Green Idea Factory wins 1st Prize in Copenhagen Bike Share Design Competition

The team of Koucky & Partners, LOTS Design and Green Idea Factory has developed an innovative bike share concept, called OPENbike, for the city of Copenhagen. They have been awarded a shared first prize amongst 127 international entries in the design competition. The awards ceremony was held on 10 December, during the COP15 summit.

The City of Copenhagen, Denmark, one of the world leading cycling cities, aims at establishing a new bike share system and initiated an open international design competition earlier this Fall.

OPENbike is user-focused and proposes a system that is easy to use, flexible and fully scalable. The design goal has been to create a system that seamlessly integrates with public transport and becomes a natural part of Copenhagen’s existing bicycle culture. The system proposes a smart card system and positioning solutions integrated in each bicycle to create a fully floating bike share system.OPENbike does therefore not need special stands and bicycles can easily be repositioned to adapt the system to the city's changing needs.

"We are particularly happy the jury appreciated our intentions with this iconic bicycle design that relates to Copenhagen bicycle history and, at the same time, contributes to the new branding of Copenhagen," says Erik Nohlin, a specialist in bicycle design from LOTS Design in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Michael Koucky of Koucky & Partners, also in Gothenburg, adds, "We aimed to make this bike feel like an owned bike for a Copenhager or a commuter to the Danish capital. The bike is not meant to be on a pedestal, both literally and figuratively. It should be a natural part of the lives of local cyclists, and a great example for tourists."

"It is clear to me that leading cities are ready to embrace what is now the 4th Generation in bike sharing systems," says Los Angeles-born Todd Edelman of Green Idea Factory, currently based in Berlin. "The attention and generosity shown by the City of Copenhagen in holding this competition hopefully indicates that cities are also starting to take a leadership role in implementing this important component of a seamless public transportation solution."

Click here for detailed information on the Design Competition, OPENbike (click on the image) and all the other entries.

High resolution images for publication or viewing can be downloaded here.

"Dog and Cat Collars" (2009) by Chris Jordan

Depicts ten thousand dog and cat collars, equal to the average number of unwanted dogs and cats euthanized in the United States every day*.

from "Running the Numbers - An American Self-Portrait".

Chris Jordan entry on Wikipedia.

* Statistics from HSUS seem to originate with this org., but I cannot find them.

Regarding "Compleat Streets"

Transportation for America wants people in the U.S. to send this letter:

Dear Secretary LaHood, I am alarmed by the continually high pedestrian fatality rate in this country.
Just this week, a new study by the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership and Transportation for America reported that in the last 15 years, more than 76,000 Americans have been killed while crossing or walking along a street in their community. Overwhelmingly, these deaths occurred on poorly designed roadways that encouraged speeding cars and made little or no provision for people on foot, in wheelchairs, or on a bicycle.
The study shows the strong correlation between a metro area's Pedestrian Danger Index (PDI) and its spending on pedestrian safety projects. The metro areas in greatest need of improvement are spending the least.
The study also shows how many communities are creating safer streets - by making sure that every road project provides for the safety of everyone who will be using the road, including pedestrians. More than 100 communities across the country have adopted Complete Streets policies to do just that.
Nationwide, less than 1.5 percent of funds authorized under the federal transportation law, SAFETEA-LU, have been spent on projects to improve the safety of walking and bicycling. Yet pedestrians comprise 11.8 percent of all traffic deaths and trips made on foot account for almost 9 percent of total trips.
Your work on combating distracted driving and establishing a new Safety Council shows that you are passionate about transportation safety. Please add to that record of achievement by supporting Complete Streets policy adoption across the country. This is a strategy that will not only can make our streets safer, but will help make our communities more livable by providing people with attractive transportation options.
We need your leadership on Complete Streets with Congress and within USDOT.
Sincerely, (Your signature)

to which I say:

(to the tune of your favourite rap or folk song...)

Some had the space for a horse for a ride
Or trees so the neighbours and birds could hide
On others all agreed bikes could be ridden
Or a tram to sit in when you want your legs hidden

Streets were complete before cars came along
The sidewalks so wide you could dance your own song
The sidewalks so proud that they met in the middle
The compromised think that this must be a riddle.


