April-June 1994 Volume 2 No. 2
SUBSIDIZED SUBURBS: THE FULL COST OF SPRAWL
"There's no there, there." ¾ Gertrude Stein
In 1992, University of Washington professor Jack
Lessinger was predicting the decline of suburbia and
telling people to think twice before investing in a
suburban home. "These places are going to be
obsolete. Values will drop a lot. They have the look of
obsolescence already" (Vancouver Sun, 18 Sept 92).
Lessinger believes that suburbs are becoming less
attractive because of a new mindset that values
conservation and a healthy environment, and that the
only reason suburban real estate markets haven't
crashed is because of government subsidies propping
them up.
Michael Kluckner, Vancouver author of Paving
Paradise, says buyers will not get the speculative value
they expect. Kluckner, who is also president of
Heritage Vancouver, foresees the rampant
development of the Lower Mainland as costing
everyone in the future.
According to University of British Columbia
community planning professor Bill Rees the hidden
subsidy for each car in the Lower Mainland is about
$2,750 annually (highway maintenance, policing and
medical care for accident victims).
Florida-based planning consultant Andres Duany,
who is involved in building pedestrian-friendly
communities across North America, warns that
families who buy houses in remote suburbs will find
themselves spending every spare dollar on the
mortgage and two to three cars to get around, and a
lot of time commuting.
Only time will tell how accurate these predictions are,
however, in the United States malls are already being
torn down and redeveloped into neighbourhoods.
Here in Ontario, the Sewell Commission has drawn up
guidelines for land use that clearly deviate from
conventional suburban development. Visionary
planners, like Berridge Lewinberg Greenberg, are
designing self-reliant neighbourhoods, where more
people can work from their homes and take care of
their other daily needs without using a car. These new
developments are by no means car-free, but may be
the intermediate stepping stone needed to transform
our cities and suburbs into self-reliant pedestrian
communities. (cont'd on p. 3)
HOUSING, FOOD OR CARS?
While much verbiage is spent on the problem of "affordable housing,"
little attention is given to the role of automobile dependency in
limiting affordability: up to 40% of the income of low-to-moderate
income workers is spent on the automobile. Household surveys find
that this sector of the populace is spending more on cars than on food
or housing. Allowing asphalt to consume 50% or more of urban land
further increases the price of land and triggers ever more sprawl in
search of cheaper land. And one gets to the cheaper land via ever
more asphalt... (Transportopia Bulletin, Spring 1992)
"After the second world war, we got the idea that if we laid some
concrete, we laid the basis for a new economy that put people to
work. But now infrastructure has to be a lot smarter, with more gray
matter and less gravel." - Keith Collins, Ontario government Green
Communities Initiative staffer.
Canada's new federal infrastructure program will
cost taxpayers about $60,000 per job year.
(NOW, 10-16 Mar/94)
SUSTAINABLE SUBURBS
During his term as an Expert in Residence with the Centre for Future
Studies, Ian MacBurnie proposed a new approach to suburbia by
reconciling people's strong desires to live in suburban areas and their
preference for detached single family homes within a development
which would be more affordable, diverse, flexible, and offer a variety
of housing choices. The focus of his concept is the "Metropolitan
Purlieu", a compact urban village. At the periphery of the purlieu are
higher density residential, main street commercial and techno-
industrial facilities. At the centre is the Mixed Density Pocket, which
incorporates a variety of lot and house types ranging from single
family detached, semi-detached, duplex and walk-up apartment
buildings. Unique in this design is the ability to adjust to change
through less doctrinaire zoning ordinances and regulatory controls.
This plan makes it possible to subdivide the largest of the lot types
into four smaller lots, enabling the neighbourhood to age and to
change with the needs of its population.
Other features of this approach include: decrease automobile
dependence through efficient, transit-oriented planning; community
compactness through increased residential density and mixed-use
facilities provided in a range of lower rise building typologies; and a
dramatic increase in the quality and quantity of open space.
Currently, the Centre for Future Studies in Housing and Living
Environments is producing a video, "Sustainable Suburbs", based on
this study. The video will address the problems of present suburban
growth, approaches to increasing densities, trade-offs individuals
need to make, and the role of consumers to initiate change. The video
will act as a companion to the large scale model of the concept and
will be available separately to the general public, and educational and
professional associations.
(Challenge: The Newsletter of the Canadian Healthy Communities Network,
Spring 1993)
auto-free zone is published quarterly by Auto-Free Ottawa,
Box 21045, 151A Second Avenue, Ottawa-Rideau Bioregion,
ON K1S 5N1, Canada, and is mailed to subscribers or
members of Auto-Free Ottawa (see form last page).
e-mail: ab941@freenet.carleton.ca
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 (WP5 or 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
Many thanks to the following people for contributing
articles (original or borrowed) or ideas:
Paul Davis, Al de Jong, Stephen Johns, Neale MacMillan,
Peter Martin, Maguy Robert, Andrew Van Iterson
Thanks to Nancy Shaver for donating two display boards
for Auto-Free Ottawa's literature table!!
AFZ Graphic: Cathy Woodgold
Other graphics: Nancy Shaver
Advertising: For information on advertising rates, please
contact 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: Summer solstice 1994 (June 21).
ISSN 1195-1958
AUTO-FREE OTTAWA ACTIVITIES
UPDATE
Since the last issue of auto-free zone, in addition
to attending public "consultation" meetings on
transportation studies, Auto-Free Ottawa
members have been asked to sit on the new public
transit (OC-Transpo) advisory committee at the
City of Ottawa and on the pilot Transit Advocacy
Project. Auto-Free Ottawa is also among the local
NGOs that have been invited to provide input to
the "Task Force on the Atmosphere" of the City of
Ottawa.
Auto-Free Ottawa's long-term project for 1993
remains getting streets closed in the By Ward
Market. We are planning a high-profile campaign
(we hope) just in time for the municipal elections
in the fall.
(cont'd from page 1)
A study in Melbourne suggests that it is cheaper for
cities to pay developers to build near downtown cores
than it is to pay for the costs of sprawl in terms of
infrastructure development and remediating pollution
from automobiles Towards Sustainable Communities).
Lower road, sewer and education costs amount to a
net benefit of CDN$32,000 for every household
created in downtown rather than suburban
Melbourne. By luring developers to downtown
through a property tax holiday, bargain prices on city
land and density zoning, Melbourne's Planning
Authority is estimating savings of CDN$130 million
over 20 years for every 8,000 who move downtown
instead of the suburbs.
How can we prevent sprawl? Obviously, a
combination of approaches must be taken, but full-cost
accounting seems like an appropriate start. By
applying the user-pay principle to motorists, funds
raised from inefficient use of land (parking and roads)
and energy (low gas prices) could be used to provide
convenient and affordable public transit service.
At the same time, policies need to be reviewed to
encourage more efficient use of land. Downtown
cores are often scarred by asphalt parking lots, which
provide temporary accommodation for cars, where
there could be housing for people who, by living
downtown with access to a good public transit system,
would not need to own a car.
Public acceptance is crucial to any of these measures.
Unfortunately, General Motors alone spends $1 billion
a year convincing us we need their products for
reasons other than transportation: status symbols,
armour, costumes to hide our real selves. Given the
health impacts of the car (see Tom De Marco's "Most
Dangerous Addiction" in January-March 1993 issue),
car ads should be governed by regulations like tobacco
and alcohol ads. Warnings should be issued on the
full social and ecological impacts of driving cars.
Specific solutions to these problems already exist. All
that's needed now is the political will to implement
these measures. Unfortunately, the politicians will not
take these steps unless they feel they have the support
of their constituents. So the good news is that the
future is in our hands, if we choose to act. ¾ LS
THE COSTS OF SPRAWL
From Mark Roseland's Towards Sustainable
Communities. National Round Table on the
Environment and the Economy, 1992.
(Free copies available from (613) 992-7189)
To encourage people to use the transportation system
more efficiently we need to adopt land use policies
which reduce our needs for transportation and let us
meet those needs in more energy-efficient ways.
Our needs for transportation arise directly from the
way land is used in our communities. Through
zoning and other techniques, land-use patterns and
densities dictate travel volume, direction, and mode.
In Canada and the U.S., our dispersed land use
patterns are typified by the low-density suburb.
The problem with the low density land use pattern is
not just its high energy use. Newman ("Suffocate
City", Consuming Interest, June/July 1991, pp. 13-18)
notes that this settlement pattern has a complimentary
set of environmental problems that all stem from its
dispersed land use:
• high per capita auto emissions (both smog and
greenhouse gases are directly related to the amount of
gasoline used);
• high per capita water use (e.g. for lawn irrigation);
• high land requirements in both the block size and
the road system required to service it (road provision
is much greater in low density areas than in medium
areas);
• high stormwater pollution from the extra urbanized
land (low density areas have double the stormwater
pollution of medium density areas);
• high domestic heating energy due to the lack of a
shared insulating effect when buildings are grouped
(50% differences are found);
• poor recycling rates due to large cost involved in
collection compared to a compact housing system
(European cities have four to six times the recycling
rates of North America);
• high physical infrastructure costs (utilities, pipes,
poles, roads, etc.); and
• high social infrastructure costs (cars are required for
participation in social life).
Land use planning initiatives are often motivated by
the recognition that transportation planning and
traffic management initiatives will eventually be
thwarted or simply overwhelmed by growth unless
accompanied by long-term efforts to reduce the need
for travel. Today there is also increasing recognition
that to address problems such as air and water
pollution, energy conservation, and infrastructure
costs, land use planning initiatives are essential for
moving toward sustainable communities.
The effectiveness of compact urban development can
be fully achieved only if governments remove the
conflicting incentives posed by other policies such as
artificially low gas prices. For example, fuel taxes that
more accurately reflect the true environmental and
social costs of private vehicle use¾from the health
costs of air pollution to the military costs of policing
the Persian Gulf¾would give an enormous boost to
more efficient urban land use and raise revenue for
investment in a broader range of transport options.
Despite the absence of supportive national policy
frameworks, municipal and local governments can do
a great deal to create more energy-efficient travel
patterns by concentrating activities in specific areas
and developing a mix of land uses in those areas. Our
objectives should be to:
• create travel patterns that can be effectively served
by more energy-efficient travel modes, such as public
transit, bicycling, and walking; and
• reduce the average length of daily automobile trips
where other modes are not feasible.
