Undriving and Undriver Licensing

For the first time, the annual “Towards Carfree Cities” international conference is being held in the US - in Portland, June 16-20.   Check out the stellar lineup of speakers, programs, and experiences on wheels.  Many presentations will be webcast!

Here’s a great article on the conference in the Portland Tribune:
Summit Drives Home Reasons to Curb Cars

We’ll be there with the Undriver Licensing Station and will also present on a panel on June 18, on Encouraging Sustainable Transportation Behavior.

In case we aren’t convinced, James Kunstler’s piece in the Washington Post paints a compelling picture of why Undriving matters.

Wake Up, America. We’re Driving Toward Disaster

With gas prices so high, there’s a rush of interest in getting around without a car.   Here’s an article from the Seattle Times on getting out and adventuring on King County METRO: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/outdoors/2004429781_nwwtransittour220.html

Here’s a great article in the Seattle P-I on using public transportation to get to hiking destinations and more.  Undriving to go hiking IS possible!  See you on the bus….

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/366558_bustravel11.html

At the launch of EcoApril Alignment Month last week at City Hall, we met Callum, a 14-year-old Undriving enthusiast and student at Einstein Middle School. He told us about Air Cars, and sent us the following info to peruse:

Hey this is Callum!
Turns out there’s been a whole bunch of developments on the air powered car since the last time I checked. Now there are two inventors, one who made the first air powered engine, and a new guy who made a powerful air powered engine, that weighs five pounds, and is slightly bigger than your hand!

Here are some links that I found:
• Beyond Tomorrow video
• the Air Car
• Popular Mechanics article

And My dad said that there is a new Photosynthesizing Car, I couldn’t find a link on the actual car, but i found a link on making energy that way:

And another on hydrogen cars:

Thanks a lot, hope this helps,
Callum

-Do US president hopefuls care about sustainable transport? New York’s
Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management hosted “Moving
America Forward?: A Presidential Candidates’ Forum on Transportation
and Infrastructure.” Campaign staff from the Clinton, Gravel, Kucinich
and Obama campaigns talked about their candidate’s stances on
mobility.
wagner.nyu.edu/transportation/conferences

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• Radical Speed Bump (interestingly, this is a commercial for a large supermarket chain, the equivalent of a Target or Wal-Mart)
  
• Traffic Light Sitters

Ride Green Build Green is a bike ride that will be departing out of Seattle with destination San Francisco and is an affiliate project of Habitat for Humanity of East King County (Washington). The bike ride is from July 25th to August 25th. The goal of the ride is to raise awareness of green building, affordable housing, and the gap between. Riders will be working at green building sites along their route as well as raising money to cover the cost difference between a “standard” Habitat for Humanity home and a LEED certified green home. This would be used by the East King County affiliate expressly to cover that cost difference for one of their homes. Habitat for Humanity would both like to solicit riders, funds, or other help from our members as well as let you know of one of the actions going on to promote green building. Of course the number one thing you could contribute to them is a rider! They still need 10 more riders, at this point, to fill up the ride.

http://ridegreenbuildgreen.org/

Cathy Tuttle (206)547-9569 info {at} spokespeople(.)us

a proposal for linking people through neighborhoods along secure bike routes

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-Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono rode on a bicycle along
with cabinet ministers and top officials in a ride which was part of a
campaign promoting the use of bicycles to reduce carbon emission ahead
of U.N. conference on climate change, in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Nov.
11. Indonesia will host the conference next month on the island of
Bali to decide the future course of the worldwide push to curb
greenhouse gas emissions after the 2012 expiration of the first phase
of the Kyoto Protocol.

-On 17 October thousands of people in Canberra, Australia cycled to
work, joining an estimated 90,000 Australians cycling to work on
National Ride to Work Day. The Australian Government awarded Pedal
Power ACT a grant to develop its “Ride to Work” program.
http://www.pedalpower.org.au/services/content.asp?IntContId=133

-San Francisco voters recently proved they have a sustainable mobility
conscience by defeating a measure that would have created
significantly more parking in the city. Another measure considered
would funnel at least $26 million more a year into the Municipal
Railway transit system, and this narrowly received a majority.
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/07/MNG1T3IKR.DTL

-The Alliance for Climate Protection (with Al Gore as chairman of
Board) is giving away a Toyota hybrid as their grand prize for a
contest to reduce CO2.
www.climateprotect.org

-Amsterdam, Holland tests a Green Wave scheme for cyclists on
Raadhuisstraat. Cyclists riding between 15 and 18 kmph do not have to
stop at red lights.
http://www.nieuwsuitamsterdam.nl/English/2007/11/green_wave.htm

-The Police Department of Dalles, Oregon, USA launched the Citizen
Radar Patrol Program, where concerned citizens are able to borrow
radar guns from the police and measure speeding in their community. In
case of excessive speed, police will send a warning lettre to the
owner of the vehicle.

-An elderly German man filled up his car at a service station in
Remscheid, Germany, paid for the fill-up, and then walked home. An
hour later the
police notified the 63 year-old, who then promptly went back to
retrieve his vehicle.

-A new report coming Dr. David McKeown, Toronto, Canada’s minister of
health, makes the direct link between traffic-caused pollution and
premature deaths. The City meanwhile made a commitment to improving
transportation when the Council passed a report recommending
sustainable transport initiatives.

-In Holland, lease car firm Athlon is to give all its 120,000 company
car drivers train tickets in an effort to cut traffic jams, the
Telegraaf reports on Friday. ‘This is out of necessity. If things
continue like this, no-one will be able to drive any more,’ commented
director Richard Sikkel.

-Paris Velib bike rental scheme is attracting serious attention.
Cities as diverse as Chicago, Moscow and Sydney have all shown
interest. 6 million rides have been recorded in 3 months, soon there
will be 20,000 rental bikes available with the nearest station just
300 metres away. As this has been run by an outdoor advertising agency
(JC Decaux), the advertising world has also been affected, and there
are now examples of tenders being responded to with components such as
bike rental schemes included.
www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,515104,00.html

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