Cars Off Earth Now

Posted: 28 July 2008 1217 hrs

BEIJING : Beijing is considering banning 90 percent of private cars from its roads and closing more factories in a last-ditch bid to clear smoggy skies for the Olympics, state media reported Monday.

With just 11 days to go before the start of the world’s biggest multi-sports event, Beijing was blanketed in a dense white haze on Monday that cut visibility in the city of 17 million down to just a few hundred metres (yards).

Last week Beijing ordered more than a million cars from the roads and closed dozens of polluting factories but the effort has failed to remove the stubborn layer of unhealthy haze.

Acknowledging the failure of the initial car ban introduced on July 20, Beijing authorities are expected to announce more stringent emergency measures soon, the China Daily quoted the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau as saying.

One plan under consideration was to ban 90 percent of all private vehicles from the streets of the capital during the Games, the paper said.

The Beijing Olympic organising committee was unable to confirm the report.

“We are checking with relevant government departments,” said spokeswoman Zhu Jing.

However, the China Daily quoted Li Xin, an official with the environmental bureau, as saying the plan would go into effect before the Games start.

“We will implement an emergency plan 48 hours in advance (of the Games) if the air quality deteriorates,” he was quoted as saying.

On Sunday Du Shaozhong, spokesman for the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, acknowledged that tougher measures were needed to improve air quality one week after the ban on more than one million cars was introduced.

Du said the extra measures were “under preparation” but gave no additional details, the report said.

“The air quality in Beijing must be improved. Seventy percent of the year the air is good, but for the remaining 30 percent, the air quality still does not meet the standard,” Du said.

International Olympic Committee chief Jacques Rogge warned last year that poor air quality during the Games could result in the suspension of some events, particularly endurance races such as the marathon.

Under the car ban launched July 20, cars with odd and even number plates are allowed on streets only on alternate days. Beijing had earlier taken 300,000 heavily-polluting vehicles off the road.

- AFP /ls (http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_sports/view/363242/1/.html)

GAY VILLAGES / City closes main strip to cars for nearly the entire summer

Ralph Higgins / Xtra.ca / Monday, July 21, 2008

Montreal’s gay village is more vibrant this year than ever before since the city closed St Catherine St — the main artery of the Village — to automobile traffic. From Jun 20 to Sep 2, over a dozen blocks have been converted to one giant pedestrian mall.

The proposal to make part of the Village a pedestrian-only space originated with Bernard Plante, the general director of Société de développement commercial du village (SDC du village), and with strong support from the mayor of the Ville-Marie district, Benoît Labonté. Plante spoke with Xtra.ca recently about how and why this new project came to life.

The Village has been closed to traffic before, explains Plante. The strip was closed for a few days at the beginning of the Outgames in 2006 and again last year for several weekends during special events. The positive reaction following those events and the worldwide trend towards more environmentally-friendly spaces led to the closure of the street for 75 days this year. In addition to cutting back on pollution, the increased pedestrian traffic will lead to business profits for the entire area, Plante suggests.

Eighty outdoor sculptures line the street, with themes that combine environmental concerns with Montreal style and humour. Some are of broken-down cars covered with creeping ivy, others are images of people with their heads stuck in the earth, their bodies outlined by trailing, flowering plants. At night the art is illuminated by solar-powered lights.

Some critics have claimed that closing the street merely routes the traffic pollution elsewhere, and Plante admits that it is a pilot project with plenty of testing yet to be done. A full assessment is set to be undertaken later this year.

In the meantime the visual impact is remarkable and atmosphere on St Catherine is relaxed, welcoming and happy. The Village is filled with shoppers, buskers, painters and people as they stroll through the streets. Crowds of queer men and women shop, greet each other on the street or meet for a drink or dinner.

The financial impact on all businesses is not yet clear, but a glance at the Village’s 45 bars, restaurants and cafés suggests the project is a success. Filled to capacity, patios spill over sidewalks and onto the bustling streets as diners eat, drink, chat and watch the smiling passers-by.

Area residents have expressed concern over noise increases, so no music is permitted outside. But inside the bars, the dance floors are alive and the decibel level rises as the evening progresses. Queer Montrealers love to party and the summer of 2008 has just begun on St Catherine.

