Bicycle Trailers to be Legalized; Thanks to PeakOil Economic Collapse Petition to Transport Min.

A Petition to the Western Cape MEC for Transport and Public Works, Mr Robin Carlisle to approve a bicycle trailer to be used on a Public Road has been tenatively approved by the National Minister for Transport and Public Works.

I herewith petition the Minister to authorise in writing, either generally or specifically, the operation on a public road in the Western Cape, of the following Bicycle Trailer (known as a Haulin Colin (www.haulincolin.com) Bike Trailer, as used by ecologically conscious cyclists and small business owners in California, Seattle and elsewhere). I have been informed by Officials at George Motor Vehicle Licensing, that ‘bicycle trailers’ are prohibited by the Road Traffic Act: National Road Traffic Regulations, 1999: Section 330(1)(g). Traffic officials were at a loss to explain the logic of this law, which prohibits the poor and ecologically conscious from using bicycle trailers to transport their business or home produce, which would be a sustainable healthy business and personal transportation alternative with zero carbon dioxide vehicle emissions. Many felt citizens should be given financial incentives to do so.

Mr. MJ Gallant, Senior Manager at Traffic Law Administration, confirmed that the Petition had been approved, pending investigation by the Vehicle Technical Committee (VTC) and the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS), which will, “if successful, enable the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS) to compile the technical specifications before the matter can be legislated.”

PETITION TO USE HAULIN COLIN BIKE TRAILER ON A PUBLIC ROAD

1. I refer to your petition of 22 February 2011 to the MEC for Transport and Public Works, Mr Robin Carlisle to be allowed to use a Haulin Colin bike trailer on a public road.
   
   
2. Due to a recent amendment to Section 81 of the National Road Traffic Act, 1996 (Act 93 of 1996) an MEC no longer has the power to authorize the use of a specific vehicle on a public road that would generally not qualify for such use. This competency now vests in the national Minister of Transport. However, what makes your request even more complicated is the fact that a bicycle is not defined as a vehicle, meaning that Section 81 would in any case not be applicable to the Haulin Colin bike trailer combination.
   
   
3. However, as the Department finds value in your proposal to allow this bike trailer combination on the road for the various noble and economical reasons highlighted by you, it decided to present it to the national road traffic law making forums for investigation and if approved legislation on the basis of pre-determined safety specifications and standards. The Department has already presented the matter to the Inter Provincial Policies and Procedures forum (IPPP) where the national Department, the provinces and other relevant roleplayers are represented. The IPPP expressed its provisional support for the proposal and has instructed the Vehicle Technical Committee (VTC) to investigate the matter and make appropriate recommendations. The VTC will specifically look at all technical and safety aspects, especially stability tests on the combination, to be carried out by the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS), which will, if successful, enable the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS) to compile the technical specifications before the matter can be legislated.
   
   
4. I have to inform you though that the afore-mentioned process is naturally a lengthy and cumbersome process and it is difficult to estimate the outcome or timeframe for completion.

PETITION TO W.C MEC FOR TRANSPORT AND PUBLIC WORKS, ITO S. 81 OF ROAD TRAFFIC ACT, 93 OF 1996

22 February 2011

TO:	Mr. Robin Carlisle MEC for Transport and Public Works P O Box 2603 Capetown, 8000 Tel: (021) 483 2200 Fax: (021) 483 2217 c/o Hector Elliott: ****@pgwc.gov.za c/o Deblesse Smit: ***@pgwc.gov.za

RE: (I) Application for Written Authorisation, Generally and Specifically for the Operation on a Public Road in the Western Cape, of a bicycle trailer (specifically a Haulin Colin Bike Trailer); (II) Petition for a ‘green’ tax-rebate as a eco-conscious WC citizen investing in a sustainable healthy business and personal transportation alternative with zero carbon dioxide (CO2) vehicle emissions.

I herewith petition the Minister to authorise in writing, either generally or specifically, the operation on a public road in the Western Cape, of the following Bicycle Trailer (known as a Haulin Colin (www.haulincolin.com) Bike Trailer, as used by ecologically conscious cyclists and small business owners in California, Seattle and elsewhere). I have been informed by Officials at George Motor Vehicle Licensing, that ‘bicycle trailers’ are prohibited by the Road Traffic Act: National Road Traffic Regulations, 1999: Section 330(1)(g). Traffic officials were at a loss to explain the logic of this law, which prohibits the poor and ecologically conscious from using bicycle trailers to transport their business or home produce, which would be a sustainable healthy business and personal transportation alternative with zero carbon dioxide vehicle emissions. Many felt citizens should be given financial incentives to do so.


