The software that currently powers this blog and the forum/gallery/blogging software for the entire Regional Commission will soon be going away. We're looking at moving the blog to a new platform - most likely WordPress.com - which should make it easier to comment on and engage with the material that we post here. In the meantime, however, there will be very little new content going up; I'll be saving all the good stuff for the new blog. When it's ready, we'll have a final post here with a link to the new site.
In the waning days of Bike Month I must admit to getting too busy to do much blogging, despite there being a lot of interesting stuff to talk about. I've going a growing list of bookmarks begging to be shared and commented on, and I will do my best to get to them in a timely manner. In the meantime, you're better off
following me on Twitter for general comments on news and transportation issues in the region.
In the meantime, I'll share a project I had been working on for a while. As I may have mentioned, I'm a fan of horror movies. The Grandin Theater's
Open Project Night program gave me an opportunity to try my hands at creating a horror film rather than just watching one. As I sat at my computer one night, wondering, "How can I tell a decent horror story in less than 10 minutes?" without coming up with an answer, I then considered, "Well, how can I tell a horror story based on carpooling in less than 10 minutes?" Surprisingly, I actually came up with an answer to the last question, and you can find it over on the
RIDE Solutions frontpage.
It didn't make the top three audience selections from the evening, but I have nonetheless received a lot of positive comments. If you just can't get enough of the star of the show, Robb Rouse, catch him at his real acting gig with the
Big Lick Conspiracy, whose final show of the summer is this Saturday.
Most mornings, now, my morning commute route no longer takes me past a gas station. It's rare, therefore, that I get a daily reminder of where gas prices are going unless I make a conscious effort to look them up, which often means I'm surprised at my bi-weekly fill-ups. This morning, though, I took my old route after dropping my daughter off for daycare and passed the BP on 9th St., my reliable gas update.
We're past $2.00 a gallon again, up to $2.31. Might explain why my carpool registrations are starting to creep back up again.
On the one hand, as I've often said, gas prices returning to normal (and I believe that the $3 to $4 floor price is going to be the new normal) will be a sign that the overall economy is improving, and this could be one of several recent signs that things may be getting better (or growing worse more slowly, I suppose). On the other hand, we're going to see a lot of energy-cost related pain soon, and even if the economy is slowly righting itself we're still nowhere near the point that $4 a gallon gas
won't be a significant hardship on many people. Time to start looking at your options again, folks.
What I find particularly interesting about this is the short memory and high tolerance Americans have when it comes to gas prices. Everyone was freaking out - rightly - last summer as gas prices skyrocketed, and their reactions were appropriate: People drove less, significantly less, and folks in the market for a new vehicle were clamoring for a decreasing stock of fuel-efficient and hybrid vehicles. And then the economy collapsed, along with gas prices, and demand for hybrids
dried up completely. Don't people understand by now that, no matter the short-term trends,
gas prices always increase?
Metropolitan Planning Organization staff have placed an insert, promoting the
Long-Range Transportation Plan 2035 Update (LRTP 2035) web site, in the Western Virginia Water Authority bills for the current billing cycles. These inserts should reach approximately 53,000 customer accounts (residential and commercial combined). We have placed Google Analytics code on
the webpage to see if we get an upsurge in page views during the cycle (mid-May to mid-June) in which the inserts are appearing in the bills. A staff member learned of this technique at "Public Participation in Transportation Planning" training. It is always gratifying to try something that you learn in training in the real world. At the very least, it is yet another avenue, along with the Kiosk and Focus Groups, that regional planners use to promote public information/ involvement during the
LRTP 2035 update process. Please keep your eyes open for the flyer and visit
the site so you can be counted in Google Analytics. For those who don't want to wait for the "long-range", the flyer also mentions
RIDE Solutions. Hopefully, all of you informed citizens who read this blog are willing to both think "long-term" with a vision for the region and act in the "short term" to improve things with
RIDE Solutions.
Chris Berry recently had a blog entry entitled
"10 Simple Rules for Greenway Users" with some common-sense suggestions for behavior on the Valley's increasingly busy Greenway network:
Perfectly rational people who would never consider driving their cars on the wrong side of the road are somehow oblivious to the fact that the same basic rules of traffic apply on the greenways. Folks who would never allow their dogs to poop on the neighbors grass have no problem letting them take a giant dump right in the middle of the trail. Parents who watch their kids like hawks at home allow them to pedal out of sight on tricycles on the greenways. What is it about nice weather and pleasant walking trails that causes people to lose their minds?
