Transport – Page 30 – Earth First!

Edinburgh CRITICAL MASS Fri 23/02

Following on from last month’s successful ride, Friday (23/02) sees February’s Critical Mass bike ride in Edinburgh. Meet 5.30pm foot of the Mound (by the National Galleries). Ride off 6pm.

We enjoy cycling. We enjoy cycling together. Cycling together makes Edinburgh’s sometime hazardous streets a more pleasurable experience. Let’s ride and celebrate the wonderful invention that is the cycle (bi/tri/uni – all varieties welcome)! Positive attitudes essential!

Following on from last month’s successful ride, Friday (23/02) sees February’s Critical Mass bike ride in Edinburgh. Meet 5.30pm foot of the Mound (by the National Galleries). Ride off 6pm.

Edinburgh is dominated, clogged and polluted by the internal combustion engine. People sit for hours in their metal boxes – typically travelling a few miles – detached from but destroying the environment around them. Let’s demonstrate the freedom, joy and simple practicality that cycling could bring to everyones’ lives!

CAMP BLING Photo report

Show your support by coming to the following: PARKRALLY ‘SAVE PRIORY PARK!!’ A funding decision on the controversial Priory Cresent road widening is due. Please join us for a mass rally and demonstration from 6.30pm on Thursday 22nd February, at Southend Civic Centre, to show the decision makers your opposition to the scheme. Videos, photos, … Continue reading “CAMP BLING Photo report”

Show your support by coming to the following:

PARKRALLY ‘SAVE PRIORY PARK!!’

A funding decision on the controversial Priory Cresent road widening is due. Please join us for a mass rally and demonstration from 6.30pm on Thursday 22nd February, at Southend Civic Centre, to show the decision makers your opposition to the scheme.

Videos, photos, events etc…..
http://www.ppps.org.uk/ –

Contacts, blog, news, events….
http://www.savepriorypark.org.uk/

>VISTORS ALWAYS WELCOME<

Check http://www.savepriorypark.org.uk/ for directions to the site.

photos of Manchester carbon footprint stencils

7.02.2007

Last Thursday, to coincide with the IPCC report, a group of Manchester climate activists decorated the pavements outside flight centres, petrol stations, supermarkets and a humvee garage with carbon footprints.

Roughly a dozen stencils appeared Friday morning in various city centre locations. The stunt followed a number of other awareness raising actions in Manchester, such as the blockade of the humvee garage a few weeks earlier.

Notts Critical Mass Relaunch for 23rd February 2007 with NEW Meeting Point

Let’s get this ride on the road!!!
Friday 23rd February is Nottingham’s next Critical Mass Bike Ride with a NEW Meeting Point in Market Square. This change is for everyone who rides a bike in Nottingham and wants to take part.

Critical Mass is a monthly bike ride to celebrate cycling and to assert cyclists’ right to the road. With no set routes and no leaders, it’s simply a bunch of people enjoying clean healthy transport.

Check out the website at http://www.criticalmassrides.info/nottingham
Join the discussion group at http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/nottcriticalmass

In addition to all of the worthwhile issues that Critical Mass highlights, it’s a great way to meet people and perhaps do a bit of networking to promote other campaigns.

So why start from the Market Square? Well Critical Mass should appeal to anyone that rides a bike so it should start from the most central location for everyone’s benefit. Plus, practically every other Critical Mass around the globe starts from a central, well-known location which makes it easy to remember and easy to find.

It’s never more than a couple of hours. Bring bright clothing, lights, horns, bells, NOISE and FRIENDS.
The next one is Friday 23rd February from Market Square, Nottingham (Last Friday of every month). Gather at 5.30pm to depart at 5.45pm. Let’s get on our bikes and make this, the simplest of actions, happen.

Early Feb Critical Masses

4.02.2007 – York:

Another month, another ride, and this time around we narrowly exceeded the previous months attendance. However, the police made another brief intervention, as two cycle police and an officer on foot joined the ride.

