energy and transport
The problem with bicycles
Once people get into their heads that maybe the personal automobile is not really such a good idea -- in other words, after they have moved beyond the biodiesel/electric car phase, as if the only problem with the personal automobile is the fuel it uses -- they usually fixate on bicycles. I say "fixate" because this often becomes an eco-fetish like so many other such things, as if more bicycles were better, and if you could just get enough bicycles in one place, you could "save the world."
Transport - July 28
-Modern cargo ships slow to the speed of the sailing clippers
-Testing a London 'Cycle Superhighway'
-Festival transforms autobahn into world's longest street party
Sailing the Salish Sea: Passenger Service in BC
Carson Tak has made history as the first known modern-era sail-powered passenger service captain/entrepreneur... Such a life as Carson Tak's is enviable. However, what he's doing for a living is more than just float and gloat. He raises awareness on the world's oil crisis every time he hoists his sails, and on land as well as sea he participates in sustainable economics: utilizing and promoting the gift economy.
A government says NO to airport expansion
The British government's recent decision to cancel construction of a third runway at London's Heathrow airport marks a major milestone in our adaptation to post-carbon mobility. This is the first time that a government has canceled plans for major aviation infrastructure expansion due to global, rather than local, concerns about environmental degradation.
Peak oil and public transportation
Michael Lind is the Policy Director of New America’s Economic Growth Program and a frequent contributor to Salon.com. He recently published an article regarding the future of transportation—fixed/high-speed rail. He offers up an attitude regarding our approach to transportation and automobiles that can only cause us more problems as we confront Peak Oil.
Mayor Cornett of Oklahoma City "gets it".
The Mayor of Oklahoma City is recommending that bus service to the "fringes" of the city be discontinued, for fiscal reasons, thereby proving that he "gets it", in terms of the realities of the peak oil future.
Drive easy
There is a way we can stretch our oil use, decrease our involvement in the Middle East, reduce climate change, dramatically lower the number of traffic deaths, extend the life of our cars and increase neighbourhood safety all at once. It’s called driving slowly.
Reinventing Houston
What struck me during a recent visit to Houston is that efforts to create a downtown with the kind of round the clock activity one sees in other world class cities such as Chicago or New York have so far not succeeded.
Toward sustainable travel: breaking the flying addiction
Flying dwarfs any other individual activity in terms of carbon emissions, yet more and more people are traveling by air. With no quick technological fix on the horizon, what alternatives — from high-speed trains to advanced videoconferencing — can cut back the amount we fly?
Reclaiming the streets
Cars promise mobility, and in a largely rural setting they provide it. But in an urbanizing world, where more than half of us live in cities, there is an inherent conflict between the automobile and the city. After a point, as their numbers multiply, automobiles provide not mobility but immobility, as well as increased air pollution and the health problems that come with it. Urban transport systems based on a combination of rail lines, bus lines, bicycle pathways, and pedestrian walkways offer the best of all possible worlds in providing mobility, low-cost transportation, and a healthy urban environment.
Transport - May 19
-Transit as a Development Tool, but in Whose Interest?
-Better Bikeways: Guerrilla Improvements and DIY Signage
-What's not to like about high-speed rail? The case simply hasn't been made
Extreme human-powered delivery
Most discussion on transportation alternatives to single-occupant fossil fuel-powered vehicles focuses on moving people from place to place. Options might include electric trains, walking, and bicycling. But also important for functioning cities is moving goods around, and most of the above options would seem to have severe limitations when one considers the variety of things that need to be moved. How does one carry a sheet of plywood across town? Surely not on a crowded subway. But a recent trip to China demonstrated for me that almost anything is possible.
Politically impossible?
Last week I spoke before a very committed group of juniors and seniors taking a college class on sustainable cities. One student challenged me saying, "I'm tired of people in your generation saying that everything we really need to do is politically impossible. All of us here are graduating soon, and we will be moving into positions of responsibility including ones in government. When we're the generation making the decisions, the things we need to do won't be politically impossible." Point taken.
The status quo of electric cars: better batteries, same range
Electric motors and batteries have improved substantially over the past one hundred years, but today's much hyped electric cars have a range that is - at best - comparable to that of their predecessors at the beginning of the 20th century. Weight, comfort, speed and performance have eaten up any real progress. We don't need better batteries, we need better cars.
Totnes Energy Descent Action Plan website launched today!!
It gives me the greatest pleasure this morning to launch the Totnes Energy Descent Action Plan website. The site makes the full version of the UK's first EDAP freely available, invites comments and discussion, and will act as a dynamic portal for people to discuss the Plan and reshape subsequent revisions.
Cycle-touring: a vision of post-peak holidays?
This post was inspired by single bicycle holiday: an Easter cycling adventure around the Spanish Pyrenees. While the experience proved that cycle holidays can be fun (its primary purpose), it soon became clear that the single case study could provide a basis for practical advice and broader discussion. The former (stuff, planning, safety, money) may be of use to aspiring low-energy holidaymakers. The latter (energy analysis, viability) may be of interest to those who want to think about low energy futures.
ODAC Newsletter - Apr 23
Oil demand was down this week — as were most European flight schedules. The eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano wrought further damage to the airline industry,which is already on its heels as a result of high fuel prices and recession...
Peak oil notes - Apr 22
A weekly review including:
- Production and prices
- The volcano
- Update on the droughts
The peak oil crisis: the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull
The bottom line of the last few weeks is that there will be many more factors shaping the end of the oil age than a simple geologic reduction in the amount of oil that can be pumped. We already know about "above ground factors" such as wars, nationalism, lack of investment, and their affect on global oil production and the price of oil products. It is now becoming apparent that Mother Nature in the form of droughts, earthquakes, hurricanes and erupting volcanoes is likely to have a significant voice in how the oil age ends too.
The future of flight
As the skies remain quiet here, we are reminded how much we rely on air travel, not just for business meetings and holidays but to keep the supermarket stocked. According to the Guardian newspaper, Ireland and England might experience a temporary shortage of fruit, which is grown in Australia, New Zealand and other distant lands and transported to the other side of the planet every day to be eaten in huge quantities in Europe.
