{"id":404,"date":"2011-09-20T23:17:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-20T21:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/winfriedwolf.de\/wordpress\/?p=404"},"modified":"2020-01-23T23:20:26","modified_gmt":"2020-01-23T22:20:26","slug":"todays-mobility-mania-and-the-revolutionary-grab-for-the-emergency-brake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/winfriedwolf.de\/?p=404","title":{"rendered":"Today\u2019s Mobility Mania and the Revolutionary Grab for the Emergency Brake"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\nBuchkollektion\nder Frankfurter Buchmesse 2011; Ausstellung 2012ff)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Foreword to: Rights of Way \u2013 Mobility Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow <\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nEveryone\nis talking about the boom in electric cars. Here\u2019s one quotation:\n\u00bbManufacturers of electric cars are in a gold rush mood. Market\nforecasts promise as many as one million sales of electric vehicles\nin the next five years.\u00ab But that appeared back in 1991, in the\nmagazine \u00bbFairkehr\u00ab, published by the Verkehrsclub Deutschland\n(VCD), Germany\u2019s alternative automobile association. Today, two\ndecades later, there are still only 2,300 electric cars in Germany.\nAnd now, all of a sudden, there\u2019s the\nstatement by the government in Berlin that they expect to have a\nmillion electric cars in Germany by 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nTwo\ndecades ago, one million electric cars would have made up 3.3 per\ncent of the total 30 million cars on the road. In 2020, those million\ne-cars will be part of an overall fleet of 43 million, so the\nproportion has fallen to 2.3 per cent. Even if all the dreams now\ncome true, we\u2019ll have spent three decades waiting for the first\npaltry million electric cars, while watching the \u2013 already a very\nsmall \u2013 promised proportion of electric within the total number\nbeing cut by a third.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nDespite\nthis, the Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA)<\/em>\nin September 2011 was hailed as the \u00bbgreen motor show\u00ab. Its main\nfocus was on the hype surrounding \u00bbelectromobility\u00ab, \u00bbnew usages\u00ab\nfor cars, such as \u00bbcar2go\u00ab and \u00bbcar sharing\u00ab, and the promises of\nreduced emissions from cars through \u00bbbiofuels\u00ab and \u00bblow-pollution\nmotors\u00ab. In the other transport sectors of rail, air and freight,\ngreen ideas are likewise popular topics. High-speed intercity-express\ntrain services are to be expanded. Air travel is to become more\nenvironmentally friendly with the introduction of aviation taxes.\nAccording to the German government, rail freight is growing\nsignificantly, and in the opinion of federal transport minister Peter\nRamsauer, even the use of \u00bbgigaliners\u00ab for road haulage will bring\necological benefits, as two such trucks can move as much cargo as\nthree normal ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nWhile\nthe IAA was on, I was especially interested to see a double-page\nadvert in the larger newspapers for that well-known VW subsidiary\nwith the slogan \u00bbVorsprung durch\nTechnik<\/em>\u00ab. The headline read: \u00bbAudi\nconnect\u00ab, and the ad was intended to provide insights into the\nfuture of \u00bbnetworked mobility\u00ab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nNetworked\nmobility \u2013 <\/em>now that really would be a\ngood thing. But when I say it, I have the temerity to assume the word\nmobility covers all<\/em>\nforms of human movement \u2013 including, in particular, the\nnon-motorised forms. And I translate the Latin words \u00bbmobilitas\u00ab\nand \u00bbmobilis\u00ab not as \u00bbhigh mileage\u00ab and the \u00bbability to be\neverywhere\u00ab, but as \u00bbbeing able to move around the epicentre of\none\u2019s own life\u00ab and \u00bbhaving one\u2019s most important mobility needs\nwithin optimum reach\u00ab. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nMartin\nWagner, the Jewish and Social-Democratic Berlin traffic planner, once\nsaid something similar over half a century ago: \u00bbThe transport needs\nof a city dweller in western civilisation consist of roughly 1,000\npurposeful movements per person per year. Of these, some 650 would be\nin walking distance if they\u2019d been planned properly by the city\nplanners; the remainder would be reachable using private and public\nmeans of transport.