CONTENTS
1. Profiles of active groups
   * Sustainable Transport Environment Penang (STEP)
   * Forum on Automobile Issues in Japan (FAJ)
   * Forum for Equitable and Environment-friendly Transport (FEET)
   * Dr Debasish Bhattacharyya, Calcutta
2. Stay Order Against Mumbai-Pune Expressway
3. Manila bike against pollution
4. Cars and meat cause most damage
5. Resources
6. Web sites
7. Events
8. Lighter Side

1. PROFILES OF ACTIVE GROUPS

Here are some brief profiles and updates on groups that are active on people-centred and sustainable transport issues. There will be more in future news flashes. Please send us your latest details and news if you would like your group to be profiled.

• Sustainable Transport Environment Penang (STEP) was founded in 1997 and grew out of the Sustainable Penang Initiative led by the Socio-economic and Environment Research Institute (SERI). STEP is a network of local NGOs promoting a more participatory transport planning process, is pushing for the development of a cycling master plan, and has developed a list of 'indicators' to use for getting media attention and building public awareness. The group is pushing for public transport to be regulated locally from Penang instead of by a Kuala Lumpur-based board, as at present. Along with other groups, it opposes plans to build a second road link between the island of Penang and the mainland, arguing that the full potential of the existing ferry services should be exploited first. STEP also includes an active group of advocates for disabled people's access. This group has produced a compelling photo essay of the difficulties faced by wheelchair users and blind people on a short stretch of one of the city's main streets (see Resources below). STEP is also collaborating with a new UN-funded project to make Penang's built environment accessible to people with disabilities. [Contact: Mr Ganesh Rasagam, Sustainable Transport Environment Penang (STEP), c/o SERI, 10a Persiaran Bukit Jambul, 11900 Penang, Malaysia. Tel: 604-645-1710, Fax: 604-645-1807, Email: rasagam@tm.net.my].

• Forum on Automobile Issues in Japan (FAJ) is a sustainable transport advocacy group in Japan (recently renamed from Demotorization Forum Japan). FAJ campaigns for human-oriented and sustainable transport. It also campaigns for cutting automobile traffic, safer walking/cycling and better quality of public transportation services. FAJ is planning a Car Free Day festival for Earth Day 2000. This will be Japan's first Car Free Day event. FAJ welcomes any suggestsions and experiences from elsewhere on how to make their car-free festival a success. [Contact: Masashi Tada, ED2000 Japan, Forum on Automobile Issues in Japan (FAJ), Bessho3-16-4, Minami-ku, Yokohama-shi, Japan 232-0064. Tel. +81-45-712-9095, Email: QWT07203@nifty.ne.jp, Web: http://member.nifty.ne.jp/railway_ecology/].

• Forum for Equitable and Environment-friendly Transport (FEET) is a newly formed group in the Klang Valley (Kuala Lumpur's metropolitan area), Malaysia. Its aim is to promote more people-friendly and environment-friendly transport, especially by promoting the interests of pedestrians, public-transport users and bicyclists. FEET includes representatives of residents' associations, people with disabilities, transport experts, members of the press and concerned individuals. FEET has first raised its voice over the failure of relevant authorities to build enough pedestrian crossings across a newly-opened expressway, the Damansara-Puchong Highway. This came after a serious injury sparked a controversy. In a number of places along the road, school students and other residents have had no choice but to scamper across 6 lanes of high-speed traffic to cross the road. FEET is also now cooperating with the Malaysian Association for the Blind (MAB) and the Kuala Lumpur City Hall to promote pedestrian improvements for Brickfields, an inner-city neighbourhood frequented by many people with visual impairments, since it is home to the MAB centre and numerous traditional blind massage centres. [Contact: Naziaty Yaacob, Tel. +60 3 759 5396; naziaty@hotmail.com or Zaitun Kasim, Tel/Fax. +60 3 274 2590, tkasim@pc.jaring.my].

• Dr Debasish Bhattacharyya is a public transport campaigner in Calcutta, India. He and his colleagues are involved in a lobbying effort to save the Calcutta Tramways from a slow death from official neglect, mismanagement and replacement by diesel buses. It is feared that the loss of the trams will only hasten motorisation and the deterioration of public transport service and worsen air-pollution which already exceeds WHO standards by many times. Protests have stopped the tram system from being totally dismantled, but maintenance and management of the system remains poor. Activists and academics estimate that reviving the CTC trams would cost roughly $25 - $35 million, or $29 per annual passenger, but the agency hasn't even requested the money. By contrast, Japan's OECF has agreed to fund a second line on the Calcutta metro, which has only about 200,000 daily passengers, and costs $1860 per annual passenger, and highway flyovers at several downtown intersections, costing the municipality $128 per motorist. In a poor city like Calcutta this is a serious mis-allocation of scarce public funds. The Japanese-funded flyovers are now the subject of a court case over allegations of corruption. [Contact: Dr Debasish Bhattacharyya , 4 Raja S.C. Mullick Road, Jadavpur, Calcutta 700 032, India. Tel: 91-33-473-3491, 91-33-455-0858 (Res), Fax: 91-33-473-0284 or 91-33-473-5197, Email: iichbio@giascl01.vsnl.net.in].

