Gnome v. Bruce! The Showdown!!

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AUGUST PROGRAM

Debate

Resolved: That the City of Austin should require that cyclists of all
ages wear helmets.

Affirmative: Former Austin mayor Bruce Todd

Negative: Patrick Goetz, founding member of the League of Bicycling Voters

Short Films
by Award-Winning Filmmaker Andre Silva


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Manhattan of Texas

I'm always glad when someone decides to experiment. It's hard to break people out of any routine unless something catastrophic happens. In transportation, any new ideas are usually old ones, but I visited a place unique place Friday that tried something new that wasn't early century streetcars.. Las Colinas!

It's sort of like Disney World. or San Antonio gone to Disney World. or San Antonio and Disney World go to Venice!
There's a canal.

Restaurants, office buildings, apartments...

And best of all...

PRT! (Personal Rapid Transit)



You push a button and a voice behind the curtain speaks "2 minutes" and *poof!* a mini train appears. Ridership on the two lines is at about 45 persons/hour during the 4hours each weekday it is running, mostly serving the office lunch crowd.

Originally a ranch, when development was "inevitable," Las Colinas was master-planned in 1973 as a non-profit corporation. All of the property owners chip in for the PRT so it's free to riders. Unfortunately it hasn't been the success that was anticipated (note the lack of gondolas in the canal), but don't worry, according to an important Las Colinas guy: “I believe that Las Colinas will be fully built out in 20 years and will become the Manhattan of Texas."!!!

They're getting there.. just look at all those people!

Pedal on, brotha, pedal on

In the Austin American Statesman today:

New meaning to the water cycle

Some of us bike to work, some of us bike for exercise, some of us bike for the pure joy of peddling. Larry Gilg bikes to water his vegetable garden.

Gilg, an electrical engineer who lives in Hyde Park, rigged up a stationary bicycle trainer — the kind most people buy so they can ride indoors when it's raining outside — to a pump that links a bank of rainwater collection barrels to a water sprinkler.

The longtime cyclist got the idea while riding past a gym on his way to Barton Springs for his morning swim. "All those people riding bikes — they ought to be doing something with all that energy," he thought.

He figures he can generate about a third of a horsepower on his bike. That's plenty to move water from his 27 water-collecting, 55-gallon barrels to his three garden plots.

He pedals about 30 minutes every morning. "It's a good workout," he says. "Then I get all the fresh veggies to eat — tomatoes, cucumbers, beans."

He usually brings a book or magazine along to read while he pedals. It's harder to pedal on the trainer than to ride it around town, he says, because there's more consistent resistance. "It's like you're always going uphill," Gilg says.

The set-up is part of Gilg's plan to eventually get off the utilities grid. "I like to think of myself as a producer, not a consumer. I think people in this country really need to think about that."

Two questions:

1. Do you really think he waters from the table? Was that perhaps just for photographic purposes? Should everybody be hauling a table to their front yard when they water?
2. How is he not in the line of fire? From my calculations, he should be soaked already.
   

Those crazy engineers. What will he think of next? It'll be a stroke of genius, I'm sure.

Heck, if I actually watered my lawn, I'd probably give him a call.

no longer have to marry to live together legally in NC...who knew?

So an NC Court just struck down a law requiring couples to be married in order to live together. I have to say I am more than a little surprised that this law has been on the books as long as it has. Surely there are probably very few times that it has been enforced but I think that I am more confused by how marriage and cohabitation is refered to in OTHER laws. For example - common law marriage? You would have to break the law to be common-law married? doesn't make sense. Whatevs!

Ghetto living has gotten pricey

While I have heard several arguments about discount retailers (yes, walmart) being placed in low-income areas (the ghetto) really benefitting society, and check cashing places not, this NYTimes article (which is based on a Brookings study) takes the idea much further, finding that car loan interest rate differences between the ghetto and the mcmansions being as much as a few percentage points - one of the causes of this, according to the article, is the inability to comparison shop.