He's even got a
Facebook group. I joined, if for no other reason than I would like to see violations of Rule #9 a capital crime.
We're in the home stretch leading up to Friday's
Clean Commute Day and the pledges have been coming in, albeit slowly. Last year we received over 200 pledges, but last year gas was on a meteoric rise even now so perhaps people were paying more attention! We're at 85 pledges so far - still very good, but short of the (admittedly extremely ambitious) goal of 1,000 pledges we went into this with.
But wait, don't despair! We've got two
Bike Heros stepping in to help!
The first is Roanoke Times Metro Columnist (and die-hard bike fan) Dan Casey, who did a great story on Sunday and who is
organizing several guided bike-to-work rides on Friday. He's got volunteers leading folks from every quadrant of the city into downtown to feast at the Clean Commute Day Hospitality Tent (or at Tudor's Biscuit World, whichever floats your boat).
Second, the
Car Less Brit himself has offered a challenge: He is due to end his six-month experiment at the end of May, but he's now said that if we reach our goal, we'll go
carless for another six months! Personally, I want to see how he fares in the summer heat after a relatively easy winter bike commute (people fear riding in the cold, but it's actually more comfortable; you warm up quickly and can peel off layers, which is not the case in the middle of the summer). Of course, it would also be a shame to lose the region's biggest carless advocate back to the wretched automobile, so let's meet his challenge.
Take note, because this is important: You don't have to live in Roanoke to take the pledge. We'll report on the total clean pledges and total clean miles at the end of the event, so whether you're in Roanoke or Blacksburg, Richmond or Atlanta, San Francisco or London, you can take the pledge and add a few more clean miles to Friday, May 15.
Take the pledge right now!
Recently returned from some training in Richmond and suffering the last vestiges of a dual-attack from a nasty cold and allergies, I need to take a moment to highlight everything that has happened already for
Bike Month, and we're only just a week into it. This event keeps getting bigger every year!
It all started with the first
Smart Cycling 101 course last Wednesday run by Aaron Garland. The next module in the course, on Bike Commuting, is tonight. I'm glad I attended - I'm a big bike advocate, of course, but a very casual rider, so there were some basic things I learned that I probably should have learned a long time ago (for example,
what all the parts of the bike are called). Tonight's course will cover some of the issues that bike commuters face; if you're planning on riding a bike for next Friday's
Clean Commute Day event, I'd urge you to come to the course tonight.
I missed the first
Casual Fridays at Tudor's due to a sick kid, but I understand it was successful enough that it has been expanded from being a breakfast-only event to an all-day long promotion. I've got a morning meeting with the
CarLess Brit tomorrow morning, and you take a guess at where we're meeting and how I plan to get there...
Saturday's Mayor's Bike Ride was fantastic - I connected the trailer to my cheapie beach cruiser and rode my daughter down to Wasena to join 120 other riders following Mayor Bowers to all the downtown festivities happening that day. It was a gorgeous morning for a greenway ride, and nice inaugural event.
Tomorrow afternoon is the first of what we hope will be many Planner's Rides organized by the Regional Bicycle Advisory Committee. We've got about 10 people confirmed so far, all planners and traffic engineers with Roanoke City, Roanoke County, Vinton and Salem; Shane Sawyer and I will be leading them on a 4.4 mile loop from downtown to the Grandin Village and back. By getting local government planners out on their bikes to see what road conditions are really like for cyclists, we're hoping to spur improvements in on-road accommodations, and particularly to encourage local governments to establish formal bike routes to help novice cyclists maneuver through the valley without a car. I'm thrilled at the response we've gotten from everyone involved.
On the horizon we have the
Fork in the Alley/Fork in the City cyclist's discount all of next week in recognition of Clean Commute Day, and Clean Commute Day itself.
Whew.
And just as a reminder, if you are planning your own Bike Month event and would like some help promoting it,
submit your event information and we'll help get the word out!
You may see something like this popping up over town for the next few weeks:
If you find one of these (or something like this) stuck in the spokes of your bike, or if someone hands you one while you're out on the Greenway, think of it as having one a prize. These are one in a set of four limited-edition handmade spoke cards screenprinted by Jenny Garnett and
Bad Eye Deer Bicycles. They're collectibles! We'll be distributing them guerrilla style over the course of the month, and handing them out at all our events.
