May 2008 - Posts
This just came from the Roanoke Valley Cool Cities Coalition. Roanoke City wants to get home-brew biodiesel makers connected up with restaurants who will supply you with waste grease:
Roanoke City has been using biodiesel in its own fleet for over a year. They buy from commercial distributers.
But we all know that you can make biodiesel from leftover restuarant oils - as in the movie "French Fries to Go." A number of restaurants in downtown Roanoke are willing to share their leftovers with you, and city government can help you find them.
If you or someone you know is making their own biodiesel and would like a local supply of grease, please contact Ken Cronin, Roanoke's Director of General Services, at kenneth.cronin@roanokeva.gov, (540) 853-1805.
We are currently in the midst of a public input window regarding some new regulations that VDOT may put into place. These regulations have the potential to drastically alter the kinds of roads that VDOT will take into the public system, which, in turn, will shape the kinds of neighborhoods that developers create. The new regulations put emphasis on connectivity (no more cul-de-sacs), pedestrian and bicycle accommodations. This represents a sea-change in thinking, and VDOT deserves your comments of support for the proposed rules.
Go tell them what you think.According to a VDOT representative this morning, they have received a lot of input from developers, who see the connectivity requirements as burdensome and reducing the value of their developments. VDOT needs to hear from citizens to think that shortening vehicle trips (and vehicle emissions) through enhanced connectivity is a
good thing; that narrowing lanes to reduce travel speeds through neighboorhoods is a
good thing; and that making sure all transportation options are represented is a
good thing.
So, read the regs and send them your comments. RIDE Solutions and the Regional Commission's Bicycle Advisory Committee (of which RIDE Solutions is part) will be sending in our letters of support. So should you.
Through the power that is the internet, I was contacted by a researcher for People Magazine who is looking for someone who has responded to the recent increase in gas prices by undertaking an uncoventional commute. They're looking beyond carpooling, biking, etc. to something very different - so if there's anyone out there who commutes down the river by canoe, rollerblades to work, saddles up, or anything along those lines, please
email me and let me know.
A colleague of mine here at the Regional Commission often refers to the "I" word as the main objection he hears to alternative transportation options, the "I" word being "Inconvenience." I find it remarkable that people think that being stuck driving yourself when you could be doing something else equates to inconvenience; personally, I find it very convenient to hop on the bus and read a book, and much more inconvenient to worry about other drivers on the road.
The "I" word comes up in
this blog post as well (it's Canadian, so don't freak out when you read her complaining about gas prices at $1.35):
Let me guess, you think I live too far out, right? Out in the back
woods, or as my step-dad says "We have to come out to hunt" we live so
far out in the sticks. But this isn't the case. I found someone who works in the same vicinity as me and lives a mere five minutes away.
This
person travels to downtown Moncton Monday to Friday and works almost
the exact same hours. Well guess what. They changed their mind and
don't want to carpool. Too inconvenient. Bullocks.
The root of the problem is what drivers perceive as freedom. At the moment, freedom (and convenience) is being able to jump in your car whenever you want and go wherever you want. This idea of freedom ignores the fact that, once you're in your car, you're stuck. You're beholden to the whims of traffic, your time is dedicated to the act of driving, you're stuck looking at the same scenery over and over again. Its pretty amazing, when you think about it, that we consider "freedom" to be sitting in what is essentially a really, really tiny room, moving a wheel around, only to end up exactly where we left. And unlike other tiny rooms, this one has the potential to kill you if someone else isn't paying attention to what their tiny room is doing. Oh, and we gladly pay thousands of dollars a year for the priveledge. The freedom of going and coming whenever you want completely ignores how trapped you are in between.
Bullocks, indeed.
Thank you to everyone who participated in Clean Commute Day, and particularly to those intrepid cycles who biked to work that morning and were able to stop by our downtown hospitality tents. We'll have some video and photos up soon, so keep watching this space.
We received 207 Clean Commute Pledges, with cycling being by far the most popular clean commute mode. All told, we took 4,406 miles off the road that day. I hope those of you trying this for the first time enjoyed it and will make carpooling, cycling, walking, taking the bus or telecomutting a regular part of your commute.
Thanks again, and see you next year!