***

"Better", "Slower" are qualitative and acceptable; "Streets for People" used elsewhere, is vague but might be okay, but please ask yourself:

* Don't these terms mean something different than "complete"?
* What about the noise and tailpipe emissions of motor vehicles, in particular private cars... they also share the street, and not in a nice way.
* Why pretend to treat everyone equally regarding safety?
* Just how much does this encourage "alternative" transport? (Probably a bit to a bunch, depending on the quality of complementary measures... so that's good.)

"Complete", re-contextualised to include private urban cars, sends a strong signal that this subgroup of automobiles (which can be appropriately used) will be a permanent feature of the built environment -- that it deserves a place as much as other modes.

So, it's a pity that local authorities are confused (and confusers), and it's a shame that various community and advocacy organizations - such as "Transportation for America [sic]" which has an otherwise decent agenda - push this new kind of "complete". It is deceptive... even Orwellian language. If enshrined as law it's very, very dangerous.

Update on Veolia in Palestine... and reaction from SPD, the Greens and others in Germany?

In addition to their provision of regional transport services all over Germany via their Veolia Transportation division, Paris-based Veolia Environnement daughter Veolia Wasser owns slightly less than 25% of Berliner Wasserbetriebe. Veolia Wasser is also a main sponsor of "Der Lange Tag der StadtNatur" in Berlin during the summer and the Netzwerk 21 Kongress, which starts in about ten days in Cologne.

Arguably, Veolia Verkehr provides German states with a good and well-run alternative to state-owned companies like DB Regio (either as operator or with competitive services, e.g. the Berlin-Leipzig rail service). Without getting into broader issues of them cherry-picking more profitable routes, or its sister Veolia Water and its involvement in international trends of privatizing of water service, or that - to their credit - that these and other Veolia daughters are innovative or progressive in the way they perform, it strikes me as particularly odd (to be polite) that so many German organisations and entities with very close ties to the Social Democrats especially or green groups or the Green Party themselves cooperate with Veolia Wasser in the above activities, apparently without taking issue with their continuing involvement in illegal projects in Palestine. It's of course hard to tell if anything is going on behind the scenes, but still the main proof is the continuing (cooperation with the) sponsorships themselves.

The larger issue is of course the contracts which Veolia Environnement and its various German daughters have with various cities and regions -- and many or most of these might have come before they were aware of the various involvements of Veolia in Palestine. But the sponsorships were decided much later, and probably more are being discussed this autumn. In regards to new tenders for various operations provided by Veolia in the future, I can only hope that Germans - in general - take some inspiration from the half-dozen or so other countries where Veolia has, apparently, not won contracts due to its activities in Palestine.

***

The following from Corporate Watch:

In 2005, just after the publication of the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israeli apartheid, Palestinians began calling for an international boycott campaign against Veolia, a company involved in the Citypass Consortium, a scheme to build a tramline on occupied territory in the West Bank. Veolia is a huge multinational, that arguably has the biggest financial commitment of any international company to Israel's colonisation of the West Bank.

To read full article, click here

Dogs on Board! 1 of 4

Click on image to enlarge and HERE for page two

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Dogs on Board! 2 of 4

Click on image to enlarge and HERE for page three

JOIN our Google Group discussion!

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Dogs on Board! 3 of 4

Click on image to enlarge and HERE for page four

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Dogs on Board! 4 of 4

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JOIN our Google Group discussion!

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BikeBridges

BikeBridges is part of the Bikes on Board! (BOB) project. (EuroVelo map only used for reference; Green Idea Factory is the initiator and co-director of BOB).

Adverts: Bus vs. Car or Bus not vs. Bike?

CLICK on image to enlarge.

ON the left is a well-known ad which appeared in Canada five years ago. It was pulled after protests from transit advocates. On the right is my version, based on the theme of the European-level public transport & bicycle intermodality project I initiated, Bikes on Board!

***

To see "Self-Harming Advertisements on Public Transport!" - ads on or connected with transit properties which seem to work against the interests of public transport and its customers and operators, go to my Flickr page. (Return visitors: The last nine images, from Beijing, Bogota, Buenos Aires and Tallinn, have just been added.) For videos on the same theme, try out this one from Berlin and see more on an earlier entry on this Blog.

Bikes on Board! 1/4

Click HERE to go the second page.

Bikes on Board! 2/4

Click HERE to go to the third page.

Bikes on Board! 3/4

Click HERE to go the fourth page.

Bikes on Board! 4/4

Click HERE to go back to the first page.

Dogs on Board!

Please Click HERE

JCDecaux, Škoda Auto and Prague Transport attack sustainability in "PT: Self-Harming Adverts" + bonus

Prague is a marvellous place to be cynical!

