Month: March 2010

by Boston Biker
People will sometimes ask me, “Why do you hate cars so much?” The truth is I don’t hate cars. They are useful to some people (delivery trucks, people with disabilities). The car itself is not the problem, it is what happens to society when everyone owns a car that is the problem. Cars are simply a representation of two real problems.
1. The burning of gasoline for transportation.
2. The idea that a car = freedom.
[Follow the link for an explanation.]
Continue reading “Future Lies In Moving Away From The Car”

by Fort Worthology
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Business as usual is dead!
North Texas requires a transportation overhaul. No more Band-Aids, no more patches—a complete overhaul!
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Frankly, I’m tired of talking about this. This afternoon, workers at BNSF…employees at Lockheed Martin or Bell Textron…even many of you in this room will leave work and then sit…and sit…and sit in traffic. It’s a frustrating daily routine that carries a great cost once you consider the impacts to our quality of life, our environment, our air, and our ability to attract and keep new business investment.
If this is a mobility crisis—and I believe it is—then it must be treated like one!
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Continue reading “Mayor Moncrief’s State of the City Address: Car-Centric Planning a Blunder”

By Paul Thornton
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As a bike/bus commuter myself, this oft-expressed sentiment, a total non-sequitur, infuriates me. Yes, cyclists sometimes do blow through stop signs as if they were riding on a bike path, and I cringe every time I watch a helmet-free rider plow through a red light straight into a busy intersection. Why? Safety concerns aside, the widespread perception that we’re a lawless bunch has been used by a few vigilante motorists as an excuse to act aggressively toward me (and I do obey stop signs and red lights, per California Vehicle Code Sections 21200 and 21202).
Which brings me to my point: The widely held view of cyclists’ incivility justifies neither the life-threatening rage we sometimes receive from motorists who think we have no right to the road nor the indifference some of us receive from police. None of this is to say that the vast majority of motorists don’t treat cyclists with respect. And the same holds true for cyclists: Nearly all of us, for the most part, obey the law in the interest of our own safety. The obvious difference is that the occasional scofflaw bike rider usually results in a brief moment of inconvenience for drivers, whereas the occasional aggressive motorist can mean serious injury — or worse — for us.
Continue reading “‘Scofflaw cyclists,’ the law and motorist outrage”

The Daily Show: CNN reminds viewers that texting while driving is dangerous and announces their new iPhone application for real-time traffic reports.

And now in real life:

US DOT LaHood: we propose $50 million to help the states put an end to distracted driving. I know I’ve been on a tear about this deadly behavior, but that’s because it is killing thousands of Americans every year. That sickens me, and we need to help the states educate drivers and encourage enforcement.

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ (AASHTO) survey of 32 state DOTs finds that 26 states (or 81%) are now using Twitter to communicate with travelers when major traffic incidents

Let’s keep up the mixed messages America!

By Robin Chase, CEO, GoLoco, Meadow Networks

“User pays” was the foundational concept and an interesting one to reflect on. The question notes that current gas taxes inadequately cover even simple maintenance requirements on existing roads, yet the phrase resonates strongly with drivers. They sincerely believe that they have paid for all that is required with their gas taxes at the pump.

If the road user really paid what driving costs to maintain, what driving costs to widen and build new, what driving costs in police forces, emergency personnel and equipment, lifetime effects of accident road deaths and injuries, watershed destruction, groundwater and run-off pollution, excess asthma rates, higher incidence of heart disease and negative effects for those living near highways, congestion, and CO2 emissions (etc, my list is truncated), we wouldn’t be in the unfunded situation we are in today.

Also, if “user pays” included all those “externalities” (so many things in quotes), it would seem perfectly appropriate for the gas tax to include pedestrian and sidewalk improvements, mass transit, electric charging stations, and environmental remediation efforts because all of those things are attempts to mitigate the real and costly negative impacts caused by the car-driving users.

At the end of the day, if we take political realities into account, the one thing I ask for is for drivers to truly understand what their fuel tax is actually paying for, and what is quietly and covertly being subsidized by their other taxes. Because we haven’t included these costs in the gas tax, we are using local, state, and government money brought in from other sources to cover the difference. When we say we don’t have enough money for education, or welfare, or parks, or elderly programs, we need to recognize that this shortfall is in part because we are paying for all sorts unfunded car-related expenses with non-gas-tax dollars.
Continue reading “But cars pay for roads…”

An “acquaintance” asks me almost every time he sees me if I still do all that crazy biking and running. … In a nutshell he said I needed to grow up and act my age. Quit running around and riding a bicycle like some little kid. He went on to claim that the only reason I do all that crazy “shit” is cause I’m in denial of my age. Huh? Boy (“Man” I guess I should say) who knows what kind of ragging I would have taken if he knew I was vegetarian. The whole scene got pretty annoying and I left.
This “acquaintance” is about 5 – 7 years younger than me, at least 70 lbs overweight, on blood thinners, has high blood pressure, and pre-diabetic. I guess he is acting his age. It seems the “norm” these days is to be kept alive by a handful of drugs. It’s generally accepted as part of “getting old”. Am I missing something? Why is something as simple as exercising and eating healthy such a difficult concept to grasp? Why is taking care of what we have been given so abnormal that people have to critize it? Why is it the accepted norm that living life on drugs (or as we like to call it “medicine”) is inevitable after 50? Umm sorry I digress. I guess he annoyed me more than I thought.
Back to this age denial thing. I know how old I am. But what does “old” mean? Sure I’m not anywhere near as fast as I was 30 years ago. But 30 years ago I couldn’t run 100 miles or mountain bike for 24 hours. …
Continue reading “Act your age”