Carfree USA Blog

Obama's Big Speech on Urban Development and Transit

2009-07-13T21:18:00.000-07:00

Now, that doesn't mean investing in America comes at the expense of rural America; quite the opposite. Investing in mass transit and high-speed rail, for example, doesn't just make our downtowns more livable; it helps our regional economies grow. Investing in renewable energy doesn't just make our cities cleaner; it boosts rural areas that harness that energy. Our urban and rural communities are not independent; they are interdependent.

WhiteHouse.gov

Who Will Clean Up Abandoned Car Plants?

2009-07-10T10:59:00.000-07:00

GM is abandoning 16 factories in Michigan, Indiana, New York, Ohio and other states as it uses a bankruptcy sale to put its best assets into a new entity. Many plants are contaminated, requiring costly cleanup.

“It’s going to be very difficult to sell or dispose of them,” GM restructuring chief Albert Koch told the judge in charge of the carmaker’s bankruptcy on July 1. GM estimates the plants’ environmental liabilities at $530 million, he said.

Bloomberg

Carfree Blogosphere Launched!

2009-07-01T07:40:00.000-07:00

The World Carfree Network (our mothership based in Prague) is proud to announce "The Carfree Blogosphere," the space to share information and discuss issues relevant to eliminating car dependency, exploring alternatives and to celebrate carfree living. We invite you to blog with us - please send your letters, articles, news, pictures and videos to blog(at)worldcarfree.net and be sure to make Carfree Blogosphere a bookmark or favorite on your browser.

Bikes on the Interstate Bridge (D.C.)

2009-06-30T11:28:00.000-07:00

(via Transportation for America)

War for Oil Update

2009-06-24T10:35:00.000-07:00

BAGHDAD -- Next week, Iraqi officials plan a welcome-back party for Big Oil.

The government intends to auction off oil contracts to foreign companies for the first time since Iraq nationalized its oil industry more than three decades ago. If all goes according to plan in the first round, foreign oil companies will move in to help Iraq revive production at six developed fields that have suffered from years of war and neglect.

Wall Street Journal

Go Exxon!

"Green" Car Coporate Welfare Checks Handed Out

2009-06-23T10:54:00.000-07:00

Tesla Model S

Ford Motor Co., Nissan North America and Tesla Motors Inc. will receive a combined $8 billion in Energy Department loans to help make more fuel-efficient cars and trucks, the Obama administration announced today.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu made the announcement at Ford's Research and Innovation Center in Dearborn, Mich., calling the program a "personal victory" for President Obama and his "new energy strategy for America."

"The most fuel-efficient cars in the world must be made here in America," Chu said. "This is not a talking point for this administration, it is a genuine commitment."

The loans are the first to be awarded from a $25 billion program designed to help automakers meet new fuel economy and emissions standards and are separate from both the federal bailout of General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, and the $787 billion stimulus package.

Ford, the only member of Detroit's Big Three not surviving on federal aid, was awarded the largest share of the government cash. The company will receive $5.9 billion to help finance engineering advances to both traditional internal-combustion engines and electrified cars and trucks. The loans will also help Ford convert existing truck plants to produce cars and to retool plants in five states to increase the fuel efficiency of the company's fleet.

Nissan will receive $1.6 billion to make electric cars and battery packs at its manufacturing complex in Smyrna, Tenn. The loans will help build a new battery plant and retool an existing assembly plant. The Japanese automaker is currently developing an all-electric car that it hopes to bring to market in late 2010. Production of the car will initially be in Japan, but the company has said they eventually want to move some production to its Tennessee plant.

California-based Tesla Motors will get $465 million to help produce its Model S, an electric sedan that is expected to be roughly $50,000 cheaper than the company's first vehicle, the two-door Roadster which costs roughly $100,000. Tesla aims to begin selling the Model S in 2011 and ramp up production to 20,000 vehicles per year by the end of 2013.

Bike Lane Talking Points

2009-06-18T11:31:00.000-07:00

Top Five Concerns About New Bike Lanes In Our Community, and How to Respond to Them

Planetizen

Close Times Square to Cars and Solve Its Traffic Problems

2009-06-17T10:01:00.000-07:00

Today Slate.com writes on the "anti-space" of Times Square. What is an anti-space?

"More than 356,000 pedestrians travel through Times Square on an average day, according to the New York City Department of Transportation, while the number of cars is closer to 50,000. [...] only 11 percent of Times Square is devoted to pedestrian use."

Three Views of a New Carfree Space

2009-06-15T20:19:00.001-07:00

Below are three low-quality photos (generic camera phone) of a new, tiny, and popular carfree area on 17th Street in San Francisco.

The city simply banned cars from the Muni Metro's F line tracks at one intersection.

Then the Castro Business District laid out some chairs and tables. The effect is astounding. This is a beautiful place to have yourself a sit-down, especially at night.

Previously just another clogged intersection for automobiles. Now it's a livable space.

Downsizing America's Rust Belt Cities

2009-06-12T15:53:00.000-07:00

The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature.

Local politicians believe the city must contract by as much as 40 per cent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area.

