WORLD CAR-FREE NETWORK CHARTER

WORLD CAR-FREE NETWORK CHARTER

The Heavy Costs of Automobile Dependence

Automobile dependence has led to the global

spread of an environmentally and socially

destructive way of life. In 1950, the world had

70 million cars, trucks and buses. By 1994, there

were nine times that number, or 630 million –

which since 1970 has been growing at the rate of

16 million vehicles per year. If this growth

continues, by the year 2025 there will be well

over 1 billion motor vehicles on the world’s

roads. They consume 37 million barrels of oil a

day – half of the world’s petroleum consumption.

They are responsible for nearly half of our air

pollution and at least one-third of our greenhouse

gas emissions.

Cars – whether labelled ‘clean,’ ‘green’ or otherwise

– have become one of the leading causes of

injury and death in almost every nation. Motor

vehicle traffic kills four times as many people as

wars – 1.26 million people a year. That’s more

than 3,000 people killed on the world’s roads

every day, not even counting the contribution to

asthma, cancer, leukemia and lung disease.

When the 10-15 million annual road injuries

and disabilities are factored into the equation,

along with the deaths and injuries caused to

animals, the problem reaches truly catastrophic

proportions.

Adding to the tragedy, automobiles shape and

distort our urban environment. They replace

lively, pleasant, walkable, human-scaled

communities with low-density, sprawled-out

environments designed for getting elsewhere as

fast as possible. With wide streets devoted to car

traffic and vast seas of asphalt devoted to parking,

our daily destinations are placed increasingly

out of reach of our feet. Space for social interaction

and cultural exchange is diluted and

dispersed, inhibiting the informal social contacts

that bind societies together. Life is pushed

indoors, separated and compartmentalized.

Our society’s dependence on an expensive,

inequitable technology – the most resource intensive

means of locomotion ever devised –

has expanded to achieve a radical monopoly in

much of the industrialized world. This automobile motorway-

petroleum system denies free mobility

to children, the elderly, the poor and the physically

handicapped. Public transport, bicycle and

pedestrian infrastructure is tacked on as an

afterthought, if at all. Our physical and emotional

health suffers and our level of physical activity

plummets, contributing to a global obesity

epidemic. By accommodating the car at all costs,

our society creates an urban wasteland that

substitutes sense of place and sense of community

with isolation and alienation.

Car-free Communities for the Future

With the car responsible for such a litany of

negative impacts on humanity and nature,

car-free communities are a logical cornerstone of

a sustainable society. By following ecological and

socially inclusive principles, we can build exciting,

beautiful and harmonious environments on a

human scale. By creating pedestrian-oriented,

bicycle-friendly human habitats, we can reintroduce

routine physical activity into people’s daily

lives. We can make destinations easily accessible

to children, the elderly, the poor and the physically

handicapped. We can transform existing villages, towns and cities into more desirable

places to live and work, with a healthy density

and mix of homes, shops, businesses and cultural

destinations. We can at the same time

minimize our ecological footprint by dramatically

reducing our contribution to oil dependence

and climate change.

In addition to building car-free communities, we

will work to improve the viability of alternatives

within the car-dependent context. We will

promote alternative transport infrastructure that

physically replaces car lanes and parking space,

in order to tangibly reduce car traffic and car-based

pollution. We will campaign against

proposals for new roads, road widening and new

parking facilities. We will point out that social

and ecological health cannot be achieved simply

by using cars less, or switching to ‘greener’ cars –

which displace pollution while leaving the car based

urban form intact, along with its patterns

of high consumption and energy use.

In seeking alternatives to our present system

of industrialized traffic, the concept of access

by proximity can be much more useful than

mobility. Human settlements, we often forget,

were built to maximize the opportunities for

interaction – to bring people and destinations

together and to minimize transport of goods

and people. Therefore – in addition to promoting

alternative transport – we will work to

reallocate dead, empty, car-dominated spaces

to destinations such as shops, workplaces,

gathering places, playgrounds, parks and

community gardens. Utilizing car-free days,

Bike to Work Weeks and other innovative

programs, we will work together to improve

local livability and build broad public support

for transport reform.

Member Organizations

World Car-free Network welcomes new member organizations whose policies and

practices are consistent with those of the network.

According to Article 5 of our statutes: “Member Organisations and ‘Active Individuals’ (those involved

in the network but not associated with a member organisation) sign the network’s charter to officially

join the network. By signing they agree to abide by both the charter and [the network’s] statutes.” The

full statutes, as well as other information for member organisations, can be found at

www.worldcarfree.net/about_us/.

Organisation name _____FORO ECOLOGISTA DE LA CUENCA DE MÉXICO________MÉXICO CY AND GREAT METROPOLITAN AREA ECOLOGIST NETWORK_____________________________________________________

Individual signing / position _____________MIGUEL VALENCIA MULKAY, VOICE______________________________________________

Signature /date / place __MIGUEL VALENCIA MULKAY, JANUARY 23, 2005, MEXICO CY._____________________________________________________________

Organisation address ___OKLAHOMA 23 – 401, COLONIA NAPOLES, DELEGACIÓN BENITO JUAREZ______________________________________________________________

City / country / postal code __MEXICO CY. MEXICO, PC.- 03810__________________________________________________________

Telephone / fax _____5687-6953________________________________________________________________

E-mail / web address ____valmul56@att.net.mx_____________________________________________________________

Prospective member organisations must return a signed original of this charter to:

World Carfree Network, International Coordination Centre, Krátká 26, Prague 10, Czech Republic