\u00ab1<\/sup><\/a><\/sup>\nThe \u00bbconstant of transport needs\u00ab identified by Wagner is still\nvalid today. The five basic transport needs \u2013 i.e. purposeful\nmovements to work, to places of education, to go shopping, for\nrecreational purposes, and for holidays \u2013 have remained more or\nless constant. The main thing that has changed are the distances\nseparating the epicentre of our lives from the destinations for each\nof those five mobility needs. Whereas in 1965 (when people already\ntalked in general terms of affluence and the consumer society) a\nGerman citizen travelled about 6,600 kilometres with motorised\ntransport to complete targeted movements of this kind, today the\nfigure is almost twice as high, at 13,000.2<\/sup><\/a><\/sup>\nThe consequences of such an escalation in forced mobility are\ndevastating for people, the environment and the climate. The\navailable data on mobility in the near future suggest that this\ndisastrous trend is set to increase \u2013 in three areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAutomobility:\n<\/strong>Between 1985 and 2010, the number of\ncars in the world tripled from 335 million to nearly a billion, while\nthe global population \u00bbonly\u00ab increased from 4.85 to 6.9 billion \u2013\nor by 42 per cent. The last few years have seen the start of a huge\nacceleration in the rates of car uptake in emerging countries. At\npresent, the investments are being made for another doubling in the\nnumber of private vehicles by 2025. Even in some of the so-called\nsaturated markets, the number of cars is growing \u2013 in some cases at\nabsurd rates. In Germany today, the population is declining by\n200,000 annually; at the same time the number of cars being\nregistered each year is rising by 200,000.3<\/sup><\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAir\ntransport:<\/strong> No other form of passenger\ntransport is growing as fast as air transport. Global air traffic\ndoubled in the period between 1995 and 2010.4<\/sup><\/a><\/sup>\nIt is set to double again by 2025. In Beijing, the largest airport in\nthe world is currently under construction, which will have a capacity\nof 200 million passengers per year. That\u2019s almost as many as the\ncombined total handled by today\u2019s three biggest airports (Atlanta,\nBeijing and Chicago O\u2019Hare). But here again we should ask: why fly\nso far, when there\u2019s travel mania closer to home? Between 1995 and\n2010, the number of German internal flights rose by 60 per cent,\nwhile long distance rail travel stagnated. Only recently, EADS-Airbus\npresented plans to build an extended A380 to carry up to 1,000\npassengers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nFreight\ntransport:<\/strong> The movement of goods has\nalso become largely disconnected from the growth rates of population\nand gross domestic product (GDP). Global GDP doubled between 1980 and\n2000, yet in the same period there was a threefold increase in global\ntrade (measured in US dollars). The physical transportation of goods\nhas more than quadrupled. Indeed, container shipping has been growing\nby ten per cent per year since 1990, which means it doubles every\nseven and a half years and has grown by a factor of four in the last\n15 years. Yet the actual exchange processes often have little to do\nwith increasing affluence. Germany exports the same quantities of\nanimal feed as it imports. The UK imports the same amount of pork as\nit exports. The smallest and most economical model of VW car, the\nFox, has a particularly long shipping route since it is only\nmanufactured in Brazil. The transport intensity \u2013 the kilometres of\ntransportation incurred for products of the same quality \u2013 is\ngrowing from year to year. In 1878, Otto von Bismarck, the minister\npresident of Prussia, complained that increasing quantities of wood\nimported from Hungary and Sweden were ruining the internal market for\nwood, with \u00bbforeign wood benefiting from rail companies\u2019 cheap\nrates compared to those for locally produced wood\u00ab. Today, Bavarian\nbeech wood is exported to China, where it is turned into children\u2019s\ntoys before being reimported to Europe \u2013 a process that is\nencouraged by the very high subsidies provided worldwide to all forms\nof transportation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThis\nescalation of irrational mobility produces ever absurder fruit. In\nJuly 2011, when California\u2019s most important highway, the Interstate\n405, was closed for 53 hours, the cut-price airline JetBlue offered\n\u00bbcarmageddon\u00ab flights for the 40-mile journey from Bob Hope airport\nto Long Beach. The tickets cost four dollars each and they sold out\nin 20 minutes. Previously, the highway had ten lanes, but it is now\nbeing broadened to 12 and in places 14 lanes. The traffic planners\nknow that, while they will raise the daily capacity from 281,000 cars\nto 350,000, the new lanes will also nevertheless soon become clogged\nand the permanent jam will return.5<\/sup><\/a><\/sup>\nThe Interstate 405 scenario is effectively a giant, tailor-made\nexperiment illustrating Hermann Knoflacher\u2019s thesis that in reality\ncars are not moving vehicles, but stationery vehicles, and traffic\njams are not exceptions in road transport, but the rule.6<\/sup><\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nDuring\nthe IAA 2011, the magazine \u00bbAuto Bild\u00ab published an article about\nthe BMW M5 under the headline: \u00bbSober Outfit, Brutal Performance\u00ab.