tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7427570968856320202024-03-14T01:46:14.157-07:00The Marquee MoonTom Tomaka's observations about alternative energy, environmental sustainability, bicycle life and living in Atlanta, Georgia.Twotomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04229355935297972957noreply@blogger.comBlogger70125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-742757096885632020.post-51043487726294485252015-11-03T11:24:00.000-08:002015-11-03T11:24:33.120-08:00The Ride to Chattanooga is Paved with PR<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_OGd7QzB4Qzru86O3dO3Q9xxI8H1h_coVq4CKU5Q1zPzUWMYn_AFFXuRTDmeY3B_g0UD1or11TEjrQvmPpdpkX7E8kgzd1BVwLScRlYIqPWAEmUSNvrfpsxjyUqrMtW7ZyGhhiybYUUg/s1600/6325697152_a8dbd08d76_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_OGd7QzB4Qzru86O3dO3Q9xxI8H1h_coVq4CKU5Q1zPzUWMYn_AFFXuRTDmeY3B_g0UD1or11TEjrQvmPpdpkX7E8kgzd1BVwLScRlYIqPWAEmUSNvrfpsxjyUqrMtW7ZyGhhiybYUUg/s320/6325697152_a8dbd08d76_b.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />In Georgia, our TV and print media recently reported on the development of a 161-mile bicycle route <a href="http://www.ajc.com/ap/ap/ohio/new-us-bike-route-21-connects-atlanta-to-chattanoo/npDLY/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">connecting Atlanta with Chattanooga.</a><br /><div>
Huh?<br />Most of the details in these reports come from a press release issued by the public relations office at Georgia's Department of Transportation. U.S. Bike Route 21 is the first of its kind in Georgia and will eventually connect with other bike routes going all the way to Cleveland, Ohio.</div>
<div>
But GDOT's <a href="http://www.dot.ga.gov/PartnerSmart/Public/PressReleases/USBR21-10-14-15.pdf" target="_blank">press release </a>doesn't answer the most pertinent question, <i>what is it?</i> Clearly none of the "news" outlets could be bothered to ask.<div>
I had to dig hard in order to find a <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zquuA07Y3AtQ.kBRZPtBg3iro" target="_blank">map of the route</a>. As a result, here's my description of USBR 21:<br /><b>Start at Five Points in downtown Atlanta, ride north to Smyrna, get on the Silver Comet Trail, ride to Cedartown, make a right and head north on a bunch of two-lane country roads (except for a stretch of heavily-travelled Georgia Route 20 west of Rome), until you see the "Welcome to Tennessee" sign.</b><div>
Not a speck of new pavement was applied for the route. USBR 21's "development" was embodied by the labors of GDOT's Bicycle Coordinator, who presumably drew a bunch of lines on a map and then attended an embarrassing number of meetings and conference calls to make it official.</div>
As for the future of USBR 21, our Coordinator at GDOT is "exploring possible sources of funding for the installation of signs along the route."<br />I hope this at least inspires some individuals to plan their two-wheeled adventures to Chattanooga, or Atlanta. Or Cleveland.<br />But don't wait for GDOT to install the route markers. Just follow the "See Rock City" signs.</div>
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Twotomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04229355935297972957noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-742757096885632020.post-45213001280168944722015-10-20T07:41:00.000-07:002015-10-20T14:22:26.431-07:00Revolution For Nice People in a Nice Country<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoYeXiqJpQEoksW2XfJgBJmoX3DBABMm17BCvpXeqTh_yzVX2RPxlWsnldl1mE8wZZvPLi9BIy_A4BDKpfMhgMlWwQOIYrBCgZgc2kA9M3HModMpu3J3x_B8x4a2fFaqG-YeWmwQ4BJhQ/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoYeXiqJpQEoksW2XfJgBJmoX3DBABMm17BCvpXeqTh_yzVX2RPxlWsnldl1mE8wZZvPLi9BIy_A4BDKpfMhgMlWwQOIYrBCgZgc2kA9M3HModMpu3J3x_B8x4a2fFaqG-YeWmwQ4BJhQ/s320/images.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
The documentary is called <i>Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom </i>(available only on <a href="http://www.netflix.com/title/80031666" target="_blank">Netflix</a>.)<br />
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For 93 days in 2013 and 2014, the Ukraine witnessed a revolution which started as a nonviolent protest by students against the autocratic behavior of President Viktor Yanukovych. Shortly thereafter it turned into a bloody, full-fledged revolution. <br />
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This movie, which is only available on Netflix, provides a gripping view from the streets, streets which look very modern, very westernized. Imagine a situation where your favorite sushi restaurant has been turned into an ad hoc aid station for injured protesters.<br />
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It's a cautionary tale containing a message of hope, especially for anyone who feels the slide of our society towards authoritarian rule. Important lessons:<br />
<ol>
<li>The protesters eschewed politics and politicians. They had few demands, but those demands were non negotiable: the removal of a President that was aligning the Ukraine with Russia without the consent of the people, and the return of free elections.</li>
<li>Patriotism motivated people of diverse backgrounds to join the revolt. People of all political, ethnic and religious affiliations saw this opportunity to express their love for their country, fighting a current regime which did not represent the nation's interests. While protesters were brutally beaten by government security forces they sang the national anthem.</li>
<li>Nonviolence was preferred but not mandatory. The authorities easily corrupted protesters' initial use of nonviolence through the use of agent provocateurs, and then they retaliated with their own increasingly-violent repressions.</li>
<li>Protesters have to embrace their struggle and their willingness to sacrifice. The public is galvanized against the authorities once they see how far the authorities will go to smash people just like them.</li>
<li>The revolution only works when cultural institutions are all-in. Students were amongst the first to join, and as usual religious leaders are amongst the last.</li>
</ol>
Ultimately Winter on Fire leaves us on a sad note, as the successful fight for Ukrainian self-rule was not sufficient in preventing further Russian interference in their affairs, as the bloody civil war there continues to prove.<br />
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For Ukrainians this is nothing new, and I hope they someday find the peace they deserve.Twotomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04229355935297972957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-742757096885632020.post-58234913881332440732015-04-22T06:44:00.001-07:002015-04-22T10:12:29.712-07:00An Earth Day Greeting CardI was never a big fan of Hallmark holidays, and today feels like another one of them. Earth Day was not always like that. The first one in 1970 had real significance.<br />
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45 years ago the world seemed to be changing for the good. The actions of the baby boomer, flower power generation were nudging industrial civilization away from the abyss.<br />
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The early 1970s would see a Republican (!) President establish the Environmental Protection Agency, giving the environment near Cabinet-level importance. We also saw passage of two most important environmental laws, The Clean Water Act and The Clean Air Act.<br />
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But then something happened. Industrial civilization fought back both politically and culturally. The environmental activists who helped win us those early victories were drawn into the political economy they were out to change. <br />
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<i>I had opted to work within the system at the Natural Resources Defense Council, but I believed that our legal advocacy was on the path to deeper changes to our economic and societal systems... the Clean Air and Clean Water acts created major opportunities for lawyers and others, but in pursuing them we were drawn ever more completely into the system. ...We opted to work within the system of political economy that we found, and we neglected to seek the transformation of the system itself.</i><br />
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-- James Gustave Speth</div>
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Enter the era of greenwashing. Greenwashing provides the appearance of action without meaningful results. It also is a clever blame-shifting maneuver.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggYGGBISH5Q9jfeQTcVWa7o3MZVh54DkwMKl1XBesb2-MmL_h4coDj469zGbgWKjpwo4R3MJIFsUrL7hcvn1nlJwKYoiB1VP1tTFCVuPrPmZSVLdLtDr01tOZmLclsi6lhifUkdjGUsGA/s1600/crying+indian.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggYGGBISH5Q9jfeQTcVWa7o3MZVh54DkwMKl1XBesb2-MmL_h4coDj469zGbgWKjpwo4R3MJIFsUrL7hcvn1nlJwKYoiB1VP1tTFCVuPrPmZSVLdLtDr01tOZmLclsi6lhifUkdjGUsGA/s1600/crying+indian.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<h4 style="text-align: center;">
Remember, pollution is your fault, not the fault of those who profit from it.</h4>
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In these and other ways industrial civilization co-opted the environmental movement and placed it at heel, where it has remained until today. </div>
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When viewed on a broad, planetary scale, humanity has never seen the Earth in greater peril. We place our faith in science and technology to solve our environmental problems, in hopes that we may avoid making inconvenient changes to our living arrangements.<br />
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In service to these hopes the term “sustainability” has become unavoidable in business, governmental and academic sectors, but with little context. Now get a load of this: <a href="http://grist.org/business-technology/none-of-the-worlds-top-industries-would-be-profitable-if-they-paid-for-the-natural-capital-they-use/" target="_blank">none of the world’s top industrial sectors </a>would be profitable if they were paying the full cost of their activities, <u>if </u>they fully paid for the Earth's finite resources they rely on such as clean air, fresh water and healthy soil.<br />
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They take what is a birthright for us all, and then privatize the economic gains. This is why our neoliberal, materialist economy is consuming the planet. It assumes that growth (in population, material wealth, consumption) must and will continue indefinitely. It is the very definition of unsustainable.</div>
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This makes the whole notion of “sustainability” as currently practiced a bad joke. If you are not in the business of changing the way we value and measure “progress”, you are not in the sustainability business. It's like bailing out the Titanic with teacups.<br />
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So go ahead. Celebrate the day. Send the Earth a card, one printed on 50% recycled-content paper.</div>
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<br />
Or for true inspiration, read the <a href="https://orionmagazine.org/2012/03/the-blue-river-declaration/" target="_blank">Blue River Declaration</a> and celebrate a greenwash-free Earth Day.</div>
Twotomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04229355935297972957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-742757096885632020.post-84016146939113758312015-02-25T10:07:00.003-08:002015-02-25T10:23:48.008-08:00The Urban Amphibious<div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQwV38ovUjaWpnmlex8BhaW0yBeJvhOr0m2Kh7ByU1wmJqw1RLe7chk_I7kyArGlcbYoxQki05y_-GINjZ1wBJYtpLhmISDVeuadzxgER0VQ2jVPj7jJs4pYi8yEfTvMULOxQ-vDlIOuI/s1600/peachtree+creek.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQwV38ovUjaWpnmlex8BhaW0yBeJvhOr0m2Kh7ByU1wmJqw1RLe7chk_I7kyArGlcbYoxQki05y_-GINjZ1wBJYtpLhmISDVeuadzxgER0VQ2jVPj7jJs4pYi8yEfTvMULOxQ-vDlIOuI/s1600/peachtree+creek.jpg" height="292" width="320" /></a></div>
A Civil War battle. A conduit for Atlanta's waste. A watershed that drains most of Atlanta north of Dekalb Avenue and east of Marietta Boulevard.</div>
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Each of these describes Peachtree Creek, and each a motivation to pull the Creek out of the obscurity that it harbors in the minds of most who live here.</div>
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David Kaufman's 2007 book of the same title is a must-have for current and former Atlanta residents wanting to develop a stronger sense of place, for Peachtree Creek (along with other creeks) defines this City over a longer and more historical respect than even its famous highways do. Kaufman demonstrates a profound curiosity for the sights, history, physical dynamics and people associated with the Creek.<br />
