Tag Archives: Sustainability
Comments Off on Can Bike Signals Make Biking Safer?
We have been focusing a lot of attention on the safety of pedestrians and bikers. Another element that could help the safety of Montgomery County residents are bike signals or boxes, similar to walk signals. Bike boxes were just recognized by American engineers to be included in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), according to Angie Schmitt.…
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Comments Off on White Flint Implementation Committee January Meeting Next Week
The January 2014 White Flint Sector Plan Implementation Advisory Committee meeting will take place on Monday, January 13, 2014, 7 p.m., at Wall Local Park/ Shriver Aquatic Center. The White Flint Sector Plan Advisory Committee is made up of property owners, residents and interest groups that have interest in the redevelopment of the Sector Plan area, as well as representatives from the Executive Branch.…
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Comments Off on What Do Americans Want Out of Their Neighborhoods?
The latest poll from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), released in late October, focused on Americans’ housing and community preferences. It seems that Americans prefer mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods over subdivisions that require driving as the main source of transportation when they have a choice.
Robert Steuteville points out in his Better!…
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Comments Off on New report highlights the hidden costs of suburban sprawl
A report from a University of Ottawa research and policy network released last month reveals that suburban sprawl comes with a bigger price tag than many might expect. While (understandably) the report largely focuses on development in Canada, the big picture holds true for the U.S. as well. Author David Thompson notes in an interview that transportation is a major hidden cost; long commutes and needing more cars per household (and subsequently, the taxes to create the infrastructure to support these cars) is a huge expense.…
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Comments Off on Breathe easier during your commute
The D.C. area is ranked first in traffic congestion, and unfortunately, a recent study from MIT reports that Maryland deaths related to long-term exposure to air pollution are the highest in the U.S. The Capital News Service reports that:
“Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that emissions from cars, trucks, industrial smokestacks, trains, boats, and commercial heating systems contribute to the death of 113 people per 100,000 population per year in Maryland—more than any other state.”
Personal vehicles are a major contributor to greenhouse gasses, and the problem is only going to get worse as traffic in our area grows.…
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Comments Off on Better ways to get to school: are we there yet?
Part of Reconnecting America’s report Are We There Yet? sheds light on how children (and their parents) get to daycare and school, and the ramifications of these options – or lack thereof. In a section titled “Safe Routes to School,” the authors explain that only 13 percent of children walk or bike to school today, compared to nearly 50% in 1969; parents cited schools being far away, traffic safety, and crime as major concerns.…
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Comments Off on Australian government says bike riders save $21 on every commute
The Sydney Morning Herald reports:
“The economy benefits by more than $21 [about $19 USD] every time a person cycles 20 minutes to work and back and $8.50 [about $7.50 USD] each time a person walks 20 minutes to and from work, according to a policy statement released by Deputy Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.”
Why is Australia focused on the cost of commuting?…
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Comments Off on Pump more money into your community, not your gas tank
Love them or hate them, the reality of owning a car means that you are spending a fair amount of money on your vehicle. A recent AAA study concluded that owning a car costs between $6,700 and $11,300 per year, depending on what type of vehicle you own – an increase of nearly 2% from 2011, largely due to increases in the cost of fuel and tires.…
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Comments Off on It’s a bike…it’s a car…it’s an Elf.
I was recently in Chapel Hill visiting some family when my uncle told me about the Elf, Durham-based Organic Transit’s bike-car hybrid. The OTV (Organic Transit Vehicle) comes from Rob Cotter, who formerly worked for many luxury automobile brands including Porsche, BMW and Mercedes.
Source: Organic Transit
The Wall Street Journal describes it as “an ovoid, semi-enclosed, solar-chargeable, plug-in, bike-lane-legal [though this varies from place to place], electric pedal car… With a 1-hp (750-watt) electric motor in the rear wheel hub and a lithium battery pack, or two, snugged into the center frame rail aft of the front wheels—and a plastic canopy to keep the weather off drivers—the Elf proposes a solution for urban commuters who want to leave the car at home but can’t quite hack the rigors of a conventional bicycle.”
Organic Transit boasts that Elf drivers (riders?) can still enjoy certain benefits that come with driving, such as getting to work clean with the assistance of the electric motor for the morning commute, staying safe thanks to headlights, taillights, signals and side mirrors, and having the benefit extra cargo space for things like multiple bags of groceries.…
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Comments Off on New parking regulations are looser, but not enough
Montgomery County’s new zoning code will allow less parking in new developments in order to use land more efficiently and encourage alternatives to driving. However, the regulations still require parking in ways that will hinder the walkable urban places the county wants to build.
For 4 years, the Planning Department has been revising its complicated, unwieldy code, which sets rules for how buildings and neighborhoods are laid out.…
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