\nThis car \u2013 dubbed the \u00bbstealth bomber\u00ab by the article \u2013 boasts\n560 horsepower and an official top speed of 250 kph. As \u00bbAuto Bild\u00ab\ninforms its readers, \u00bbfor an additional fee BMW can adjust that top\nspeed from 250 to 305 kph. In this case, however, you have to attend\nan advance driving class.\u00ab7<\/sup><\/a><\/sup>\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nBut\nwhere \u2013 in the words of Erich K\u00e4stner \u2013 is the positive in all\nthat? What about the electric cars? Isn\u2019t car sharing the next big\nthing? Aren\u2019t biofuels a solution? Wasn\u2019t there supposed to be a\nreduction in the exhaust emissions? Isn\u2019t it the aim of transport\npolicy to achieve zero road deaths?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nSadly,\nthere are no \u00bbpositives\u00ab to be found among these oft-cited, classic\nareas of reform to the existing mass mobility. In 2011, once again\nthe exhaust pollutants emitted by the car models of all the German\nmanufacturers are significantly higher than the 130 g of CO2<\/sub>\/km\nlimit, to which the EU aspires. As a weighted average, the cars built\nby the German carmakers in 2011 emit 150 g of CO2<\/sub>\/km.\nAmong the premium manufacturers, Mercedes, Porsche, BMW and Audi,\nwhich set the trends in the market, this figure is considerably\nhigher. Even the mass-production Volkswagens emit 142 g CO2<\/sub>\/km\n\u2013 and that\u2019s not including the VW-owned marques, Audi, Bentley,\nBugatti, Porsche and Lamborghini.8<\/sup><\/a><\/sup>\nMost importantly, however, in Europe too the number of cars on the\nroad is increasing much faster than the level of pollutants per car\nis decreasing. Across the 27 member states of the EU, between 1990\nand 2010, the number of cars rose by more than 50 per cent from 163\nto 255 million. At the same time the reduction in pollutants per car\nwas only around 20 per cent.9<\/sup><\/a><\/sup>\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nBiofuels\n\u2013 which should more accurately be called agrofuels \u2013 are on\nbalance more damaging to the environment than traditional fuels\nrefined from oil. This is the verdict of an EU document in the\npossession of the Financial Times Deutschland.10<\/sup><\/a><\/sup>\nIn the case of agrofuels, the idea of \u00bbpeak oil\u00ab is replaced by\n\u00bbpeak soil\u00ab; instead of finite oil reserves, we face a finite\nsupply of available agricultural land that can be used for producing\nthe agrofuels. As a result, the admixture of agrofuels to the fuel in\nour petrol pumps, which is already common practice, is contributing a\nlot to the rising prices of agricultural produce and increased hunger\naround the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe\nproportion of car sharing <\/em>in\nthetotal\ntraffic on the roads remains laughably small, even 30 years after\nthis form of car use was first conceived. In the whole of Germany in\n2011, there are about 5,000 cars in the car sharing pools. The number\nof users is roughly 190,000 (though many of these people use car\nsharing instead of owning second or third cars). The much-vaunted\n\u00bbcar2go\u00ab experiment, launched by Daimler in Ulm in 2010, has also\nproduced sobering results. In total, by mid 2011, 300 Smart cars had\nbeen deployed in the city for car2go; 20,000 people are supposedly\nregistered as users in the \u00bbmobility club\u00ab. The real cost of travel\nshows that this is in fact promoting and increasing the mobility of\nthe upper middle classes. One hour of car2go usage costs 5.70 euros \u2013\nor 9.5 cents per minute \u2013 which is more than three times the price\nof public transport.11<\/sup><\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAs\nfor electric cars<\/em>,\nwe\u2019ve already seen the first basic statistic. The 2,300 electric\ncars in Germany represent a share of 0.00007 per cent of the total\nstock of cars. Even in China, where \u00bbelectromobility\u00ab is\nsubsidised, with sums as high as 10,000 euros being paid to assist\nthe purchase of an electric car, in the year from mid 2010 to mid\n2011 no more than 800 such cars were bought. The company BYD (\u00bbBuild\nYour Dreams\u00ab), in which not only China but also Daimler have\ninvested to achieve automobility beyond oil, now resembles the fairy\ntale emperor in his new clothes. There are still practically no\nmarketable BYD electric cars. Since summer 2011, the company has been\nstruggling to keep the enterprise alive by producing cars with\nconventional engines. Electric car sales in Europe are in their tens\nof thousands, and are therefore barely measurable in percentage\nterms. As such, they are proving to be merely a placebo \u2013 albeit a\nhighly effective one in media terms, and a very expensive one.