One Street News

December-January 2015

Vol. 8, Issue 1

1. Paris Plans to Ban Cars from City Center
2. New List Service
3. Resources – Vancouver’s Controversial Bike Lane
4. Hot Topics – After Ferguson: Who Owns the Streets?

Paris Plans to Ban Cars from City Center

We’ve all heard about the lovely pedestrian streets of Europe and hopefully you are lucky enough to have enjoyed some. However, what Paris is planning is much grander than shutting off a few streets to cars. They are moving toward banning cars from the entire city center so that bicyclists and pedestrians can take back those streets. They’ve already begun a few test runs banning cars on weekends as well as some with certain license plates on a few weekdays. While there has been opposition, the overwhelming response is supportive. They have also measured significant drops in pollution on these days.

Several articles have been published on this story, but this article from Grist seems to offer the best overview. Enjoy!

New List Service

By: Sue Knaup, Executive Director

We’ve taken the leap into a new list service that allows us to send these newsletters through our web host. I’m especially happy with the functionality that allows you to easily manage your subscription. This newsletter is our first time using it so please let me know if you have any trouble with it: sue{at}onestreet.org.

Resources – Vancouver’s Controversial Bike Lane

Sometimes bicycle advocacy becomes an endless series of repetitions. In meeting after meeting you have to explain the exact same reasons why a project will be good for the city, whether for health reasons, the environment, or simply to make your city more human-scale. As you become this broken record, despair can set in. Recently, advocates in Vancouver showed all of us that our persistence can pay off. We’ve posted the article to One Street’s home page because it is such an inspiration.

Hot Topics – After Ferguson: Who Owns the Streets?

The killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in November stirred up many hot topics about how we live together on this planet. This sudden, horrific event on a small street in middle America raised questions about our civilization and humanity, how little we have advanced as a species.

One of these questions hits directly on One Street’s purpose by questioning why the encounter even happened. The police officer believed that Michael and his friends should not be walking in the middle of the road. For a police officer to assume that such a basic human right as walking in the public right-of-way is illegal strikes at an injustice that affects all of us. Those of us not driving an expensive motor vehicle have been shoved aside. Our public rights-of-way have been taken from us.

If this bothers you, you will enjoy this article.

We’ve also featured it in our Defying Poverty with Bicycles blog.