Telegraph UK

Cash for Clunkers is a Joke

2009-06-09T15:49:00.000-07:00

Owners of sport-utility vehicles, pickup trucks or minivans that get 18 mpg or less could receive a voucher for $3,500 if their new truck or SUV is at least 2 mpg higher than their old vehicle. The voucher would increase to $4,500 if the mileage of the new truck or SUV is at least 5 mpg higher than the older vehicle. Consumers could also receive vouchers for leased vehicles.

Wall Street Journal

Pure corporate welfare that will do nothing to protect the planet.

Right Wing launches campaign to boycott GM

2009-06-08T16:30:00.000-07:00

This is great.

Welcome to the car free movement, right wingers.

David Byrne Reviews "Pedaling Revolution"

2009-05-30T12:04:00.000-07:00

I can ride till my legs are sore and it won’t make riding any cooler, but when attractive women are seen sitting upright going about their city business on bikes day and night, the crowds will surely follow.

NY Times

Are Cars the New Cigarettes?

2009-05-27T13:44:00.000-07:00

Just as tobacco has killed millions with different forms of cancer, the automobile industry and the pollution that has spewed from exhaust pipes ever since Henry Ford's Model 'A' rolled off the assembly line, must be looked upon as a carton of cigarettes and a cancer to civilization.

Matthew Modine @ HuffPost

Hal Grades Your Bike Locking Skills

2009-05-27T10:51:00.001-07:00

Thanks again, Streetsfilms

What if I want to drive a gas hog?

2009-05-24T16:27:00.000-07:00

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

M - Th 11p / 10c

Auto-Neurotic Gas Fixation

thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Economic Crisis

Political Humor

Mayors

2009-05-23T14:17:00.000-07:00

Mayor Boris Johnson is a big proponent of "cycle super highways," a plan that would increase the number of bicycle-only lanes in London. On one of the rides specifically intended to scope out possible super highway routes, the mayor and two transport ministers were nearly killed by a truck driver. The footage was caught on CCTV.

In other news about mayors, the dialog below occurred recently at a bar on Mission Street.

Me: Did you hear about Berkeley's mayor? He gave up his car.

Other: Pssht. He's only carfree three days per week and only from 9-5, while his wife is away in her car.

Me: Oh.

This is related to an earlier post about the mayor of Berkeley going carfree. I want to cite a proper source for the information, but I can't find one. The Bay Area has a rumor mill. Currently the rumor is that mayor Tom Bates received a lot of publicity for "going carfree" when all he did was sell his old car. Can anyone back this up? Have I been spun?

Car Lobby at Heart of California Budget Crisis

2009-05-21T10:54:00.000-07:00

State programs will be cut like never before, and state assistance to local government will vanish.

The seeds of this disaster were sown years ago, both by Schwarzenegger and by the Legislature, but neither side wants to face that fact.

The Legislature put together a leaky budget boat by building unrealistic annual spending into law.

Then Schwarzenegger kicked a hole in it with his reduction of the vehicle license tax.

- Willie Brown, SF Chronicle 5/17/09

Word.

Willie Brown, who spent 15 years as speaker of California’s State Assembly, understands better than anyone alive how Sacramento really works.

Nice to see him shine a light on one of the biggest causes of the current fiscal crisis. The car lobby's power grab that ended the vehicle license taxes left a huge hole in revenues and helped create the budget crisis in Sacramento.

These fees should be reinstated, pronto.

U.S. to limit greenhouse gas emissions from autos

2009-05-18T12:06:00.000-07:00

The Obama administration plans to announce on Tuesday that it will set national restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, in what environmentalists are hailing as a major step to curb global warming and spur development of more fuel-efficient cars.

The national policy will mimic, with slight modifications, a California policy that state officials fought the Bush administration for years to implement, two sources with knowledge of the agreement said.

California officials have signed on to the policy, one of the sources said. So have major U.S. automakers.

LA Times

Oil? No Thanks?

2009-05-14T09:59:00.000-07:00

LONDON -- The International Energy Agency Thursday said the steep fall in global oil consumption may be nearing its trough, but cautioned that any recovery in demand for crude oil is still many months away and will be sluggish.

In its widely watched monthly oil report, the IEA, like many other analysts, said the recent jump in oil prices to six-month highs was basically misplaced. Demand is at its weakest level in two decades and oil inventory in big consuming nations continues to swell to its fattest level also in two decades, it said.

Wall Street Journal

Happy Bike to Work Day!

Carma?

2009-05-12T11:09:00.000-07:00

"In early trading, GM shares dropped to $1.09, the lowest level since April 28, 1933."

AP

Carfree Living in Vauban, Germany

2009-05-11T17:42:00.000-07:00

Vauban, home to 5,500 residents within a rectangular square mile, may be the most advanced experiment in low-car suburban life. But its basic precepts are being adopted around the world in attempts to make suburbs more compact and more accessible to public transportation, with less space for parking. In this new approach, stores are placed a walk away, on a main street, rather than in malls along some distant highway.

New York Times

Learn more at Vauban's website.

Parking

2009-05-06T16:38:00.000-07:00

Douche.

Are Electric Cars Green?

2009-05-04T16:18:00.001-07:00

Maybe not.

Jesus Died for Your Car

2009-04-30T13:22:00.000-07:00

Actual license plate proposal.