Carfree Cookbook » Action Reports

Bridging the Gap

admin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:14:58 +0000

Last May around 5,000 people on foot, roller blades, skateboards, unicycles and bicycles, streamed past a police roadblock onto the iconic Harbour Bridge in Auckland, New Zealand. They were celebrating the 50th birthday of a structure upon which many people had never before set foot. Since its opening in 1959, the bridge has been off-limits to pedestrians, apart from an annual marathon. Those living on the opposite side to their work are forced to drive the short distance in congested lanes or take often inadequate public transport. Getacross, a network of walking and cycling advocacy groups, has been lobbying for several years to remedy this. They garnered support from local and regional councils to enter the bridge, but the New Zealand Transport Authority (NZTA) that operates the bridge opposed the idea on the grounds that it was unsafe and too expensive. But the group wanting more immediate change took to their bicycles one morning in May to cross the bridge, zooming past cars and gathering ecstatic cheers from nearby crowds. At the highest point on the bridge, someone chalked on the words “Our Bridge!” Although traffic was brought to a standstill, the event turned into more of a celebration than a protest, with thousands of people enjoying the friendly atmosphere and spectacular harbour views. The actions of the cyclists brought plenty of media attention to the fight for the liberation of the bridge.

Sally McAra, www.getacross.org.nz

Bike Wars

admin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:13:53 +0000

The “Bikes not Cars Festival” hit the streets of Amsterdam, The Netherlands this July. With music, tall-bike jousting bike wars, a baksfiets (the typical Dutch cargo-bikes) race and more, the event brought a much needed reality check to a city without a regular Critical Mass, yet with such a large number of bikes. The Critical Mass attracted around 100 participants, many from the local squat-scene and had an atmosphere of anarchic celebration – with a selection of tall-bikes, plenty of bright colours, and of course lots of noise. The principals behind the ride could have been questioned, with many blocking trams, but the majority reacted with positivity, glad to see something more celebratory and out of the ordinary, compared to the daily hordes of cyclists that bless the city. It was a great event for bringing together individuals who still question the root of our oil-based society, and providing alternatives. The following day Carbusters took the opportunity to introduce the magazine to many there, and spread the “One Less Car” stickers. The tall-bike jousting was a success and attracted the odd confused, but always amused, passers-by, as did the cargo-bike races, and mutant bikes were aplenty around the festival site – created from bike wrecks and parts during the first two days. The hope is that the festival will continue, and help is needed in organising, and mobilising. If you’re interested then get in touch, get involved, get active!

Sam Fleet, bikesnotcars.wordpress.com

Bring the Bike to Work

admin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:12:41 +0000

This year’s Bike to Work Week (BTWW) in Metro Vancouver, Canada, was a huge success with 5,000 cyclists registering and participating during May. Each day of the week, commuter celebration stations were set up along bike routes to offer free food, prizes and mechanical help. Committed participants pedalled through the week and thousands of people celebrated their accomplishments at a wrap-up party in downtown Vancouver. The party included free food for cyclists, pedal-powered music and a performance by the B:C:Clettes, an all lady, bike inspired, street-performance collective (see Carbusters 36). The Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition organised BTWW with the aim of drawing new people out to use bikes as daily transportation and inspiring them to continue year round. In total, 920 employees biked to work for the very first time and post-event surveys show that many of them are still cycle commuting. One participant said, “I’d wanted to try cycling to work for the past two years and just never managed to get started. Bike to Work Week gave me the push I needed to finally try it – and I love it! I’ve biked to work nearly every day since. The feeling of community the commuter stations created was great. Thank you!” Overall, participants logged nearly 200,000 km during the week and saved 37,000 kg of greenhouse gases from being emitted into the atmosphere. The next BTWW will be held in November 2009, to demonstrate the viability of cycling year round in Vancouver.