(http://www.xtra.ca/public/viewstory.aspx?AFF_TYPE=1&STORY_ID=5161&PUB_TEMPLATE_ID=1)

From Friday’s Globe and Mail

July 18, 2008 at 8:02 AM EDT

The streets of Canadian cities are crowded with bicycles, scooters, mopeds and even bicycle-powered taxis, as well as the streams of traditionally powered cars. What we seldom see are small, low-speed, electrically powered vehicles.

That should change, as more provinces encourage these environmentally friendly vehicles to operate on city streets. Just yesterday, Quebec began a three-year pilot project that will permit two models of slow-speed electric vehicles to travel on roads that have speed limits under 50 kilometres per hour. British Columbia recently changed its laws to let electric cars operate on any road in the province with speed limits of 40 kilometres an hour or less. Manitoba will soon introduce legislation to encourage low-speed electric cars, and other provinces are expected to follow suit.

No one is suggesting that these small vehicles be allowed on highways. They don’t have the range or the protective gear for that. But for short, urban travel, plug-in cars make perfect sense, and the provinces are right to encourage their use, at least in pilot programs where safety and potential traffic disruptions can be monitored. In the United States, small electric cars are far more common, and there have been few reports of accidents or injuries.

While plug-in electric cars can contribute to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and help cut urban smog, there is another reason to promote them. Canada is an important centre of low-speed electric-vehicle technology and we have several innovative firms at the forefront of the business. Toronto-based Zenn Motor Co., which has a manufacturing plant in Saint-Jérôme, Que., is one of the firms poised to take advantage of more open regulations. Until recently, the company was forced to sell almost all of its vehicles south of the border, as restrictions on their use in Canada have made marketing them here impossible.

What is missing now is some enthusiasm from the federal government. In fact, Ottawa has been a wet blanket on the subject. In December, Transport Canada issued draft recommendations that say low-speed vehicles should operate only in controlled environments, such as military bases, gated communities and university campuses. Fortunately, these are only suggestions, and provinces have the jurisdiction to make more forward-looking decisions about the kinds of vehicles that operate on their roads.

(http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080718.wecars18/BNStory/specialComment)

KAREN VON HAHN

From Saturday’s Globe and Mail

July 19, 2008 at 3:55 PM EDT

I love driving a car. There, I’ve come out with it: the worst, most inflammatory statement anyone can make at this moment in history.

But seriously, I do enjoy driving, even if I lament what North American auto dependence has wrought, in wretchedly unwalkable cities and car-centric sprawl, as I also enjoy walking. What I find as both a driver and a pedestrian, however, is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to love my fellow cyclists, who are now so empowered by their environmental correctness that they have begun to proclaim their own (naturally superior and far more fashionable) bike “culture.”

It is true that in Europe, biking is essential as a clean affordable way to get around clogged urban centres. In Copenhagen and Amsterdam, almost 40 per cent of residents ride daily. The new Vélib grab ‘n’ go program in Paris has been so well received that tourist attractions, now clogged with taxis and buses, will soon be clogged with bike racks.

Because of the crisis at the pumps, the number of North Americans who are opting to ride for utility is now on the rise here as well (according to the Bicycle Trade Association of Canada, bike sales were up 6 per cent in the first three months of 2008 alone).

But can a form of transportation, no matter how popular, become anything near a culture?

Well if we can talk about “digital culture” and “coffee culture,” apparently so. In June, Toronto hosted the 2008 Bicycle Film Festival. Launched in New York in 2000 by Brendt Barbur and endorsed by art world heavyweights from filmmaker Jonas Mekas to artists Nam June Paik and Yoko Ono, the celebration of bike films, art and music now travels to nine North American cities.

It also makes an annual appearance in Tokyo, London, Vienna, Zurich, Paris, Sydney, Melbourne and Milan.

Curious as to what qualifies as “bike art,” I popped in to the show, called Joy Ride, at the festival’s Toronto opening. A scattering of pierced and tattooed 20-year-olds stood around drinking (domestic) beer and admiring, variously, a sculpture made of bike parts, needleworked bikes on linen and large-scale colour photography of street kids and their cool, customized rides.

After pondering a lovely series of collages made from bits of cardboard and found building materials, I asked the sweet, scruffy guy beside me what exactly they had to do with bikes and biking. “They’re handmade,” he explained in a gentle voice, emphasizing the word “hand.” “Biking is all about human power, what we can do with our bodies, ourselves.”