\nBetween 2009 and 2013, the German government alone is providing two\nbillion euros in funding to help carmakers develop electric cars.12<\/sup><\/a><\/sup>\nHere too, there are cases of auto mania: in October 2011, Nissan\nunveiled its \u00bbV2H \u2013 Vehicle to Home\u00ab, the first house for an\nelectric car with a charging point.13<\/sup><\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe\nnumber of deaths on the road<\/em>\nhas fallen significantly in highly motorised areas \u2013 where there\nare also highly developed emergency services. Nevertheless, with\n38,000 fatalities annually from traffic accidents, the current death\ntoll remains horrendous. Every decade, enough people die on the roads\nof the EU to populate a city.14<\/sup><\/a><\/sup>\nKlaus Gietinger has calculated that in 2005 the number of deaths in\nroad accidents around the world was 955,892. By 2028, the number of\ntraffic deaths will exceed two million. In Gietinger\u2019s own words,\n\u00bbIn 25 years time, the risk of being killed or injured in a road\ntraffic accident will be one of the biggest risks facing people all\naround the world.\u00ab\u201c15<\/sup><\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThere\nare no \u00bbinternal reforms\u00ab in the field of automobility. Instead,\nthe nature of greenwashing is becoming more and more sophisticated.\nConventional automobility remains the dominant form, and its\npopularisation and intensification are making all the well-documented\nproblems associated with it much worse. The car companies and the oil\nmultinationals already have fixed plans for a twofold increase in the\nnumber of conventional cars in the world by 2025. In view of the\navailable oil reserves and the associated emissions, such an increase\nshouldn\u2019t be possible, unless oil is squeezed from the tar sands\nand drilling is carried out ever more deeply beneath the sea and in\nthe arctic, which would cause unprecedented levels of destruction.\nThis means that, simply in terms of the global transport sector,\nthere is a threat of collapse related to resources and pollution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAnd\nit isn\u2019t \u00bbhuman kind\u00ab that\u2019s digging its own grave in this way.\nIt\u2019s not primarily \u00bbhuman needs\u00ab that are being served by\nautomobility. More than anything, it is the corporations and\nfinancial power structures \u2013 and the related global transport\npolicies \u2013 that are responsible for this special kind of mobility,\nand which keep on expanding it. Today, around a quarter of all the\nturnover and aggregated profits generated by the 500 largest\ncompanies in the world derive from enterprises in the oil\n(exploration and refining) and automotive sectors, as well as\naircraft manufacturers and airlines. Of the world\u2019s 12 largest\ncompanies in the 2010 financial year, eight were oil companies and\none was a carmaker.16<\/sup><\/a><\/sup>\nThe oil states are linking up with the automotive industry and\nairlines: Qatar has a 19 per cent stake in VW; Kuwait and Abu Dhabi\nhold 16 per cent of Daimler.17<\/sup><\/a><\/sup>\nEmirates is now climbing rapidly to become the biggest airline in the\nworld. The Dubai-owned carrier is the single biggest customer for the\nbiggest aeroplane in the world, the Airbus A380, having ordered 90 of\nthem recently. Along with two other Arab-owned airlines, this means\n45 per cent of all current A380 orders are going to \u00bbOPEC airlines\u00ab.\n Meanwhile, the aircraft\nmanufacturers, who are closely tied to the arms industry, form the\nglobal sector that is most heavily subsidised with taxpayers\u2019\nmoney.18<\/sup><\/a><\/sup>\nAt the same time, EADS is providing training for the police in Saudi\nArabia and devising a \u00bbsecurity system\u00ab for Abu Dhabi; and since\n2007, Dubai\u2019s state-financed investment fund, Dubai International\nCapital LLC (DIC), has held a 3.1 per cent stake in EADS-Airbus.19<\/sup><\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThis\ncorporate power bloc maintains a potent lobby in all areas of\npolitics; it dispenses the largest advertising budget by far, which\nin turn means that most printed and electric media are dependent on\nit. Thus public opinion is also influenced to a considerable extent\nby that lobby. In September 2011, it emerged that, for about ten\nyears, the airline company Air Berlin has been giving out \u00bbCounter\nCards Premium Plus\u00ab to a group of 100 VIPs, with which they and\ntheir families have been able to fly everywhere in the world for\nfree. An unknown number of German MPs received \u00bbtopbonus Gold\nCards\u00ab, the use of which secured them a 40 per cent bonus on all\ntheir air miles, as well as priority service at check-in and\nboarding.20<\/sup><\/a><\/sup>\nYet Air Berlin is just a small player in the great mobility circus\nthat is the oil-car-plane lobby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nI\u2019m\ncertainly not trying to deny that the specific kind of mobility\nprovided by cars and planes meets the needs of millions of people. In\na world in which people have gained the impression \u2013 quite\ncorrectly \u2013 that neither they, nor sometimes even parliaments can\ninfluence major decisions, which are made instead in corporate\nheadquarters and by \u00bbfinancial markets\u00ab, mobility that allows us to\ndrive at high-speed out into the countryside, or take frequent quick\nshopping trips to New York, or go sunbathing in Majorca etc., takes\non huge significance. To a great