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July/August 1996, p.17 Auto-Free World Wanted: Single Guy, Fast Mover, Good With Club VIENNA, Austria: Two Austrian researchers suggest that men who walk faster are more attractive to women. In much the same fashion that a peacock displays his fan, more desirable men signal their superiority by walking at a brisk pace. Better-educated and more-affluent men with more prestigious jobs walked faster than less-advantaged guys-even when they had light schedules. It all harkens, the psychologists argue, to the days when guys hunted and footspeed translated into full tummies for their families, making fast men more desirable mates. --Pednet TEHERAN, Iran: Muslim activists attacked men and women cyclists at a sports complex near Tehran amid a growing religious debate over whether women should be allowed to ride bicycles. Police called to the scene did not intervene as scuffles erupted between the attackers and people at the complex, the only such center where women are allowed to cycle on segregated tracks. According to Muslim religious law, women must be covered from head to toe in public. Islamic scholars have pronounced that women should abstain from cycling because it is "indecent" and "provocative." --Pednet CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts: In
a new MIT poll, Americans were asked which of these inventions they could not
live without. The results:
LONDON, England: The Pedestrians Policy Group claims that the average distance walked by Britons has fallen by a fifth compared to 20 years ago. But the decline is even more marked in children aged 11 to 15. The average distance they walk has declined by a third in the same period. Citing National Travel Survey reports, the group found that the average Briton walked 248 miles outside the home in 1975. By 1994, the figure had fallen to 199 miles. The group said that Britain is rapidly adopting the North American attitude to feet. "In the USA less than one in 12 of all trips are on foot, compared to one in three here. If current trends continue, the UK will be the same within 20 to 30 years." --Pednet WASHINGTON, DC: President Bill Clinton claims to have said these words to Chinese President Jiang Zemin: "It might surprise you to know what I think the greatest threat to our security you present is. The greatest threat to our security that you present is that all of your people will want to get rich in exactly the same way we got rich. And unless we try to triple automobile mileage and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, if you all get rich in that way we won't be breathing very well. There are just so many more of you than there are of us, and if you behave exactly the same way we do, you will do irrevocable damage to the environment. And it will be partly our fault, because we got there first and we should be able to figure out how to help you solve this problem. I think that other countries will support your development more if they don't feel threatened by the environment." --New York Times
WASHINGTON, DC: The Federal Transit Administration reported that for every dollar that local officials spend on mass transit, residents get back about five dollars in economic benefits. The New York region spent $4.2 billion on mass transit in 1994, and received about $20 billion in benefits like cheaper fares, better neighborhoods and business centers, and less traffic. --New York Times
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam: The three-wheeled pedal taxi known as the cyclo is slowly being driven off the streets of the Vietnamese capital. Police are enforcing a new edict banning the city's 37,000 cyclos from the city center. No such ban has been placed on private cars and trucks. --Pednet ALBANIA: The World Bank recently spent 79.5 million dollars to build roads in Albania. Since 1992, the number of cars in the small Balkan nation has risen from 5,000 to 160,000. --Pednet
Ravaged by War, Recovering With Wheels JALALABAD, Afghanistan: After a decade of war, with some ten million landmines still buried here, 450,000 Afghanis live without lower limbs. In response, California bicycle activist Howard Williams started BAAR (Bicycles for Afghan Amputees' Rehabilitation) to provide modified bicycles to amputees and other disabled Afghanis. So far, BAAR has donated 1000 bikes, and wants to do more. For information, call 415-931-5901. --Sustainable Transport |
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