Germany's Michael Cramer has recently posted a superb (if charmingly mistranslated) article on sustainable urban transport in Berlin. Some excerpts: "...the country who wins will.... Germany's Michael Cramer has recently posted a superb (if charmingly mistranslated) article on sustainable urban transport in Berlin. Some excerpts:

"...the country who wins will be the one who succeeds in becoming independent from oil, who increases energy efficiency, change mobility behaviour and offers alternatives. The alternatives mean "renewable energy" and "public transport". Both are non polluting and both create employment. In Germany anyhow the renewable energy law of the red-green coalition created 150,000 jobs--more than any other branch. The major part of the steel production goes now into the production of wind turbines.
[...]
Berlin is actually ideally equipped for future-oriented transport policies. Berlin has a de-centralized urban structure which consists of 23 metropolitan districts, each of which has its own independent centre. This enables a significant amount of traffic to be avoided. Berlin still has the so-called Berlin mixture - i.e. work, leisure and dwelling in the same local area is still intact in many parts of the city, even in the historic city centre. Many trips can still be made on foot or by bike, and these means of transport are still actually used.

Berlin has more than 500 kilometres of urban railway and subway routes, and its tram net-work of 180 kilometres is the largest in Germany.

All of this explains why nearly every second household in Berlin does not possess an automobile."

Read the entire report at www.michael-cramer.de.