4.02.2007 – York:

The women PC (on foot) was immediately very hostile, demanding that cyclists proceed single file, essentially making the ride pointless. However, they bizarrely vanished, and the ride finished off more or less in one piece. This did have the effect of encouraging a few riders to leave early. There was a bizarre moment where an officer announced into their radio that they’d found the organiser. Ironically, this was the one regular rider who’d been much quieter than usual!

The ride headed out through Monkbar and along the last untouched section of the inner ring: Lord Mayor’s Walk. The ride than headed past the hospital, where the ride had to evacuate the road to allow an ambulance through. Over the bridge into the Clifton area, and along Burton Stone Lane, before heading out to Clifton Green. Here the ride crossed the river, and headed through Leeman Road, before riding along Rougier Street and back across Ousebridge.

The next ride will be on 3rd March, when skies will just about still be light when we set off. And looking ahead, the first “summer time” ride will be on 6th April, Good Friday, when the ride will be advertised as family friendly (and much easier to photograph!!). It’ll be interesting to see what the police decide to do next: it won’t be surprising if they fail to show up until midway through yet again. Legally, they have no right to prevent the ride, nor to interfere with it, other than if the ride stops mid-road or mid-junction. Whatever happens, it should be fun non-the-less.

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Friday 2nd February – St Philip’s Cathedral, Birmingham City Centre:

The second Critical Mass cycle ride of 2007 was to celebrate the legal appeal victory of Daniel Cadden who refused to cycle in the gutter.
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/birmingham/2007/01/361089.html

Critical Mass has steadily seen increasing numbers of riders taking part. This month almost 30 Birmingham cyclists met up for a cycle ride around the city centre to highlight the increasing presence of cyclists on our streets. The rides are expected to increase the consciousness of other road-users to the safety needs of cyclists as well as demonstrating that cycling is a fun, viable, healthy and environmentally-benign alternative to infernal combustion powered vehicles.

This month’s ride saw the arrival of Birmingham Critical Mass’ first junior rider in the shape of a two-year-old trailer passenger. Throughout the ride she was able to luxuriate in her carriage and enjoy a range of popular songs related to cycling. The ride was also publicised on the sound system using a sampled voice declaring ‘We are Critical Mass, come ride with us’.

Next month’s Mass will also be accompanied by a musical trailer and it is hoped that people will submit their favourite tunes beforehand for inclusion in a compilation to be played as the ride goes on. This will take place over the Brum Critical Mass riseup.net group. Sign up now, submit your tune ideas and come and hear them on 2nd March. The riseup group has now exceeded 50 members and more are expected following this month’s ride.
Future ride ideas include a ride of suits with bowler hatted cyclists Massing through Birmingham’s rush hour and heavy flyering along busy city cycle routes.