INTRODUCTION:

Pursuant to S.81 of the Road Traffic Act, 93 of 1996:

81. An MEC may, subject to such conditions and upon payment of such fees or charges as he or she may determine, authorise in writing, either generally or specifically, the operation on a public road of a vehicle which does not comply with the provisions of this Act or the conveyance on a public road of passengers or any load otherwise than in accordance with the provisions of this Act.

I herewith petition the Minister to authorise in writing, either generally or specifically, the operation on a public road in the Western Cape, of the following Bicycle Trailer (known as a Haulin Colin Bike Trailer, as used by ecologically conscious cyclists in California and elsewhere), which does not comply with the National Road Traffic Act, 93 of 1996: National Road Traffic Regulations, 1999, Section 330 (1)(g); in accordance to Section 81, of the Road Traffic Act, 93 of 1996.

330. Towing of vehicles
(1) No person shall operate a vehicle on a public road towing another vehicle – ……
(g) if the towing vehicle is a motor cycle, motor tricycle, motor quadrucycle or pedal cycle.

I furthermore petition the Western Cape Goverment to authorise a green tax rebate to ecologically conscious citizens who purchase such Bicycle Trailers, thereby investing in a sustainable healthy business and personal transportation alternative’s with zero carbon emissions.

OVERVIEW OF FACTS:

I am a member of the Radical Honesty culture and religion. Among others, our social contract, includes living in accordance to Ecolaw carrying capacity sustainability principles. As such, I am 44 years old, have never been on welfare, have used an IUD as contraception since the age of 19, and hence have never been pregnant, nor had an abortion. I have lived an ecological small footprint life; to avoid aggravating overpopulation, resource wars; materialist consumerism and resource depletion. My Ecological Footprint (www.myfootprint.org/en/), excluding ‘Child-Free’ factor is 13.16 gha.

I operate a very small Vermicomposting (Worm Farming) business: SA Worm Sosiety (www.sqworms.co.nr) where I create organic fertilizer and compost from organic waste. I travel by bicycle, whenever possible; and for that purpose I requested Gallie Sweis to give me a quote to build me a Haulin Colin Bike Trailer. Mr. Anton Barnard, from Gallie Sweiss was kind enough to warn me to first confirm whether such a trailer would be allowed on South Africa’s roads.

As someone who has lived and travelled in ecologically conscious California, Germany, Netherlands, etc; I was most surprised.

I contacted various individuals at the George Traffic Department, who confirmed it was against the Road Traffic Act: National Road Traffic Regulations, 1999, Section 330 (1)(g). All traffic officials I spoke to however, all agreed that it would be extremely beneficial to legalize bicycle trailers, to enable small businesses who are unable to transport their goods, and who cannot afford petroleum driven transport costs, to be able to use their own peddle power. They said that if the law could be changed, many, many people would be very very happy; to be able to transport goods or people by their bicycle trailers.


‘GREEN TAX-REBATE’: POST PEAK OIL: LIFE AFTER THE OIL CRASH:

Wikileaks Confirms Politicians Awareness & Silence on Peak Oil:

As detailed in WikiLeaks cables: Saudi Arabia cannot pump enough oil to keep a lid on prices: US diplomat convinced by Saudi expert that reserves of world's biggest oil exporter have been overstated by nearly 40% (Guardian, 08-02-2011); Peak Oil is a reality that many politicians have been aware of since at least 2006, but which Politicians have remained ominously silent about while propagating their economic-growth-does-not-require-cheap-oil verbal diarrhoea illusions.

2006 Peak Oil Warnings to SA Politicians, Media and Government:

On 18 July 2006, I filed a 136 page Peak Oil Briefing Paper to the South African Government, Media and Civic Society organisations, c/o and via the then Minister of Intelligence: Mr. Ronnie Kasrils, which asked: “Is Gross Mismanagement of the nation’s energy policy an impeachable offense?” The political secession and economic relocalisation suggestions for mitigating a Post Peak Oil world, included: (i) Limit Population, (ii) Develop Alternative Energies; (iii) Reinvent the Way Money Works, i.e. implement local currencies; (iv) Save Energy; (v) Foster local communities, (vi) Get Out of Debt and (vii) Educate and Raise Awareness. The Briefing Paper was ignored by the SA goverment.

Military Voices in the Peak Oil Wilderness:

The socio-political and economic consequences of Peak Oil will be severe, as detailed in [German] Military Study Warns of Potentially Drastic Oil Crisis, by Stefan Schultz, Der Spiegel , 01 September 2010:

A study by a German military think tank has analyzed how "peak oil" might change the global economy. The internal draft document -- leaked on the Internet -- shows for the first time how carefully the German government has considered a potential energy crisis.

The term "peak oil" is used by energy experts to refer to a point in time when global oil reserves pass their zenith and production gradually begins to decline. This would result in a permanent supply crisis -- and fear of it can trigger turbulence in commodity markets and on stock exchanges.

