Miomarmo

Hitchin' a Ride

This isn't new, but it's growing. Robin Chase founded zipcar.com in 2000. Zipcar is a car-sharing site that claims to have removed 50,000 cars from the road as many users have found they can get along without owning a car themselves. Ms. Chase has now launched goloco.org, a national ride-share site with more than 10,000 users.

Says Chase in a recent interview, "Cars contribute 20 percent of the country's CO2 emissions, and while we'd like to reduce that number, the fact is, some people are completely car-dependent. They simply can't find another viable transit option where they live."

Goloco.org allows users to post their planned trips (anything from long distance travel to going to the hardware store). Those with cars can search and share the ride, thus saving them money by splitting the travel costs.

My mother-in-law recently couldn't find a way to get to the airport two hours away. Yes, family can help, and she didn't want to spend the money to store her car there for four weeks (she's on a budget, but couldn't pass up the chance to see her grandson in England), but four hours round trip for anyone is a lot to ask. And why not go with someone else who's already going? I'll be sending this site link to her for her next trip.

Visit an Ailing Friend

I learned of the terrorist attacks on Mumbai while listening to National Public Radio in the car on the day before Thanksgiving.   Our good friend and colleague Chintan Parikh is originally from Mumbai (he still calls it Bombay), and I was aware that he and his wife, Tanvi, are currently visiting their family in India.  The carnage was reported to be indiscrimate and savage.  I was worried for my friends.

I regret to say that I am becoming accustomed to this type of savagery.  Like the denizens of the famously black comedy, Brazil, who accept terrorism as a natural part of urban living.  A mess to be avoided on the sidewalk.  The brutality of the deeds reported on the tv and radio is so extreme that it can seem cartoonish to a suburban guy like me.  I am very aware of what happened at the World Trade Center, and I have many connections to New York and people who were directly affected by the events of September 11, yet, to tell the truth, it is beginning to seem like a long time ago.  And something I don't like to think about.

I was halfway to my holiday destination with hours of driving ahead of me when the BBC reporter starting describing the events of that day.  Unlike the dozens of attacks I've heard about in the last few years, this one had a heightened reality for me.  I had to think about it.  And the more I did, the more helpless I felt.  I felt, in other words, what victims of terror feel.  A feeling I have blocked out for a long time. 

I pulled over and called Chintan, and I got that error signal.  Great. What does this mean, I wondered.  The line is dead?  My worst fears were taking shape.  But minutes later, Chintan returned my call to say that he and everyone he knew were out of harm's way.   In a few hours it would be Thanksgiving Day in the US.  Of the many things I have to be thankful for, I promised to make make a special personal note for that one.

I also want to remind everyone that an attack like this is meant to deliver the message "Come to Mumbai and you'll be killed."  This is an open, prosperous, and truly diverse city that welcomes all religions, sects, and ethnic groups.  A perfect target for agents of destruction.  The Mumbai terrorists walked into the best hotel in town, a Jewish center, and a train station, and shot as many people as possible.  That was their plan.  Their purpose, as always, was to make us sick with fear and hate the way they are sick with fear and hate. 

Early reports are that their purpose is failing.  The city is pulling together, and security is being improved much as it has in Manhattan.

My friend Chintan has been nudging me for years to come to Bombay and visit his homeland.  I think this is the year I'll go.

Excellent editorial piece about the attack on Mumbai and why it was targeted.

The Revolution Will Be Televised! Live From Venice Beach, California!

I came to Santa Monica, California, for a few reasons, not the least of which was for health and exercise during the winter months.   It’s a quest for endless summer, serenity, lost youth, all that.  There are quite a few geezers out here, like me, walking around, eyes cast slightly heavenward, thinking about something or other or trying to remember something or other, a look of bewilderment on their faces.  They are probably up to the same thing I am.  I’m just ten years early.