And so bike culture has its art bikes, like the tall bikes made from found parts by Manhattan gangs such as Black Label and CHUNK666. Along with bike mags, there are online communities and blogs such as rockthebike.com, and urbanvelo.com that promote bike art and bicycle music festivals, where the emphasis is on people power and earth-friendly innovation.

Rides themselves have emerged as a sort of alternative community: L.A.’s MidnightRidazz ride together every second Friday of the month at midnight, as do Midnight Mass in Vancouver and Midnight Mystery in Victoria.

And then there’s the World Naked Bike Ride (WNBC to its stripped-down proponents). Founded in 2005 in St. Petersburg, Fla., its motto, “Indecent exposure to cars,” now inspires bare-as-you-dare rides in 70 cities across the globe.

This badass attitude is perhaps most clearly expressed by the global organization known as Critical Mass, whose raucous monthly protest ride meets in Toronto on the last Friday of every month to, literally, take over the streets, often in crazy hats blowing noisemakers. “We don’t block traffic, we ARE traffic,” reads their website.

Part of what fuels these movements appears to be exasperation with North American cities’ large-scale failure to become bike – hence people – friendly. Witness the rise of those “Ghost” bikes – the white-painted makeshift memorials to bike fatalities that have begun popping up like apparitions on city streets from Sao Paolo to Tucson, a form of angry bike advocacy expressed through the medium of public sculpture.

That bike culture has finally reached its tipping point was made clear in February, when a series of orange painted bikes appeared on New York streets during Fashion Week (where, apparently, the hottest must-have accessory was none other than a foldable Dahon commuter bike). Turns out they were planted by DKNY, catching a ride on the trend.

The centre of bike culture is Portland, Ore. Dubbed Bike City, USA, for its cycle-friendliness, the Pacific hub is now, according to The New York Times, home to about 125 bike-related businesses, from companies that make bike racks to those that sell $8,000 handmade bikes to a committed (and, apparently, deep-pocketed) breed of enthusiasts.

This group is growing fast in every demographic, particularly with the rise of biking as the sport of personal transformation. One dear friend, a busy banker in his late 40s, has spent every free moment of the past 10 years training and racing as a semi-professional competitive cyclist. To this year’s gruelling schedule he added the Ventoux Sportive, a 173-kilometre race over Mont Ventoux in Provence known as one of the truly legendary climbs of the Tour de France. “It was the hardest thing I have ever done,” he said, “but I think I came first in the 45-49 age, working, happily married, good father of three category.”

One could dismiss this as just another fitness fad if not for increasingly popular efforts such as the recent Ride to Conquer Cancer. In June, almost 3,000 participants cycled from Toronto to Niagara Falls to raise money for Princess Margaret Hospital. Like that of many others of my acquaintance, my inbox was crowded all spring with donation requests from friends who had taken on training for the race as a personal goal. In their inaugural year, they raised an impressive $14-million (my Ventoux-conquering friend’s troupe alone came in second in the donor race, netting almost $400,000 for research).

All of which, finally, has me dusting off my pretty pink Miele. In the end, it’s not political correctness or even the price of gas that’s got me – we’re already down to one car, and if I see one more self-satisfied shopper with those cellulose totes (who probably rode in on a bike), I am going to scream. It’s just that with bike culture riding such a wave, I might as well hop on.

(http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080719.wnoticed19/BNStory/Entertainment)

