This Week In Precipitation

Ignoring stormwater science - UPDATE 1

2012-02-01T13:42:00.000-08:00

Does anyone doubt that stormwater pollutes Western Washington's water cycle? At its simplest, civilization drops stuff on the ground, and gravity washes it downhill into Puget Sound.

Pretty easy. Yet now comes Democratic State Rep. Larry Springer of Kirkland. His HB2641 proposes making laboriously negotiated low-impact development rules voluntary.

"We are simply continuing an ongoing effort to find a way to lessen the burden, streamline our local governments, make them more efficient and help them weather the budget crisis they are facing," Springer told Investigate West's Robert McClure.

We can't stress the following point enough: the opponents of Puget Sound protection and restoration have no science on their side. All they can do is whine 'it's too hard,' or 'it's too expensive,' or 'what's the rush?', and try to have their political lackeys fix the game.

Well excuse us private sector, but it's your doing business at the lowest cost that is responsible for pollution of the commons, i.e. the public sector. It's more than disingenuous to then cry about the public sector's remedy.

House Bill 2641: Sponsors Springer, Takko, Kagi and Eddy need to back off.

Update 1: Even the Times gets it

An example on your fingertips

2012-01-25T11:22:00.000-08:00

The news that most thermal cash register receipt paper is coated with bisphenol-A receives such little notice, that when a tiny syndicated column mentioning it did surface last Sunday, I realized I had forgotten it since it had first come out over a year ago:

BPA also coats the paper that many store receipts are printed on. It comes off on hands. Consumers should decline receipts, or handle them with care and wash their hands afterward. Children should never be allowed to handle these receipts." Research has confirmed that register receipts often contain BPA that can be absorbed through the skin

Seattle Times

Connecticut banned recipt paper with BPA last year, hopefully more will follow.

There already are alternatives. Several manufacturers make BPA-free paper, but rolls marketed by Appleton have visible red fibers added to the paper so you can easily tell the difference.

Appleton dropped BPA in 2006, following the lead of manufacturers in Japan.

Presumably manufactuers still using BPA are letting the free-market decide, in the meantime leaving us to guess what kind of receipt paper we're getting.

Gosh -- wouldn't it be great if such decisions were based on science, rather than manufacturer cost which passes the health costs on to the rest of us.

Just the highlights

2012-01-12T19:49:00.000-08:00

There are a number of items competing for the top of the environmental news -- some positive, some worrisome. Here they are, with pointers:

State of Washington puts Puget Sound on 'waters of concern' list. In a report to the EPA, the state Department of Ecology cites the threat of ocean acidification to sea life. Oceans naturally absorb CO2, but mankind's CO2 output has the oceans working overtime. Too much CO2 lowers ocean pH, interfering with the food chain by altering the development of key species.

Press release from the Center For Biological Diversity

Property wrongs. On Monday the U.S. Supreme Court

heard arguments in the case of Michael and Chantell Sackett, a pair from Idaho who cherrypicked the biologist reports they liked in order to justify filling in a wetland so they could build a house. They're arguing to the Court that the EPA shouldn't be able to issue protection orders that could -- not will -- impose substantial fines if the damage is not undone. In other words, this pair of spuds want to make it safe for people to flout the law, and strip the EPA of the power to do anything about it. Of course all the Corporate People are rooting for the Sacketts -- and at least four of them sit on the high court.

Story from the Washington Post

Who's spewing? An example of why we need the EPA is this new online database that ties greenhouse gas data to Google Maps.

I give Gov. Gregoire 10 points for a $3.6 billion transportation plan that includes a small per barrel fee on oil produced in-state -- but I take away several hundred points from her for not mentioning biking or pedestrians in the plan.

There are only 300 whooping cranes left -- and as if that isn't bad enough, they're facing serious trouble in Texas.

Finally, something that offers some hope: a clip of a river otter scampering around new habitat in the Duwamish Superfund cleanup area:

Seattle Channel

Climate vs. Weather

2012-01-11T10:31:00.000-08:00

A simple and clear explanation, for people who keep saying 'it's snowing so there must not be climate change.'

The old adage is that "climate is what you expect, weather is what you get," since day-to-day weather may depart significantly from average conditions. But that doesn't really tell you much about how climate is measured over the long-term, or when weather ends and climate begins.

...

Climate Central

Dubious Eco-Promoter - UPDATE 3

2011-12-19T08:00:00.000-08:00

Businessman offering financing for eco-infrastructure misrepresents connection with PRT company

©MMXI Get On Board PRT!NewsCenter

Major 'sustainable,' 'eco' and 'green' projects take place in the spheres of business and finance, so it has to be expected that the field is going to see its share of hustlers. Luckily, we are in an era of information-at-your-fingertips, so it is somewhat easy to catch them out.

Graham Cockroft is notable for his ubiquity in recent weeks, promoting his MaglevMovers.com site on Facebook, and of late on Twitter. Maglev Movers is trying to interest city governments in "social housing," waste-to-energy, wind and solar energy systems, maglev trains, and Personal Rapid Transit. But in at least one case Cockroft has misrepresented his business connections.

One of Cockroft's activities on Facebook and Twitter is to announce additions to Maglev Movers' professional network. He is regularly "delighted" at yet another company joining Maglev Movers' ranks as a "preferred" supplier, vendor or consultant.

One such addition is SkyTran, a PRT company also known as Unimodal. Cockroft (@cymply) has tweeted:

SkyTran even appears in the official MaglevMovers brochure on PRT:

There is nothing incorrect per se about the way PRT is portrayed as a concept, or its potential performance. The problem is that Cockroft and Maglev Movers have no connection with SkyTran.

Cockroft is "delighted" to have SkyTran CEO Jerry Sanders on his team. But Sanders himself tells PRT NewsCenter:

We have no relationship with MagLev Movers. We never have. Graham and his colleagues have made repeated overtures asking us to sign all sorts of letters and agreements, none of which we ever signed or agreed to. Indeed, we have repeatedly cautioned Mr Cockroft and his colleagues to take off all references to SkyTran from their various websites and other paraphernalia.

What service is Maglev Movers offering? Well, they are advertising a green technology portfolio to cities interested in building eco-infrastructure, and offering to put them together with investors looking to make the cities nonrecourse loans.

Presumably Maglev Movers would get commissions for arranging the loans:

But if there is no actual technology vendor on board -- for instance, if an investor agrees to loan a Brazilian city money for a SkyTran system, but Maglev Movers can't deliver SkyTran -- what happens to the money? Hopefully no municipalities or venture capitalists have had the misfortune to find out. And if Maglev Movers is handling the transaction as a broker, it presumably gets the commission whether or not the project is realized.

Cockroft's unfortunately-titled earlier Maglev Movers page:

Cockroft has unsavory incidents in his background. He had a business run-in with the law in Cyprus, which deported him in 2001. In 2003 the deportation was upheld by the Cyprus Supreme Court:

BRITISH businessman Graham Cockroft, who was thrown out of Cyprus in 2001,was legally deported, the Supreme Court has ruled.
Cockroft, 56, ran a Cyprus-based company Rockpool Homes Ltd in a joint venture with Cypriot partners in Pissouri to build solar-powered houses; he was deported in August 2001, with only the clothes on his back.
. . .
But according to the authorities, Cockroft was living in Cyprus without permission and was exercising a profession without a permit. He was also accused of having a website advertising not only holidays in occupied areas but also the sale of immovable property there. Source

More recently, his business interests have turned in a different direction:

Cockroft appears to be based in Silves, Portugal. He has not responded to multiple inquiries from PRT NewsCenter.

Update 1: (12/19, 10:00 am PST) Cockroft has responded!

Despite all the tweets about being "delighted to have" various companies and individuals as "preferred" whatevers, and publishing SkyTran in Maglev Movers literature, Graham Cockroft insists to the NewsCenter:

we have no relationship with Mr Sanders of Skytran or Skytran itself or NASA or America as a whole... and to my knowledge don`t profess to claim so anywhere on the Internet.[ellipses in original]

and

If an over enthusiastic MaglevMover follower (we have around 250 worldwide) has claimed we are their partners,funders, bankers, design partners,mentors then I'm afraid they were wrong.

Cockroft went on to write that a company becomes Maglev Movers "preferred" simply when "we think they have a terrific product."

He also added: "by tonight we may well have a contract with India for 34 miles of PRT track.!!"

Update 2: (12/22/2011) Graham Cockroft has contacted us again.

Mr. Cockroft has sent us a long, rambling email, bursting with English pride though all the while butchering their language. Among many other things, he writes:

"At the time you went to print, there was no relationship between MM and Skytrans, there is now........we are friendlier then ever almost married !!. [sic]

Jerry Sanders of SkyTran has again denied existence of a relationship.

Cockroft confirms Maglev Movers' goal is to collect commissions: "1-2% would do fine as we are worth it.......... Minimum deal a billion." [sic]

Although Cockcroft goes on to admit he has no real products:

"WE DON`T DELIVER ANYTHING except good old British service and satisfaction." [emphases in original]

Basically, Cockroft wants to be the unnecessary middle man -- a know-nothing where eco-infrastructure technology is concerned, his sole objective is to add cost to government-funded projects, so that he can take commissions off the top.

Cockroft also discloses he has also been "deported twice from Portugal," and his Cyprus case "is no doubt set to be finalised in the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg." However, a document search of the Court of Human Rights finds nothing for 'cockroft.'

Still no word on the "contract with India for 34 miles of PRT track.!!" Cockroft was expecting on Dec. 19.

Update 3: (12/29/2011) There is now confirmation of Cockroft misrepresenting his connection with a second company. Laurence E. Blow, president & founder of MaglevTransport, tells the NewsCenter:

I asked Graham Cockroft to remove my name from his website marketing... I have not given him explicit permission

Yet MaglevMovers.com has the following page:

And Cockroft tweeted:

How not to advocate for Pod Transit

2011-12-13T19:12:00.000-08:00

This is the You Tube page for a video called "Personal Rapid Transport System," and it reflects a really unfortunate attempt at messaging in support of pod transit.

(I will replace this video with a still when the video gets taken down which, I anticipate, will be quite soon.)

A couple of the commenters were quick to suss out the problems:

1. The uploader thanks himself. And compounds the problem by not responding when called on it.

2. The promoted link -- personalrapidtransportsystem.com -- is nothing but a Go Daddy placeholder. The title of that page, "The Leading Personal Rapid Transport System Site on the Net," is overblown. Together with the video's lack of meaty content -- as noted in the fourth and final comment -- it damages other serious efforts to build awareness and understanding of advanced transit systems.

And who is the uploader, this prtcons1? It's PRT Consulting, the otherwise communications-savvy firm led by Peter Muller (interviewed in this other prtcons1 video) which is very good at using Twitter to drive visitors to its news page.

But in this case, personalrapidtransportsystem.com is a dropped ball. Or in global parlance, an own goal. A very clumsy one at that.

The number 2,309 is less a view count than the number of blown opportunities to communicate effectively with the general public about PRT. It's something the cause can do without.

Visionless

2011-11-14T17:10:00.001-08:00

The worst local news of the past week pertaining to urban livability comes from Seattle City Hall, where City Councilmembers thanked citizens for reelecting some of them by proposing to eliminate from the city budget the $1.5 million for planning streetcars and light rail requested Mayor McGinn.

Local planning is a prerequisite for federal grant applications. Therefore, applying for federal support to expand the rail network would be delayed by whatever amount of time it would take to marshal the will to fund and carry out such studies.

If rail planning is kept out of the final budget, the Council would have dealt another setback to providing Seattle with even the minimum transit infrastructure the people of a major city should expect. It is the kind of thinking that has made Seattle into an also-ran behind the region's truly great cities, Portland and Vancouver, BC both economically and in quality of life.

Update 1: Part of what I have previously told several Council members:

I would like to separately urge the Council to move to inject true vision into Seattle's long term transit planning.

It seems as though the last two decades of Seattle ambition has been dictated by the urging to be "World Class." Yet I find the vision in the Transit Master Plan to be problematic.

The TMP is very realistic in terms of identifying corridors and types of service that are doable in the short and medium term. Streetcars are identified for some corridors, but Bus Rapid Transit is matched with others.

This is not vision, this is absence of vision. It reflects no ambition beyond what is fundable in the foreseeable future.

Bus Rapid Transit is a second-class transit technology. It can be said to provide all the transit service of rail, with none of the accompanying side benefits.

Ballard, Fremont and the U District have concentrations of business and housing which can support rail. But rail would give other areas the stimulus to achieve smarter urban uses.

This matter is one of equity among all the districts of Seattle. Identifying some districts for rail and others for BRT is to designate economic winners and losers.

Long term vision means stating as official policy a goal of eventually reaching ALL corridors with some kind of fixed-guideway transit.

For the moment the Transit Master Plan is a good starting point, it is a good interim plan (although West Seattle, and Aurora Avenue above N. 80th Street, should be be identified as rail corridors NOW). I urge the Council act to add real, long term vision.

It does not cost more money to declare as policy that "The long term goal is rapid rail service in all corridors."

Seattle streetcar deal

2011-10-26T21:00:00.000-07:00

It means jobs. Will it expand the official vision of which technologies belong in which corridors? Let's hope so.

Streetcar Network: Keep going

2011-10-18T21:00:00.000-07:00

I just had an in-person gander at Sound Transit's Link presentation of its North Corridor plans, courtesy of the agency's public meeting at Ingraham High School. Nice job by the staff.

Now I want readers to weigh-in in favor of the (CLICK! >) L2 Main (solid line) Alternative option. Then I want you to think how to connect it to the Seattle Streetcar Network. I dare you to not get excited about the possibilities.

What is obvious is extension of the Ballard and Zoo streetcar lines so they go up 15th NW and Aurora, like so:

Larger

I envision an Aurora line ending at the N 130th Street light rail station, and a 15th NW/Broadview line ending at the light rail station at N 145th Street. And along the way, there would be much-needed Smart Growth and redevelopment incentives in Crown Hill, Aurora Avenue, Greenwood, and Broadview.

Yeah -- I'm all for it. We're making the decisions now, and modern 'pod taxi' technologies are not yet ready for this level of urban service (although a Vectus mini-metro could be ideal for West Seattle).

Surface light rail through Rainier Valley is the relevant precedent. To put light rail to Lynnwood but bypass northwest Seattle (especially underdeveloped AURORA, which is an urban embarrassment when compared with Shoreline's Aurora and Highway 99 in Lynnwood) would be an insult-level oversight lasting for generations.

This isn't a threat or anything, but I remember another Southeast Seattle precedent -- 'Judkins Rejected.' Just saying.

Some notes on tonight's meeting:

The staff presentation contains subtle language pushing forward of L1 (as cheapest) and L3 (second cheapest) over L2 (might make future Seattle-Everett service too slow). They acknowledge the redevelopment superiority of L2, and that's what we have to fight for.

Maybe it has been too long since I've been to a meeting like this, but man were some of the audience questions irritating.

Ma'am, if you're worried about the noise of L2/L3 electric trains, running every four minutes, at rush hour, on SR-99, in Shoreline, then you should think about moving to the country. You really don't want to be living near other people in the Pacific Northwest's biggest metro area.
Sir, projections are just that, they aren't promises, Sound Transit alone can't guarantee the infinite macro and microeconomic decisions that aggregate to transit ridership. But the region is slated to grow by over a million people by 2040, so let me assure you ridership will be high.
Different sir, your idea that Link and Swift BRT overlapping for a mile or two (L2/L3) is unacceptably redundant argues for monomodal corridors. Which is the status quo. Which is inadequate.
Same different sir, not everyone is so obviously OCD as you that they would be willing to walk a half-mile to use L1 on a regular basis.
Different different sir, if trains can run every four minutes in each direction, why would we need more than one set of tracks in each direction?
Does only one of you really care about redevelopment and Smart Growth???