extent, however, these are surrogate\nneeds, which are still promoted very tangibly by politicians. Take\nautomobility in Europe, for example. Between 1990 and 2008, in the\nterritory of the 27 EU member states the motorway network expanded by\n55 per cent (from 41,886 km of road, to 65,100 km). In the same\nperiod, the number of cars in the region grew by \u00bbonly\u00ab 43.6 per\ncent (from 163 to 234 million). You could say the way was \u00bbpaved in\nadvance\u00ab. To complete the picture, during those years the rail\nnetwork was reduced by eight per cent; rail\u2019s share of overall\nmotorised transport sank steadily to today\u2019s figure of 6.3 per\ncent.21<\/sup><\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nWe\nhave known for a long time what the alternatives are to the\ndestructive forms of car and air mobility described here. It really\nis about \u00bbnetworked mobility\u00ab \u2013 in which structural policies,\nwhich aim to avoid traffic, shorten journeys and, when there is still\na need for transport, to shift it to more appropriate forms, play a\ndecisive part; and in which non-motorised forms of transport (walking\nand cycling) as well as public transport also perform a key role.22<\/sup><\/a><\/sup>\nPeople, and especially the youth, are not to blame if these\nalternatives are achieved only as a fragmentary mosaic of coverage \u2013\nor if they are kept hidden, though not actually secret, by the\nlarge-scale media. The automotive industry is appalled that,\naccording to figures from the German Federal Motor Transport\nAuthority, in the last decade the proportion of new car buyers below\nthe age of 30 has more than halved, falling from 17 to seven per\ncent. The PR strategists of the car2go and car2home concepts are\naware that in Germany already 80 per cent of 20- to 29-year-olds\nbelieve you don\u2019t need a car in urban areas at all, thanks to the\nexistence of public transport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nHowever,\ntransport policy is not (yet) determined by these young people. For\ninstance, new cities \u2013 including new car-based cities in China \u2013\nare being built by the town planner Albert Speer, who still holds on\nto outdated models of mobility, saying recently: \u00bbI don\u2019t believe\nin car-free city centres.\u00ab Speer Jr. has identified himself with\nseveral of the basic ideas on transport policy devised by Albert\nSpeer Sr. His father played a leading role in the Nazis\u2019\nmotorisation plans, and in setting their agenda for car-friendly\ncities as a prerequisite for the \u00bbmotorisation of the people\u00ab. In\nthe words of Albert Speer Jr.: \u00bbI think his ideas of relocating the\nrailway stations (…) and keeping the city centre free of railway\ntracks make sense.\u00ab23<\/sup><\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe\nItalian and German fascists wanted to realise their plans for the\nmotorisation of the people following the victory of the Axis powers\nin the Second World War \u2013 which was also a war over oil. The\nmotorisation of the people did indeed take place, although it\nfollowed the defeat of the regimes in Berlin, Rome and Tokyo. Until\nwell into the 1980s, the motorisation of the people was led by the\noil and automotive corporations of the USA. The \u00bbAmerican Way of\nLife\u00ab was renamed the Modern Way of\nLife <\/em>in the other OECD states. Since\nthe motorisation of the people \u00bbonly\u00ab took place in the highly\nindustrialised, capitalist states, it was generally possible to\nsuppress the finite oil supply and the limited resilience of the\nglobal climate as topics of public debate, until into the 1990s. Now,\nin 2011, 75 percent of the world\u2019s cars are still concentrated in\nthe USA, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the EU. These\nplaces are home to just about 16 per cent of the global population.\nAlthough the process of mass motorisation has already begun, in China\nand India there are still only approximately 15 cars per 1,000 people\nin 2011. In the USA the figure is 770 cars, in the EU 510 cars, and\nin Germany 560 cars per 1,000 people.24<\/sup><\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nIn\nthis context of such unequal car distribution, and in view of peak\noil and the impossibility of the car society to carry out \u00bbinternal\nreforms\u00ab, the current plans of the internationally active carmakers\nto motorise the global population will inevitably lead to more big\nwars for oil. One important question \u2013 which is highly significant\nin the current situation of financial crisis and competition between\nthe dollar and the euro \u2013 is which currency will be used in future\nfor calculating the price of the world\u2019s lifeblood? Will barrels of\noil continue to be traded in US dollars? Or will it soon be in euros\n(perhaps the euro of a core European area, following the\nreintroduction of the drachma, peseta, escudo and the Italian lira)?