Even things as small as having normal banks (instead of checkIntoCash) located in poorer areas as well as grocery stores (as opposed to the typically higher prices of a convenience store...and healtheir than liquor). I know that DC is trying very hard at this, providing strong incentives for grocery stores in 'developing neighborhoods' and building a metro-accessible target. However, care needs to be taken in these situations not to make them too appealing - or the money and land hungry developers will snatch it up and make condos - sad, huh. This is what is happening now in the Columbia Heights area - they got a Giant grocery store and a target and all of a sudden all these bars opened and it became a hip part of town to live in. Even jenna bush thinks so. dude...she is a teacher and she smokes!

Helmet Law Part II

Austin passed a helmet law in 1996. Due to public opposition, Council acted a year later to change the law to apply only to minors and reduce fines for violation.

Well, it's not over yet. The current Council is going to look into passing a all-ages helmet law on August 24th. Why? Former mayor Bruce Todd, who just so happens was mayor in 1996, was involved in a bicycling accident earlier this year while on a ride with the Austin Cycling Association and is using his incident to reignite the debate.

Top three reasons why I don't support a helmet law for bicyclists:

1) It's a "Nanny Law." Nanny Laws are aptly named for their aim to protect citizens against themselves. I strongly believe in the principle of "your rights end where the other guy's nose begins" and I find it insulting that someone else would fine me for not doing what they think is best for me. Please, if you think I should change my behavior, tell me! try to convince me! But whatever you do, leave the final decision up to me.

2) Contrary to popular belief, bicycle helmets are NOT designed to protect bicyclists against vehicle collisions. The standardized tests helmets are subjected to ensure protection against falling.. like if you were walking and fell over. See "Heads Up," an article written by a helmet tester for more info.

3) If we're looking to improve bicycle safety, great! There are sooo many ways Austin can improve. We could enforce car-free bike lanes, ensure safe and adequate access across major roads (i.e. I'd like to be able to bike to the Arboretum to see a movie without fearing for my life), etc.. Why not focus on solutions that will actually help?

Where/when: City Hall on August 24th at 6pm. The more people show up, the more likely we'll be heard. :)

Austin Car Share (and more)

(in case you haven't received 10 emails on this)

"Austin CarShare Founding Member Pre-Enrollment Launch
Monday, July 24
11 am
Plaza at Austin City Hall

Austin CarShare Begins Enrollment for Hourly Car Service

Service Offers Cars by the Hour without paying extra for gas and insurance

Austin CarShare is launching its membership pre-enrollment and founding member drive to bring carsharing services to Austin. Starting with a Monday, July 24 kickoff event, Austin CarShare will begin pre-enrolling members for its innovative carshare service scheduled to launch this fall.

Carsharing is a service that provides members with 24-hour access to a fleet of cars and trucks on a per hour and per mile basis. Gas, insurance, parking, maintenance, and roadside assistance are all included in the price of usage. "

and speaking of car shares...

The Arlington Carshare Program 2006 Report provides a summary of the program and provides a second-year evaluation of the Carshare Program based on member surveys conducted by Arlington in March 2005 and 2006.

The report findings include the following:

* Carsharing membership has increased by over 37% in the past year for a total of nearly 3,500 individuals.
* Five percent (5%) of Arlington residents living in the Metrorail corridors are Flexcar or Zipcar members.
* Carsharing has allowed members to reduce their vehicle ownership rates and overall vehicle-miles traveled while increasing transit use and walking. Members also have generally been able to postpone buying a vehicle.
* The Report concludes that the Arlington Carshare Program complements the walk/bike/transit-friendly lifestyle available in Arlington’s urban villages.
(See Report Here)

Austin is no Arlington (Virgina. Austin of course is way better than the other Arlington. (are there more? probably)), but I think it has a fighting chance at success as it builds up its downtown. Hopefully it will be popular with the UT crowd, and less students will bring their cars to campus. I plan on using it once I sell my car! Now all Austin needs is transit!!! (and not of the variety that goes nowhere)

MONEY BEST PLACES TO LIVE

ooo boy, Cary, NC makes the big Money Magazine list as best places to live...accompanied by another suburbia of Columbia, Maryland and Sugarland, Texas...don't you think its about time to update these based on average travel times to work???? Affordability???

