Carfree cities

If you wish to help us complete this list, post a note in the forum. More links will be posted as we become aware of them.

• Carfree.com - the web site that goes with the book. Carfree Cities proposes a delightful solution to the vexing problem of urban automobiles.
• The International Association of Public Transport (UITP): the worldwide network of public transport professionals.

It seems that the majority of people, economists and policy makers still view economic growth as the holy grail of social well-being. Whatever the news may be on other fronts, first and foremost the economy must be strong; and the way to ensure economic strength is by encouraging consumerism.

Headlines like "Weak consumption hits growth" are not surprising because growth and consumption are always a concern:

Welfare groups urge more help for disabled people:

Hsieh Dong-ru (謝東儒) the Secretary-General of the League of Welfare Organizations, said "What we have cared most about is which cities and counties have made the most effort to get rid of obstacles for the physically disabled."

He also said that cases such as Yen Hsu-nan (顏旭男) showed that the nation needs to do much more for the disabled. Yen suffered from a genetic disorder in which the bones break easily. Yen died earlier this year from injuries sustained after a student who was carrying him on his back accidentally slipped and fell.

Seoul's way sets a good development precedent: Seoul destroyed a highway in order to free a river flowing through the city. In taiwan, however, "incessant construction is seen as the only indicator of political achievement".

Taiwan is [by comparison to Seoul] backward in its approach to transportation. One example of this is the Huanhe Road project that is to follow the course of the Xindian River in Taipei County. Despite years of public opposition, both Taipei County and the Ministry of the Interior's Construction and Planning Agency are still hoping to build the elevated expressway.

Taiwan: this project is about building a bridge (languistic and otherwise) between the foreigners living in Taiwan and the Taiwanese, so that they can share ideas and work together to promote change.

There is much to do in Taiwan to bring higher levels of awareness on a wide range of important topics, especially Environment protection, Human Rights, self development, etc...

Here are a few links to find out what's been contributed so far:
http://www.wechange.org/taxonomy/term/31 : Taiwan,
http://www.wechange.org/taxonomy/term/45 : Taichung,
and here are lists of members interested in carfree, more livable cities:

There are already a certain number of communities working for carfree cities.

Here are a few I found. Could you post in the comments below more information on other *active* communities? thanks.

1- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/carfree_cities/ ,
there are more discussion groups at yahoo on the same topic. Just search.
Which ones are in your opinion the most active and interesting?

2- http://www.worldcarfree.net/listservs/ , not specific to any area.

3- I saw a few others, but I have to dig back up the links... I'll update here as I find them.

http://www.carfreehousing.org/ provides information on carfree housing developments in London, and in South East England.

Unfortunately, this information is not very well organized. As it is, the web site is useful only for one group of people: those who already live in London or those who have decided in which area of London they would like to live in.

http://www.velorution.biz/ is the web site of a small (big?) UK based company selling all kinds of bicycles, tricycles, cargo bikes and freight bikes catering for families, business people, etc...

Look at their online store to see the variety of products they have on offer... (Bi/tri)cycles come in all kinds of colors (of course) and shapes! What an interesting visit for me who lives in a country where bicycles are extremely old, boring ... and few! (It really is time for city-dwellers here to end their love story with their automobiles).

Hello,

Wherever you live, if you'd like to take small steps to create cities designed for humans, not automobiles, please join this forum and reply to start the discussion on this topic.

You can see in my profile which cities I'm particularly interested in:
http://www.wechange.org/user/2

If you live there, you can help me to get things started (in French, in English or in Chinese).

(someone here:
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/002927.html
mentions in the comments of a green city program in Taipei... I'll have to look at it. Unfortunately, my written mandarin is not very good).

If you live elsewhere, we can still cooperate on carfree cities in general...

This handbook is a collaborative work of the members of the "carfree cities" project.
If you are interested to contribute to this handbook, say so in the forum and you will be given the right to add child pages to it.

Member contributions on the topic of car free cities:
http://www.wechange.org/taxonomy/term/43 .

Among which, you can have a look at calls for action on this topic:
http://www.wechange.org/taxonomy/term/43,18 .

Also, you can have a look at posts relevant to a specific area: