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Business joins greens in fight for £190m rail ‘missing link’
William Tinning, The Herald (Scotland)
Business leaders from across Scotland have joined transport experts, green campaigners, and politicians in calling for the proposed Crossrail link through Glasgow to be approved by the Scottish Executive as a priority.
Backers say the project is the “missing link” in Scotland’s national rail network. At the moment, some travellers have to change between Glasgow Central and Queen Street stations to complete journeys.
Glasgow Labour MSPs Bill Butler, Paul Martin, and Frank McAveety are among supporters who argue that the current system is like a “train set with pieces missing”. They say Crossrail is a win-win project which would provide connectivity, growth, regeneration, and environmental benefits across Glasgow and beyond. ..
(20 Feb 2007)
Driving towards disaster
Christopher Harvie, Guardian
For some people owning a car is essential, but ‘individual mobility’ isn’t always a good thing.
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“I see no parties, only Germans,” said the Kaiser when the Reichstag in 1914 voted against war credits. Looking at the current stushie over road taxation, there seems something of a parallel: “I see no travellers, only motorists.”
The Reichstag vote was a sort of suicide. Is autopatriotism any better? A rather conservative friend once visited the old East Germany. “A paradise for motorists,” he said on his return. Ah, so: a paradise is where there are few, if any, of your own sort? As we head towards oil depletion or the globally-warmed state, a few fundamental questions seem in order.
Such as: “Is individual mobility a good?” If so, it’s axiomatic that it ought to be universally available. But if at present 15% of the world’s people have 85% of the world’s cars, and we’re heating up inexorably, will we physically survive 30%, let alone 50% car ownership? Not even Jeremy Clarkson would defend that one. So roll on peak oil?
I am a veteran non-motorist. I can drive, but haven’t done so for more than 30 years.
Christopher Harvie is professor of British and Irish studies at the University of Tübingen, Germany.
(19 Feb 2007)
Related from Jackie Ashley at the Guardian: Don’t be scared to confront people like me over car use.
Preparing Nigerian cities for expensive oil
Ikechukwu Jackson, Vanguard
IN the next 20 years, the World’s cities will go through a fundamental transformation. Many including Nigeria will expand greatly in size and population, and still have to serve the basic mobility needs of their people in a world of much higher oil prices. In the second half of the 20th century, major cities began to emulate the transportation policies of the United States of America. Countries like Nigeria admired US automobiles and borrowed US highway design methods to reshape their cities around the automobile.
Back in the 20th century this seemed unwise. Oil prices reached very low levels than ever known, and large companies in important sectors are engaged in using vehicles. Cities grew out of these concepts and tended to make it easy to drive anywhere and impossible to walk or cycle safely, in Lagos,Onitsha,Ibadan or Kano. Many Nigerian cities and African cities are ultimate manifestation of this economic structure. Roghly 90 per cent of residents in Lagos, Abuja, Enugu and PortHacourt rely on private cars or public buses for their daily commute, or even short trips.
In New York City, with the largest mass transit system in USA, about one-third of the population still drives to work. About 72 per cent of these trips are less than eight kilometres and 22 per cent less than 2 kilometres. Only in USA would so many people find it necessary to move a weighty vehicle such as SUVs, Jeeps, Humvees for a short trip. This is why the US consumes roughly a quarter of the World’s annual oil production.
In developing countries like Nigeria, where per capita income is sometimes as low as a dollar per day, only the wealthiest (10 per cent of the population) are likely to own a private vehicle in their life time. So, domination of public space by the motor vehicle directly translates to domination of public space by the ultra-rich.
Because population densities are frequently so much higher in Nigeria, expanding roads are generally a priority. It is often more expensive and socially difficult in developing countries, requiring the forcible relocation of people and buildings sometimes without compensation.
As a result, congestion tends to become a problem at much lower levels of motor ownership. Also, higher density means more people are immediately exposed to traffic related noise and air pollution obtainable in Aba, lagos, Kano, and Ibadan. With far more pedestrians, and weaker enforcement of poor driving, many more road users are killed. In China, the number of pedestrians killed each year is a state secret. As developing cities such as Abuja emulate the American way, obesity related diseases are rapidly spreading as walking, jogging, and cycling become more difficult.
However, higher oil prices may be compensated by lower vehicle costs. China, Mexico, Brazil, and India have moved into vehicle manufacturing, and are producing vehicles at unbelievable low costs by historical standards. Politicians should be preparing themselves for days of expensive oil, cheaper vehicles, few motor vehicle manufacturing jobs and tight competition for limited road space. Where no government action is taken the clear winner is this emerging transport market place– the motor cycle. In China and developing countries like Nigeria and Burkina Faso, motorcycle and electric bicycles sales have skyrocketed.
In Africa and South East Asia, the motorcycle is having an exploding share of the vehicular traffic. Though relatively rare in Africa in the past 20 years, it has spread rapidly. Its affordability helps millions of poorer people travel cheaply using relatively little fuel and harmful consequences to the atmosphere. Bicycles are also extremely efficient users of road space and no pollution.
Mr. Jackson, a social critic, writes from Lagos.
(20 Feb 2007)
Related article from the Vanguard: Fuel shortages, stark realities and present challenges .
Winner of the great transport race is: the trams
John Legge, The Age
Melbourne’s public transport planning is supposed to be following a well-researched strategy based on sound economic principles, but the information on which both the strategy and planning is based seems to come from not just another city, but another planet.
Public transport in Melbourne is provided by trains, trams, scheduled buses and school buses. The services are operated by private contractors paid for out of the state budget, while the fares are collected by another contractor and paid directly into the budget. Logic would seem to dictate that development should be focused on that part of the network which delivers the most passengers carried per dollar spent.
For every kilometre travelled, scheduled buses pick up just over one passenger; and for every passenger picked up the state pays the operators $4.19. For every kilometre travelled, trains pick up just over nine passengers and the state pays the operators $2.57 for each of them. For every kilometre travelled, trams pick up more than six passengers and the state pays Yarra Trams just 98 cents each.
The Government claims to be worried about greenhouse gases. Trams are responsible for under 12 grams of carbon dioxide per passenger-kilometre; the newer trains are responsible for less (although the older Hitachi and ComEng trains with their friction brakes generate about 60 grams); while buses generate about 80 grams. A medium-sized car generates more than 200 grams.
On economic grounds it is trams first, trains second, and buses nowhere. On environmental grounds it is again trams first, trains second, and buses behind either. On popularity grounds trains slightly shade trams, while once again buses trail far in the rear. ..
(20 Feb 2007)
German transport minister proposes tax breaks for ‘green’ cars
Associated Press
Germans who buy environmentally friendly automobiles should be rewarded with tax breaks, the country’s transport minister said in a newspaper editorial published Saturday. Writing in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, Wolfgang Tiefensee proposed tax breaks for people who purchase automobiles that emit less carbon dioxide, burn less fuel and are overall more energy efficient. ..
Already a tax is in the works that envisions charging more to drivers of vehicles with higher carbon dioxide emissions. But Tiefensee’s proposal foresees measuring the overall environmental friendliness of a vehicle, including energy efficient motors and lower fuel consumption.
(18 Feb 2007)