My seaside amble on Saturday morning took me south into Venice Beach for the first time during the daytime.  It would be too easy, and not really accurate, to call it “hippie central,” but you would recognize that element right away.  My first experience upon crossing the city line was to step out of the way of an oncoming rollerblader.  (Skate boards, bikes and roller blades all over the place operated by all age groups.)  She looked like a heavy hippie version of Glenn Close from Fatal Attraction.  Her blonde curly hair was blowing, Medusa like, in different directions.  She had an angry look on her face and she was singing at the top of her lungs a song that could only have been entitled, “How Does It Feel to Be Loved By Me?”  I was pretty sure that it wouldn’t feel too good to be loved by her.  I looked around to see if I could catch a reaction from anyone else, but no one seemed to notice.  It then occurred to me, in my bewildered way, that there were lots of people there, but they were in their own little worlds, too, just like Angry Heavy Fatal Hippie Chick Woman.  

Welcome to My World

A long line of tables were set up where you could enter Tarot Card Reader World, Weird Beer Cap Earring World, Nuevo White Kid from Privileged Background Drop Out Dread Locks Rasta World, Listen to Me I Sound Pretty Much Like Johnny Cash World (he was a good Johnny but he looked like Jerry “and that’s what tortures me”), Reggae for Kids World, Nice Breakfast with Nice People World, Exotic Indian Sex Techniques World, Hand Carved Wood Crap That You Don’t Need World, Fear No Art World (don’t ask), Pump Iron and Scare the Crap Out of Skinny People World, Bong World, White Guys Can Play Basketball Pretty Good, Too, World.  There was a Jimi World and a Jim Morrison World but no Beatles or Bobs anywhere. There were quite a few Obama Tee Shirt Worlds.  On Venice Beach, I think they believe that the election of Obama as president is the signal that The Revolution has finally begun.  One Saturday morning a guy with long grey hair, dressed in blue jeans and wearing a tie dye shirt with a big, silver peace symbol hanging from his neck is going to suddenly get up on his feet and shout: “Hey everybody, let’s all get high and storm the university gates again!”   I bet quite a few Venetians will get up with him and take a crack at it. 

Give Me a Buck

Through all these worlds is flowing a river of white middle class people on bikes, walking dogs, jogging, pushing baby carts, and walking aimlessly, eyes cast slightly heavenward.  An old black guy sitting on a bench asked me if I could spare a buck.  He had me figured for Searching for Endless Summer and Lost Youth Probably Has a Few Bucks in His Pocket and Is Probably Sorry About the Historical Oppression of Poor People and Would Probably Feel A Little Better About It For a Little While If He Gave the Guy a Buck World.  I only had a five, but I told him to keep the change.  I rationalized it later by saying to myself that I liked his simple pitch in the middle of all that New Age commerce: “Give me a buck.”  But really, I was sorry that I didn’t get two pairs of weird beer cap earrings for the same money.   To give as presents.

Okay, there’s a lot that I don’t “get.”  And I am trending toward bewildered.  But I walked five miles, inhaled good ocean air (and some incense), and ate some good vegetable curry with rice served by twenty-something hippies.  I think the place was called “Benice” (in Venice, maybe that’s the joke), but it looked like what the Sixties hit song “Sugar Shack” described.   Now that I think of it, the whole scene was bordering on a bad Sixties parody.   These guys need to find their own decade.

That's What The Man Said

Well, Mr. Venice Beach, I was a friend of the Sixties, and you, sir, are no Sixties.   If you have a revolution, I’m pretty sure it will be televised.   Cop cars rolled through every 20 minutes or so.  In my Sixties they get the finger.  In this version, you get permission from The Man to smoke weed by faking an illness.  Even so, as my new governor likes to say, “I’ll be back.”  Heck, you still have the Pacific Ocean, palm trees, and real fine beaches.

