Auto-Free World

Public Disservice Announcement
On the radio recently: Driver Ed: (huffing and puffing) Hi, Driver Ed here, introducing this year's newest accessory for those who choose to drink and drive...a bicycle. (Sound effects: bicycle bell) As if getting arrested, fined thousands of dollars and being publicly embarrassed isn't enough. Now you lose your license when you're arrested for DWI. Think about it. You'll have to ride a bike everywhere! You could have a designated driver, called a cab, or called a friend. Now your choices are limited.

(Sound effects: bicycle bell rings ferociously with car horns, traffic sound in back- ground)

Driver Ed: I'm in no shape for doing this. Are you? (pause) The choice is yours. New York!

Announcer: Sponsored by the New York State Broadcasters Association and the Governor's Traffic Safety Committee.
- NYS Governor's Traffic Safety Committee

Pedestrians Good For Business
Curitiba City in Brazil has created a pedestrian network, covering an area equivalent to nearly fifty blocks, in the highly congested downtown area. Plans are also underway to lay 150 km of bicycle paths. Although local merchants initially resisted the idea, they quickly saw the pedestrian zone as a tremendous economic boost. With no vehicles competing for space, customers found the shopping environment more pleasant, and they had more time to shop when they did not have to drive and park.
- International Institute, for Energy Conservation

Single Track
Toronto is now setting up a bike group for singles. Rides will be casual and will be geared for both mountain bikers and road riders. Special social events and workshops are also in the works. Potential workshop topics? "How not to wipe out while making goo-goo eyes at your riding partner."
- http://web.indi.rect.com/~dwc/singles and dwc@indirect.com

Deadly Demented Drivers  
More than half of elderly drivers killed in automobile crashes showed signs of Alzheimer's disease, a Swedish study published in The Lancet found recently. Researchers, who analyzed the brains of drivers over 65, found degenerative changes in the areas of the cortex dealing with decision-making, judgement, and visual and spatial ability. The study raises questions of how many motor collisions are due to Alzheimer's and what the risks are of allowing seniors to stay behind the wheel. "Driving is such an emotional issue," said Linda Hunt, an occupational therapist commenting on the study. "Nobody is willing to step up and make a statement like, 'Anyone with a dementia diagnosis should not drive." In the U.S. in 1995, there were 13 million drivers over 70. That number is expected to rise to 30 million by 2020.
- New York Times

I Walk on the Wild Side
If you take a walk in the United States, you are twice as likely to be struck down and killed by a motorist than by a bullet from a gun-toting stranger. Although the 6,000 pedestrians killed by cars and trucks each year make up almost 15% of all traffic fatalities, only one percent of Federal transportation safety money goes to protecting pedestrians. A study conducted by the Surface Transportation Policy Project Environmental Working Group found that in New York, the risk of death by car is three times greater than the risk of death by gun. And though New York City leads the nation in the number of annual pedestrian deaths (about 300), the chance of being killed by a car is much greater in the Florida cities of Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Tampa-St. Petersburg.
- Surface Transportation Policy Project and Environmental Working Group

No Más Automóviles
Chile's National Environmental Commission has proposed restrictions to discourage car use in Santiago. Blaming private cars as "the principal culprit for the atmospheric pollution," Metropolitan Director Clemente Perez has called for road tolls, a higher gasoline tax, decreased parking and more rigid maintenance of older cars in an effort to combat the ever-growing onslaught of motorized vehicles. Santiago's traffic continues to increase by 70,000 vehicles each year, a jump of nearly ten percent, and of the 630,000 cars in the metropolitan area, only one-third are fitted with catalytic converters. Although Perez acknowledged that the tolls were unpopular and that the measure had stalled in Congress, "it seems more unpopular to me to permit cars to use the city's infrastructure and pollute the air without assuming any of the cost," he said.
- Chile Information Project

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