At 09:09 AM Monday 9/17/2007, Martin Lewis wrote: >On 9/14/07, Gary Nunn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > London's Emissions Targets For 2030 Will Only Be Reached By Banning Cars > >Related in two ways to that link, I read this in the paper today: > >"Cycling England says a 20% increase in bicycle journeys would lower >healthcare costs and reduce congestion. It adds that by making a £70m >annual investment in cycling initiatives the government could cut up >to 54m car journeys a year by 2012 and reduce carbon dioxide emissions >by 35,000 tonnes. > >The report says that an adult who swaps a car for a bicycle on a >return journey of 2.5 miles - the average cycle trip - will generate >annual savings of £137.28 through reduced congestion. A regular >cyclist saves the NHS £28.30 a year." > >http://www.guardian.co.uk/transport/Story/0,,2170848,00.html > >Anyway I looked on the Cycling England website to see if I could find >the actual report and lo and behold I couldn't. The press office >section seems to have been last updated in June. Likewise I can't find >the LSHTM report. It's pretty annoying that you still have to get this >filtered through a journalist when the internet makes its easy >dissemination possible. And when it is available online it would be >nice if the papers actually linked to it, which they never seem to do. > > Martin
However, the question I and others have concerns those who due to medical conditions cannot pedal a bicycle (either because they do not have sufficient use of their legs to do so or because problems such as frex heart or respiratory disease make them incapable of the physical exertion required for bicycling or walking more than a few dozen feet for that matter) and who may not be able to afford to call for a taxi every time they or their children need to go out (frex their medical condition limits them to working at most part time or to subsisting on an income which is mostly or entirely from disability benefits of at most probably a few hundred US dollars a month, and in addition to the low level of income such benefits provide they are perhaps further financially stressed by the cost of medication or medical devices or other expenses due to their illness which are either only partially covered or not covered at all by whatever insurance they may have). And while London and some other cities like New York City do have public transportation systems which allow many people to get by quite well without owning and driving a car (although when it comes to subways or elevated trains many people with medical conditions like those described above would not be able to manage stairs), other cities (particularly most cities in the US) do not. So we naturally wonder if a car ban is implemented in London and proves successful in reducing emissions how soon it will be before it is suggested or implemented in other cities, including those which due to their layout and lack of public transportation pretty much require people to have access to a car to get around, and what will happen to those I have described above who because of medical conditions cannot swap their car for a bicycle. I and apparently others here think that such questions should be addressed from the start in considering such a proposal . . . if for no other reason than the strong likelihood that by 2030 there are some participating in this discussion now who may be perfectly able to swap their car for a bicycle now who due to one medical condition or another will not be able to pedal a bicycle or walk twenty or so years from now . . . :-( -- Ronn! :) _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
