The Big Tent - Opinions in Bicycling Advocacy

The deeper I get into bicycle advocacy, the more I see that our opinions are so divergent about the correct operation of a bicycle on a roadway, building a consensus and taking action is nearly impossible. To make things worse, the people who have probably put the most thought into the matter tend to be the most impassioned and most easily dismissed by their fellow advocates, government officials and even other bicycle riders. How does one build a coalition to advocate for improving people on bikes safety and defending the use roadways, educate people who drive cars that people on bikes are allowed to be there, and in the end, increase the number of people who use bicycles in their daily lives?

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RIPTA on my mind

Apparently RIPTA is the target of my thinking today. Earlier today I received an update email from Walk Score about the City-Go-Round site. As a result, I submitted my name to support asking RIPTA to make their schedule data Open Data, which shouldn't be that big a deal, since they already publish the data for Google Maps to provide transit trip planning, which I use quite extensively. I'd love for other uses to be available as well however, such as the UniBus iPhone application, or who knows what else. (Fritz at Cyclelicio.us points out that only 84 public transit agencies out of 784 provide their data openly.)

At any rate, I was looking at post on Infrastructurist that was pointing out that various recovery monies that have been in the pipeline seem to be spend focuses on the county that the seat of government is located within, and linked to the data on Propublica.org. How does this tie into RIPTA? I was drilling down into Providence County (yes, there is a disproportionate amount of money reported there versus the rest of the counties) looking at the projects receiving the most money and saw this:

RHODE ISLAND PUBLIC TRANSIT AUTHORITY

$24,280,000.00

Grant

Capital and Operating Assist Formula Grants Hybrid-Electric Buses and Capital Projects - This grant will invest in public transporation by: purchasing approximately twenty (20) hybrid buses; upgrading approximately forty (40) diesel buses to hybrid-electric propulsion; upgrading ten (10) replica trolleys to hybrid-electric propulsion; and purchasing twenty-four (24) engines for installation on the 2004 fleet.

Federal Transit Administration

7/10/2009

Anyone know anything about the progress of actually spending this money, are these buses in service? I don't see anything on the website announcing anything like this.

And on the capital county inequitable amount of money issue: I wouldn't be suprised if money is showing as allocated to the capital county because the office that administers the program is based in that county, but not that the project itself is actually based in that county. I could be wrong though.

12/10 EDIT: Oops, in all that link confetti, I think I missed linking to the Infrastructurist. Fixed.

Double Refraction

In an echo of the David over at Greater City: Providence, a post of a TED video, that I should have linked to long ago.

James Howard Kunstler on the design of buildings, public spaces and the physical arrangement of accommodations for people, rather than our autos. Strong language, humor and just possibly something to make you think (or, to quote a Jethro Tull song: I may make you fell, but I can't make you think." - hopefully this video does both)

Stimulus, Transportation and Cycling

A whole bunch of cycling/alternative transport links. Of biggest note are a bunch of amendments and a couple of proposed amendments to the current stimulus bill in the Senate that would limit and/or redirect some of the funding in it exclusively to the use of highway use.

First, via one of my friends reading lists, Bike Pittsburgh is putting out the word about amendments proposed to redirect some alternative transportation funding exclusively to the use of highway projects. There is a link on the Bike Pittsburgh post that allows you to send comments to your Senators about these amendments.

Second, Mark Dietrich at Providence Bicycle Coalition is warning of some proposed amendments to the stimulus that would specifically bar spending stimulus money on cycling projects. Feel singled out? While it hasn't been presented, this one is worth contacting your Senators over as well. Links from Mark's post go the the League of American Bicyclists to lookup and contact your elected representative's.

And lastly, there is a lively debate scheduled for next month to discuss the "3-foot rule" that has been proposed and will be heard by the Judiciary Committee next month. Some interesting points have been made so far. Personally, I think the law has flaws and needs to be amended before it is passed, but I think that better defining a safe distance to maintain between vehicles when passing is a reasonable idea. To read some other opinions that have been voiced so far, see the PBC post, and information about the upcoming discussion on March 5th. I certainly think it isn't an enforceable law and I think its largest application is in educating cyclist and drivers that cyclist are entitled to use most roads. If you can point to a law to back up a statement in a drivers manual, it is hopefully more effective than simply making a statement of what is judged to be prudent.