My Flickr Set Self-Harming Adverts in Public Transport...

... continues with coverage of an absolute bombardment for the New Year, in which Škoda Auto, (owned in full by VW - which is partly owned by Porsche, aided by JCDecaux (the saviour of Paris) and Prague (Public) Transport, invite the latter's (future former) customers - among others - to BELIEVE that if you have to:

* Carry a large animal
* Move house, or
* Have unexpected visitors...

You need a new Škoda combi.

The intention of Porsche/VW/Škoda is clear, the confusion of Prague Transport in assaulting their city is not, and if anyone thinks that JCDecaux actually cares about sustainability, well, then they have their head buried in the sand at the Seine.

This next totally-predictable miracle of the Automobile Advertising Industrial Gigaplex starts here:

(Then browse forward...)

***

Bonus:

Of course, the bombardment is not just coming from Stuttgart*, Wolfsburg**, Mlada Boleslav*** and Neuilly-sur-Seine****, but also from Seoul***** and Vevey******:

HQ index:
* Porsche
** VW
*** Škoda Auto
**** JCDecaux
***** Kia
****** Nestle, the owner of Orion)

Berlin and other German cities tighten particulate emissions rules for road vehicles

Germans tighten road vehicle exhaust rules - Three German cities - Berlin, Cologne and Hanover - have introduced "environmental zones" to reduce fine particle emissions from traffic.

from BBC World Service

Drivers now have to display a coloured sticker on their vehicle to enter the inner city zones. The colour depends on the pollutants the vehicle emits. The cities are gradually phasing in fines of 40 euros (£29;$58) for anyone caught driving without a sticker.

Other German cities - but not all - plan to have such zones later in 2008.

The stickers - green, red or yellow - are mandatory not only for locals but also for foreign drivers, INCLUDING TOURISTS.There is a one-off charge of five to 10 euros for the stickers, issued by Germany's vehicle registration authority and authorised garages.

Some hotel and restaurant owners have voiced fears that tourists will be put off by the requirement for stickers, reports in Germany say.

The German motoring club, the ADAC, plans to take legal action against the restrictions, the DPA news agency reports.

The EU has set the limit for fine particle pollutants at 50 micrograms per cubic metre of air, which cannot be exceeded on more than 35 days per year.

The Berlin environmental zone covers about 88sq km (55sq miles), while the one in Cologne covers about 16sq km. Officials say the majority of cars in the affected cities qualify for the stickers.

***

Here is the page on the City of Berlin site which has a link to a PDF flyer in English on the scheme .

(I hope that some Berliners on these lists can add some information or insight for all us other donuts...)

NOTE that the German scheme is not following an earlier congestion charge of any sort.

Lung Lovers in London have to wait until 4 February...

.......Interestingly, Berlin (and Paris) are also starting this today...

... and finally, see what just started in Milano.

Keep the Air Pure (but watch out for False Filters)!

***

Another Scandal for German Clean-auto Zones

Prague Central Station

Praha hl.n.

Praha hl.n. a okolí 1/2

Praha hl.n. a okolí 2/2

Click here for details on logistics concept...

Praha hl.n., nejen pro nakupující... 1/20

Praha hl.n., nejen pro nakupující... 2/20

Praha hl.n., nejen pro nakupující... 3/20

Praha hl.n., nejen pro nakupující... 4/20

Praha hl.n., nejen pro nakupující... 5/20

Praha hl.n., nejen pro nakupující... 6/20

Praha hl.n., nejen pro nakupující... 7/20

Praha hl.n., nejen pro nakupující... 8/20

Praha hl.n., nejen pro nakupující... 9/20

Praha hl.n., nejen pro nakupující... 10/20

Praha hl.n., nejen pro nakupující... 11/20

Praha hl.n., nejen pro nakupující... 12/20

Praha hl.n., nejen pro nakupující... 13/20

Praha hl.n., nejen pro nakupující... 14/20

Praha hl.n., nejen pro nakupující... 15/20

Praha hl.n., nejen pro nakupující... 16/20

Praha hl.n., nejen pro nakupující... 17/20

Praha hl.n., nejen pro nakupující... 18/20

Praha hl.n., nejen pro nakupující... 19/20

Praha hl.n., nejen pro nakupující... 20/20

Bikes on Board!

This information has been updated. Please click HERE.