http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/brumcriticalmass

The Bristol Alliance Against Urban 4x4s celebrated its launch on Saturday

30.01.2007

Campaigners gathered on College Green, after spending the morning issuing over 1,000 mock parking tickets to 4x4s in areas of central Bristol including Redland, Clifton and Broadmead. The paper tickets, which are placed harmlessly under the windscreen wipers of parked vehicles, are titled ‘Poor Vehicle Choice’ and challenge the need to own and drive a 4×4 vehicle in town.
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The dependent media were interested in the launch of the campaign. HTV shot a TV news item. Members of the group were interviewed by BBC Radio Bristol / GWR and Star. Stories appeared in the Bristol Evening Post and BBC Online. The Alliance aims to use peaceful and humorous means to raise awareness of the problems associated with 4×4 usage in cities like Bristol, led by concerns over road safety, road space and climate change. Although 4x4s are marketed as being safer than smaller cars – and many drivers buy them on this assumption – a series of expert reports warns this is not the case. Euro-NCAP crash tests and accident figures show that the greater weight and height of 4x4s increases the risk of rollover and makes them more dangerous in accidents with smaller vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians. The British Medical Journal has run articles calling for ‘health warnings’ on 4x4s due to their increased injury risk, and a recent study in the US found the likelihood of a pedestrian fatality is nearly doubled in the event of a collision with a large 4×4 compared with a passenger car. There is also evidence that 4x4s pose extra dangers to the drivers of other cars – the Transport Research Laboratory has found that in a crash, the person driving a smaller car is 12 times more likely to be killed than the person in the 4×4. 4x4s also produce far more carbon dioxide – the main gas associated with climate change – per kilometre than smaller cars. A large 4×4 such as the Range Rover Discovery 4.4 produces 354g CO2/km – more than three times that of a Ford Fiesta, Peugeot 206 or Renault Clio (diesel models). TV presenter David Attenborough has said that driving a 4×4 is “morally wrong” and the energy minister Malcolm Wicks has criticised the “crass irresponsibility” of those who drive large 4x4s around the suburbs. The Alliance has received offers of help from over 100 Bristol residents so far, and sent out over 3,000 spoof parking tickets for distribution. On Monday we received a huge number of email orders for spoof parking tickets from concerned Bristol residents. Many new members have joined and are enthusiastic to start local groups in Redland and Bishopton. They plan to stage humorous direct actions against the 4x4s in Bristol that endanger the lives of people and the future of the planet. Thanks to everyone who helped organise our successful launch and came to College Green on Saturday and thanks to Claire for the inspiration.

bristol4x4alliance at yahoo.co.uk for more information on how you can be part of this campaign.

Foe of the 4×4
e-mail: bristol4x4alliance at yahoo dot co dot uk
Homepage: http://www.stopurban4x4s.org.uk/

Some Jan Critical Mass reports – London, Leeds, Manchester (& I Bike Mcr festival)

You never know what the police are going to do next on the London ride. They clamp down on some things and relax on others from one month to the next and from one part of the ride to another. ‘Shambolic’ is perhaps the word that best describes their behaviour. They seem at times to behave more like Anarchists than the riders. You would think with their radios they could at least arrive at some sort of a consensus. In addition to our usual police overkill the Forward Intelligence Team were also in attendance at the South Bank, poking their cameras in people’s faces. All this just because of a bike ride!

This time the cops decided to get tough with riders without lights and those who go through red lights and also with sound systems in the SOCPA zone. Did you know, it is OK for someone with a car to play their sound system in the vicinity or Parliament but not for a cyclist with a sound system? How discriminatory is that? Anyway, the cops allowed an extra long ‘bikes high’ stop in Oxford Circus but no stop whatsoever in Picadilly Circus. Those riders who were pulled for going through red lights are now facing a £30 fine, despite the fact that some cops were actually ushering other riders through red lights!

One of the highlights of the ride was storming through the Aldwych underpass, something the police normally prevent. We had a fun time with Brian Haw in Parliament Square, he led the “More bikes less cars!” chants on his megaphone and seemed in a very good spirits. The ride split up after that at around 9pm, going off in all directions and leaving our yellow coated retinue behind, chin-wagging among themselves.
http://www.criticalmasslondon.org.uk

Quicktime video version – video/mp4 8.3M
Windows video version – video/x-ms-wmv 8.6M

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45 people rode around Leeds for just under an hour last night, with no police interventions. The largest ride for some years, its hoped that this is the beginning of reversal in the downward trend of recent times.

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critical mass manchester last friday and the next one..

Critical Mass on Friday was absolutely amazing. We stood around chatting outside the library for ages just chillin and socialising and meeting the many newcomers to the mass. People making the I Bike MCR did some filming for part of the film and someone taking photos for the bicycle exhibition in March.