HEATHER SCOFFIELD and DAKSHANA BASCARAMURTY AND VIRGINIA GALT

From Wednesday’s Globe and Mail

July 23, 2008 at 12:24 AM EDT

OTTAWA AND TORONTO — Soaring gasoline prices have finally prompted Canadian drivers to curtail their travelling and scale back spending in other areas to cover off their fuel bills.
Gasoline prices surged 8.8 per cent in May from a month earlier, but the amount of money consumers spent on gas that month rose just 2.4 per cent, Statistics Canada said Tuesday.
So the volume of gas sold actually declined significantly, something that has almost never happened at this time of year since the early 1990s, Statscan analysts said.
“Drivers really did park it, in the face of soaring prices,” said Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Nesbitt Burns. “I think we reached a bit of a breaking point over the spring, where people do actually respond.”
Because of technical issues, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly how big the decline in volume was in May, but various analysts calculate that it was as large as 6 per cent from a month earlier.
And industry analyst Dennis DesRosiers, president of DesRosiers Automotive Consultants Inc., estimates Canadians are driving 800 kilometres less a year per vehicle now.
Normally, consumers complain bitterly about rising gas prices, but don’t follow through with their spending patterns.
This spring, however, as gas prices rose sharply at stations across the country, there has been ample anecdotal evidence about a major change in attitudes.
Sales of sport utility vehicles and gas guzzlers are down, while sales of small cars are up. Road trips and RV sales are in jeopardy this summer. The Trent-Severn Waterway, in Ontario’s cottage country, reports a 28-per-cent drop in boat traffic so far. Consumer confidence is plunging because of high gas prices.
But until now, there have been no solid data showing that the high prices are prompting families across the country to re-evaluate how they spend their money.
“It’s a good first signal that we’re starting a turning point,” said retail sales analyst Claude Bilodeau at Statistics Canada.
Life insurance broker Jack Bendahan, for example, has switched to a four-day work week and now parks his Mitsubishi Eclipse convertible at home on Fridays — saving roughly $250 a month on gas.
“There’s a lot of driving in this business. I’m all over the place,” said Mr. Bendahan, who also co-ordinates his appointments and plans his routes more carefully now to avoid excessive mileage. He has eased up on the gas pedal, as well.
His company, LSM Insurance of Markham, Ont., had given employees the option of compressing their work into a four-day schedule a year ago, “but I only got on board on that three months ago.”
Mr. Bendahan is trying to sell his car, which takes premium gas, and is thinking about purchasing a more fuel-efficient Toyota Yaris.
Kay Chevary went so far as to switch jobs more than two years ago to cut down the time of her commute, a major life change that she said was motivated by increasing fuel prices. “I think when they hit a dollar [a litre] I started rethinking everything,” she said.
Now a teacher with the Toronto District School Board, she drives only 10 kilometres a day, four or five times less than she did at her previous job.
Over all, retail sales numbers released yesterday show that not only are gasoline sales volumes down, but other retail areas are facing weak demand as consumers see their paycheques eaten up by fuel.
Clothing sales dropped 1.1 per cent in May from a month earlier, while convenience and specialty stores saw their fourth decrease in as many months, as consumers pinch their pennies.
Derek Nighbor, senior vice-president of national affairs with the Retail Council of Canada, said retailers are “getting squeezed in every direction” by rising fuel prices.
“It’s taking money out of the pockets of their employees, it’s taking money out of the pockets of their customers and it’s costing more money to bring goods into stores,” he said.
Mr. Nighbor said, however, that cold and wet weather in May was the main contributor to the dip in clothing sales.
“Consumers are becoming more conservative in their shopping patterns,” said Marco Lettieri, economist at National Bank Financial.
Over all, retail sales rose 0.4 per cent in May, but much of that increase was merely a price effect, due primarily to gasoline. If gas is excluded from the monthly change, it was just 0.1 per cent. Similarly, in pure volume terms, retail sales barely rose, up just 0.1 per cent from a month earlier.
Retail sales have been a key driver of Canadian economic activity, and policy makers are dependent on shoppers to protect the Canadian economy from the recessionary conditions materializing in the United States.
But economists project that retail sales will soften considerably in the next few months. And gasoline is burning a bigger and bigger hole in consumers’ pockets, said Krishen Rangasamy, an economist at CIBC World Markets. Gas absorbed 13 per cent of consumer spending in May, up from 10.7 per cent last September and 12.1 per cent at the beginning of the year, he calculates.
The tipping point for many consumers was probably when gasoline rose to about $1.25 or $1.30 a litre in late May, said Michael Ervin, president of fuel analysis firm M.J. Ervin and Associates. Gas averaged $1.40 a litre in Canada last week, ranging from to $1.31 in Edmonton to $1.55 in Labrador City, according to his own research.
Part of the change in consumer behaviour stems from the belief that high prices will persist, Mr. Ervin said in an interview from Calgary.
“If consumers really thought that this would be a short-term blip, they’d weather on.”
Long-time public transit user Colin Cieszynski, a market analyst with CMC Markets in Toronto, has noticed the subways and the commuter train from Richmond Hill to Toronto getting more crowded.
There are also more non-regulars taking the train now, to the annoyance of some long-time passengers, he observed.
“I have seen it more on the GO Train, and heard stories that people tend to be more territorial, like people putting [up] their bags to save seats and things like that.”