CARL ANTHONY ON SPRAWL
"Inner-city abandonment is an example of the link
between some of the local urban environmental
problems and some of the global ones. The increasing
concentration of poverty in such areas is linked to the
practice of investment in suburban sprawl, and
divestment from the relatively energy-efficient inner-
city communities where people of colour live.
"Up until 1965, 35 million acres of farmland had been
absorbed in the construction of U.S. cities. Since then
that number has increased to nearly 80 million acres.
According to the South Coast Air Quality
Management District, emissions from Los Angeles
alone are responsible for one percent of global
warming. About 60,000 people a year die in LA from
respiratory illnesses that can be traced to air quality.
In the whole Vietnam War, 58,000 Americans were
killed. So you get a sense of how these things are
linked." Carl Anthony is President of Earth Island
Institute and founder of the Urban Habitat Program. (No
Sweat News, Winter 93/94)
CONSUMER PREFERENCE CANNOT JUSTIFY
THIS ASSAULT - Michael Valpy
A recently published report, Resettling Cities: Canadian
Residential Intensification Initiatives, suggests the major
obstacle to curbing urban sprawl is that far too many
people like it. Authors Engin Isin and Ray Tomalty, in
their analysis of survey data from 523 Canadian
municipalities, wrote that 87.8% of local government
officials said consumer preference for large building
lots was a significant barrier to intensification.
In addition, 79.5% cited resistance of existing residents
to local intensification projects and 65.7% identified
public preference for the private automobile as
transportation-of-choice¾meaning that few people
showed enthusiasm for abandoning the convenient
[sic] suburban commuter automobile for inner-city
high density and walking, cycling and public transit.
[...]
Suburban sprawl is immoral, an assault on the
beauty and the integrity of the land, a licence to inject
carbon poisons into the atmosphere. Is "consumer
preference" (and the fact that Canadian financial
institutions believe there's more profit in bankrolling
sprawl than intensification) sufficient justification
for letting it continue?
Or do we call on the state to perform one of its most
important roles¾as mediator between our selfish,
grasping selves and our generous, responsible, dutiful
selves? Bob Rae, in the innocent summer of 1990 just
before he was elected to form Ontario's first New
Democratic Party government, gave a remarkable
speech on public responsibility and community
solidarity [...]
Urban intensification is a responsibility to the Earth. It
is a duty to take care of ourselves and others¾people
like our children's children. Local government officials
surveyed on intensification said it became an issue in
their communities because of the need to address
demographic pressures, energy conservation, housing
affordability and cost, and efficiency of municipal
services. Surprisingly, comparatively few officials
identified environmental concerns and disappearing
farmland as significant reasons for intensification
becoming an issue. Studies in San Francisco, Chicago,
New York, London, Toronto and elsewhere have
shown a consistent pattern: doubling residential or
population density reduces annual distance travelled
by car per person or per household by 20 to 30%.
Heat energy is used 20% more efficiently in semi-
detached houses and nearly 30% more efficiently in
row houses than in detached dwellings. Water
consumption is reduced by 35% in high-density
communities. Overall energy consumption by
transport, space heating and cooling is reduced by
40%. This is all to be shrugged off in the name of
consumer preference? (Globe and Mail, 2 March 94)
THE COMING OF THE POSTMODERN SUBURB: LOOKING AHEAD AND PAYING YOUR WAY
¾ Barton Reid
The next 10 years are likely to be crucial. Momentum
for change will not only come from land developers,
architects and politicians, but demographics. Soon
planning in the suburbs will have to pay as much
attention to seniors as children, as well as changing
gender roles and the needs of working women and
nontraditional families. These shifts are bound to
modify the automobile-centred and functionally
dispersed land uses which dominate current
settlement practices.
Furthermore, as the sharp distinction between home
and workplace blurs with new telecommunications
technologies, more change can be expected to take
place. In addition, the two anchors of suburbia,
subsidized roads and subsidized home ownership, are
no longer fiscally sustainable. Not only are cuts in
subsidies becoming more widespread, if recent
surtaxes in Toronto can be seen as a sign of the future,
the economics of traditional suburban development
will increasingly be affected by new levies. This is
most apparent in Ontario, where developers already
complain about high lot surcharges. As governments
look for new revenues, as well as new ways for
putting disincentives in place for the wasteful
consumption of land, at long last the free ride for the
suburbs appears to be at an end. Environmental
degradation will increasingly act as a constraint on the
old mode of suburban expansion. In Los Angeles, for
instance, it has not been because of lack of fuel or the
lack of land that people have been forced to rethink
the way this suburban metropolis is run; rather, it is
because of severe traffic congestion and air pollution
that some very dramatic moves are being made to
limit the use of the automobile and promote public
transit. A similar direction is being followed in
Vancouver in the demand for proximity planning in
the Clouds of Change Report, released a few years
ago.
A brief review of planning documents in Toronto over
the past twenty years reveals that a significant shift
has taken place. Beginning with physical spaces and
land use, the Metropolitan Plan review of 1976 can be
used as a dateline for marking a major shif in
emphasis, where, for the first time a major planning
document gives a clear indication of a shift in
priorities. Priorty that would be given to automobiles
and freeways, was instead given to public transit. The
formal commitment to regional town centres in the
suburbs can be seen as the first major planning
endeavour to urbanize or densify the suburbs. Since
this time, both North York and Scarborough have
moved aggressively forward and prepared more
elaborate plans for the implementation and realization
of suburban downtowns.
In the 1980s the lack of affordable housing in the
Toronto area spurred the province of Ontario to
initiate serious research into ways of retrofitting the
suburbs. Later in the decade, the quest for affordable
housing prompted Metro Toronto to investigate infill
and redevelopment options through a Main Street
program. The City of Toronto has also given
considerable attention to densification through its
reevaluation of land-use policy (redevelopment of its
main streets) and a formal commitment to developing
regional town centres in the suburbs. [...]
THE SOCIAL SPACES (OR LACK OF) IN THE
SUBURBS
Going back to 1979, the Social Planning Council of
Metro Toronto published a forward-seeing report
Suburbs in Transition, which analyzed the
transformation of social spaces in the suburbs. The
report expressed concern over whether social
infrastructure could catch up with the rapid
investment and development of the physical space of
suburbia. It stated: "The ear of suburban and
metropolitan innocence in Toronto is over... Local
government in Metro's suburban municipalities face
the enormous challenge of developing and
implementing integrated land-use and service policies
within a metropolitan framework." Suburbs in
Transition successfully deconstructed the myth of the
child-centred suburb. Teenage children had been
entirelyleft out of planning consciousness and
practice. Without any free space or social buffer to
absorb different types of unplanned activities, teens
were consigned to limbo. The enforced and rigid
functional uniformity of the physical suburban
landscape acted as oppressive constraints. Modern
planning procedures rendered teenagers into invisible
subjects, turning them into gypsies¾misfits in a
suburban order that had not assigned a purpose or
space to them. They became unwanted and feared
and viewed as a threat, particularly in groups.
More than ten years have passed since Suburbs in
Transition made its lament about the inflexible and
rigid social spaces produced in the suburbs. Events
since then show that the problem may have become
even more intractable. Teenagers still remain a wild
element in the suburbs and race has further
complicated the problem. The presence of immigrant
teens has served to further reinforce the image of
otherness. Youth are seen as disturbing and alien
forces lying outside the gates of respectability.
Unanchored in the landscape their simple presence is
a challenge to the mythology of the suburbs as an
escape hatch from the urban condition. That is why
some people are fleeing the suburbs for even more
distant exurban communities. [...]
So the question about the direction of our suburbs is
not one confined to the simple reformatting of
physical spaces. Acknowledging, coping and
providing for the new social spaces emerging in the
suburbs is as important. If the challenge of the
suburbs is to be met, a new social, as well as physical
infrastructure, will have to be constructed. If
postmodern planning practices succeed in making our
suburban landscapes more flexible and less auto and
"child-centred", by creating multiple use environments
out of the present monofunctional landscape (more
accommodating to teens and the elderly), the
urbanization of the suburbs will provide a golden
opportunity to correct the many mistakes bequeathed
to us.
On the other hand, the steady expansion of gated
communities is evidence that the modern suburb has
not died out yet in people's minds. Hybrid forms have
emerged which threaten to further segment the social
spaces of the suburbs and amplify social alienation.
Originating in the walled retirement communiteis and
newer suburbs of the United States, a perverse and
virulent trend has emerged, nourished by fear and
exclusion, rather than mere functional segregation. If
these trends win out, we can expect a more barbaic
and brutal landscape of surveillance and containment
for the suburbs. These apartheid spaces stand out as a
counter challenge to the urbanity promised by the
"postmodern" model. Our capacity to employ the
postmodern format to correct past mistakes, or to
accept a degraded and mutant form of the modern
suburb, remains to be decided upon. (City Magazine,
Fall/Winter 93)
COSTS OF THE CAR
DOMESTIC CAR SALES FALL FOR 5TH YEAR
Total vehicle sales for the Canadian auto industry slid
for the fifth consecutive year in 1993, dragged down
largely by the performance of foreign-based
manufacturers. The industry sold 1.17 million cars
and trucks in 1993¾3.3% fewer than a year earlier.
Foreign-based auto makers reported selling 312,545
vehicles in Canada, which represents a drop of 13.4%
from 1992. (Globe and Mail, 6 Jan 94)
INFRASTRUCTURE USER FEES
Last year, the Canadian Construction Association
polled Canadians to ascertain their attitudes toward
charging user fees to finance a national highway
system. 58% either were strongly or moderately in
support of the concept. The vast majority preferred
tolls over an additional gasoline tax or special vehicle
licence fee. (Globe and Mail, 8 Jan 94)
SAFETY COSTS IN OTTAWA-CARLETON
Every year thousands of collisions occur in Ottawa-
Carleton. In 1992, 17,060 collisions were reported to
police authorities. Of these, 4,308 resulted in personal
injury and 48 involved fatalities. These collisions
involved 32,518 vehicles including 515 bicycles, 440
buses and 133 school buses. The Department must
consider that every one of the 17,060 collisions has the
potential to create personal injury and death. Using
average costs per collision developed by Transport
Canada, these traffic collision losses can be expressed
in cold economic terms and represent an economic
loss to society of approximately $107 M in 1992 alone.
This situation repeats itself on an annual basis.
(Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton, Report
T65-4-8 on Safety Improvement Program, 19 Oct 93)
THE COSTS OF SMOG
Agricultural losses due to smog are estimated to be as
much as $70 million in Ontario and $9 million in
British Columbia. (Smog - Let's Clear the Air!,
Environment Canada, 1993)
CLEANUP COSTS CHALLENGE INSURERS
The worst insurance risks in Canada are corporations
that could produce hazardous wastes, according to an
informal survey of insurers and brokers. These
include mines and forest companies that share a single
potential problem¾they could be confronted with old
environmental cleanup bills running into the
hundreds of millions of dollars. [...] Canadian lending
institutions are also increasingly reluctant to finance
projects unless a comprehensive environmental
assessment is performed. (Globe and Mail, 7 Jan 94)
REURBANISATION
Guidelines for the Reurbanisation of Metropolitan
Toronto is a framework document released in 1991
that provides a guide for the "reurbanisation" of
Metropolitan Toronto to accommodate an expected
300,000 additional residents and 400,000 new jobs
over the next 20 to 30 years.
Berridge Lewinberg Greenberg Inc., the planning
consultants who produced the guidelines, have now
applied their theory to Montgomery Village, a
subdivision in Orangeville, north of Toronto (John
Sewell, "Compact Orangeville subdivision redefines
burbs", NOW Magazine, 5 Jan 94).
The village plan calls for up to 700 houses and
apartment units and a main street with shops, offices,
and a regional high school. 60 acres of the 100-acre
site are greenspace including a creek and green
corridors. Lot sizes range from nine to six metres, and
all buildings are served by a system of publicly-owned
back lanes, so that cars will be parked behind the
houses, leaving the streets to be lined with front
porches instead of garages. The density will be 20
units per acre, instead of the traditional 7 per acre.
Orangeville city officials are counting on more tax
revenue on a per acreage basis because of the design
and density. Snow removal problems will be resolved
by making better use of plowing equipment in tighter
spaces. Storm water will be allowed to seep into the
ground naturally instead of being fed into pipes and
carried off the site. In addition to a broad mix of
housing types, zoning permits home offices and rental
units. To promote working at home, all buildings in
Montgomery will be served by fibre optics cables for
simultaneous use of telephone, fax, high-definition
television and other functions. Developer Marvin
Green thinks people are tired of commuting, and could
use the $7,000 a year spent on owning a second car[!]
for annual payments on a $70,000 mortgage. Not
exactly ecotopia, but better than your average
development. ¾ LS
The following are excerpts from the guidelines that deal
with transportation:
Basis of the Guidelines
[...] Reurbanisation provides an opportunity to achieve
environmental goals, and to improve the social and
physical fabric of the metropolis. For example,
reurbanisation can reduce auto dependence in many
ways, such as creating the critical densities needed for
walking, cycling and the use of transit. One of the
fundamental implications of the Guidelines is that all
major new development is served by transit. By
definition, reurbanisation involves redeveloping
already urbanised areas, which decrease pressure for
development of greenfields sites outside Metro.
Reurbanisation provides an opportunity to learn from
mistakes of the past, and to create a high-quality,
livable urban environment, while building at a human
scale. Reurbanisation can ensure a range of places
where new kinds of businesses can locate, and
promote diversity of housing type and choice. Finally,
reurbanisation can support community building and
social integration. [...]
Should the area be reurbanised?
Certain types of areas should not be reurbanised
because in their present form they play an increasingly
important role in the urban fabric and urban
environment. Included are natural areas, ravines,
parks and open spaces, and the low-rise residential
neighbourhoods (though the neighbourhoods will
continue to be the locus of small scale forms of
residential intensification, such as accessory units and
minor infill). [...]
What is the appropriate mix of uses?
Before the spread of the automobile in North
American cities, the fabric of urban areas tended to be
very finely mixed, comprised of uses of all kinds in
close proximity to one another. The automobile
opened up vast new areas for urbanisation, allowing
people to live much farther from their place of work.
Thus were born the first low-density auto-oriented
suburbs.
In the auto age, the separation of land uses became an
obsession with urban planners, transportation
planners, builders and residents alike, to the point
where zoning even prohibited corner stores from
residential areas. As the environmental consequences
of this pattern of urban living are being recognised
(such as air pollution, and global warming), and as the
quality of life implications become clear (we spend
more of our valuable time commuting ever longer
distances to work), it is valid to question the
underlying separation for uses.
A closer mixing of different uses within reurbanisation
areas has many important benefits. From an
environmental perspective, it is essential for origins
(say the home) and destination (say a shop, or school
or workplace) to be closer together, ideally within
walking or cycling distance. If they are not sufficiently
close, then walking will not be possible. [...]
What is the appropriate overall density level?
The density, or the intensity of urban use of a given
amount of land areas is related to a number of
important environmental and community building
objectives. The approach to density, and the specific
density numbers should be determined in order to
achieve a number of goals. Three of these are
especially important: reducing auto dependency,
creating a livable built environment, and ensuring
diversity of buildings, living and work environments.
Pedestrian Environment
We have placed a great deal of emphasis on
promoting walking as a viable form of urban
transportation, and have outlined measures to support
this, including improving the mix of uses at the local
level and ensuring adequate overall density levels.
But these measures alone will not support an increase
in walking if the system of sidewalks and walkways is
not supported by sufficient activities or is unattractive,
discontinuous, inaccessible or inconvenient. [...]
Part of the joy of walking is the appreciation of the
environment and street-related activities that one is
passing through. "Animation" or the enlivening of
public and pedestrian space makes those places more
attractive, more interesting, and safer. Animation
depends upon providing land uses within or around
public spaces which generate activity, and avoiding
"dead" uses which do not. Animating uses include
retail, restaurants, cultural amenities, recreational
facilities, and offices. Providing recreational uses in
conjunction with other uses can contribute to street
activity for a longer period of the day, as well as create
a population base for service, retail and entertainment
uses at street level.
Dead uses include parking lots, the rear of lots, and
blank walls.
Parking
The treatment of parking is important in many
respects¾it can contribute to or detract from the
quality of the urban environment, it can promote or
inhibit walking and the use of transit.
By separating land uses, surface parking increases
walking distances, and can create an uninspiring
urban environment. When surface parking is
provided it should not be permitted to reduce the
quality of the public realm. Buildings and the public
realm, especially sidewalks, should be contiguous;
parking lots should not separate a building entrance
from the street and sidewalk. Parking should be
located so as not to break this contiguity.
The availability of parking can encourage people to
use their car instead of transit. The supply of parking
provided in an area should take into account the
future transit framework; if a good level of transit
service is provided or will be provided in the future,
the supply of parking can be reduced or eliminated, or
the onus shifted to have the proponent demonstrate
why any parking is necessary. While the absence of
surface parking is desirable in a mature condition, it
may be necessary in locations of significant
automobile use to develop a phased parking strategy
as a part of the urban design plan for an area.
To this end, surface parking should not be allowed as
a permanent use in those locations where transit
alternatives currently exist or will exist in the future.
Temporary surface parking policies can help in the
initial phases of a reurbanisation proposal while
allowing future development to remove the parking
over time.
In detemining appropriate levels for the supply of
parking, consideration could also be given to the fact
that by mixing different times of the day, the overall
supply of parking can be reduced. For example, in a
condominium and office development, office workers
would require daytime parking while residents would
require nighttime parking, suggesting that they could
share some of the same parking facilities.
(Berridge Lewinberg Greenberg Inc., 111 Queen
Street East, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5C 1S2 (416)
363-9004)
MALLS FALL
Few things are more demoralizing than a new mall,
packed with chain stores and ringed by a monstrous
parking lot, built on the outskirts of your hometown.
What could be more exhilarating, though, than to
celebrate the destruction of a mall in your hometown.
In Boca Raton, Florida, a 30-acre mall has bitten the
dust, replaced with shops, offices, and affordable
living space (apartments).
In San Diego, California, the Uptown neighbourhood
is replacing a shopping centre and Sears store with
mixed income homes and small shops. In Mountain
View, a 16-acre mall will be wiped off the map in
favour of homes.
The Real Estate Research Corporation of Chicago
foresees 10-15% of the malls in America being
abandoned in upcoming years. (Urban Ecologist,
Spring 93)
Redevelopment visionaries are just beginning to
transform thousands of acres of mall parking lots
across America into places worth living in. Picture
wide sidewalks leading from dense clusters of
townhouses and apartments to a grocery store, post
office, bank, locally-owned shops and food joints, a
laundromat, recreation centre and playground,
gardens, a child care and bus centre¾most everything
a neighbourhood needs within walking distance.
Go ahead¾picture the fall of your local mall! No more
homelessness! No more suburban sprawl! Turn the
parking lots into neighbourhoods! (No Sweat News,
Winter 93/94)
OVERFISHING, OVERLOGGING, OVERDRIVING
CHINESE CITY HITS BRAKES ON THE
USE OF BICYCLES
The booming southern Chinese city of
Guangzhou has declared a war on the
bicycle. The city plans to slash the number
of bicycles to one million from three
million by 2010. Bicycles are blamed for
much of the city's crippling congestion and
administrators hope banning many of
them will make way for cars, which
Chinese are encouraged to buy as part of
the "getting rich" process. (Ottawa Citizen,
10 Mar 94)
NOISE HURTS CHILDREN'S
LEARNING
Over 20% of Berlin children live in
apartments along arterial roads that
experience traffic noise that exceeds the
65-dB standard for the interior of
residences. The result is difficulty in
communicating and poor concentration,
both of which stunt intellectual
development in the young. (German
Tribune, 27 Nov 92 via Ottawalk News #23,
Winter 93/94)
DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION IN L.A.
In March 1993, California transportation
officials found that the average speed on
L.A. County freeways had fallen below 20
mph, probably because between 1991 and
1992, the number of vehicles had grown by
2%¾an extra 100,000 cars. (Globe and Mail,
26 Oct 93)
GREENHOUSE EFFECT MAY
INCREASE
A giant, tongue-shaped ice sheet known as
the Odden Feature, which forms each
winter in waters just north of the Arctic
Circle, is believed to absorb up to 20% of
the planet's CO2, together with two other
sites in Labrador and Antartica. [...]
As the Earth warms, so do the planet's
seas, and scientists say this rise in
temperature is breaking down the Odden
Feature's process of storing carbon dioxide
under water.
Peter Wadhams, of Cambridge
University's Scott Polar Research Institute,
said tests show the gas is now only sinking
1,000 meters, alarmingly short of the depth
needed to lock it away in the ocean
depths. Ten years ago it was sinking four
times as far, going down 4,000 metres.
Normally the Odden Feature works by
dissolving CO2 in its surface waters, which
have to be extremely cold and very salty.
