[Hi folks, please see poster, call for volunteers and general event info
below. For those of you with little ones, note the opportunity to swap
bikes for children who may have outgrown the ones they have! - AS ]
[image: Inline images 1]
* Volunteer Opportunities*
*
*
* - Refurbish a bike for sale*
Every Sunday from 2-4:30 volunteers will be building bikes for the Bazaar
at the WRENCH (1057 Logan Ave.). Contact the Bike Cage, Bike Dump and Bike
Lab to see how you can get involved with Bazaar building at their shops.
* -Poster/ Handbill for the Bazaar*
Posters and handbills (in electronic and hard copy) will be available from
the WRENCH May 8th
We would love volunteers to post them around the Daniel Mac, Spence, West
Broadway, Central Park and Downtown neighbourhoods.
* - Solicit donations from local business. *
If you know of a local restaurant/grocery store that would make in-kind
(i.e. free) donations of ready to eat food please contact Pat at
programs(a)thewrench.ca
Business will receive a charitable tax receipt for donation if invoice
provided.
Letters asking for in-kind donations of food will be available from the
WRENCH May 8th
*- Volunteer at the Community Bike Bazaar *
Volunteers needed for: Set-up and tear-down
Bike sales area
Kids Bike Swap corral
Community Tune-up stations
Rodeo/activities
Food services
General event support
*Contact Robin at **volunteer(a)thewrench.ca* <volunteer(a)thewrench.ca>* to
sign up.*
--
*Pat Krawec*, Executive Director
The Winnipeg Repair Education and Cycling Hub
1057 Logan Ave. Winnipeg, MB R3E 3N8
www.thewrench.ca <http://www.TheWrench.ca/> # 296-3389
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/automobiles/where-share-the-road-is-taken-
literally.html?smid=tw-share
<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/automobiles/where-share-the-road-is-taken
-literally.html?smid=tw-share&_r=2&> &_r=2&
Where 'Share the Road' Is Taken Literally
"Woonerf" is what the Dutch call a special kind of street or group of
streets that functions as shared public space - for pedestrians, cyclists,
children and, in some cases, for slow-moving, cautiously driven cars as
well.
Roughly translated as "living streets," the woonerf (pronounced VONE-erf)
functions without traffic lights, stop signs, lane dividers or even
sidewalks. Indeed, the whole point is to encourage human interaction; those
who use the space are forced to be aware of others around them, make eye
contact and engage in person-to-person interactions.
The Dutch term was coined in the 1960s when traditional urban architecture
was being rethought, and today the woonerf sign is common, with slight
variations, across Europe: a blue rectangle with stick-figure symbols of a
ball-playing child and parent, a car, a house. They can even be found in
pedestrian shopping zones like the bustling Alexanderplatz in Berlin.
In the Netherlands, more than 6,000 woonerf zones burnish these badges of
communal spirit where motorized traffic doesn't rule the road. Moreover,
after a period in which they fell out of fashion, the woonerfs are making a
strong comeback, and not only in the Netherlands. Woonerfs and their
derivatives - sometimes called shared spaces, complete streets or home zones
- are piquing the interest of urban planners in several countries.
The cities and towns that have adopted the model in one form or another span
the globe: the artsy Saint-Henri neighborhood in Montreal; narrow,
tourist-clogged Commercial Street in Provincetown, Mass.; the Bulgarian spa
town of Hisarya; and districts or suburbs of Cologne and Freiburg, Germany,
and Auckland and Christchurch, New Zealand.
In England and Wales there are more than 70 registered home zones, the
British variant of the woonerf; from hundreds of applicants, Manchester,
Plymouth, Leeds and Nottingham were chosen to receive government money to
establish the zones.
In the United States, more than 400 cities either currently have, or soon
will develop, "complete streets," which are much more broadly defined than
woonerfs, even allowing for the likes of sidewalks and the authoritarian
stop sign. Yet, according to the Chicago-based National Complete Streets
Coalition, the spirit of the woonerf inspired even the American movement.
The key to the woonerf is the primacy of nonmotorized activities.
Although cars are allowed in most - but not all - of the zones, they are
generally restricted to "walking speed" (in Britain, the limit is higher, at
10 or even 20 m.p.h.) with the onus of responsibility for safety entirely on
the driver.
Legally, the automobile driver is generally liable for an accident. But
there tend to be fewer traffic mishaps when cars, people and bicycles mingle
in close proximity; studies have found that accidents dropped by 40 percent
or more in Dutch areas converted to woonerfs.
"You either love them or you hate them, depending on whether you're a car
driver or a parent with kids," said Dirk van den Heuvel, an urban
architecture expert in the Dutch city of Delft. "But they're popular places
to live here - low density and lots of greenery - and that's why the model
is making a comeback," he said.