Bottom line folks, is that you're going to benefit from North Corridor whether you think you will use it you not. An L1 alignment serves mainly CBD commuting and does little for the outlying neighborhoods (you) who are going to be taxed for it. For the last six decades our transportation policy has been geared toward making driving easier. It's time. For the pendulum. To swing. Back.

Related document: 2011 Transit Master Plan draft summary

It was expected this report would not be aggressive enough, and it's true: only the U District, Ballard and Fremont get rapid streetcar. West Seattle and North-of-North 65th are effectively treated as though they are suburbs. This signals Seattle is too large (at 90-ish sq. mi.) for the amount we are willing (or able) to tax ourselves for necessary infrastructure (just as in the case of sidewalks, treated budget-wise as though they are luxuries). In the short term this means district elections for city council, to help ensure every part of Seattle is treated equitably. In the long term we need state-level tax reform & fairness -- an income tax, reduction of the sales tax, and some sort of standard deduction for property taxes.

Turn out tonight to back Highway 99 light rail

2011-10-13T17:10:00.000-07:00

Sound Transit is holding a public meeting TONIGHT on the next stage of light rail between Northgate and Lynnwood.

The meeting will be at 6pm at the Embassy Suites on 44th Avenue West in Lynnwood.

The agency's preferred options are I-5 (option L1) and Aurora/Highway 99 (options L2 and L3) --

"Two 'most promising' options"

L2 is mixed elevated and surface, while L3 is elevated.

While the I-5 alignment will likely be cheaper, a Highway 99 option would enable much-needed Transit-Oriented (re)Development on Aurora above 85th Street. Transit works better when it goes where the people are -- which is not along the freeway.

SHOW UP and let Sound Transit know they need to choose a Highway 99 option to maximize our transit investment!

There will be another opportunity to comment, 6pm Oct. 18 at Ingraham High School, 1819 N 135th St.

All documents: http://goo.gl/mM3bx

Route K9

2011-10-11T23:02:00.000-07:00

Before I got my dog, one of the things I hadn't considered was that as a transit user, I would be taking him along on the bus. But I've discovered a wide disparity in how different public transit agencies treat man's best friend:

King County Metro buses & Seattle streetcars: Dogs* allowed, must be on leash
Sound Transit buses & rail: Dogs* must be in carriers
Washington State Ferries: Dogs* must be in carriers
Community Transit (Snohomish County): Dogs* must be muzzled

Trimet (Oregon): Dogs* must be in carriers
Amtrak: No dogs* allowed.

Shortly before we were kicked off the 115.

What a pain in the ass. Especially when the rules are irregularly enforced by drivers/operators. One day last year, we rode all over North King and South Snohomish counties on Metro and Community Transit, but had to turn back when a CT driver kicked us off the 115 for not having a muzzle.
And carriers? REALLY?

We have a regional ORCA fare card, but each jurisdiction has its own -- conflicting -- pet rules. Dog owners who want to go via transit need some reasonable commonality among policies, and we can do without having to tote around additional gear.

Otherwise, the message to dog owners is Stay In Your Car (if you have one) And Off Transit.

* Other than service dogs

One word: Microplastics

2011-09-23T11:57:00.000-07:00

More evidence for people still not convinced that our plastics get into the oceans:

American researchers study microplastic debris in Clayoquot
By Yasmin Aboelsaud, Special to the Westerly News September 22, 2011

University of Washington Tacoma researchers collecting microplastic debris in Clayoqout Sound found more polystyrene in the surface of the water compared to areas in Puget Sound, Washington.
...

So far in Puget Sound and in areas in the U.S. east coast, researchers have found polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, and polystyrene.
...
"We've been collecting samples for almost two years and every single sample has had at least one piece of plastic," ...in California, plastics were found in nine per cent of all species captured in the water.

It's in the Canadian press, read the whole article here.

View Larger Map

Music On Rails!

2011-09-20T20:02:00.000-07:00

This week the news again comes from south of the big river. Yesterday evening Portland celebrated a decade of streetcars in the Rose City, with a mobile music festival of eight bands. Hey, Seattle should do that too -- except each set would be over in about 10 minutes. We have to pay for more miles of track if we're serious, Seattle.

Think before spraying

2011-09-16T20:48:00.000-07:00

Even in environmentally-conscious Seattle, there are still chances to witness bonehead moves. My turn came today while passing by this block near Carkeek Park:

View Larger Map

What I saw was a woman spraying Roundup onto plants in that vegetated area, which is a drainage ditch. Hopefully it will be natural-filtration runoff-retention garden someday, but for now it's a ditch. With an aggregate bottom. Leading into a pipe that continues into the distance.

How do I know she was spraying Roundup? The tank she carried had the Roundup logo plastered on the sides.

For readers outside the Seattle area, this is a big deal because this location is on a hillside to Carkeek Park. In fact that's the park in the distance, only 3 blocks away.

View Larger Map

Anything you put in that ditch flows downhill and into Pipers Creek -- a newly restored salmon spawning habitat -- and into Puget Sound.

People, this is a prime example of how individual choices affect the immediate environment. Not only does the Roundup have a deleterious effect, but destroying the 'weeds' speeds up the flow of stormwater when it rains.

If you spin around the Street View and go uphill, there are several blocks of pavement, ditch, and the intersection of NW 105th Street, Holman Road and Greenwood Avenue. Motor oil, fuel and other pollutants get washed downhill. Removing 'weeds' in that ditch leaves nothing to get in the way of those substances as they flow toward the Sound.

It's all connected, that's why it's called an ecosystem.

These are known as Outcomes

2011-09-07T15:00:00.000-07:00

The esteemed emeritus Prof. Jerry Schneider recently posted a link in the Transport-Innovators group to a piece by the editorial board of the Oregonian newspaper in Portland. Here it is in full:

September 05, 2011
Binding the community together

The doors open. We step inside, a little groggy, newspaper tucked under an elbow, latte in hand.

Celebrate this fact, Portland: After 25 years, the MAX light-rail system is so integral to our lives that we don't stop and think about it very much.

We don't have to stop and think about it very much. That's the beauty of it. MAX is just there, moving quietly in the background from 3:30 a.m. to 2 a.m. -- 22.5 hours a day.

We use the trains, sink into a seat when we can, stand when we can't, ignore the train for periods, grumble about it, then suddenly show it off to visitors. Do we contradict ourselves? Very well, then, we contradict ourselves.

We hop a train across downtown or plan a special weekend night out with friends, where everyone meets via MAX. We take our Red, Blue, Green, Yellow -- and soon to be Orange (to Milwaukie) -- light-rail system utterly for granted.

And, mostly, that's OK. But we don't want the silver anniversary of the Blue Line to slide by, like another sleek MAX train, unsung and unheralded.

Unpeel all that we would have to unpeel from Portland if the train system did not exist, and you have a clearly diminished place.

Portland's much-touted walkability, its draw for young people as a metro area where they can get by without a car, our bustling downtown -- all these things go away without the train. But the region's leaders didn't know that, of course, when they pushed for the 15-mile eastside MAX line to Gresham. (It opened in September 1986.)

Those leaders took a huge, if well-considered, gamble. At the time, as TriMet's Mary Fetsch pointed out last week, this was only the third modern light-rail line to be built in the U.S. "Now there are about 30 systems," she says. MAX has logged "483 million trips; bus trips reached 1.4 billion trips during those 25 years."

We would not have the system we have today without stick-your-neck-out leadership. Without steely determination to stay on track. And without regional coordination that has made our area an exemplar frequently cited by federal transportation authorities -- whenever they award TriMet more money.

With the construction of the Columbia River Crossing, we hope TriMet will finally realize our region's important goal of leaping the Columbia from Portland to Vancouver. TriMet went as far as it could, to the Expo Center, with the construction of the Interstate line.

And, of course, we need improvements in bus service, too, not only because of the value of the bus in and of itself, but also to help capitalize on the investment the region has made in the 52-mile light-rail system.

Do we know where we're headed? Sort of. TriMet's leaders and supporters have made it clear that the system should be headed toward a solid connection with Vancouver; and that's the right direction. After 25 years, light rail has moved well beyond the experimental and novel. Now it is integral to the broader community. It's far more than lines and rails and trains. It's part of the mortar that holds that community together.

Seeing this posted in the t-i group struck a chord with me for a number of reasons.

1. I happened to be visiting Portland when this editorial was published, and I read it that day. It was my first visit to the Rose City where I made a conscious decision to rely solely on the transit system to get around.

2. Really the transit experience began in Seattle, where I took Amtrak from King Street Station to Portland's Union Station. There was a marked difference even between these edifices. Seattle's is tattered and dark, only now undergoing renovations, while Portland's is bright and shiny inside and out.

From September 3rd through the 5th I used Trimet's Max light rail and buses to visit some people, attend a couple of family events, and do some sightseeing, so I feel qualified to state the following about the Oregonian oped.

3. It's all true. The vehicles were frequent, clean and always on time regardless of the time of day. There was enough of a rail grid to make walking distances reasonable. Compared to transit in Seattle, it was fast -- even the one crosstown bus I rode from Southwest to Northeast took only a half hour.

4. I confirm the community-binding influence, and I honor it, Portland felt positive and vibrant. While the city possesses visible examples of the socioeconomic problems typical of American cities, those problems were not pervasive and overpowering. Transit oriented development appears healthy along all rail lines and bus routes, I saw no swaths of vacant storefronts.

Although the weather was perfect and locals and tourists packed the streets, their cars did not. I saw few speeders, no traffic jams, and do you know what? I didn't see any overt traffic calming methods, yet when we pedestrians crossed streets, drivers yielded without any crosswalk encroachment or impatient revving of engines. Even on a main arterial like Burnside, drivers yielded to people crossing even at unsignalled, unsigned intersections.

Furthermore, bicycling in Portland appears truly mainstream. Well-equipped cyclists were everywhere at all hours, and they were a broad spectrum of age, race and class. Bike facilities -- lanes, sharrows, bike boxes, racks, etc. -- are prevalent.

Is the transit system responsible for all this safety and 'community binding'? Yes, it is, insofar as it is one of a number of planning choices the community has made during nearly three decades.

5. So far, Schneider's link has generated no discussion in the t-i group; maybe it's denial. Today's Portland is a result of representative government and public policy, leading to positive community outcomes. All transportation innovators need to take note, especially those who eschew 'big government,' federal government, and decry smart growth. I didn't see any mobs of outraged citizens demanding an end to Portland's oppressive central planning apparatus, ripping out the rail system, privatizing the buses, or putting their cars on guideways.

The community made itself a laboratory for progressive urban planning and infrastructure and, while any city will always be a work in progress, at this time Portland is a wild success in terms of livability outcomes. I doubt anyone in Portland feels 'less free' because of sustainable urban policies.

The people chose this, they made it real using available concepts and technologies, and in that Personal Rapid Transit supporters can find encouragement. For Portland's livability outcomes could be achieved with PRT too. For while smart growth and related concepts are ideologies, they are inherently apolitical -- just as technologies are inherently apolitical.

When public outreach surrounding PRT fails it is because of politicization. Where it is succeeding, it is in a nonpoliticized environment and the vendors stay out of politics -- especially of the fringe variety. Even the Morgantown PRT eventually thrived once it left behind the politics that accompanied its birth.

America is a huge, prosperous country that can afford to nationally fund locally planned urban development. We have done it before, and we can do it again if we can get out from under the influence of sociopolitical/economic theorists who think Libertarian Fantasyland is a neat idea.

You, PRT engineers and vendors, are not implementers. Public authorities will evaluate and select transit technologies. What PRT designers need to do is bring products to a state of readiness, and leave political ideology to the ideologues.

This includes not allowing yourselves to be manipulated by political ideologues.

Update 1 - This article is an example of why astute PRT supporters stay away from anything that smells like a libertarian or neoconservative.

And where Seattle is concerned, the decades-old question remains -- what are the reasons our decisionmaking system often fails to transform good concepts into meaningful, human-focused public policies and implementations?

Statistics For Luddites

2011-08-30T14:13:00.000-07:00

How does a range of 95-99.999% become a flat 95%? Find out, over at our sister-blog, the Luddite-specific "PRT is a Joke IS A JOKE"!

Bac To School

2011-08-24T14:44:00.001-07:00

Judging by the arrangement of Back To School products in many stores right now, it's clear the American (western?) preoccupation with germs continues unabated.

Anti-bacterial soaps and hand sanitizers can be found alongside school supplies at your finest drugstores, discounters and big boxes.

In the US alone a billion dollars worth of these germ killers are sold annually. This is a good time of year then to remind green-minded shoppers-- the active ingredient in these products is Triclosan, and it's a sneaky eco hazard.

After it kills the bacteria on your hands, Triclosan doesn't stop after it goes down your drain. After your community's 'treated' wastewater is disposed of, Triclosan keeps working. When it reaches the lowest level it can, the oceans, Triclosan goes after bacteria that is the food supply for bigger critters. The impact is felt up the food chain.

So use regular soap and hot water, read labels, and don't buy products with Triclosan. The sealife thank you.

Smooth Move, Ex-Lax

2011-08-08T10:21:00.001-07:00

Includes a dialog with The Offender

With friends like these, who needs enemas?

The Transport Innovators online discussion group is nothing if not a bubbling cauldron of problematica^®, so it's good to see it is still capable of eliciting a good-old-fashioned spit take:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

From: Bill James [mailto:bill....@jitcorp.com]

Sent: Sunday, August 07, 2011 3:11 PM

To: Sorel, Thomas (MnDOT)

Cc: [list]

Re: PRT in Minnesota (delayed) but not in China

Hi Tom

We have refined the summary of the 28th Amendment as a basis to end government monopolies over power and transportation infrastructures.

We are preparing a citizen suit in which we will name you and the State of Minnesota for blocking privately financed solar-powered mobility networks. It would be much better if Minnesota will allow such networks.

Unless you have some means to guaranteeing access to affordable gasoline, as noted in the summary of the 28th Amendment, the decay of the oil-powered economy seems likely to kill about 8 in 10 Americans over the next 20 years. Geology is slow and relentless. We can preempt the crisis by becoming self-reliant and ending our oil addiction.

Please consider that if people die, the civil aspects of the citizens suit should be expanded to criminal accountability. People are already losing their homes because DOT mandates oil as the lifeblood of our economy.

Thanks

Bill James

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"Tom" is Thomas Sorel the Commission of MnDOT, and "Bill James" is the Bill James of the JPods personal rapid transit company.

Bill James is allowed to say and do whatever he wants, including making astoundingly boneheaded moves.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation is only one of the entities PRT advocates and vendors are trying to work with. Lawsuits and threats of lawsuits only serve to antagonize these partners, and make potential partners think twice.

James is also adding to the unwelcome and nonsensical partisan politicization of PRT. To date such politicization has been the province of PRT opponents, with their distortions, cherrypicked facts and claims of conspiracies which have attained urban legend status.

Bundling PRT with "solar-powered mobility" and a balanced budget amendment gives more ammunition to these opponents, as well as increasing the gap in gravitas between US PRT designers and their industry-leading cousins in Europe and South Korea.

Seattle Times throws bus drivers, riders under the bus

2011-07-24T13:12:00.001-07:00

The Seattle Times' editorial position on the $20 car tab tax for King County Metro transit service is really quite shocking.

Here it is, a vital public infrastructure component, just as vital as water, electricity and sewers, but transit is something the Times has decided ought to be starved ( http://bit.ly/pcYZ8X ). The paper:

1. Acknowledges the Amalgamated Transit Union gave up more in contract concessions than Sheriff's deputies, but then says that still wasn't enough. Sorry, but in exposed, volatile working conditions, Metro drivers earn their money.

2. Seeks justification in a 'report' by right-wing Washington Policy Center as an excuse to cut or change "low productivity" routes. Which means the Times believes you should only have access to transit service when "sustainable" -- completely ignoring the reality of the subsidized formula for transit funding in the US.