2. STAY ORDER AGAINST MUMBAI-PUNE EXPRESSWAY
A High Court in Bombay has recently admitted a Writ Petition filed by several NGOs and affected villagers, opposing the land acquisition for the Mega City Project which is part of the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. The High court has stayed further acquisition of land pending hearing and final disposal of the petition. The court has also restrained the respondents, Maharashtra Government and the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), from evicting, affecting blasting, or interfering in any manner with the possession and occupation of the persons residing in the different tribal areas. The admission of the Writ Petition vindicates those who have been opposing the project and demanding more transparency and openness from the Government. [Contact: Sujit Patwardhan, PARISAR, Yamuna, ICS Colony, Ganeshkhind Road, Pune 411 007, India. Tel: 327955 Email: sujit@vsnl.com].

3. MANILA CYCLE AGAINST POLLUTION
As part of the Earth Day '99 celebrations, Cycling Advocates, CYCAD, the Manila-based bicycle advocacy group, together with various environmental groups organised a 50 kilometre bike ride around the metropolitan area and a people's march for clean air. On April 25 more than a thousand cyclists, some of them colourfully costumed as a horse, firefly or a grasshopper, joined the leisurely ride which began around 7:30 am and ended around 1pm. The bike ride show-cased the feasibility of urban cycling while at the same time decrying the worsening conditions for cycling, primarily the poor air quality. The bike ride was dubbed as the "Tour of the Fireflies" after the fireflies which have fled the city because of the bad air. It took participants through seven cities in the metro area and finished with a rally, a picnic lunch, an environmental fair, exhibits and a concert. [Contact: Ramon Fernan III, 1563 Pasaje Rosario, Paco 1007, Manila, Philippines. Email: cycad@quickweb.com.ph].

4. CARS AND MEAT CAUSE MOST DAMAGE
A new book co-authored by Dr. Warren Leon, deputy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, looks at which consumer alternatives cause the least and most environmental damage. "The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices" (published by Three Rivers Press) shows that only a few Consumer activities - use of cars and trucks, consumption of meat, and choice of homes and appliances - are responsible for the vast majority of consumer related environmental harm. After grouping 134 consumer spending choices into 50 categories like furnishings, clothing, computers, the authors discovered that most environmental degradation is linked to just seven categories: cars; meat; produce and grains; household appliances and lighting; home heating and cooling; home construction; and household water and sewage. Cars and light trucks cause the most environmental damage overall - nearly half of the toxic air pollution and more than one-quarter of the greenhouse gases traceable to household consumption. [Source: Environmental News Service, http://www.ens.lycos.com/ens].

5. RESOURCES

• "An International Sourcebook of Automobile Dependence in Cities 1960-1990" by Jeff Kenworthy and Felix Laube with Peter Newman, Paul Barter, Tamim Raad, Chamlong Poboon and Benedicto Guia (Jr). [Contact: University Press of Colorado, Fax +1 303 530 5306 or Darrin Pratt, Email: prattd@stripe.colorado.edu].

• "Sustainability and Cities: Overcoming Automobile Dependence" by Peter Newman and Jeff Kenworthy [Contact: Institute for Science and Technology Policy (ISTP), Murdoch University, South Street, Murdoch, Western Australia, Australia. Tel: +61 8 9360 2913, Fax: +61 8 9360 6421, Email: istp@central.murdoch.edu.au, Web: http://wwwistp.murdoch.edu.au/].

• "Proceedings of Velo Australis 1996 International Bicycle Conference" Fremantle, Western Australia. [Contact: Ian Ker, Dept. of Transport, 441 Murray Street, Perth, PO Box 7272, Cloisters Square, W. Australia 6850 Tel: 61 8 9320 9491 Fax: 61 8 9320 9497, Email: iker@transport.wa.gov.au].

• "Directory of NGOs in the Field of Human Settlements" and "Directory of NGOs in the OECD Countries" by UNCHS (Habitat), OECD, NGLS and GRET. [Contact: UNCHS (Habitat), PO Box 30030, Nairobi, Kenya. Tel: 254 2 621234 Fax: 254 2 624266/7, Web: http://habitat.unchs.org/home.htm].

• "A Walk from St Nicholas Home to One-Stop Shopping Complex" by TAN Kuan Aw of the Penang Society for Disabled Persons. Paper featuring a photo-essay on accessibility problems for people with disabilities along a major street in Penang. It was presented at the STEP Forum, August 23, 1998, Penang, Malaysia. [Contact: TAN Kuan Aw, E-mail: tanka@pc.jaring.my or STEP - see profile above].

• "Financing European Transport Infrastructure" by Sheila Farrell of Imperial College London. [Contact: Fiona Woodruffe-Peacock, Macmillan Press Houndsmill, Basingstoke RG21 6XS UK. Fax: +44 1256 330688, E-mail: f.woodruffe-peacock@macmillan.co.uk].

• Victoria Transport Policy Institute reports available for free downloading at their revised and expanded website. Most were previously available only as printed documents, with prices ranging from $8 to $16 per copy. Free reports include: Evaluating Transportation Equity; Generated Traffic; Implications for Transport Planning; Land Use Impact Costs of Transportation; Parking Requirement Impacts on Housing Affordability; Reply to Critics of Transportation Costing; Win-Win Transportation Strategies; Whose Roads? Defining Bicyclists' and Pedestrians' Right to Use Public Roads [Contact: Todd Litman, Director, Victoria Transport Policy Institute, Rudlin Street, Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, Canada, Phone & Fax: 250-360-1560, E-mail: litman@islandnet.com, Website: www.islandnet.com/~litman].

6. WEB SITES