Mass-Transit Gets Funded to the Tune of $75 Billion
November 4th was a good day for democracy in general (most of the voting went off without a hitch) and Democrats in particular. But lost in all the excitement over
Barack Obama's historic victory was the fact that
mass-transit was also one of the big winners of the day. In fact, according to the
Wall Street Journal Some 23 initiatives were approved nationwide. . .that will inject $75 billion into transportation systems, according to the Center for Transportation Excellence, a nonpartisan research group that promotes mass-transit service. Among the winners: Nearly $10 billion in bonds to start building a high-speed rail network in California, and $18 billion to expand mass-transit service in the Seattle area. The vote on another measure, which would raise the sales tax in Santa Clara County, Calif., to fund an extension of Bay Area Rapid Transit service, remains too close to call.
These results sound even better when we look more closely at the numbers....
Road Rage Against Cyclist
Last summer, the Oregonian reported an incident between a cyclist and a deranged driver in Portland: Jason Scott Rehnberg, 37, yelled at the car to slow down, and apparently angered by the remark, the driver
chased the cyclist. He rode his bike into the neighborhood to escape and after a while, probably thinking he was safe, he went back on the road where the incident first happened. But the driver saw Rehnberg and backed his car to try to hit him.
Read on for the rest of the story, including a video of Rehnberg on the hood of the car......
So I am off to Boston for the Greenbuild show, and as usual I take my
Strida folding bike, as I have on many flights before. It is a great way to get around and see the City and I feel a little better about having to fly when I know that at least on the ground I am emitting less carbon dioxide. I go to check in and the attendant asks "what's that?" I say a folding bike. She says "I have to charge you 50 bucks, we have a charge for bikes." I say that I understand, bikes are usually big and awkward but this folds up and is in a case and is under weight and maximum bag dimensions. And it is a folding bike, not a regular bike, designed for travelling. She says "nope, it's a bike and you have to pay." I ask if they charge for snowboards, which are longer than the bike. "Nope." I ask if they charge for skis, which are much longer than the bike and awkward. She says "nope" I ask her why she is charging me. "Because it's a bike."
Goodbye Air Canada.
Discuss
...
If you’re a high school student with an idea to make your community a more sustainable place to live then there’s a new contest that just may be a great way to get the seed money you need to get your project off the ground. Put together by The Weather Channel and the National Environmental Education Foundation as a part of Classroom Earth, they’re looking for smart, innovative, and workable solutions to pressing environmental issues.
And get this; they’ll even pay you a cash stipend for being a local environmental intern to go along with the seed money you'll receive to help make it happen!
...
More and more people are commuting on their bikes. But what is the best bike for commuting?
Our bike expert Warren says a good commuter bike has three main attributes:
1. they come equipped with a heap of accessories, such as fenders (mud guards), lights, cargo rack and strap, safety locks, kickstands, bells, and chain/wheel splash guards;
2. the cyclist sits tall, rather than crouched forward in a racing position;
3. they are simple, single speed models, or multi-speed enclosed, low maintenance, rear hubs.
Another website defines it as a bike that has the following components from the factory:
1. a chain guard
2. fenders
3. rear luggage rack
4. lights
A harder question to answer is: What is cheap? That depends, but we give it a shot in our
photo gallery of commuter bikes.
...
Image source: Getty Images
Universities in southern California are implementing several green commuting programs and incentives to encourage carpooling and biking to campus, reports the
San Diego Union Tribune. While southern California is known for loving its autos, its also known for year round near-perfect weather. If there is any place in the US to encourage biking and hiking, this is it, but unfortunately public transit is not "mass" transit, yet. If there was just a way to flip the trend away from single-person auto use, it would change the entire culture and environment of southern California and several universities are working to do just that....
Image source: Getty Images
The University of Colorado - Boulder just received 50 more
Schwinn bikes to add to their fleet of Adopt-A-Bikes, now making it 150 strong. The bikes were used at the
DNC and RNC conventions this year as part of a Bikes Belong projects from Humana Insurance. Bikes were free to convention-goers and are now free to students to improve sustainable transportation on campus. ...
Tom Friedman is talking out of both sides of his mouth. On the one hand, he says that America
should have been like Denmark and loaded taxes on to gas to discourage cars, subsidize transit and build a greener infrastructure on the backs of those who drive their cars with gas at $10 per gallon.
On the other hand, he is against any bailout of Detroit.
He shouts in the Times:
“We have to subsidize Detroit so that it will innovate? What business were you people in other than innovation?” If we give you another $25 billion, will you also do accounting?