3. Cites slow-growing economy as excuse for starving transit. Ignoring that slow-growing is still growing.

The Times' position on the $20 Metro fee is the same trope the right wing trots out for every public program (except defense and corporate welfare) -- cut and starve in the name of 'efficiency.'

Baby gets bad welcome gift

2011-07-11T10:36:00.001-07:00

The most important regional environmental news of the past week was the arrival of a new Orca baby in Puget Sound, K-44 (http://goo.gl/9S9xs). Welcome baby boy!

However, the good news is balanced by an item from the previous week, concerning the results of last month's tabletop oil spill response drill:

"The drill showed procedures introducing oil dispersants on a spill need improving." (http://goo.gl/Yw1mg)

We ought to be alarmed state and federal authorities are talking about dispersants at all. First, as we now know from the aftermath of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, dispersants don't remove the oil, they only make the oil invisible. Second, dispersants kill phytoplankton and bacteria in the food chain.

And third: DISPERSANTS ARE ILLEGAL in Puget Sound (http://goo.gl/G6GMP).

Republican debaters mention the environment

2011-06-13T19:44:00.001-07:00

In case any doubts remain, here is the only explicit mention of the environment (that I heard) in tonight's debate among Republican candidates for president:

"What we need is the mother of all repeal bills," Bachmann said, promising to get rid of Obama's national health-care law and new regulations on the financial industry and to rename the Environmental Protection Agency the "Job Killing Agency of America." (http://goo.gl/o88td)

Rick Santorum inadvertently took an implicitly pro-environment position, in mentioning his opposition to ethanol subsidies. I guess ethanol must not work in lubricants.

The 6 Surrenders Of Vukan R. Vuchic

2011-04-11T09:39:00.000-07:00

Something the pro-transit environmental movement has been advocating for decades is the idea of the intermodal transit system of trains and buses. Some of us would like to add Personal Rapid Transit to that short list.

Such a system, if pervasive enough, would allow people to travel around cities without driving. And if deployed in conjunction with thoughtful land use planning, redevelopment, and urban growth boundaries, the transit system could assist in correcting decades of sprawl made possible by, and in service of, the automobile -- or as I call it, the Private Travel Appliance.

Vukan R. Vuchic, Emeritus Professor of Transportation Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, has for several decades been a staunch advocate for light rail transit, perhaps its leading advocate. So while Vuchic's views in opposition to PRT during that time can be charitably described as superficial, because of his leadership on light rail I have always counted Vukan R. Vuchic on the side of the angels

So it was with not a little astonishment recently that I read the following statement by Vuchic:

Unlike most transit systems, [PRT] operating costs can be recouped at the fare box, [Peter] Muller added. Vukan R. Vuchic, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, disputed that, saying not enough people use transit because it is still cheaper for most to drive a car.

And autos have a role in getting people around.

"Modern transportation is designed as intermodal," said Vuchic, who has written a trilogy of books on public transportation. "It combines use of private car and bus and light-rail and rapid transit and does not forget pedestrians."

There is no single answer to the issues of our daily travels, he said.

"People like to think there will be some vehicle that will come and that will solve everything," he said. "It's a naive concept."

Vuchic said there won't be enough people to use PRT in the suburbs to make it profitable and in the packed downtown areas, there will be a need for bigger vehicles that could seat "30, 40 or even 80 people" whereas PRT would be difficult to use.

Those systems already exist and are in use, he said.

Source: CNN

Unable to supply a high-ridership last-mile solution based solely on a conventional transit technology, Vukan the god of light rail has fudged the intermodal transit system into an intermodal transportation system, in which the last-mile role is filled by cars.

1 Yes, cars. After writing eloquently in the past about the need for "auto disincentives," Vuchic has surrendered to the dominance of Private Travel Appliances that environmentalists, planners and smart urban denizens have rightly grown to lament.

But ceding a seat at the table to the Private Travel Appliance is only one level of Vuchic's surrender. 2 In his rush to dismiss PRT as "unprofitable," he validates critics who attack all public transit because it requires subsidies.

But we know that to be a false comparison. Transit is a public good, as a society we have agreed it should be available regardless of profitability -- indeed, provision of transit is public in large measure because the private sector is unable to make a profit at it.

Then there's the impact of using cars as a last-mile solution. Hopefully he means park and ride facilities. In suburbs they are geared to commuters, storing Private Travel Appliances all day while their drivers are in the central city. 3 How can a suburban city hope to do successful pedestrian-priority TOD when their rail stations are magnets for car trips that start, and return to, cul-de-sacs an unknown distance away?

And what of outlying towns overtaken by suburbanization, but are now trying to revitalize their old central business districts to compete with malls? If, using Vuchic assumptions, those places can't support a PRT network -- or even a PRT shuttle to connect the old town center with the newer mall -- then they can't support light rail either. 4 The mall wins.

But it's a different story in the central city, right? In the city people can leave their cars at home and walk to the nearest light rail station. 5 Unless a citywide network is too expensive, in which case the areas unserved by light rail will be underserved by buses (sorry, except in situations where buses have exclusive lanes and level boarding platforms, they are not rapid transit). And it will always be so, because Vuchic insists cities not explore unconventional transit options like PRT that could provide comparable service at lower cost. One must presume there are no underserved areas in Vuchicland, thanks to the Private Travel Appliance part of his transportation system. QED, Prof. Vuchic!

6 I suppose Vuchic must think it irrelevant that people be able to live in a city without driving -- why, Private Travel Appliances are so cheap, let's assume everyone drives anyway. If Vuchic is right, why bother with Smart Growth anywhere, urban or suburban?

Finally, it's ironic that Vuchic dismisses PRT proponents as being "naive" about "some vehicle that will come and that will solve everything" -- since Vuchic is falling back on one vehicle, the Private Travel Appliance, to "solve" the missing piece of his intermodal transit- er, make that intermodal transportation- network.

One wonders what Vukan R. Vuchic's life's work was all about, since the problem on which he focused could be solved simply by redefining it.

Slideshow: How Will You Get To The Train? Light rail + PRT = City-wide transit network

New NMFS contact policy on orcas compromises good science

2011-04-09T12:00:00.000-07:00

The good news is that boaters will now be required to stay at least 200 yards distant from Puget Sound orca whales, under new rules issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

However, NMFS decided to not make the waters west of San Juan Island a no-go area in summer time, bowing to local objections including marine dependent businesses. In other words, not having a no-go was based on commerce, not science.
If this compromise is how it's going to be, then it is incumbent on businesses to develop its own code of conduct that will not cause orcas "to speed up travel and respiration, which burns more energy and inhibits feeding."

Eco-tourism whale watch companies: what are you going to do if you love the whales to death?

Other articles:

Blaine-Birch Bay Northern Light

San Juan Journal

Seattle P-I

Fate of Masdar PRT Not Yet Final

2011-03-03T23:00:00.000-08:00

©MMXI Get On Board PRT!NewsCenter

We knew it was coming. Last October the news broke that the Masdar City project -- already retreating from ambitious goals of zero-carbon, zero-waste and producing all energy onsite -- had decided against installing Personal Rapid Transit throughout the 2.3 square mile 'eco-city.' The news came just as the inauguration of the pilot section of the PRT system, 'Phase IA,' was imminent.

And so we were not surprised when the wave of news items arrived. Environmental journalists attending January's World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi on the one hand wrote in giddy prose of riding the driverless pods, while on the other hand chuckling at the brevity of the 2-station route. It sounds so small when you say the stations are "a mere 800m" apart. That's half a mile to Americans.

Some scribes went so far as to pass on the official Masdar explanation that the collapse of the global real estate market made the 'undercroft,' effectively a utilities basement that would also house the PRT network, too expensive. No undercroft, no underground PRT. Let's emphasize that, since it went over the heads of most writers: it is the undercroft that was unaffordable, not PRT. PRT doesn't require undercroft.

But we can report that the fate of Masdar PRT -- while dim -- has yet to be finalized.

In the undercroft

Robbert Lohmann, Marketing & Sales Manager for PRT maker 2getthere, tells NewsCenter that the Masdar organization has not told the company anything about the future of the fledging podcar system, one way or another.

So for now, 2getthere is assuming nothing has changed. "We have seen the reports in the media, however, nothing has been communicated to us officially," said Lohmann.

"We as a company still believe an expansion makes sense and keep in contact with Masdar about the various options, including how to decrease costs or integrate PRT in a different way than the undercroft," he said. Presumably, this means an elevated alignment, as originally envisioned by architect Norman Foster.

Foster's original vision with elevated PRT

However, Lohmann noted that the primary driver for Middle East projects is cost.

Lohmann confirmed that Masdar's intention has been to bundle 2getthere PRT with solar, wind, and other systems developed at Masdar, and commercialize them as Masdar green technologies. This remains the objective as far as 2getthere is aware.

The Masdar PRT itself continues to operate well after three months, with 10,000 passengers in December, rising to 18,000 passengers in February. The average vehicle occupancy was 1.8 passengers in December, and 2.1 in February. Vehicle availability is steady at 99.7% through the 3 months of operations, while system availability was 98.6% in December, 99.3% in January, and 99.2% in February.

Another successful aspect is the worldwide attention directed at 2getthere, in connection with the launch at Masdar. 2getthere has several potential PRT projects in the pipeline, according to Lohmann, and the company expects to secure another deal this year.

Taxing argument

2011-01-26T15:38:00.000-08:00

'Dumb criminal' stories tend to litter the pages of the daily newspapers, but on those publications' websites the most popular subject is, I submit to you, the bashing of bicyclists.

Today brought two such letters in the Seattle Times, one typical and one not.

...Automobile registration, and a license to drive one, does not also qualify a person to drive a semi-truck, school bus, motor coach, motorcycle -- or a bicycle -- on public streets. That’s the favorite ploy of freebie bike advocates to suggest that taxes paid for operating a motor vehicle provides a free pass for pedaling around on a motorless vehicle as well... Ride a bike -- ante up! Dean Trier, Redmond

Tired. Old. Old and tired. What costs of biking would be paid by registration? Testing, operator licensing, license plating, taxation? No? Trier & ilk used to say bikers should pay directly for roads -- except bikes aren't anywhere near a major cause of wear & tear. And anyway, bikers who drive (99%?) already pay for streets under the existing system -- Trier would double-tax bikers.

Nowadays the Make Bikers Pay bunch argue cyclists should be taxed for all the new bike lanes and paths. Except in Seattle such costs are covered by levy -- i.e., that is how voters decided they want to pay for those projects.

The other letter seems more reasonable:

...I have no problem with the idea of paying my fair share of the use of our roads by paying a bike tax. I think $20 is a fair, annual fee. My bike weighs about 20 pounds, so that's about a dollar per pound per year for using the roads. Not a problem for me. Ira Seigel, Bainbridge Island

"A dollar per pound." Fine. Except what do we know about the relationship of weight to the cost of a bike? All together: lighter is more expensive. Nice regressive tax you've dreamed up there, Ira.

New oil spill bill looks stronger

2011-01-13T09:00:00.000-08:00

Representatives Christine Rolfes and Zack Hudgins are the lead sponsors of HB1186, a bill now in the news that would improve preparations to respond to oil spills in Puget Sound. The roundup:

If enacted, HB1186 would
be a significant improvement over current regulations on spill contingency planning, in that it would create specific public actions -- such as enlisting commercial fishing vessels and volunteers into response networks -- that oil and oil transportation companies would have to implement in order to be in compliance. Also required is review of spill response plans by the Director of the Department of Ecology.

In the past, oil companies evaded disclosure of their spill contingency planning. A few years ago we found that companies would submit 'plans' that didn't include any details. Instead, the companies engaged consultants to create the plans, and those consultants weren't required to disclose anything to the Oil Spill Commission.

Warm water species shows up in Puget Sound

2011-01-07T15:00:00.000-08:00

The Seattle Times is reporting sightings of bottlenose, Flipper-style dolphins in Puget Sound:

The wayward bottlenose dolphin seen recently in Puget Sound is the region's fourth tropical marine visitor in a year.

Another bottlenose dolphin and two Bryde's whales, all native to warmer climes, appeared in Washington's inland waters last year, said John Calambokidis, of Cascadia Research. The three animals perished in Puget Sound.

Source

There's a possibility some of the reports are of trained dolphins engaged in security for the Trident base on Hood Canal, but the Navy isn't discussing it.

However, if the finned visitors are wild tourists, we have to think they are heading to the South Sound because it's shallower and therefore warmer. Unfortunately for them, the South Sound is also more polluted because it there isn't as much natural flushing action as there is in the north.

Roundup:
KING TV video
Cascadia Research
Seattle P-I

Whales not gonna take it

2010-12-08T17:14:00.000-08:00

The most concerning and grimmest Puget Sound environmental news of the past week has got to be the maiming, followed by death, of a sei (or Bryde's) whale in the south Sound.

:: Complete Cascadia Research coverage

Not only were the injuries severe, the 34 foot long animal suffered a lingering death.

While mainstream media coverage began Dec. 1, Cascadia reports the earliest sighting may have been as far back as Nov. 13. That would mean 3 weeks leading up to the Dec. 4 death.

Photos from Cascadia Research

There were at least five significant injuries, according to the necropsy, apparently from one or more vessel strikes.

Accidents happen. But really -- five strikes? One vessel five times, five vessels one time -- how do you hit a 34 foot long creature and just keep going? How do you live with yourself, boater(s) in question, leaving an intelligent mammal to die a slow death?

The priority ought to be reporting the injured animal so that veterinary help can respond as quickly as possible. Save this number: (800)853-1964, the NOAA Fisheries Hotline.

What's the law on collisions with marine mammals? The federal law is pretty expansive -- it's illegal to 'take' marine mammals, the definition of 'take' including just about any form of contact or near-contact imaginable.

Less clear is what boaters are supposed to do if they hit a marine mammal. Washington state law appears only to require reporting of accidents involving people and property.

If you see a hit & run between a boat and a marine mammal, I'd just radio the Coast Guard. There's also an outfit within NOAA called the Office Of Law Enforcement.

Come on, Puget Sound marine repair shops: drop dime on any boats that came in recently with bloody dented hulls or gore encrusted props.

Masdar City's first steps

2010-11-29T14:31:00.000-08:00

Masdar City -- the ambitious United Arab Emirates eco-city project -- inaugurated its first phase last week.

Abu Dhabi monarch Mohammed al Nahyan was there to preside over the unveiling of the Masdar Institute of Science & Technology, the first fruits of his investment.

It's important to remember that about this display of traditional Arab technology wedded to modern technologies. MIST is showing the key energy sustainability features of the Masdar vision: narrow shaded streets, curved walls, wind towers, etc. New low-energy air conditioning are being tried, as is the Personal Rapid Transit (small pod vehicles, mass transit in aggregate, that only move when needed).

But as previously reported,
one of the original reasons for building Masdar City -- demonstrating how Masdar-developed green technologies work when applied on a citywide scale -- has been peeled off as a result of the new austerity brought about by the global recession. The PRT's underground network isn't going to be built-out beyond its current alignment, and future surface streets are going to be widened to accommodate alt-power automobiles. Will buildings in future phases of Masdar be required to use the same techniques and technologies used in MIST? There are no guarantees.

By scaling back the goals of Masdar City, the Masdar project has lost one of the great perceived advantages -- that it could afford to take risks.

From now on Masdar City is a showroom. If you're a mayor, energy minister or CEO wanting to be photographed looking interested in cutting-edge green tech that actually works, Masdar is going to be on your junket itinerary. They'll sell you a green HVAC system, a rooftop solar system, and their other off the shelf products -- even a PRT.

But what if you want real-world data about how those systems work on an urban scale? How does a city function socially and economically if entirely pedestrian-priority? What balance of green sources do cities need to meet power requirements? Masdar won't be able to tell you for sure; it doesn't solve a critical problem of the R&D cycle -- when it comes to innovation, the risk averse want 'someone else' to be the early adopter.