The issue is so politically explosive that it's remarkable when an institution like the Bundeswehr, the German military, uses the term "peak oil" at all. But a military study currently circulating on the German blogosphere goes even further.

The study is a product of the Future Analysis department of the Bundeswehr Transformation Center, a think tank tasked with fixing a direction for the German military. The team of authors, led by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Will, uses sometimes-dramatic language to depict the consequences of an irreversible depletion of raw materials. It warns of shifts in the global balance of power, of the formation of new relationships based on interdependency, of a decline in importance of the western industrial nations, of the "total collapse of the markets" and of serious political and economic crises.

In US Military warns oil output may dip causing massive shortages by 2015, Terry MacAlister warns that the military report states that the “shortfall could reach 10 m barrels a day, and that the cost of crude oil is predicted to top $100 per barrel, which would have significant economic and political impacts.

In the third military Peak Oil report of 2010 Fueling the Future Force: Preparing the Department of Defense for a Post-Petroleum Environment was published on 27 September by the Washington, DC “national security and defence” think tank, Center for a New American Security (CNAS). It warns that the US Department of Defense’s “massive energy needs” are met by petroleum – and “given projected supply and demand, we cannot assume that oil will remain affordable or that supplies will be available to the United States reliably three decades hence.”

To remain as an effective fighting force, the entire US military must transition from oil over the coming 30 years. Of the three, the German one is the most blunt, as detailed in German Military Report: Peak Oil Could Lead to Collapse of Democracy:

Peak oil has happened or will happen some time around this year, and its consequences could threaten the continued survival of democratic governments, says a secret Germany military report that was leaked online.

According to Der Spiegel, the report from a think-tank inside the German military warns that shrinking global oil supplies will threaten the world's economic foundations and possibly lead to mass-scale upheaval within the next 15 to 30 years.
International trade would suffer as the cost of transporting goods across oceans would soar, resulting in "shortages in the supply of vital goods," the report states, as translated by Der Spiegel.

The result would be the collapse of the industrial supply chain. "In the medium term the global economic system and every market-oriented national economy would collapse," the report states.

According to Joint Operating Environment – 2010, issued by United States Joint Forces Command, issued on 18 February 2010:

“The implications for future conflict are ominous, if energy supplies cannot keep up with demand and should states see the need to militarily secure dwindling energy resources. (p.26)…. By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 MBD”

Peak Oil Domino Revolutions: Life After the Oil Crash Wake Up Call:

In Tunisia, Egypt, Libya.. (Tick, Tock) Peak Oil Domino Revolutions; Are you Listening?, I provide an overview of various alternative news reports which taken together explain how and why these revolutions in the Middle East are and will one day be referred to as the first Peak Oil Domino revolutions, which are only a matter of time, before they arrive in every country on the planet.

As detailed in Matt Savinar’s: Life After the Oil Crash, which has been quoted on the floor of the U.S Congress, by Republican Congressman Dr. Roscoe Bartlett:

Civilization as we know it is coming to an end soon. This is not the wacky proclamation of a doomsday cult, apocalypse bible prophecy sect, or conspiracy theory society. Rather, it is the scientific conclusion of the best paid, most widely-respected geologists, physicists, bankers, and investors in the world. These are rational, professional, conservative individuals who are absolutely terrified by a phenomenon known as global "Peak Oil."

Oil will not just "run out" because all oil production follows a bell curve. This is true whether we're talking about an individual field, a country, or on the planet as a whole.

Oil is increasingly plentiful on the upslope of the bell curve, increasingly scarce and expensive on the down slope. The peak of the curve coincides with the point at which the endowment of oil has been 50 percent depleted. Once the peak is passed, oil production begins to go down while cost begins to go up.

In practical and considerably oversimplified terms, this means that if 2005 was the year of global Peak Oil, worldwide oil production in the year 2030 will be the same as it was in 1980. However, the world’s population in 2030 will be both much larger (approximately twice) and much more industrialized (oil-dependent) than it was in 1980. Consequently, worldwide demand for oil will outpace worldwide production of oil by a significant margin. As a result, the price will skyrocket, oil dependant economies will crumble, and resource wars will explode.

Mr. Savinar’s site addresses Peak Oil’s consequences on food production, medicine, the illusions of alternative energy sources, most of which are totally reliant on cheap oil, etc. In regards to Peak Oil’s consequences on the financial system the following is stated:

The relationship between the supply of oil and natural gas and the workings of the global financial system is arguably the key issue to dealing with Peak Oil as robost and smoothly function global capital markets must exist in order to power an orderly (or semi-orderly) transition process. In fact this relationship is far more important than alternative sources of energy, energy conservation, or the development of new energy technologies. In short, the global financial system is entirely dependent on a constantly increasing supply of oil and natural gas.

