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Seen around town: riding the sunset at English Bay
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Seen around town: a bird’s eye view of the Stanley Park seawall this past weekend. The seawall is grade separated with lanes for folks on bikes and foot.
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Noteshere are some recent reflections from around town
I’ve got some more pics here if you’re interested in checking ‘em out. -
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Seen around town: An old bike repurposed into a mini street side garden on the 10th avenue bikeway here in Vancouver
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Around Town: Granville Street, just south of West Georgia (Downtown)
earlier this week
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NotesGetting Around, Safely: ‘Share the Road’ (PSA)
An encouraging sign of the times from the Canadian Automobile Association via their YouTube page. Who knows? Maybe one day they’ll just be known as the Canadian Mobility Association.
Related:
(Source: youtube.com)
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Notes NAOMI DEVINE: A message to world leaders at Rio+20The reflections of Naomi Devine, a Canadian sustainability planner who biked to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in order to participate in the UN’s Rio+20 Earth Summit. She’s got some valuable insights to share. Definitely worth a read. The conference is now over.
Twenty years ago I was 13 when the first Earth Summit took place in Rio. As a child who is a part of the generation that has grown up entirely under dire environmental threat, I can tell you that I was paying attention and hopeful at the summit’s outcomes.Today I am no longer a youth….
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Gonna ride my bike til the break o’ dawn…
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Notes"… between 2000 and 2009, U.S. transportation and housing costs increased at nearly twice the rate of incomes. But the good news… is that people living in “location efficient” neighborhoods—those with good access to transit, jobs, and amenities—experienced only half the increase in transportation costs ($1,400/year) of those living in car-dependent places ($3,900/year). This means more expensive housing may actually be the more affordable option, if that housing exists in the right place."A paragraph from the Atlantic Cities article, ‘How More Expensive Housing Can Actually Cost You Less’, which highlights the growing economic benefits of living in walkable/ “location efficient” neighborhoods.
The website for the ‘Housing and Transportation Affordability Index’ explains that:
People who live in location inefficient places are auto-dependent, have high transportation costs, and are more susceptible to fluctuations in gas prices.
This trend is projected to only get stronger (e.g. here, here, and here) as gas prices rise in response to the “the end of the petroleum era.”
(Graphic credit: The Housing + Transportation Affordability Index)
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Notes"The advent of bike lanes in some American cities may seem like a big step, but merely marking a strip of the road for recreational cycling spectacularly misses the point. In Amsterdam, nearly everyone cycles, and cars, bikes and trams coexist in a complex flow, with dedicated bicycle lanes, traffic lights and parking garages. But this is thanks to a different way of thinking about transportation.
To give a small but telling example, pointed out to me by my friend Ruth Oldenziel, an expert on the history of technology at Eindhoven University, Dutch drivers are taught that when you are about to get out of the car, you reach for the door handle with your right hand — bringing your arm across your body to the door. This forces a driver to swivel shoulders and head, so that before opening the door you can see if there is a bike coming from behind. Likewise, every Dutch child has to pass a bicycle safety exam at school. The coexistence of different modes of travel is hard-wired into the culture.
This in turn relates to lots of other things — such as bread. How? Cyclists can’t carry six bags of groceries; bulk buying is almost nonexistent. Instead of shopping for a week, people stop at the market daily. So the need for processed loaves that will last for days is gone. A result: good bread.
There are also in the United States certain perceptions associated with both cycling and public transportation that are not the case here. In Holland, public buses aren’t considered last-resort forms of transportation. And cycling isn’t seen as eco-friendly exercise; it’s a way to get around. C.E.O.’s cycle to work, and kids cycle to school.
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A quote from the New York Times article, ‘The Dutch Way - Bicycles and Fresh Bread’, which highlights the cycling culture in the Netherlands in search of lessons for building more robust cycling cultures in North American cities and towns.
(Photo credit: Amsterdamize)
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Plant a Garden: Reason #9
Help someone out -
- Plant a row for the needy
- Drop off extra produce at the food bank
- Share food...
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Third Year of Drought Threatens Southwestern Oklahoma! Meanwhile … O.K. Sen. Inhofe still says global warming’s a hoax @ State Impact
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Young Monk! by Mardy Photography
Siem Reap, Cambodia
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As our numbers increase, so space for other animals and plants decreases. Our skills and technological ingenuity seem to know no bounds. Having...
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The New York rapper’s political and layered rhymes have been pegged as “conscious rap,” a label that has now become pejorative. His latest album...
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Mather Work Incentive Poster
1929
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Energy harvesting pavement powers its own streetlights.
London-based startup Pavegen has developed tiling that can harvest...
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New York City’s Sea Level Rise Task Force...