(http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080722.wretailsales0822/BNStory/National)

BRENNAN CLARKE

From Thursday’s Globe and Mail

July 24, 2008 at 4:00 AM EDT

VICTORIA — The sleepy, well-heeled enclave of Oak Bay is poised to become the first municipality in Canada to legalize the use of “low-speed” electric vehicles on its streets.

Oak Bay councillors this week voted unanimously in favour of a new bylaw that would grant electric vehicles with a maximum speed of 40 kilometres an hour the same traffic rights as all other vehicles in the municipality.

“What we’re trying to do is simply push the envelope on this issue,” said Oak Bay Mayor Christopher Causton. “Council is saying, ‘we don’t want to stand in the way of new technology.’ If someone is developing this, we want to encourage that.”

Oak Bay’s bylaw, slated for final approval Aug. 18, was made possible by recent provincial legislation allowing low-speed electric cars on all streets with a speed limit of 40 kilometres an hour, and giving individual municipalities the option of allowing vehicles that travel 50 km/h.

Oak Bay, half-surrounded by water and not bisected by any major thoroughfares, has no roads with a speed limit higher than 50 km/h.

Low-speed electric vehicles are specifically designed to travel between 32 and 40 km/h. However, since they must meet provincial Motor Vehicle Act safety standards to travel on public roads, vehicles such as golf carts do not qualify and will not be affected by the new bylaw.

Prior to the new provincial regulations, which took effect June 6, all low-speed electric vehicles on B.C. roads were required to display a fluorescent orange warning triangle and a “flashing, non-rotating” light and drive as close as possible to the roadside.

Transportation Ministry spokesperson Lisanne Bowness said the revised legislation is aimed at encouraging drivers to go electric.

“B.C. supports the widespread use of electric vehicles, as long as they are approved by Transport Canada,” she said.

Randy Holmquist, owner of Canadian Electric Vehicles in Errington on Vancouver Island, called Oak Bay’s move a positive development, but complained that government regulators are taking too long to catch up with new technology.

Mr. Holmquist’s product line includes a low-speed electric vehicle called the Mighty Truck, 13 of which were recently purchased by the University of British Columbia.

However, the Mighty Truck’s use is limited by a Transport Canada rule that allows low-speed electric cars, but prohibits low-speed electric trucks on public roads.

Transport Canada has promised to address the issue, but offered no firm timeline, Mr. Holmquist said.

“I won’t be able to sell them in Oak Bay even after they change their bylaw.”

There are no restrictions on electric cars capable of travelling the posted speed limit on major roads, providing they are built to the same safety standards as gasoline-powered vehicles, Mr. Holmquist added.

Cars fitted with high-end electric conversion kits are capable of travelling at speeds of up to 150 km/h, but must be recharged every 30-80 km, Mr. Holmquist said.

Conversion kits cost between $8,000 and $16,000 and there are currently at least a dozen such vehicles on B.C. roads, he estimated.

While electric cars will help reduce noise pollution in Oak Bay, Mr. Causton is also concerned that ultraquiet electric vehicles will catch pedestrians off guard, especially those who are visually impaired and rely on hearing traffic to stay safe.

However, he said lack of noise is also a safety issue with hybrid-electric vehicles and suggested that the environmental tradeoff is worth the risk.

“When you look at the opportunity to reduce emissions, it’s something people might have to get used to,” he said.

The idea of expanding electric car use has piqued the interest of other politicians in the region as well.

At their board meeting yesterday, Capital Regional District directors discussed a “model bylaw” aimed at encouraging other area municipalities to follow Oak Bay’s lead.

Saanich Councillor Susan Brice, chair of the CRD environment committee, acknowledged there are questions about how such a bylaw would apply in municipalities with main roads and higher speed limits, but said those issues can be overcome.

“The region is more than just 14 Oak Bays, it’s more complex than that, but I’m also confident we can find solutions,” said Ms. Brice, a former MLA.

Along Oak Bay Avenue yesterday, where electric scooters glide up and down the sidewalks with impunity, local residents indicated strong support for the move.

“I’m all for electric cars. There’s nothing wrong with 30 miles an hour,” said long-time Oak Bay resident Stan Fisher. “People around here don’t want a lot of speed.”

