WalkSanDiego is a regional, grassroots organization formed in 1998 and dedicated to making our neighborhoods more walkable. Through our educational events, training, advocacy, and work with local governments and SANDAG, WalkSanDiego is working to reclaim our streets and blocks through improved streetscape designs, accessible walking paths, and traffic calming measures.

The Real Cost of Fossil Fuel Subsidies Fossil fuel subsidies are often regressive, with the wealthy benefiting more than the poor. Replacing consumption subsidies with targeted support for the poor reaches the people most in need while avoiding waste in the national budget. The biggest beneficiaries of fossil fuel subsidies are not the poor. In fact, studies show that many subsidies are regressive in nature. A recent IMF study of fossil fuel subsidies globally determined that the wealthiest 20 percent of the population gets a disproportionate 43 percent of the benefit from fossil fuel subsidies, while the poorest 20 percent gets only 7 percent. In fact, the poorest 60 percent of the population still doesn't get as much benefit as the wealthiest quintile. According to a compilation of estimates by international organizations, consumption subsidies reached US$1 trillion to US$1.2 trillion worldwide, consistent with McKinsey & Company's estimate of US$1.1 trillion. Those costs include: Fossil fuel subsidies: Estimated to cost between US$455 billion and US$485 billion. Water subsidies: Estimated at between US$200 billion and US$300 billion. Fisheries subsidies: Estimated at between US$10 billion and US$30 billion. There are better ways to provide assistance to the people who need it most that are also less expensive for the national budget. By one estimate, the cost of transferring US$1 to the poorest 20 percent of the population via gasoline subsidies is US$33. If countries instead shifted that funding to targeted support for the poor, the funding would help the people who need it most, rather than those who need it least. Similarly, consumption subsidies for water and electricity can be replaced by connection subsidies that are better targeted, since the poor account for the majority of those without access to basic services. Consumption subsidies exacerbate common-property problems. Global subsidies to fisheries, for example, are partly to blame for t

Open Data, Cities & Transport How unlocking data can deliver efficiency gains and personalise service 27 Jun 2012 Sponsored by ITO World and Trapeze Following our highly successful sold-out conference in 2011, Landor LINKS are presenting a follow up Open Data conference on 27 June 2012 at Manchester Town Hall. This event will bring together policy makers, network operators and data users with information service providers and application developers. Speakers include: Peter Miller, CEO, ITO World Jonathan Raper, Managing Director, Placr, Transparency Board Member Shane O'Neil, Managing Director, ELGIN Julian Tait, Future Everything David Hytch, Information Systems Director Peter Ball, Managing Director, Trapeze   Jeremy Wiggin, Travel Development Team Manager, Norfolk County Council  Richard Thurbin, Technical Director, Cloud Amber Eugene Tsyrklevich, CEO, Parkopedia Graham Grant, Senior Transport Planner, Tyne & Wear ITA Bob Barr, Chairman, Manchester Geometrics Stephen Leece, General Manager, Esri UK Manchester Digital Development Agency Topics include Efficiency Gains that are there for the taking Getting good value from open data - lessons from the UK and across the world Agregated data: opening up your data to developers Leveraging Data to increase efficiency and improve customer experience How do we pro-actively release data to best effect? Greater Manchester Open Data Experience - Lessons, challenges and vision The transformational benefits of data for an integrated transport system Is open transport data really going to lead to better or cheaper passenger information? Adding Value to data and the bigger picture - Open Data and Smarter Cities Making the most of 'where': the power of location intelligence Using Government Data to unlock funding to support planning and regeneration at city and regional scale Data to provide new understanding and knowledge to determine new infrastructure requirements Who should attend?

To naysayers, skeptics and Tea Party members, it's the end of the California suburban lifestyle. To dyed-in-the-wool environmentalists, it's the key to correcting climate change. But in reality, the Plan Bay Area strategy linking land-use and transportation investment is probably neither. The strategy, approved by the governing boards of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Association of Bay Area Governments at a heated meeting in Oakland on Thursday night, is the Bay Area's attempt to satisfy a 2008 state law that requires regions to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2035. The law requires the regional planning agencies to work together to meet that requirement. Their approach is to use transportation money to help steer growth - an anticipated 2.1 million new residents and 1.1 million jobs - into already developed areas, around existing transit hubs, highways and transit lines. It identifies priority development areas with more than a third of the growth in San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose with El Camino Real on the Peninsula and San Pablo Avenue in the East Bay also singled out. Extension of strategy While the plan establishes a closer connection between housing and transportation planning, it's an extension of a strategy that already has been used to encourage development around transit hubs. "It's an evolution, not a revolution," said Stuart Cohen, head of TransForm, a transportation and land-use coalition that supports the plan. "What's stronger than ever is how we're spending our (transportation) money, and where growth is happening." Cities and counties are not obligated to follow the plan, but money for transportation improvements would go to areas that adhere to it. But even though the plan is optional, it has generated great controversy, as was evident at Thursday's public hearing, which drew an overflow crowd of about 200 and inspired 70 people to wait for hours to speak. Critics, including members of the Te