The American Lung Association released their
State of the Air report card yesterday, and I have a few problems with it:
Lung Association’s State of the Air Report Misrepresents Air Quality in Roanoke Region
Roanoke, Va., April 30, 2009 – The American Lung Association yesterday released their annual “State of the Air” report card, grading the air quality of localities across the country. Citizens in the Roanoke Valley might be concerned to see that Roanoke received an “F” grade for 2009 compared to an “A” in 2008. Staff of the Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission, who monitor air quality throughout the year, manage the local Air Quality Action Day listserv, and are responsible for maintaining the Ozone Early Action Plan, say not to worry.
The Lung Association’s grade is based on applying the new EPA 8-hour ozone standard, adopted in the early part of 2008, to air quality data from 2005-2007. This results in the creation of 15 Code Orange air quality days that would not have happened under the previous standards. This is significant because, under the Ozone Early Action Plan, a Code Orange air quality forecast from the Virginia Department of Environment Quality results in a number of activities taking place, including notification being sent out across the Air Quality Action Day list, mowing and burn bans, and a ban on refueling local government vehicles during the heat of the day. These actions all play a role in mitigating ozone pollution. Had there been actual Code Orange forecasts, local governments and private citizens would have received the necessary information to take action.
“We appreciate the Lung Association’s efforts to bring attention to the very real issues of air pollution and its health implications, but feel this new report is confusing and misrepresents the region’s true performance,” says Jeremy Holmes, a planner with the Regional Commission. “It’s like your credit card company raising your interest rate and applying the new rate to purchases you made three years ago.”
Even under the new standard, the Roanoke region has improved its overall air quality compared to previous years. The Roanoke region is, and has been, in attainment with the new, stricter standard.
Ground-level ozone is the main ingredient in smog and is formed by the reaction of sunlight with gasoline fumes, vehicle and industrial emissions, and solvent vapors, among others. Its formation occurs most often in hot, dry weather. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality calls Air Quality Action Days any time the Air Quality Index (AQI) indicates unhealthy levels of ozone, with classifications ranging from Green, little to no health risk, to Purple, very unhealthy.
It's not that I disagree with the ALA's intent: I understand that their mission is to bring attention to lung health and air pollution. And it's fair to say that even under the new standards there is room for the region to grow. But I do have a problem with what this report implies. Comparing the 2009 and 2008 report, it appears that Roanoke suffered a huge air quality deterioration in just twelve months, which is alarming and would require some serious action if it were true. It's not true, though - the ALA just retroactively applied a new standard to previous performance and gave the impression of a huge deterioration. Unfortunately, this - to me, at least - has the opposite effect of their intentions; by playing a numbers game and hiding the region's true performance, it calls into question the credibility of the report.
Don't even get me started on the fact that both Roanoke and Atlanta both received an F. If there's no differentiation between Roanoke and
Atlanta, I'm not sure how helpful this report really is.
One of the several hats I wear is being a member of the
Greater Roanoke Valley Asthma and Air Quality Coalition (GRVAAQC), where, as a planner/transportation coordinator in a group of nurses and doctors, I'm definitely in the minority. However, the immediate health impacts of poor air quality related to vehicle emissions are actually more acute the long-term impacts of greenhouse gas emission and climate change, and these are the health professionals dealing with those problems every day. With the Roanoke Valley just on the borderline of compliance with EPA regulations regarding both ozone and fine particulate matter pollution, it's important to pay attention to the role these pollutants play in causing and exacerbating cardiovascular and lung disease.
Stuart Tousman, with the Jefferson College of Health Sciences, is undertaking an Adult Asthma Education Research Study and needs participants. Go
here to get more information about the study and to contact Dr. Tousman.
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This post is part of a series concerning the efforts of the Creative Communities Leadership Project, of which Program Director Jeremy Holmes is a part. This effort seeks to create fundamental change in the region and initiate creative, sustainable economic development projects. The initiative "CNR2030: Growing a Carbon Neutral Region" is one of four concepts that resulted from the program.
