Mapping the Impact of Traffic on the Livability of Streets

Revisiting Donald Appleyard's Livable Streets from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

"In a groundbreaking study [streetfilms.org] conducted in 1969, Donald Appleyard provided the first emperical evidence of the impact of traffic on neighborhood streets. In particular, he investigated 3 different streets in San Francisco that were chosen to be as identical as possible in every dimension except for one - the amount of traffic on each street. The study was able to show that just the mere presence of cars, with their implied aspects of danger, noise and pollution, crushes the quality of life in neighborhoods."

http://infosthetics.com/archives/2010/11/research_mapping_the_impact_of_traffic_on_the_livability_of_streets.html

http://www.streetfilms.org/revisiting-donald-appleyards-livable-streets/

Should cyclists stump up for a ‘seat at the table’ tax?

"Motoring taxes are not ring-fenced for spending on roads, they go into general Treasury coffers, the ‘Consolidated Fund’, and have done so since 1937. Ring-fencing of taxes is generally considered a bad idea. For instance, if motoring taxes had to be spent on improving conditions for Britain’s motorists, it would be just as logical for cigarette taxes to improve the comfort and convenience of Britain’s smokers. "

http://ipayroadtax.com/pay-to-play-tax/cyclists-should-stump-up-for-a-pay-to-play-tax/

"If cyclists – or their bicycles – are to be taxed, it would be only fair to have a scale of charges. Payment ought to be by size, vehicle axle loads, mileage driven and carbon dioxide emissions. So, HGVs would pay through the nose for the damage; cars would be stiffed because of the high mileage and emissions; and bicycles, which cause next to no road damage, would pay the least because they are the transport equivalent of Brazil’s pygmy geckos, lizards so light they can stand on water. "

"The standard figure is that damage to roads is proportional to the fourth power of the axle weight. So a rough figure suggests that a car, which weighs about ten times as much as a cyclist (say 1000kg versus 100kg) should pay 10x10x10x10, or 10,000 times as much in ‘road tax’. So if a car pays £100 a year, the cyclist pays 1p. I’d happily pay my next 50 years’ ‘road tax’ now if it would shut up those certain motorists."

Do We Tolerate Too Many Traffic Deaths?

"While traffic-related deaths in the United States have decreased in recent years — even though more people are on the road driving more miles — the number still hovers around 37,000 fatalities a year.

Should the nation work harder to reduce that number? What’s the one thing that could be done to reduce highway deaths? "

http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/27/do-we-tolerate-too-many-traffic-deaths/

"I think we need to stop using the word 'accident' unless it was really something not reasonably avoidable. Someone sending a text and plowing into someone at a stoplight isn't an accident, and to call it that gives the connotation that "oh well, it was just an accident, nothing we could do about it"."

From the comments in http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/06/the_real_risk_t.html

Car Culture = Arrogance, Alienation and Death

"Cars usually kill more than 40,000 people in the U.S. each year. They are destroying the environment, poisoning people and animals, and alienating people from one another. Except for their use as emergency vehicles, I can think of nothing about them that is positive."

http://dogobarrygraham.blogspot.com/2011/07/car-culture-arrogance-alienation-and.html


http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx

The cost of the car: 20 million dead

A hundred years ago, in February 1898, Henry Lindfield lost control of his new motor car on his way from Brighton to London. When he died behind the wheel he became the first victim of what has since become one of the world's biggest killers.

Car crashes now claim more than 500,000 deaths a year, and injure another 15 million people. In 100 years there have been more than 20 million car-related deaths worldwide.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1998/car_crash/47357.stm

When was the electric car invented?

"You would be forgiven for believing that the electric car is something of a modern phenomenon, a reaction to the fact that the world’s accessible reserves of petroleum will be gone within a few decades.  The first electric car was manufactured in Clevelend, Ohio.  The year?  1899."


http://www.kuriositas.com/2010/07/when-was-electric-car-invented.html

Anti Dooring

"Dooring is when the driver or passenger of a car opens a car door into or in front of a cyclist. Cyclists can be seriously injured or killed, either by slamming into the door, by being thrown into passing traffic, or when they must swerve suddenly into passing traffic to avoid the door. Most commonly, this occurs when the driver of a car that is parallel parked suddenly opens a door, but can also occur when passengers in cars stopped in traffic open doors."

http://anti-dooring.org/

Carland - A century of American Motoring

http://awesome.good.is/transparency/009/trans009ondriving.html

The Gubbins Experiment

"Adam "Gubbins" Greenfield is liberating himself from all car journeys for 2009. Join him as he discovers why the "impossible" may be surprisingly possible."