21.05.2012 Nordeste terá verba bilionária para investir em obras de infraestrutura Um novo programa de desenvolvimento para os estados do Nordeste foi lançado nesta sexta-feira (18) e garantirá um investimento de pelo menos US$ 1,2 bilhão (R$ 2,4 bilhões) em obras de infraestrutura. O anúncio foi feito durante um encontro dos governadores nordestinos, entre eles o pernambucano Eduardo Campos, com os presidentes do Banco Interamericano de Desenvolvimento (BID), Luis Alberto Moreno, e do Banco do Nordeste do Brasil (BNB), Jurandir Santiago. O anúncio foi feito durante o encontro "Nordeste do Brasil, Oportunidades & Investimentos", no Palácio da Abolição, sede do governo cearense, em Fortaleza. Na ocasião, os presidentes dos bancos explicaram as verbas do Programa de Desenvolvimento Produtivo (Prodepro), que pretende abrir uma linha de financiamento voltado para melhorar a infraestrutura e ampliar a atração de investimentos da região Nordeste. O programa é desenvolvido pelo BNB em parceria com o BID e tem a proposta de promover a elaboração de projetos estruturantes como o planejamento de Parcerias Público Privadada (PPP) e de modelos de concessões. Além dessa verba já anunciada, governadores esperam que o BNDES também participe da parceria com o mesmo valor, o que dobraria o total para US$ 2,4 bilhões. Para pagar esses empréstimos os governos têm uma carência de quatro anos, com 20 anos de prazo para quitar o débito, com uma taxa de juros de 0,6%. Fonte: NE10, 18/05/2012

6 de junho - São Paulo - SP     Objetivo Reunir especialistas e profissionais do mercado para debate de temas como: - Tendências e possibilidades para a economia brasileira; - Gargalos e alternativas para o desenvolvimento do transporte Intermodal; - Investimentos; - Integração entre portos e ferrovias; - Regulação; - Alternativas.  Veja a programação completa   Público alvo Profissionais envolvidos com as temáticas transporte e logística, entre outros interessados em aprofundar-se nos assuntos presentes na grade de programação.  Veja a programação completa   Conteúdo A Intermodalidade ainda é um dos principais desafios que o Brasil precisa enfrentar, urgentemente, para alavancar sua vantagem competitiva e garantir o crescimento e desenvolvimento - tanto interno quanto externo.São inúmeros os gargalos e as possibilidades que beneficiarão a logística e os transportes nacionais, sejam eles da malha ferroviária, rodoviária e de transportes aquaviários. Trata-se de uma corrida contra o tempo e com a prova já em andamento. Diante da importância da temática, não poderíamos deixar de fazer um evento exclusivo que aborde assuntos efervescentes na dinâmica nacional.  Veja a programação completa   Programação 8h40 Análise das tendências, possíveis consequências e possibilidades para a economia brasileira de acordo com o atual cenário mundial - Mitos e verdades sobre a crise econômica internacional; - China, Estados Unidos e Europa: o status destes mercados nas provisões de crescimento dos negócios no Brasil; - Os impactos para os setores de exportação, logística e transporte; - É possível que os investimentos em infraestrutura sejam minimizados diante desta conjuntura? - Tendências, perspectivas e oportunidades para 2012. Carlos Alvares da Silva Campos Neto Coordenador de Infraestrutura Econômica  IPEA - Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada  9h40 - Gargalos e alternat

A record number of children are biking Today - September 6th - more than 140.000 schoolchildren are biking to school. Common to the children are the participation in the cycle campaign, Bike to School. This is the highest number of participants, in the campaigns nine years of existence. The bike gives children the liberty to get around from school, to friends and leisure activities. Furthermore, research from the University of Southern Denmark has shown that children, who bikes to school have a 9% better physical fitness than children who are driven to school. The campaign highlights - along with schools from all of Denmark - the bike as a means of transport to and from school. It is all about introducing the habit of biking in an early age, and in that way help to increase the likelihood of future generations growing up with healthy exercise and transportation habits. You can read about other Danish children campaigns HERE and watch the website of the Bike to School campaign (in Danish Alle Børn Cykler).

