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Spring 2003, p.21 Auto-Free World Seoul to Raze Elevated Highway and Restore Riverfront
Fulfilling a central campaign
promise, new Seoul Mayor Lee Mung-Bak is moving forward with the restoration
of a riverfront in downtown Seoul tearing down an elevated highway and
building a Bus Rapid Transit corridor. Seoul is also testing articulated buses
and expects to replace all of the city's diesel buses with CNG models by 2006.
The city has lofty modal shift targets, including a 50% reduction in private
vehicle use by 2005. The cornerstone of this dramatic new vision is the
restoration of the Cheonggyecheon, an 84-meter wide river running through
central Seoul's Dongdaemun district. Once the center of a diverse urban
landscape, the river was gradually polluted with a toxic mix of chemicals
including lead, methane, chromium and nitrogen monoxide. Then, between 1958
and 1978, it was covered with concrete and the city built the Cheonggyechen
elevated highway over it. The highway cuts through the center of Seoul and has
long diminished the quality of life for residents of South Korea's capital
city. Mayor Lee will take down the six-lane highway, decontaminate the
Cheonggyecheon and create a park and wide pedestrian corridor on the shores of
the river in its place. The destruction of the Cheongguecheon highway is part
of Mr. Lee's redevelopment strategy for the entire area north of the Han
River, which he hopes will become Seoul's economic, cultural and environmental
center.
At the new york international
auto Show, it was announced that sports utility vehicles, pickups and minivans
now make up 50% of US vehicle sales. The vehicles on sale in the US this year
are the heaviest vehicles on record since World War II. More vehicles were
sold in the US in the last two years than at any other time in history, over
17.2 million per year.
The average fuel economy of
cars and trucks in the United States fell to its lowest level in 22 years in
the 2002 model year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The
technological and engineering leaps of the past two decades have been poured
into everything but fuel economy, the agency's statistics made clear. In the
2002 model year, U.S. vehicles went an average of 20.4 miles on a gallon of
gasoline, the lowest figure since 1980, when it was 19.2 miles a gallon. Surge in Consumer Dissatisfaction With Car Fuel Efficiency According to a closely
watched survey of initial quality by J. D. Power and Associates released in
May, fuel consumption was the second most common driver complaint industry
wide, the highest ranking for fuel consumption in the 17 years of the annual
survey; it had never before cracked the top five.
A national poll released last week by the Surface Transportation Policy Project found support among Americans for measures to make walking more possible, safer and pleasant. 68% favor devoting more federal dollars to improve the pedestrian environment, even within a constrained budget. 55% chose walking, given a choice between walking more and driving more. Policies that would make streets friendlier for walkers found strong support in the poll: 84%: Design Streets for
Slower Traffic Speeds Less than one percent of
federal transportation dollars are spent to protect pedestrians, but 12
percent of U.S. traffic deaths are people killed while walking. A pack of frenzied dogs
attacked six parked cars in Munich in March, causing panic among residents
woken by the disturbance, the police said. Fenders, mud flaps and license
plates were torn off. "It sounded like the cars were being broken
into," said Günther Sailler, 63, a local goldsmith. "It was
incredible. One of them leaped again and again with unbelievable force into
the side of a car and bit into it like a lunatic." |
Efficiency has been declining steadily since the 1988 peak of 22.1 miles a
gallon.
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