New Jersey and New York Know About Moving People Around a Region

This headline in November 14, 2008 Business Week:

GOP to Detroit: Drop Dead

Powerful Senate Republicans oppose a government bailout for automakers even if it means bankruptcy for General Motors

Catchy headline but it doesn't tell the whole story.  Republicans are rightly drawing a line in the sand.  Detroit's problem, unlike the banks, is not access to capital.  So, why give them capital to do with as they see fit?  They had plenty, and they burned it.  Instead, give them a new mandate.  Give them the capital to transform their business.  A sustainable business that will accomplish their current mission:  Move people.  Let's pray that a new congress led by do-gooder democrats doesn't try to "save" us by putting Detroit on life support.  Instead let's pursue many, many of the kinds of projects quoted below.  These projects offer energy independence (which is TRUE national security), sustainable transportation practices (which is TRUE environmental stewardship), and public works that create good jobs (TRUE freedom and prosperity). 

The following is an overview of a project in NJ/NY to augment mass transit infrastructure that dates back more than 100 years.  A fully formed plan has been on the board for several years now awaiting a measly $2 billion federal funding.  (Admittedly, $2 billion used to be some money, but, now?  I think that was just September and October in Iraq.  Seems measly anyway.)   Please read below and imagine hundreds and hundreds of similar projects around the country. 

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The monumental project, also known as Access to the Region’s Core (ARC), will greatly enrich commuter rail service between New Jersey and New York, doubling train capacity with two new single-track tunnels under the Hudson River, an expanded Penn Station in New York and track and signal improvements on and along the Northeast Corridor from east of Newark to New York.  

“This key federal approval dovetails with our economic recovery plan, which includes a commitment to major capital projects that can jumpstart the state’s construction sector and ensure the creation of thousands of jobs for New Jersey residents,” said Governor Corzine. The project will provide customers on 10 of NJ TRANSIT’s 11 rail lines with one-seat, transfer-free rides to New York. 

It will remove more than 22,000 cars from the New Jersey Turnpike and other area highways, providing motorists the benefit of reduced traffic congestion.  It will create almost 6,000 construction jobs and will help generate 44,000 permanent jobs providing an additional $2 billion in annual personal income for the state’s residents. 

“Without a doubt the Mass Transit Tunnel project is New Jersey’s signature public transportation endeavor against which all others will be measured for decades to come, and that is why I intend to work tirelessly for the federal funding that will make this crowning achievement a reality,” said Senator Frank Lautenberg. “With change coming to the halls of Congress and to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, I believe that arguments for stimulating the nation’s faltering economy through the targeted funding of worthy public projects will be heard loud and clear and acted on quickly,” said Senator Robert Menendez.

The Federal Transit Administration’s approval of the FEIS was published in the Federal Register on November 8.  Following a 30-day comment period, the FTA can issue a Record of Decision, formally concluding the environmental study process and opening the door for New Jersey to receive federal matching funds. The North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority today unanimously approved an amendment to the Regional Transportation Plan updating the cost of the project. "Federal approval of the FEIS for a project of this scope and complexity places construction of the tunnel - and the resulting significant short- and long- term economic benefits - on the near horizon," said PANYNJ Chairman Anthony Coscia. "We are very excited about achieving this major milestone."

Franklin D. Roosevelt: “Let no man say it cannot be done.”

I have proposed that we convert our car culture into a mass transit culture.  I believe that this is the right thing to do for many reasons, and now is the right time for one reason:  economic survival. 

The American auto industry, the backbone of our manufacturing capability, is slipping into an abyss of bankruptcy and uselessness.  Why?  Because they lost the business to Japan and Germany.  Look around the highways and parking lots.  Look in your own garage.  How many Ford Tauruses and Chevrolet Caprices do you see out there?  Camrys or LeSabres?  Escorts or Civics?  Lincolns or Mercedes?  Not even close.

Our manufacturing leaders were too arrogant and short-sighted to see that the very countries that provided a significant portion of their market share were steadily building auto industries of their own.  They were using intensive market research (which in American was used only for advertising purposes) and advanced manufacturing techniques and theories (like Demming) made in America to produce the cars that people wanted at prices they wanted to pay.  Lately the Koreans have made still more inroads, and China is already gearing up.  Mr. American Car Industry, you’re dead.   And your young protégé did you in.