Then the 40 or so of us took to the streets, riding around the city centre and down past the station right down Grosvenor street and onto oxford road where masses of students waiting for some gig cheered us as we rode by the union. We rode through Rusholme and then up to Withington and back , hardly any negativity at all instead we were greeted with cheers and friendly beeps and waves from car drivers and pedestrians… woooo!
After the ride we all went for a nice cold beer..mmm

Join us on Friday 23rd Feb for the next one, which will end at the rampant lion on upper brook st/anson rd where we will have our very own celebrate critical mass party with bands and dj’s playing reggae, ska and punk..

email us at: mcrcriticalmass@yahoo.co.uk
be our myspace friend: http://www.myspace.com/mcrcriticalmass
see our website: http://velorution.x21.org.uk

Manchester I bike Mcr festival:

From 30th March to 20th April the I Bike MCR festival takes place in
Manchester. It is a grassroots festival organised by cyclists for cyclists
with diverse events that will entice any cyclist. From Bicycle Polo
classes and matches to Alleycat racing to a Bicycle Art Exhibition,
there’s something for everyone.

Those involved in organising the event are cyclists from different walks
of life including cycling instructors, daily commuters, bicycle
messengers, Critical Mass advocacy group members and bicycle mechanics.

Timetable

Friday 30th March
6pm Critical Mass bike ride, meet at Central Library to celebrate the
bicycle over car culture.

8pm Exhibition Opening at The Basement, 24 Lever St. The opening event
will be one to remember and will feature the premier screening of new
Manchester bicycle film “I bike MCR”. We shall also be showing other
bicycle films and having a roller race (an indoor bicycle race- on
rollers) with lots of prizes to be won! Local acoustic bands will be
performing including the amazing Cooper Jones and Dr Butler’s Hatstand
Medicine Band

Saturday 31st March
1pm Platt Fields Park Bicycle Polo class. Oxford bicycle polo team are
coming to teach us how to play the sport. Please email to reserve a place.
(they return 2 weeks later to play a match: Manchester vs Oxford)

Sunday 1st April
2pm Central Library April Fools Day Bicycle Treasure Hunt. A fun treasure
hunt around our city.

Wednesday 4th April
Moonlight Pub Ride Start 7pm Sandbar, Grosvenor St (off Oxford Road/opp.
All Saints Park. A night ride out and around the outskirts of Manchester
stopping off at some lovely pubs for a drink on the way.

Friday 13th April
Hell Of The North West Alleycat
Fixies and roadragers ride the alleycat for a fast race round our city. £5
entry, amazing prizes to be won. with some donated by the wonderous Twin
Six and Keirin Culture
Email to register

Alleykitten
Shoppers, bmx’s and silly bikes ride alleykitten for a random race full of
games and nonsense round our city centre. £5 entry, amazing prizes to be
won. Email to register

Saturday 14th April
1pm Platt Fields Park Bicycle Polo Match: Manchester vs Oxford.

For more information see the website: www.ibikemcr.org.uk or email
info@ibikemcr.org.uk

Critical Masses This Friday (& others)

This is the first critical mass of 2007. Lets start as we mean to go on and make it a big one!

We cycle round the city to celebrate the bicycle:
It’s for anyone that rides a bike;
Its a celebration of getting round the city without polluting it;

This is the first critical mass of 2007. Lets start as we mean to go on and make it a big one!

We cycle round the city to celebrate the bicycle:
It’s for anyone that rides a bike;
Its a celebration of getting round the city without polluting it;
Its about every journey being an adventure instead of just sitting on a boring bus or in a stressful car;
Its about cyclists riding together to demand more respect from other road users;
Its a way to meet other cyclistas;
At roughly the same time on Friday hundreds of cities around the world do the same thing…all get together for critical mass. its beautiful to know that as you ride with your mates through your own city that all around the world thousands of people are doing the same thing…

Rides in the UK this Friday include:
* Brighton – Gather 18:00 at the Level (BN2 3FX)
* Cambridge – Maybe gather 18:30 Cambridge Market Square
* Leeds (This month’s callout) – Gather 17:30-18:00 Millenium Square
* London – Gather 18:30 Waterloo Bridge, by the National Film Theatre
* Manchester (videos of previous rides) – Gather 18:00 Central Library
* Nottingham – Gather 17:30 Savoy cinema on Derby Road in Lenton
* Oxford – Gather 17:45-18:00 Cornmarket end of Broad Street outside The Oxford Story
* Reading – Gather 17:30, Reading Town Hall

Please leave a comment if your ride has been left off (or is incorrect).
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York Critical Mass

In order not to clash with other rides in the vicinity, York Critical Mass is on the first Friday of every month meaning that the next ride is next Friday on 2nd February. Assemble at 5pm outside Costcutters at the University or 5:30pm outside York Minster. See you there!

