An Almost Car-Free Development..?

Hayward, a San Francisco-area suburb not known for pushing progressive ideals, quietly has laid the groundwork for a radical experiment in environmentally conscious living - a nearly car-free housing development.

The developer says people would rent or buy eco-friendly, garage-free homes in the densely built community with interconnected pathways. Residents would receive transit passes with the cost of their home but could pay separately for one of just 100 parking spaces.

A village square would feature a grocery store and other services. Shuttles would ferry passengers to the campus and Bay Area Rapid Transit.

While Lewis said he already has 100 people signed up to buy a home if the village is ever built.

To read the entire article from the San Francisco Chronicle, Click here.

VEER screening a big hit

Many thanks to the 120 or so people who turned out to enjoy the screening of Veer at the Terrace Theater. It was a wonderful opportunity to gather in support of Charleston Moves. While the film featured activities in Portland, OR, we are lucky to have a thriving cycling community right here at home.
Click here to see a Facebook photo album on the Veer event set up by Charleston Moves Board President Charles Fox.

And, in case you missed it, there was a great piece yesterday in the Post and Courier about the Alleycat Race. And we just enjoyed a highly successful Cycle Chic event. Check out the video on You Tube.

Thanks again for your support!

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Times Square Goes Car-Less! (Could King Street Be Next???)

Where thousands and thousands of cars passed daily...just pedestrians, and a "V" for Victory!

FROM THE HUFFINGTON POST...

New Yorkers...drive. Aggressive, car-horn-blaring, brake-stomping drivers who are just as likely to use their car as a battering ram as they are a transportation device. Don't get me wrong, they won't run you over on purpose but they may nudge out into the pedestrian intersection before the light turns, or blow through a walk sign just to keep the pedestrians from getting too comfortable.

But as GM and Ford are under attack, it seems that New York's driving culture is being challenged as well.

[And last weekend] may well have been the dawn of a post-automotive city.


Late at night, while New Yorkers slept, an army of workers and contractors descended on the heart of the city and began to put up barricades, beginning to create the largest swatch of pedestrian space that has been carved out since perhaps Central Park was created.

The battleground is Times Square. And while it may seem that the winners are pedestrians, that's merely a by-product of the wholesale face lift of Broadway from 47th to 42nd. The real winners are cyclist, who find themselves with an unlikely ally in Janette Sadik-Khan, the City's Transportation Commissioner.

New York's Battle of the Bikes goes back to a bunch of hard charging bike activists known as Critical Mass, who've been gathering to ride en-mass throughout city streets around the world to demonstrate in favor of more bike-friendly urban environments.

For the entire article, visit the Huffington Post by clicking here.

Transportation Mode Efficiency Comparison (wink)

..from treehugger.com
We are always on about how efficient bicycles are as a means of mobility. See our early Eco-Tip on the topic. More recently the WorldWatch Institute published some intriguing figures on cycling.
Comparing energy used per passenger-mile (calories), they found that a bicycle needed only 35 calories, whereas a car expended a whopping 1,860. Bus and trains fell about midway between, and walking still took 3 times as many calories as riding a bike the same distance.
They also looked at a measurement called: ‘Persons per hour that one meter-width-equivalent right-of-way can carry’. In this case Rail scored tops with 4,000 persons, but ‘autos in mixed traffic’ still managed the worse rating with only 170 people. Bikes did pretty well, relative to cars, achieving 1,500 persons per hour. This is the sort of impact that Critical Mass rides around the planet try to demonstrate on a regular basis.
The stats also inferred that cycling contributes to a nation’s health. For example, they found that only 1% of urban travel in the US was by bicycle, a country with 30.6% of adults considered obese. This contrasted with the Netherlands where 28% of urban travel was via a bike, and only 10% were obese. More at WorldWatch Matters of Scale.

here's the City Paper's Flickr Slide Show for Cycle Chic

Making Streets Behave (!?!?)

The City of New York, taking a page out of planning books written in other progressive metropolitan cities, has written a blueprint for its streets that revolutionize them.
The watchword is SLOW! Everything is slowed down (especially auto traffic) to make the streets safe and negotiable by everyone.
FOR A THE COMPLETE ACCOUNT IN TODAY'S NEW YORK TIMES, CLICK HERE