The World Carfree Network just released a video (embedded below) documenting their seventh annual Carfree Cities Conference. This year’s edition, from August 27-31, took place in Istanbul Turkey.
The Carfree Cities Conferences are a global summit for alternative transportation and urban planning gurus. Partcipants exchange ideas, give progress reports and brainstorm over how to improve cities around the world by decreasing car traffic.
The theme of the Istanbul conference, "Building a Livable Future in a Changing Climate," focused on creating compact cities where walking would be a viable transportation solution for many citizens’ daily activities. Global warming and the car’s role was under fire, and urban planning was touted as an important component of the solution.
The 2008 Carfree Cities Conference will be in Portland, Oregon. Themes will include mixed-use development, local agriculture, accessible public space, and sustainable transportation.
Photo via flickr by Feuillu
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it could be due to my training in economics, but I am a firm believer that hitting someone in the wallet is the best way to change their behavior. My school price of on campus parking, and as a result the ridership of our park & ride shuttles soared!
As gas rises a lot of people are going to look at alternatives again. Cities with public transportation systems that are underutilized will see an increase in ridership as most in town trips become MUCH cheaper NOT TO DRIVE, even if you already own a car. For example, cities like Sacramento and San Jose, with excellent light rail systems, are likely to see the share of transit ridership go up as gas prices soar.
I totally agree with you, Brian. And the price of gas just scratches the surface of the true costs of owning and driving a car. Of course there’s insurance, car payments, upkeep, etc. But also the more hidden car-subsidies like highway/road construction and maintenance, subsidized public parking, etc. How about health care expenses and global warming? It’s amazing (at least to me) how all of these topics interrelate. If the true price tag and behind-the-scenes economics of car-culture were more prominent, I suspect the effect on consumers would be far more pronounced than that of more expensive gas or on-campus parking rates.
The car and family budget crises are nothing new. We raised 4 kids on my factory job. Every time I told my wife There was a problem with the car, who was the chief financial guru I would get the hairy eyeball. Maybe that is why I did most of repair work myself.
That article is very accurte!