Um, no Tom, they were in the business of giving people what they want. In an America with cheap gas, a real estate culture that encouraged homebuyers to "drive until you can afford it", and people spending more time in their cars than in their living rooms, who wouldn't want a little more space and a few cupholders (and now even fridges)?
...
Image credit: Wandsworth Conservative Party
Boris Johnson Promises Support to a Legal Challenge
The plan to build a third runway at Heathrow has certainly brought dramatic headlines. From protesters
breaching airport security to the UK Conservatives, usually known as the party of big business, announcing they’d
scrap the runway and build trains instead. Now we hear via The Guardian that Boris Johnson, the conservative mayor of London, has pledged an initial £15,000 (US$22,400) towards
a legal challenge should the government go ahead with its plans. More from The Guardian:
...
Photo by Phil Romans
The magic elixirs of salt and brine are certainly nothing new, they have been used on our roadways for awhile now.
Salt is of course used during the winter in certain areas to clear off roads and provide more traction for drivers. Brine on the other hand is derived from gas and oil wells, and is often used to cut down on dust particulates by spreading on gravel/dirt roads.
Put the salt and brine together, and suddenly you have a mixture which is capable of melting snow with much more efficiency and with less salt, and the reason for this is simple....
Image courtesy of Motoring File
A specially designed rear spoiler could increase the fuel efficiency of minivans and
SUVs, according to a new study detailed in
Green Car Congress. The study reveals that such a spoiler could both reduce drag and nearly eliminate aerodynamic lift—effectively saving several miles per gallon worth of gas consumption. ...
Photo by
Hamed Saber
At least they could be, if a few high tech companies get their way when it comes to an idea they are working on that will enable vehicles to monitor the roads as they drive over them. These vehicle reports would then be relayed to the proper highway committees, road crews, police units, and ambulance drivers to let them know if there is a pothole that needs fixed, severe weather danger or accident to avoid, or even a pancaked squirrel that needs attention by the highway roadkill unit....
Detroit
appears to be on the road to receiving a bailout of its own, and this story is just another example of why
the Big Three are in so much trouble in the first place. According to the
New York Times, "HYBRID versions of the Chrysler Aspen and Dodge Durango seem likely to secure a spot in automotive history: the two vehicles fell under the executioner’s ax in the same month they went on sale." Here's the real head-scratching part: "The hybrid S.U.V.’s became available at dealerships in early October. But on Oct. 23, Chrysler announced that at the end of the year it would close the Delaware plant where they are built." It gets worse....
i
mage source: raisethehammer.org
We didn’t hear it in the debates. We didn’t hear it on the campaign trail. And we didn’t hear anything about mass transit outlined anywhere in the economic
bailout. It is difficult to recall anytime during the recent and ongoing economic struggle any mention of any economic stimulus for public transportation that would greatly lessen Americans' 2nd largest expense after housing....
Image from Airplane-Pictures.net
Date Set for Jatropha-Powered Test Flight
The announcement that
Air New Zealand had set an ambitious sustainable biofuels goal for 2013 created a lot of buzz back in September. But all too often such announcements amount to nothing. This time, however, the early signs are looking positive that this initiative may actually yield results. We’ve just heard via
Green Car Congress that Air New Zealand, in conjunction with Boeing and UOP, have just set a date for their first test-flight running on 50% biofuel produced from non-food sources. There’s more:
...
Image source:
Flickr (with their never late carpool award)
One more free carpooling tool for helping you get around town without always having to worry about gas or driving, is
iCarpool. If you are organizing an event with your favorite greendrinks or meetup.com group, why not link to icarpool.com and encourage all of your attendees to try out the service. Businesses and organizations can also develop their own page on icarpool page setup specifically so that only employees can see others on the list and find groups near their commuting route....
Tesla Out, Fisker In
Tesla Motors recently
announced some layoffs and the closing of their Rochester Hills office near Detroit, and almost mirroring this exactly, Fisker Automotive has announce that it plans to open a 34,000 square feet engineering and development center in Pontiac, near Detroit, where up to 200 people will work on the companies
plug-in hybrid cars....
It's All About Incentives, Baby
It's no big mystery: If you have a flat rate for water, people will waste more of it than if they pay in function of how much they use. The same thing also certainly applies to cars. If people paid less insurance if they drove less, that would be an incentive to put fewer miles on their vehicles, thus using less fuel and polluting less. This would also reduce road congestion and accidents.
One company that has understood this is MileMeter from Texas. Read on for more details....
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