of Union Carbide (Bhopal), Exxon (Exxon Valdez), Texaco, Mobil, Standard Oil, Philip Morris
(cigarettes), Freeport-McMorRan (uranium), Ogden Corporation (waste incineration), and of course,
pharmaceutical companies that sell cancer treatment drugs.
Dr. Moss believes these people's positions predispose them to steer cancer policy in a direction "consistent with the
interests of the profit-making sector". The cancer establishment traditionally blames individuals for their smoking
and eating habits, letting industrial polluters off the hook.
And why look for a cancer cure, when the profits of cancer-care drugs are billions of dollars a year?
Many of the "unproven" treatment methods described in the book would be impossible to patent because they are
easily obtained. Laetrile, for example, occurs naturally in approximately 1,200 plant species. No company could
corner the market on such a common substance.
The Cancer Industry concludes that millions of people "no longer automatically believe what the leaders of the
cancer establishment tell them". Since the book was written, a movement of health professionals has emerged,
calling for
reforms in the cancer industry and reduction of environmental pollutants.
The Ottawa Organic Food Group
Community-supported agriculture
in the Ottawa area since 1990.
For produce, call Randi Cherry at 733-0606 For bulk groceries, call Leonard or Raymond at 741-4329
OR
Visit the Ottawa Organic Farmers' Market at Kingsway United Church, 630 Island Park Drive
Every Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For information, call Sue Bailey at 563-4167 or Millie Johne at 729-7704
CARS ARE RUINING MY LIFE AND OUR BIOSPHERE! Here's my membership/subscription fee in support
of AUTO-FREE OTTAWA's efforts to promote the virtues of car-free lifestyles and cities.
___ $20.00 individual or family ___ $10.00 un/under-waged ___ $50.00 corporate/institutional
____________________________________________________________________________
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Tel: (h)____________________(w)________________________ Fax: _________________
AUTO-FREE OTTAWA Box 21045, 151A Second Avenue, Ottawa River Bioregion, Ontario, Canada K1R 6L3 (613) 234-0923