Reading Roundup: Jan 28

Reading Roundup is a regular feature of WebEchoes. It exists to limit the number of "read this" posts with minimal commentary on my part.

Cellulosic ethanol: It might be a bust | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist
Ethanol boosters stepping back from ethanol as a viable fuel source.

UK Government Backs Away from First Generation Biofuels » Celsias
Analysis/Excerpts from a report analyzing current ethanol production. It doesn't look to good for current fuels having a net positive benefit.

Under pressure | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist
EU considers pollution charges on US imports to level the market playing field with EU companies that participate in emissions trading. Good point from the comments: Wanna bet this goes to the WTO if implemented?

US censors Arctic scientists' findings as it prepares for oil and gas auction - Independent.co.uk
Yoi. US government blocks a multi-government panel's report on Arctic Oil and Gas activities and impacts. Oddly enough, the administration is preparing to sell a chunk of that arctic environment.

Startup Says It Can Make Ethanol for $1 a Gallon, and Without Corn
4 years till a large non-corn fed commercial scale ethanol plant is expected to be ready. A smaller test plant to be opened in a year to vet the process and technology.

An ominous statement from Shell | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist
Royal Dutch Shell says that in 7 years conventional oil and natural gas sources will be unable to meet demand. Good thing that the US usage has leveled off/declined in 2007 compared to 2006.

Cartoon - the ease of carbon trading | Greenbang.com
And a cute cartoon to round out the roundup.

Counter Analysis on the Tata Nano

A few days ago I posted about the common opinion that the Tata Nano as an affordable vehicle for India is not a good thing in terms of pollution, congestion and further promoting a western ideal of mobility. As a counterpoint, Worldwatch Institute has their own analysis up, and rightly calls out the hypocrisy of those who have a vehicle in the developed world criticizing a very fuel efficient vehicle from the safety of their car dominated culture.

Some points to think about before criticizing (which I did), but then, I don't own a car right now, use public transit, walk and bicycle as much as possible without making myself into a martyr.

People in Western countries and Japan—less than 15 percent of the world’s population—own two-thirds of all passenger and commercial motor vehicles in the world.

Westerners not only have far more cars, but the distances they drive are also 3–4 times longer on average than those of Indians and Chinese.

This is not to say that the article lets India and China and the rest of the world off the hook, since "transportation has the fastest growing carbon emissions of any economic sector." They call on all countries to examine how transportation is approached, not just for efficiency and alternative fuels, but also for exploring ways to reduce the need to drive and driving distances as well as improving non-driving options by providing better mass transit and biking and walking facilities.

And as is reiterated frequently, " The change needed is more than a matter of technology," it's about policy, changing consumer behaviors and dealing with established industry interests for the betterment of all.

BioFuel Tradeoffs and Costs

I recently had the opportunity to correspond with one my readers who is a news hound. After reading what I'd written in response to his questions and comments, I thought I'd share for the rest of you and expand my response a little bit.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/01/23/biofuels.fears.ap/index.html

I was waiting for this foot to drop. If you increase the arable acreage devoted to farming biofuel material, you must be taking it away from food production. If you take down trees and other scrub vegetation to increase your farming acreage, then you're removing a key partner in the oxygen-carbon dioxide cycle. So do you choose to grow crops for fuel and spend more on food OR do you keep the status quo and find a better biofuel source material and/or a more efficient production method? The idea of using the existing acres of fieldgrasses in the USA as a biofuel source appears as a compromise. No food production acreage is removed while a renewable (as in 'it regrows because it's a plant!') biofuel source is harvested. In an analogous vein, my initial thought is to look at hay production as animal feed. You mow the fields each year(once or twice), make your doodles or rows, collect it and store for later use. I guess you'd have to quantify the amount of hay needed for any one animal in one growing season then measure the resulting output (primarily edible products, but I can see an argument for measuring cow noochie as a fertilizer source. Stinky and renewable, not counting boot scrapings . Ah, country air!).

Can't say I've looked at the quantities/costs involved when it comes to producing biofuels so I'll chalk this up as an uninformed opinion. From what I understand, it still takes more energy and a lot of corn to make 1 gal of ethanol than you'd save by not using oil refined into gasoline. Now that I think about it, is the term 'biofuels' being substituted for 'ethanol'? ADM wouldn't permit a competing source material, would they? Come on! They feed America! They wouldn't do that! (HA!).