Public Transport: More Self-Harming Adverts and Positive Images in Popular Culture

For this advert, it seems almost certain that a public transport operator rented out the bus to the television production company or advertising agency.

I am also pleased to bring you the poor, car-less public transport rider, the smelly one and the sick one (but also the compassionate fellow passenger).

This one is so low-budget it might have done without permission, and here we have school bus operators getting in on the action.

An interactive ad at a bus stop in London rounds out the negative examples of this collection.

Again, in possibly all these cases, PT operators or city authorities at least gave permission and at worst took money.... on my planet this is called masochism.

To end on a positive note, a musical group from Venezuela are shown having fun with their mobile electronics (this was filmed in the town which has the same type of metro vehicle which can be accessed here) and, off topic but cute, headways can be annoyingly short sometimes...

... this is part two of this series. See part I here, here and one of one my all time-favourites here. See my Flickr page on same theme.

Dogs on Board!

Thanks for joining us... please see updated version of project HERE.

Shell nominated for Worst Greenwash

In the 'Worst EU Lobby Awards', Royal Dutch Shell has been nominated for suggesting that their oil refineries emit flowers, not smoke.

In the wake of increasing public conviction that climate change needs to be addressed, Shell is trying to remodel its image in order to appeal to the environmental consciousness of potential customers. Advertising in newspapers and magazines in April and May 2007, the company showed a refinery emitting flowers from its chimneys with claims that it uses its “waste CO2 to grow flowers and [its] waste sulphur to make concrete”. However, in reality, less than 0.5 percent of Shell’s total CO2 emissions are piped into Dutch greenhouses to grow flowers. Furthermore, most of Shell’s sulphur waste is used for ship fuel and is finally released in the air. Sea ships are one of the biggest sources of sulphur dioxide pollution.

For full info see here.

See UK Guardian story "No bouquets for Shell press ad"


***

On February 3, 2007, nature lovers smeared oil all over the photographs at the London Natural History Museum's Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibit, which was sponsored by Shell.

***

The ‘Worst EU Lobbying’ Award is to be given to the lobbyist, company or lobby group that in 2007 has employed the most deceptive, misleading, or otherwise problematic lobbying tactics in their attempts to influence EU decision-making. This year’s event also includes a special ‘Worst EU Greenwash’ Award for the company whose advertising, PR and lobbying lingo is most at odds with the real environmental impacts of their core business activities.

The EU lobby awards are organised by Corporate Europe Observatory, Friends of the Earth Europe, LobbyControl and Spinwatch.

***

In 2002 Shell Foundation gave EMBARQ funding which totalled USD 7.5 million, for a five-year programme.


In 2006 alone Royal Dutch Shell made a profit of USD 26.311 billion.

The amount of money Shell gave to EMBARQ represents a very tiny little bit of the money they are playing with. And most of the rest - I assume minus some other donations - is about feeding the automobile habit of the world. Personal cars.. killing, maiming, scaring, screaming, terrorizing. Balance that against the projects of EMBARQ in Mexico, China, Turkey and so on... I don't think you can, no matter how great they are.

That's why it is Greenwash, even if it goes beyond adverts and spin.

Now, I don't only blame EMBARQ - but of course I also don't like that Caterpillar - the company that supplies military bulldozers to the Israeli Army used for tearing down Palestinian homes - is their other major sponsor beside Shell. I blame national governments and the people that vote them in for screwing up priorities so much that an oil addiction pusher like Shell or, again, an advertising company like JCDecaux has to come in and try to save everyone. Still, the foundations and organisations we work with do make choices. What is most disheartening is when they say that Company X is helping them right before they stick their collective head in the sand about the rest of it.

Unfortunately, the recent Towards Carfree Cities conference of World Carfree Network - Green Idea Factory is a member - in Istanbul, hosted by the Turkish Traffic Safety Association, also received some support from EMBARQ. I have not yet received any details on this, but I will post it here when I get more info. Their sponsorship was not so high-profile, but it was still a conscious effort of EMBARQ.

Finally, the Royal Green Shower of Shell gets even worse.

More information and related:
Controversies concerning Royal Dutch Shell
Sourcewatch Wiki on Shell
Shell and Ferrari advert
Very long and funny Shell advert about oil extraction
Greenwash of biggest Czech environmental foundation
WWF
Renault
Citroen
Laws on adverts in Norway

Transit Pass - Best Weapon Against Climate Change?

