randya

Just Say "No!" to the Chicago Car Show
Bike Mechanics, Street Performers Undermine Auto Industry $15 Billion
Brainwashing Campaign with Car Show Shutdown Festival
https://www.chicagocriticalmass.org/m...utoShow05.html

What? Chicago Car Show SHUTDOWN Festival 2005

When? Saturday, February 12, 12 noon to 4pm, 2005

Where? Hundreds of cyclists will pedal from Daley Plaza at 12noon, arriving 1pm at the north parking lot entrance to McCormick Place, which will serve as the main Festival grounds.

What? A peaceful Shutdown Festival utilizing: big puppets, mobile TVs, religious revival and the unveiling of the "Vehicles of Tomorrow!"

Hundreds of performance artists and bike builders will pedal from Daley Plaza on Saturday, February 12, at 12 noon to the Auto Show Entrance at McCormick Place to carry out a peaceful Car Show Shutdown Festival.

The Car Show Shutdown festivities will include:
- Unveiling and test driving of sporty, safe and super-efficient vehicles of tomorrow.
- A live performance by the Chicago Car Alarm Symphony.
- Levitation and exorcism of McCormick Place by a pastor from Church of Christ Without Cars.
- Oversized Puppet Parade depicting auto industry titans.

Each year, more than 200 Chicagoans die in automobile crashes and nearly 15,000 are maimed and injured, according to Chicago Police Department statistics. To convince us to buy their dangerous and expensive products, car companies spend over $15 billion annually on advertising, the most of any industry in the United States. Part of this huge advertising budget includes the Chicago 2005 Auto Show.

Car dependency negatively impacts us all in numerous ways. Chicago's children suffer asthma hospitalization rates twice the national average, according to the American Lung Association, as automobile emissions continue to be the major contributor to our city's poor air quality. Chicago families spend two to three times as much on transportation as their European counterparts due to the high costs of car ownership. Forty percent of Chicago's land area is wasted on asphalt to accommodate cars. Drivers waste millions of hours stuck in traffic gridlock each year.

"It's time to hold the auto industry accountable for their role in thousands of needless deaths and injuries in Chicago," said Becki Retzlaff, a festival organizer. "It's time to shut down the Chicago Auto Show!"

In conjunction with the Car Show Shutdown festivities, anti-auto artists will be celebrating the opening of the 8th Annual Critical Mass Art Show the night before the shutdown, Friday, Feb. 11, 6pm, at High School Gallery, 1542 N.Milwaukee 3rd floor. For more information on the Car Show Shutdown Festival and the Critical Mass Art Show see www.ChicagoCriticalMass.org or call Dan Korn at 312-505-9307.

ofofhy

Yeah, the Philly auto show is here this week. They have their own critical mass. A critical mass of cars and peds such that the only way around the convention center is by bike. I watched three light changes and only two cars passed through while I was in the corner convenience store.

dobber

Tilting at windmills again? Your misguided attempts to eliminate the automobile are about as effective as GW's search for WMD.

operator

How about NO.

skookum

Can you imagine if pro-car zealots sought to shut down a big bicycle show?

Guest

*sigh*

It's not like it's all SUVs and Hummers. They are featuring smaller cars and electric cars and hybrid cars too.

You could easily protest by not attending. That's what I'm doing.

Koffee

FXjohn

Oh brother....there are going to be hybrids and Smart Cars there....what a luddite.

Mayonnaise

Car culture alternative peddled
Protesters celebrate `the joy of the bicycle' outside auto show

By Lolly Bowean
Tribune staff reporter
Published February 13, 2005


As a stream of Chicago Auto Show visitors strolled past, David O'Donnell stood outside McCormick Place on Saturday touting the environmentally friendly attributes of his transportation mode of choice: his bicycle.

"This vehicle is powered by nothing but pancakes," he said. "It's powered by nothing but chocolate chip cookies and water."

Carrying flags, signs, bullhorns and even pets, dozens of Chicago bicycle enthusiasts pedaled to McCormick Place on Saturday to protest the annual showcase of new and prototype vehicles.