Biofuels is used to describe not just ethanol (corn, sugarcane, cellulosic) but also covers the so-called biodiesels, essentially pure soy or rapeseed (canola) oils. ADM, Monsanto and Cargill win no matter what...8) (Monsanto is already rumored to be looking at switchgrass genetic modifications)

Every human endeavor involves a trade off. Even a so-called renewable non-food crop used for fuel is going to have a detrimental impact on its soil over time. Soil is going to deplete and yields are going to be reduced over time, especially since harvesting the grass breaks the natural reuse cycle from decomposition of previous growth. That doesn't include any detrimental soil amendment such as heavy nitrogen fertilization that leach other nutrients from the soil and applied in a form that doesn't stabilize in the soil, but runs off to the Gulf and contributes to the dead zone. At least with "junk" plants the farming practices will hopefully not be as intensive allowing the life cycle energy analysis to be positive, though there is certainly a risk that land used for food will be switched to a more profitable fuel-crop. And even given all that, ethanol yields for cellulosic sources haven't been quantified so far as I've read, even with higher energy balance on the side of wood chips and switchgrass, it may not be enough to significantly reduce oil for fuel needs.

Another concern here is that "scrub" vegetation isn't the only thing being removed. Rain forests are being cut down in order to plant sugar cane and oil palms in order to produce fuels, thereby reducing 1) the amount of carbon locked in plant materials and 2) reducing the ability of natural systems to absorb CO2.

And lastly, a response to the "how much land do we need" question. From what I've seen, the best estimate is that the US can produce 2 billion barrels of ethanol if able to convert biomass to ethanol at around 45% efficiency. That's only about 40% of the amount needed today. Want to read a bit more about that topic? Check out a post on Grist that discusses the recent debate on GristMill between Vinod Khosla, an ethanol investor, and Joseph Romm a regular contributor to GristMill (I forget his background). Tom Konrad has an interesting side proposal that bypasses ethanol, but assumes widespread adoption of electricity as the primary power source of most vehicles.

Our technologies are such that we have to take something from the earth in order to provide power, clothes, shelter, and many other things for ourselves. The question is, what has the least long term total impact irrespective of initial financial cost? Unfortunately, we don't know everything, and in many cases, we don't even know what we don't know, so determining impacts is hard and determining a monetary value for them is even more difficult.

Reading Roundup: Jan 23

Reading Roundup is a regular feature of WebEchoes. It exists to limit the number of "read this" posts with minimal commentary on my part.


BikeHacks
A site dedicated to custom bike hacks, inventive ways to use bike parts or cobble together addons to make life with a bike just a tad better. Thanks to Fritz at Cyclelicious for linking them.

But What If We HAVE To Do It?
Terry Tamminem writing at Fast Company Expert Blogs suggests that it is possible to cut US energy per capita usage and green house gas emissions in 20 years. And California and the EU can show the way. Stay tuned for top five ways how.

Electric Vehicle Battery Primer: A Conversation with John Voelcker « Earth2Tech
Just what the title says, a brief discussion of the challenges of batteries for EV applications.

Windy Payback Time: Wind Turbines and their Life Cycle Impacts : TreeHugger
Not counting "visual" costs for those that find them unsightly and other unquantifiable items, how long does it take for a windmill to generate the equivalent energy to its manufacture.

Ironweed Film Club | Ironweed
Interesting Idea - A DVD of the month subscription service for social and environmental films. I'd be happier if it was more netflix like, I don't want to own the darn things and have more plastic cluttering the house.

Meet Trev, the Two-seater, Renewable Energy Vehicle : TreeHugger
Not quite as unique as the Aptera tadpole look, but an interesting all electric vehicle nonetheless.

Treadmills Suck. (Kilowatts) : TreeHugger
Wow. Who knew that getting fit cost so much electricity. Glad that I tend to use self-powering ellipticals and exercise bikes.

Hrm, a preponderance of links to Treehugger in this edition.