Children are the foundation of the cycling culture When you use a bike as a child, chances are that you will also use a bike as a grown-up. In Denmark, the cycling culture is built through more than 100 years. The foundation of the cycling culture is the fact that Danish children learn to ride a bike from their parents, brothers and sisters, or friends. Cycling is inherited from one generation to the next. But the culture is only kept alive, if it is used. If all children stopped cycling, it would not take long for the cycling culture to decline. The Cycling Embassy of Denmark places great emphasis on the creation of the best possible conditions for children who cycle. This article provides insight into three different kinds of projects with the purpose of supporting and improving the conditions for the child cycling. Cycle Games Children should feel encouraged to play and move around, and a bike is an ideal means for that purpose. When children cycle their sense of balance and mobility are stimulated. At the same time, the sense of locality and the perception of space and direction are increased, because the movement is being done at a higher velocity and on a moving vehicle. Furthermore, learning through play is a more effective way of learning than the old-fashioned cycle training with broom handle and supporting wheel. We believe that it is reasonable to begin at the age of two. When children play on their bike, the focus is shifted from the bike to the playing. When the actual cycling "automated" and the attention is on the surroundings, the basis is created for safe children cycling. The safe cyclist does not think about how the bike works, but only has the focus on the surroundings and the other cyclists. Cycle games contributes to better cyclists. Because the children have fun while they learn, chances are that they as adults will use the bike as their everyday means of transport. In Denmark the project "Cycle Games for everybody" consist of the foll

The Bikeable City - a course in how to plan for cycle friendly cities Call for expressions of interest The Cycling Embassy of Denmark, CED is offering a cycle planning course, The Bikeable City, in how to plan for cycle friendly cities. Many cities round the world want to develop their traffic culture with a view to more sustainable mobility. We are seeing public transport systems developing along these lines in many cities throughout the world. Along with this, there is a wish to develop a cycle culture in order to increase the mobility of the citizens and to reduce private car traffic in the cities. The aim of the course is to contribute to the development of liveable and bikeable cities throughout the world. Development of a cycle culture is an important part of sustainable mobility. The objective is to increase cycling by creating a safe environment for cyclists, which will also contribute to urban life, to a liveable urban environment and to the health of the citizens. Moreover, a bikeable city will contribute to important Millennium Development Goals in reducing poverty, developing democracy and increasing both gender equality and growth through increased mobility. Overall objective: To develop liveable and bikeable cities To support cycling-friendly policy development. To increase cycling as a mean of sustainable mobility To develop a cycle culture which contributes to urban life, and urban environment and health To strengthen the advocacy for cycling in civil society To support development goals in cities such as: poverty reduction, democracy, gender equality, growth through increased mobility, affordable transport To create a safe environment for cyclists.   The target groups are professionals from Danida collaborating countries working in Danida projects such as city administrations, local authority politicians, urban planners and designers and cycle advocacy groups in civil society. Possible participating countries could be: Bangladesh, Benin, Bhu

The Cycling Embassy of Denmark has just finished up a new publication "Collection of Cycle Concepts 2012". The first edition of Collection of Cycle Concepts was published in 2000 and enjoyed a wide circulation among everyone interested in bicycle traffic. The simultaneous publication of the English version spread the Danish bicycle traffic experience to many parts of the world. The second edition, Collection of Cycle Concepts 2012, updates the field, featuring new challenges and the latest knowledge. Collection of Cycle Concepts 2012 is not intended to be a summary of Danish road standards, but to provide inspiration and motivation for creating more and safer bicycle traffic - in Denmark as well as the rest of the world. You can have a look and download the publication here: http://www.cycling-embassy.dk/2012/05/10/cycle-concepts2012/ Best regards, Jakob Schiøtt Stenbæk Madsen Project Officer M. +45 40 70 83 62 A Comissão de Meio Ambiente da Câmara aprovou ontem, por unanimidade, parecer da deputada Marina Sant'Anna (PT-GO) ao projeto de lei (PL 2457/11), do Senado Federal, que institui mecanismos de estímulo à instalação de sistemas de coleta, armazenamento e utilização de águas pluviais em edificações públicas e privadas. Substitutivo da deputada Marina reúne 14 projetos de autoria de diferentes deputados que abordam manejo de águas pluviais urbanas, economia e reutilização de água, permeabilidade do solo urbano e outros temas relacionados. A proposta do Senado Federal tornou-se a principal em razão de já ter sido votada por uma das Casas Legislativas. Entre as matérias apensadas, teve grande aproveitamento de seu conteúdo o projeto de lei (PL 1310/11), do deputado Paulo Teixeira (PT-SP), que trata da "Política Nacional de Gestão e Manejo Integrado de Águas Urbanas", incluindo a reutilização da água de uso doméstico, denominada de água cinza, gerada em banhos, pias e lavanderias. Conforme estabelec