To illustrate, if home and business loans are issued with interest rates in the 7% range, the assumption underlying the loans is that the monetary supply will increase (on average) by 7% per year. But if that 7% yearly increase in the monetary supply is not matched by a 7% yearly increase in the amount of economic activity (goods and services), the result is hyper-inflation. The key is this: in order for there to be an increase in the amount of economic activity taking place, there must be an increase in the amount of net-energy (i.e. the net-number of BTUs) available to fuel those activities. As no alternative source or combination of sources comes even remotely close to the energy density of oil (125,000 BTUs per gallon, the equivalent of 150-500 hours of human labor), a decline or even plateau in the supply of oil carries such overwhelming consequences for the financial system. Dr. Colin Campbell presents an understandable model of this complete relationship as follows:

It is becoming evident that the financial community begins to accept the reality of Peak Oil. They accept that banks created capital during this epoch by lending more than they had on deposit, being confident that tomorrow’s expansion, fuelled by cheap oil-based energy, was adequate collateral for today’s debt. The decline of oil, the principal driver of economic growth, undermines the validity of that collateral which in turn erodes the valuation of most entities quoted on Stock Exchanges.

Commentator Robert Wise explains the connection between energy and money as follows:

It's not physics, but it's true: money equals energy. Real, liquid wealth represents usable energy. It can be exchanged for fuel, for work, or for something built by the work of humans or fuel-powered machines. Real cost reflects the energy cost of doing something; real value reflects the energy expended to build something.

Nearly all the work done in the world economy, all the manufacturing, construction, and transportation, is done with energy derived from fuel. The actual work done by human muscle power is miniscule by comparison. And, the lion's share of that fuel comes from oil and natural gas, the primary sources of the world's wealth.

Author Dmitry Orlov offers the following explanation of how the debt-based financial currency used in a modern economy is actually dependent on an increasing supply of energy. Emphasis added:

Although it is often thought that a [modern] economy produces value, as an empirical matter it can be observed that what it produces is debt. One borrows money in order to provide and to receive goods and services. Loans are extended based on the expectation that, in the future, demand for these services will be even higher, driving further economic growth. However, this economy is not a closed system: the delivery of these goods and services is linked to external energy flows. Greater flows of energy, in the form of increased oil and natural gas imports, increased coal production and so forth are failing to occur, for a variety of geological and geopolitical reasons. There is every reason to expect that the ability to deliver goods and services will suffer as a result of energy shortages, collapsing the debt pyramid.

In October 2005, the normally conservative London Times acknowledged that the world's wealth may soon evaporate as we enter a technological and economic "Dark Age." In an article entitled "Waiting for the Lights to Go Out" Times columnist Bryan Appleyard reported:

Oil is running out; the climate is changing at a potentially catastrophic rate; wars over scarce resources are brewing; finally, most shocking of all, we don't seem to be having enough ideas about how to fix any of these things.

Almost daily, new evidence is emerging that progress can no longer be taken for granted, that a new Dark Age is lying in wait for ourselves and our children . . . growth may be coming to an end. Since our entire financial order from interest rates, pension funds, insurance, to stock markets is predicated on growth, the social and economic consequences may be cataclysmic.

Jared Diamond: Why & How Societies Choose to Fail; or Succeed [01/01]

In Jared Diamonds Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, he “employs the comparative method to understand societal collapses to which environmental problems contribute.” He lists 12 environmental problems facing mankind today. The first eight have historically contributed to the collapse of past societies: (1) Deforestation and habitat destruction; (2) Soil problems (erosion, salinization, and soil fertility losses); (3) Water management problems (4) Overhunting; (5) Overfishing; (6) Effects of introduced species on native species; (7) Overpopulation; (8) Increased per-capita impact of people. The root problem in all but one of Diamond's factors leading to collapse is overpopulation relative to the practicable (as opposed to the ideal theoretical) carrying capacity of the environment. The one factor not related to overpopulation is the harmful effect of accidentally or intentionally introducing nonnative species to a region. Diamond uses a “framework” when considering the collapse of a society, consisting of five “sets of factors” that may affect what happens to a society: environmental damage, climate change, hostile neighbors, loss of trading partners, and the society's own denial responses and refusal to confront its ecological overshoot problems, before it is too late.

PETITION REQUEST FOR HAULIN COLIN BICYCLE TRAILER AS FOLLOWS:

Length: 100 cm; Height: 40 cm; Width: 50 cm; Weight: < 60 kg.

Respectfully Submitted

Lara Johnstone

Encl: Images of: (i) Haulin Colin Bike Trailers at Work; (ii) Other Bicycle Trailer Business Option Alternative Ideas

HAULIN COLIN BIKE TRAILERS AT WORK:

OTHER BICYCLE TRAILER BUSINESS OPTION ALTERNATIVE IDEAS:

People Transportation: Ambulance; Rigshaw Taxi; etc: