You Can Take it With You

There is an interesting experiment going on at Public Radio's Marketplace. Their program host Tess Vigeland has taken upon the challenge of carrying around her personal trash for two (2) weeks. Everything that she would normally throw away now goes into a black trash bag that she carries around with her nearly everywhere. I say everywhere because there are limits, such as not taking the bag into restaurants or stores. But, she carries her bag from home to the office and back home every day. There is some thought provoking reading on her blog. It causes me to pause and think about just how easy we have it. We simply throw our garbage into the big trash container outside and once a week the garbage is hauled away and we never have to think about it again. It just magically disappears. The sad truth is, however, that it does not disappear. It ends up in landfills that are nearing their capacity. The waste in landfills do not decompose like many of us would think. It mostly putrefies and seeps into the ground, often contaminating underground water. Waste in the landfills also give off methane gas, since the matter breaks down in anaerobic conditions. What does not end up in landfills can get washed downstream and pollute rivers, lakes, and our oceans.
Tess does have a bit of an advantage. She has a compost pile in her backyard, unlike most people. She is able to place most food items in it. The one exception is no animal by-products (meat scraps, bones, etc), so when she inadvertently bought a whole chicken from the market, she forgot that she would be carrying it around with her for the next week or so.
If everyone had to take on this challenge it would really get us thinking about the amount of stuff we consume and just toss away. Well, at least I hope it would.

Car Free in SoCal

Can anyone live car free in Southern California? Apparently so. A family in Santa Ana has. Here is an article on their transformation from car poor to car free. They now bike just about everywhere. They utilize public transit also, and once in a while rent a car. They also have a blog about their car free journey. I believe that this type of shift in thinking is what will make our world a better place for everyone, not the thinking that everyone deserves a car and only adding more roads will cure our traffic problems. Because we know it won't.

Ladies, Fashion, and Bicycles - Saving the World

Some interesting stuff I have stumbled upon lately. First, I found this site about Copenhagen Girls. Despite the title, it is rather tame...photos and comments about the ladies of Copenhagen riding their bikes. What is cool about it is that they ride bikes in whatever outfits they are already wearing. They do not change into biking gear to ride. These ladies ride in style. They show us Americans that riding a bike is just an average way of getting around. You do not really need a car.

Here in America, there is a recent article called Spokes-Models. This is about NYC ladies also riding around on bikes in style. There is some controversy about this article, as some acknowledge riding the wrong way on roads and in general ignoring traffic laws. What I like about it, however, is that at least bike riding for pleasure and practical transportation is getting notoriety. And, what better way than to profile highly fashionable ladies?

And, for a little more about Copenhagen, here is a video showcasing a typical commute there. Can you count the number of cyclists?

Back to School Traffic

With the start of the new school year comes lots more morning and afternoon traffic. In my neighborhood I see the long lines of cars waiting to drop off kids in the mornings. It is rather funny in some ways how parents, either knowingly or not, seem to abandon all sense of traffic laws around schools. They seem to be narrowly focused on the objective of getting their child as close to the entrance to the school as possible. This is often accomplished by double (or triple) parking in front of the school, pulling in to neighbors driveways, and making illegal turns of all sorts. It just seems like total chaos the first fews days or weeks of school. My daily commute takes me by a high school in the mornings. I am amazed at how many parents park in the bike lane along the street to use it as a drop-off zone. They also ignore traffic safety at the intersections by making left turns onto the already too crowded side road of the school, often blocking the intersection. This makes for interesting navigation around the school on a bike. Unfortunately there is no real alternate route, as this is the only road the crosses over a couple of canyons. There does not seem to be a good place for dropping off kids around this school, but after all this is a high school. It is not like the parents must make sure the kids are dropped off right outside the entrance. I think they can be trusted to walk a block or two if they can be dropped off on a nearby street.
Maybe there is not a good solution. The school was built when there was not nearly as many people and houses in the neighborhood. I am sure they did not anticipate the amount of vehicle traffic there would be when it was built. It's the same for many of the elementary and middle schools around, too. Of course, most kids back then also walked to school. Hmmm...now there's a crazy thought.

Have a Car Free Day

September 22nd is "World Carfree Day". This is a day when people should try to make it through an entire day without using their automobiles. It is on a Saturday, so many people should not need to worry about getting to work. I am sure most people don't know about this day, and wouldn't care if they did. But for those of us who do, it gives us an opportunity to think about our options to driving a car - at least for one day. Maybe you won't go anywhere, maybe you'll just walk down the street to a neighborhood store or visit a neighbor. Maybe you will dust of the bike and go for a ride. Some might even give public transit a try, if it exists in your area.
It would be way cool if the entire world actually did go car free for one day. Just imagine...