ride warm critical mass novemburrrr

it's that time of the month again! finally
celebrate the last great big ride of the year

cycle, skate, walk, run, swim but don't drive to
critical mass novembrrr
friday, nov 30, 2007
gather starting at 5pm
departing at 6pm, to heat up the night
from downtown vancouver at The art gallery lions side

this city is what we share with each other
let's keep it public and imaginative
and work to make it safer to just be in the streets
by just riding, warm together, redeeming our common ground

this month a theme of the ride will be our forests!
(see following post and comments)
dress up as a tree! put boughs from (already fallen) trees on your bicycle... wear green, yellow, red or brown.

pre-rides to downtown together

• meet at UBC SUB bike kitchen 604-82-SPEED at 4pm

and

• grandview park commercial drive 4:30pm

and

• where you and your friends gather!

Critical Mass grows when YOU invite people to it and
when we talk to pedestrians and drivers that we encounter
on the ride: we talk to each other about what our passion
and what our truths are. We are strong in one another.

So speak up and ride free!

Upcoming ride for Old-Growth!!

The BC Liberal government has announced a new plan for BC's coastal forests, the "Coastal Forest Action Plan". This “Log it All” and “Export the Logs” plan places no new restrictions on the logging of Old-Growth forests, provides misleading old-growth forest statistics, and will lead to an overall increase in raw log exports.

The old-growth forests of Vancouver Island are among the most spectacular landscapes anywhere on Earth. They're home unique wildlife and are a fundamental part of Vancouver Island's tourism economy. They are also of great cultural importance to the First Nations of the Island, most of whom never gave up ownership over their forests through any treaties.

Currently 75% of the original productive old-growth forests have already been logged (including over 90% of the valley bottoms with the largest trees). A new Coastal Old-Growth Strategy is needed and needs to include:

• Enact concrete timelines and targets to reduce and quickly end old-growth logging on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland where old-growth forests are now scarce.
• Ensure that our second-growth forests are logged sustainably instead.
• Ban raw log exports from private and public lands.

Come out to the next critical mass and show the government you care about saving the remaining Old-Growth forests!!

For more information on Old-Growth forests see: wildernesscommitteevictoria.org

bc transport budget planning

this is the final report in PDF of the BC budget consultation, that we asked you to engage in against the gateway last month.

Some good things got in there: Starting around printed page 14 (26 of 114 on the pdf) is the transport stuff, and the cycling is on page 16 (28 pdf). Not much though. Rail for the Valley was quoted!

Stuff about Gateway on page 47 (59 pdf) and Tannis was quoted! Despite 3 of 4 insightful comments - (including by someone supporting Gateway), their conclusion on page 48 (pdf 60) to continue to make "strategic investments" in Gateway is assinine and appears to not be based in reason, coming out of nowhere according to this report. A bit of a sham really, but we knew that when we started. And, it is good to see a bit of dissent recorded officially -- and, the lack of official logic is laid bare.

So, I suppose one good next step in the case of this is to make sure MLAs and the media read the good parts (that don't make it to the summary) on the pages I've mentioned. Write a letter to your MLA or media today! (quote them the report)

While the provincial government's strategy has been to defy the overwhelming opposition (including municipal governments region wide) with nonsense by pretending it is already a done deal, all along (even before they started proposing it!)... Well, don't take the BS too seriously because it's a trick. We can and will stop this, but we still have to do a lot of work to get there.

Another common myth is that "the majority drives cars" and so are in favour of this expansion. So far, with millions and millions of dollars and control of government and corporate media --- all of that and the supposed truth has yet to be demonstrated. Many who drive are in fact quite well informed on this issue and have opposed this project a long time. Also, many people don't drive, or don't drive much - a number far greater than politicians think as has been proven in scientific studies. (See Bike Cult, David B. Perry) Sure, in some areas of Surrey, there is some signifigant support for the project. But that support is the exception. The great overwhelming majority that wants to kill the environment simply doesn't exist, fake PR 'polling' data notwithstanding. What it comes down to is people like you and I. We all make mistakes sometimes and can be confused by people who are trying to trick us, but in the end if we work together and spread accurate information then the truth will prevail! Yes, it is possible!

Take care and take that lane!
~rusl

But bicycles DO fly!

Mean Automakers Dash Nation's Hope For Flying Cars

Its funny the car advert that is bundled with the video, they really are trying to make people feel warm and fuzzy about the latest version of green cars, aka 'hybrid.' They even mention a bicycle in the SUV advert, as if somehow having the hybrid branding makes the private auto behemoth less detestable...

McDonald's TM promoting human powered air transport!?

Odd development: McDonald's is advertising on it's paper bags this french guy who has done something similar to the White Dwarf. All it has is a picture of "Stephane," of "Nice, France" pedalling a propeller and the description 'human powered flying machine' and the 'globalcasting' website. The website is a terrible to navigate promotional flash site (circa 5 years ago) on which I could find no specific reference to this Stephane, or Nice guy. Perhaps it will be put up there later as it seemed to me like the website was out of date to August and so maybe the September/ October content would include his story (the content is only a few month out of date, the GUI is about 5 years old!) Anyone hear anymore about this? Do tell.