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I attended the press conference held today by the City of Roanoke's
Clean and Green Business Coalition. Standing outside on the deck of the AECOM HSMM headquarters downtown, we were buffeted by cold wind and halfhearted spatters of rain, but it was worth it to hear the good news: The coalition of twelve businesses achieved an average carbon emission reduction of 13% in it's first year, compared to a goal of 4%. With partners like Carilion Clinic and Berglund, this represents a significant achievement. Not insignificantly, these emissions reductions represent $1.3 million in savings.
In my mind, it is the private sector and business leaders like Stan Breakell, co-chair of the Coalition, who will be the vanguard on environmental action. Not policy or education - those are the realms of government and non-profits, who pave the way the businesses to take decisive action. I say this not because of some hyperactive adoration for capitalism, but simply because businesses are by far the largest consumers of electricity and other resources that contribute to climate change and air pollution, and so therefore have the largest opportunity to act. For example, Bill Tanger said that Berglund's electricity reduction in one year resulted in something like 58,000 kWh saved. 58,000. I could take my house off the grid completely and it would still take me 4 and a half years to achieve that. Berglund achieved that only going after what I assume to be the low-hanging fruit - changing light bulbs and turning off equipment when not in use. They still have room to improve.
In terms of implementing simple policies that reap great rewards, businesses have the edge because the breadth and complexity of their business operations can often allow little changes to quickly ripple into big effects. Those big effects also generally have a hefty cost-savings associated with them, a cost-savings that the average home-owner is unlikely to find very compelling on a relative level. My $10 a month savings from replacing all the CFLs in my house is nice, but it's simply not as sexy or dramatic as a vast business operation like Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital changing out all
their bulbs to CFLs. When your power bill is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, these savings matter.
After the press conference, I had the opportunity to talk with Stan Breakell - with whom I have the pleasure to work on the Citizens for Clean and Green effort (and you should go
take our pledge, by the way!) - about the
CNR2030 initiative. As we explore this idea of carbon neutrality and setting a long-term goal for the region, we recognize that other groups - such as the Business Coalition, the
Roanoke Valley Cool Cities Coalition, the City and County's own interal efforts, and others - are way ahead of us in actually getting work done, and know far more than most of do about what needs to happen to reach the short-term goals that have been set. In discussing how to education people, get them connected to these great organizations so they have the tools to act, Stan commented that the local governments should be the information resource for citizens.
I agree, in part - local governments need to implement policies and programs that help their citizens go Green and offer them incentives in the right direction, and they need to make those programs easy to find and take advantage of. But going green will require reaching farther than that - it is recognizing that our carbon footprints do not, really, end at our municipal borders. None of the local governments working alone are going to succeed in building much of a case for renewable energy sources; but perhaps a stronger argument could be made if we speak as a region. Valley residents already are familiar with the recycling conundrum - the City recycles curbside, the County doesn't recycle at all, and no one takes green and brown glass. The only way to fix this - particularly the last item, which is a function of providing enough material for the buyer to turn a profit - is to get everyone working together with the same recycling policies and services (as much as possible; it may still not make sense, from a carbon emissions standpoint, to send a recycling truck out to some areas of the County to pick up a handful of recycling bins). Finally, and from a somewhat selfish perspective, the transportation component of each government's carbon footprint will not be dealt with without a regional approach to sustainable transportation practices. A transit system that ends at the City border does nothing to help the City resident who works in the County, and vice versa, and indicates a significant missed opportunity for improvement.
Pressing the regional perspective, then, would seem to be one of the major functions of CNR2030.
I will admit that I am the first to complain about "Apples to Oranges" comparisons. As planners we often hear "San Fransisco can do "X" so Roanoke should too;" or the crowd favorite "Portland, Oregon did "Y" so Roanoke should immediately do the same." Citizens who tell us this are often well meaning, they just underestimate the effects of scale (size), available resources or other factors that are not directly or immediately transferrable to Roanoke. With this in mind, I will make my own observations from a recent trip to New York and Philadelphia. I do this with full understanding that things are not directly transferrable from New York to Roanoke due to differences in poplulation density, housing density and other well known factors. However, the interesting question will be at what point can we replicated ideas such as carsharing in Roanoke. Is there enough density between Downtown and the emerging BioMed center to make a small scale system work? Will retiring Baby Boomers provide a natural market for car sharing systems?