Birmingham Critical Mass: Friday, February 2nd

Brum’s critical mass is also on the first friday of the month, Friday 2nd February.
We meet up at Pigeon Park (St. Philip’s Cathedral) at 5:30pm and set off at 6pm.
The rides are getting more popular and more creative. There’s now a mobile soundsystem and for winter critical mass’ riders bring along fairy lights to illuminate the ride.
Subscribe to the list below if you want to get more involved!
http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/brumcriticalmass

Glasgow CM

This Friday at 5:30, George Square.
http://www.citystrolls.com/strolls/pages/critical.htm
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For list of UK rides & links, see also http://criticalmass.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Critical_Mass_rides#United_Kingdom

New Year Destruction at the Hill of Tara, Ireland

In flagrent contempt of best archaeological and ecological practice, a systematic campaign of tree felling, earth clearance and monument removal has begun at the Hill of Tara. This is even before the Public Private Partnership (PPP) contract for the M3 Motorway, through the Tara / Skryne Valley, has even been signed. Daily protests are taking place, every 7am in the morning at the Hill of Tara car park.

The situation at Rath Lugh: Rath Lugh is â€œownedâ€? by Coillte, the State Forestry Board. Native trees are being systematically felled, even though Rath Lugh is a designated national monument, and strategically placed as part of the defensive fortifications at Tara, on the northern slope of the Skyrne Valley. A new area is being worked just behind Lismullen. There are other wooded areas between Rath Lugh and Blundelstown. It is vital that these be preserved from the vandalism that has already been perpetrated. Coillte is legally obliged to protect national monuments on land in its care. Â http://tarawatch.org/?p=234 Coillteâ€™s contempt for the archaeological sites on the land it oversees has already been displayed in the case of the Mooghaun hillfort, which has been damaged by Coillteâ€™s planting of conifer trees there. Mooghaun hillfort (Moghane in Irish), located in Co. Clare, is thought to be the largest hillfort in Ireland. Built c.1260-930 B.C., it is situated â€œon a low hillock in a fairly gently undulating landscape of good agricultural land dotted with many small lakesâ€? Grogan 1993: 39 Â http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0392/D.0392.198910240071.html

Coillte is a state body; it is, however, behaving as if it were a private corporation, entitled to dispose of its â€œpropertyâ€? as it sees fit. Again, Coillteâ€™s record speaks for itself. In March 2001, Coillte approved the sale of 250 acres of land at Bellanaboy, Co Mayo for the Corrib Gas Terminal. In December of 2004 the remaining area of 160 hectares was sold by Coillte to Shell for â‚¬2.75 million. Subsequently Coillte granted Shell â€œwayleaveâ€? permission to build a high-pressure raw gas pipeline through 3km of adjacent Coillte land at Aughoose, Co Mayo. Â http://www.corribsos.com/index.php?id=439
Coillte oversees more than 1.5 million acres on behalf of the State, so the stakes are high.