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Moreover he shares with the reader his sense of adventure, and by experiencing Peachtree Creek first-hand his accounts of it become alive. For thirteen years Kaufman explored Peachtree Creek and its tributaries by canoe, braving the hazards of flash flooding, polluted water, and human activity largely ungoverned by civilized existence occurring on the stream banks and bridges above.<br />
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While I have limited experience paddling, there was much in this book that felt familiar to me. Several years ago a friend of mine and I bicycled the Atlanta BeltLine while it was still mostly kudzu and abandoned rails. Had I read <i>Peachtree Creek</i> beforehand, I probably would have made more of an effort to document what turned out to be an epic journey. Sadly that moment is now gone.<br />
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Let this book stoke your sense of urban adventure, a desire to find a grounding with your surroundings, and a curiosity to learn what might be hidden literally underneath your feet.</div>
Twotomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04229355935297972957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-742757096885632020.post-45199370741186205042014-10-28T18:36:00.001-07:002014-10-28T18:38:44.644-07:00Bicycle U-Lock Makers: The Old Skool Awaits You<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo-2-xQH-DU8rUeusTaTYMJd1QBU6pGlNtqbKCL1iiHnElOMweygDlaGh1iFbP43WEsIzsb2UscIlnsakCvQPq11RxzMXmvjvTme-QlVx_txYRqqkhb53GqGl3ozrQ9ucBJDzTPe4rfEs/s1600/20141028_182025.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo-2-xQH-DU8rUeusTaTYMJd1QBU6pGlNtqbKCL1iiHnElOMweygDlaGh1iFbP43WEsIzsb2UscIlnsakCvQPq11RxzMXmvjvTme-QlVx_txYRqqkhb53GqGl3ozrQ9ucBJDzTPe4rfEs/s1600/20141028_182025.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
I have a bicycle U-lock that is probably one of the best ever made, by Kryptonite or anyone else. It's also over 35 years old, the third version of the original Kryptonite lock.<br />
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In light of all the <a href="http://www.citylab.com/navigator/2014/10/your-u-lock-is-basically-worthless-but-dont-worry/381818/" target="_blank">bad press</a> that modern u-locks are getting, I don't understand why the U-lock makers do not resurrect this design.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuQLrYnRsEUZvGWdIY89Wly4LsLZB64g7BcVPC3Kha7sMlAM_FcwZ-B2vDGWa2PYaeYShOiG6nMlyo4EcYov-pPZIbVPxxK9exTmAYoTYWFU9QHoHityhMep5zUuZ4t9WdSFFDhJvL-5g/s1600/20141028_182042.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuQLrYnRsEUZvGWdIY89Wly4LsLZB64g7BcVPC3Kha7sMlAM_FcwZ-B2vDGWa2PYaeYShOiG6nMlyo4EcYov-pPZIbVPxxK9exTmAYoTYWFU9QHoHityhMep5zUuZ4t9WdSFFDhJvL-5g/s1600/20141028_182042.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a><br />
The lock is constructed of flat, hardened steel stock about 1.5 inches wide and 1/8 inch thick, not the round steel stock used in later variations and still used today. That flat steel construction allows the lock to be secured in a way that probably makes it impervious to the prying tools used to devastating effect by bike thieves on most contemporary U-lock designs.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWFcxOrAMoWSZK0pUpyKrxb9xbyFfhYgD955n3YaReueZ6RXAOKi_Lp3GjkVL_vJU-X02szty052KtSqiiyBWvQ4p3Eo66tUUwrHOseTPVquWVW6F6VM_7CzxtYBEoBxsPpWZGCWG16Hc/s1600/20141028_183008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWFcxOrAMoWSZK0pUpyKrxb9xbyFfhYgD955n3YaReueZ6RXAOKi_Lp3GjkVL_vJU-X02szty052KtSqiiyBWvQ4p3Eo66tUUwrHOseTPVquWVW6F6VM_7CzxtYBEoBxsPpWZGCWG16Hc/s1600/20141028_183008.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a><br />
The flat steel crossbar of the 1970's Kryptonite lock inserts through a slot in the U-shaped shackle and enters a locking "bonnet" where metal fingers engage two holes in the end of the crossbar.<br />
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This puppy will not be pried apart, not without some serious hydraulic action. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjGZE9TX7aNFZLVzeHZhYu5HcRT1HcmZjCFt0so2ggQYwYBwAJJJ2a8BiELMtmJe_YEsw0I-Wiqs8wEHAOKg0Udyb5TfsNv1pi4AYdbCD4Q1wSgyyNNkcHZzNoR8vxTWS2n9-9INbja1M/s1600/20141028_182814.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjGZE9TX7aNFZLVzeHZhYu5HcRT1HcmZjCFt0so2ggQYwYBwAJJJ2a8BiELMtmJe_YEsw0I-Wiqs8wEHAOKg0Udyb5TfsNv1pi4AYdbCD4Q1wSgyyNNkcHZzNoR8vxTWS2n9-9INbja1M/s1600/20141028_182814.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a><br />
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It features a high-quality, vending machine-grade integrated cylinder lock (not the cost-reduced cylinder locks of Kryptonite's infamous <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRKnXoF2e5M" target="_blank">Bic-pen-picking days</a>) and weighs a little over two pounds.<br />
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To this day I use my 1970's-era Kryptonite U-lock regularly throughout my travels in the City of Atlanta and have experienced no thefts and no attempted thefts.<br />
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My guess is, the best way to defeat my lock is with an angle grinder. <br />
Good luck.<br />
<br />
By 1978 Kryptonite and its imitators adopted the use of round steel stock in their U-lock designs, to make the locks easier to coat with a protective plastic jacket and to make the lock easier to attach to a bicycle frame with the use of a mounting bracket, which incidentally, few lock owners bother to use.<br />
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But bicycle thieves have found numerous ways to pry apart these successors to the original Kryptonite U-lock design.</div>
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Kryptonite, or any of your competitors, we are waiting for you to provide a u-lock design that is known to work, and work very well.</div>
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As always, thank you for reading!</div>
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Note: I found some useful reference material for this article courtesy of <a href="http://sheldonbrown.com/kryptonite.html" target="_blank">Sheldon Brown</a>.</div>
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Twotomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04229355935297972957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-742757096885632020.post-62381469707782130912014-06-27T05:24:00.001-07:002014-06-27T10:33:34.288-07:00Why We Drive: The Past, Present, and Future of Automobiles in America<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyVR9dBvBY320y6nrRc7ElTlnBKowFYFKmguf5QwabOuGjDbXihxZxvoLe2TngQRxW1AwmoOzPD4mbZocuokU5BXjiX-dAyprjtDiUdHxoHnaDwU76WWtRrH6gctnazZ100GV_FuPksHg/s1600/singer_why+we+drive.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyVR9dBvBY320y6nrRc7ElTlnBKowFYFKmguf5QwabOuGjDbXihxZxvoLe2TngQRxW1AwmoOzPD4mbZocuokU5BXjiX-dAyprjtDiUdHxoHnaDwU76WWtRrH6gctnazZ100GV_FuPksHg/s1600/singer_why+we+drive.jpg" height="320" width="248" /></a></div>
<h4 style="text-align: center;">
<i><a href="http://www.andysinger.com/microcosm.html" target="_blank">Why We Drive: The Past, Present, and Future of Automobiles in America</a></i>, </h4>
<h4 style="text-align: center;">
by Andy Singer</h4>
Why do we drive? At face value the answer seems obvious. America's reliance on the automobile is a logical, inevitable result of our historic quest for personal mobility that provides us speed and convenience at the lowest cost.<br />
Or is it?<br />
Andy Singer is a cartoonist and self-described advocate for car-free cities and car-free living. <br />
He has an ax to grind, and his latest book does so as an entertaining, informed, compelling read. Singer shows how our development into a sprawling, automobile-centric society was not inevitable. Instead it resulted from a combination of technological, political, even criminal developments that were hardly preordained. <br />
Better yet the same developments are correctable, once we gain the collective will to act.<br />
Singer's book presents itself as a scripted slide show full of archival photographs and his distinctive cartoons, each paired with with a concise narration. He provides ample footnotes for those readers wishing to delve further.<br />
I like the way that Singer organizes <i>Why We Drive</i> in three parts. First he explains why we should not and cannot continue to rely so heavily on the automobile for our personal transportation needs.<br />
The book then turns to describing how roads and highways came to shape the development of the United States during the latter half of the twentieth century. Based on this foundational understanding Singer then suggests a rich set of tactics for advocates hungry for change.<br />
As for our cherished automobile Singer itemizes the ways that urban freeways have proven to be toxic to cities. While many before Singer have chronicled how the construction of urban freeways tore apart otherwise vibrant and healthy (and often populated by people of color) neighborhoods, Singer re-frames the automobiles' place in urban environments as a waste of space.<br />
40-60 percent of the average American city has been paved, for use by the automobile in the form of roads and parking lots. Singer explains that when commercial and residential real estate are demolished to make way for the automobile, the city loses badly-needed property tax revenue, and this lost revenue represents a hidden subsidy to motorists, especially those nonresidents who commute to the city and otherwise pay no taxes in return for the city services they use.<br />
<div>
To those espousing the principles of a free market this is called a "free rider" problem..<br />
Singer provides a lesson on the political science of government transportation agencies and how the development of these powerful agencies in the early twentieth century opened a new era of "big government" politics, beginning with Robert Moses' Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority in New York. Singer also provides an interesting aside on how taxpayer-funded roads and highways once was the cause for many Democratic politicians but over time has become more of a Republican priority.<br />
Gracing this book's cover is a photograph of two men mugging for the camera while one hands the other a check over a handshake...while a streetcar burns behind them. This is the sordid story of National City Lines, a conspiracy by some of America's biggest and most well-respected corporations to jumpstart the sales of automobiles and buses in our cities by removing their biggest competitor: the urban street car lines. Through fraud, conspiracy and embezzlement they bought and dismantled over 100 rail transit systems in 45 U.S. cities. While they were ultimately convicted in court, they got away with it with nothing more than slaps on the wrist.<br />
Singer gets it right by including a fact often lost in the retelling of this story. However vulnerable the privately-owned and operated street car lines were at the time, they were made vulnerable as they struggled to compete with the roads and highways being paid for by the taxpayers. This is a case where state and local governments unfairly helped to pick the winners. While today we often bemoan the problems endemic with our publicly-run transit systems, it's instructive to know that part of what ails them is rooted in the way that governments entered the road-building business.<br />
To contemplate the tremendous economic damage this caused, one only has to tally the costs of all the "light rail" construction projects currently underway in many U.S. cities. Late last year I was observing up close the excavation work for the new Atlanta Streetcar. Workers had unearthed rails from Atlanta's first streetcar system, buried under the pavement since the 1950's.<br />
Ironic?<br />
Singer takes a poignant dig at a concept widely-embraced by proponents of "green technologies": alternatively-fueled vehicles and hybrids. He states: "Those advocating for vehicles using hydrogen, ethanol, electricity and other forms of non-petroleum fuels often overlook the fact that 25-40% of all the pollution and greenhouse gas that a car will emit during its lifetime do not come from its tailpipe. Instead, they come from its manufacture and disposal." <br />
Ouch.<br />
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I also might add that all of the Priuses, Leafs, Insights, Teslas, Volts and sundry methane/ethanol burners do nothing to relieve us of traffic congestion and its attendant problems. They say that you cannot make yourself green merely by <i>buying </i>the right stuff, and the same applies to those seeking their green cred based on what they <i>drive</i>.<br />
So much for the trashing of automobile culture and conventional wisdom for our solutions. The last part of Singer's book contains answers, some that work on the grassroots level and some that work on a systemic level. We can show people how, by offering choices for quality transportation, everyone benefits. We can demonstrate how public subsidies work both for and against the kinds of transportation choices we want. And we have a lot we can do to correct the flaws inherent to rules which govern land use and how our taxes are spent. <br />
Singer includes a useful directory of campaigning organizations.</div>