\nOr why not go straight to the Chinese yuan? \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe\nwar between Iraq and Iran (1980 to 1988), as well as those in Iraq\n(1990\/1 and 2003), Afghanistan (2001 to 2011) and Libya (2011) may in\nhindsight turn out to have been overtures to this major conflict over\nthe world\u2019s remaining oil, a fight which will prove decisive for\nthe survival of civilised human society on the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nIt\nis essential that we stop this calamitous progression of world\nhistory. In many respects, the Arab revolutions of 2011 have a model\ncharacter. Democracy in the oil-producing regions would cause massive\nincreases in the oil price and make us more keenly aware of the need\nto change our transport habits. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nWalter\nBenjamin wrote: \u00bbMarx says that revolutions are the locomotives of\nworld history. But the situation may be quite different. Perhaps\nrevolutions are not the train ride, but the human race grabbing for\nthe emergency brake.\u00ab25<\/sup><\/a><\/sup>\nBenjamin\u2019s imagery to describe revolutions\nin general<\/em> makes the need for the\ntransport revolution in particular\n<\/em>abundantly clear. A different world is\npossible \u2013 a different mobility is necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winfried Wolf is Editor-in-chief of Lunapark 21 \u2013 Magazine for Critique of the Global Economy. He is active on behalf of the rail experts group B\u00fcrgerbahn statt B\u00f6rsenbahn. His publications include \u00bbEisenbahn und Autowahn\u00ab (1985, 1986 and 1992; English edition: \u00bbCar Mania \u2013 A Critical History of Transport\u00ab, Pluto Press London 1996); and \u00bbVerkehr. Umwelt. Klima \u2013 Die Globalisierung des Tempowahns\u00ab (2007 and 2009).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1<\/a>\n\tMartin Wagner, \u00bbVerkehrter Verkehr<\/em>\u00ab, in: Baukunst und\n\tWerkform<\/em>, No. 1\/1957. For more details, see: Winfried Wolf,\n\t\u00bbVerkehr. Umwelt. Klima \u2013 Die Globalisierung des Tempowahns<\/em>\u00ab,\n\tVienna 2009, pp. 380 and 491.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2<\/a>\n\tSee Winfried Wolf, \u00bbEisenbahn und\n\tAutowahn<\/em>\u00ab, Hamburg 1992 (3rd ed.), p.\n\t655; (English edition: \u00bbCar Mania \u2013 A Critical History of\n\tTransport\u00ab, Pluto Press London 1996); \u00bbVerkehr\n\tin Zahlen<\/em>\u00ab (transport statistics)\n\t2010\/2011, published by the Federal\n\tMinistry of Transport, Building and Urban Development, in\n\tcooperation with the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW),\n\tHamburg 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3<\/a>\n\tThe German population in 2007 was 82.2 million; in 2008 it was 82.0\n\tm, and in 2009, 81.8 m.; the number of registered cars was 39.9,\n\t41.18 and 41.33 million respectively. See \u00bbVerkehr\n\tin Zahlen\u00ab<\/em> 2010\/2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4<\/a>\n\tSee Winfried Wolf, \u00bbGlobalisierung.\n\tFlugverkehr. Gegenwehr<\/em>\u00ab, in\n\tLunapark21 Extra03, September 2010, based on: ICAO, Annual Report of\n\tthe Council 2008 and 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5<\/a>\n\tThe \u00bbCarmageddon.com\u00ab website offers a video game in which players\n\tuse their cars in a brutal competition against pedestrians. JetBlue\n\tnamed its special ticket after this website. Referenced in the\n\t\u00bbS\u00fcddeutsche Zeitung<\/em>\u00ab,\n\t18 July 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6<\/a>\n\tSee Hermann Knoflacher, \u00bbStehzeuge: Der Stau ist kein\n\tVerkehrsproblem<\/em>\u00ab, Vienna-Cologne-Weimar 2001; Hermann\n\tKnoflacher, \u00bbVirus Auto. <\/em>Die\n\tGeschichte einer Zerst\u00f6rung<\/em>\u00ab, Vienna\n\t2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7<\/a>\n\t\u00bbAuto Bild\u00ab, 30 September 2011 (No. 39) \n\t<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8<\/a>\n\tManufacturers\u2019 own figures; e.g. BMW claims an average value of\n\t153.7 g CO2<\/sub>\/km\n\tfor its range of cars in 2011; Mercedes claims 168,4 g CO2<\/sub>\/km.\n\tThe real values are significantly higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9<\/a>\n\tAccording to official figures, the average consumption of all cars\n\tand estate cars (petrol and diesel) in Germany has fallen from 9.1 l\n\tper 100 km in 1991 to 7.5 l\/100 km in 2009 \u2013 the equivalent of 18%\n\t(\u00bbVerkehr in Zahlen<\/em>\n\t2010\/2011\u00ab, p. 302 ff). The fuel consumption per car is therefore\n\tstill considerably higher than it was between the 1950s and 1970s.\n\tSince that time, the weight of the average car has doubled and the\n\thp rating tripled, while the number of occupants has fallen by 20%.\n\tAs the number of cars with air conditioning has risen from about 15%\n\tto 90% in the same period, and as the fuel consumed by these AC\n\tunits is not taken into consideration for the statistics, the actual\n\tdecline in per-car fuel consumption may in fact be much lower than\n\tofficially stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10<\/a>\n\tcf. \u00bbFinancial Times Deutschland<\/em>\u00ab,\n\t16 September 2011<\/p>\n\n\n\n