The friendly and sometimes humorous protest focused on alternative transportation and respect for bicyclists on the road.

"We are taking our bikes to the car show to introduce people to the joy of the bicycle," said Michael Burton, one of the protest's organizers. "If we can convert just one person from a car to a bike-centered lifestyle, we are successful."

The protests, begun six years ago, are aimed not only at raising environmental concerns, but also at raising safety issues, which Burton said is downplayed by the industry.

The cyclists started their protest with a rally at Daley Center. They then rode together to the auto show, many with their right pant legs cuffed, taped or stuffed into their socks to keep them from getting caught in the chains.

Some taped signs to their bicycles, including one that read, "Sexy legs are better than sexy cars." Others shouted from bullhorns or imitated car horns.

They passed out fliers, played recordings of noisy car alarms and horns, and offered passersby the chance to ride their bicycles.

Daniel Korn was dropping off family members at the auto show five years ago when he saw the cyclists' protest and decided they were on to something. Since then, he's been protesting the auto show himself.

"Automobile dependency is no accident," he said. "A lot of people have come to depend on automobiles and they don't like it. They don't like sitting in traffic or having to chauffeur their kids around. There is another way."

vincenzosi

Anti-car zealots scare me. It's one thing to want more responsible drivers. It's completely another to protest the mere existence of cars.

I guess things are pretty good in the world when nobody can find anything more worthy of a protest than a car show.

chicharron

well, the point was made that the Car Show will contain displays of hybrids, Smart Cars, and energy efficiant vehilces. Good point. However if the anti car ludites can promote discussion and some theatre, I guess that thier efforst are worth it, even for entertainment value.

Dahon.Steve

OH MAN! There was a horrible accident yesterday in New York city where a a witness said a woman's face was torn off her head as an out of control motor car ran over several people. It's incredible how motorist drive in Chicago and New York City. Because the traffic is so horrendous, you have to hit the gas peddal hard just to get any where. But when these same cars lose control, the results can be horrific!

bkrownd

It's not the car, but how it's used. I do most of my driving in large SUVs because our work site is on a 4WD dirt road with potentially hazardous weather conditions, and we need the hauling capacity. So do not be making nasty stink-eye at my big Jeep.

Rowan

Oddly, I find the most aggressive drivers of the lot are tradespeople driving SUVs and mini-vans who seem to be on a timed mission to get from one place to another without a concern for whomever they terrorise... usually they reserve *their* stinky eye for cyclists.

Guest

I'm personally not making an assertion about SUVs or not. I'm just stating the obvious about THAT show. There are other cars being feautured there besides SUVs. That deserves mentioning.

Koffee

Gardener

I remember growing up in the country, all surrounded by gravel roads and cornfields. Most pick-up trucks that were actually used to carry stuff was relatively few, and those that were were the rusty beaters. Furthermore, as a practical observation, pick-up trucks were infamous for getting stuck in the snow. A front wheel drive compact car is of more use. Our neighbors regularly used their station wagon to pull stuck pick up trucks out.

here in the city are an abundance of suvs, yet very little reason for 4wd. During this past snow, I observed several SUV drivers spinning their rear wheels- apparently not knowing to turn on the four wheel drive.

To continue my diatribe, if you want to carry stuff, a van is the way to go- it will protect your valuables from rain/snow and allow you to carry more passengers w/o giving them pneumonia.

That's great people showed up on their bikes to make a presence. That is a good way to let people going to the auto show know that there is another way. I wouldn't just expect SUV-wanters to care too much, though. Logically, SUVs make little sense- it is largely an ego thing, be it an inferiority complex or superiority complex. I suppose a lot of insecure people have also been duped by advertising and salescrooks.

As to the other cars being featured at the car show, like the hybrids and electric ones, that's great! or rather, less evil. Just like bikes are an even less evil. On a hard line, they are all on the unsustainable end of things. SUVs extremely so. Bicycles much less so.