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This book's message is clear and hopeful. Just because we of this current generation arrived where we are on four wheels does not mean we have to go out that way. <i><a href="http://www.andysinger.com/microcosm.html" target="_blank">Why We Drive</a></i> is a fresh addition to the pantheon of great books about transportation and society such as<i> Asphalt Nation</i> and the <i>Geography of Nowhere</i>.</div>
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Twotomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04229355935297972957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-742757096885632020.post-16901296324750993382014-04-07T09:07:00.001-07:002014-04-16T11:18:39.913-07:00Avoiding the Broken-Leg Approach to SustainabilityWhen any organization starts an environmental sustainability effort, all stakeholders should ask what the reason or reasons are for doing it. By cruising the web and reading about the sustainability programs of any number of businesses and governments one quickly sees how many of these organizations are challenged in answering this simple question, <i>Why?</i><br />
The most frequently-stated answer is, <i>because we care. </i><br />
Right.<br />
And then begins their lists of “sustainability” activities: office waste recycling, energy efficient lighting upgrades, reductions in water usage for manufacturing, LEED certification of buildings, maybe some carbon offsets and solar panels. These all probably sound familiar.<br />
Having a laundry list of “green” activities is helpful to the environment to some extent and might save money for the organization. But in the grand scheme of things this doesn't necessarily make the client organization more sustainable.<br />
Is it simply a greenwash, for PR purposes? Is it the naïve tendency of the organization's leaders to take some benign feel-good actions to improve workforce morale? Whatever the real reason, we all could use a better answer to <i>Why?</i><br />
And also to <i>How?</i><br />
Here is an article by Dr. Kevin Lynch that concisely answers both questions better than any I have seen before. <a href="http://www.cvdl.org/blog/hidden-price-simplifying-sustainability-rethinking-sustainable-systems/%20" target="_blank">The Hidden Price of Simplifying Sustainability: Rethinking How We Think about Sustainable Systems</a><br />
It starts with the use of the term, <i>sustainability</i>. The designer Bill McDonough has often observed how the term itself falls short if only in that it lacks a capacity to inspire people. As McDonough jokes, people are not inclined to answer the friendly question, <br />
“How's your marriage going?” <br />
with <br />
“It's sustainable.” <br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">
Despite its shortcomings the term <i>sustainability </i>carries with it
meaning that goes beyond “environmental”, beyond “green.” Absent a
better term at our disposal Kevin Lynch provides a definition for
sustainability so clear, so complete that I will restate it here:</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<b>Sustainability is the careful and efficient stewardship of resources by
businesses, communities and citizens. It is the practice of meeting our
needs in ways that are respectful of future generations and restorative
of natural, cultural, and financial assets. Sustainable management is a
whole systems approach to achieving superior performance in delivering
desired outcomes to all stakeholders by business, government, and civil
society. It is achieved by implementing the three principles of Natural
Capitalism which are (1) Buy time by using resources dramatically more
productively, (2) Redesign industrial processes and the delivery of
products and services to do business as nature does, using such
approaches as <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/janine_benyus_biomimicry_in_action" target="_blank">biomimicry </a>and <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/william_mcdonough_on_cradle_to_cradle_design" target="_blank">cradle to cradle</a>, and (3) Manage all institutions to be restorative of natural and human capital. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
- courtesy of the website for <a href="http://www.natcapsolutions.org/">Natural Capitalism Solutions</a></div>
<br />
Lynch goes on to make the case for taking a whole-systems approach to sustainability as advocated by Peter Senge in his book <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1G0Fs__u4g%20" target="_blank">The Fifth Discipline</a>. <br />
We all live and work within systems, some of which are physical and some products of the human imagination. Either type of system can add complexity so severe that we are compelled to reducing them into rational components which we can more easily describe and analyze. <br />
For example while seeking medical care we may visit a general practitioner, but when we are really sick we prefer seeing the cardiologist, the oncologist, the ENT, etc. And so our sustainability programs are rationalized into water, air, materials, people, wildlife, and so on. <br />
We certainly need to rationalize for help solving a specific problem such as a broken leg…but not in planning for sustainability. <br />
Not without a whole-systems approach can we adequately see the consequences of our actions; we lose our intrinsic sense of connection to a larger whole. Living organisms, ecosystems, the Earth are not machines. They work and thrive not simply as a sum of discrete components or compartments. Neither should a sustainability program. <br />
Rationalization in this way prevents us from adequately accounting for the harm caused by our enterprises, although the associated costs of this harm haven't disappeared. Someone winds up paying for unsustainable behavior as externalized costs, which is economist-speak for unclaimed costs that are eventually paid for by society or some unwitting portion of society. This is anathema to those who advocate for free-markets, as the externalized costs provide is no disincentive for bad behavior. The market then fails in serving our interests. <br />
Also when we rationalize we respond with actions that only treat symptoms instead of root causes. We fail to identify leverage points in these complex systems where our actions return maximum benefit. <br />
This reminds me of a case study that Charles Duhig included in his book, <a href="http://tomtomaka.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-power-of-habit-by-charles-duhigg.html" target="_blank">The Power of Habit</a>. <br />
In 1987 Paul O'Neil was taking over the reins as CEO of the metals industry giant Alcoa, whose profits were sagging to the dismay of investors. He soon announced his corporate turnaround strategy: reduce occupational injury rates as close to zero as possible. Industry insiders and stock analysts responded with a collective, “Huh?”<br />
But O'Neil understood that turning around his company depended on changing the ingrained company culture and the patterns of behavior of the employees. Alcoa, like all complex human enterprises, operates by systems within systems, and every day his employees were making thousands of individual decisions that resulted in waste and lost potential. <br />
So O'Neil launched his accident elimination initiative, involving every single worker and manager in his operations. This began a widespread culture change at Alcoa's factories. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charles-duhigg/the-power-of-habit_b_1304550.html" target="_blank">How “Keystone Habits” Transformed a Corporation</a><br />
To shift worker safety habits, O'Neill created more open policies governing the way that workers and communicated. This and other measures began to produce results. <br />
Over the following 10 years it became five times safer to work at Alcoa. On average the workers are more likely to get injured at a software company, animating cartoons for movie studios, or doing taxes as an accountant than handling molten aluminum at an Alcoa factory.<br />
But this is where the magic starts, because O’Neil’s program was intervening at a behavioral leverage point. By changing some of their keystone habits it became easier to move his employees to improve their behaviors in other ways, especially in allowing them to take more ownership of the results they produced. That lifted profits.<br />
O'Neill helped <a href="http://news.investors.com/management-leaders-in-success/052101-338019-alcoas-paul-oneill-relied-on-analysis-and-safety-to-boost-his-company-to-the-forefront.htm" target="_blank">push Alcoa's annual earnings</a> from 20 cents per share in 1994 to $1.41 in 1999, when he stepped down. He also helped boost sales an average of 15% per year in the same period.<br />
“Having ideas that are related to each other is really a useful way of thinking about things,” O'Neill said. “It's hard to find people these days who think in holistic ways.”<br />
That’s systems thinking. While this example does not relate directly to sustainability, I hope you can see how broadly this applies to activities in our personal and professional lives. <br />
This is how your approach to planning for sustainability differs from the approach you take to solving a simple illness. Once you charter your organization's sustainability program to answer the question <i>why?</i>, systems thinking becomes part of the<i> how?.</i>Twotomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04229355935297972957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-742757096885632020.post-15100235662471770302014-03-30T15:20:00.000-07:002014-03-30T15:20:04.181-07:00The Cyberpunk Gets Real<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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William Gibson is known by many as a prolific author of a particular science fiction called "cyberpunk." He presciently coined the term "cyberspace" well before the internet age. <br />More recently a nonfiction volume called <i>Distrust that Particular Flavor </i>hit the shelves, a compendium of Gibson's speeches, essays, magazine articles and other commissioned pieces. Gibson riffs about technology, world cultures, and civilization's march into modernity with titles such as "Disneyland with the Death Penalty" (about modern Singapore) and "Modern Boys and Mobile Girls" (about the peculiar techno-philia of the Japanese). <br />In "Time Machine Cuba" Gibson provides his take on doomsday. He came of age during the Cold War, and his fear of global calamity was stoked by a lineage of cautionary science fiction going back to HG Wells' <i>The Time Machine.</i><br />HG Wells feared the potential for unwise leaders to abuse technology and to destroy us. Early on he recognized the terrible potential of warfare from the air, by Zeppelins laying waste to whole cities, and later validated by Hiroshima and Nagasaki. HG Wells wrote his own epitaph "I told you so. You <i>damned</i> fools."<br />Along with the rest of the world Gibson breathlessly watched events unfold during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The experience changed his attitude towards doomsday.<br />Regarding Wells' epitaph Gibson writes:<br />"I suspect that I began to distrust that particular flavor of italics when the world didn't end in October of 1962. My anxiety, and the world's, reached some absolute peak. And then declined, history moving on..."<br />Around the same time William Gibson was reading the Beat literature, and his worldview probably was becoming more nuanced, less earnest. He continues:<br />"And it may also have dawned on me, that history...is a species of speculative fiction itself, prone to changing interpretations and further discoveries."<br />I suppose that every age has its prevailing anxieties about doomsday. Heaven knows I frequently parcel out my personal thoughts to the spectors of climate change, fossil fuels depletion, global financial meltdown, ecological collapse.<br />Maybe I should follow Gibson's cue and <i>remove the italics</i>.<br />I like it when accomplished authors of fiction occasionally exit their creative trance states to lay bare their feelings. Kurt Vonnegut did it with his book <i>Palm Sunday.</i> I have to think it is good for them, too. At least it must feel good returning to the creative trance state.Twotomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04229355935297972957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-742757096885632020.post-73503987317983221652014-03-23T16:14:00.001-07:002014-03-23T16:14:08.864-07:00His Bicycle Genius Changed the World, TwiceTo bicycle aficionados the Tom Ritchey brand stands for a string of innovations that span several decades, all the way to the birth of mountain biking along the Northern California coast in the 1970's. Amidst the popular hero worshiping of people like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates the story of Tom Ritchey carries for me special meaning. His bicycle genius changed the world, twice<br />Tim Lewis writes about Tom in his excellent new book,<i> Land of Second Chances</i>. Book excerpt:<i> <a href="http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/12/bikes-and-tech/book-excerpt-tom-ritchey-the-dot-connector_311661#v4xfJMFYYSu5d6mq.99" target="_blank">Tom Ritchey, The dot connector</a></i><br />Endowed with a blend of gumption, industriousness, creativity and riding prowess Ritchey and fellow pioneers Joe Breeze and Gary Fisher developed both the first successful mountain bike business and a scene to go with it. The rest is, as they say, history.<br />Since those heady days Tom and his company Ritchey Logic have consistently produced well-respected bicycles and bike components, and in the process made him wealthy. For many that would be enough, but not for Ritchey.<br />In 2005 difficulties in his personal life would lead Tom on an exploration, visiting the country of Rwanda while it was still reeling from the devastation wrought by the genocide of 1994. Amidst severe material deprivation and social upheaval, the Rwandans impressed Ritchey with their resilience and optimism. Their president, Paul Kagame, embodied this by declaring his intention to make Rwanda the world’s first “purpose-driven nation.”<br />Tom determined to help them and discovered a crucial connection between two of his passions: bicycles and coffee.<br />Thousands of Rwandans were struggling to improve their material well-being through the cultivation of coffee. But these farmers were failing, for a lack of adequate transportation for their crops. After picking the coffee cherries from their trees, most farmers faced a long, difficult slog getting their harvest to village washing stations before the cherries spoiled.<br />Ritchey came up with a plan to supply them with a bicycle he specifically designed for this purpose, able to haul 300 pounds of cargo over the rough, hilly rural roads...and cost each farmer about $100.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Since then Tom Ritchey's Project Rwanda has placed 2,000 "coffee bikes" throughout Rwanda. These "two-wheeled pack mules" are helping coffee farmers and their families to be more productive, and to rise above poverty for the first time in their generation. Project Rwanda has singled out the coffee grower as an initial target, but other farmers and service providers, such as couriers, taxis, police, healthcare workers and teachers all can benefit from owning a cargo bike.<br />Large corporate coffee buyers such as Starbucks and Costco are now doing business in Rwanda, which is signalling to other potential trading partners that Rwanda is recovering from the recent past.<br />Tom has used the remaining proceeds donated to Project Rwanda in support of an effort to promote bicycle racing and specifically with the elite Team Rwanda. A movie called <a href="http://risingfromashesthemovie.com/" target="_blank">Rising from the Ashes</a> tells that story.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;"><i>My friend David Southerland and me hanging with Tom Ritchey <br />at the 2014 North American Handmade Bicycle Show</i></span></td></tr>
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Coffee, bikes, renewal...you gotta love it!</div>
Twotomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04229355935297972957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-742757096885632020.post-51805685220244920822013-03-20T20:16:00.001-07:002013-03-20T20:16:43.941-07:00Bicycles, Turkey, Ritalin<a target="_blank" href="http://www.gacommuteoptions.com/Blog/Bicycles-Turkey-and-Ritalin#.UUp0yxB5mSM">New blog entry</a> for Georgia Commute Options.<br /><br />Twotomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04229355935297972957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-742757096885632020.post-26834691245072726312013-01-02T16:39:00.001-08:002014-04-07T12:53:06.900-07:00The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<div style="background-color: white;">
Conscious living is overrated. </div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
<br />
Charles Duhigg wants us to know that even those of us trying to guide our personal and professional affairs through informed decision-making are underestimating the iron fist of habit.<br />
<br />
Do you eat when you are nervous?...reach for your phone when you feel that vibration in your pocket?...give a friend or family member a friendly verbal needling when they really need a hug?<br />
<br />
Human habits seem intractable and inexplicable, as ingrained in our beings as the color of our hair. “They are so strong, in fact, that they cause our brains to cling to them at the exclusion of all else, including common sense,” Duhigg writes.<br />
<br />
But it turns out our habits are quite malleable, that is if you understand how they work.<br />
<br />
According to neurological studies all habits—no matter how large or small—have three components. There's a cue—a trigger for a particular behavior; a routine, which is the behavior itself; and a reward, which is how your brain decides whether to remember a habit for the future.<br />
<br />
In this way a habit is essentially a computer program written on the blackboard of the brain’s basal ganglia. And, like many computer programs, they repeat themselves in a loop.<br />
<br />
A habit loop awakes with a cue: A smartphone dings during a meeting. It starts a routine: The iPhone is discreetly examined. A <i>Words with Friends </i>opponent has made a move, and now it’s time to pounce. Then there is a reward: you crave the ding and the resulting rush of endorphins it promises when you vanquish your opponent <br />
<br />
Duhigg notes how habit loops can explain how bad habits develop and introduces us to the concept of <i>habit loop manipulation</i>. By taking advantage of a quirk in the neurology of habits, we can create and change habits almost like flipping a switch.<br />
<br />
<b>Cue</b>: feeling sad. You crave some relief from the loneliness. <b>Routine</b>: drink. <b>Reward</b>: forget the troubles. Duhigg writes about how effective Alcoholics Anonymous is at intervening in the mechanics of habit loops and battling addiction. Through habit loop manipulation, we can break the habits of the smoker, the nail-biter and the over eater. <br />
<br />
Better yet, it can be used to create new routines of daily exercise, calling a loved one, paying the bills. If you can identify the right cue and reward—and if you can create a sense of craving—you can establish almost any habit.<br />
<br />
Studies indicate that anyone can use this basic formula to create habits of her or his own. Want to exercise more? Choose a cue, such as going to the gym as soon as you wake up, and a reward, such as a smoothie after each workout. Then think about that smoothie, or about the endorphin rush you’ll feel. Allow yourself to anticipate the reward. Eventually, that craving will make it easier to push through the gym doors every day.<br />
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On a personal level that is as far as Charles Duhigg, the business reporter, takes us. How can I master these techniques as a tool for self-improvement? Alas, this is not a self-improvement book.<br />
<br />
While his book left me wanting more, <a href="http://charlesduhigg.com/" target="_blank">Duhigg's web site</a> thankfully provides useful answers. He should have thrown a few of the diagrams on his web site into an appendix.<br />
<br />
Habit loop manipulation has far-reaching utility, and this book diligently illustrates its use in organizational and societal levels. Companies and governments are getting ever more adept at identifying, co-opting, and shaping our behavior patterns to increase profits and maintain control. <br />
<br />
Duhigg is value-neutral in his choice of examples of businesses and sports teams using these powerful techniques. Most are stories about turnarounds, such as the use of these techniques to benignly sell more stuff to consumers.<br />
<br />
But Duhigg avoids the obvious more insidious side of habit loop manipulation, leaving it presumably for someone else to investigate the brands that profit by encouraging self-destructive habits like drinking, smoking, firearms or gambling.<br />
<br />
His enthusiasm for corporate ingenuity seems to blind him at times to the sinister aspects of habit manipulation. While writing about all the successful application of habit loop manipulation by McDonald's, Proctor and Gamble, Alcoa and Target, what might be going on at Phillip Morris, Chase Manhattan and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp?</div>
Twotomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04229355935297972957noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-742757096885632020.post-4004964926364532172012-12-26T07:30:00.004-08:002012-12-26T07:30:46.517-08:00Fishman Makes Waves in AtlantaLast month Charles Fishman lectured a packed house at the AT&T auditorium about what we can do to ensure the safety and reliability of our water supplies. Known for his timely and incisive journalism with books such as <i>The Walmart Effect</i> and most recently <i>The Big Thirst</i>, Fishman did not disappoint.<br /><br />
First, some fun facts about water:<br />
<ul>
<li>Campbell's Soup operates a factory in Illinois that uses enough water to supply a city of 155,000 residents. Only 3% of it goes into the soup.</li>
<li>Bottled water is one of the most common items sold in American grocery stores. Americans spent $10.6 billion on bottled water in 2009, something that flows out of our taps for almost nothing.</li>
<li>It takes a lot of water to cool our electric power plants, and electric utility companies account for half of all the water consumed in the state of Georgia. The average household in the U.S. uses 100 gallons per day, but our indirect consumption based on the amount of electricity we use adds another 150 gallons.</li>
<li>Antiquated distribution systems in the City of Atlanta and DeKalb County lose 15% of their water through leakage.</li>
</ul>
Charles Fishman is a great explainer, and this talent comes in handy for a subject as complicated as is our relationship with water.<br /><br />
Viewed on a global scale, water is a resource so vital that countries will sometimes fight wars over it. Fishman cautions us to think locally, where so many critical opportunities and solutions await our discovery.<br /><br />
But first we must overcome inaccuracies in our conventional wisdom about water that inhibit our ability to enact sensible water policies. This starts with the way we pay for it.<br /><br />
Fishman posits that we recently lived through a golden age of water, when we never had to think about water in its apparently limitless abundance. Most municipal water utilities have been happy to charge their customers only to defray the costs of treatment, distribution and disposal. The water itself was free.<br /><br />
Throughout this golden age we assumed that the water itself had no economic value. Amidst the regional "water wars" involving Georgia, Alabama and Florida we now know this to be false. Many regions of the United States are grappling with similar concerns about the adequacy of their water supplies, especially as we face the intensified effects of global climate change and extreme weather events.<br /><br />
So, water is priced too cheaply. Like all vital natural resources our use of water ought to bear a cost significant enough to spur its conservation. <br /><br />
Consider how higher gasoline prices spur the availability and popularity of fuel efficient automobiles. When was the last time you had a casual conversation with your friends about the price of water, the same friends who always know which gas stations have the lowest prices?<br /><br />
This applies not only to municipal water supplies. Most electric power plant operators withdraw vast amounts of water from our rivers and lakes and pay nothing for it. More in my blog, <a href="http://tomtomaka.blogspot.com/2011/03/water-electricity-nexus.html">The Water-Electricity Nexus</a>.<br /><br />
All of this matters out of our concern for our health, for economic development, and for the environment.<br /><br />
Fishman said we need to "tap" into our emotional attachment with water to develop new and innovative solutions. He calls it <i>Smart Water</i> and provided several examples.<br />
<br />
Orlando, FL is one of several municipalities that has banned the use of drinking water for irrigating lawns. Time for us to re-learn the art of rainwater harvesting and graywater recycling!<br /><br />
Most of his examples come by way of the private sector, where business leaders are finding that conservation and water efficiency can be cost-effective business strategies. It has to go beyond the purview of the steely-eyed capitalist and into the consciousness of the public and our elected officials. <br /><br />
We currently spend almost as much for bottled water as we do for our public water infrastructure, which sorely needs to become more flexible in the face of weather extremes caused by climate change. The $10.6 billion or so that Americans spent annually on bottled water could go a long way to assure that our municipal water systems are safe, secure and environmentally-sound.<br /><br />
We clearly can afford it but so far lack the will.<br /><br />