The situation at Baronstown:
Baronstown lies in the heart of the Tara-Skyrne Valley, and has been described by the Archaeologists who undertook the Discovery Programme survey at Tara as a National Monument. It was however, excluded from the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). There is growing evidence of improper excavation methods by the private archaeological companies overseen by the National Roads Authority. Plastic bags containing bones, lacking numbers or markings, are being found lying in random places. This in itself is proof of inadequate archaeological supervision. Â http://tarawatch.org/?p=289

The situation at Collierstown: Again this was noted by the Discovery Programme as being worthy of designation as a National Monument, but was excluded from the EIS. It is a burial site, with many graves of rectangular shape, edged with stone slabs. These appear to be childrenâ€™s graves. Â http://tarawatch.org/?p=273

The situation at Roestown:
Here, a complex of beehive souterrains has been removed. Another has been newly discovered, yet is shortly to be removed. Tree felling has already occurred. Â http://tarawatch.org/?p=304
All of this vandalism is possible because the Minister for the Environment has scrapped the heritage protection provisions in Irish law, and substituted an Act granting him the power to issue licenses for unsupervised archaeological excavation of designated sites. Under this convention, a host of licenses have been issued for excavations in the Tara / Skryne Valley. Â http://www.sacredireland.org/gallery.html These pictures give an indication of the damage that occurred in 2005:
The diggers move in: Â http://www.sacredireland.org/12don.html
Earth Removal: Â http://www.sacredireland.org/22don.html
Â http://www.sacredireland.org/27don.html
Â http://www.sacredireland.org/28don.html Â http://www.sacredireland.org/24don.html
The bones of the dead: Â http://www.sacredireland.org/bone.html
More excavator activity: Â http://www.sacredireland.org/12.html Â http://www.sacredireland.org/13.html
Topsoil excavations: Â http://www.sacredireland.org/3.html Â http://www.sacredireland.org/18.html Â http://www.sacredireland.org/digger.html

Camp Bling at ‘Prittlewel King’ awards

17.01.2007

Southend ‘Mayor’ cancels F5 road widening at ‘Prittlewell King’ award celebrations

The campaign against the controversial A127/A1159 Priory Crescent â€˜F5â€™ road widening scheme took yet another dramatic new turn tonight, when dozens of local residents â€˜stormedâ€™ a celebration at the townâ€™s Cluniac Priory to mark Southend Borough Council receiving the coveted British Archaeological Awards 2006 â€˜Current Archaeology Developer-Funder Archaeology Award,â€™ for the discovery of the â€˜King of Bling,â€™ in Prittlewell in late 2003.

17.01.2007

Southend ‘Mayor’ cancels F5 road widening at ‘Prittlewell King’ award celebrations

Amid chaotic scenes, Councillors and Dignitaries attending the celebration received a speech from Southend â€˜Mayorâ€™ John Smith, who apologised on behalf of the Council for their intention to destroy the East Saxon kingâ€™s burial site, promised to return the award received last October in Birmingham, and then dramatically announced the immediate cancellation of the F5 road widening, after having, â€˜finally listened to and taken note of the majority of people in Southend who have been shown repeatedly to oppose the scheme.â€™

Local resident Patsy Link who joined the demonstrators said, â€˜This award presented to Southend Borough Council is said to celebrate the merits of developer funded archaeology, which in the case of the discovery of the burial has provided the opportunity to rewrite history. Southend Borough Council now has a site to rival the Sutton Hoo ship burial in Suffolk, but still seeks to bury it under 10 feet of concrete for the road widening. To celebrate then destroy it is nothing short of sheer lunacy on the part of the people here tonight at the Priory.â€™

A decision to fund the road widening has been awaited from the Department for Transport since a local Public Inquiry took place in March 2004. Information from the East of England Regional Partnership Group shows that costs have now risen to an estimated Â£25m for the 870 metre length of carriageway, making it potentially, â€˜The most expensive stretch of road in the world.â€™

In the mean time local protest site Camp Bling still occupies the land above the burial, 4 as it has for sixteen months since first being set up by locals in September 2005. It is rumoured that one of the deepest protest tunnel systems ever known has since been dug to help defend the camp, and numbers have grown significantly as the funding decision is awaited.

Mabel Jones of Prittlewell said, â€˜If the local Council and central Government perceive that this campaign is only about a handful of people against the road scheme then they need to think again and quickly. Tonight has shown that a large cross section of the local community are not just against the scheme, but will actively attempt to stop it if the funding go ahead is now given.â€™

Â http://blingblog.bravejournal.com/