The new report released by the American Public Transportation Association makes some interesting comparisons about various ways to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases. See press release, fact sheet and full report.

There is a key word or term missing from the report, and I am not sure why. What is it? Here's a hint: Complementary.

Hey bus rider, need a car loan?

Johannesburg, South Africa, September 2002 - The advert is from a bank which provides financing for purchasing a car. For more examples of self-destructive advertising on public transport vehicles and related properties - from Beijing, Bogota, Prague and Tallinn - see my Flickr page.

Photo provided by Lloyd Wright from Viva in Quito, Ecuador.

UITP (International Association of Public Transport) has created a ‘Public’s choice’ Award in advance of their 4th International Marketing Conference in Malaga, Spain in November. View nominees and vote here!

Cyclists, singing and dancing

What's a Girl to Do? by Bat for Lashes...

Dancing and singing ON the train

Trying doing this is in your Tata or Indian-built Škoda! (Read more here).

The song is "Chaiyya Chaiyya" from the movie Dil Se.

Positive Public Transport in Pop

From 1999, by Luscious Jackson. This video was shot in NYC, their hometown. The singer described herself recently as a city person who always used the subway and her bike. Why can't more bus rides be like this?

Nine years later the singer, Jill Cunniff, continues having fun on public transport.

Greenwash in the Czech Republic

This was featured at my stand for World Carfree Day in Prague, 22 September, 2007.

This is the "partners" webpage from Nadace Partnerství (Czech Environmental Partnership Foundation). The various companies are listed... Skanska as a builder of highways, Ceskomorasky Cement as a provider of materials for highways, Toyota etc. doing their nonsense.

More materials from the stand coming soon...

UK 'exporting emissions' to China

BBC: The UK's increasing dependence on Chinese goods is contributing to a rise in carbon emissions, a report suggests.

The New Economic Foundation (Nef) says such reliance is adding to CO2 levels because China's factories produce more CO2 per item than British ones.

The report also says many similar goods are both imported and exported, adding needlessly to CO2 output in transport.

Full story.

Toronto: World Record Walk + Anti-Car and Out of Balance

In this video, Toronto's poet laureate describes how walking (and smiles) create community, as Toronto participated in a World Record Walk.

***

It's time for Toronto to give less priority to cars and more to other modes of transport, a senior Toronto official bluntly told the city's works committee yesterday.

"Maybe a balance is no longer appropriate," said John Mende, Toronto's director of transportation management...

... "I think it's time now to tip the scales in favour of the other modes of transportation, and perhaps create an imbalance in favour of those other modes," he said.

Read full story.

Pollution in Paris... from bicycles

"... hundreds of electric billboards have sprung up all over town. These are part of the deal in which the council provides extensive use of advertising space to an urban display company in payment for its provision of the Vélib’ service.

An anti-advertising group yesterday announced a mass outing to attack the billboards on Friday night [28 September]. The Déboulonneurs organisation, which has made a splash with guerrilla-style raids on Métro station posters, said: “This is visual pollution of the city . . . and energy pollution because each billboard consumes as much electricity as the average household.”

from TimesOnline story on Vélib’

Read press release from Collectif des déboulonneurs and summary of action and response (both in French) . Photos of action.

Prague's new parking zones - Residents use loophole to register cars in their childrens' names

The City Hall's plans to introduce parking cards in the city centre as of October 1st has triggered an unexpected side-effect. Prague may soon top the world ladder in the number of young children who own luxury vehicles. People who own two or more cars have found a loophole in the new regulation which says that every citizen of Prague [in central districts one, two, three, five and seven] - including newborns and centenarians - has a right to a parking pass for the price of seven hundred crowns a month [PER YEAR, actually... about USD 35]. The price of a pass jumps steeply for a second or third car to 7 thousand and 14 thousand crowns respectively. News of how to get around the regulation spread like wildfire and in recent weeks the authorities have noted a massive transfer of car ownership to young children. The kids are happy to brag about their new Toyotas* and Volvos but the city hall is not so happy [I am sure some politicians predicted this]. However it seems that there is little it can do legally and it has decided to bide its time and see how things develop. - Radio Praha

Original story

Very related bad news

... don't miss the story at the first link which talks about fake policemen and women being stolen...