Mr. Wadhams said the temperature of the
deep ocean had risen by 0.14 of a degree
Celsius in a decade and the ice tongue was
getting smaller and thinner each year. He
said the ocean was growing less effective
at absorbing CO2 and if the process
stopped working altogether the amount of
the gas in the atmosphere would increase.
"The result would be an increase in global
warming and an acceleration of the
greenhouse effect." (Globe and Mail,
11 Mar 94)
CARS CAUSE TREE TROUBLE
Cars and trees just don't get along.
Particulates in the air from traditional auto
exhaust may have acutely toxic effects on
plants. When particles settle on leaves,
surfaces become coated and reduce the
amount of sunlight reaching the plant. In
some cases, the pores of the leaves may be
clogged with dust. The overall effect is
poor growth, leaf drop, death of twigs, and
in severe cases, death of the entire plant.
Auto emissions have been linked to the
declining health of forests. For example,
ground-level ozone, formed by the photo-
breakdown of auto emissions, can cause
plant injury as far as 120 to 200 km from
the origin of the primary pollutants.
Conifers and some deciduous trees are
damaged by concentrations of ozone equal
to or less than what is commonly
experienced in many Canadian urban
areas.
Acid rain is another major contributor to
the destruction of forests and croplands
that is linked to automotive exhaust. In
urban environments the concentrations of
emissions are particularly hard on green
spaces.
Wintertime can dramatically increase the
hardship cars impose on trees. Apart from
the damaging effect of winter-long doses
of road salt, the concentrations of acid
from the season's total precipitation are
delivered to the trees in one sudden gush
during spring thaw.
What about depletion of the stratospheric
ozone that shields the earth from
ultraviolet rays? As the ozone layer thins,
trees also get scorched¾and no one has
invented a sun screen for trees yet. Once
again, cars are a significant culprit, due to
the continued use of CFCs in auto air
conditioners.
Furthermore, when you add all the
expressways, bridges, gas stations, and
garages, one soon realizes that about a
third of all land in cities goes to
accommodate the almighty car. That
means one third less space for trees.
If we are to give trees and ourselves a
fighting chance, we need to look at ways
that we can cut down on the use of cars.
Furthermore, we need to advocate fewer
roads in favour of greater spaces for trees
and other vegetation. In some cases, it
may involve reclaiming land lost to
abandoned roads or parking lots. In other
cases, it may be a matter of opposing new
roads, highways or parking lots. (Earth
Words, Winter 93)
UP A TREE
Experts in Hungary have said drought and
air pollution have combined to damage 3
out of every 5 trees in its forests. Oaks
suffered the most, with forest pines and
other trees also harmed. (Green, Nov 93)
DEATH BY AIR POLLUTION
Air pollution continues to be one of the
main reasons for the forest's failing health
in Germany. In 1992, 27% of the trees in
Germany were sick, 2% more than in 1991.
An explanation for this is that while
sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides have
fallen drastically in the past decade, forest
ecosystems react very gradually. (New
Scientist, 21 Nov 92)
OZONE THINNING
This year's Antarctic hole in the ozone
layer, which shields the planet from
cancer-causing ultraviolet rays, is likely to
be the deepest ever. "Last year it was
pretty bad, last week it was even worse,"
Dr. Brian Gardiner said at British Antarctic
Survey's Cambridge headquarters.
(Guardian Weekly, 17 Oct 93)
SCRAPYARD DANGER FROM
AIRBAGS
Airbags could release highly toxic
pollutants once they are broken up along
with their cars in the world's scrapyards,
according to scientists at the University of
Arizona, in Tucson. Each airbag contains
between 50 and 150 grams of sodium
azide. If an airbag is triggered the azide is
detonated and converted into harmless
nitrogen gas in a few thousandths of a
second. But the majority of airbags are
never used. Within a few years the
number arriving intact at scrapyards will
increase dramatically.
The hazard comes if the azide is exposed
to slightly acidic water. It is converted into
hydrazoic acid which is a volatile liquid,
with a boiling point of 37 C, and is
extremely toxic. (New Scientist, 22 May 93)
ROAD CARNAGE IN ONTARIO
Picture a village, population 1,102. Now
picture all 1,102 people wiped out. And
suppose the slaughter happened again and
again, year after year.
In 1991, 1,102 people died in traffic
accidents in Ontario. And nobody blinked.
"If train derailments caused that kind of
carnage, people would be outraged," says
Walt Chmiel, director of the highway
safety project for the Ontario Attorney
General.
"There were 91,000 people injured in 1991,
about the same number as live in the city
of Gloucester," says Chmiel. "The cost of
lost wages and property damage in 1993
was $9.1 billion. That's only slightly less
than the provincial deficit." (Ottawa
Citizen, 19 Mar 94)
Every new mile of paved road is
accompanied by the consumption of
50,000 extra gallons of fuel per year. That
totals 2.25 billion extra gallons for the
45,000 miles of new roads built last year.
(Asphalt Institute Quarterly, 1967 via
Imagine, Fall 93)
TWO WHEELS GOOD
THE CYCLING CITY ¾ David Nicholson-Lord
Where most cities snarl and roar, Groningen has a
mellower ambience. It ticks, squeaks, rattles, and
(occasionally) rings its bell. This is because Groningen,
the Netherlands' sixth largest city, the bicycle, not the
car, is the dominant form of transport. If this is the
future, it is easy on the ear-drums.
Fifteen years ago ruinous traffic congestion led
Groningen to dig up its city-centre motorways in
favour of the bicycle, the pedestiran and the ideal of a
"compact city".
Groningen's motives repay examination, however.
"This is not an environmental programme," says
Gerrit van Werven, one of the architects of its cycling
policies. "It is an economic programme. We are
boosting jobs and business. In this city it has been
proved that planning for the bicycle is cheaper than
planning for the car."
Groningen, a city of 170,000, has the highest level of
bicycle usage in the West. 57% of its inhabitants travel
by bicycle-compared with 4% in the UK. Thanks to car
restraint policies pursued consistently since the late
1970s, that figure is at least 5% higher than a decade
ago and is still growing.
Since September 1977¾when a six-lane motorway
intersection in the city's historic centre was replaced by
greenery, pedestrian streets, cycle and bus lanes, and a
zoning system which outlawed through traffic¾the
city has staged a remarkable recovery. Rents are said
to be among the highest in Holland, the outflow of
population has been reversed and businesses, formerly
in revolt, are clamouring for more traffic restraint.
A vital threshold has also been crossed. Through
sheer weight of numbers, the bicycle lays down the
rules, slowing down traffic, colouring the attitudes of
drivers. According to Mr. van Werven, this
demonstrates the "important law that the more cycling
there is, the safer it becomes." [...]
Cycling in Groningen is viewed as part of an integral
urban renewal, planning and transport strategy.
Bicycle-friendly devices seen as exceptional in the
UK¾separate cycle-ways, advanced stop lines at
traffic lights¾are routine.
New city centre buildings must provide cycle garages.
There are tens of thousands of parking spaces for
bikes, either in "guarded" parks¾the central railway
station has room for over 3,000¾or street racks.
Under the City Hall a nuclear shelter has been turned
into a bike park.
A half-hour ride round the city shows roads being
narrowed or closed to traffic, cycleways under
construction, new housing to which the only direct
access is by cycle. Out-of-town shopping centres are
banned. The aim is to force cars to take longer detours
but to provide a "fine-mesh" network for cycles, giving
them easy access to the city centre. [...]
Like the Netherlands nationally, Groningen is backing
bicycles because of fears about car growth. Its 10-year
bicycle investment programme is costing £20m, yet an
indepedent survey concluded that every commuter car
it keeps off the road saves at least £170 a year in
"hidden" costs, such as noise, pollution, parking and
health.
Traffic congestion no longer afflicts the city. The next
step is the elimination of all cars, except those
belonging to residents, from the city centre, an area a
kilometre square. It will not be finished until the first
decade of the next century but Mr. van Werven
believes it will set a pattern for other cities to follow.
"It's a little like surfing", he adds. "You have to be on
the first wave." David Nicholson-Lord writes for The
Independent and The Independent on Sunday.
(Resurgence, Jan/Feb 94)
PORTLAND BICYCLE GROUP SUES CITY FOR
MORE BIKE LANES
The Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA), a bicycle
advocacy organization in Portland, Oregon, is suing
the city for violating the state's nationally recognized
"Bicycle Bill". In addition, they are asking the state
Department of Transportation to withhold highway
funds until Portland complies with the law. The goal
of the lawsuit is to create a legal enforcement
mechanism. This absence has meant that, for practical
purposes over the years, compliance has been a
voluntary effort. "The bottom line is that tangible
change and improvements are needed," not just
policy statements, according to BTA's Mark Perin.
Passed in 1971, the Oregon Bikeway law requires that
bikeways and walkways be built when a highway or
road is constructed, reconstructed or relocated. Cities,
counties and the state must spend at least 1% of
highway funds on bicycle and pedestrian-related
projects.
Two associated policies are the Transportation
Planning Rule and the 1992 Oregon Transportation
Plan. The former requires cities and the state to adopt
a transportation system plan which "provides a
network of bicycle and pedestrian routes." The Bicycle
Plan, part of the State Transportation Plan, sets
"renovating arterials and major collectors with bike
lanes and walkways and designing intersections to
encourage bicycling and walking" as a statewide goal.
In September, the BTA filed the lawsuit after several
years of trying to work with the local governments.
[...]
According to the city Public Works Department,
Portland has 35.2 miles of bicycle lanes with thirteen in
the planning stages. In contrast, the city maintains
3,540 miles of paved streets and the number of
registered automobiles in the tri-county area has
incresed 70% from 1970 to 1990. In a ratio of bike lane
to arterial road miles, Portland has a ratio of less than
one to ten. In comparison, Davis, California, has the
highest at 90% and Gainesville, Florida, at
approximately 60%. While these two cities have high
bicycle commuter rates, Portland's is approximately
2%.
The BTA has been working in more positive ways with
the local governments to encourage bicycle use. In
October, 10,000 people participated in the BikeFest,
with BTA providing secure bicycle parking. [...] The
Portland Bicycle Master Planning Process is an
extensive two-year public participation process to
institutionalize a bicycle network through the city in
the next twenty years. The Plan will guide the
implementation of bike lanes, bike paths and traffic
calming measures to make streets safer for bicyclists.