Fishman's lecture could have tackled much broader issues concerning our relationship with water, such as the <a href="http://government.cce.cornell.edu/doc/pdf/Warner_2011_WaterPrivatization.pdf" target="_blank">privatization of public water supplies</a> and the <a href="http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/pesticidesgw.html" target="_blank">contamination of supplies by agricultural pesticides</a>. But he wants us to focus on the issues we can best address at a local and regional level.<span><span></span></span>Twotomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04229355935297972957noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-742757096885632020.post-74223483374618367732012-12-22T05:38:00.001-08:002012-12-22T05:38:18.137-08:00The NRA Steals an Emmy<br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=12/12/22/460.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/12/12/22/s_460.jpg' border='0' width='186' height='281' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Wayne LaPierre may not have accomplished his aims during yesterday's <a target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/22/us/nra-calls-for-armed-guards-at-schools.html">NRA press conference</a>, but his performance achieved something even more remarkable. While telling us that the best way to stop the senseless violence in our schools is to fill them with armed "good guys," LaPierre conjured the working-stiff ghost of Archie Bunker. <br />As a lifelong fan of the 1970s TV sitcom <i>All in the Family</I> I remember the episode when Archie, brilliantly played by Carroll O'Connor, gave an <i>equal time</i> appearance on his local TV news program. For those of you too young to remember there once was a time when anyone could voice their opinions on TV, at least before President Ronald Reagan abolished the Fairness Doctrine.<br />Anyway, Archie Bunker had an answer to the big public scare of the time, which was the hijacking of commercial aircraft by armed assailants. A flop-sweating Archie stared doe-eyed into the camera and explained that each passenger should be given a gun as they boarded their flight.<br />If everyone on the plane were armed, he reasoned, no "bad guy" would ever think of pulling out a weapon. Upon safely arriving at their destination, passengers would simply surrender their guns as they de-planed. <br />Case closed!<br />If Wayne LaPierre fails in his quest to defeat proposals for even the mildest forms of gun control, as he has done so deftly throughout his years as president of the NRA, he should at least be awarded one of Carroll O'Connor's Emmys, for proving to us that the spirit of Archie Bunker is alive and well.<br /><br /><br />- Thanks for reading, and stay in touch!<br />Twotomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04229355935297972957noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-742757096885632020.post-45120437670206512482012-10-02T09:45:00.000-07:002012-10-02T09:45:29.046-07:00Loving the Brain Bucket<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAcmQiPy-XJp7pjWF6w0qe5MfAG9v_JCSjMJAXlutaeKertjB9BELAsTFS8pvXIEjPDziIQF2-TLeQrZyQMFzpZcKLqGZje-tuyVdWf1UBHo19zlErLqvbaw7GrdEJmwxlIg_4rrYzDIY/s1600/il_fullxfull.79989179.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAcmQiPy-XJp7pjWF6w0qe5MfAG9v_JCSjMJAXlutaeKertjB9BELAsTFS8pvXIEjPDziIQF2-TLeQrZyQMFzpZcKLqGZje-tuyVdWf1UBHo19zlErLqvbaw7GrdEJmwxlIg_4rrYzDIY/s320/il_fullxfull.79989179.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Photo courtesy of <a href="http://bellehelmets.myshopify.com/collections/designs/products/phrenology" target="_blank">Belle Helmets</a></div>
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<br />
As an avid recreational cyclist and frequent bicycle commuter, I would never dream of swinging my leg over a bike without wearing a helmet.<br />
Bike helmets work. I have a few that I've worn over the years bearing the unmistakable signs that they served their intended purpose: cracked and scraped where my skull would otherwise have borne the damage.<br />
That said, wearing a helmet is a personal choice that should not be forced upon me or any other adult. Those who impose helmet use on all cyclists impose a double standard of safety and needlessly impede the popularity of bicycling.<br />
We should take note of the dearth of bicycle helmets in Europe. There, the widespread use of bicycles is largely fueled by pragmatism. In many cases the bicycle is the simplest, cheapest, easiest way to complete a desired trip. That includes one's attire. <br />Europeans rarely bicycle in anything other than their street, school or business attire. The bicycle helmet has not part in it.<br />In the same way, Americans would hardly find it convenient to wear a crash helmet while driving our automobiles, although one could doubtlessly complete a thorough search of the research literature and "prove" that widespread helmet use would reduce the number of head injuries from automobile accidents. <br />After all, helmets are entirely acceptable to NASCAR.<br />
<div>
Some personal choices, stupid as they might appear, should not be legislated. Light up a smoke and think about it.</div>
Twotomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04229355935297972957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-742757096885632020.post-58825548065947030852012-09-24T11:26:00.002-07:002012-09-25T09:03:27.071-07:00NEW BOOK: The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-ups, and Winning at All Costs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihaYIREQhZcN7034VpkhU2-smK0ONISpL0EvvjufJQW2nntKAK9tRv7t227ijkdt0EQr20oD8XK8cQd_H3cRAlZsqpRSTr5Ps_QD30xZbY3EQcK5T8rCHBA4ippydCv24wcgcN95DDVAI/s1600/secret-race-book-daniel-coyle-tyler-hamilton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihaYIREQhZcN7034VpkhU2-smK0ONISpL0EvvjufJQW2nntKAK9tRv7t227ijkdt0EQr20oD8XK8cQd_H3cRAlZsqpRSTr5Ps_QD30xZbY3EQcK5T8rCHBA4ippydCv24wcgcN95DDVAI/s320/secret-race-book-daniel-coyle-tyler-hamilton.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
As a long-time fan of professional bike racing, I read Tyler Hamilton's new autobiography with some preconceived notions shared by many. Doping among riders has been part of professional cycling's long history almost from it's beginning, so why all the fuss now? It's part of the sport: always has, always will.<br />
<br />
Second, any meaningful story about the events of the past sixteen years cannot avoid featuring cycling's star character, Lance Armstrong, who continues to face serious efforts to prosecute...or as he says, persecute. Aren't such efforts meaningless and in fact detrimental both to cycling as a sport and to Armstrong's many charitable efforts? It's water way, way under the bridge, so what would busting him now accomplish?<br />
<br />
Thirdly, given Tyler Hamilton's long history of cheating and coverup, why should we believe anything he has to say now? To that point, Daniel Coyle proves to be an effective co-author.<br />
<br />
Having already written an outsider's account <i>Lance Armstrong's War</i> with Armstrong's cooperation, Coyle possesses valuable familiarity with professional cycling without the emotional stake held by those who are also fans. He already had a rough outline of the sport's history with doping, and Tyler Hamilton provides the hard-to-obtain details from an insider.<br />
<br />
Coyle took care in selecting which of Hamilton's anecdotes to include in the book, corroborating wherever possible the accounts of other witnesses. Each chapter is extensively footnoted, including many incisive comments by one of Hamilton's former team mates, Jonathan Vaughters.<br />
<br />
So, yes, the book's accounts are credible.<br />
<br />
The Secret Race explains why doping as practiced within professional cycling in recent years is a serious problem, and it has destroyed many lives both figuratively and literally. More importantly, it points to the cycling's only hope for meaningful redemption.<br />
<br />
This is a story about the deeply in-bred culture of bad actors who control the sport: the team owners, coaches, sanctioning bodies, sponsors...and Lance Armstrong. Bring the bad actors to justice, and younger cyclists may once again believe that they can race clean and still win. <br />
<br />
<i>The Secret Race</i> weaves together all the significant doping scandals of the past 15 years. Although the publicity surrounding this book is driven by the interest in Lance Armstrong, the book exposes a sport-wide culture where doping was expected and the infrastructure to support it was easily accessible to the best riders. The pressure to win and the money riding on the outcome meant that cheating was/(is?) almost inevitable in pro cycling- especially given the ineffective testing standards during Hamilton's day.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Hamilton: <i>They've got their doctors, and we have ours. Ours were better than theirs. </i></blockquote>
Andy Hampsten, the American who rose to professional cycling's elite ranks after winning the Giro de Italia in1988, eventually found himself out-muscled by nobody competitors who suddenly transformed themselves, turbocharged by the new blood booster called EPO. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>In the mid eighties, when I came up, riders were doping but it was still possible to compete with them...bottom line, a clean rider could compete in the big three-week races. EPO changed everything...all of a sudden whole teams were ragingly fast, all of a sudden I was struggling to make time limits... As the 1996 season went by...everybody knew what was up, everybody was talking about EPO, everybody could see the writing on the wall.</i></blockquote>
Many have a blasé attitude towards athletes' use of performance enhancing drugs, because "it was a level playing field; they all doped." That would be fine if all athletes have the same access to the new technologies and the same protections from being caught.<br />
<br />
For years I believed the Lance Armstrong story, about a genetically gifted athlete who beat his cancer and then dominated the sport of professional cycling mainly by training harder and smarter than his competitors. His physiological talents and his professional work ethic cannot be denied. <br />
<br />
But the Lance Armstrong myth, on which he created an enormously successful commercial brand, only partially explains his success with cycling. Lance also proved to be more ruthless, better-resourced, and politically cunning than his competitors. The difference is Lance had a story-book narrative that appealed to the general public and therefore sponsors and industry hacks. Protection from within the UCI sounds ridiculous - which is what Lance counted on - and most people would never believe such a thing. <br />
<br />
Example: another powerful doping method that came in vogue among cyclists in the late 1990's involved the harvesting of a one's blood prior to a big race and then re-infusing it either before or during the race. Lance retained the services of the notorious Dr. Michele Ferrari, and paid Ferrari to work only with him.<br />
<br />
That left most of his closest competitors seeking the services of the equally-notorious Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes. <br />
Problem is, Dr. Fuentes sometimes suffered from organization lapses, in in numerous instances re-infused the wrong blood into his clients.<br />
<br />
Tyler Hamilton was busted in 2004 after a doing control test detected traces of someone else's blood in his. While Hamilton now admits to accepting illegal transfusions of his own blood, he was only caught after Fuente mixed up blood supplies from various clients while the blood was being processed in his lab. Bad luck for Lance's competitors who did not have their own personal doping service!<br />
<br />
Ironically, one possible side-effect of taking EPO is an increased
risk of certain cancers, including testicular. There is strong evidence
that Lance did a lot of EPO before his cancer diagnosis in 1996.<br />
<br />
This book provides a valuable cautionary tale even for those who are not fans of professional cycling. Tyler Hamilton was in effect a made man, working within a league of organized crime.<br />
<br />
As Daniel Coyle writes in the book's prologue:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>He pointed to the crook of his elbows, to matching spidery scars that ran along his veins. "We all have scars like this," he said. "It's like a tattoo from a fraternity."</i></blockquote>
Or from a gang.<br />
<br />
The book describes acts of collusion, intimidation and conspiracy by prominent members of professional cycling representing the athletes, team management, commercial sponsors and governing bodies. Most of all, it recounts many instances of their omertà, or code of silence. <br />
<br />
The corruption of professional cycling grew out of an environment dominated by hypercompetetive characters, large sums of money, powerful enabling technologies and weak independent oversight. <br />