*************************************************************************************
GREENWASH ALERT NO: 1 * Toyota is a "partner" of the Czech Environmental Partnership Foundation (Nadace Partnerství/NP), arguably the most important member of the Environmental Partnership for Sustainable Development, a member of the European Greenways Association (EGWA), which is itself a new member of World Carfree Network. A representative of NP is the treasurer of EGWA. Other partners include Škoda Auto, Peugeot and Citroen, plus the investment group Penta, which owns a company that produces weapons sub-systems used by the U.S. Navy in Afghanistan and Iraq. Penta is also considering developing a second international airport in Prague which is likely to target lowfare airlines.

Norway: Cars neither "green" nor "clean"

OSLO (Reuters) - No car can be "green," "clean" or "environmentally friendly," according to some of the world's strictest advertising guidelines set to enter into force in Norway next month.

"Cars cannot do anything good for the environment except less damage than others," Bente Oeverli, a senior official at the office of the state-run Consumer Ombudsman, told Reuters on Thursday.

Full story

Russian mayor bans excuse making

The mayor of a city in western Russia has issued a list of excuses that he will not tolerate from civil servants.

Alexander Kuzmin, mayor of Megion in western Siberia, said that officials must stop using phrases such as "I don't know" and "it's lunch time".

Mr Kuzmin said city officials should help improve people's lives and solve their problems, not make excuses.

The mayor's press office said the list consists of 27 forbidden phrases, including "there's no money".

BANNED PHRASES INCLUDE:
What am I supposed to do?
I'm not dealing with this.
We're having lunch.
The working day is over.
Somebody else has the documents.
I think I was off sick at the time.

Mr Kuzmin warned in a statement that "the use of these expressions by city administration officials while speaking to the head of the city will speed their departure."

He said he was taking action as he was tired of civil servants telling him that problems were impossible to solve, rather than offering practical solutions.
From BBC World Service

Two related stories from Spain

People are allowed to kill us, each other and the place they are going to:

"...And, of course, "El Boom" has continued, with all the familiar consequences.

The Med can expect to receive 230 million visitors this year making it the world's most popular tourist destination.

It is predicted that by 2020 the influx will have risen to 350 million.

Already 22,000 sq km of this once beautiful and productive coastline are covered in asphalt and concrete and the urbanisation is bound to continue.
During a recent visit to the Costa Brava to report for Crossing Continents, I re-read a book by Norman Lewis who is, in my opinion, one of the best travel writers of our time.

In the 1950s, Lewis lived and worked as a fisherman in a small Spanish fishing village.

He was on the Costa Brava as the first wave of tourists arrived and in his book "Voices of the Old Sea", he quotes the reaction of a small-town mayor.

'Although we've come to live off these people, we intensively dislike them. Why? Because we resent what they are doing to us. It's a kind of sickness. Now we suffer from tourists. But it will die out in the end. This is only a passing fad, they'll all go and we'll be back where we were before.'..."

- By Julian Pettifer, BBC Radio 4's Crossing Continents

full article

***

.... but if there is some kind of other threat all of the sudden their safety is paramount:

"...The shark, which is said to measure around 1.5m (5ft), was spotted off the coast near Murcia on Wednesday and on Thursday. Its type is not known.

Several beaches have been closed as a result of the sighting..."

- BBC News , "Spanish beach shut as shark seen"

full article

What's that you say? You're endangered? Oh, I couldn't hear you...

Pandawash? WWF Netherlands has made a deal with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. The deal is about carbon; this illustration is about something else. Read the press release (with translation help) and let me know what you think...

UK: Fight to save 'set aside' schemes

The UK government has to make a decision very soon on the future of an arcane farming subsidy called set-aside.

Although it sounds of little interest to the non-farming public, conservationists say it has, accidentally, become a powerful environmental tool - and stopping it could be devastating to some of our rarest wildlife.

full article

Related article: EU proposes scrapping fallow land

Bicycology Manifesto

To read on click HERE

Halt all expansion of airports, & ban short-haul flights

"The Plane Stupid! agenda has two other demands: halt all expansion
of airports, and ban short-haul flights."

August 14, 2007
The Independent/UK

We Should All Be At Heathrow Protesting - It is collective pressure on government, not consumer choices, that the world needs now.

by Johann Hari

This week, two thousand people will gather at London’s Heathrow airport with tents and sleeping bags - not to EasyJet to the beach, but to alert their fellow citizens to the Weather of Mass Destruction we are unleashing.