The bicycle advocates have been working with the
Association for Portland's Progress, a business
association, on the Bicycle Parking Enhancement
Program, which examines the ten largest employment
centres and the current and potential bicycle parking
conditions for both consumers and employees. They
plan to speak with business owners about the
program's recommendations.
Other local and state organizations have endorsed the
BTA lawsuit, including 1,000 Friends of Oregon, the
Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757 (represents bus
drivers), the local Sierra Club chapter, and the
Willamette Pedestrian Coalition. For more
information: Mark Perin, BTA (503) 226-0676, P.O.
Box 9072, Portland, OR 97207-9072. (Transportation
Exchange Update, Dec 93)
BIKES MEAN BUSINESS CONFERENCE A
SUCCESS ¾ Will Wallace
The Bikes Means Business Conference, held last
October in Toronto attracted nearly 200 people. The
two-day conference featured two plenary sessions and
19 workshops, a display of innovative bike design, and
booths from bike parking companies, cycle touring
operators and helmet manufacturers.
The workshops dealt with bikes and community
economic development, bikes in the workplace, bike
and delivery vehicle design, tourism, fashion, bike
security, safety and helmets. There was also a series of
workshops on how to start and strengthen your small
business.
One of the strongest conclusions reached at the
conference was that cyclists and business need to
cooperate more, not only inside the cycling sector, but
outside it as well: cycling advocacy makes good
business.
Clearly, one of the breakthroughs from the conference
is that more and more cyclists are focusing their
attention on the potential for local economic
development that bicycles can offer.
The Bikes Mean Business organizers, along with the
Community Bicycle Network and the Independent
Bicycle Dealers Association and others, are planning
several seminars and other events later in the year.
For more info: Transportation Options (phone/fax)
416-960-0026. (Cyclometer, March 94)
CENTRE FOR APPROPRIATE TRANSPORTATION
¾ Gillian Kranias
As an offshoot of the Bikes Mean Business conference,
a group of designers, entrepreneurs and bike
enthusiasts has assembled to set up at least one Centre
for Appropriate Transportation (CAT) in Toronto. A
CAT is a service station of the future¾where work
bikes and accessories can be designed, built, rented,
sold and repaired. The group can be contacted
through the Community Bicycle Network at 416-323-
0897. (Cyclometer, March 94)
7,000 IN CRITICAL MASS BIKE COMMUTE IN RIO
In Rio de Janeiro, Critical Mass is truly massive. Every
Tuesday evening, under the motto "Pedalling with
Nature", up to seven thousand bicyclists fill the
streets!! (No Sweat News, Winter 93/94)
LOCAL ACTION - ONTARIO ROUND TABLE ON
ENVIRONMENT AND ECONOMY
Did you know that the Ontario Ministry of
Transportation now has a policy that recognizes the
bicycle as means of transportation and entitles any
municipality to apply for grants for bicycle paths and
facilities, just as it does for roads for cars? Did you
know that the Owen Sound Round Table is making the
use of bicycles a centrepiece of the city's plan for
downtown revitalization? (Round Table Talk, Fall 93)
PED-EX: ZERO-POLLUTION DELIVERY SERVICE
TO DEBUT IN EAST BAY ¾ Rob Cohen
The East Bay (San Francisco) is about to experience a
brand new curiosity, one that will undoubtedly
produce some double takes. "What you'll be seeing,"
says David Cohen, co-founder of Auto-Free Bay Area
Coalition (AFBAC), "is a new generation of human-
powered vehicles that will actually be hauling cargo
and competing head-to-head for business with
delivery vans."
Not only are the vehicles striking, but they spew out
none of the toxic filth of motorized vans and trucks.
Nor are they designed to mow down pedestrians,
cyclists and animal life.
All the same, what they can do is haul up to 200
pounds of cargo by the power of human legs.
Designed and manufactured by Human-Powered
Machines in Eugene, Oregon, they are called Long-
Haul work bicycles. Indeed, the Long-Hauls are
long¾7.5 feet long. They retail for $1,395 and feature
21 speeds, drum brakes and most conspicuously, a
large water-tight fiberglass container securely
mounted between the handlebars and front wheel.
The bikes are remarkably stable and comfortable to
ride and can carry loads such as 18 bags of groceries,
or even a Toyota Corolla engine headed for the
junkyard to be turned into scrap for a new Long Haul.
Long Hauls are a common sight in Eugene where three
of them, owned by the Pedaler's Express company, ply
the streets delivering goods for a variety of businesses
including bakeries, photo shops, architectural firms
and small contractors. (Going Clean Journal, Winter 94)
NIMBYS AND BUTTERFLIES:
TRAFFIC CALMING IN SANDY HILL
Peter Martin
Action Sandy Hill
It's going on two years now since Sandy Hill decided
to embrace traffic calming. Three public meetings on
traffic problems in the Fall of 92 seemed to produce a
consensus: residents wanted less transient traffic,
fewer cars on the streets, moving or parked, and
slower drivers. "Right!" said the Traffic Committee of
Action Sandy Hill. "Let's get to it!"
Sometimes, since then, it's seemed that the only
decisions taken at most of the many meetings held to
develop a workable, acceptable traffic calming plan
have been to hold another meeting. Generally agreed
objectives were one thing, the details have turned out
to be quite another.
A blessed neighbourhood
Sandy Hill, for readers who aren't familiar with our
blessed neighbourhood, is almost an island. We've got
waterways to east and west, the manmade barriers of
Rideau Street and the Queensway to north and south.
The physical features of the community are such that
traffic should be easily controllable.
Further, we have no large office blocks to generate
inbound traffic, no industry to bring the trucks. The
major institutional presence is the University of
Ottawa and it is a buffer on the western edge of the
community and, what's more, the university's
administration believes in traffic calming.
After the 1992 public meetings mechanisms were put
in place and new players took up positions. The
Sandy Hill traffic study became the Sandy Hill Traffic
Calming Project. Regional Government bought in by
matching the City's funding through the
Transportation Environment Action Plan. A Steering
Committee was created. Delcan Engineering were
engaged as consultants to develop a detailed plan in
cooperation with the community.
Three more large public meetings were held, at which
Sandy Hill residents got to look at and comment on a
smorgasboord of proposals. Delcan incorporated the
citizens' opinions into two general approaches. One
emphasized "diversions" creating a maze that would
discourage most rat runners (drivers transiting Sandy
Hill with origins and destinations elsewhere). The
other featured a range of tools in the traffic calming kit:
street narrowings, speed humps, interruption of
drivers' sight lines, changes in parking patterns.
And then the consultants, the traffic committee, and
other players sat down in front of large-scale maps to
look at applications of one or the other, or a
combination of both options, to the actual streets of
Sandy Hill. (cont'd on p. 16)
STEPS TO SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES
U.S. MOVES ON MOTORISTS
- Wayne Roberts
Streetsmart U.S. environmentalists and
legislators have it all over Canadians when it
comes to pushing new ways of getting
around without cars. A little-known U.S.
law¾called the Intermodal Surface
Transportation and Efficiency Act
(ISTEA)¾sets out in excruciating detail a
series of democratic and ecological hoops
that transportation planners must jump
through to receive federal money.
By contrast, the $6-billion infrastructure
program promoted by the federal Liberal
government looks like environmental
deregulation. The Canadian program,
according to communications director
Richard Fix, sets out "environmentally
sustainable practices and technologies" as
one of four federal goals, alongside job
creation, infrastructure upgrading and
economic competitiveness. Although roads
and sewers are targeted as the most likely
recipients of federal funding, there are no
guidelines or tests as to what
"environmentally sustainable" means for
these projects. That will be left up to
individual provincial-federal agreements,
where "enhancing environmental quality
and sustainability" will be one of nine
criteria.
Compare that to ISTEA's power in the U.S.
The law was passed in 1991, on the heels of
the Clean Air Act, updated the year before,
and pushed forward by a coalition with a
breadth unimaginable in Canada. Before
state or municipal authorities can access
federal money from gas taxes, they have to
have an overall transportation plan. Before
they start their overall plan, they have to
invite community input, which is required
at five separate stages of plan development.
To qualify as a plan, they have to set aside a
minimum of 10% of federal monies to
protection and restoration of historic
buildings and scenic views. Of $119 billion
in federal money available for
transportation by 1997, as much as $58
billion can be set aside to promote public
transit, bicycling and walking. To get the
money spent on environmental projects,
community activists have to show that their
projects are more likely to reduce traffic
congestion and smog. [...] Here are a few
examples of how people have used and plan
to use ISTEA.
The first project eligible for ISTEA funding
was in Columbus, Georgia, where a set of
interconnecting bike and walking trails were
used as an excuse to restore the beauty of
the riverside. In Chicago, bicycle activists
have just set a precedent that's sure to boost
the profile of biking and walking. City
planners there applied for ISTEA money to
fund traffic flow
improvements¾synchronization of traffic
lights to reduce car idling time, for instance.
But in densely populated and polluted cities,
according to ISTEA, transportation plans
must meet strict requirements to fit with
clean-air targets.
Cyclists produced a study which showed
that most car pollution comes from turning
the motor on and off, not moving or idling.
"Only 30% of emissions (on most short-
distance trips) come from actually operating
the car", says Randy Neufeld of the Chicago
Bicycle Federation. This study forced the
city to spend $6 million on bike paths to
promote bike use on short commutes. Rails
to Trails, which fights to have abandoned
rail lines turned into bike and pedestrian
lanes, has received $235 million to fund
corridor takeovers, up from $20 million
received before 1990. The U.S. group hopes
corridors can be preserved for a day when
rail popularity revives. By contrast, Canada
risks losing its corridors as well as rail track,
making it financially impossible to ever
restore rail lines in the future. The old rail
corridors have been a runaway success in
Washington and Seattle, and despite
widespread fears about inner city crime, the
trails have been virtually hassle-free. Bob
Burco, former director of Oregon's
department of transportation, now a
research associate at the Rhode Island
School of Design, encourages anyone who
has a project to make walking a delight to
submit a funding proposal to ISTEA. [...]
Measures to make streets fun and safe
deserve funding under ISTEA, Burco insists.
It's the smartest way a government can
spend money, he says, because car-based
roads only lead to sprawl, which makes for
inefficient use of space, time and asphalt. A
walkable city is by definition an efficient
city, he argues. (NOW, 20-26 Jan/94)
PLANNING IN ENGLAND
Planners and local authorities welcomed
signs from the Environment Secretary, John
Gummer, that he is prepared to use his
planning powers to limit the expansion of
superstores in the interests of preserving the
viability and vitality of declining town
centres. The number of stores operated by
the "big four" groups¾Sainsbury, Tesco,
Asda and Argyll¾has grown dramatically
over the past five years from 293 to 743,
many of them on green-field sites well
outside town centres. (Guardian Weekly, 17
Oct 93)
CORDON VERT?