Inexpensive Cars for developing countries

I know that at least one of my readers has been following the news of the recent announcement of a small car in India. He sent me an email last week and a link to the some coverage, which I'd seen covered in many of my normal channels as well. He was kind enough to share some of his thoughts with me, which I must confess I no longer have. As I recall, however, his analysis revolved around the added emissions coming from an onslaught of new vehicle owners as well as the congestion that would be added to India's roadways. This past week, WorldChanging ran an analysis as well, reaching similar conclusions to my reader.

Included as well was a remark about the development of China in the auto market. I actually defended China somewhat, as there seem to be a number of announcements from that quarter of implementing emissions regulations as well as investigating and implementing conservation measures. I'm not sure if India has done anything in this area, but I don't see many headlines to that effect, even though both India and China are the biggest fears of many concerned about global climate change and human causes.

A few days ago, I was speaking with a representative for one of the financial institutions that I work with. We chatted about the weather in New Delhi (apparently a little cooler than usual) as well as the big news. I'm not entirely sure we were clearly communicating, but he seemed very upbeat about the prospect of a vehicle being released that as quite affordable for a large section of the population. I now wish that I'd asked him what he thought would happen with traffic congestion and air quality with all those affordable cars on the road.

One thing I haven't seen discussed is what the anticipated impact on world oil prices would be of adding 500,000 vehicles to the road a year, a Tata Motors sales target. Even though the vehicles are expected to get 50 mpg or so, that number of vehicles needing to be fueled will increase India's demands on world oil markets, potentially fueling rising oil prices. Oh, and for the record, the car is expected to cost around $2,500 (100,000 ruppees).

Automobile Efficiency and Replacement Thoughts

This isn't a wholly original thought, as I'm sure I've read elements of what I'm about to suggest in many other sources. I don't think that I've read this specific combination. The problem that I'm looking to address is the lag in fuel efficiency and pollution standards that cause a 15 year lag in full influence of any new regulations affecting auto emissions, if they have to be implemented in vehicles.

So a simple suggestion, really only two parts:

Alter CAFE Standards to not be based on fleet fuel efficiency, but based on vehicle weight and type classes. Instead of aggregate harmonic means of the vehicles sold by a manufacturer, set standards for pollutant levels to be emitted during operation covering CO2, NOx, particulates, etc. If I'm not mistaken, this is closer to the standard used in Europe where automakers have recently been told to make improvements in their emissions. Vehicle emissions is a relatively easy problem to have law around and pushes the solution and cost onto auto manufacturers who then pass the cost to consumers. Could this lead to more expensive vehicles? Quite possibly, which would probably push consumers to purchase smaller, more efficient vehicles when they next need to replace their current model.

The second problem to address is the slow replacement rate of in service vehicles. At the risk of triggering calls of giving the automakers handouts and increasing resource load through a mandatory purchasing scheme (Japan's vehicle replacement program comes to mind), I'm suggesting an incentive to auto buyers who trade-in a vehicle older than 10 years. I'd suggest giving an instant rebate or subsidizing the trade in on the new vehicle to a reasonable level and requiring a demolition certificate or some other guarantee that the vehicle is off the road. If the vehicle purchase credit were something significant, say $2,000 guaranteed, perhaps with a small bump for each year after 10 that a vehicle has been in service (say $500/year), this could act as an incentive for an older vehicle owner to trade their vehicle in on a more efficient model. On the dealer side, some means of certifying, perhaps with an incentive payment to the dealer as well to have the vehicle destroyed or recycled, as appropriate and possible.

The problem with this approach that I can see is that it could act to provide a base level of vehicle turnover for manufacturers to exploit and fuels consumerism in replacing vehicles that still have useful life left. Perhaps some basis in the incentive based on pollution output of the vehicle versus current standard, the wider the differential, the larger the incentive.

More Aptera Coverage

Fuelling my lust after this vehicle (good thing it won't be out for a few years), Popular Mechanics did a test drive of the full electric version of the Aptera Typ-1. There is a 6 minute video posted with the article as well as some nice photos of a vehicle in various stages of assembly. The bad news is limited availability in southern California, and there probably is something to the comments of impracticality in northern (snow prone) regions.

Via AutoBlogGreen.

Reading Roundup: Dec 22

Reading Roundup is a regular feature of WebEchoes. It exists to limit the number of "read this" posts with minimal commentary on my part.