Jonathan Vaughters said:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>This is what happens when there’s no auditing. It’s a larger fabric of the way people behave in a corrupt culture...there’s a cheat-or-be-cheated mentality. You have the UCI in a position of promoting the sport and regulating it. There’s no way they’d have done a good job. And then along comes a guy like Armstrong who’s a great story and is going to drive all this interest in the sport... “Why kill the golden goose?” </i></blockquote>
We find the same conditions present in other corrupt parts of our society, inside and outside of sports.<br />
<br />
Wall Street, anyone?<br />
<br />
UPDATE: The US Anti Doping Agency has investigated Armstrong and plans to <a href="http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/tygart-received-death-threats-during-usadas-armstrong-investigation" target="_blank">make public its dossier of gathered evidence</a> before the end of the year. USADA, which has already banned Armstrong and stripped him from his victories since 1998, is acting beyond the<a href="http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/usada-armstrong-could-have-retained-five-tour-wins"> eight-year statute of limitations</a> normally applicable within the framework of the World Anti-Doping Code. USADA is nonetheless proceeding against Armstrong, because the law states that the eight-year statute is invalid in cases where the accused influenced the witnesses who could have testified against him, concealed proof or lied under oath. USADA will try to prove that this has happened in the Armstrong case.<br />
<br />
See also my previous post, <a href="http://tomtomaka.blogspot.com/2011/05/our-doper-culture.html" target="_blank"><i>Our Dope(r) Culture</i></a>.<br />
<br />
Thanks as always for reading and please stay in touch! Twotomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04229355935297972957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-742757096885632020.post-53328551613008570602012-08-12T19:05:00.000-07:002012-08-12T19:10:40.408-07:00Bicycling's Unspoken Rules of the Road<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvjb9y7zOAEFNiERQcT4pCosL1WD27cz1hqVpZ6xEG5-4NJ2ra_YSJP3WhpxylD_IyD2Ki46hE6r3Aa-PVoxiafA5UBW7TABME5jtW3n8cV8NosOkfTtP_Wv55IY9P9kc2MXAw5yQtV88/s1600/LR_Bicycle_Stop_Light.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvjb9y7zOAEFNiERQcT4pCosL1WD27cz1hqVpZ6xEG5-4NJ2ra_YSJP3WhpxylD_IyD2Ki46hE6r3Aa-PVoxiafA5UBW7TABME5jtW3n8cV8NosOkfTtP_Wv55IY9P9kc2MXAw5yQtV88/s320/LR_Bicycle_Stop_Light.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
R-E-S-P-E-C-T. One can almost hear Aretha's back track while listening to that tired story about bicyclists needing to obey the traffic laws. <br />
<br />
A recent NY Times op-ed by Randy Cohen (<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/opinion/sunday/if-kant-were-a-new-york-cyclist.html" target="_blank"><i>If Kant were a New York City Cyclist</i></a>) raised a tsunami of criticism from cyclists and noncyclists alike. Cohen, who for many years edited a weekly column about ethics in the <i>NY Times Sunday Magazine</i>, expressed a point of view I find to be spot-on.<br />
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<br /></div>
<div>
Critics are bristling at the thought of excusing law-breaking cyclists, under any conditions.<br />
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<br /></div>
<div>
Apparently Cohen's biggest mistake was to cite Kant while he debunked longstanding beliefs held by many. Who reads Kant anymore? <br />
<br />
So let's set that aside and talk about matters of safety and respect. <br />
<br />
Over the past 22 years I have bicycled over 71,000 miles, mostly on the streets and roads of Atlanta. Despite the challenging conditions here for biking I have done so accident-free and thus feel I know something about what a cyclist can do to avoid collisions with other vehicles. <br />
<br />
We can all agree that respect for cyclists is a good thing, both in creating safer conditions on the road and in obtaining specific legal and infrastructure accommodations from the powers-that-be. <br />
<br />
But I disagree with the conduct some insist are vital for cyclists to gain that respect, and I furthermore think such respect may be overrated. <br />
<br />
In places I know well such as Atlanta and New York, many road users pick and choose which laws to obey based on a their needs, preferences, the effectiveness of local law enforcement and (hopefully) common sense. It's not necessarily a bad thing, and it has stood the test of time! <br />
<br />
I vividly remember my high school drivers ed (yes, it was decades ago), when a NY State Trooper addressed my class by telling us that that the police do not issue speeding tickets if they clock a speed less than 6 miles over the limit, or on interstates if the speed is less than 65 in a posted 55. <br />
<br />
Great, we budding drivers thought, permission to break the law!<br />
<br />
And it's not just speed limits that we are flaunting. Texting, rolling stop signs, double parking and unsignaled turns are just some of the many infractions frequently practiced by a broad swath of motorists. I frequently see police cruisers doing it. <br />
<br />
Meanwhile we have our anecdotes from witnessing bad bicycling behavior. Motorists love to cite this as a frequent bone of contention. <br />
<br />
But what thinking person concludes that cyclists break the laws any more frequently than noncyclists? Where, then, does this obsession with cyclist misbehavior come from? </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
But first a word about safety.<br />
<br />
Indeed, scofflaws of all stripes can make bad decisions...dangerous decisions. But who predominantly suffers for these bad decisions? HINT: if you are encapsulated in a steel-and-glass-and-plastic can, you usually are not the one most at risk of harm.</div>
<div>
<br />
This is where bikes and cars occupy different ethical grounds based on their potential for harm. Put another way, we need a stronger appreciation for the benefits of placing ourselves under conditions that mitigate the consequences of poor judgement.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
When you see a cyclist doing something patently stupid, imperiling themselves or (more rarely) others, don't hate on cyclists. Instead think to yourself, <i>Oh, good, at least that bonehead isn't driving a 4,000-pound Explorer.</i><br />
<br />
Conversely when I see the driver of an Explorer proceed through a red light at a deserted intersection, I am heartened. Why idle unnecessarily (wasting fuel and polluting the air), because the local jurisdiction hasn't properly maintained their traffic signals? <br />
<br />
Which brings us back to these solemn exhortations for cyclists to obey the laws, flawed as they are. Is it really so outrageous to say that many of us, cyclist or not, are scofflaws of necessity and habit? <br />
<br />
This discussion needs more candor. Without it, we risk setting double standards of behavior for bicyclists and motorists which perpetuate the bicyclists' relegation as second-class road users. <br />
<br />
Which brings us to the value of respect for cyclists. Motorists frequently complain about bad cycling behavior, but is this really the source of their contempt? <br />
<br />
I am not so sure and would like evidence to the contrary. <br />
<br />
"But these here cyclists are lawbreakers" is a convenient but not entirely honest justification for the attitudes of some motorists who have yet to overcome a stronger feeling that cyclists don't have any business using their roads. To them, cyclists irritate not for their lawlessness but simply because they are there. <br />
<br />
Here in Atlanta we have spent over two decades tirelessly advocating for safer conditions for cyclists. Our progress--while fitful--has accelerated dramatically over the past three years. Why? <br />
<br />
It has less to do with us gaining some added measure of "respect" from the non-cycling powers-that-be than it has from the fact that we have new friends in government (City Council, State) who are themselves bicyclists. <br />
<br />
Our numbers continue to grow. Time and tide are in our favor and will gradually replace the older authority figures with those who get it. Perhaps patience more than respect is the bicycle advocate's best friend. </div>
</div>
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As always, thanks for reading and stay in touch!</div>Twotomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04229355935297972957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-742757096885632020.post-84509947552090411732012-08-01T12:32:00.000-07:002012-08-01T14:36:48.845-07:00Atlanta: Fit to be Tied<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.09375); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(191, 107, 82, 0.496094); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Noteworthy; font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 24px;"></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPaIeGZQ5onyBj1ibYSwuhyphenhyphenmZ53mMaiA4RUEkWP2R0xKzqXfD_vSXOiKb2r8E5cOXY9egzswCzNF38UhV9iEZvW1g8PuFxBBRivW9iI3HtJl-ikM2awRXFRQ3ZjeFNufzHn9lK7oO0XsE/s1600/3CIW_traffic_knot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPaIeGZQ5onyBj1ibYSwuhyphenhyphenmZ53mMaiA4RUEkWP2R0xKzqXfD_vSXOiKb2r8E5cOXY9egzswCzNF38UhV9iEZvW1g8PuFxBBRivW9iI3HtJl-ikM2awRXFRQ3ZjeFNufzHn9lK7oO0XsE/s320/3CIW_traffic_knot.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.09375); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(191, 107, 82, 0.496094); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); font-family: Noteworthy; font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 24px;">The good news is, Atlanta-area voters have spoken. Sadly their voices were tinged with fear, paranoia and pessimism.</span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.09375); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(191, 107, 82, 0.496094); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); font-family: Noteworthy; font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 24px;">
</span><br />
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.09375); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(191, 107, 82, 0.496094); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); font-family: Noteworthy; font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 24px;">It is a pity they rejected the transportation referendum (TIA,) because we badly needed it. The business community, politicians from both parties and grassroots community groups strongly supported it.</span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.09375); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(191, 107, 82, 0.496094); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); font-family: Noteworthy; font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 24px;">
Supporters of the TIA understand how Georgia currently ranks 48th in per capita spending on transportation, and planners predict that Metro Atlanta will become home for an additional three million people over next 30 years.</span><br />
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.09375); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(191, 107, 82, 0.496094); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); font-family: Noteworthy; font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 24px;">However they were bested by an equally diverse coalition of opponents, each with their own agendas. Although the majority of the tax revenues was to be spent on transit and other non-roads projects, it did not satisfy the Georgia Sierra Club's anti-roads stance.</span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.09375); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(191, 107, 82, 0.496094); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); font-family: Noteworthy; font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 24px;">
<div>
The Georgia NAACP opposed it, because they claim that GDOT has not been using enough minority contractors. They have demanded that Obama's Department of Justice investigate this.</div>
<div>
Most importantly the Georgia Tea Party tapped into a vast reservoir of anti-government sentiment, especially against GDOT and MARTA. Voters could not be convinced that there are legal provisions in place to assure that the tax would expire after ten years, and that the proceeds would be spent as promised. </div>
<div>
These opposition organizations say that the results of this vote creates a mandate for a "Plan B," despite a clear disinterest on the part of the Georgia Legislature to reopen this subject. This would raise the possibility of reopening past debates about the state motor fuel tax, current budgeting restrictions on MARTA and regional governance of transportation in Atlanta. </div>
<div>
I hope that they are right but am not betting on it. It is a lot easier to whip up constituents to vote "no" than it is to recruit them into a cogent transportation reform movement.</div>
<div>
The Georgia Tea Party, Sierra Club and NAACP can take a well-deserved victory lap. Then they need to get busy. </div>
<div>
They have earned themselves a mountain of work that they now own.</div>