Closing off the City of London to nonlocal
vehicular traffic has produced "wholly
positive" results, said its governing body,
and may be extended indefinitely. The
blockades and checkpoints, which went up
at 18 approaches July 3 following an IRA
truck-bomb attack have reduced air
pollution and enhanced pedestrian freedom,
according to the Corporation of London.
(TIME, 1993)
ECOCITY ZONING MAPS' PROGRESS
One year ago, in celebrating Pedestrian Day
(September 13th, anniversary of the first
automobile fatality, which happened in
New York City in 1899), Ecocity Builders
issued the proposed Ecocity Zoning Map we
developed for Berkeley. We got good
publicity then and this year the Daily Cal
newspaper of the University of California
did a long piece on Ecocity Builders and the
map in their orientation issue for newly
arriving students. In the meantime, the idea
has been winning the interest of others
about the country. David Beach of EcoCity
Cleveland is developing a Cuyahoga
Watershed Bioregional map with ecocity
zoning features for Cleveland, and Susan
Butler in Washington, DC is developing a
map of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed with
its cities treated in an ecozoning way, based
largely around walkable centres and
surrounding nature corridors and zones.
In addition to their newsletter, Ecocity
Builders has a number of publications on
ecocity zoning, ecological rebuilding, and
sustainable cities. Richard Register is also
working on a book entitled Ecocities. For
more informaton: Ecocity Builders, 5427
Telegraph Avenue, W2, Oakland, CA 94609.
(Ecocity Builder News, Nov 93)
ROAD BUILDING PLANS SLASHED IN
BRITAIN
¾ Toby Helm and Greg Neale
The Government of Britain is to abandon a
large part of its £. 23 billion road programme
and postpone many other road projects as
part of a marked shift away from the
support for "the great car economy". Dozens
of plans which have been awaiting approval
are to be scrapped in a far-reaching review
of road building. The move has been largely
forced on the Department of Transport by
cuts in public spending. "We have no option
but to re-examine the relationship between
economic growth and the growth of roads. It
is absolutely true that in the past there has
been a correlation between the two."
Officials in the Department of Transport
believe present road-building policy, geared
to ever-increasing demand, is no longer
sustainable. A report released by the DoT
says that "forecast levels of traffic growth,
especially in urban areas, cannot be met in
full, and that new road-building or the
upgrading of existing highways will in some
cases be environmentally unacceptable". It
also warns that "traffic growth on the scale
projected could threaten our ability to meet
objectives for greenhouse gas emissions, for
air quality and for the protection of
landscape". The new planning rules will
discourage out-of-town developments that
encourage people to use cars. (Sunday
Telegraph, 13 Mar 94)
COMMUNITY STABILITY ACT
In Minnesota, a Metropolitan Community
Stability Act has been proposed in an
attempt to remedy the disparity between
rich and poor sections by curtailing
government policies that subsidize
development in outer-ring suburbs. The Act
promotes investment in cities and low-
income suburbs through measures including
housing policies (withholding state
spending in areas that prohibit multifamily
units and low-income housing),
transportation policies that spend money on
stabilizing existing communities rather than
developing new land for housing, a
farmland preservation bill to discourage
sprawl, and an end to taxpayer-funded
extensions of sewer lines to new
developments¾another major public
subsidy to new suburbs. Critics rightfully
point out that these measures will have little
effect unless mass transit is improved and
made more affordable. (Utne Reader,
July/Aug 93)
POST-AUTO LIFESTYLE DOWNUNDER
A Greenpeace-commissioned plan for the
redesign of Pyrmont, an inner city area in
Australia, won a major architectural award
and has been adopted by the citizens of
Pyrmont as their preferred development
option. A second Greenpeace-sponsored
plan for the design of the Olympic Village in
Sydney's bid for the year 2000 Olympics,
shared first prize in a nationwide
competition.
The Sydney Olympic Committee has
accepted Greenpeace's objectives and
principles for the design and the Greenpeace
consulting architect is now leading the
design team. Both plans are car-free. The
housing designs are highly energy-efficient,
and utilize natural solar heat and light, as
well as photovoltaics. The Olympic design
has raised the acceptability of urban villages
as a model concept for all Australian cities,
and the message of intelligent car-free inner
city planning will be transferred to other
countries where Greenpeace is campaigning.
(Greenpeace International via No Sweat News,
Winter 93/94)
CAR FREEDOM IN SHARING
A grassroots car-sharing system has sprung
up in Freiburg and other European cities to
free people from the burdens of car
ownership while allowing them to maintain
access to vehicles. A one-time $500 fee is
used to purchase cars. Cars can be reserved
for any number of hours or days, and use is
paid for by mile driven. This is ideal for
people that choose to live in town where
they can walk, bike or use transit to meet
most of their needs, without the hassles of
licensing, insurance payments and repairs.
Car-sharing clubs are now active in 49 cities
in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The
Berlin club has 800 members who share 57
vehicles. (No Sweat News, Winter 93/94)
DOMINO'S GIVES ADVICE
Toronto¾Domino's Pizza of Canada Ltd. is
advising franchise operators to scrap a 30-
minute delivery guarantee, a move that
comes in the wake of a $70 million (U.S.)
court judgment in St. Louis in favour of the
family of a person struck by a Domino's
vehicle. [...] Michael Gelmon, a Domino's
Canada vice-president and a member of the
family that controls the chain's core
operation, said the delivery guarantee is
being dropped for public relations reasons to
avoid an image of drivers rushing recklessly
on their rounds. (Globe and Mail, 15 Jan 94)
"WALK TO SHOP" ATTRACTING
LOCALS
The Wellington Street Merchants
Association in Ottawa's west end have
launched a "walk to shop" campaign to
reduce demands on area parking and
increase customer loyalty. The campaign is
intended to increase area residents' health
and fitness. A pamphlet comes complete
with a map and an indexed list of the wide
array of participating merchants. (Ottawalk
New #23, Winter 93/94)
CAR ADVERTISING: WHO'S IRRATIONAL NOW?
JUST THE FACTS MA'AM!
KING 5 (TV), Seattle, recently refused to
run some environmental ads about the
depletion of ancient forests in the Pacific
Northwest. Their basis for the rejection was
that the ads were not "completely factual".
Now how about applying that policy to the
source of at least one-third of their
advertising revenues: the automobile?!
(Transportopia Bulletin, 6502 106th Avenue
NE, Kirkland, WA 98033)
TRUTH IN ADVERTISING
The day before the opening of the 1992 car
fair in Brussels, Greenpeace covered 550 car
billboards with the inscription "The car
harms the environment", provoking huge
media interest and several legal cases.
Proposed legislation¾to make the
inscription mandatory¾has since been
introduced. (Greenpeace International via No
Sweat News, Winter 93/94)
ENVIRONMENT AND ADVERTISING
Per capita advertising expenditures have
tripled since 1950, and have increased 54%
since 1985 alone! We are inundated with
advertising all day long through all possible
media. New bicycle racks in Ottawa are
financed by providing advertising space
[including car rental companies]. (Earth
Words, Winter 1993)
TUNE IN TO TRANSIT
On "Try Transit Day", September 25, KYW
News radio station in Philadelphia
substituted transit reports for traffic reports.
Instead of the usual litany of traffic jams,
listeners to the all-news radio station heard
that SEPTA and PATCO were running on or
close to schedule. KYW also broadcast an
in-depth series of reports on the problems
of automobile dependency as part of its
regular Regional Affairs Council reports.
The week-long series which ran over 100
times highlighted what individuals and
companies are doing to encourage their
employees to try other transportation
options besides driving. Now, KYW radio
broadcasts both transit and automobile
traffic reports daily. Previously, transit
reports were only given if there were
delays. For info: Rich DiLullo, SEPTA, 841
Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107.
(Transportation Exchange Update, Nov 93)
AD ACTION ALERT! AD ACTION
ALERT!
On Friday March 19, the Toronto Globe and
Mail carried an ad for NISSAN. It looks like
this:
A large triangle or pyramid with a car on
the top. Then going down from the peak,
the words: "Esteem needs. Belongingness
and love needs. Safety needs." and on the
lowest level "Physiological needs".
Under the pyramid is the following: "Once
you satify the lower levels of Maslow's
Hierarchy of Needs, you can move on to the
really important stuff: 24 valves. 222
horses. And a permanent excuse not to be
part of the neighbourhood carpool. The
new Z convertible. Lease a 300 zx from
$599/mo. Call 1-800-387-0122 for further
information (Monday to Friday 8 am to 7
pm EST)."
As pedestrians and cyclists, why don't we
all give Nissan a call and tell them what we
think. (e-mailed from Al de Jong,
Campbellville, Ontario)
And while we're at it: 1-800-668-AUDI.
HOW CAN WE SLEEP WHILE OUR BEDS ARE BURNING?
CANADA MISSES TARGET
The Canadian federal government has pledged a 20% cut in greenhouse gases by 2005, but Environment Canada says
we're on course to increase output by 10.6% over that period. (Ottawa Citizen, 24 Feb 94)
CITY OF OTTAWA'S "TASK FORCE ON THE ATMOSPHERE"
In 1990, the City of Ottawa promised to cut carbon
dioxide emissions by 50%. In 1992, the city dropped its
goal to a 20%-reduction of 1990 levels, and in August
1992, City Council approved a task force to study how
to meet the reduced target. Finally, a year and a half
later the task force was created.
What has the City of Ottawa actually done since
announcing its target reduction four years ago? Apart
from lofty statements about environmental
responsibility in the new Official Plan, "green" election
promises, and umpteen reports and studies, not much.
A myriad of solutions have been recommended
repeatedly in both staff and public reports over the past
few years. The recent Central Area Transportation
Strategy offers many options that would reduce carbon
dioxide emissions if implemented. But that's the key:
implementation. The political and public will to accept
responsibility and do something about the declining
livability of our cities and planet is not there yet.
Ironically, the City of Ottawa's draft strategic plan talks
about Ottawa being an environmental leader.
Meanwhile, city planners and bureaucrats continue to
approve development proposals with thousands of
parking spaces and no energy-efficiency standards. Far
from showing the environmental leadership touted on
paper, the majority of city staff and councillors continue
to show a disheartening lack of understanding of the
impacts their policy decisions have on the local quality
of life and the global environment.