In the industrialized west, the risk averse are the ones making critical urban planning and infrastructure decisions. Masdar must have understood this about their likely customer base, right?

Shaded street on display inside MIST

PRT station underneath MIST

Photos: Flickr, Trevor.Patt

ULTra begins public service

2010-10-19T08:15:00.000-07:00

The ULTra PRT system at London Heathrow Airport has become the first contemporary personal rapid transit system to enter public service, beginning 12 hours a day/7 days a week operation. Even so, the project's low-key nature continues in this rollout, for now the passengers are airport employees working at Terminal 5, according to BAA's Hugh Fenn:

On Tuesday Oct 19th 2010 the ULTra PRT system at Heathrow Airport (Heathrow pod) took a step towards revenue service by commencing a live trial involving retail staff from Terminal 5. This is a significant milestone which will help to ensure the system works well when opened to business car park users. It is also a useful indicator as to how PRT operates in a live environment. There have been a number of half day trials with passengers and feedback from passengers has been consistently favourable. During these operational trials, the system has proven reliable and the Independent Safety Verification Team, an industry regulator, has approved ULTra Heathrow for operation.

The Heathrow ULTra joins 'The PRT' (1975) in Morgantown, West Virginia, as the world's only PRT systems. For now.

Video: In & Around Masdar City

2010-10-17T17:43:00.000-07:00

From Al Jazeera:

It's official: Masdar won't be car-free (Update 5)

2010-10-10T19:29:00.000-07:00

©MMX Get On Board!PRT NewsCenter

Fundamental revisions to the Masdar City program, hinted at and leaked since spring, have been confirmed: Masdar City will be dedicated to developing and piloting sustainable technologies, but demonstrating what they can do on a city-wide scale will be left to others.

Here's what we know based on reports in a number of international news outlets.

The overall deadline for completing all of Masdar City is now 2020-2025 instead of 2016. The cost will be roughly $18-20 billion instead of $22 billion. Given problems in the worldwide real estate market, these changes were expected.

The city will not produce all its own energy, but will buy it elsewhere -- although promising the imports will be sustainably produced. This also was expected, due to reports the Masdar solar farm had efficiency problems due to dusting by frequent sandstorms.
The first phase of the Dutch-made Personal Rapid Transit system will stay a pilot project, serving Masdar Institute (MIST) and linking to a parking lot. There will be no citywide network. This had been telegraphed too (TWIP, March 17, April 27), yet to see it as a final decision is a smack in the face. Masdar's particular PRT technology might very well be proven in operation. But relegated to parking shuttle duty, even if well-traveled, means that it will do nothing to settle the question of what PRT can do if deployed over a wide area.
The 'podium,' a raised platform on which the city and its shaded pedestrian-only streets were to be built, will not extend beyond MIST. This is important, since Masdar City's utilities, waste handling and transportation were to take place beneath the podium. The PRT would operate here like a subway, out of the way of walkers and and bicyclists. Not having this space underneath the entire city basically ensures PRT will stay limited -- unless they decide in the future to go elevated (the original plan envisioned a second, elevated PRT system as an express service, but there is no current mention of it and we have to assume it has been shelved). But any elevated transit in that climate would put added air conditioning load on the PRT vehicles' batteries and therefore on the sustainable energy grid as well.
Alternative power vehicles will likely be allowed into the city. Of course they will! No PRT subway means cars will have to be accommodated. The car culture has already infiltrated, with a CNG filling station being built (ibid.). No podium also means cars will be on the surface streets, disincentivizing walking and biking. Citywide public transit will also have to be on the surface, meaning some kind of bus or rail, which require rights of way. Again, bye-bye shaded streets. These design realities have now been confirmed, by Sultan al Jaber himself in remarks made to The National -- put simply, Masdar is turning to a privatized transportation solution, in order to cut costs associated with the public transit option.
The main threat cars pose to the future Masdar sustainability equation is that if electric cars are driven the same way ICE cars are driven, an enormous load will be put on the power grid -- a constantly increasing one, unless Masdar strictly limits the number of cars.

The dominant paradigm beats transit again.

Coverage:

Bloomberg
Trade Arabia
AFP

DailyFinance
The National: "Cars Replace Transport Pods"

The National: "vision unchanged," but "streets have been widened to carry more traffic"
Green Prophet: A big shrug from Masdar architect; project now "infamous"

Can it shake the failure meme?

Anyone who thought Masdar City was going to turn out perfectly was living in the kind of fantasyland the project's critics are now characterizing the ambitious 'eco city' project to be.

That said, it's amazing the degree to which it is so very easy for a recent wave of commentators to completely thrash this multibillion dollar sustainable technology experiment in the online press -- and with nary a whimper from the Masdar operation.

Just one well-placed negative story can be a nail in the coffin of an ambitious program, and for Masdar that item of sharpened hardware was September's "In Arabian Desert, a Sustainable City Rises," by New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff.

"Daring and noxious" is how Ouroussoff concludes just the third paragraph of his 1,800 word piece, and then likens Masdar City to the bane of urban planning, the gated community. Ourossoff then proceeds to imply Masdar won't get urban richness and texture until light rail arrives from Abu Dhabi City, and Abu Dhabi's class divisions will create a high end enclave -- versus ghettos (yes, Ourossoff uses that charged word) for everyone else.

The article ends with perhaps the most cutting metaphor: Ourossof turns Masdar City's 'podium' -- essentially a 'daylight basement' and engineering practicality -- into a PEDESTAL, raising Masdar and its version of sustainability "outside the reach of most of the world's citizens."

The response by the Masdar PR operation? Nada.

Ourossoff's lashing has been amplified in the succeeding weeks as the eco and green business media picked up on the story. Everyone loves it when the big ones fall.

This is not the first time Masdar has muffed precious media exposure. Last year they began talking about Masdar City as carbon neutral or almost neutral, instead of zero carbon/emissions.

And earlier this year was when Masdar allowed senior officials to put a knife in the car-free goal, when officials poo-poohed the PRT system while displaying no understanding of the concept, and opening the CNG station.

Masdar's PR silence has enabled these negative stories to become a meme -- Masdar City as already a failed experiment.

There are a lot of good projects going on at Masdar City. Regardless of whether the project as a whole winds up being sustainable, technologies like thin-film solar, concentrated solar, waste-to-energy, wind power, PRT, and more could be perfected and proven in everyday operation at Masdar, and then commercialized for widespread adoption. And who knows what kind of new ideas will come out of MIST.

Update: Waste-to-energy is out. So where are they putting the landfill?

And Masdar City continues to be a One Planet Living community, which commits the project to third-party sustainability principles, including social -- a big step forward for Abu Dhabi (TWIP, 5/6/09).

But because the failure meme is taking root, when anyone brings up green solutions developed at Masdar to activists, citizens, journalists and decisionmakers, the first response, the lazy response, is often going to be: Masdar -- I heard that failed.

BREAKING: Masdar won't be car-free

2010-10-10T14:00:00.001-07:00

We're sifting breaking news about the contents of the Masdar program's review of the Masdar City plan. Full rundown later today, stay tuned.

Masdar City backs away from major goal

2010-04-27T17:00:00.000-07:00

©MMX Get On Board!PRT NewsCenter

Already forced to reevaluate its construction plans due to the bad global real estate market, the Masdar Initiative has again signaled it is giving up on the goal of Masdar City being car-free.

Although committed to an autumn 2010 launch of the pilot Masdar Institute segment of the innovative Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) peoplemover, future construction of a PRT network across the entire city is now in doubt.

Fares Ghneim, Masdar communications chief, told the New York Times: "committing heavily to the PRT system might not make sense just as efficient new electric and hybrid vehicles are entering the marketplace," and said they would interfere with PRT.

Electric, hybrid or not, private automobiles are inherently unsustainable -- they have low occupancy, land and/or infrastructure must be devoted to parking, and they lead to congestion and accidents. Plus, hybrids burn fuel -- and just imagine the drain on Masdar's grid if everyone owned a plug-in EV.

In a March interview, another Masdar official used the same line about other vehicles interfering with PRT.

The whole advantage of the PRT was that it would make rapid transit-like service available to all parts of the city -- with a finite number of low-energy, automatic vehicles. But another Ghneim quote indicates he doesn't understand the PRT system, telling the Times hybrids and EVs would obscure PRT guidance magnets and confuse PRT sensors.

However, sources with knowledge of the Masdar PRT program tell PRT NewsCenter that the magnets and sensors can't be affected in that way.

In short, Masdar is signaling it is giving up on the car-free goal: it is making up excuses to not build citywide PRT to justify allowing cars into Masdar City.

How can Masdar be considered cutting edge, if it's not willing to innovate transportation, the biggest energy-using sector?

Previously: Changes at Masdar (3/17/2010)

Update: There is now a CNG filling station at Masdar City (5/26)

Changes at Masdar - Some perspective

2010-03-17T14:00:00.000-07:00

©MMX Get On Board!PRT NewsCenter

It's certainly been disappointing to read reports about a scaling back on objectives by the Masdar sustainable energy effort:

Clean transport not an easy move The National, UAE
Financial Woes Crimp Celebrated Middle East 'Green City' NY Times

But is it time to dismiss the whole undertaking as a failure? I think it's too early to tell. Here's what we know:

So far the news reports are based on comments by Alan Frost, manager of the Masdar property unit, including background that the Masdar City project will likely have a smaller footprint than originally planned, and build higher. A smaller, denser city may have less ability to create all its own energy, such as rooftop acreage for solar panels. This could explain why Masdar City may have to import power.
There is no indication one way or another that there are changes coming in Masdar's solar, wind, geothermal, or other energy projects elsewhere in the world. Therefore the funding of non-petroleum energy development -- the reason Abu Dhabi created Masdar in the first place -- is continuing unless we hear otherwise. While duplicating examples of these technologies at Masdar City could enable it to become energy sustainable, all that is really necessary is a showcase of each to demonstrate that the new technologies work under urban conditions; -- which doesn't even have to be done at Masdar City itself.
The Masdar Institute knows of no changes to its plans. This makes sense, since the science to be done there is the research meant to drive the commercial side -- tenants who will build facilities at Masdar to develop technologies based on the science. The Institute must continue to be supported, otherwise the business plan is undermined.
The already-iconic Masdar City PRT peoplemover may not serve the entire city. Frost's statements about PRT are actually rather ambiguous. He says PRT can't work at a "city-scale" -- based on what? Frost's perception that exclusivity of PRT guideways is a bad thing ("other electric vehicles would be excluded from the city") furthermore shows that he doesn't really 'get' the PRT concept (or possibly even the car-free goal).

According to a source of mine who is familiar with the Masdar PRT project, the real test of PRT service will occur after its initial phase serving the Institute opens in September 2010, and that the decision to go ahead with a city-wide system will be made based on that operational experience. My source says that the Masdar organization is still committed to that trial -- this is as of today.

In short, the testing hasn't been done yet that would enable Frost to make an informed decision, and therefore we have to see his statements about PRT as being his opinion. However, we have to acknowledge that if the city has a smaller footprint the eventual PRT network would also not be as large as originally planned.

And of course, a scaling back of Masdar City due to the global property market is not a reflection on the technical feasibility or service concept of PRT.

Update (3/18): The above information about the PRT status and strategy have been confirmed today by Robbert Lohmann, of the system manufacturer 2getthere, in this post at Transport-Innovators.

The Great Grocery Smackdown

2010-02-22T21:00:00.000-08:00

In the March edition of The Atlantic:

by Corby Kummer
photo by Eli Meir Kaplan
Buy my food at Walmart? No thanks... Then, last year, the market for organic milk started to go down along with the economy, and dairy farmers in Vermont and other states, who had made big investments in organic certification, began losing contracts and selling their farms. A guaranteed large buyer of organic milk began to look more attractive. And friends started telling me I needed to look seriously at Walmart’s efforts to sell sustainably raised food.
...

In the grocery section of the Raynham supercenter, 45 minutes south of Boston, I had trouble believing I was in a Walmart. The very reasonable-looking produce, most of it loose and nicely organized, was in black plastic bins (as in British supermarkets, where the look is common; the idea is to make the colors pop).
...
I started looking into how and why Walmart could be plausibly competing with Whole Foods, and found that its produce-buying had evolved beyond organics, to a virtually unknown program—one that could do more to encourage small and medium-size American farms than any number of well-meaning nonprofits, or the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with its new Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food campaign. Not even [Charles] Fishman, who has been closely tracking Walmart’s sustainability efforts, had heard of it. “They do a lot of good things they don’t talk about,” he offered.

Yes to East Link

2010-02-10T15:00:00.000-08:00

On KUOW's The Conversation for Wednesday, Dec. 12, Publicola editor Erica Barnett put on her list of under-reported stories for the year November's election of an "anti-light rail" slate to the Bellevue City Council: Don Davidson (Mayor), Conrad Lee (Deputy Mayor), Kevin Wallace, and Jennifer Robertson. Together the four comprise a majority on the seven member council. This presents a good opportunity to stake out some nuance in the area of Puget Sound personal rapid transit advocacy.

Ordinarily the light-rail-or-nothing segment of public transit supporters would lump PRT in with these new councilors. Key to the meme is the slate being backed by Kemper Freeman who, in the world of chat boards and comment threads, is the Snidley Whiplash of local transit because the car-loving developer is said to have been supportive of a University of Washington PRT study for the vicinity of his Bellevue properties.

That was 15 years ago. Today Freeman has zero involvement with PRT advocates in the Puget Sound region.

The way PRT is being approached today is as a complement other transit modes. True, many PRT advocates -- especially inventors with skin in the game -- have been known to paint grandiose visions of automated transit serving the whole of sprawling American cities. But that day is far, far off; the people planning PRT today are many of the same policy and engineering professionals responsible for our everyday bus and rail systems, not hardcore PRT advocates.

Thus, in this real world context, PRT could fill certain service or geographic niches without duplicating existing infrastructure investments. Even with PRT in the toolbox, the public policy priority for transit will continue to be the achievement of intermodality, balancing service with efficiency.

Because PRT is so flexible, and because our ultimate mission is to further the cause of transit, "Get On Board!PRT" endorses Sound Transit's East Link light rail corridor planning, including routing along 108th and 110th Avenue Northeast. We will support whatever final decision is made regarding at-grade or below grade alignment in that part of downtown Bellevue.

This month, the subject of Personal Rapid Transit has been broached in the Seattle Transit Blog in connection with their interview with Lee.

Lee's interest in PRT is vague as well as (if you palpate STB's editorial slant) apparently seeking to justify switching East Link to east of I-405, a shift dubbed the "Vision Line."

We cannot support Lee's very general idea about PRT, if he is using PRT as a way to justify the Vision Line.

The 2008 passage of Prop. 1 set East Link as a public policy and a multibillion dollar public investment, meaning there is going to be light rail on the Eastside. It is therefore paramount that East Link make the most of the investment, by directly serving the corridor's most popular and/or densest origins and destinations along the preferred alignment. For this reason we are also not enthusiastic about other alternatives on 114th NE or -- most horrifically -- through the Mercer Slough nature park.

No cable or canal-borne gondolas. No moving sidewalks, which are energy-wasteful because they must run all the time. And no PRT as a substitute for the downtown Bellevue alignment.

This does not mean PRT could not have some role to support East Link, which is clearly a commuter corridor. PRT's flexible network configuration could someday increase light rail ridership by acting as a collector-distributor, as well as providing local transit service.

As the PRT programs in Sweden and Masdar City make clear, there is no inherent incompatibility between PRT and conventional transit in the same service area, so long as their coexistence is planned to be complementary.

Elsewhere, we have suggested running light rail in a BART-like alignment in the I-90 corridor to North Bend, with PRT shuttling train riders to and from the route.