As you can guess, one can make up numerous things that determine the "BEST PLACE TO LIVE". D.C. Ho has informed me that in this article Houston is named the 3rd Skinniest city (importation of starving refugees? or has it really reversed its obesity trend that once landed it the "Fattest City in America" title?) . How can people remain skinny amongst TexMex and humidity too hot to get out of A/C to exercise?

the HO has also informed me that Cary, NC, a bedroom community, has more bars w/in 15 miles than Houston, TX???? This must be because of another error in the way they judged bars...Houston is a very "area-rich" city, encompassing a lot of area. If they measured from some random place in Houston it is very likely that they would not capture the whole city within a 15 mile radius of that point. While Cary is in the middle of three college towns, and can claim that every applebees, chilis, and generic mexican restaurant near it is also a bar.

...or maybe my thoughts on the subject are wrong and all the people in Cary have to drink so much to avoid feeling like they are driving down the same road all the time with the same houses. Kind of like Weeds.

Fate o' the Census

HOUSE CUTS $58.3M FROM CENSUS BUDGET; SENATE PANEL APPROVES $50M LESS THAN BUSH REQUEST

PLUS: Hand-Held Computers in Census, and Group Quarters in ACS, at Risk, Agency Says; Stakeholders Caution Lawmakers About Consequences of Funding Shortfall; SIPP Funding Increased in House

In a June 29 vote in the House, $50million was shifted from the Census Bureau to the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) program. The purpose of JAG is to improve the criminal justice system, and I'm not prepared to argue that this is or isn't needed. However, this issue isn't as clear as it would seem since the criminal justice system USES Census data in determining how best to allocate resources.

Ideally, a study would be done of the impact of Census funding cuts on various programs (including transportation!) before the cuts are made, but there is never time for such frivolousness in government.

Other programs that received money previously allocated to the Census Bureau $5million towards the Violence Against Women Act and $3.3million for the FBI's Innocent Images program, which tracks Internet predators.

Perhaps the reallocations aren't a bad idea (I'm not going to attack this one without further study), but the fight is not a fair one with no Census lobby on Capitol Hill. Fortunately some groups with foresight are banding together and doing their best to get the Senate to reverse course when they discuss this issue (scheduled for July 13 - yesterday).

Interestingly, the Census Bureau claims that the funding cuts will not allow it to proceed with its plans to use GPS-equipped handheld devices to track down nonresponders, and therefore they will have to revert to a paper-based system adding $1billion to the overall 2010 Census cost.

So.. a $58.3million cut means the Census will cost an extra $1billion?! So if they're going to have to presumably take $ from other Census programs to pay for the paper-based system.. then couldn't they take this $ to continue towards a GPS-based system? There's something I'm missing here.

Other Census activities that will be (at least temporarily) abandoned: group quarters coverage in American Community Survey, aligning TIGER digital mapping system with GPS coordinates in all counties, new initiatives to reduce undercounts and overcounts

More info can be found here:
The Census Project (http://www.thecensusproject.org/)
Brookings Institution reports (www.brookings.edu/views/op-ed/reamer/20060626.htm, www.brookings.edu/views/op-ed/reamer/20060710.htm)

TranspSAS

TranspSAS CIO Article

"Edible Estates"

NYTimes article about EDIBLE ESTATES aka lets make something useful with our lawns other than grass. I like it, but I think they should have included candied astroturf as an option, I mean come-on...wasn't your childhood dream to get to go to the "every thing is edible" room at the Willy Wonka Factory? I know that things like herbs and tomatoes are edible, but I don't I don't have any nostalgic cravings of bruschetta...