Car Free Day in Halifax - Please support!!

From: "susanna fuller" <susanna_fuller@hotmail.com>
To: sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2001 20:48:11
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Return-Path: <sust-mar-mml-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>

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I apologise for cross postings!

Please find below a request from the Transportation Issues Committee of the 
Ecology Action Centre to participate and support Car Free Day. Stay tuned 
for planned events closer to the Day!!


Dear Sust-Mar List Subscriber,

We all know we pay dearly for the privilege and convenience of using our 
automobiles.  Each year an average of 93 Nova Scotians are killed in traffic 
accidents and 4 430 are seriously injured. Increasingly, we all experience 
the adverse effects of automobile use.  We’ve heard about its impact on 
human health, air and water quality, habitat, climate change, global energy 
supplies, and the overall health of our community.  In short, our car 
culture is affecting the well-being of future generations of Nova Scotians.

It is time to act!  Thursday, April 19th, 2001 is Earth Car Free Day, 
[www.carfreeday.com]  an international event to promote global reflection on 
automobile use and to encourage alternate modes of travel. The Ecology 
Action Centre’s Transportation Issues Committee (TIC) is planning a number 
of activities to celebrate Earth Car Free Day and to promote it within the 
Halifax Regional Municipality.  To raise awareness TIC will ask HRM for a 
fare free day for Halifax Transit as a way of showing their public 
endorsement of Car Free Day.  Transit staff have been approached and are 
receptive to the idea.

Encouraging people to leave their car at home and use alternate travel is 
challenging. It will require our collective effort. Because of links between 
dependence on the automobile and air pollution, climate change, human health 
and the health of the environment we ask you to help us by:

·	sending a letter of support for Car Free Day to TIC before March 5th (see 
next page);
·	joining the Car Free Day Organizing Committee;
·	spreading the word and getting your colleagues, friends and family 
committed to busing, 	peddling, paddling, perambulating or car-pooling on 
April 19th;
·	or simply thinking creatively and letting us know about it.

The success of Car Free Day will take the work of us all to help create the 
public spirit.  Your letter, along with those from dozens of other 
non-profit and community health organizations, will help us make a strong 
and convincing statement about the growing public recognition that there are 
viable alternatives to single occupancy vehicle use and that these should be 
supported.

If you have any questions or comments please contact Peggy Cameron at 
cameron@clean.ns.ca, Rebecca O’Brien at trax@istar.ca  (492-0924) or Daniel 
Rainham at drainham@is2.dal.ca. Letters should be sent to the Ecology Action 
Centre at 1568 Argyle St., Halifax Nova Scotia B3J 2B3. We will present all 
letters to the Mayor and city council during the first week of March. 
Letters may also be sent directly to the Mayor, but we would like a copy as 
well.

Sincerely,
Susanna Fuller
Transportation Issues Committee
Ecology Action Centre

Statistics to include in your letter:
In your letter of endorsement for Car Free Day please ask HRM to develop an 
integrated  environmentally sustainable transportation policy for its 
citizens.  You may want to consider:

·	Transportation is a major link to climate change, smog, acid rain, 
hazardous air pollutants and health.  It accounts for 27% of NS’s greenhouse 
gas emissions.  In Canada from 1990-96 there were more and larger private 
vehicles; kms logged increased by 10% with a 34% increase in light trucks, 
SUVs and vans and a 4% decrease in the number of automobiles. (1999: 
Neitzert, F. et.al. Canada’s GHG Inventory 1997 (Ottawa: E.C.) pp 4,5,19)

·	Air pollution increases the chance of asthma attacks and respiratory 
infections especially for the very young, the elderly and those with 
existing respiratory disease.  (1990:  J. Hilborn & M. Still, Canadian 
perspectives on air pollution [SOE report 90-1] (Ottawa: EC) pp 19-20)

·	Automobile emissions are estimated to cost the Nova Scotia healthcare 
system well over $200 million/year. (June 16, 2000:  Hughes, Larry, PhD 
et.al. Proposed Highway 101 Twinning Environmentally Sustainable 
Alternatives (Halifax:  Whale Lake Research Institute)

·	Only 35% of Nova Scotia youth are active enough to achieve optimal health 
benefits (2001:  Campagna, Phil, PhD. et al. Measuring Physical Activity 
Levels of NS Children & Youth Research Pilot Report January, 2001 (Halifax:  
Dalhousie U., NS Sport & Rec.).  The average car makes 2,000 trips of 3 km 
or less/year.  Many of these trips could be done using other modes such as  
foot, bicycle or public transit. (EC Transportation Challenge)

·	The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes climate 
change is likely to have wide-ranging, mostly adverse impacts on human 
health with significant loss of life (1995:  IPCC 2nd Assessment Climate 
Change 1995. p.5)

·	The Physicians’ Statement on Climate Change states:  As physicians, we 
fear that global climate change carries with it significant health, 
environmental, economic and social risks and that preventive steps are 
justified....Therefore we urge prompt and effective action to reduce 
emissions of greenhouse gases.  This statement has been endorsed by 39 
associations including the Candaian Institute of Academic Medicine, Canadian 
Society for Clinical Investigation, College of Family Physicians of Cannada, 
College of Family Physicians of Candada,  Royal College of Physicians and 
Surgeons of Canada, Socitey of Obstreticians and Gynecologists of Canada, 
Lung Association of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick Lung Association, and the 
Medical Society of PEI.

·	The CAA estimates a car cost about $8,000/year to own and operate. Of 
every $100 of retail spending in 1999, Canadians spent $35.70 on motor 
vehicles, parts and services, $19.50 on food and non-alcoholic beverages, 
and $9.70 on clothing, accessories and footwear. (2000:  Statistics Canada. 
Quarterly Retail Commodity Survey. The Daily, 5 April )

·	The NS Department of Transportation estimates a twinned highway costs 
about $1 million/kilometer to construct and a sub-division road 
$250-500,000.


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