The ramifications of high-priced gas have hit center-stage as shown by this video from the Today Show:
It looks likely that the problem is only going to get worse. As our sibling-blog Envirowonk reports, “Unless you are fortunate enough not to rely on a car for your day-to-day needs, you might have heard that oil is well on its way to $120 a barrel. This means we can expect $4.00+ gas this summer, and as much as $7 per gallon if when oil reaches $200 a barrel.”
Two energy industry experts quoted in the New York Sun have even bleaker outlooks – they predict a $200 per barrel price, equating to $10 per gallon in our near future!
In Australia, the bicycle sales have outpaced cars for eight years running. As the Earth Policy Institute reports, that discrepancy is even larger on a global scale. 130 million bicycles hit the road in 2007, compared to 52 million cars. Perhaps more significantly, the difference is growing. “Overall, since 1970, bicycle output has nearly quadrupled, while car production has roughly doubled.”
The Earth Institiute tracks bicycle production as one of twelve “Eco-Economy Indicators.” According to the Earth Institute:
Bicycle production measures our ability to provide affordable transportation, reduce traffic congestion, lower air pollution, increase mobility, and provide exercise to the world's growing population.”
...Promoting the bike as a clean and efficient alternative to the personal automobile is a practical way for cities to reduce traffic congestion and smog. To simultaneously confront those problems as well as climate change and an emerging obesity epidemic, government leaders and advocacy groups are working to bring cycling back to prominence in the urban transport mix.
It wasn't long ago that we featured Radiohead for shying away from venues that were unaccessible by public transportation. Now the “World's Greenest Band” has gone one step further by undergoing a partial carectomy and telecommuting. Rather than traipsing across the Atlantic for their performance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien the band stayed home and broadcasted their performance via satellite.
According to band leader Thom Yorke, by foregoing the roundtrip flight to New York, Radiohead's pollution reduction was equivalent to driving a car for an entire year. Of course this is a bit more extreme than most peoples' typical commutes – but the principal remains the same.
Telecommuting is a great way for people to decrease car use. More and more employers are amenable to allowing workers to log in from home several days per week and scheduling meetings and important face-to-face functions on specific in-office days.
Radiohead's remote show was just the thing to feature on NBC's “Green Is Universal” week. Here's hoping that Radiohead's green image will become the norm for bands, rather than that of hotel-trashing, nose-loading, over-consuming walking train wrecks.
Check out Radiohead's rocking performance, complete with an impressive to-the-point jab at Mr. Bush:
A recent Gallup poll proves that high prices at the pump are changing the habits of American drivers. Eighty-four percent of respondents said they had cut back on daily driving by consolidating trips or taking other measures to reduce mileage, while 31% said they now took public transit, biked, or walked instead of driving. A full 60% of Americans polled said they had cut back on household spending to compensate for higher gas prices. With rising energy costs and a serious shortage of fuel, cars may become obsolete sooner than we think.
Perhaps as fuel costs rise, waistlines will shrink. I expect, at the very least, that even more of us will turn to public transit and pedestrian transportation as gas prices go higher. It's disappointing, however, that it's taking dollars--not common, environmental sense--to diminish our dependence on cars. The Gallup poll also notes that it's the "have-nots" (those who make less than $75k/year) who are cutting back on their driving, not the wealthy, who, as of yet, feel relatively unaffected by the fuel crisis.
Readers, get thy camcorders. U.S. PIRG, the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs), is accepting entries for a video contest that would help convince bureacrats to implement better, faster, more efficient public transit and reduce road traffic. In the last decade, PIRG reports, the hours people spend stuck in traffic have skyrocketed from 18 hours per year to 38 hours.
The contest isn't seeking the next Kazan or Kubric, nor does it require a flair for cinematography. The criteria for winners is simple: show viewers "why we need more and better public transportation," and "your vision of a 21st century transportation system." The winning videos "will be a critical part of an effort to educate city councils, legislatures across the country, and lawmakers in Washington, D.C."
Beyond doing your part to better public transit and the planet, PIRG will award winners cash prizes: a $500 prize for the winner, $150-$250 for runners up, and honorable mentions will receive a one-year membership to U.S. PIRG. Entries are due by July 4, 2008. See the PIRG website for full contest rules, entry criteria, scope out your competition, and submit your video.
Beginning today, the fair city of Albuquerque, N.M. is holding a "Strive Not To Drive" week, during which residents are encouraged to relinquish their cars for more efficient, eco-friendly forms of transportation. The city is also urging habitual drivers to try alternative forms of transport, and is spotlighting a different form of car-free travel each day of the week.
The city rebuffs committed drivers with these stats from the American Public Transportation Association website:
Public transportation reduces pollution and promotes cleaner air. It produces 95% less carbon monoxide (CO), 90 percent less in volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and about half as much carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx), per passenger mile, as private vehicles. -Each year, public transportation households save over $1,399 worth of gas and transit availability can reduce the need for an additional car, a yearly expense of $6,251 in a household budget. -The average American household spends 18 cents for every dollar earned on transportation, and cars are the largest source of household debt after mortgages.
I'm glad to see Albuquerque, a city of sprawl, encouraging alternative modes of transport, but the city itself (and others like it) needs to change before people change their car-loving ways. In Albuquerque, where transit is slow, unreliable, and inefficient; where cars rule the roads and run cyclists to the wayside the frightened rabbits; where getting to your destination often requires taking the highway or a busy road with no sidewalks or bike lane, people aren't eager to leap out of their cars. Cities have to change as much as we do; they must be as willing to ditch cars as the people who drive them. Without improvements to public transit and more ped-friendly advancements (i.e. bike lanes, public sidewalks, traffic enforcement), events like Strive Not to Drive seem little more than an empty, impractical gesture to prettify the city in the eyes of politicians.
Well, today's definitely been bike-themed at Carectomy. Must be related to National Bike Month and the upcoming Bike to Work Day (with free breakfast in my community!) that's gotten me so excited.
Below is a good counter-balance to the video we just posted of fed-up punk-asses showing cars who's the boss in the most unlikely of venues – the freeways of Los Angeles.
CyclistView has a whole series of videos in which they demonstrate the safest ways to ride. In several of the videos they have two cyclists with helmet-mounted cameras, filming one another, with both views playing concurrently.
Lane Control, from CyclistView:
The differences between this safe and sober approach to riding and the freeway escapade is comical – highlighted by the selections of music accompanying each. Both take place in Los Angeles and both prove valid points. Bicycles are not only a healthier and less-polluting alternative to cars – in many instances they're more time efficient as well.
Cars are the most inconvenient convenience we have. We're required to have them, but increasingly, we dislike them. At Carectomy, we're trying to figure out how to extract cars from people.
The operation is a little bit painful, but life afterward is much more awesome. If you're interested in carectomies, sign up to our newsletter, or subscribe our RSS feed below.
