Car Fasting is the New Fast Car

We've often wondered where the religious types were on intelligent transport. You'd think there would be enough inspiration in their books - Bible/Torah/Koran to support healthy, modern living. Yet it's not often you see churches and religious organistations coming out in support of liveable cities.

So then our friend Paul in Vienna sent us a link to an intiative by the Catholic and Protestant churches of Austria.

Car Fasting - or Autofasten, in German. A brilliant intiative to encourage people to go on a car fast and seek alternatives.

Here's what I lamely translated from their website:

Car Fasting is ...

- An initiative to encourage a change of independent mobility between Ash Wednesday (13 Feb) to Holy Saturday (30 March).
- Suggesting choosing available alternatives like rail, bus, bicycle, foot, car-pooling) in order to discover something new and to experiment.
- Contributing to new experiences and to public health.
- An opportunity to shape a better future - together.
- An initiative of the environmental officers of the Catholic and Protestant churches in Austria.

You can support car fasting by:

- Not driving or driving significantly less
- Walk your children to school
- Walk to church and encourage others to do so
- Attaching a Car Fasting sign to your bicycle
- Supporting the bicycle advocacy group ARGUS
- Encouraging car-free alternatives in your company
- Forming a car pool
- Planning a car-free holiday
- Transforming parking spots into green spaces
- Taking public transport frequently
- Switching your motorist club memberships and instead support soft mobility, like www.vcoe.at
- Supporting alternatives: www.fairkehr.net
- Distributing Car Fasting material: newsletters, stickers, flyers - spreading the word by talking about it
- Demanding that politicians improve public transport
- Using private car sharing or trying car sharing systems like www.carsharing.at

Great stuff. Let's hope that relgions get their game face on about modernising our cities and encouraging more sustainable transport solutions.

Autofasten - in German.

7550 New Bike Parking Spots at Copenhagen Central Station

For all of Copenhagen's badassness as a bicycle city, there remains one thing that the City still completely sucks at. Bicycle parking at train stations. At Copenhagen Central Station there are only about 1000 bike parking spots. Danish State Railways can't even tell us how many spots they have. They're not sure. Even in Basel they have 800+. In Antwerp they have this . Don't even get me started on the Dutch. 12,500 bike parking spots are on the way in some place called Utrecht . Amsterdam has a multi-story bike parking facility, floating bicycle barges round the back and are planning 7000 more spots underwater . Even at the nation's busiest train station, Nørreport, the recent and fancy redesign failed miserably in providing parking that is adequate for the demand . Architects once again failing to respond to actual urban needs. It is time to remedy that. Here is my design for 7550 bike parking spots behind Copenhagen Central Station. Steve C. Montebello i...

Traffic Safety Orgs Speak for Themselves - Not the Rest of Us

Classic traffic safety organisation narrative. "Stop cycling". By Stephanie Patterson With Mikael Colville-Andersen In the diverse world of traffic planning, advocacy and various movements for liveable cities, there is an odd group of outliers who broadcast conflicting messages. While “traffic safety” organisations seem like a natural part of the gallery and of the narrative, upon closer inspection they exist in a communication vacuum populated exclusively by like-minded organisations. There is little correlation with those organisations who advocate cycling, pedestrianism or safer streets. The traffic safety crowd are in a world unto themselves, with little or no accountability for the campaigns they develop or the messaging they broadcast. They are often allied with insurance companies who clearly take comfort in working with others who embrace scaring the population at large through constructed fear . In many ways, they are a classic subculture, with strong hints...

Cycling with Disabilities and Injuries

I haven't been on a bicycle for 7 days. The reason? A couple of cracked ribs. I've tried each and every day to cycle, but it hasn't been possible. When a simple cough is enough to bring tears to your eyes, riding a bicycle is a long shot. A serious blow to my pride but hey, at least I can walk around the neighbourhood. Which is nice. Many Danish cities have small cars like these to measure the level of comfort on the bicycle infrastructure . I have a better, cheaper idea. The city should just give citizens with broken or cracked ribs a smartphone, with activated GPS and a live line to a person at the Bicycle Office. Then they just ride around the city. Every time an OWWWW! or groan is heard, the GPS location is registered. That way the city will be able to map the spots that need maintenence. Now broken ribs are one thing, but what of citizens with more serious injuries or disabilities? So I thought I'd whips together this article with photos of Copenhageners an...

The Life-Sized City Blog

Search This Blog