The good news is, as our Hindu friends tell us, that death can be a reincarnation to a higher ground.  For the auto industry, it could mean that it is reborn as the mass transit industry.  There is precedent for this kind of turnaround.  And economists and writers like Lester Brown, in his book Plan B, are already drawing the parallels and pointing the way.  

Congress, lead by Democrats, have declared that the companies that have been leading the charge into the abyss are too big to fail.  They’re right about that.  It’s an economic and human catastrophe waiting to happen.  But propping them up on a life support of taxpayer capital won’t save them.  It will only delay the inevitable, impoverish the country, and set the stage for a truly desperate crisis that might dwarf The Great Depression.

Call me a socialist, but it’s time to stop playing free market patty cake when then only solution to “saving an industry” is to put US Treasury capital to work.  These industries are too big to fail, but they need a new business.  Mass transit should be the “strings” attached.

When our nation’s survival was threatened by Fascist aggression in the late 1930’s, Franklin D. Roosevelt mandated that the auto industry would turn 100% of its resources to military production.   The auto companies resisted, insisting that they could add military production and make cars.  But Roosevelt prevailed and no new cars were made between 1942 and 1945.  Instead, American became the manufacturing engine to produce the tools of victory over Nazi world domination.

In his State of the Union address on January 6, 1942 — one month after Pearl Harbor — President Roosevelt announced ambitious arms production goals. The United States, he said, was planning to produce 60,000 planes, 45,000 tanks, 20,000 anti-aircraft guns and 6 million tons of merchant shipping. He added, “Let no man say it cannot be done.”

By war’s end Americans had not only achieved these targets, but far exceeded them, winning a war of survival at the same time.  The converstion is well explained in Doris Kearns Goodwin book, “No Ordinary Time.”  From the beginning of 1942 through 1944, the he auto industry in partnership with the aircraft industry turned out 229,600 aircraft.  Hard to imagine but the auto industry supplied some 455,000 aircraft engines and 256,000 propellers.  Assembly was accomplished by the aircraft industry.  Kearn’s book tells of Merry Go Road makers who turned out gun mounts; toy makers who turn out compasses; a corset making turning out grenade belts as so on and on.  As we all know now, The Greatest Generation was on a mission, united by the need for survival, and this generation exceeded goals that no one thought possible. 

It seems to me that we are at such a time again.  We cannot sustain our dependence on automobiles, and the loss of this sector of our economy might arguably be premature, but it was always its destiny.  Everybody on the planet can’t have a car!   We can’t even have as many car owners as we currently have.  No matter how fuel efficient.  Fuel efficiency is the bridge to a new economy that is based on thriving mass transit industry which is supported by a host of sustainable manufacturing operations that will help America once again rise to preeminence in manufacturing.  If we let the Chinese become our manufactures, they will eventually become our masters as well. 

That’s the way it worked after World War II when American rose to dominate the world with its manufacturing superiority.  Things haven’t changed that much.   My state capital’s motto is “Trenton makes, the world takes.”  That was true once, but Trenton doesn’t make much these days, and a drive around that city will tell you what that means. 

Five Minutes in San Bernardino

I arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday morning.  It’s now Thursday evening and I’m about to spend my second consecutive night in a bed that is not traveling at 40 to 60 miles per hour.  It’s true what they say about taking the small things for granted until you don’t have them.  A bed.  That isn’t hurtling through the night in the middle of nowhere.  Great thing.  Really. 

And, although I have come to the difficult conclusion that I have failed in my attempt to prove that long distance travel via train is preferable to the same trip via plane, I can say that I do not regret the experiment.  Yes, I better appreciate a stationary bed, but I also gained some insights into what trains need to do to compete with planes, and how we should consider our transportation choices.