Having been to the auto show several times as a youth, I observed that most people who went were not interested in the 'woosy' cars. They were interested in the penis-replacement that they represent- hence the SUVs and 'fast cars'. Isn't it irresponsible of car manufacturers to be producing cars that go 120 mph when the max speed limit is 75mph in michigan and usually about 55 mph?

To conclude: I wished folks would be honest with themselves about cars rather than making excuses and living in the states of denial that we do.

Gardener

"Anti-car zealots scare me. It's one thing to want more responsible drivers. It's completely another to protest the mere existence of cars.

I guess things are pretty good in the world when nobody can find anything more worthy of a protest than a car show."

Killing Iraqis for their oil scare me as much as reading about how the rain forests are being mowed down so McDonalds can sell greaseburgers. Can someone refresh us on what happened to all those American Bison?

Point? Cars burn oil that kills people and our planet. Kudos to those that confront this basic truth instead of hiding behind yellow ribbon magnets made in china and bought off ebay.

nick burns

Automobiles are also the single most inefficient method energy-wise for transporting a human body from point a to point b. Convenience is the main cause that sustains its use and popularity.

FXjohn

Really? worse than a jet airliner, or any airplane?

vincenzosi

You're kidding right? You aren't seriously asking that question. I must be seing things. I give you more credit than having a basal comprehension of speed and that a car that can go that fast does perform better even on the low end of the speedometer. Of course cars with more powerful engines can go faster, doesn't mean people drive them faster!

It's amazing how many anti-car-nazis there are on here. Get over it already. Some people like to drive cars.

I wish all you damn "conspicuous consumption" folks would open up on the guy using a $3000 Litespeed to ride to Starbucks. Oh wait, that $3000 Litespeed is a beautiful bike, not overconsumption.

Sorry. A lot of you are just way too damned self-important for your own good.

nick burns

Based on U.S. Department of Energy data, the American Public Transit Association (APTA) estimates fuel efficiency of transit compared to the average commuter auto to be:

A bus with as few as seven passengers is more fuel-efficient than the average single-occupant auto used for commuting.

The fuel efficiency of a fully-occupied bus is 6 times greater than that of the average single-occupant auto.

The fuel efficiency of a full-occupied train car is 15 times greater than that of the average commuter's single-occupant auto.


Buses use 8.7% less energy per passenger mile than a typical automobile.

Commuter trains use 23.7% less energy per passenger mile than a typical automobile.

Airlines consume about four times as much energy per passenger mile as passenger trains.

FXjohn

Does that consider the cost of paying a bus driver, wages, health benefits and retirement?
Almot forgot aboyut the wages of the maintenance crew also, and the dedicated fuel storage, etc etc.
There's more to it than gallons divided by people per mile.

nick burns

I assume it is strictly mechanical efficiency, which was the basis of my original post. I am not making any social/economical cost implications.

Now that would be a mammoth study.

FXjohn

It would make sense though, when you say "cost".
A person that drives themselves is not paying anyone.
Also what is the freedom of going wherever you want, when you want, worth?

nick burns

It would be quite interesting. I suspect it would also be a minefield of mis-information. Perhaps a bit difficult to quantify as well. For example, if you are considering bus driver wages, are they not paid in part by the passenger's fare (I'm assuming, of course. I'm no economist)? Would you then have to also consider costs involved in operating & maintaining a personal automobile?

And yes, I agree, freedom of going wherever you want, when you want is quite nice. I'm glad my bicycle can provide me that 90% (estimate) of the time. I also use public transportation a few times a month.

My 9 year old car sits unused in the driveway most of the time. I actually dislike using it at all and suspect at some point in my near future I'll be completely car-free.

I'm not telling anyone to get rid of their cars. But it sure would be nice to see less of them on the road. An awful lot of people get injured & killed by them.

FXjohn

Then you enter in a range of costs. Take for example my paid off toyota that cost me 700 dollars.
I pay insurance 600 per year and bought a battery in 2 years.
others may buy a 30,000 dollar vehicle and have substancial costs...no set cost.