Erin O’Melinn, Vancouver Area Cycle Coalition

Sticking to the Streets

admin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:08:45 +0000

Passeio Livre (Portuguese for Clear Sidewalk) is an organisation that evolved from the growing realisation of how feeble respect towards pedestrian mobility is and from the need to react against the cultural acceptance of abusive car parking, as well as the apathy of policy makers and police authorities to do anything about it. A group of pedestrian advocates based in Lisbon began gathering to organise an adequate response to balance this problem common to all major cities in Portugal. The main purpose was to empower abused pedestrians and also to make visible and challenge the sense of impunity amongst brazen car drivers. In March, the group printed 15,000 stickers with the slogan “Don’t just think about your Navel” (Portuguese for don’t be so self-centred), to express dissatisfaction towards abusively parked automobiles and promote respect for pedestrians. The stickers were mailed to Passeio Livre members and other individuals interested. There was wide interest all over Portugal and hundreds of requests for stickers, including some from as far as Brazil. By June, all the stickers had been given away, while by July, following a design contest for new stickers, 20,000 new ones were printed in four different designs and are ready to be distributed. The popularity of the stickers exceeded all expectations; there was wide media coverage and a blog created to document and promote this action, which has been a huge success in raising public awareness of an issue that had once been perceived in silent tolerance. Gradually, parking attitudes are changing…

Tiago Carvalho, www.passeiolivre.blogspot.com

There are no Green Cars!

admin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:04:05 +0000

To celebrate World Environment Day 2009, the Swedish commuter organisation Planka.nu hosted a “Climate Crash” together with Friends of the Earth Sweden and Klimax, a network of groups that uses direct action to raise awareness of the threat that climate change poses. Over 150 people took to the streets of Stockholm on this chilly June evening and closed down Hornsgatan, one of the most polluted roads in Sweden (and in the EU). For more than one hour all car traffic was blocked by people listening to music, dressing up as polar bears, drinking coffee, bicycling and carrying banners with the main messages: “There are no green cars” and “Adapt the production – sink the car-industry”. During the last years there have been Climate Crashes all over Sweden, with the biggest one taking place at the European Social Forum in Malmö with over a 1,000 participants. Even though every Climate Crash has its own theme, the overall goal is to reduce C02 emissions from the transport sector and to clean our city centres from cars. Planka.nu is a network of Swedish groups working for free public transport and a climate-smart and just city planning. For instance, it organises fare-dodgers in the insurance fund “p-kassan” where members pay each others’ fines if they get caught fare-dodging in the public transport system. It also runs the online forum www.freepublictransports.com which focuses on the international free public transport movement.

Alexander Berthelsen, www.planka.nu

Cars: Take a Hike

admin — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 17:04:28 +0000

Where space is carved up to accommodate for the automobile’s demand for passage, little is left for pedestrians to experience, see, or do. On December 13, a group of M.Sc. students studying sustainability science at Lund University in Sweden sought to tackle this problem by means of direct action – by recreating Prof. Hermann Knoflacher’s ‘walkmobile’ (see Carbusters #36). Of the myriad of reasons why widespread automobile use is unsustainable, Knoflacher adds that the automobile hijacks public space in urban and suburban settings. Knoflacher’s walk- mobile fills 450 cm by 180 cm, the dimensions of a midsize car, and attempts, with added humour, to demonstrate every pedestrian’s right to equal space as granted to the automobile.

The students toured the streets with the walkmobile, engaging in what certain observers of culture-jamming have called “critical public pedagogy”. While not trying to be explicitly educational or academic, the students tried to engage onlookers while one student even played the role of the mad scientist inventor of the walkmobile. However, more than purely attention grabbing or building awareness, the aim was to get people to reflect on the collective effect of individual behavioural choices. The public demonstration created a collective learning experience: engaging the audience to question the dominant perception of cars, which, in our society, has become deeply embedded in individual identities.

Continuing this culture-jamming theme, the students have created a mock automobile corporation website, inspired by the French theorist Guy De- bord, thus using the fake auto company name: Bord Motors. By Ahoo Salem, Cary Hendrick- son, Fabrizio Trocchia and Hitesh Soneji

www.bordmotors.com

Curitiba’s Carfree Month

admin — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 17:03:09 +0000

We had a lot of ideas for Carfree Day in Curitiba. But it was impos- sible to promote a big event with- out municipal support to help spread the word, close streets, hire performers etc. We soon re- alised that we would have to do everything by ourselves, so we decided to make a Carfree Month full of small events instead of a Carfree Day with only a big one. The principle was simple: who- ever came up with an idea would be responsible to execute it.