But that is just a suggestion and not part of the East Link plan. Sound Transit did not perform the PRT demonstration project named in the original 1996 Sound Move plan. Therefore the local design and planning that would be needed in order for PRT to be able to be part of any current Sound Transit project has not yet been performed. As the agency with purview on regional transit, any proposal to add PRT to the transit mix must occur within the Sound Transit planning system.

In addition, while there are several exciting PRT hardware programs abroad (ULTra, Vectus and 2getthere) it is not clear how soon those efforts will create a manufacturing base capable of providing a large urban or suburban system, and whether that capability will be reached within the time frame of East Link. And with certainty not if a U.S.-made PRT technology is desired.

PRT using an overseas technology could be ready in the short term to be implemented by forward-thinking private entities on the Eastside, in such applications as corporate campus circulation and Metro park & ride shuttles. ATS Ltd., maker of ULTra, has a U.S. office in Berkeley.

Real PRT is almost here. But barring something like a crash PRT program funded by the Recovery Act, it is still maybe 3-5 years too early for Puget Sound governments to contemplate PRT work other than planning efforts. Examples of planning efforts are the 1997 SeaTac study, and current projects in San Jose, CA and Ithaca, NY.

Updated Feb. 10, 2010

Welcome, Seattle Transit Blog Readers
See how our biggest critic got demolished at Democratic Underground

Malevolent energy cloud-beings praise Puget Sound cleanup report

2010-02-05T09:30:00.000-08:00

"Glass half-full. Of poison"

A new state report on the health of Puget Sound is eliciting praise from a local environmental advocacy group.

"Decline of Puget Sound good for Zan-Tor and other malevolent energy cloud-beings," said Zan-Tor, spokesbeing for the Seattle Environment, Water & Effluent Resources Coalition (SEWER Coalition).

The findings, found in the Puget Sound Partnership's first biennial report released Wednesday, shows overall slippage in the condition of the region's critical marine ecosystem. Partnership Executive Director David Dicks put a positive spin on the report, saying, "we are making progress."

"Many human environmentalists say Puget Sound glass half-empty. But malevolent energy cloud-beings agree with human David Dicks: glass half-full. Of poison," Zan-Tor said. Zan-Tor went on to say that what is important is that Puget Sound continues to be beautiful on the surface.

Although customarily feeding on malevolent energy generated by human hatred, fear and paranoia, Zan-Tor explained he and and others of his kind started consuming water pollutants a few month ago, after reading Michael Pollan's The Omniscient Entity's Dilemma.

"Zan-Tor recently discover yummy stormwater runoff, bisphenol-A, heavy metals, and flame retardants in seafood at Belltown nightspot," said Zan-Tor.

"Turn out Puget Sound water much healthier for Zan-Tor than high fat, high calorie Dittohead hate -- pollution lower bad cholesterol of Zan-Tor, and give Zan-Tor billowy coat," he said. However, he did say used Teabaggers continue to be good for tightening cloud-beings' saggy eyelids.

The SEWER Coalition also had good words for the Obama administration's Tuesday decision to cut by sixty percent its budget for Puget Sound cleanup.

"Less cleanup clearly mean good food supply for Zan-Tor," said Zan-Tor.

"Malevolent energy cloud-beings get plenty to eat, Zan-Tor not become part of endangered non-corporeal species."

Eco-city on show at energy summit

2010-01-21T10:21:00.000-08:00

The 2010 World Future Energy Summit came home to Abu Dhabi this week, and one of the well-attended press tours was the Masdar carbon neutral city being constructed outside the capital. The Cleantech Group, Greentech Media and Gulf News had the most interesting visual reports:

Cleantech Group

Offices of portables
This is most of Masdar City

Check your ICE at the door

Working water feature

Say, is that Wolf Blitzer?

The beam down stop

Stats incredible

Just don't walk under it...

Array of sunshine in the desert
Scaffolds and PV roof racks

Masara down with the PRT

Room for six seated

Magnets, you're grounded!

Private screening

Vaguely Tattoine?

Future breakthroughs someday?

Greentech Media
Articles

Gulf News

"Salish Sea" beats "Twitter" as Name of the Year

2010-01-13T08:30:00.000-08:00

From the Kitsap (WA) Sun:

The name "Salish Sea" has been chosen over "Twitter" as the American Name Society’s "Name of the Year." The Salish Sea is defined as the inland waterway in Washington and British Columbia that includes Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Strait of Georgia.

"I think it is significant because it is a brand new name," said Cleveland Evans, who conducted the competition for the American Name Society, an academic organization. "It fits ecological interests, being invented by a biologist. And it has a Native American connection, chosen from a name for a broad ethnic group..."

Read the rest

Nature photo of the day

2009-12-08T11:57:00.000-08:00

Icy windshield in Seattle

Is this how your city does Bike Lanes?

2009-10-22T08:30:00.000-07:00

Another great video from Streetfilms:

Anti-whaling effort picks up speed

2009-10-20T15:00:00.000-07:00

Fifty knots worth. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society today announced its acquisition of the Batboat-like Earthrace -- renaming it the Ady Gil, and announcing plans to use it as (what else) an interceptor.

More after the jump.

Other Coverage:

Oct. 7: The Force is strong with this one

Update: Ady Gil rammed, sunk Jan. 5, 2010

The problem was that it only looked armored. Weird update: Bethune, Watson trade accusations (10/7/10)

Carbon storage - how it could work

2009-10-02T10:30:00.000-07:00

Last year we had a good laugh at politicans who were saying America could be powered by "clean coal." What they were talking about, what they are still talking about, is carbon capture and storage (or sequestration). CO2 would be captured at the source, then -- disposed of. Somehow.

Of course this does nothing about the other part of the coal idiocy, the input side. The environmental disaster caused in the course of mining coal is enough by itself to take coal generated electricity off the table.

But coal is not the only source of manmade CO2, and from a practical standpoint it could be a long time until all these sources are eliminated.

Thus the interest in sequestration. But couldn't developing such technologies take some of the urgency out of converting economies to sustainable power? Yes, it could. But it's also possible that strong environmental policy plus availability of sequestration technology could get us to big GHG reductions sooner.

So what is the science behind carbon sequestration?

There are a number of competing concepts being studied, but they all involve mimicking natural processes. Soil, forests, grasses, oceans and algae all absorb or process CO2, some more quickly or effectively than others. For example, there is evidence saltwater marshes absorb more CO2 than equal areas of freshwater wetland (many of the latter also emit a lot of methane).

Another method is the focus of much interest: geologic sequestration. It is known that when CO2 contacts basalt rocks, a reaction occurs that causes the CO2 to mineralize, forming magnesium and calcite. Scientists think that massive amounts of CO2 can be injected into a field of fractured basalt, and that the CO2 would mineralize in 4-6 weeks.

At the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Dr. Pete McGrail (yes, he's heard all the Holy McGrail jokes) has been studying CO2-basalt reactions in the lab, and has designed an experiment to test it in the field. He plans to inject CO2 3000 feet into a large zone of basalt in the Columbia River Basin of central Washington. Geologic pressure will liquefy the CO2 (McGrail has found a greater reaction with liquefied CO2), which will mix with groundwater and then mineralize in reaction with basalt. Samples will be taken after 6-8 months and 1.5 years to measure how much CO2 has mineralized.

A different experiment is planned for Iceland. That country generates a lot of geothermal power, but doing that releases some CO2 from deep in the Earth. The experiment, "CarbFix," intends to capture that CO2, dissolve it in water, and inject it into basalt at a site in southwest Iceland.

Huge fields of basalt are present in places like Siberia and the Decca region of India.

Flood basalts and oceanic basalt fields (Short, N.M., in Remote Sensing Tutorial, sec. 17-3, Federation of American Scientists, 2005)

Links
The PNNL project
The Iceland project

Masdar goes downtown

2009-08-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

The Masdar carbon neutral city project in Abu Dhabi has chosen an astounding design for its downtown. The winner is Australia's innovative LAVA Architecture. Features include an outdoor plaza sheltered from the sun with umbrella-like structures that close at night, adaptive building facades, and roof gardens. LAVA animation

Article and more great illustrations at Architecture & Design

Puget Sound tribes work to cleanup derelict fishing gear

2009-08-24T16:00:00.000-07:00

Derelict fishing gear refers to lost and abandoned nets and traps that create hazards for marine-dependent life. The effort involves local conservation groups and Native American tribes, and is now getting federal stimulus funds. William Yardley's article is in today's New York Times.

It's a ginornous tragedy

2009-08-06T12:50:00.000-07:00

While you wouldn't think the health insurance reform debate ventures into green territory, a current experience of mine does exactly that.

• My health insurance company took away my choice of pharmacy. I usually go to a locally owned chain, but for one particular drug I need, my insurance made me choose between two national mail order pharmacies. This is being done for excellence in service and for your convenience, the letter read.
In reality I tried both companies -- one was incompetent and the other one involved a lengthy intake interview. Like they think they're my doctor. And they'll be calling me every month when I need a refill for another friendly chat. Yessss, much more excellent and convenient. With my regular, local pharmacy (which is located right down the street) I can call an automated refill line and be done in less than a minute.

• Of course the real reason my insurance has taken away my choice is because it saves money, i.e. it allows them to make more money (because it is one of the Blues, they put the money into their ginormous asset reserve and give their executives massive salaries).

• The green connection involves the way the mail order pharmacies send me my prescription: with massive amounts of styrofoam packaging. It has to be refrigerated, so what UPS drops on my porch is a massive box containing a ginormous styrofoam vault as well as gel cold packs.

• I get to throw all that packaging away. More precisely, I pay to throw it away, either via my local municipal trash pickup or by transporting it 23 miles to Ikea.

It's a clear, compelling example of The Tragedy of the Commons. My insurance company is saving money, savings physically represented by petroleum-based material that ends up in the landfill. The municipal recycling program doesn't take styrofoam, and the mail-order pharmacies don't offer the styrofoam mailback program.

Renewable Energy Agency Says No Nukes

2009-07-30T10:20:00.000-07:00

Good news for those following the formation of IRENA, the new International Renewable Energy Agency. Apparently responding to concerns that pro-nuclear ties of IRENA-host United Arab Emirates would taint the agency, IRENA chief Helene Pelosse has said her agency will not support nuclear projects due to waste and risks:

"IRENA will not support nuclear energy programmes because it's a long complicated process, it produces waste and is relatively risky," Helene Pelosse, director general of IRENA, told Reuters in a telephone interview from the French Alps.

IRENA, founded in January and now with 136 member countries, is aimed at supporting global development of renewable energy.

The governments of Gulf Arab countries have all expressed interest in developing nuclear power, leading to concern among analysts that a regional arms race would develop with Iran.

"Renewable energy is a better alternative and a faster, less expensive alternative, especially with countries blessed with so much sun for solar plants," Pelosse said.

Last month members of IRENA voted for the headquarters of the agency to be located in Abu Dhabi, capital of the UAE.

More

Seattle disposal bag fee - Aug. 18 Referendum

2009-07-28T11:00:00.000-07:00

Seattle's 20-cent per bag fee on paper and plastic must get past an August 18 ballot measure. The run-up to the vote pits environmentalists versus an out of town, chemical industry-funded campaign.

Correction Although the referendum was submitted by fee opponents, a Yes vote will let the fee stand.

To avoid the fee, shoppers need only bring their own bags when they shop.

Seattle hold-out house to become 'public'

2009-07-07T21:30:00.000-07:00

It was her home, an anti-corporate symbol, and then a tattoo. Now Edith Macefield's house in the Ballard neighborhood will become a kind of park (Seattle P-I):

The literal elevation refers to [real estate "coaching firm"] Reach Returns' plan to elevate the home to the height of the surrounding commercial building and create a two-level open space underneath. The open space would feature plantings and water features and be available to the public during business hours. People can pay $250 to $5,000 (depending on the size) for a tile on which they can write their credo, according to the Credo Square Web site. The tiles would then be installed on the site. The project is also charging $75 (for an individual or family) or $200 (for a company) to have names etched into a wall on the site.

= = = = =

Credo Square Update: Buyer has criminal history (+ links)

USA Joins IRENA

2009-06-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

Reuters:

U.S. joins International Renewable Energy Agency
Tue Jun 30, 2009 1:23am EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States joined the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) on Monday as part of the Obama administration's commitment to developing a new energy policy, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

IRENA was established in January to promote development of the renewable energy industry worldwide. To date, 135 nations have joined the global organization that will be headquartered in the United Arab Emirates.

"Our government's participation is an important element of the administration's effort to support clean energy technologies and the development of low carbon economies to address global climate change," Clinton said in a statement.

Clinton added that the new agency would help ensure that global resources are put to maximum effect, especially in response to the needs of the developing world.

(Reporting by Joanne Allen, editing by Anthony Boadle)

Masdar City to be IRENA HQ

SustainableBusiness.com:

06/30/2009 12:07 PM
International Renewable Energy Agency to Be Headquartered in UAE

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) created in January will be headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, according to Egypt's state news agency MENA.

UAE said it plans to house IRENA in Masdar City--the high-profile carbon neutral city currently under development. The headquarters are expected to be ready by 2011, and UAE said it would spend $136 million by 2015 to fund IRENA.

The decision was made by vote during a conference in Egypt, attended by 129 states.

According to reports, Austria and Germany withdrew their bids to host the Agency's main headquarters, prior to the vote. However, IRENA's innovation and technology center will be located in Bonn, Germany and an office for contacts to the U.N. will be created in Vienna, Austria.

IRENA was created to promote rapid and widespread adoption of renewable energy. It has 114 member state.

Website: www.irena.org

Seattle creek sees daylight again

2009-06-19T20:28:00.000-07:00

A new smart growth development next to Seattle's Northgate Mall has replaced a parking lot -- and exposed the headwaters of Thornton Creek to the light of day for the first time decades.

Before

After

Careful restoration means healthier water quality and fish habitat downstream.

Article: Thornton Creek breathes again at Northgate -- The nearly 12-square-mile Thornton Creek watershed is the largest in Seattle and Shoreline, and about 67,000 people live in homes that send pollutants into the watershed. Coho salmon have been seen in the creek and Mahler recently saw a cutthroat trout in the stream behind his Northgate home.

Clean Water Restoration Act goes to full Senate

2009-06-19T16:30:00.000-07:00

On a 12-7 vote, the Environment and Public Works Committee on Thursday approved a version of the Clean Water Restoration Act, S. 787. If it becomes law, one of the more useful changes is the clarification of the federal government's regulatory jurisdiction, by replacing the term "navigable waters" with "waters of the United States." So-called 'property rights' activists have questioned the old language in order to attack protections for wetlands and small bodies of water.

In news relating to the non-wet part of the biosphere, the House Appropriations Committee approved an EPA funding bill that bars spending, from any legislation, that would make factory farms report greenhouse gas emissions as part of the Clean Air Act. Even though the rule would only apply to the biggest livestock operations, agri groups fear it could lead to EPA regulations or fees on methane from animals. Even though EPA says it has no plans to go that far.

Bike accident, hazard & theft report database using G-Maps

2009-06-09T00:42:00.000-07:00

Ever had a bike accident, hit a pothole or -- the worst -- had your ride stolen? Now there's a new place to report and map these incidents: Bikewise, from the people at Seattle's Cascade Bicycle Club.

Is there a particular pothole that has annoyed you for months, but it doesn't get fixed? Channel your frustration! Go into Bikewise's Hazard section (after setting up an account, naturally) and click on Report A Hazard. The simple 4-step process allows you to describe the problem, then locate it in the familiar Google Maps interface.

And how cool is this: because it's Google Maps, you can report a cycling hazard you encounter anywhere in the world.

You can also report crashes (5 steps) and thefts (4steps). There is also a place in your account profile for registering your bike(s).