Special to The Globe and Mail

(http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080724.wbcelectric24/BNStory/National)

Associated Press

July 25, 2008 at 2:27 PM EDT

PHILADELPHIA — With the old gas-guzzler in the garage, you’ve got your bicycle ready and your sneakers laced up. Now all you need is a map of the quickest, safest routes for riding around town. Well, not so fast.

As more commuters consider ditching their cars to save money on gas, Internet mapping services, cities and community groups are being pushed to lay out the best routes for biking and walking — just like drivers have found online for years.

Technical and practical roadblocks stand between such a network becoming ubiquitous, but there are signs of progress in this world of really expensive gas.

Google Inc. just launched a walking-directions service. MapQuest is reporting more use of its “avoid highways” function and offering a walking directions service on cellphones. And some cities have developed detailed online maps to help walkers, bikers and transit-riders find the fastest routes.

“They haven’t yet reached the Holy Grail of ‘I want to go from here to there, show me my options,’” said Bryce Nesbitt, a walking and biking advocate in the San Francisco area.

The first challenge: how to account for factors that make bicycle and walking routes different from driving paths.

Pedestrians need sidewalks, but don’t have to abide by one-way streets. Walkers and bikers can cut through paths or trails not meant for cars, but they must avoid highways. Bikers, unlike walkers, need to think about whether a road is paved, and are prohibited from sidewalks in some cities.

All these variables mean the fastest, easiest route for a driver may not be the same as for someone on foot or riding a bike. And developing a comprehensive system for non-drivers requires a tricky step: collecting huge volumes of local metadata and getting them on national databases used by mapping services.

“In the U.S. we are primarily a driving country, or have been for a very, very long time,” said Christian Dwyer, MapQuest’s senior vice-president and general manager.

Advocates believe making electronic walking and biking directions available on the Internet could help change that culture, especially in urban areas.

The technical challenge involves overlaying detailed information for walkers and bikers onto existing online maps, and then applying it to algorithms used to lay out the quickest routes. If some path, walkway or shortcut is on a map but not accounted for in the algorithm, it may be useless.

“There are some horror stories of the past of people being routed onto the Appalachian Trail or a couple driving off the ferry dock,” said Jay Benson, vice-president of global strategic planning for Tele Atlas, an international mapping company that supplies data to Google, MapQuest and others.

But if these tweaks are done right, the Internet mapping services could tell a biker to use, say, a riverside trail to avoid congestion, while showing a walker to dart through a parking lot to cut off a corner — or at the very least to head against car traffic on one-way streets.

Some local efforts are already having some success.

In Atlanta, a non-profit group set up a website last fall that lets people punch in whether they are walking, biking or using transit — and then get specific directions. New York also has a site that helps bikers avoid roads that aren’t meant for biking and make maximum use of roads with bike lanes and greenways.

In Broward County, Fla., planners are working on a project that would let users factor in things such as speed limits, traffic volume, lane widths and shortcuts.

The project, shooting for online launch by next summer, has programmers looking at aerial maps and punching key factors into the route-setting algorithms. They also incorporate things like where people or bikers can make left turns but cars can’t.

“I get a lot of calls from people, especially now with gas prices being up, looking for routes for how to get to work,” said Mark E. Horowitz, the county’s bicycle/pedestrian co-ordinator.

This week, Google Maps launched a feature that offers walking directions for trips shorter than 6.2 miles. That is being added to a feature already helping visitors find the best mass transit routes.

Mapmakers and route planners say they need to capitalize on existing community knowledge. That would be a change for companies like Tele Atlas, which typically goes out and test drives road routes itself. But it is open to accepting bike and pedestrian route information from cities and community groups if it can be verified from multiple sources.

In Philadelphia, for example, regular walkers and bikers know many shortcuts that save time. A bicycle commuter travelling from the northern edge of downtown to residential and commercial areas to the south knows he doesn’t need to meander through the congestion of Centre City; taking a paved trail along the Schuylkill River takes time and heartache off the trip.

Such “secrets” could be shared with newcomers or tourists if they were added to online maps.

“The easier you make it for people … the more they’re going to do it,” said Joe Minott, executive director of Philadelphia’s Clean Air Council.