During the month we organ- ised four street music shows and four open discussion groups with themes ranging from Ivan Illich’s revolutionary ideas to the cy- clists’ situation in Brazil. We also organised activities such as a walk in the city’s gardens, a photo ex- hibition entitled “Less Gasoline, More Adrenaline”, a bike tour to the city dump to raise aware- ness about garbage disposal and a Cycle Day featuring a fes- tive bike ride through the city, filled with prizes and surprises, musical shows and a bike fair.

World Carfree Day itself start- ed with a morning Park(ing). At noon, local sustainability groups planted flowers inside public gar- bage cans and painted bikes on the asphalt. A talk with mayoral candidates was later held to de- mand urgent measures to revert all the investments to motorised traffic. And finally we began our Bike March: 300 cyclists swept the streets of the city. The feeling of freedom and happiness was so intense that a few riders couldn’t resist, and took off their clothes. bicicletadacuritiba.wordpress.com

Petition Car Drives Awareness of Auto-Addicted Culture

admin — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 17:01:11 +0000

Canadian activist group Streets Are for People! made a special delivery to the Ontario provincial government on Earth Day. The group led a parade that pushed its “petition car” – motorless, painted white and covered with over 4,000 signatures – to the Legislative Building in Toronto, where they delivered it along with a paper petition signed by over 3,000 people.

Supporters were greeted by their member of parliament, who came out on the lawn to accept the petition. He was adorned with a superhero cape emblazoned with planet Earth to remind him of those who were counting on him as he presented the petition inside the Legislature. The boot of the car, filled with dirt, was opened, and people took turns planting herbs and flowers. A sing-along and clowning lesson raised spirits just before the merry band entered the assembly.

However, when it came time for the petition to be read, over 90% of Ontario’s MPP’s left the room. “The issues around the malady of car culture are so well-entrenched,” says Streets are for People! member Shamez Amlani, “that to

sum up these myriad problems into sound bites embraceable by the media and bureaucrats is almost impossible. But this kind of action questions the status quo and gets conversations started at the grassroots level – that’s what makes it a powerful tool for change.” The full text of the petition is linked here: www.streetsareforpeople.org.

- Streets are for people!

Times Up! “Die-In”

admin — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 17:00:30 +0000

On December 12, 2007, Time’s Up! organised a direct action to dramatically call attention to the unsafe condition in the Midtown Manhattan 6th Avenue bike lane. The “Die-In” also commemorated the death of 63-year old cyclist David Smith, who was killed on 6th Avenue while riding to work on December 5, 2007.

About 20 cyclists and supporters participated in the “Die-In” to dramatise the fatal last moments of David Smith’s ride. After riding up to the spot of the crash, they stopped traffic on one lane of the heavily travelled 6th Avenue and lay down motionless on the street, next to their bikes, with signs proclaiming “Killed by Car.”

The action called attention to the need for safe buffered bike lanes, especially on heavily trafficked streets. The bike lanes on 6th Avenue and Broadway are too narrow and offer no protection for cyclists who are forced to ride either too closely to the moving vehicles or risk being “doored” by someone in a parked car.

“Unfortunately, dodging illegally parked cars and carelessly opened doors is an everyday activity for NYC cyclists. The NYPD needs to step up enforcement of traffic laws and ticket motorists who park in bike lanes. The number of cyclists in the city is increasing every year, and bicycle safety has to become a higher priority if we want to encourage this trend to continue,” said Judy Ross, Time’s Up! spokesperson.

- Barbara Ross, www.times-up.org

SUV’s Are Off!

admin — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:59:08 +0000

Members of the action group 4X4info, Belgium’s “SUV- busters”, successfully organised a direct action in Brussels, November 3. Dressed as “climate referees” and accompanied by cheerleaders, the activists showed red cards to SUV drivers informing them of the high CO2 emissions of their vehicles. The group blames car companies for the increased number of SUVs on the roads and for failing to inform customers of their high emissions. This action comes at a time when EU politicians are weakening the goals to reduce CO2 emissions for new vehicles.

The action was received with sympathy and even saw the participation of bystanders. It received wide local and even international media coverage.

- www.4x4info.be