11<\/a>\n\tTaken from: \u00bbS\u00fcddeutsche Zeitung<\/em>\u00ab, 20 September 2011<\/p>\n\n\n\n

12<\/a>\n\tSee Christoph Ruhkamp, \u00bbLuxus mit St\u00fctze<\/em>\u00ab, in the\n\t\u00bbFrankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung<\/em>\u00ab, 10 June 2011; Jens\n\tTartler, \u00bbRamsauer tauscht Chef f\u00fcr Elektroautos aus<\/em>\u00ab, in\n\tthe \u00bbFinancial Times Deutschland<\/em>\u00ab,23 September\n\t2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

13<\/a>\n\t\u00bbA white honeycomb stands on stilts. On its roof are 488 solar\n\tmodules. While the house tanks up on sun, a car beneath the\n\trobot-like house is tanking up on electricity. The electrically\n\tpowered car by the name of Leaf is made by Nissan \u2013 the house\n\ttoo.\u00ab In \u00bbFinancial Times\n\tDeutschland<\/em>\u00ab, 6 October 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

14<\/a>\n\tAccording to \u00bbEU Energy and Transport in Figures, Statistical\n\tPocketbook 2010\u00ab, Brussels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

15<\/a>\n\tKlaus Gietinger, \u00bbTotalschaden \u2013 Das Autohasserbuch<\/em>\u00ab,\n\tFrankfurt am Main 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