</span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.09375); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(191, 107, 82, 0.496094); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Noteworthy; font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 24px;">
</span>Twotomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04229355935297972957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-742757096885632020.post-15116808589224736142012-04-12T09:04:00.002-07:002012-04-12T09:04:37.115-07:00The De-Bikification of BeijingPity, the citizens of Beijing. Obsessed with the status symbols of consumer culture, they are furiously <a href="http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2012/04/de-bikification-beijing/1681/" target="_blank">ditching their bicycles for cars</a>. They will soon get what they asked for, and they won't like it.Twotomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04229355935297972957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-742757096885632020.post-67924955198550243012012-03-13T05:56:00.002-07:002012-03-13T05:56:45.575-07:00Miracle on Washington StreetA few weeks ago, road cyclists received a miracle. It was on February 27th to be exact.<br />
<br />
On
that day, a Georgia Senator--one who previously said that we need a law
to keep bicycles out of the way of motorists--became an advocate for
bicycles!<br />
<br />
At a <wbr></wbr><a href="http://tomtomaka.blogspot.com/2012/02/georgia-bikers-fall-in-line.html" target="_blank">Transportation Committee hearing</a> the week prior, Senator Butch Miller and
several co-sponsors offered SB 468, which would ban the currently-legal
practice of bicyclists riding two abreast on Georgia roads and instead
force them to ride single-file.<br />
<br />
To their credit, leaders from Georgia Bikes! worked to maintain a
constructive relationship with Senator Miller. They sought compromise
and got one.<br />
<br />Miller accepted their watered-down amendment which
substituted the outright ban of two-abreast riding with a vaguely-worded
requirement for cyclists <i>not to impede the normal and reasonable flow
of traffic</i>.<br />
<br />
While the amended bill raised a host of questions about
enforce-ability and other unintended consequences, Miller could rely on
the fact that the same kind of vague limitation on cycling was already
on the books in nine other states. Surely its passage into law would allow him and SB 468's co-sponsors to claim a win on behalf of their motorist constituents.<br />
<br />With
the bill passing unanimously through committee and apparently destined
for a vote in the full Senate, Miller told Georgia Bikes! the following
Monday that <a href="http://www.georgiabikes.org/index.php/blog/231-sb-468-from-single-file-to-complete-streets" target="_blank">he would not pursue passage of his bill</a> and would instead work
with Georgia Bikes! on the implementation of a <b>Complete
Streets</b> policy. Complete Streets policies emphasize that
public roads should be designed for moving people, not just automobiles,
and should include facilities that improve safety and access for
transit users, pedestrians, and bicyclists of all ages and abilities.<br />
<br />
Some characterize Miller's intentions as always in keeping the interest
of cyclists foremost, claiming that he rides a bike himself.<br />
<br />
Oddly, he
never mentioned that about himself during the hearing as he faced a long
line of citizen-bicyclists criticizing his bill. For a two-term
Senator, one would think Miller would have seized the opportunity to
establish his credibility with this assembly of bicyclists.<br />
<br />
As I described previously in this blog, Miller repeatedly acted in ways
that seem to belie his stated intentions. Would bicyclists expect any
more from someone who leads the Georgia Automobile Dealers
Association?<br />
<br />
Beyond the potent persuasive powers of Georgia Bikes!, what could
account for Miller's dramatic turnaround? How did the discussion shift
so dramatically, away from getting bikers out of motorists' way to
developing streets that are conducive to non-automobile transportation?<br />
<br />
For now it's best to leave the sleeping dog lie and celebrate the fact that we are not all riding in a line.<br /><br />
And to Senator Miller: thank you for seeing the light. I hope to see everyone at the <a href="http://www.georgiabikes.org/index.php/events/2012-ga-rides-to-the-capitol" target="_blank">GA Rides to the Capitol</a>.<br />
<br />- As always, thank you for reading and stay in touch!Twotomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04229355935297972957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-742757096885632020.post-60263950444907248672012-02-28T05:30:00.002-08:002012-02-28T15:56:23.669-08:00Georgia Senate Taking Bikers for a Ride<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLiS2gFx8E_wDd5yRjUdrTCr6dcD85AWReYcHvNHc27yRMoxjQ34G6TCRcDLllgwI2pjkXC1dlbd6SJcxLGMC8-2Rh2s-CQkGIX5ezC0tSmhpeLomV5kYJC_yfH-s4LpDDlMwwXV4NmGg/s1600/5806287049_756b8750c5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLiS2gFx8E_wDd5yRjUdrTCr6dcD85AWReYcHvNHc27yRMoxjQ34G6TCRcDLllgwI2pjkXC1dlbd6SJcxLGMC8-2Rh2s-CQkGIX5ezC0tSmhpeLomV5kYJC_yfH-s4LpDDlMwwXV4NmGg/s320/5806287049_756b8750c5.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
UPDATE: <span style="background-color: #c0a154; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">Senator Butch Miller </span><a href="http://georgiabikes.org/index.php/blog/229-sb-468-two-abreast-bill" style="background-color: #c0a154; color: #993322; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; text-decoration: none;">will not pursue passage of SB 468</a><span style="background-color: #c0a154; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">, preferring instead to work with Georgia Bikes! on the implementation of a Complete Streets policy over the remainder of this and into the next legislative session.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: #c0a154; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: #c0a154; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">I'll post here again when I learn more about this welcome and unexpected turnaround!</span><br />
As SB 468--the bill which originally proposed to curtail two-abreast bicycling in Georgia--sailed through the Senate Transportation Committee last week and makes its way to the Rules Committee, confusion reigns over the future of road cycling in Georgia. For cyclists, our remaining options are very limited.<br />
<br />
Georgia Bikes! has <a href="http://www.georgiabikes.org/index.php/blog/229-sb-468-two-abreast-bill">published its current advocacy position</a> on its web site. Thankfully, they have negotiated with Senator Butch Miller for the removal of the bill's language regarding two abreast bicycling. Instead, the amended bill contains this curious provision:<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #6a6a6a; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; text-align: left;">Persons riding bicycles and electric assisted bicycles shall not impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic and on a laned roadway shall ride within a single lane.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #6a6a6a; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; text-align: left;"><br /></span><br />
Depending on who you ask, this could mean a lot, or nothing. Some point to the fact that similar language is already on the books in Colorado and<a href="http://bicycling.com/blogs/roadrights/2010/04/15/two-by-two/"> seven other states</a>, and that the results have been inconsequential for cyclists. After all, they say, this simply places into the law what we cyclists normally practice using our own judgement and common sense.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As written, however, it is vague and does not explain what<i> normal and reasonable</i> means. Thus it raises two risks:<br />
<div>
<ol>
<li>It will create confusion for all concerned parties and is impossible to enforce consistently. One can easily imagine the same confusion among law enforcement officers. <i>Gosh, Officer, we didn't realize that the traffic behind us wasn't normal and reasonable.</i></li>
<li>In future cases of automobile-bicycle accidents, this could provide a means for motorists to avoid responsibility when they otherwise would be found to be at fault.</li>
</ol>
Senator Miller has no supporting accident data, case studies for similar legislation, or any other evidence to support his claim that SB 468 will "improve safety." Its true purpose is to satisfy motorists who do not believe in sharing the roads with cyclists. Georgia's Senators get plenty of phone calls from angry constituents about troublesome bikers on the road, so it is an easy avenue for the politicians to score points. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Georgia Bikes!, while continuing to work "in good faith" with Senator Miller, states that they are <i>not actively opposing the <a href="http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20112012/122773.pdf">current </a>amended version of SB 468.</i> They are holding out hopes that they can extract further concessions from Sen. Miller.<br />
<br />
Senator Miller and SB 468's co-sponsors want to demonstrate to motorists that they have acted to get bikers out of their way. Georgia Bikes! is finessing their way into a compromise which could leave us in a legal Twilight Zone.<br />
<br />
This Bill now has plenty of momentum in the Legislature and stands a good chance of becoming law. Georgia Bikes! other option is to fight to kill this bill. Under the current political conditions at the State Capitol, they would probably lose.<br />
<br />
Activists not associated with Georgia Bikes! has started an<a href="http://www.petitionvoice.com/ga-two-abreast-senate-bill-petition.html"> online petition opposing SB 468</a>. I still don't know what the right course of action should be.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
All I know is, Georgia's roads are littered with loose screws.</div>Twotomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04229355935297972957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-742757096885632020.post-75201317155475845112012-02-24T11:45:00.001-08:002012-02-24T11:49:43.079-08:00Georgia Bikers, Fall In Line!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNBirMctFRRloC0j4HTh3qP3pI7y8dWHq5Xdqy5oXPZa_jMI576VbluOSYbfXY98ruj661sTSOwiks4h1_DcZSJu7put13kkP7M71XL1L5Anysgdz4uf9YH0o6kBktFwT19O8CGa5aBSo/s1600/flat-tire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNBirMctFRRloC0j4HTh3qP3pI7y8dWHq5Xdqy5oXPZa_jMI576VbluOSYbfXY98ruj661sTSOwiks4h1_DcZSJu7put13kkP7M71XL1L5Anysgdz4uf9YH0o6kBktFwT19O8CGa5aBSo/s320/flat-tire.jpg" width="317" /></a></div>
<i>Two steps forward, one step back</i>. Progress in certain places often ratchets ahead, avoiding a path of continuous gain.<br />
<br />
As for the state of bicycling in Georgia, it's more like <i>one step
forward, two steps back</i>. Yesterday I responded to an urgent call
from the <a href="http://www.atlantabike.org/node/2123" target="_blank">Atlanta Bicycle Coalition</a> for bicyclists to attend a meeting of the Senate Transportation Committee at the Georgia State Capitol.<br />
<br />
They met to consider <a href="http://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/en-US/Display/20112012/SB/468" target="_blank">SB 468</a>,
a bill that would require bicyclists to ride single file in the
presence of other traffic. Specifically, cyclists must ride single file
if there are approaching vehicles within 300 feet of them.<br />
<br />
The bill's primary sponsor is Butch Miller. He explained that the
bill is a response to the many concerns about safety that he and other
Senators have heard from their constituents.<br />
<br />
With respect to the<a href="http://www.winstonbriggslaw.com/blog/2011/07/georgia-better-bicycling-bill-creates-3-foot-buffer-for-cyclists.shtml" target="_blank"> 3-foot passing law</a>
that the Georgia Legislature passed last Summer, Miller said, motorists
now find themselves stuck behind packs of cyclists, sometimes prompting
them to make unsafe maneuvers...even to cross the double yellow center
line to pass the cyclists. By Miller's reasoning, a prior law designed
to safeguard cyclists necessitates new restrictions on the same
cyclists, because motorists, after all, have jobs to get to.<br />
<br />
Seriously. He cited this matter as a threat to the economy.<br />
<br />
None of SB 468's cosponsors are cyclists
themselves, and all expressed amusement/befuddlement with spandex cycling attire. I wanted to ask whether any of them were hunters.<br />
<br />
Interestingly, Butch Miller is also the <b>Chairman of the Georgia Automobile
Dealers Association</b>. Steve Gooch of Dahlonega acknowledged
the importance of cycling to the North Georgia economy (e.g., the Six Gap Century) but insisted that
something be done about the safety issues presented by cyclists riding
on their two-lane roads.<br />
<br />
One of the Senators asked how it is that a bicyclist can discern whether
an oncoming vehicle is within 300 feet. Miller suggested that the
bicyclist use a mirror. <br />
<br />
Miller insisted that he does not wish to
rush this legislation and did want to hear from all parties concerned.