A database like Bikewise has obvious uses for pro-bike advocates seeking to pressure The Authorities to create, maintain and improve bicycle facilities. But a database need datapoints, so the more people who use it in each geographic area, the better.

Tonight - "Whale Wars" Season 2 premiere

2009-06-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

Whether you find them inspiring or annoying (or both), the Sea Shepherds are back chasing the Japanese whalers for another season on Animal Planet. Tonight at 9 ET/PT:

Also: Seattle-area man saves the ship

Tell the White House to join IRENA

2009-06-03T14:00:00.000-07:00

What individuals do in their daily lives is important to the goal of creating a sustainable world. We're all consumers, and our choices can signal companies that we want organic food, green products and green manufacturing. But national policies create such signals that have the force of law.

There is a need for the entire planet to adopt renewable energy, not only the major industrialized nations. It makes little sense to go to sustainable energy in the G20 countries, only to replace it with fossil fuels used by the developing world. Yet renewables are expensive and new technology which developing countries can't always afford -- or find uneconomical due to cheap nonrenewables.

That's why there is an organization called the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), founded in January of this year.

"IRENA aspires to become the main driving force for promoting a rapid transition towards the widespread and sustainable use of renewable energy on a global scale. As the global voice for renewable energies, IRENA envisages providing practical advice and support for both industrialised and developing countries, thereby helping to improve frameworks and build capacity. Moreover, the Agency intends to facilitate access to all relevant information, including reliable data on the potentials for renewable energy, best practices, effective financial mechanisms, and state-of-the-art technological expertise."

There are currently 83 nations that are signatories to the IRENA Statute.

But most of the world's biggest energy-consuming nations are missing from the list. Russia, China, and the UK are vamping, as is Brazil, which is busily eradicating its rain forests. Canada and Mexico aren't members. And neither is the United States -- IRENA launched only days after President Obama's inauguration. Bush refused to join.

There are a number of policy reasons the US should join IRENA.

IRENA counterbalances the International Atomic Energy Agency, which some European officials say favors fossil fuels
US membership could prompt the procrastinator countries to join. And we need to go to the next step beyond Kyoto, which would only have reduced carbon emissions by 6% of what is needed.
The US needs to move faster on renewables itself. A treaty obligation, IRENA's future roadmap would give the US much-needed structure on renewable energy, and a timetable for implementation

Overseas observers knowledgeable about energy policy think the Obama-led US will join. But as we have seen, domestic political resistance from the minority Republicans and the energy industry makes it difficult for him to make progress on a variety of issues.

So we need to give them a push. Write the White House and your senators (they approve treaties) and tell them to act on US membership in IRENA.

US Senators

The White House

Sighting: Orca "J2" is nearly a century old

2009-05-22T15:00:00.001-07:00

Read this most interesting post at the Seattle P-I.

Sighting: Orca "J2" is nearly a century old

2009-05-22T15:00:00.000-07:00

Read this most interesting post at the Seattle P-I.

Watch the finches

2009-05-21T17:36:00.000-07:00

Daylight hours, Pacific time.

Supposedly they could start flight training at any time.

I heard about this on the radio show Clout.

Masdar City and the World Wildlife Fund

2009-05-06T21:00:00.000-07:00

The Masdar eco-city endeavor in Abu Dhabi is a participant in One Planet Living, a project of World Wildlife Fund and the sustainability group BioRegional.

Being a partner in One Planet Living means the Masdar City project has agreed to apply ecological footprinting and these ten sustainability principles:

Zero Carbon: Net CO2 emissions of zero. Energy efficient buildings and infrastructure; energy from on- and off-site renewables.

Zero Waste: Eliminate waste flows to landfills and incineration. Reduce waste generation through improved design; encourage re-use, recycling and composting; generate clean energy from waste; make no-waste part of the definition of resource efficiency.
Sustainable Transport: Reduce reliance on private vehicles; achieve major reductions of CO2 emissions from transportation. Provide transport systems and infrastructure that reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Offset carbon emissions from air travel and perhaps car travel. Local and Sustainable Materials: Transform materials supply to the point of net positive impact on the environment and local economy. Where possible, use local, reclaimed, renewable and recycled materials in construction and products. Local and Sustainable Food: Transform food supply to the point of net positive impact on the environment, local economy and human well-being. Local and low impact food production that provides healthy, quality food boosting the local economy in an environmentally beneficial manner; low-impact packaging, processing and disposal; highlight benefits of a low-impact diet.

Sustainable Water: Achieve a positive impact on local water resources and supply. Implement water use efficiency measures, re-use and recycling; minimize water extraction and pollution; foster sustainable water and sewage management in the landscape; restore natural water cycles.

Natural Habitats and Wildlife: Regenerate degraded environments and halt biodiversity loss. Protect or regenerate existing natural environments and fauna and flora habitats; create new habitats.

Culture and Heritage: Protect and build on local cultural heritage and diversity. Celebrate and revive cultural heritage and the sense of local and regional identity; new structures and systems that build on this heritage; foster a new culture of sustainability.

Equity and Fair Trade: Ensure that the community's impact on other communities is positive. Promote equity and fair trading relationships to ensure beneficial impacts both locally and globally, notably disadvantaged communities.

Health and Happiness: Increase health and quality of life of community members and others. Promote healthy lifestyles and physical, mental & spiritual well-being through well-designed structures and community engagement, as well as delivering on social and environmental targets.

Masdar is acting to follow these principles by doing several things at once: Pure innovation (e.g. carbon capture, personal rapid transit); expanding existing but less-used technologies (e.g. waste-to-energy, thin film solar); applying proven technology (e.g. wind power, intercity Light Rail Transit); basic research and development (e.g. Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, partnership with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, commercial tenants).

No country is perfect, and Abu Dhabi is one of them. Diplomatic and political engagement are two fronts that will help bring the Emirates toward democracy. Instead of hoping they fail, Masdar should be seen as an example of international economic and environmental engagement, a step in the right direction.

It is a $22 billion investment in moving Abu Dhabi away from an oil based economy and is nothing to be sneered at. Especially if it proves and produces technologies that can benefit the entire planet.

Addenda:

Debunking claim at MN2020 that PRT blocked 1970s rail projects

Masdar PRT 13-vehicle order is only the initial phase

Debunking Frog/Rotterdam bankruptcy claim

Morgantown PRT: original Daily Kos comment thread

How opponents of innovation use Conspiracy claims against projects like the Masdar PRT

"Torture Sheik": original Daily Kos comment thread

Masdar photos at Flickr

Creative Energy!

2009-05-05T12:30:00.000-07:00

Art has always been a great vehicle for getting people to think about important issues. So imagine your community creating public art that also generates electricity. That's the idea behind the Land Art Generator Initiative.

LAGI is an international group of artists, architects, scientists, and engineers who are partnering to create environmental art installations that produce clean electricity for the grid, as well as aesthetic beauty. The project is working in the United Arab Emirates, as part of that country's interest in moving away from a petroleum-based economy.

LAGI is talking about enough power from each installation to supply 50,000 homes. Certainly modern wind turbines have a certain sculptural beauty, and solar farms can be seen as cubist, but LAGI's ambitions run to earthwork installations, something of monumental proportions. Storm King and the works of Robert Smithson and Walter de Maria are the scale of projects they are shooting for.

Storm King Wavefield by Maya Lin

Smithson's Spiral Jetty

de Maria's Lightning Field

I can't wait to see the projects they choose. The competition will open this fall, with selections by the end of 2010.

Video: Art in Dubai: Land Art Generator Initiative (Tavis Smiley Show)

Preview Heathrow's new surface transit technology

2009-04-26T14:00:00.000-07:00

These are some of the videos from the "PRT@LHR" (Personal Rapid Transit at London Heathrow) conference, which was held April 21-23. The Heathrow "Urban Light Transport" (ULTra) system is the first in the new-generation of automated transit technologies; it is similar to the transit system planned for Masdar City in Abu Dhabi.

The airport plans to expand ULTra to provide point-to-point, electric transit between all the terminals as well as adjoining hotels. (All the videos are here. Note some of the videos below are being re-edited.)

For background see my website.

Important marine conservation report coming to Frontline

2009-04-15T17:00:00.000-07:00

"Poisoned Waters," a new documentary coming to PBS Frontline on April 21, looks at endangered Puget Sound and Chesapeake Bay more than 30 years after the passage of the Clean Water Act.

Excerpts

Hopefully this program will call attention to the main culprit: the polluters is us. The communities have short term economic interests in not cleaning up these important waterways, and we may have delayed just long enough to make the damage irreversible.

UPDATE (4/22): Did you catch the show? Watch it here!

Rrrrowrrr!

2009-04-08T15:30:00.000-07:00

What do we think of the PUMA, from GM and Segway?

NY Times story
ABC News video

I am particularly impressed by the tie-in with OnStar as a "v2v" (vehicle to vehicle) control system. To my mind, this makes the long-term PUMA concept doable, something more than a splashy gimmick that will magically disappear once GM gets its bailout money.

While not public transit, I believe Neighborhood Electric Vehicles don't require licenses to operate, so it lowers one access barrier to better transportation. I could easily see local transit agencies contracting to rent fleets of PUMAs to expand rail station ridersheds.

The major hurdle PUMA has to overcome is how they will safely mix in traffic with regular automobiles. I wonder if they could be so popular that onstreet bike lanes would have to be converted to Bike/PUMA lanes.

Tattoo parlor honors woman who resisted

2009-03-26T21:30:00.000-07:00

Remember Edith Macefield of Seattle, who wouldn't budge when developers wanted her home for part of a Trader Joe's?

A business in the neighborhood has created a unique product in her honor. Link

MIT's CityCar project

2009-03-17T11:00:00.000-07:00

Proposed for an unidentified Asian city. Read about it at the Boston Globe.

Another great 'Clean Coal' spoof

2009-02-27T09:01:00.000-08:00

This one from Joel and Ethan Cohen for the Reality Campaign:

More on Masdar

2009-02-24T10:54:00.000-08:00

Check out this new article on Masdar in the March/April edition of MIT Technology Review. After a couple years of expansive conceptual descriptions and media speculation, this article serves as a good status report on what the Masdar City program is hoping to accomplish, and how it's going about achieving it. Representative clip:

...many experts are optimistic that the city can become a test bed for new approaches to the engineering and architectural problems involved in creating environmentally sustainable cities. Although architects have already designed and builders constructed many small zero-emissions residences and commercial buildings, projects involving large, multi-use commercial buildings have fallen short of expectations, using too much energy or failing to generate enough.
Part of the problem is the growing complexity that comes with scale, says J. Michael McQuade, senior vice president of science and technology at United Technologies in Hartford, CT; today's design software hasn't been able to handle it. But Masdar City, itself developed with the help of extensive modeling, will be wired from the beginning to collect data that could prove valuable for developing better models. That information could make future zero-emissions cities cheaper and easier to build.

And the development is meant to make money, not just introduce new technology. "We want Masdar City to be profitable, not just a sunk cost," said Khaled Awad, the project's director of property development, at a huge real-estate exhibition in Dubai last fall. "If it is not profitable as a real-estate development, it is not sustainable." Yet if it is, it may be replicable.

. . .

much of what's learned from Masdar won't apply outside the incredibly hot and sunny coast of the Persian Gulf. A site in Germany, which wouldn't get as much sunlight, couldn't rely as heavily on solar energy. A site in San Francisco might not need air conditioning, making information about advanced cooling systems less relevant. But if the project reaches its environmental goals, it will at the very least show that such cities can be built. "People say, 'Gee, that would be great. That would be a good idea, but obviously it's not possible,'" Friend says. "Once you can point at something, it takes away a lot of those arguments."

Alternative energy - why is the US so timid?

2009-02-18T16:30:00.000-08:00

The rest of the world is moving ahead with lowering carbon footprints. My favorite is Abu Dhabi's Masdar, the planned zero carbon, zero waste city project. Cost: $20-ish billion. Construction on the city's first phase and its massive solar farm is well underway.

Yesterday President Obama went to Denver to visit a solar panel installation at their Museum of Nature & Science.

Wow.

The difference was so stark that on his daily Air America online show, pundit Marc Maron remarked that Obama ought to have gone to Abu Dhabi instead of Denver:

"Break Room Live" 2/17/09

So how about it -- why is America so timid on alternative energy? Is it entrenched interests? Severe aversion to "risk"? Our focus on short-term profit? Should Obama appoint a Secretary of Innovation?

Clean Coal: This is Reality

2009-01-19T11:30:00.000-08:00

Paper from poop

2009-01-08T22:00:00.000-08:00

The hands-down Most Interesting item we received over the holidays was nice (really nice) quality paper made from:

That's right. Elephant poop.

The Great Elephant Poo Poo Paper Company Ltd. takes real elephant poop and removes the mushy parts, which leaves only fiber. Elephants eat a lot of fiber. They then turn the fiber into paper using a fairly familiar hand-made process.

The result is a nicely textured paper that would do well as personal stationery, formal invitation inserts, and thank you notes (although I wouldn't treat it roughly, a felt or inkwell pen might be best). And it smells like paper.

Let's hope the company's fiber supply never runs out.

Tis the material and nonmaterial season

2008-12-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

Everyone's talking about cutting back on holiday shopping, which is good for the soul. But for the economy? Not so much. In my household we're doing our best to stretch our gift dollar by doing most of our shopping at Seattle's Archie McPhee, home of the Freud Action Figure and The Cubes.

Another area where a lot of people are worried about cutbacks is gifts to charity. Philanthropic professional groups and journals are trying to reassure charities about the bad economy. The conventional wisdom is that people find a way to keep giving to charities, and some experts say giving tends to stay flat during recessions. I'm not so sure this is an accurate picture; 'surveys of the field' reflect averages. I don't see how every charity sectors can avoid reduced contributions, especially those reliant on foundations whose investment portfolios have taken it in the shorts.

I think it's more likely that people reduce their overall charitable giving in order to support their favorite groups.

The last few years I've been trying to combine giving of presents and giving to charity. A few years ago we gave in friends' and families' names to Heifer, a terrific nonprofit that purchases livestock for people in the developing world.

A newer effort based in Seattle, maybe there are ones like it in your town, offers an opportunity for you to underwrite your friends' and families' philanthropy, and switch your scarce dollars from gifting to giving.

It's called Tis Best Charity Card, and they started last year. It works like a gift card. But instead of Home Depot or the iTunes Store, the cardholder 'spends' their dollars with the huge list of charities registered on the Tis Best website. You can even personalize the charity card with your own artwork or photo.

Tis Best is an IRS-registered nonprofit, so the cards are tax deductible. Unlike the Human Fund.

Germs

2008-12-06T20:30:00.000-08:00

November, for all the joy the presidential election brought, ended up being lost time for me. I spent much of it flat on my back with pneumonia.

Based on average incubation times, I figure the nasty little bacteria took up residence in my lungs on or about Halloween. A big reason for the lengthy recovery was that it wasn't until the second week that I stopped treating it as the flu, and got my hands on some serious antibiotics.

I spent the second week musing about how and where I picked up the bacteria. The odds were pretty low that it happened at home. Not that I'm a cleanfreak -- my partner used to be a surgical assistant and workplace OSHA supervisor. She set up some simple procedures around the house that allow us to easily avoid things like cross-contamination in the kitchen.

Able to focus on my world away from home, I narrowed my list of likely culprits to two: the office, and the bus to and from the office.

The Bus.

This is urban society's big mixing zone, which for some is one of the tertiary purposes of mass transit. People from different walks of life getting together in one equal place, all on the same level, rubbing elbows. Which is the problem! The handrails and seats can get filthy, and sometimes you have no choice but to touch them. We breathe on each other. And the high gas prices made everything worse, with more people and their germs packed onto rush hour coaches.

The Office.