Incandescent Light Bulb Ban, Energy Efficiency - Congress Likely to Pass Incandescent Light Bulb Ban - thedailygreen.com
Little heralded in all the coverage about changes to the CAFE standards
for autos, Renewable Energy Portfolio, Renewable Fuel Standards and tax
breaks for energy companies, the new energy bill also contains a
section covering the efficiency of light bulbs, which will probably
spur the push to CFL, CCFL and LED lighting, or a major improvement in
incandescent bulbs.

Legally Speaking - with Bob Mionske: Look! It's a bike; it's a pedestrian; it's a...
And more things from the energy bill - Removal of the Bicycle Commuter tax benefit is mentioned in passing. Also an amusing look at what a high-wheeler or penny-farthing is considered in the transportation code. (hint, in some places, it isn't a bicycle)

Twenty-year-old Civics got 57 miles per gallon - Dec. 19, 2007
Fuel efficiency decreases over the past several years re-explained using the Honda Civic CRX model.

StreetFilms » Illustrating Parking Reform with Dr. Shoup
A video interview espousing the theory that a large portion of congestion in urban areas is caused by traffic circling in search of inexpensive parking. That raising parking rates and turning that money back into street improvements will lead to greater parking turnover, less congestion and improved street amenities.

A Picture is Worth...The Sum of the (Car) Parts... : TreeHugger
Cool photo of all of the parts in a smallish car. Check out the "quiz" as well, and the larger version on Core77

Toshiba's new battery - good news for ICE free automotives

If you believe, as I do, that the next generation of commonly available vehicles needs to severely limit or eliminate the inclusion of the internal combustion engine, then the latest battery announcement from Toshiba should give you great joy.

Toshiba claims to be ready to begin field testing a battery in early next year with a 90% recharge in just 5 minutes. First target is industrial machinery, but Toshiba hopes to expand into the automotive space quickly. If adopted widely and the claims hold up, purely electric vehicles for long trips would become acceptable to a very large portion of consumers. No indication of pricing for the batteries or modules.

via AutoBlogGreen and TMC.

Cycling Home with Beer in the Snow

Found this on Commute By Bike today.







One CBB post: I have to agree with the commenter #2 (Kim) on this one. The ad is excellent at making cycling approachable as an every person activity.
I also agree with commenter #3, too bad it isn't for a better beer.

And given the 3" of snow that have fallen here in the last 3 hours, I have to admit to wimping out about a trip to the library on my own bicycle today. But then, I can always go tomorrow when it will be warmer (icier?) and not ride in the low visibility and therefore more dangerous conditions.

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Review of Freedom From Oil

David Sandalow, Freedom From Oil: How the Next President Can End the United States' Oil Addiction

This is no story and there are no characters. Rather, the book is a series of hypothetical memos, a conversation in paper, of the process involved in a policy exploration decision, and the responses it could receive. If a president of the United States were to decide to make a policy goal of changing the U.S. and world relationship to oil as a motor fuel, this is likely to be what at least a part of the conversation stream in government would look like.

The book starts with the a memo from the president tasking various offices and divisions of the executive branch to provide information necessary and input into the crafting of a policy. Generally, while each department head's memos are in favor of the, they each have a different view of the solutions that could be used.

Only a small number of the memos contain a cautionary note about the political cost of implementing certain likely unpopular decisions. In that regard, I would have preferred to see a more dissent and discussion with varying opinions in the policy proposals and interpretation of facts.

The book is divided in to three sections. In the first section, the various offices are providing input of facts, statistics and possible technologies that could lead to a reduction not only in oil usage, but also to minimize impacts of world oil price fluctuations. The second section is composed of policy recommendations from each department and council head for how to shape policy in each of their bailiwicks to foster the goal. The end product in section three is the press release and policy package speech given by the president.

The central tenet is that there is no freedom from oil while oil is the primary fuel of our auto fleet. To that end, the policy crafted is designed to wean the US from oil as a fuel. Prepare to be inundated with facts and figures in the first section of the book as the various advisors reinforce the position that oil is a poor choice of fuel for the US auto fleet. Also prepared for a significant amount of repetition of these data points by the various advisors.