Despite widespread cynicism about the outcome of yet
another task force, the Task Force on the Atmosphere
could provide an opportunity to test and possibly raise
the public and political will to act on solutions already
recommended. The task force is made up of
representatives from Ottawa Hydro, Consumers Gas,
the University of Ottawa, home builders, building
managers, OC Transpo and community groups.
"Environmentalists" are represented by Louise Comeau
from the Sierra Club, and George Rejhon, the chair of
Ottawa's Environmental Advisory Committee.
Over the next 15 months, the task force's aim is to draw
up an action plan that is palatable to all these different
sectors. Virtually anything will be an improvement
over the current business-as-usual approach within
most city departments with respect to climate change.
Public resistance is the excuse often used by City
politicians and bureaucrats to justify their own inertia.
Again, where there's a will, there's a way. Resistance
can be overcome if every proposal the task force makes
is accompanied by a public education campaign on the
full costs of city services (parking, roads, licensing) and
who's paying for what. People have to understand that
pollution and waste cost us all: there are economic,
health, environmental and social costs to handling and
disposing waste, cleaning up pollution, and using land,
energy and other non-renewable resources inefficiently.
In fairness, a small first step in this direction has been
taken. In March, the City released a pamphlet called
"Global Warming Local Action" to raise public
awareness on how we each contribute to global climate
change, and what we can do about it (copies in English
or French are available from 564-7442).
Once the task force produces its report, it will be the
public's turn to support the initiatives proposed or, if
necessary, insist on more effective action. Ultimately, it
is up to each of us to do what we can about our own
lifestyle choices, and demand change in those areas
where we have no choice but to live unsustainably. ¾
LS
WHAT OTHER CITIES ARE ALREADY DOING
REGINA, CANADA has established a target to reduce
the municipal corporation CO2 emissions by 20% by
1998, the whole city's CO2 emissions by 20% by 2005
(from 1988 levels). The City has prepared a
comprehensive report on carbon dioxide reductions and
has undertaken major investigations in identifying
where the major CO2 emissions come from and how
they are going to be reduced. Contact: Bland Brown,
Senior Director, Environment and Infrastructure, City
of Regina, P.O. Box 1790, Regina, SK S4P 3C8 Tel:
306-777-7318 or fax: 777-6810.
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA The theme of Sydney's annual
Environment Week in 1993 was "Travel Green". The
objective was to raise public awareness of how
individual travel decisions cumulatively affect the urban
environment. Contact: Adrienne Keane,
Environmental Manager Officer, Sydney City Council,
GPO Box 1591 NSW 2001, Australia Tel: 61-2-265-
9333, Fax: 265-9780. (Initiatives, The Organizational
Newsletter of the International Council for Local
Environmental Initiatives, No. 5, Oct 93)
PORTLAND RESPONDS TO GLOBAL WARMING ¾ Anne E. Platt
Portland, Oregon, a metropolitan area of 1.2 million
people, has become the first city in the United States to
provide a model of how responses to global warming
can be implemented at the local level. The Portland City
Council passed the Carbon Dioxide Reduction Strategy
in November. The city's policy sets out a plan for
cutting emissions of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse
gas, 20% below 1988 levels by 2010¾from 10.1 million
metric tons to 8.1 million metric tons. Since experts
were projecting that emissions would reach 42% above
1988 levels by 2010, the city will have to reduce
emissions by almost half in the next 16 years in order to
meet its goal. Portland is one of a few dozen cities
around the world that are tackling global warming at
this level. Four years ago, it was one of 12 cities chosen
to participate in the International Urban CO2 Reduction
Project, sponsored by the International Council for
Local Environmental Initiatives. The project involves
cities in Canada, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Italy and
Turkey, as well as the United States.
Since the rise in Portland's carbon dioxide emissions is
expected to come from an increase in population, rather
than from any substantial increase in industrial output,
the city's goals target citizens throughout the metro
area, rather than industries and businesses. The policy
was designed to encourage individual responsibility on
a voluntary basis and therefore does not include
penalties or specific standards for local businesses.
Portland has made transportation the major target in
its campaign to cut CO2 emissions, encouraging more
sustainable transportation and reduced car travel. Its
strategy also includes promoting the use of renewable
energy, cutting air pollution, increasing recycling, and
encouraging household insulation and energy-efficient
appliances.
Progressive policies are a longstanding tradition in
Portland, which adopted an Urban Energy Policy in
1979 to promote energy efficiency, weatherization
programs, and recycling. (World Watch, March/April
94)
TRAFFIC CALMING IN SANDY HILL (cont'd from p. 12)
And looked, and proposed, and argued, and went
away, and came back, and looked again, and proposed
again, and argued again, and went away, and came
back, and ...
The difficulties are in the details. The Devil is in the
details. But the implementation problems boil down to
just two. These are:
1. There's a NIMBY in every traffic calmer
All the members of the Traffic Committee agree that
benefits and burdens should be shared as equitably as
possible. But every conceivable scheme for traffic
diversion results in increased traffic on one or more
neighbourhood streets. When Street A benefits, Street B
incurs a cost. Residents of Street B ask, quite naturally
and even inevitably, "Why us?".
There is no answer beyond an unquantifiable hope that
a modal shift will result -- that fewer people, overall, will
drive on every street in the neighbourhood.
Bad NIMBYs don't care if the other guy gets screwed.
Good NIMBYS just want fair play. But genuine fair play
is almost impossible to find in any traffic diversion
scheme.
2. Chaos lurks
Changes to traffic patterns anywhere will have effects
elsewhere. And these effects look suspiciously like the
results of a chaotic process. Chaos theory is the hottest
territory in mathematics these days, and it seems to
have a place in traffic planning.
It looks like the butterfly effect is to be expected when
traffic calming is taken seriously. The butterfly effect? A
butterfly flaps its wings in Alberta and the result is a
hurricane in New Brunswick; very small causes can
have very large effects, and the processes involved are
so complex that the effects cannot be predicted from the
causes.
So, in Sandy Hill, though not all the good people staring
at maps on easels know that chaos theory is flavour of
the month, they are aware that the results of decisions
made on the basis of available information are
intrinsically unpredictable.
If we narrow the intersection at Chapel and Somerset
will we increase the number of accidents at Rideau and
Nelson? No one knows. No one can know (unless the
mathematical modellers give us tools that don't yet
exist).
Still hopeful
Despite the intractable problems, the consultants,
politicians, public staffers and citizen volunteers soldier
on.
A traffic calming plan for Sandy Hill will be hammered
out by June. It will probably incorporate some maze-like
diversionary elements. It will certainly call for
intersection and street narrowings, for the "snaking" of
streets by altering parking geography, for signage and
shrubbery, and for any or all of the other tried-and-true
traffic calming measures.
And parts of it will be in place before the snow flies
again. All the Hillers need now are a few more
meetings. Just a few more. Or a ban on cars.
AUTO-FREE OTTAWA'S COMMENTS ON THE CENTRAL AREA TRANSPORTATION STRATEGY
by Neale MacMillan
The Central Area Transportation Strategy is an initiative of the City of Ottawa, the RMOC, OC Transpo and the NCC, in
cooperation with the Société de transport de l'Outaouais and the City of Hull. It began in 1991 with the goal of developing a
transportation plan that emphasizes a more people-oriented rather than car-oriented Central area. The Strategy was presented to
the public in late January.
General comments
The public consultation process should have begun at
the front end of the development of this strategy rather
than almost two years after the fact. The three weeks
allowed for public comment on the strategy is
insufficient for a thorough and thoughtful analysis.
With respect to the analysis of issues section, comment
is made only on those proposed actions where
modifications or an additional proposed action are
suggested.
Land Use
LU 3: Rather than cap the amount of long-term parking
at today's inventory, the amount should be reduced
substantially. This measure will both reduce the long-
term parking supply, leading to fewer car trips to work,
and free up land for other uses, such as residential or
mixed use development or open space.
Pedestrian Circulation
Improved pedestrian corridors should be the major
priority for the pedestrian environment. Any action in
this area should specifically address intersection
redesign, which I cannot find anywhere in the proposed
actions, unless it is PC 5 (Determine the feasibility of
regulating traffic or adjusting signal timing to improve
pedestrian movement and priority). PC 5 should be
upgraded from medium to high priority. Many
intersections need redesign to shift the balance of power
from cars to people on foot or bicycle. This will require
measures such as undoing the "channelizing" of street
corners, where corners have been rounded or where
pedestrians are made to traverse a right turn channel to
a triangular island before actually crossing the
intersection. "Unchannelizing," or putting the square
back into corners will force cars to slow down to
negotiate right turns and will effectively shrink the
amount of intersection that pedestrians have to cross.
Other intersections need a total redesign in order to
truly restore priority to pedestrian movement. One
example is at the Terry Fox statue by the Conference
Centre. Pedestrians should be able to cross the ramp
from Mackenzie to Colonel By Drive at grade rather
than have to descend stairs and climb ramps.
Proposed PC 6: Reduce the speed limit on all Central
Area streets from 50 km/h to 40 km/h and strictly
enforce the new speed limit. Such a traffic-calming
measure would greatly improve the pedestrian
environment as well as the cycling environment. Speed
is the critical variable in both noise pollution and
accidents that injure pedestrians and cyclists.
Cycling
The common vision for transportation described in the
Central Area Transportation Strategy document
foresees "... a more people-oriented rather than car-
oriented Central Area, with less emphasis on the speed
and ease of car travel and more emphasis on the quality
of the pedestrian [emphasis added] environment." Why
not include bicycles in this better quality environment?
The strategy document should avoid promoting a
negative image of bicycles (eg. the drawing of a bicycle
courier bearing down at great speed on an elderly
woman with a cane).
CY 1, 4 and 5 should be upgraded from medium to high
priority.
Proposed CY 6: The City of Ottawa and the RMOC
should ensure a rapid three-year implementation of the
Comprehensive Cycling Plan. Many, even most, cycling
trips to the Central Area begin beyond the bounds of the
Central Area. People need to be encouraged to begin
their trip to the Central Area by bicycle rather than car.
They will not do so if they have no logical, continuous
cycle route, if pavement surfaces are in serious disrepair
or if other obstacles stand in their path.
Public Transit
PT 1: In addition to a fare-free zone in the Central Area,
the City of Ottawa and the RMOC should investigate
lowering transit fares throughout the region and try to
both win back some clientele that OC Transpo has lost
to private cars and make the service more accessible to
lower-income groups. This action should be high rather
than medium priority.