The most obvious problem with choosing the train for a long haul is cost.  For what I spent to travel on three difference trains chugging along tracks that were out of repair for three days and  for three nights, I could have flown first-class on any airline and arrived at the same place in six hours.  If I flew coach, I would have spent about $600 less.   If I took the train and rode coach, I it would have cost less than $300, so could be a little cheaper than the plane, but I would have been sitting in the middle of a college reunion.  It looked like hell for old folks back there.  I knew starting out that there was a big price and time disadvantage, but, I reckoned, I’ll have more time to meditate, read, interact with people of a similar mind, and, you know, just SLOW DOWN. 

Well, I slowed down.  And I’ve concluded that hell might just be a place where you go very, very slow for many, many days and nights surrounded by civil servants who hate the “servant” part of their jobs. Now that I think of it, they’re not too crazy about the “civil” part either.   The other passengers,?  Not my demographic.   A few of them: not even my planet.  To paraphrase an old Red Smith line:  If God had meant for us to go that slow, and carry that much luggage, around that many terminals, for that many days, he would have made sure we were born with wheels and a caboose.   There were Red Caps around, but not enough of them, and not helpful enough.  Not civil or servant enough.

As I said, I wanted to prove that the train is superior, so the thought that immediately arose in my head when I realized we had crossed the California state line was not welcome:  “Thank God it’s over.”  I knew I would write the blog, but how do I spin that to sound good?  No denying or spinning it, the thought was there, and it was insistent.  I looked out the window of my prison cell sized compartment, saw a row of palm trees silhouetted majestically against a beautiful red sunrise sky, and I knew we were close.  I checked my clock: 6am.  The Southwest Chief was due into LA Union station at 8:15am.  Life was good.  Though I was hungry, I remembered it was too late for breakfast.  Henry Ford, my porter/conductor informed us the night before that we were to get to the dining car between 5am and 6am for breakfast or we would be out of luck.  There were a lot of Amish on the train, so I expect they made it, but I can’t imagine a normal human being could stagger along the narrow passageways in the semi darkness at that time of day and then keep food down.  Alright, no breakfast, but, so what, just two more blessed hours and I would be free from the loud speaker tyranny of government employees and the claustrophobic confines of this rolling hell hole.  California here I come!

But it wouldn’t be that easy.  Henry Ford came on the loud speaker to announce that we would be making a short stop in San Bernardino.  As usual, he reminded us that there was time for a cigarette (then he does coughing noises, very funny) or to stretch your legs.  But you better be on the train when it pulls out.  He also made a pitch for the opportunity to take a photo of the beautiful San Bernardino train station.   I saw it from my window, and thought, heck I have to take a shot of that.  I get off the train with my iPhone camera.  Say good morning to Henry who was standing right at the door.  Walk thirty steps to position myself in front of the station and take two quick shots.  I turn around and the train is pulling out.  Without me!  I flashed back to Silver Streak and all the great laughs from Gene Wilder trying to get back on a training that was leaving without him.  I ran after the train thinking that surely my pal Henry Ford would have noticed I wasn’t on the train.  I was only off for sixty seconds!!  But, no, the train was moving steadily down the track and out of sight.  My personal belongings and my computer (which is my job!) were rapidly moving out of sight on a train that had people who were not of my planet aboard.  Panic was starting to set in, and I checked my watch: 6:30am.  I tried to calm down and thought, you just have to get to Union Station.  Good old Henry will turn your stuff in.  Don’t’ worry.

San Bernardino is a big commuter stop.  Not like the stops on the prairie where Henry has previously threatened to toss out smokers.  I learned that the next train to LA was leaving in a minute, and that, furthermore, it arrived at Union Station at 8am.  Fifteen minutes before the Southwest Chief!  I bought a ticket for $10 (I had my wallet!) and boarded the commuter train.  Great service, nice car, filled with people who had jobs, glided by the famous LA traffic jams.  Arrived at Union Station on time, found the track where the Southwest Chief was coming in,:Track 12, way the hell over in the farthest part of the mammoth station, and there I was waiting at the track 10 minutes before the train, my train that I had been on for more than 40 hours, would arrive.  Amazing! 

