You may have seen some postings elsewhere about the Towards Carfree
Cities Conference, which is coming to the UK for the first time this June (see
below). For those of you who haven't come across this conference before, it
tends to attract a mixture of academics, students, professionals and activists
from around the world.
One of the workshop sessions which I will be running is aimed at academic
researchers and research students. It will explore the state of current
research and knowledge gaps in issues around carfree development and
carfree living. We want to encourage networking and discuss opportunities for
international collaborations.
So, if your research interest, or those of any of your students, touches on
these areas, we would very much like you meet you in York this June...
Best Regards
Steve Melia
Senior Lecturer, Transport & Planning
University of the West of England
0117 328 3267
Towards Carfree Cities IX: How Do We Get There?
York, United Kingdom: 28 June to 1 July 2010
Registration now open: http://www.worldcarfree.net/conference
Please contact us for details of day rates.
The goal of the Towards Carfree Cities conference series is to promote
alternatives to car-oriented urban and transport planning, ultimately leading to
the transformation of towns and cities into human-scaled environments rich in
public space and community life. The focus is on strategy, collaboration and
exchange, assisting the practical work of conference participants, from
organising carfree days to planning the carfree cities of the future.
Next year's conference, co-organised by World Carfree Network and local
members of Carfree UK, with the support of the Stockholm Environment
Institute in York, has the theme "How Do We Get There?". It will focus on
bringing carfree communities to life, considering a range of strategies from
temporary events to permanent road space reallocation to European models of
new carfree development. We plan to carry out a real street conversion during
the conference!
We will also learn from and seek inspiration from the past, by looking at how
the medieval pedestrian city was organised spatially, and how these principles
could be applied to future settlements. The key challenges of fostering
political and public acceptability for car reduction measures will be examined,
including an exploration of the conditions under which people willingly give up
the car in exchange for the benefits of living in traffic-free environments.
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