16<\/a>\n\tThe full list is (in brackets country, industry and total turnover\n\tin billion US dollar for 2010): Wal-Mart Stores (USA; retailer;\n\t422), Royal Dutch Shell (UK; oil; 378), Exxon Mobil (USA; oil; 355),\n\tBP (UK; oil;\n\t309), Sinopec Group (China; oil; 273), China National Petroleum\n\t(China; oil; 240), State Grid (China; provider; 226), Toyota Motor\n\t(Japan; cars; 222), Japan Post Holdings (Japan; post; 203), Chevron\n\t(USA; oil; 196), Total (USA; oil; 186), ConocoPhillips (USA; oil;\n\t184). According to: Global 500, Fortune (USA), 8 August 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

17<\/a>\n\tSee \u00bbFrankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung<\/em>\u00ab,\n\t19 August 2011 (on Daimler); \u00bbHandelsblatt<\/em>\u00ab,\n\t16 March 2010 (on VW\/Porsche).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

18<\/a>\n\tBoeing is the largest arms manufacturer in the USA; EADS-Airbus is\n\tthe largest arms manufacturer of continental Europe. The US\n\tgovernment claims that Airbus has received \u00bbillegal subsidies\u00ab\n\tamounting to 205 billion dollars over the last 25 years. The\n\tsubsidies to Boeing are said to be similarly large \u2013 according to\n\tthe complaints levelled at Boeing by the EU Commission and\n\tEADS-Airbus. Cf. Winfried Wolf, \u00bbGlobalisierung.\n\tFlugverkehr. Gegenwehr<\/em>.\u00ab<\/p>\n\n\n\n

19<\/a>\n\t\u00bbManager Magazin<\/em>\u00ab, 5 July 2007; \u00bbS\u00fcddeutsche Zeitung<\/em>\u00ab,\n\t15 July 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

20<\/a>\n\tDetails about Air Berlin according to \u00bbBerliner\n\tZeitung<\/em>\u00ab, 11 October 2011, and\n\t\u00bbS\u00fcddeutsche Zeitung<\/em>\u00ab,\n\t4 October 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

21<\/a>\n\tAccording to: \u00bbEU Energy and Transport in Figures, Statistical\n\tPocketbook 2010\u00ab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

22<\/a>\n\tMy first call for a \u00bbtransport policy of\n\tavoidance, shortening and shifting\u00ab was in 1986 in Winfried Wolf,\n\t\u00bbEisenbahn und Autowahn<\/em>\u00ab,\n\tHamburg 1986 (and Hamburg 1992).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

23<\/a>\n\tIn \u00bbSpiegel<\/em>\u00ab,\n\t8 November 1999. The first Speer quotation in \u00bbFinancial\n\tTimes Deutschland<\/em>\u00ab, 9 September 2011.\n\tInterestingly, the \u00bbStuttgart 21\u00ab project borrows quite a lot from\n\tthe Nazis\u2019 plans. After a visit to Stuttgart by Adolf Hitler on 1\n\tApril 1938, the plans for the city\u2019s redesign were finalised.\n\tAccordingly, the central station (the same building by Bonatz, then\n\tas now) would have been moved to the Rosenstein Park; it was to\n\tchange from a terminus to a through station; and the former site\n\twould have been opened for road traffic and redeveloped in the Nazi\n\tstyle. See L\u00f6sch\/Stocker\/Leidig\/Wolf (Eds.), \u00bbStuttgart\n\t21 \u2013 Oder: Wem geh\u00f6rt die Stadt<\/em>\u00ab, Cologne 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

24<\/a>\n\tGlobal figures 2005 according to Winfried Wolf, \u00bbVerkehr.\n\t<\/em>Umwelt. Klima \u2013 Die Globalisierung des Tempowahns<\/em>\u00ab,\n\tp. 238. Statistics for 2011 interpolated from the\n\tmost recently available figures in each case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

25<\/a>\n\tWalter Benjamin, \u00bbCollected Works\u00ab, Frankfurt am Main 1999, Vol.\n\tV\/2, \u00bbDas Passagenwerk<\/em>\u00ab,\n\tp. 1232.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buchkollektion der Frankfurter Buchmesse 2011; Ausstellung 2012ff) Foreword to: Rights of Way \u2013 Mobility Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow Everyone is talking about the boom in electric cars. Here\u2019s one quotation: \u00bbManufacturers of electric cars are in a gold rush mood. Market forecasts promise as many as one million sales of electric … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/winfriedwolf.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/winfriedwolf.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/winfriedwolf.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winfriedwolf.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winfriedwolf.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=404"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/winfriedwolf.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":405,"href":"https:\/\/winfriedwolf.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404\/revisions\/405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/winfriedwolf.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winfriedwolf.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winfriedwolf.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}