My head was full of revenge fantasies pointed at Henry Ford.  I had settled on a nasty letter to the head of whoever is in charge of whatever.  But when Henry got off the train, greeted me with a big smile and asked, “How did you get off the train so fast?”  I mellowed, and replied, “You left me in San Bernardino.  I took the Metrolink here.”  He apologized profusely, and assured me that my stuff was okay in my compartment.  I wasn’t so sure, but he was right.  Crisis averted.

I made my laborious way back to the baggage claim (really a huge station), claimed my bags, got a taxi, got in the traffic jam (which goes both ways somehow.  At least in NJ it usually goes in only one direction.)  Arrived in Santa Monica and sat down at a desk that wasn’t moving, in a chair that wasn’t moving, and drank a Coke that wasn’t spilling.

In a nutshell, my experiment showed that the trains are running on crappy tracks.  The service people are nice, but they just don’t know what service is.  And the pricing is not competitive.   And the advantage of SLOWING DOWN doesn’t wash when you are going mad from loud speaker announcements and views from a window that shows landscapes, thought quite beautiful, crawling by.  Really, I don’t think Andrew Carnegie traveling from Pittsburgh to LA in 1884 went any slower than we did.

I still believe that if we build an infrastructure to support local and regional rail we might someday be able to accomplish long haul travel.  In the meantime, we will be creating good jobs and working toward energy independence and sustainable practices.  Europe, where rail service is often impeccable, is a great model for local and regional service, but they don’t have the challenges of distance that we have in America.  I think it will be a while yet before the airlines are threatened by the trains.  But we can start converting our auto commuter culture to a train commuter right now.  Hire GM, Ford and Chrysler.  Let the Japanese and the Germans have the unsustainable auto business.  They are taking it anyway.   I’ll have more thoughts and evidence to support that in subsequent posts.

In the meantime, happy motoring….

45 Minutes in Albuquerque

We have a 45 minute layover in Albuquerque.   Our conductor, Henry Ford, let us know over the intercom that the train would be pulling out at 4:45.  Not 4:47 or 4:48.  Anyone not on the train will not be on the train.  Henry is an excellent conductor in my opinon, but he needs to lighten up.  Earlier he warned that anyone caught smoking on the train would be left off at the next stop.  At the time is was past dusk and the view out the window was of desolate prarie.  I was happy that there still is prarie, and I was happy that I don’t smoke, but the threat of one of our precisous cargo being abandoned out there put a damper on my evening.  Mr. Clower in High School had a kinder, gentler solution to unauthorized smoking.   As we all know, the airlines are cracking down, but I have yet to hear a specific threat from a crew member.  I ran out and got some Indian blankets and ran back.

Speaking of crew members, our dining car leader, Pauline, interrupted lunch today so that she could tell the cleanest joke she knows.  Pauline is some kind of Brit.  Okay, so the Queen Mother and Dolly Parton arrive at the Pearly Gates at the same time.  St. Peter greets them and tells them that sadly it’s quite crowded in heaven and only one of them can enter.  The Queen Mother asks for a cup of water.  St. Peter says sure, and the QM promptly pours in down a toilet and flushes.  St. Peter says, okay, Queen Mother, you’re in.  Dolly protests, but St. Peter interrupts her and says, “Sorry Dolly, but a royal flush beats a pair every time.”   Pauline got a round of applause from the bored to tears train bunch.  I thought to ask what a toilet was doing outside the Pearly Gates, but somehow  it seemed insignificant compared to the problem of St. Peter picking that royal stunt over Dolly.

Today is Tuesday.  (I had to think about that a minute.)  I left Philadelphia on Sunday around noon.  Departed Chicago around midnight.  Slept through most of MO and all of KS.  Woke up in Colorado.  All the daylight of today was spent rolling through New Mexico at a pretty slow speed.  Tonight I expect to sleep through Arizona, arriving in Los Angeles in the morning.

