Urban liveability and the Bicycle
Friday, 25 June 2010, Written by Julien   
Last Saturday I attended a conference by Shannon Bufton on "Urban Liveability and the Bicycle" . His main argument is that when city planning is focused towards car usage it has a negative impact on liveability. Too many cars in a city create traffic congestion, increase accident rates for cyclists and pedestrians, generate sound and air pollution... In one sentence, a car-friendly city is a people-unfriendly city.

There are now around 4 million cars in Beijing. It is hard to really realize what it means so Shannon Bufton gave a very striking comparison: if you put all those cars next to each other, it would take all the space within second ring road. So to be able to park all the cars Beijing has, one would have to obliterate all historical building in Beijing into an immense parking lot: the Forbidden City, TianAnMen square, Temple of Heaven, all the hutongs would have to be destroyed in order to fit so many cars.
Surface taken if all Beijing cars were parked next to each other
Developping bike usage and public transit networks would reduce the space required by cars. How could all this space be better used to create a better city (and of course a better life :)?
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Charles wrote : Cars added every day
1466 cars are added everyday. When you put them bumper to bumper that is 6.7km (if you take the hyundai taxi as a reference).
That is the distance between Fuxingmen and Jianguomen. So even though Changan jie has 2x4 lanes. In a week it would be packed and gridlocked only considering news cars... dear me

The fundamental problem is that people love to show their success too much. Beijing green just isn't cool...

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/02/1466-new-cars-beijing-streets-every-days.php
ken wrote : jogging with respro face mask
can you wear the mask for jogging?
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