For those of you unfamiliar with the term, car sharing is like a monthly cell phone plan or a monthly gym membership for using a car. Members pay a monthly fee and have access to cars at pre-dermined, and often signed, parking spots around a city or region. Members simpley drive a car from a location on one side of town to the closest car sharing location to their destination. Car ownership, insurance, repairs and even gas are taken care of by the car sharing company, members pay a fee and get a turn key solution. In markets like New York, car sharing companies such as
ZipCar are aggressively marketing within subway stations and subway cars. One subway station billboard I saw had the tagline
"Owning a Car is sooooo.... pre-Recession!" This marketing makes sense, because car sharing spaces are usually located near subway stops or other mass transit. In Philadelphia,
the same company posted little plastic boxes (similar to the ones realestate agents attach to yard signs) complete with brocures and a coupon, outside of participating parking garages. Philly has a competing non profit car share organization called
PhillyCarShare. I saw one of their cars driving around completed with door and bumber advertisements directing people to
their website.
The concept of car sharing is addressed in the
draft regional long-range transportation plan 2035. The
Roanoke Valley Area MPO also has a car sharing feasibility study on the proposed Fiscal Year 2010 work program. I don't make these big city comparisons lightly. It is an open and possibly exciting question to see if a version or scale of car sharing can be transferred to parts of our region.
Other smaller regions such as Ithaca, NY are already looking into this possibility.
Please encourage students to submit an entry. The
student paper competition deadline has been extended to the close of business
June 19, 2009. One of the suggested paper topics directly benefits
RIDESolutions marketing. The other topics are along transportation and environmental themes. Both undergraduate and graduate students are welcome to submit. The competition website can be found
here: http://www.rvarc.org/temp/contest.html
Tonight, the
Roanoke Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization and VDOT are hosting a
public input meeting for the 419 Corridor Study the MPO is currently undertaking. The study examines the entire length of Route 419 from the 220 interchange near Tanglewood Mall all the way to I-81. The study is multimodal in nature, so the goal is not just to look at how 419 can be improved for cars, but for people, bicycles, transit, etc.
When: April 21st, 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM
Where:
Hidden Valley Middle School cafeteria, 4902 Hidden Valley School Road, Roanoke. When we scouted and mapped routes for the RIDE Solutions
Bike to Work Routes last year, and studied accommodations for our
Interactive Bike Map, we recognized that 419 was a key connector in the Valley and generally the most efficient way to get to major activity centers in Salem, Roanoke County, and Roanoke City. We struggled, though, with recommending people use it as a route - even when the road is wide, the average vehicle speed is faster than I would be comfortable with as a casual bike rider. Sidewalks would be a major improvement from a pedestrian perspective, and could double as bike accommodations if constructed as a greenway or shared-use path.
Perhaps more difficult than encouraging people to ride on 419 was encouraging them to ride across it. One of our routes,
the Sidewinder, was an attempt to connect the Cave Spring area to downtown, which necessarily required crossing 419. It was tough deciding which intersection was both the safest for the cyclist and also made the most sense from a route perspective.
Tonight's meeting is a chance to make sure these issues are addressed and that cyclists and pedestrians are well-served by any improvements made to the corridor.
Another topic is that of transit - an express bus, perhaps, between Tanglewood Mall and what I envision to be a new Park-and-Ride at 419 and I-81. Bus rapid transit would work well here, with a dedicated bus lane on much of 419 where practicable, a handful of stops, and a 15 minute headway or less.
The meeting promises to be something other than your usual speak-at-the-podium affair, with breakout sessions, workgroups, and plenty of interaction with MPO and VDOT staff. So get out and make your voice heard.
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This post is part of a series discussing the experiences of River Laker, the CarLessBrit, a Roanoke City man who sold his car and committed to a six month experiment of going carless in Roanoke.
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Well, the streamers are down, the CarLess Brit is off on a visit to his native country, and I would have to declare the CarLess Roanoke party a great success. I was there a bit early to set up my table and to help get things pulled together, and the night went by in a bit of a rush, but the space was packed and everyone seemed to have a great time. In particular,
Alejandro's deserves a round of applause for feeding everyone with an actual full meal, not the finger-foods I was expecting. It's hard to estimate how many people were there, but I'd put it at easily 100 or 150.
If you didn't get a chance to attend, there are a
number of
photo albums available on Facebook (including a
set of photos taken by my three-year-old daughter), and check out the stories shared by those who used the Make Your Own Video booth about how they
got to the party.
Thanks to the CarLessBrit and Roanoke City Libraries for participating in this experiment!