So, what have I  learned and done.  Well, I knew there were vast empty spaces, and I’ve seen them in Arizona and Nevada and from the air.  But rolling through New Mexico made me “feel” it.  Pretty empty out there.  I learned that you can’t get the internet much, but surprisingly, you can get a lot of cell phone service.  (ATT) 

Internet is pretty good here in Albuquerque, and Henry says we’re leaving soon, so I’ll hurry up and post.  Stats and issues tomorrow.

Will Trains Rise Again?

I’m sitting in the Metro Lounge at Union Station in Chicago.  This is a rather plush environment reserved for Amtrak passengers who ride in the sleeping cars.  I’m waiting for a train to Los Angeles, the Southwest Chief, which departs at 3:15pm.  I’ve been here since 8:30am. 

I have gone back in forth in my mind about whether this was a good idea, going from Philadelphia to Los Angeles via train.  It costs considerably more, and I will arrive in 4 days rather and 6 hours. 

Though the Metro Lounge is, as I said, plush—leather chairs, fireplace, flat screen TVs, complimentary soft drinks and coffee—the clientele is not exactly an advertiser’s dream demographic.  If you throw out the young cripples, the people here to assist the old cripples, the borderline personality disorders, the Amish (how old are these people?), and mothers with babies, I’d guess the average age is around 70.   This might be the Our Lady of Lourdes Limited instead of the Southwest Chief.  Apparently, long distance train travel is not for mainstream America yet.  (Me?  I'm a 52 yo with a borderline personality disorder.)

I grew up on movies like North by Northwest, the Lady Vanishes, and even Silver Streak.  Also, I’ve traveled in France on those wonderful trains, so perhaps my expectations were a tad on the grand side.

Well, I haven’t made up my mind yet, but I’m out to prove this is a better way to get somewhere.  It seems to me that the death of the American automobile industry is imminent, in fact, way overdue.  The Japanese and the Germans will follow suit in the coming years.  Why?  Because automobiles are unsustainable!  Everything about them is a huge waste.  Fuel, roads, raw materials, traffic casualties and on and on.  All to support masses of people who, at any given time and place and are mostly headed in the same direction!  The insanity is blatant.  Only the car-addicted could miss it.  But, then, we’re car-addicted, aren’t we?

Ford and GM are announcing huge layoffs.  The world is headed toward a new kind of recession.  Oil supplies, though arguably still abundant, are running down.   Our current crisis seems to be a confluence of many factors that might hinge on alternative energies and a new American intiative of leadership and vision.  I believe we have the right president to lead.  But where should he lead us?

I propose a vision that includes transforming the auto industry into a mass transit producing industry.  Jobs, a cleaner environment, and energy independence are the prizes.  In the coming posts I’ll share more about this idea and my experience with train travel as it is today.

Do you walk enough?

Back when the twins were born, I was a familiar sight around the streets of my town, huffing and puffing and pushing a huge triple stroller that housed three kids under the age of two, two heart monitors, and the occasional snack. Now, thankfully, everyone walks under his or her own steam. Back then, I walked to get out of the house for a while. Now we're trying to walk more as a means of transportation.

We are blessed to live in a great town with a lively downtown area, and when we can walk, we try to. But the point is, I think we just don't walk enough. Our three kids by law have to be in booster seats in the car, and that means using the minivan so they all fit. I hate using it for small trips, especially if we could walk instead. I'm also hopeful that in time we will be biking everywhere, but we're not there yet. So whenever possible, we lace up the sneakers and walk.

I remember an article in Shape Magazine (which I have been searching for in vain, sadly) that pointed out how Americans are more likely to hop in a car than walk, and how in almost every other country in the world, people think nothing of walking - walking to the store, walking to work, walking miles to visit a friend. In one case in Africa, one interviewee talked about walking miles to the friend's house, and then the two of them went for another walk checking the fences on the perimeter of his property, and then he walked back home. (By contrast, I have been known to hop in the car to run to the store to get half-and-half.)