We're up to
140 pledges going in to the final week leading up to Clean Commute Day. The rankings remain unchanged, with the City's margin growing as the libraries get energized. We're looking at a inter-departmental battle now between
Planning, Building & Development and
Booking it at the Library. The libraries need 3 pledges to tie, 4 to beat out the planners. Perhaps this will serve to the settle the ongoing battle between librarians and planners.
Roanoke City and Roanoke County remain neck and neck in terms of total residents pledging, with the top City zip code holding a slim 2 point advantage over the County.
Watch this week for news stories and tomorrow's big bicycle piece in The Roanoke Times. You can catch Dutchie Mirolli's story on
WVTF's website if you haven't already heard it on the radio.
Every day sets a new record. We're only filling up half a tank, now, trying to eek out a few more MPG by weighing the car down less. This is probably more psychological than anything else. I am doing more shopping trips on my bicycle. If it wasn't for daycare, I'd be riding into work most days.
Though the top performers haven't changed, there are some strong challengers on their way. Roanoke County residents need just one pledge to tie the City; Salem is in third at 13 pledges. As far as employers go, the City has jumped ahead with the formation of the "Booking it at the Library" team. This team has brought the City's total pledges to 17, surpassing the County's 11 pledges. Newcomer SFCS, Inc. has rocketed towards the top with 6 pledges. Their team is third behing the City's Planning, Building and Development Team and the Virginia DEQ's team.
I had made the challenge at the beginning of the week to reach 100 pledges by Friday; we've already surpassed that, so I'm raising the bar higher - 130 pledges by the end of the day tomorrow!
Good luck to the City of Roanoke's Planning, Building, and Development department, who just formed a Clean Commute Team and is challenging other City departments for Clean Commute Supremacy!
The City still has a little ways to go to catch up to Roanoke County, however; more County employees as well as County residents have taken the pledge than anyone else!
Keep 'em coming.
Via
McClatchy:
WASHINGTON — When long-haul trucker Rusty Wade pulled his rig into a Missouri truck stop last week, he noticed something strange.
Of the 50 or so 18-wheelers parked in the lot, only five had their engines idling.
"That's only because of the high price of fuel," said Wade, an independent owner-operator from Brundidge, Ala. "A year ago there would only be about five that weren't running."
Setting aside, for a moment, the economic drivers behind this, anti-idling campaigns have been a major component of transportation-related air quality programs across the country. In Virginia,
ShenAir has been tackling this issue for some time, primarily from the cost-savings angle of reducing fuel consumption. While I'm sure they've had some success in inducing voluntary measures, it appears that its going to take the pain of unusually high gas prices to drive what is, in the end, a healthy behavior change.
As I mentioned in my last post, we've more than doubled the Clean Commute Day pledges year-over-year. What's more exciting, though, is the diversity of participants. Last year, Roanoke County employees and Blue Ridge Bicycle Club members made up the bulk of pledges; this year, Roanoke County continues to be a heavy hitter and stands as the employer with the highest pledges, but the team formed by the Virginia DEQ is actually outperforming the county in terms of percentage of employees participating.
Roanoke County can't rest on its laurels, however; VDOT is quickly closing in. Yes, VDOT has quite a few bike and walk pledges under their belts. Good for them!
We've had teams formed by the DEQ, the Roanoke Chapter of BikeWalk Virginia, Mattern & Craig, the Roanoke Outdoors and Social Club, and the Blue Ridge Bicycle Club. Employer participants are all over the board - a number of Virginia Tech Corporate Reaserch Center employers (most notably VTLS), Virginia Tech, WSLS Channel 10, Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, Norfolk Southern, The Roanoke Times, and more.
Biking is clearly the preferred option this year, with bike pledges coming it at 43% of the total - and with gas prices being where they are, I'm not surprised that commuters would be using Clean Commute Day as an opportunity to make some room in their budgets.
As of this morning, we're at 79 pledges. Let's see if we can't make it 100 by the end of the week!
Clean Commute Day preparations have had me swamped. Pledges are coming in at an incredible rate (we've
more than doubled last year's pledges already, and there are still two weeks to go). RIDE Solutions has also been registering people at a record rate - the last two months have more than exceeded the registration goals we've set for the year, and have been the two highest-performing months in the history of the program.
Thank God for expensive gas!
There are a number of news items I've been meaning to comment on, but they're going to have to wait. In the meantime,
watch this funny little video brought to you by the guys who did "An Engineer's Guide to Cats"
Also, you can watch me
ride a bicycle and wear a tie - AT THE SAME TIME!