I am not picking on transit. The workplace is just as big of a petri dish. Where I work we're all whale huggers and tree huggers. Chemicals are a no-no. In order to avoid using paper and plastic, we share the same cloth towels in the office kitchen, we wash (with the same sponge) coffee mugs instead of using paper cups, and we try to use regular plates and bowls. Communal spaces being what they are, the usual problems arise: dirty dishes pile up in the sink, and coffee pots don't get washed. For some reason, our cleaning service rarely cleans the sink and counters.

The restroom defies hygiene logic. The management installed one of those no-touch dispensers that spits out a paper towel when you wave your hand in front of its red eye. Only we still have to touch the flush handles, the water faucets and doorknobs.

Other than door handles, these are the primary vectors of infection in my life.

What's problematic is that taking transit and using less paper and plastic are behaviors we are supposed to be encouraging more of. I don't know about you, but I would rather not go through life rubbing my hands umpteen times a day with Purel. It doesn't sound like a way to live.

The challenge seems to be how environmental and sustainability advocates can overcome the reality that as a species we can't seem to help being dirty.

And I want to see some innovation. You know those self-cleaning windows? They use a photocatalytic coating to oxidize and loosen dirt. Why not something like that we can paint on handles and surfaces that will kill germs? Such passive technologies will be necessary as we move forward into an era of high-density living and fewer chemicals.

Let's hope by that time there will be universal single payer health insurance to take of all those future pneumonia sufferers.

Must-See TV

2008-11-04T13:00:00.000-08:00

I'm quite excited that Sea Shepherd, the anti-whaling direct action group (based up the road and a ferry ride away, in Friday Harbor, WA), is the subject of "Whale Wars," a new seven-part series on Animal Planet. Tune in starting this Friday.

Now go out and vote (Americans)!

An opportunity for cleaner water AND walkability

2008-10-14T19:00:00.000-07:00

A victory for Puget Sound environmentalists contains possibilities for far-reaching changes in controlling stormwater, one of the main sources of Puget Sound water pollution, as well as improving conditions for pedestrians in Seattle.

The victory is a recent ruling by Washington's Pollution Control Hearings Board, regarding a suit by environmentalists on the inadequacy of the National Pollutant Discharge Emission System. Among other things, NPDES regulates municipal and industrial stormwater discharges.

Washington is one of the states which has received federal permission to self-administer NPDES.
Our Department of Ecology is the responsible agency, and frankly they are not living up to their duty:

* Low impact development techniques are not required to control stormwater, Ecology merely suggests jurisdictions try alternative control methods

* Ecology has created 'mixing zones' around pollutant discharge points in Puget Sound, where pollution above legal limits is allowed prior to being diluted in open water -- a concept not found in the Clean Water Act.

* Permits are supposed to be revised every 5 years, but it has been 15 years since the last revision.

The PCHB agreed with environmentalists that Ecology's regulations are inadequate -- and directed they be rewritten to require low impact development techniques for new development.

This leaves out the whole issue of retrofitting -- making existing development low impact as well. Low impact techniques for new development merely lessens the rate at which stormwater increases, the total discharge continues to rise. PCHB has separated new development from retrofitting because the latter will be a highly contentious and expensive process, and why not put off what you can do today.

Ironically, a low impact best practice is on display right here in Seattle. Called Street Edge Alternative (SEA) Streets, it chiefly involves sidewalks made from permeable material, and bioswales (aka 'rain gardens') to naturally filter runoff.

SEA Streets has brought enormous benefits to the Broadview community where it was piloted. Runoff has been reduce 99%, helping protect nearby Pipers Creek, which flows into Puget Sound. The streets are curvy, reducing traffic speeds. The bioswales are attractive steps up from drainage ditches, creating a lush and verdant streetscape -- as well as separating traffic from the new water-permeable sidewalks. Broadview is one of the many areas that didn't get sidewalks after annexation to Seattle, so SEA Streets has improved basic walkability and pedestrian safety.

SEA Streets is a best practice, but in terms of effectiveness the program is a nonentity. Because after constructing the SEA Streets demonstration in 2001, Seattle has declined to apply the method across the city. The project exists as an amenity for Broadview, a field trip for visiting planners, and a URL for sustainability bloggers. But otherwise SEA Streets is in limbo, a pilot project that has not received wider implementation.

A large part of the problem is the transportation funding formula didn't change. In Seattle, general funds pay for the street in front of your home, but sidewalks are funded through scarce grants and by billing the homeowner, as though sidewalks are private property. At current funding levels, it could take 100 years to finish the sidewalk network.

Here's where the stormwater ruling meets pedestrian infrastructure. It might be possible community activists can use the former to leverage the latter.

The key is the retrofitting issue. While the PCHB has put off retrofitting to the next round of permittting, supposedly in five years, activists need to start be writing Ecology about it now. By letting the state know how important it is to act on retrofitting, the more likely the issue will be taken up in a timely manner.

If the regulations are rewritten to require low impact retrofitting in the Class One cities (populations greater than 20,000 -- the ones that create the most polluted stormwater), those cities become legally obligated to come up with a retrofitting strategy, designs, and an implementation and funding plan. SEA Streets would complete the pedestrian infrastructure where needed, and elements of SEA Streets applied citywide would lead to huge reductions in polluted runoff.

Link: Toxic Runoff - Silent Killer

Bye Bye, Black(faced) Sheep

2008-09-30T11:00:00.000-07:00

Restoring the natural environment around a landmark means foodie sacrifice

Mont Saint Michel -- St. Michael's Mount in anglais -- is one of the coolest places in the world, a medieval abbey that to the eye seems to grow from a rock that juts out of the sand on the coast of France.

In the old days the Mount would be cut off from the mainland at high tide, the water even covering the road. It was a major destination for Christian pilgrims, who would take the road or a risky walk across the sand from the east at low tide. In the modern era a causeway was built, allowing tourist-bearing cars and buses to drive to the base of the Mount.

But the causeway hampers the tidal action, so over the years the Bay of Saint Michel (it's the mouth of the Couesnon River) has silted-in. This has created areas within the tidelands that are now rarely covered by the tide. These areas have become meadows.

Because the Mount is a UNESCO World Heritage site, as well as the #1 tourist attraction in France, a project is being planned to restore the bay and tidelands. The causeway will be replaced with a bridge that will allow water to flow underneath and get the natural flushing action going again.

Unfortunately this means we are going to say goodbye to a particular delicacy: the Bay of Saint Michel sheep.

The silt-meadows grow grass that is naturally salty due to the seawater. Shepherds graze sheep on it, and as a result the resulting lamb tastes naturally salty. This lamb -- agneau de pré salé -- has become a highly prized dining experience.

Junk food has given salt a bad name. Fritos are salty. The flavor of Saint Michel lamb is mild, and the salinity complex like the different kinds of gourmet seasalts you find in the stores these days.

But because of the causeway replacement project agneau de pré salé is becoming rare. The sheep farmers know it means the silt meadows will be washed away, and so are getting out of the business. Supplies are shrinking, and prices are going up. One day, Mont Saint Michel's intertidal ecosystem will be restored, but the sheep, a happy accident of man's interference, will be elsewhere. Just regular-tasting sheep.

Solar energy - Storage breakthrough at MIT?

2008-08-29T07:30:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder how we can make solar energy available at night? Batteries are too expensive and inefficient, so until now people have been proposing beaming power down from collectors in orbit, where the sun always shines. Also expensive.

So it's exciting to read about a potential breakthrough at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the project leader says it's easy and cheap:

Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials, this discovery could unlock the most potent, carbon-free energy source of all: the sun. "This is the nirvana of what we've been talking about for years," said MIT's Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT and senior author of a paper describing the work in the July 31 issue of Science. "Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon." Inspired by the photosynthesis performed by plants, Nocera and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera's lab, have developed an unprecedented process that will allow the sun's energy to be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later, the oxygen and hydrogen may be recombined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power your house or your electric car, day or night.

The key component in Nocera and Kanan's new process is a new catalyst that produces oxygen gas from water; another catalyst produces valuable hydrogen gas. The new catalyst consists of cobalt metal, phosphate and an electrode, placed in water. When electricity -- whether from a photovoltaic cell, a wind turbine or any other source -- runs through the electrode, the cobalt and phosphate form a thin film on the electrode, and oxygen gas is produced.

Combined with another catalyst, such as platinum, that can produce hydrogen gas from water, the system can duplicate the water splitting reaction that occurs during photosynthesis.

The new catalyst works at room temperature, in neutral pH water, and it's easy to set up, Nocera said. "That's why I know this is going to work. It's so easy to implement," he said. Source

Sometimes you read about 'breakthroughs,' but they sound a little too Out There and they quickly vanish into obscurity. In this case, I find it exciting that MIT is already part of the Masdar Project. The Nocera innovation could be on a fast-track to development.

Plastic oh no ban, industry says

2008-08-28T10:00:00.000-07:00

Don't celebrate the Seattle 20¢ plastic bag fee/styrofoam ban just yet, canvassers are gathering signatures on a petition that would put a bag fee repeal on the November ballot.

Who could possibly want a repeal of the fee? Why, the plastics industry. Of course, they call it a tax:

"This tax was opposed by a broad spectrum of citizens and stakeholders as unnecessary and placing an unfair financial burden on Seattle's working families," coalition spokesman George Griffin said. He said the group plans to turn in additional signatures later in the week. Local environmental groups were stunned by the army of signature gatherers planted in the front of Seattle grocery stores, a preview of the powerful industry behind the ubiquitous plastic grocery bag. The American Chemistry Council, the lobbying arm of the plastics industry, has funded most of the coalition's costs -- including signature gatherers and a Web site -- said Griffin, a public relations consultant contracted by Arlington-based council. "I thought this was going to be a local waste-reduction effort, and it turns out that we are going head-to-head with these monsters of industry, these guys are crippling our efforts to clean up our environment," said Ellie Rose, a member of the Seattle group Bring Your Own Bag. Source

And they're also trying to muddy the issue.

Some Seattle shoppers are already feeling confused by the tug of war. Cindy Todo, a West Seattle grocery shopper, takes her own bags to the store. She said she signed the petition after being told it was to outlaw plastic bags. Later, another signature gatherer told her the petition was to put the issue on the ballot. "Now I am almost totally confused about what is going on," she said.

. . .

Cities around the country are watching Seattle to see what happens next.

Brady Montz, chairman of the Sierra Club's Seattle group, said they are ready to wade into the battle.

"For the Sierra Club, this is an important issue this year. Next year, it will be a very important issue," Montz said.

"These laws happened because there was this huge, amazing grass-roots support for it," he said. "Having the American Chemistry Council come in and try to buy their way out of it is distressing. The only interest of the plastic company is to see how many plastic bags they can sell at the stores."

One blogger notes one piece of disinformation, which claims the ban will actually benefit the plastics industry.

We'll know in the next couple of days whether this pro-pollution referendum will get on the ballot. Although even if it does, I'm not especially worried; the presidential race is at the top of the ballot, and the last time Seattle voted for Kerry at about 70%.

Stuff I noticed in France

2008-08-18T16:00:00.000-07:00

It's good to be home, lame attempts by Danny Westneat to whip up a tax revolt in Seattle notwithstanding. I see America continues to be economically bloodied yet unbowed.

Nonetheless, having had two weeks to see the land of Binoche, escargot and Sarkozy up close and personal, I have to say that France has it all over America in many important ways.

Cityscape. Tired of high speed, high volume traffic in city neighborhoods and on arterials? Then stop facilitating it! France has expanded its freeways, but retains the traditional configurations of its surface streets in cities and villages. Even N and D highways (analagous to U.S. and State Highways) twist and turn along historical routes that wind through picturesque villages -- sometimes retaining chokepoints where oncoming cars have to yield to each other. Horsedrawn carriages dealt with it, why should cars have an easier time? The results are streets that are safe for walking and crossing, whether a crowded street in Paris or a tiny village main street that doubles as a 40-45 mph intercity route. In Seattle, concerns over pedestrian safety have been stymied for years by stubborn official adherence to national street and highway design standards that were designed decades ago to facilitate driving. So when the city DOT is asked to make a street "safer," it usually involves making things easier for cars, and not causing them delay. Driving is catered to, cars continue to be king, pedestrians continue to be struck.

A separated bike lane runs alongside the N10 highway in Luisant, outside Chartres

American cities need to learn they can't stimulate construction of transit oriented communities, inadequately fund transit, and continue to provide wide, high-capacity roads. People aren't going to make long term changes in their transportation habits just because gas prices go up; they will drive a little less, but they will still drive when they have no adequate alternative.

French drivers are not more (or less) polite than Americans, but they are safer. French drivers always yield to pedestrians, even jaywalking (which I'm not sure is a civil offense in France), and they stop for yellow lights. A new law going into effect later this year requires motorists to carry fluorescent safety vests, which are to be worn in the event of a breakdown -- safer when on a highway, and makes it clear that you need help.

I didn't see any hybrid cars. But I did see a handful of Neighborhood Electric Vehicles and, of course, tons of tiny city cars. I suspect France is singlehandedly keeping Smart in business.

Transit. Paris didn't screw around when it came to the Metro. The famed underground system is not limited to just a few corridors, instead crisscrossing the city, reaching out to every district. There seem to be stations every few blocks, in every arrondisement.

Talk that Bus Rapid Transit can't work because we can't afford to build more lanes is just a surrender to the automobile (see Cityscape, above). In Paris, many 4 and 6-lane avenues cede a lane in each direction to the bus -- the message is: the bus has higher priority than you and your single-occupancy vehicle, get on the bus or get used to it.

Better and prioritized transit is one way France keeps cars under control. Another, new way is the rental bike. A government initiative has placed a huge number of bike rental stations all over Paris. Every couple of blocks there is a rack where one or two dozen gray "Velib" bikes are electronically locked. Check one out via the ATM-like pay station, and off you go. Parisians of all stripes are riding these bikes to get to work, school and nights on the town. Tourists are using them too. And the best part? It looks like the government didn't spend years planning and discussing until they were blue in the face, and this isn't a modest pilot project. They simply did it. Now Velib stations are pervasive in Paris.

Consumer goods and services. You think the Green trend is getting exposure in America? You haven't seen France, where Bionaturale, or "Bio" is everywhere, even at little B&Bs. Hotels are doing laundry without bleach, and the result is that the sheets smell great. Not to say that they don't have megastores. One, Carrefour, bears an uncanny resemblance to Wal Mart. But I don't think you can get pate-en-croute at Wal Mart.

Diet. There is a noticeable lack of obesity among the French. The food is delicious but not rich, it is served in small portions, and in between meals they stop eating. Meals are savored, not wolfed down, and a social occasion where any subject, great or small, can be discussed, argued, discussed again, and drunk to (see Calvados, below). Like consumer products, Bio is everywhere on menus and in supermarkets. Sadly, there are a large number of McDonalds in France; we learned from a tour guide the French refer to McDonalds as 'the U.S. Embassy.' Even sadder -- that most French think that's how Americans eat all the time.

Calvados. This is a brandy made from Normandy apples and often ordered as an after dinner drink. Having tried it a number of times during the last two weeks, my life will now never be the same.

Photos: This Week in Precipitation goes to France

Paper nor plastic? - Part Deux

2008-07-28T16:30:00.000-07:00

The Seattle City Council today approved the measure imposing a 20 cent fee on plastic and paper shopping bags, to encourage the adoption of reusable bags. The council also passed a ban on use of foam containers by businesses that serve food.

The City will distribute reusable bags, and the per-bag fee will start in January 2009. Then the choice of whether to pay the fee is up to the individual shopper. As the next mayor of Seattle, Richard Conlin, says: "You only have to pay it if you choose not to use reusable bags."

The foam ban has three phases. This coming January, restaurants and the like will have to stop using polystyrene and styrofoam. Then a year after that, all other plastic containers and utensils must be replaced by biodegradables.

Grocery stores will have until July 2010 to get rid of foam meat/seafood trays.

YAY! to the council for passing the foam ban unanimously!

