I just came across two old Disney clips appropriate for carectomy patients. The first, Magic Highway USA (video below), I discovered via the Brazilian apocalipse motorizado – an awesome site name, and one I’d frequent if I spoke any Portuguese.
The 1958 television episode looks toward the future of American transportation. Once you dig past the kitschy sci-fi aspects, this auto-pian vision terrifyingly reveals the values which have led us to our current predicament. Everything becomes super-highway accessible – from the steepest mountains of the U.S. to the Sphinx in Egypt. Mom and son drive to a convenient parking spot in the mall where they are whisked away along a moving sidewalk. Dad’s car is lifted to within a few feet of his office desk and the film’s narrator jokes that he must then walk to work from there. The level of isolation as well as the lack of physical activity in our somewhat prescient techy-dream-future is creepy.
Man, we love the work that StreetFilms is doing. Rant as we may about the benefits to people and the world of decreasing car usage, sometimes it takes a video to drive the point home.
Shoup's solution to downtown congestion sounds a lot like San Francisco's new approach: charge more curbside parking to prevent vehicles from circling looking for scarce spots, decrease traffic and pollution, and raise money for street upkeep.
San Francisco's advanced electric meters charge a market rate for the spots they monitor: the fee fluctuates based on location, time of day, and demand. Those willing to park on the outskirts of town and walk in orto use mass transit save cash.
Let’s not kid ourselves – Old World European cities beat the pants off of the U.S. in terms of walkability, quality of mass transit, and even bike friendliness. This is largely because the design of modern American cities focused on cars while traditional urban design was for, well, people! But some U.S. cities are waking up and taking part of their landscape back from the cars.
Top 10 Metro Areas For Best Walkable Communities
1. Washington, DC
2. Boston, MA
3. San Francisco, CA
4. Denver, CO
5. Portland, OR
6. Seattle, WA
7. Chicago, IL
8. Miami, FL
9. Pittsburgh, PA
10. New York, NY
Just imagine warehouse workers relying on their own power to schlep boxes of sundry products around. Well, apparently there are companies in Japan who have foregone traditional forklifts in favor of these human-powered contraptions.
Pedal-power drives the rig and a hand crank raises and lowers the forklift. The maximum payload is only about 30kg (about 66 pounds), but for a facility with lighter-weight loads that's looking to green-up its act, this could be just the ticket.
Forklifts are typically electric-powered, so they're actually fairly eco already. Of course human-power would be even lower on the carbon-emitting spectrum. And just think of the difference in physiques between these machines' operators and the typical, sedentary lift drivers.
In the concrete jungle, off-road vehicles are obnoxious. But, deep in the wilderness, they’re even worse. So-called “sports motorists” (a terrible misnomer, if by “sport” they mean manhandling a gearshift) show their appreciation for nature by polluting brooks and streams, eroding soil, emitting toxic gases, and killing rare plant species—and probably live critters, too. (I can attest to this. On more than one occasion, I’ve nearly been run over while hiking remote trails that were once peaceful, quiet, and car-free. Now, instead of admiring wildflowers, I’m on the look-out to dodge oncoming A.T.V.s.)
Off-roading on public land throughout the Western U.S. is on the rise. No surprise, considering that so many car commercials glorify off-road drivers as rugged outdoorsmen. This ignores the obvious question, however, of why these mud-loving, mountain-scaling “sportsmen” (and women) don’t ever leave the driver’s seat.
Between 1998 and 2006, registration of all-terrain vehicles and motorbikes in four Western states tripled. Off-roading has grown twice as much, and twice as fast, as other outdoor activities popular in the west, like rafting and sightseeing. Given these sad stats, it looks like motorists may run nature-lovers into the ground.
A community in Freiburg, Germany has turned an eco-fantasy into a living, working model of sustainability from which we can all take a lesson. The Vauban, a 94-acre, car-free community on a former military base, was built to counter urban sprawl and offer families the same quality of life they'd get in the suburbs. (We'd argue that the quality of life at the Vauban sounds superior to that in a sleepy 'burb. It's big city living, but with abundant greenery and bikes-only traffic. Does it get much better?)
Beyond its ample greenery, gardens, and car-free greatness, there are yet more perks that come with living in the Vauban.
There are numerous incentives for Vauban's 4,700 residents to live car-free: Carpoolers get free yearly tramway passes, while parking spots - available only in a garage at the neighborhood's edge - go for €17,500 (US$23,000). Forty percent of residents have bought spaces, many just for the benefit of their visiting guests…
…[The] car-ownership rate in Vauban is only 150 per 1,000 inhabitants, compared with 430 per 1,000 inhabitants in Freiburg proper. In contrast, the US average is 640 household vehicles per 1,000 residents. But some cities - such as Davis, Calif., where 17 percent of residents commute by bike - have pioneered a car-free lifestyle that is similar to Vauban's model.
Many cities throughout Europe, like Paris, Copenhagen, and Hasselt, Belgium, are also reducing their reliance on cars and bringing bikes back to the blacktop. We hope the day comes (and soon) when communities in the States catch on, and suburban moms pick up their kids from school on a Schwinn instead of in a station wagon.
Just when I was sure that Williamsburg, Brooklyn couldn’t possibly get more painfully hip (the ratio of regular folk to hipsters—clad in converse and skinny jeans—is about one-to-one hundred) I was proven wrong. But, this time, “Billy-burg’s” progressive coolness is eco-conscious and pedestrian-friendly. I can’t help but like it.
“Carfree Bedford” is a movement to make four blocks of Bedford Ave, one of Brooklyn’s busiest avenues, a purely pedestrian mall. (Other areas in Brooklyn, like the Fulton Street Mall in downtown, are already closed to cars. Curiously, Bedford Ave. is the longest street in all of New York City.) The movement is the brainchild of Emil Choski, a college student who proposed the project in 2005. Since then, Carfree Bedford has gained popularity among Brooklyn’s mostly pedestrian, car-free population. Only one in five New Yorkers owns a car (and, most of them, I’d guess, live on Staten and/or Long Island).
Cars are the most inconvenient convenience we have. We're required to have them, but increasingly, we dislike them. At Carectomy, we're trying to figure out how to extract cars from people.
The operation is a little bit painful, but life afterward is much more awesome. If you're interested in carectomies, sign up to our newsletter, or subscribe our RSS feed below.
.jpg)
