Traffic Problems – the Only Real Solution

Last night I attended a local meeting at our public middle school on traffic and safety around the school. We have had some incidents recently and over that last few years with students getting hit by cars at a busy intersection near the school. This meeting had our local councilman, a member of the school board, a traffic engineer, a nurse from the area children’s trauma hospital, and a few of our local enforcement officers in attendance. Part of the meeting was so our council member could boast about some measures he has taken to help with the traffic on our busy road and improvements with regard to the safety of the pedestrians (mostly children). I must give him credit for acknowledging the problem and at least making an effort. Although, I do recall that the major intersection where there are now stoplights, no turn on red signs, and countdown timers for pedestrians crossing did not exist before a school aged child was killed crossing there. When that tragedy happened there was no stop sign, no traffic light, nothing. But, it usually takes a tragedy to happen before any action takes place. OK, back to the meeting. The focus of the meeting was about measures that the city is planning to help ease the flow of morning and afternoon “drop-off” and “pick-up” traffic around the school. These measures were mainly just some re-striping of the lanes on the adjacent roads to allow left and right turn lanes, and take away a few on-street parking places near the intersections. It was enough to make some people feel good, but I don’t think it is nearly enough. The problem is that there is just simply too much traffic for the area. There is really little anyone can do to relieve the congestion and improve the safety except reduce the number of vehicles coming through the area. The school and surrounding neighborhood was built about 40 years ago when there was not so much traffic. That was when nearly all students walked or biked to school. Now they are all chauffeured to school by a parent. Everyone is scared to walk to school because of so much traffic. Yet, they are contributing to the very problem they want to solve. I wonder how many people see the irony in that?
If you want to see our roads get safer, there are two things I know of that can help. The first thing costs you nothing and you can start doing it the next time you get in your car – slow down. Just try driving at or even a little below the speed limit. I know, it is a pretty far out concept, but don’t worry…you will actually get to your destination about the same time you would have by speeding. The second option, and I know this one is a killer, is to not drive everywhere. If your destination is within a half mile to a mile, why not try walking? It really won’t take much longer that driving, and I know everyone can use the exercise. And, if you are really a crazy wacko, you can try riding a bike to some of the local destinations. I know it sounds absurd, but believe me, it is doable. I have done it several times. You just gotta try it. The bottom line is that nothing is going to solve traffic problems until there are fewer cars on the road.

The Death of Stillness

The Death of Stillness, I like that title. This is from an article on the Eartheasy web site by Richard Mahler. Taking time to be still and be in a quiet space gets harder each day. Everyone is always “busy” and surrounded by numerous distractions that we cannot seem to live without. We are never far from cell phones, PDAs, laptop computers, video games, TVs, and radios (oops, I mean MP3 players, or make that Ipods. Radios are so last century;-). The Industrial Age and the Information Age were supposed to make everyone’s lives easier and give us much more leisure time. And yet, everyone is always busy. Busy doing what?

When do we get the opportunity to really be away from it all? How far do you have to go to get completely away from the man made world and truly experience the solitude of nature? How far do you have to go to truly experience quiet? How many people ever even take the time to find out? Solitude and quiet time are necessary to get the mind and spirit refocused. It helps to bring clarity back to our thinking. It reduces stress.

We are not talking about a one or two week vacation once a year here. There needs to be at least a few minutes of quiet everyday. The body, mind, and spirit need to get completely unplugged from the busy world and given the chance to re-center itself. Try finding that place of quiet and stillness everyday. It might just save your life.

Wasting Time

One thing I need to learn to do better is waste time. I don’t mean mindlessly watching TV, but really taking time out to do nothing – just be. I recently had an opportunity to try it. I was putting our kids to bed while my wife was attending a school parent teacher meeting. I read to my son and got him in bed. I then read to my daughter and got her tucked in and was ready to leave the room. She said she wanted me to stay with her until mommy got home. OK, I’ll sit with you for a few minutes. As I am watching her slowly begin to doze off, I look around the room. One of our cats is lying on the floor. I notice how quiet it is in the house. There is no TV, just the radio next to her bed playing soft soundscape music very quietly. And then…I begin to think of all the things I need to or should be doing right now. My mind is rushing around while I am sitting still in the quiet. Why is it so hard just to sit and be still for even a few minutes? I tried my best to push away all the thoughts of stuff that I “need” to be doing. I just sat on the bed and watched my daughter fall asleep. That was the only thing that I needed to be doing. Nothing else really matters. The few moments like these are the ones that will make a difference to me years from now. I hope I can remain aware enough to recognize these moments when they happen. It would really be a shame to miss them.

How to change the world in 10 easy steps

Just a quick entry here to reference an article on changing the world regarding raising awareness of peak oil and global climate change...
Change the world in 10 easy steps