PT 4 (Investigate financial means of promoting greater
use of transit): This proposed action could be
strengthened by investigating car parking subsidies
given by employers, especially in the public sector.
These subsidies should be challenged or an equivalent
financial incentive be provided to employees who walk,
cycle or use public transit. Upgrade to high priority.
Proposed PT 5: Given that public transit should support
rather than discourage walking and cycling, investigate
methods of improving the contribution of transit
vehicles to a better environment for these modes.
Vehicular Circulation
The strategy refers to vehicles when it should more
properly specify private motorized vehicles. (Bicycles
are recognized as vehicles in the Ontario Highway
Traffic Act.)
VC 1 (Reduce the number of vehicles [sic] entering the
Central Area) should be realized not by HOV lanes or
tolls but by the proposed action under VC 8, namely
Traffic Demand Management Measures for National
Capital Region. In fact, VC 8 is likely the key to the
entire strategy, for the Central Area will never become
more car-free until the trends in the RMOC toward
growing numbers of daily car trips, longer car trips,
higher per capita car ownership and fewer passengers
per car are reversed. This goal cannot be achieved
without an aggressive, region-wide demand
management strategy targeting car drivers. The supply
management strategy -- building more roads for cars --
being followed by the Region's transportation
department, coupled with land-use policies that
encourage sprawl, are accentuating the trends noted
above.
Parking and Loading
See reference to LU 3 above.
Urban Design
Proposed actions under urban design should be tied
more explicitly to the goals presented in the section on
land use, namely encouraging residential and mixed-
use development.
Enforcement
Proposed E7: Implement a modal shift for more police
and parking control officers out of cars and onto feet or
bicycles.
Finally, no one has said it better than Otto Ulrich in his
article "The pedestrian town as an environmentally
tolerable alternative to motorised travel" (in The
Greening of Urban Transport Ed. Rodney Tolley, 1990.)
"The burdens on ecology and health from motor traffic in the
town have clearly been exceeded. No diminution of the
detrimental effects of traffic can be expected from technical
improvements to transport and road construction alone. A
fundamental new direction in traffic policy is essential. Such
an environmentally tolerable transport policy in the towns
must in the first instance support and extend the direct use of
the feet. Secondly, the conditions for the indirect use of the
feet through the use of cycles must be improved. Only then, in
third place, should public transport be discussed as an
alternative to the car; moreover, it must be seen as an
intensive, integrated concept which is orientated towards and
supports walking and cycling. This integrated urban
transport system of pedestrian ways, cycle networks and
public transport should be so conceived that it does not
complement motorised traffic but replaces it."
Copies of the strategy are available from: Mike Fowlie
(613) 564-3064 or Marguerite Lewis 739-3339. (Neale
MacMillan is Auto-Free Ottawa's representative on the
Transit Advocacy Project.)
READ YOUR WAY TO AUTO-FREEDOM
Reclaiming Our Cities and Towns: Better Living with
Less Traffic
by David Engwicht. New Society Publishers, 1993.
ISBN: 1-55092-227-0. $15.95
In 1987, the Queensland Main Roads Department
announced a public meeting to discuss "upgrading"
Route 20 through David Engwicht's home suburb in
Brisbane, Australia. By the end of that meeting,
Engwicht and fellow residents had resolved to fight the
proposal. Unlike many other community groups in
1987, Citizens Against Route Twenty (CART) decided at
their first meeting that they would not push the freeway
into someone else's backyard, but look instead for long-
term solutions to traffic problems in our cities.
Not only did CART (now Citizens Advocating
Responsible Transportation) succeed in stopping the
freeway proposal, but they also asked many important
questions like: Why do we accept plans that continue to
erode our quality of life instead of demanding cleaner
air, safer streets, and friendlier neighbourhoods¾the
quality of life we had twenty years ago?
Reclaiming Our Cities and Towns is the account of
Engwicht's "evolving understanding" of cities,
communities and the rights of people who live in them.
Engwicht articulates the question that perhaps more
and more people with car-dependent lifestyles or living
in car-besieged cities are thinking: how are human
rights violated by cars? The original purpose of cities,
he explains, was to provide access to exchanges of
information, goods, friendship, culture, skills, and
psychological and spiritual support. Streets and roads
were used to provide this access until cars¾never
explicitly granted the right to use the streets¾took over
"by stealth" and now restrict the rights of pedestrians,
cyclists, children, seniors and people with impaired
mobility.
Engwicht has even drafted a charter of access-to-
exchange rights that would include the right to
protection from the more powerful, to just distribution
and an interactive community, as well as the right not to
have to pay other people's costs. (The European charter
of pedestrian rights adopted by the European
Parliament in 1988 is also included in the appendix.)
In his search for long-term solutions, Engwicht has
developed a vision of an "Eco-city". He explains how a
city is an ecosystem (not a machine), how it is destroyed
by traffic, and how it can be reclaimed through "eco-
relational" thinking. He discusses how sprawl is
economically inefficient, and draws links between
speed, motorists' attitudes, and the destruction of
neighbourhoods (lower speed limits can prevent as
many as 50 to 80% of traffic deaths).
His solutions include empowering residents, asking the
right questions, breaking bureaucracies down into
geographically defined districts, and shifting the cost-
burden of car infrastructure onto the users instead of
forcing everyone to pay.
Finally, since an Eco-city would be based on mutuality
and partnership, not confrontation, Engwicht urges
"professional" and "lay" people to work together against
outdated thinking and attitudes towards our cities and
ourselves. Engwicht optimistically concludes that the
seeds of an ecological revolution are sprouting all over
the world, and that one of the new lifeforms will be the
Eco-city.
Definitely an empowering and thought-provoking
must-read for anyone concerned about the quality of life
in their urban or suburban neighbourhood, and the
survival of life as we know it on our planet. David
Engwicht will be in Ottawa on April 8 and 9. See
"Events" for details.
NO SWEAT NEWS: JOURNAL OF GRASSROOTS
ACTION TO PROTECT THE ATMOSPHERE
The Atmosphere Alliance, P.O. Box 10346, Olympia WA
98502 206-352-1763, Fax: 352-8526
CYCLOMETER: A NEWSLETTER FOR CYCLING IN
TORONTO
Toronto City Cycling Committee, 20E, City Hall,
Toronto M5H 2N2, (416) 392-7592, FAX: 392-0071
PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES INC.
153 Waverly Place, New York, NY 10014, (212) 620-5660
RESURGENCE
Salem Cottage, Trelill, Bodmin, Cornwall PL30 3HZ,
Annal subscription: US$45.
ECOCITY BUILDER NEWS
Ecocity Builders, 5427 Telegraph Avenue, W2, Oakland,
CA 94609.
GOING CLEAN JOURNAL
Auto-Free Bay Area Coalition
P.O. Box 10141, Berkeley, CA 94709 (510) 849-0770
autolibre@igc.org
THE CARBON DIOXIDE REPORT FOR CANADA
($25 plus shipping) can be obtained by contacting:
Friends of the Earth suite 701 251 Laurier Ave West
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5J6 CANADA
ph: 613-230-3352 fx: 613-232-4354 E-Mail: web:foe
CAR-FREE EVENTS!
WELL, ALMOST CAR-FREE...
April 8 AND 9
RECLAIMING OUR CITIES AND TOWNS TOUR -
Better Living with Less Traffic
Australian author David Engwicht will be giving three
workshops while in Ottawa.
When: Friday, April 8 - 1:30 to 4:30 and 7:00 to 9:30
Saturday, April 9 - 9:00 to 1:30
Where: Ottawa-Carleton Centre, 111 Lisgar Street
Copies of Reclaiming our Cities and Towns: Better Living
With Less Traffic will be available for purchase.
Details: Chris Bradshaw 560-1229
April 13, 7:30 to 10 p.m.
2nd annual GREENFEST at the Sandy Hill Community
Centre, 150 Somerset Avenue East
April 16, 10 to 4 p.m.
Better Transportation Coalition, Annual General
Meeting, Toronto
For car pool or other info, call Chris Bradshaw at
230-4566 or aa122@freenet.carleton.ca
April 30, 9 to 5
IDEAS FAIR
Ottawa-Carleton Centre, 111 Lisgar Street, Ottawa
Auto-Free Ottawa will be presenting proposals on an
auto-free market and the costs of the car. Anyone
wishing to help, please call 234-0923.
April 30 to May 1
WOMEN'S CYCLING CONFERENCE
Metro Hall, Toronto, Registration: $40.00
For more info: Women on Wheels Hotline at
(416) 246-1553 or 462-1938
May 7
WALK FOR PEACE, THE ENVIRONMENT AND
SOCIAL JUSTICE
Auto-Free Ottawa will have a petition-signing station in
the Market during the walk.
To be a walker for Auto-Free Ottawa, call 234-0923.
June 3 to 5
ONTARIO ENVIRONMENTAL NETWORK 1994
SPRING CONFERENCE
Eaglecrest Outdoor Education Centre, Sundridge,
Ontario. For more information: (519) 837-2565
June to August
SIGN UP FOR A CAR-FREE MARKET!
Auto-Free Ottawa will continue its very successful
petition-signing campaign (started two years ago) to
help make the Market a more pedestrian-friendly area.
The initial aim is to have cars banned on William and By
Ward Streets (between York and George) during
business hours on summer weekends.
This summer, we will organize four petition-signing
"drives" beginning on Greenpeace's International Auto-
Free Day. We will need 6 to 8 people each time for only
two hours to hand the petition to passers-by. The four
sessions will take place on May 17, then on June 25, July
24 and August 28. Please mark at least one of these
dates on your calendar to come out in the sun, show
your commitment to AFO, and have some fun at the
same time!! Passers-by have been very receptive to our
idea (except of course for the odd never-will-get-rid-of-
my car fanatic).
To volunteer or for more information, please contact
Maguy Robert at 594-4752 (eves). Thank you for your
involvement!
CARS ARE RUINING MY LIFE AND OUR BIOSPHERE!
Sign me up, and .......................................................................................send a complimentary copy to:
___ $20.00 individual or family ___ $10.00 unwaged
___ $50.00 corporate/institutional
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
Name Name
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
Address Address
Tel: (h)____________________(w)________________________
AUTO-FREE OTTAWA
Box 21045, 151A Second Avenue, Ottawa River Bioregion, Ontario K1S 5N1 (613) 234-0923