He accepted a "friendly amendment" that limits the new single file
riding rule only to two-lane roads.<br />
<br />
The Committee heard from seven cyclists and cycling advocates. No one spoke in support of the bill.<br />
<br />
Then
Chairman Jeff Mullis asked for a motion, Butch Miller motioned to pass
the bill, Democrat Doug Stoner seconded the motion, and it passed by
unanimous voice vote.<br />
<br />
Now it is heading to the State Senate's Rules Committee.<br />
<br />
As written, SB 468 will jeopardize:<br />
<ul>
<li>Group rides</li>
<li>BRAG, the Wilson 100 and other organized events</li>
<li>Racing team rides and double pace lines</li>
<li>Parents riding alongside their children</li>
<li>The ABC's BeltLine Bike Tour <br />
</li>
<li>Tucker, Six Flags, Pizza, Airport rides? Fuggetahboutit!</li>
</ul>
We have yet to hear from state and local bicycle advocates about their strategy. Presumably, they are mounting a vigorous campaign to defeat SB 468?<br />
<br />
As
the late author William Gibson once wrote,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>The future is already here --
it's just not evenly distributed. </i></blockquote>
Here in Georgia, the forces of
ignorance, fear and sloth are conspiring to keep Georgia on the tail of that distribution.Twotomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04229355935297972957noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-742757096885632020.post-19158735768450097462012-01-16T20:21:00.000-08:002012-01-17T05:51:20.966-08:00Walking the BeltLine in Someone Else's ShoesToday, on the birthday of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I reflect on his call for us all<i> to stand in the other person's shoes, to see the world in their eyes, to feel their pain.</i><br />
<br />
This reminds me of a <a href="http://blackagendareport.com/content/will-black-mecca-bail-out-its-gentrifiers-and-their-jim-crow-beltline-streetcars" target="_blank">nasty screed against the Atlanta BeltLine project</a> (and other transit projects to be funded by the proposed Transportation Investment Act sales tax) predicated on the unsubstantiated grounds that the developers are oppressing black people with it. I recently entered into a short online exchange with a defender of the article but found no desire on his part to enter into a dialog with me, even to temporarily dispense with the use of emotionally-charged hyperbole such as "Jim Crow" and "white supremacist."<br />
<br />
I was to uncritically accept his, and the article's, viewpoint, else we had nothing else useful to say to each other. It frustrates and saddens me, to be unable to bridge our differences on this, a most important development for the City of Atlanta and for the region.<br />
<br />
King's advice helps me to understand this. I have no doubts that the BeltLine should be built. Still, I am open to the possibility of inequities in the way that the project expenditures are being distributed, and to seek remedies for those inequities.<br />
<br />
Many underprivileged people have depended on MARTA as their sole form of transportation and have a hard time accepting the long-term promises of the BeltLine and the expenditures it now requires.<br />
<br />
They have suffered disproportionately from MARTA's recent fare increases and cuts in bus services. It's hard to explain how an expanded transit system serving a broader constituency of patrons benefits everyone, while they are currently struggling to find affordable transportation to their jobs, schools, and so on.<br />
<br />
It may not be Jim Crow or the work of white supremacists, but it hurts nonetheless.<br />
<br />
<br />
- As always, thank you for reading and stay in touch!Twotomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04229355935297972957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-742757096885632020.post-87537864672495545222011-11-22T15:28:00.001-08:002011-11-23T11:16:18.681-08:00A Bitter Medicine for Treating Traffic Congestion<br />
<div style="color: #666666;">
DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed in this blog are expressly my own and are not endorsed by my employer or my employer's partners and supporters.</div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">F</span>or many years Metro Atlanta has had some of the most congested roads and highways in the country. In response, State officials want to provide optional toll lanes on area highways that are priced according to the amount of demand for those lanes. Their first attempt with the I-85 "Express" lanes in Gwinnett County has <a href="http://www.wsbradio.com/news/news/opponents-i-85-hot-lanes-speak-out/nFgj7/">ignited a backlash</a>, with motorists and their elected representatives demanding their removal. <br />
<br />
By pursuing congestion-based pricing, the State is taking a reasonable approach. Officials have nonetheless failed to recognize the psychological trauma this exacts on Georgia motorists, habituated to a daily commute where their expenses are all but forgotten.<br />
<br />
According to the Texas Transportation Institute’s <a href="http://mobility.tamu.edu/ums/">2010 Urban Mobility Report</a>, Atlanta ranks 11th among the top-100 cities for traffic congestion. The average Atlanta-area driver spent about 43 hours struck in traffic, in addition to their “normal” commuting time. For many, that exceeds the amount of paid vacation time they receive from their employers.<br />
<br />
This actually represents an improvement over previous years' rankings, but any relief this provides is probably temporary. State and regional planners realize that Atlanta's outsized unemployment rate means that fewer people are commuting, and that traffic congestion will probably increase in the coming years. During peak travel periods on the highways, even the high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes are clogged. This has them searching for answers. <br />
<br />
One thing they do know is, we cannot continue to build our way out of this mess. Since the early 1960’s, transportation experts have warned against the commonly-held notion that we can solve traffic congestion by building new roads and widening others. Back then, transportation expert Anthony Downs stated it most succinctly: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>…peak-hour traffic congestion rises to meet maximum capacity.</i></blockquote>
<div>
Now, publications such as this <a href="http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/aer.101.6.2616">research paper</a> published in October’s American Economic Review are revealing the complexities of traffic congestion and the underlying psychology of the motorist. They even have a term for it: induced demand. There is such an enormous latent demand for road space, some believe, that whenever a measure is taken that moves a commuter out of his or her automobile, another one quickly grabs the open lane. <br />
<br />
Historian Lewis Mumford said it most memorably: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Adding highway lanes to deal with traffic congestion is like loosening your belt to cure obesity.</i></blockquote>
</div>
<div>
If urban congestion cannot be addressed by increasing road capacity, then what should be done?<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.georgiatolls.com/programs/i-85-express-lanes/">Georgia’s Express lane project</a> is based on the success of similar projects in other U.S. cities and also congestion-based toll projects in London and Stockholm. Georgia’s Express lane project gives commuters on I-85 more choices. <br />
<br />
They can choose to pay extra for a reliable commute time in a high-occupancy toll (HOT) lane, the cost depending on the current average speed in the lane. As the speed decreases due to congestion in the lane, the toll to additional drivers entering the lane rises.<br />
<br />
For example, taking the entire 15 miles of Express Lane for your evening commute through Gwinnett County on November 11th would have <a href="http://www.georgiatolls.com/assets/docs/Commute_Data_Release_111611.pdf">saved you 12 minutes and cost a whopping $1.85</a>.<br />
<br />
Additionally, these same commuters have access to an expanded network of inter-county Xpress buses operated by GRTA, and three new park-and-ride lots.<br />
<br />
Motorists, long-accustomed to taxpayer-funded highway projects aimed at accommodating more traffic, are chaffing at the notion of paying a fee for the privilege of getting an unimpeded trip down I-85, even when traffic is heaviest. <br />
<br />
Their frustrations, while understandable, do not justify the elimination of the Express lanes. Like all projects of such large scale, complexity and scope, the I-85 Express lanes have their share of start-up problems, and most can be corrected.<br />
<br />
More importantly, we struggle with the notion of paying-as-we-drive. Although the daily commute by automobile exacts real costs, costs that accrue while we drive, we are psychologically disconnected from them. We usually buy fuel only once or twice a week. Maintenance and repairs? Once or twice a year. The same applies for insurance. <br />
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The price of congestion falls into this list of automobile-related variable expenses. The Texas Transportation Institute estimates that for this wasted time and fuel, <b>each commuter spent roughly $1,100</b>. The same study estimates that traffic congestion <b>cost Atlanta’s employers nearly $2.5 billion</b> in lost productivity.<br />
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Conceptually, these costs could be charged to the driver while on the road, as if they were operating a taxi meter. If we were already accustomed to paying-as-we-drive, the Georgia Express lanes would not raise nearly the stink that it has. Drivers would more easily understand the cost of their commute and be better-informed to make the choices that serve them best.<br />
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If Atlanta-area motorists don't want to pay congestion-based tolls on the highways, then they shouldn't. But they will still pay for congestion.</div>
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They already do.</div>Twotomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04229355935297972957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-742757096885632020.post-23947318048474414942011-08-13T06:04:00.001-07:002011-08-13T14:32:51.079-07:00Let There be LightIt is time to reflect upon something our federal government did right and on the admirable way it was reported by the NY Times.<br />
On Thursday the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/11/garden/almost-time-to-change-the-light-bulb.html" target="_blank">Times ran a story</a> about new energy efficiency standards for light bulbs. <br />
Since the Energy Independence and Security Act was originally passed in 2007 and signed by President Bush, most news outlets reported how it will outlaw the beloved incandescent light bulb. Congressional Republicans earlier this year tried unsuccessfully to <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/03/22/republicans-try-block-new-light-bulb-restrictions/" target="_blank">block the law from taking effect</a>, claiming that our nanny government was once again overstepping its authority and limiting our freedoms beyond reason.<br />
The Act is one of the best pieces of legislation I have seen in a long time. First, it addresses a real problem. Our country lacks a clear strategy for growing our capacity to generate electricity in order to keep up with anticipated demand, and much of that demand comes from lighting our homes, schools and offices.<br />
Second, the law is reasonable. Instead of picking products for us to buy, it merely sets efficiency standards for those products. The lighting standards resemble the fuel economy standards it has been setting for automobiles since the seventies.<br />
There is no reason why we shouldn't have better lighting for less money. Today's incandescent light bulb is buggy whip technology. Were Thomas Edison still around he would have no trouble recognizing one of our bulbs, despite his having commercialized the first one over 130 years ago.<br />
Third, the the law is already proving effective. As the NY Times effectively illustrates, the law has prompted manufacturers to introduce a dazzling array of new lighting technologies and products. Despite what the law's opponents claim it has given us more choices, and it will only get better over time.<br />
The law also requires new product labeling to allow us to more easily base our choices on the cost of the bulb, the cost of the energy it uses, and the amount of light it produces. Lighting manufacturers now have an unbiased set of rules for describing product value to their customers. <br />
Score a small but notable victory for good government. Thank heavens the congressional dim-bulbs were defeated, although I wonder whether their aim wasn't so much about scoring a legislative victory as it was about scoring points with their government-phobic constituents.<br />
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Twotomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04229355935297972957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-742757096885632020.post-82616506824451594132011-05-28T14:39:00.000-07:002011-05-28T14:40:15.295-07:00Our Dope(r) CultureI saw last Sunday's <a href="http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/hamilton-alleges-armstrong-epo-positive-cover-up-on-60-minutes">60 Minutes report</a> about the ongoing Federal investigation of Lance Armstrong. Pretty damning stuff, including the testimony prosecutors now have from his close friend and long-time teammate, George Hincapie.<br />
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What's also compelling is the news that Lance may have failed a drug test in 2000, and the circumstantial evidence pointing to a cover up involving Lance, the Swiss laboratory that performed the test, and professional cycling's international governing body also known as the UCI.<br />
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The witnesses all tell the same story: <i>everybody was doping</i>. And when they get caught they lie about it until they can lie no more, followed by a tearful confession.<br />
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I follow this painful story primarily out of my love for the sport of cycling. For those who aren't cycling fans, this still should interest. <br />
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Star athletes like Lance Armstrong are cultural icons. When they lie and cheat, the way that we react to it tells us a lot about ourselves. Lance is right about one thing,<i> it's not about the bike.</i><br />
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George Hincapie released a statement through his lawyers saying that the whole affair is unfortunate, and that he wished that investigators and reporters would instead focus their attentions on all the good things presently happening in the sport and about the sport's future. <i>It's all water under the bridge</i>.<br />
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Many of my cycling friends feel the same way. They love the sport and will continue to follow it, with or without doping. Doping is nothing new to professional cycling and for many decades has been accepted with a wink by insiders and fans alike.<br />
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<div>By today's standards, the doping methods used throughout most of cycling's long history were crude and marginally effective. In the early 1990's the dynamic of competitive cycling began to change as more racers adopted powerful new doping methods such as EPO, blood transfusions and testosterone. These were (and still are?) mandatory for anyone wishing to win elite-level races.</div><div><br />
</div><div>All the while, the Lance Armstrong story grew and grew. His victory against cancer and seven Tour de France wins formed the basis for an international brand of books and product sponsorships, and a not-for-profit foundation supporting cancer research and its victims. <br />
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Doping in any sport creates a bargain between athlete and fan, providing the fan a more entertaining spectacle with faster races, more points on the scoreboard, more record-breaking performances. <br />
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Some say that this and many other doping scandals have created enough negative attention to get professional cycling's authorities, team managers and sponsors to once and for all implement the controls necessary to clean it up.<br />
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Even if justice is served against Lance, they say, what good will it do? Consider the harm it will cause his charities and those who receive inspiration for their own battles against cancer. For anyone who really wanted to know, they could piece together enough evidence to realize for themselves that Lance deceived us, and that should be good enough.<br />
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Finally, some object to how cycling receives an inordinate amount of attention from the anti-dopers, as we know that doping also pervades the elite ranks of many cherished and profitable sports such as baseball, football, soccer, track and field--even golf.<br />
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All that may be true, but our accepting the bargain for cheating and lies about cheating begs larger questions. What constitutes doping, and how do sporting authorities discern legitimate acts of personal care from illicit ones? Why do we restrict doping? Are there any victims of doping, and who are they?<br />
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How would we really know that the sport is cleaning itself up? All the competitors rising behind Lance, what message do they get?<br />
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For me, the deceit is most unsettling. I hate being played as the fool. </div><div><br />
</div><div>I asked a friend why someone in such a powerful position as Lance could not come clean and finally tell us the facts of life in sport, what many of us already understand to be true. He said, <i>because too many people can't handle the truth</i>.</div><div><br />
</div><div>How bad do the lies about doping have to get before I exercise my only right to stop being a fan?<br />
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We sometimes accept such forms of deceit in other competitive realms such as politics. How does it serve a useful purpose?<br />
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<i>Ask me no questions, I tell you no lies.</i></div>Twotomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04229355935297972957noreply@blogger.com0