(http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080725.wgtmapping0725/BNStory/Entertainment)

KAREN HOWLETT

From Saturday’s Globe and Mail

July 25, 2008 at 11:40 PM EDT

TORONTO — The Ontario government, fresh from signing an accord with Ottawa to receive billions of dollars for public transit, roads and bridges, is asking for a fresh infusion of $6-billion.

Provincial officials used a groundbreaking ceremony for a dedicated bus lane in suburban Toronto Friday to urge the Harper government to kick in its share of the nearly $17-billion tab for building new transit systems throughout the Greater Toronto Area.

Premier Dalton McGuinty unveiled the plan, which would see the province build 50 rapid-transit projects over 12 years, just before last year’s election campaign. At the time, he said the province would go ahead with or without Ottawa’s participation. But Friday, Transportation Minister Jim Bradley asked Ottawa to pick up one-third of the tab for what he described as the largest public transit investment in Canadian history.

“We look forward to Ottawa committing to the $6-billion federal share that is needed to make this important work happen,” Mr. Bradley said.

A spokeswoman for Lawrence Cannon, federal Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, said the Harper government has already made a major commitment to infrastructure in the province, with funding totalling $10-billion.

“We think our government has done more than its fair share in terms of transit funding for the GTA and Ontario,” Catherine Loubier said.

Under an agreement signed this week with Ontario, the federal government will spend just under $8-billion in the province on public transit and other infrastructure projects over the next seven years. And Friday, the two governments announced that they are each kicking in $9.7-million to build six kilometres of dedicated lanes for public transit, running from the Downsview Station on the Spadina subway line to York University. The City of Toronto is putting in another $18.4-million.

The bus lane will be ready by the fall of 2009, dramatically reducing travel time for York students, faculty and staff, Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said, who was also at the groundbreaking. Every day, 1,700 buses, many filled to capacity, arrive at the campus from the Downsview subway station.

Mr. Flaherty said the bus lanes will provide a short-term solution to traffic congestion until the proposed extension of the Spadina subway line is completed in 2015.

Work cannot begin on the $2.5-billion subway project until the federal and provincial governments finalize a funding framework. Mr. Flaherty said that should happen in September.

Toronto Mayor David Miller, who also attended Friday’s event, expressed frustration that construction has not yet begun on the subway. Federal officials say Ottawa and Ontario should finalize the funding framework for the $2.5-billion subway project in September. At that point, work can begin on the project.

“We’re ready to go. It’s just a matter of paperwork at this point,” Mr. Miller told reporters.

“Their rules make it a very long process to get an agreement signed.”

Ontario Infrastructure Minister George Smitherman said it is about time construction got under way for the new bus lanes, which were initially proposed in 2004.

York University is at the heart of the Ontario government’s strategy to build a strong economy with a highly skilled and educated work force, he said.

“But if the people can’t get to the place that does the teaching because of the inadequacy of infrastructure, that’s a serious problem.”

(http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080725.winfra26/BNStory/Entertainment)

Associated Press

July 28, 2008 at 9:41 PM EDT

NEW YORK — Police stripped a New York City officer of his badge and gun Monday after a video posted on YouTube showed him bodychecking a bicyclist who was part of a Times Square demonstration.

The video was recorded Friday at the Critical Mass ride, a monthly protest of urban reliance on motor vehicles.

The video, posted anonymously, shows the officer standing in the street as bikes whiz past. He moves toward a cyclist and violently knocks him to the ground in front of crowds of people.

The officer in the video was placed on desk duty pending the outcome of a police department investigation, chief police spokesman Paul Browne said. The officer’s name wasn’t released.

The biker, Christopher Long, of Hoboken, N.J., was arrested because he was obstructing traffic in the heart of Times Square, a criminal complaint said. He was charged with attempted assault, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

The complaint said Long, 29, deliberately steered his bicycle into the officer, causing both of them to fall to the ground.

During his arrest, Mr. Long squirmed and kicked, saying to the officers, “You are pawns in the game. I’m gonna have your job,” the complaint said.

There were no other arrests during the ride.

Mr. Long’s lawyer, David Renken, said he hopes the Manhattan district attorney’s office will drop the charges. The district attorney’s office said it was investigating.

Mr. Long’s next court date was set for Sept. 5.
(http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080728.wcyclist0728/BNStory/GlobeSportsOther)

An interesting pov by the Asylum Street Spankers