Walking not only can save precious resources, fight pollution, and save you money, but it has enormous health benefits. Guidelines suggest that aiming for at least 10,000 steps a day to help maintain a healthy weight. Buy yourself a pedometer and clip it to your belt for a week - you may be surprised at how little you actually walk! I love my pedometer; it's a little reminder to take the stairs whenever possible. Not to mention walking is aerobic, and low-stress - there's little bouncing or impact on your joints like running or jogging. And it's a great way to get out of the house and enjoy nature, especially if you leave the iPod at home!

As for my family, we're going to try a little experiment today - instead of driving to pick up my oldest at school, I'm going to park part of the way there and walk the rest of the way (with the twins in tow). My hope is that over time, I'll be parking farther away and we'll get used to walking more and more. On a daily basis, that adds up.

♥ How does your town measure up? Check out your town's walk score here (and discover some stores and facilities you might not even know were just around the corner from you!) Ours is a 98, which means we have absolutely no excuse not to break out the sneakers more.

♥  Check out The Walking Site for tips on how to increase your steps per day.

Gas Hits $4: Let’s Do the Jimmy!

Gas prices topped $4 in NJ last week. I heard a report on NPR about a station in northern California charging $6. The news is abuzz with speculation of $200 crude.

Is this the beginning of the end of OIL? No, I don’t think so.   Because the beginning of the end of OIL was 1973 during the Arab Oil Embargo. (Look it up, kids.  ) Not long after that, Jimmy Carter started regular TV appearances suggesting that we Americans—oh my god, really!—drive less, turn down the thermostat, and wear sweaters around the house. * And, it wasn’t long after those cogent suggestions from the 39th President of the United States that the American public ousted Jimmy and ushered in an era of new benevolent imperialism with Ronald Raygun (sic). He defused the Russians, armed the Israelis to the teeth, and mollified the Arabs. Voila, plentiful, cheap oil.

This is a strategy that’s worked pretty well until the Chinese came to ruin the party. They want oil, too! And the Arabs--and everybody else--are running low. Is this a disaster? I don’t think so, I think it’s manageable challenge that Jimmy Carter correctly identified more than 30 years ago. Let’s do the Jimmy!

Europe has been doing the Jimmy and they have a robust transportation infrastructure, culture of foot and bicycle travel, and low rates of obesity. Let’s face it, if you believe in a sustainable, high-quality way of life, then you have to love expensive oil. Perhaps, instead of "expensive oil," we can even say, "right-priced oil."  Personally, I wish the government had taxed the heck out of the gooey stuff 30 years ago. We would have put a chill on demand, stimulated mass transit infrastructure (instead of highways), and built a huge federal budget reserve.  You know, nobody from Washington ever calls me to find out what to do….

The news on hybrid car sales and fuel efficient autos has been good and getting better for a long time. But, it still seems that you don’t hear enough, at least from “main stream media,” about the true solution to sustainable transportation—walking, bicycles, scooters, and mass transit. Thanks to Mr. Internet, we can find out something about how alternative transportation is developing.

The answer: In the US, we’re many, many years away from achieving the kind of rail system they have in Europe, but I am confident it will happen. Not to take too large a view of the thing, but I believe the alternative would be either economic stagnation or a war with China... or both. Probably not a good way to go.

So, until we adjust to "right-priced oil" and learn to do the Jimmy, there will probably be some pain.  Some economic pain. Some of the pain that Jimmy warned of in 1977. But this is alleviated by telecommuting, a strong trend toward “living close to work and school,” bicycles (even electric hybrid bikes that can go 75 miles), and more walking. Oh, yeah, and sweaters.

Jimmy in 1977: *"On the battlefield of energy we can win for our nation a new confidence, and we can seize control again of our common destiny ... . It can rekindle our sense of unity, our confidence in the future, and give our nation and all of us individually a new sense of purpose."

Good bits about recent Bike sales:
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080511/work_bikes.html
http://mobikefed.org/2008/06/gas-prices-leading-to-higher-bicycle.php
http://www.iconoculture.com/Approach/WhatWeIdentify/Observations/Millennials/index.aspx?DocName=oa_bikesalesup_94146

Excellent piece on driving miles and mass transit trends:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_05/013696.php