Many reading this will have an issue that the policy chosen picks specific technologies as the answer and provides incentives for those rather than implementing broad targets that the market can then determine how best to meet in a cost effective way. It is also unclear and admitted at the end of the book that many of the specific proposals are not politically palatable.

At 217 pages, the book is a good and quick read which I recommend to anyone who wants to see at least one possible solution to worldwide oil addiction.

For other reviews, see GristMill and sustainablog reviews.

Hybrids not just for cars anymore

GE is getting set to release a new diesel-hybrid train locomotive, first one to be on tracks in 2010. I suspect that adoption is going to be based more on retirement of existing locomotives, and will take many years to make a significant impact on fuel consumption by trains. It would be awesome if this were to be used for commuter rail lines in addition to freight. Additional summary at Inhabitat.

Seems like an incremental step in efficiency improvement, and the marketing tags are impressive. Comparing NOx emissions to engines of 20 years ago, and lifetime carbon emissions from the engine to the annual emissions of automobiles doesn't seem all that impressive.

Lets hope this unit sees high adoption rates until something better comes along, every improvement helps.

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A biomass solution to US oil and electricity "issues"

I can't remember or find how I got a link to this really long and interesting article. Though i suspect it was in the comments to a GristMill article.

The author argues for a closed cycles system of generating electricity and providing fuel for vehicles in a carbon neutral and possibly carbon negative cycle. He does a good job of tackling and suggesting existing technologies as well as that would need to be developed or improved for the cycle to work. Additionally, he makes some policy proposals for how to drive the development of this cycle in an economically generous way.

Here's the cycle:
Big things the system is relying on:
1) cellulosic feed stocks to feed the system
2) PHEV and Electric passenger vehicles
3) ethanol as the sole liquid fuel for vehicles
4) Algae to convert gaseous CO2 to C, O2 and "beer" for producing ethanol
5) fuels cells based on carbon
6) Generation of charcoal for long term sequestration

I won't claim that its perfect, or that I think he's completely right, but its certainly interesting, and could quite possibly be a part of the solution could be used. I have no idea the development status and current ability to deploy some of the technologies he mentions, such as solid-oxide fuel cells, direct-carbon fuel cells, and the Ford/MIT ethanol-injection engine. Assuming he is correct, there is a market for all of the outputs from a reactor/process built to do this (electricity, ethanol, charcoal, heat), it would be interesting for someone to build the pieces that are ready now and test the process out.

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Aptera the outsider to the auto market

Continuing my lusting after the Aptera trend, Earth2Tech has nice interview with CEO Steve Fambro on their site. Essentially, Mr. Fambro doesn't see Aptera as a car company yet, but has plans to move the company in that direction once they have an established product and brand.

The analysis is right on the money for at least this consumer. The attraction of an extremely fuel efficient vehicle at a reasonable price in a distinctive and showy styling is palpable. Yes, it looks odd, and will probably get made fun of by serious car heads. I'll get over it.

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Read this while I work on a diatribe...

So something I haven't found so far in all of the reading I do on climate change, sustainable farming, fishing and other practices is a vision for what the future looks like. Visions and goals are very useful, as they give all of the supporters and subscribers something to look forward to and work towards.

So, that said, Bill Becker, Executive Director of Presidential Climate Action Project, has responded to the request for a vision. It may not be the perfect vision, it may not answer all the questions possible (see the comments), but at least there is one, and its been publicly stated.

Perhaps this is a very useful direction for the conversation to take. Instead of preaching doom, gloom and the general patheticness of our species, lets get a vision for where we will be in 10, 20, 30 and 40 years, then figure out how to get there. Its no different that any other target. Man on the moon in seven years, seemed insurmountable, but it happened. Automakers CAFE standards to 35mpg by 2020, okay, that doesn't even seem like that much of a challenge.

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Video discussing some of the ethics of using an automobile

StreetFilms has a new video up, wherein Randy Cohen, writer of New Your Times Magazine's "Ethicist," is interview about cycling and some of what he views as unethical behavior by motorists.

Part of it discusses issues specific to NYC. Some of the broader ethical questions that are discussed aren't new, though its nice to hear them voiced. Most are rooted in the car obsessed and centered society that we have created and the tradeoffs that are made between convenience for one group or for ourselves versus some benefit to another person or community.

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