If you need to know why this is necessary, take a look at the world the deniers are so glibly averting their eyes from. The two countries doomed to drown by global warming in my lifetime have already begun to disappear beneath the waves. Almost half of Bangladesh is under water as you read this, following monsoons four times more ferocious than they should be. Ten million people are now homeless in the
region. In the Maldives, a series of massive swell waves stretching to 4.5 metres drowned 68 islands this spring. The residents know the waves are getting bigger every year, and soon they will swallow their homes forever...

full article   

TrashTrain Praha 1/12

This is a concept for an all-electric logistics system for Prague... it's called TrashTrain BUT it's much more than that...

... cities all over Europe (well, Western Europe, so far) restrict (not just) delivery vehicles based on their emissions. See plan for London ... Milano will be implementing something similar starting in 2008.

Of course it is certainly not just about emissions! The most recent - and exciting - development in what I call "street de-chaosification" AND emissions-free logistics is in Amsterdam, with City Cargo . See longer video here . In Switzerland electric vehicles have been used for years in the mountains, and there are also cargo trams in Zurich.

For more innovative concepts in urban logistics check out Bestufs .

TrashTrain Praha 2/12

TrashTrain Praha 3/12

TrashTrain Praha 4/12

TrashTrain Praha 5/12

TrashTrain Praha 6/12

TrashTrain Praha 7/12

TrashTrain Praha 8/12

TrashTrain Praha 9/12

TrashTrain Praha 10/12

TrashTrain Praha 11/12

TrashTrain Praha 12/12

Energy Use Rant

"Lance Armstrong pedalling a bike-driven generator can
produce about 350 watts and he can probably keep this
up for about 3 hours. That is, roughly, 1 kilowatt-hour.

If Lance drives to the gym in a Prius and he travels
10 miles round trip, he uses an average of about 10 HP
for a period of 10 minutes (assuming an unlikely average
speed of 60 MPH). At 746 watts/HP, this is 74,600 watt-min:

10 min * 10 HP * 746 watts

74,600 watt-min is 1243 watt-hours or 1.243 kWh

So, in ten minutes of driving, Lance uses more energy than
he can produce in 3 hours of pedalling.

Now, if it's YOU on the treadmill, how many watts continuous
can you produced for three hours?

If you power your car by pedalling a generator to charge
its batteries, you're going to have to pedal for, say,
one working shift in order to drive 10 miles back and
forth to work. Or, you could ride your bike for, say,
40 minutes each way.

We MUST get our heads around the notion of just how much
energy we are consuming. It's truly incredible. Think in
terms of reducing your energy consumption 10-fold in
your lifetime. Even THAT is probably not sustainable.

The fix we're in is so much worse than people think it is,
simply because they think it's quite normal to put 10 gallons
of gasoline in the car once or twice a week. The energy
content of that gasoline is just incredible; only since
the start of the industrial era have people been able to
consume energy at this rate. This has only been possible
because we have been burning fossil fuels created over a
span of millions of years during the course of a century...

...Life is going to change. Get used to it. Then figure out
how to enjoy it. That's not hard. Just imagine carfree cities."

- J.H. Crawford, www.carfree.com

Zastávka u Výtahů

Zastávka u Výtahů 1/7

Zastávka u Výtahů 1/7

Zastávka u Výtahů 2/7

Zastávka u Výtahů 2/7

Zastávka u Výtahů 3/7

Zastávka u Výtahů 3/7

Zastávka u Výtahů 4/7

Zastávka u Výtahů 4/7

Zastávka u Výtahů 5/7

Zastávka u Výtahů 5/7

Zastávka u Výtahů 6/7

Zastávka u Výtahů 6/7

Zastávka u Výtahů 7/7

Zastávka u Výtahů 7/7

Rome-Košice EuroVelo Bridge

This is part of the Bikes on Board! proposal... trains, buses and ferries - all with bicycle carriage - would form a "bridge" across up to five EuroVelo long-distance cycling routes...

Bikes on Board! (BOB) 1/6

A proposal for a European-level project to improve the on-board part of public transport and bicycle intermodality...

BOB 2/6

BOB 3/6

BOB 4/6

BOB 5/6

BOB 6/6

Kola na Palubě! 1/2

The Czech version... the local public transport company is discussing this next week...

Kola na Palubě! 2/2

Bio-Methane Multiple Unit - MMU

This is a concept for rebuilding of a first-generation light Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) train which runs in the Czech (West Bohemia) and German (Sachsen) border area... but something similar could happen anywhere, also with a new train... the main goal is energy-independence for the public transport needs of regions and rural areas.