"The combustion engine represents the something-for-nothing way of living that dominates our modern world. It's an existence dependent on borrowing from the past (fossil fuel energy) and from the future (the health of the planet). In exchange for ease of movement now, we commit the Earth to ever expanding ecological debt and we invest ourselves in systems with no future. With peak oil looming, the mass oil-based mass private transport system isn't going to work for much longer."

"As an outsider, I've come to realize how violent the act of driving is. Our public spaces, the areas outside of our buildings, have become death strips populated by dangerous chunks of metal that threaten to take out anybody who puts a foot wrong. The alienation and dehumanization of society owes much to the combustion engine. It was not what we were promised at the car of the automobile."

California Uses More Gasoline and Diesel than China

"Truly an amazing statistic, via Wired. According to the California Energy Commission, the state with its 37 million people uses more gasoline and diesel than any other country on Earth except the US as a whole. That's more than India with its 1.1 billion people. More than China with its 1.3 billion."

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/07/california-more-gas-diesel-than-china-satistics.php

Jeff Rubin Predicts "Mass Exodus" From Cars in US

"Over the next four years, we are likely to witness the greatest mass exodus of vehicles off America’s highways in history. By 2012, there should be some 10 million fewer vehicles on American roadways than there are today—a decline that dwarfs all previous adjustments including those during the two OPEC oil shocks."

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/06/mass-exodus-from-cars.php

New Zealand Drivers Use Blow-Up Dolls to Avoid Transit Fines

"We know that New Zealand want to becomes the world’s first carbon neutral country, that they are imbibing organic beer , and planning to fly biofuel aircraft. But there are some who want a free ride on the coat tails of green initiatives.

Take, for example, the bizarre methods employed by some Kiwis to benefit from carpooling transit lanes. Blow-up dolls, shop mannequins and dogs have been used to masquerade as the two passengers travelling with the driver in the transit lane, which is otherwise set aside for buses, taxis and bicycles. "

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/06/new-zealand-drivers-use-blow-up-dolls.php

Sharing soars as drivers team up to cut fuel bills

"THE number of new members joining a Welsh car-sharing scheme has rocketed by 400% in the last year as motorists look to reduce the burden of fuel price increases, the Western Mail can reveal today.

The South East Wales Transport Alliance (SEWTA), which runs the car-sharing scheme, says membership is now at an all-time high, with 1,600 people involved."

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2008/06/05/sharing-soars-as-drivers-team-up-to-cut-fuel-bills-91466-21025788/

Ditch Your Car And Save £2,042

"Obviously, lifestyle needs and personal circumstances are bound to affect whether you need a car just as much as your financial and environmental concerns.

However, if you do live in a city, and don't want the hassle of maintaining an expensive lump of metal, these alternatives may appeal. "

http://www.fool.co.uk/news/money-saving-tips/2008/03/27/ditch-your-car-and-save-2042.aspx?source=ioowftxt0010011

“Designated Parking Zone (historically this was called a pavement)”

"Sometimes a blog comes along that hits the nail on the head, taps into the zeitgeist, and crystallizes what people have been murmuring for years, and which has recently reached epidemic proportions. The sheer volume of cars has not only made most streets in Bristol unlivable, they are now encroaching on the last refuge of the pedestrian- the pavement"

http://onthelevelblog.wordpress.com/2008/06/03/designated-parking-zone-historically-this-was-called-a-pavement/


http://bristolcars.blogspot.com/

Stop Inconsiderate Parking and Speeding

"Inconsiderate parking and speeding blight the lives of people in Cardiff. See Living Streets website www.livingstreets.org.uk Illegal parking on double yellow lines by bus stops is endemic in Cardiff. We want to see 1. pavement parking banned 2. parking regulations to be strictly enforced 3. a reduction in street clutter 5. pavements and crossings fit for purpose and 6. walking made safe"

http://inconsiderateparking.blogspot.com/

Carshare

"This site is a directory of UK car sharing sites (a.k.a. lift sharing, ride sharing or car pooling)."

http://www.carshare.com/