BOO! to council member Jan Drago for being the lone vote against the bag fee.

Coverage: 20¢ bag fee approved; Seattle approves bag fee and foam ban

The enemy of my enemy is Light Rail

2008-07-25T09:36:00.000-07:00

Why transit innovators should embrace trains (and buses) too

On a recent trip to the Bay Area I was reminded why I like trains almost as much as Personal Rapid Transit.

After only a 5-10 minute wait I was able to take BART from the Oakland Coliseum/Airport station to Dublin/Pleasanton (site of Hacienda Business Park, Oracle, etc.) in only 24 minutes, including temporary slowdowns for construction. The journey, including stops at three intervening stations, covered about 17 miles -- an average speed of 42 mph. The return trip was similarly fast and trouble-free.

Yes, I know all the pro-PRT arguments -- PRT would have been faster; PRT would have been on-demand and nonstop; PRT would have been more energy efficient. All true, but that's not my point here.

Because innovators advocate for advanced transit technologies, it is easy to forget to include the role of conventional systems in the future urban landscape. It is should therefore be easy to understand why adherents of conventional systems have a freak-out when their favorite modes are omitted from descriptions of cities of tomorrow. Some think that innovators see Light Rail as an enemy.

In fact, the Enemy is Global Warming, and the enemy of my enemy is any form of transportation that is more sustainable than the internal combustion automobile. Anyone calling themselves a transit advocate needs to remember the following: any transportation technology that is not an automobile is the enemy of our enemy, and therefore our friend.

Light Rail is on average more efficient than automobiles, and innovators should welcome the public's enthusiasm for Light Rail (as well as rapid-bus), because it helps in the fight against the Enemy. In addition, there is the qualitative, social-change benefit of getting more people accustomed to not traveling by polluting automobile.

Therefore, I will vote Yes on the November ballot measure to expand Seattle-area light rail, announced yesterday.

To would-be transit innovators: remember what we are trying to do, which is facilitate transition to a society that operates in the most energy and resource-sustainable manner possible.

That word, possible, is loaded. Because the word's nuances contain the truth that human endeavors are never "perfect," but the best that can achieved at any particular snapshot in time. Solutions, also human inventions, cannot be perfect either.

The public charges government transportation decisionmakers and technical staff with finding policy and program solutions based on the best information and technology available at the time the decision is made. So if the public has instructed their government to plan and build a mass transit system, delaying the decision because something better could be almost here is therefore not an option a responsible public servant can consider. The public sector moves forward on that basis, of meeting goals given to them by the public.

If the public decides the recommended investments and expenses are worth making, it is not the place of innovators to gainsay that decision. Those costs are part of an equation that balances jobs and economic activity, as well as the environment -- just as PRT eventually will mean jobs, economic activity, and environmental benefits too. Innovators should support transit, and develop their technologies so they are ready when the next opportunity arises.

If the big goal is reducing automobile driving, use of petroleum, and tailpipe emissions, then one current metric is Reduction of Vehicle Miles Traveled. In the state of Washington, the goal mandated by the Legislature earlier this year is to reduce VMT 50% by 2050, from a baseline of 75 billion annual miles (ESHB 2815). I don't know about you, but even though I want PRT, I don't want to have the burden for reducing VMT falling solely on PRT. Any more than I would not want to rely solely on conventional technologies.

The other metric is transit usage. If a city decides it wants 2 million daily transit rides and the conventional modes can carry 400-500,000 of them, innovators should welcome their ability to handle that portion of demand.

Multimodality is clearly the right approach -- realistically planning innovation to blend with systems that already exist, as well as recognizing the high probability that a city would phase-in PRT over a long period of time, rather than quickly. And for a very practical reason: conventional transit handles a share of overall demand. The fact that it may not be as efficient or as convenient as PRT is immaterial where trains or rapid-bus already operate or are in the process of being constructed. Those investments have been made; the costs are sunk. Their operation needs to be subsidized (and at levels comparable to how the automobile system is subsidized) for the foreseeable future, because transit is a recognized public good ('good' in the economic sense) like schools, public safety and utilities. Therefore, operation that results in a revenue surplus, although welcome, is not the primary goal either.

Transit innovators need to see every Light Rail line as the core of the greater transit network, and identify opportunities for PRT within that network. Every rail station is an opportunity for a PRT feeder; every rail corridor is an opportunity for a companion PRT web. When light rail expands north from downtown Seattle, PRT will be the fast, zero-emission answer to the question, "How will you get to the train?"

Areas still not served by the rail system (due to cost or densities) are opportunities for medium-sized PRT webs providing local service and connecting to the overall metropolitan network. These can be the start of an eventual metropolitan PRT superweb. In fact, since we know Light Rail requires levels of investment not suitable for all areas, future opportunities for PRT are virtually guaranteed.

BART is an example of what I'm talking about. Last weekend, given my particular travel needs and those of the several dozen people using the same train at the time, conventional rail was good enough, fast enough, convenient enough. But BART also contains an opportunity for PRT: BART does not actually stop at the Oakland airport. I had to take a shuttle bus ("AirBART"), that meandered around the airport district with an expensive driver, carrying only a handful of riders. Situations like this are opportunities for PRT.

Now look ten years into Seattle's future. If I am able to leave my north end house, walk down the street to a PRT station, arrive 5 minutes later at the Northgate Light Rail station, then enjoy a train ride to downtown or the airport, in my book that's a pretty good urban transit system. To oppose such a reality because it is not pure-PRT, pure-maglev, or pure-anything else (pure Light Rail, even) is to oppose progress for the sake of perfection. It makes the perfect the enemy of the good.

Very soon we can expect innovators will have less need to worry about making the leap from plan to implementation. PRT is going to become seen as more viable when the early adopters like Heathrow, Masdar, Uppsala and Daventry find success. It is likely that in as few as 7-10 years, cities trying to decide what kind of transit they want to build will see PRT as a proven, viable option, relevant to many different kinds of applications. Federal CO2 reduction targets, more likely with the advent of a Democratic administration in 2009, could propel jurisdictions toward the low-energy PRT option.

Contentious, tedious debates about whose transit mode (or even proprietary design) is superior will hopefully become a thing of the past. The correct answer is that, in the fight against global warming, all the modes are superior.

Infernal plastic doo-dads

2008-07-23T13:30:00.000-07:00

All I wanted to do last week was buy a shirt. I went from rack to rack at the Fred Meyer (Kroger), picking up one shirt here, another there, one from over there, and so on. And when I had all my options in hand, I couldn't help but marvel at the unnecessary use of those little zip-ties they use to attach the price tags, manufacturer tags and Sale tag. Not to mention the plastic stickers that advertise, redundantly, the size, special features and fiber composition.

One shirt, though, stood out from the others by using no plastic doo-dads at all: a short sleeved, organic linen/cotton shirt by Great Northwest, which I believe is the Fred Meyer in-store brand. The single tag was made from recycled paper, and attached with a piece of biodegradable twine. Oh, and FORTY PERCENT OFF, because I can smell a bargain from a long way away.

Look Ma, no plastic

Appropriately, the shirt's color is green.

Now I'm waiting for someone to come up with a plastic-free, nylon-free, foam-free bicycle helmet. That will be a neat trick.

RoboTrike

2008-07-16T11:00:00.000-07:00

I made a quick trip to the Bay Area last weekend. Saw some sights, rode the BART out to Pleasanton, the full tourist experience. But the oddest thing I saw was when I was back home on Sunday, on the ground at SeaTac airport:

"The Future of Policing" (The Stranger)

Also today:
Kill a protected species (and be part of a club killing 2,000 of them a year), don't go to jail

Neat-o bikesharing layer on gMaps

2008-07-16T10:58:00.000-07:00

I have to figure out how to customize Google Maps. Paul DeMaio, a transportation consultant and blogger who specializes in bicycling, has fiddled around with gMaps and created a layer that shows the location and status of bikesharing programs around the world. It's called -- wait for it -- the Bike-sharing Map.

A biker icon indicates an operating program, while a question mark seems to mean the program is either being studied, or planned, or maybe DeMaio hasn't yet researched the details.

The map shows bikeshare programs are at the planning stage in the U.S. -- but one in Washington DC, Smartbike, appears to have made the leap to full operation. It uses these cute little machines that evoke the old Schwinn Stingray, and look like they're wearing miniskirts:

(Observation: Smartbikes's hours are supposedly 6am-10pm. The bikes don't appear to be equipped for night riding, but the legalese makes the renter test the lights before riding, so lights must be there somewhere.)

What I'm really looking forward to about the map is seeing the number of locations change status and proliferate over time.

Paper nor plastic?

2008-07-14T16:00:00.000-07:00

Seattle debated whether the city may follow in the footsteps of San Francisco, on July 8 discussing a proposal for a 20 cent fee on all disposal shopping bags, as well as a long overdue ban on foam food containers. The meeting was called by the City Council's Environment, Emergency Management and Utilities Committee.

Those who attended the meeting (including The Bag Monster) heard from fellow citizens in overwhelming support of the ban, which if approved would go into effect in 2010. One provision of the ban is that each household in the city would receive a free reusable shopping bag.

Who opposes the fee? Professional curmudgeons and the grocery industry, who counterproposed a per-visit fee.

Coverage -- Seattle PI, Times, and The Stranger

Highlights:

Ravenna resident Liz Tatchell told a Seattle City Council panel what members would hear from citizens throughout the night -- Seattle is ready to bag the grocery bags. "I think it's a great step in the right direction," Tatchell said Tuesday during the first public hearing on a proposed ban on foam food containers and a fee for disposable grocery bags. "It's more than just the bags -- it's a lifestyle change."

Ballard resident Jamie Wine said he's ready for the city to take action. A marine educator, Wine said he's tired of seeing bags and foam containers washed up on Seattle-area shores. "It's kind of funny that we use these bags for 15, 20 minutes and they last for 500 years," Wine said. "As a Seattle resident, I'm here to tell you that I'm willing to pay."

Yoko Wang, owner of Toshio's Teriyaki in Rainier Valley, is not too worried about a possible ban on Styrofoam clamshells in Seattle. She's confident that biodegradable containers to keep her broiled, boneless chicken hot will be available by the time the city mandates the switch -- in July 2010. She was shocked, however, to hear the ban would extend to plastics, right down to each chili-sauce container and fork. "Everybody is going to have to use chopsticks," Wang said after her Monday lunch rush. "I can give lessons." ... Wang, who has run Toshio's in Rainier Valley for the past seven years, says she understands the city's desire to preserve the environment. "We have to cooperate for global warming."
She is not sure whether she would raise her prices to pay for more expensive biodegradable containers. "Everything is going up — chicken, beef. That is the hard part. I don't know what I should do."

Several customers said Monday they would be willing to pay another dime to protect the environment.

Council President Richard Conlin, who helped draft the plan, said the changes are needed because "we know about the environmental problems caused by plastic in the middle of the Pacific, to the plastic that clogs our drains, to the litter we find on our streets. Here's a chance to do something where there are excellent substitutes available."

Jim Fenton, a representative for the QFC grocery chain, and Joe Gilliam, a spokesman for the Northwest Grocery Association, argued that a bag tax represents an undue burden on low-income people, and would consume too much time at the checkstand... The first “concern” is absurd (if they’re that worried about slow lines, why not get rid of cigarette sales and ID checks?), and the second is just disingenuous, particularly the second. As I’ve said before, anyone who can afford groceries—in other words, just about everyone—can afford to buy a 73-cent reusable bag.

A commenter just asked me why we can’t just recycle plastic bags. To start with, fewer than one percent of all plastic bags used in the United States are recycled. Why? In part, because bags can only be recycled if they’re made purely of one kind of plastic and have never been contaminated by coming into contact with any foreign materials (one reason even most of the plastic bags you chuck into the recycling bin end up in landfills). In addition, and perhaps more importantly, the vast majority of plastic bag “recycling” is really just downcycling—because it’s more expensive to recycle plastic bags than to just make new plastic bags, the bags are almost always turned into other plastic products that themselves can’t be recycled.

Meeting Video (Seattle Channel)

My own contributions to the effort: 1) at the beginning of the year I started keeping a cloth shopping bag in my work case (I pack groceries in panniers when I'm on the bike); 2) I will be retrofitting my Serviette Union food reviews with tags "Syrofoam Takeouts" and "Paper Takeouts."

Bag the bags -- or the Bag Monster will git ya!

Photo from BraveNewLeaf.com

Is Masdar for real?

2008-07-11T07:30:00.000-07:00

Many are excited about the green technologies that could come out of the zero carbon, zero waste project in the desert. Others call it hype.

eager000010 (Flickr)

There are a lot of people in the sustainability community, including a number of important NGOs, who are looking at the planned carbon neutral, zero waste "Masdar City" project as a laboratory for technologies that could reduce human impacts on the environment, as well as eliminate the use of nonrenewable energy.

In other words, it's a testing ground. Being a human endeavor, it's also unlikely to be perfect. But many expect a lot of good things are going to come out of it.

Others, however, are less sure. Reporters seeking balance cite some commentators who say carbon footprint reduction is so difficult as to be impossible, or that Masdar will just be for the affluent. Some have even dismissed Masdar as purely symbolic -- and even "just a lot of hype."

Do these non-specific criticisms hold water? Let's start with a definition from the Oxford American Dictionary:

Hype
Noun; 1. extravagant or intensive publicity or promotion; 2. a deception carried out for the sake of publicity.

Re 1: Masdar is certainly getting a lot of intense publicity. The whole thing was launched at a conference in Abu Dhabi, near the Masdar site, attended by business and world leaders -- even global warming skeptic George Dubya Bush. But can all this PR be considered 'extravagant' in context of the wealth on display in the region's urban growth? Also consider that Masdar's total cost, $22 billion over eight years, is less than what the Dubya spends in Iraq every two months so Big Oil can get its mitts on that country's petroleum.

Re 2: Is there anything deceptive about the project? I would tend to think that Masdar's NGO and corporate partners have vetted the project's bona fides. Those who have endorsed or are engaged in work on Masdar include World Fund for Nature/World Wildlife Fund, BioRegional, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and CH2M Hill. Lord Norman Foster, the architect who did the "Gherkin" building at London's Canary Wharf, is doing the Masdar urban master plan.

While it is not a partner, the U.S. Congress has heard testimony about Masdar from its head, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, earning the praise of Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), chairman of the energy independence/global warming select committee.

But the biggest indicator is whether Masdar's actions to date match its stated intentions -- what is Masdar doing with its money? Answer: a lot. A survey of Masdar-related news reveals it is those actions that are garnering all the media attention:

•Is investing $2 billion to start its own industry to produce "thin film" solar energy systems

•With its partner Virgin Green Fund, has purchased Dura-Therm, an oil cleanup and metal recycling business

•Has invested $42 million in the U.S. waste-to-energy company EnerTech

•Is hiring faculty for the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology

•Is planning (with engineering consultant CH2M Hill of Denver) a city-wide electric personal rapid transit system, like those under construction at Heathrow airport and planned for Sweden. Such a system would use a fraction of the energy (on a passenger-mile basis) of traditional transit systems. It is reasonable to expect this project will be as well-funded as the others.

Simply put, Masdar is putting its considerable money where its mouth is. I've seen no substantive criticisms of any of these moves, merely a response from the business and environmental press at Masdar's speed that borders on awestruck.

Rather than some pie in the sky fantasy that always seem to be just out of reach, what is clear is that Masdar is happening. And they are starting by investing in practical, real technologies. So yes, Masdar is for real.

And while I thank the skeptics for helping us maintain perspective, this time I have to ask why they insist this well-funded glass of recycled water has to be half empty.

The good Puget Sound news

2008-07-07T16:30:00.000-07:00

Lest anyone think Puget Sound environmental policy and water quality are going completely to hell, I am glad to report that a piece of good news happened last week. The Neah Bay rescue tug, which stands ready to assist oil tankers and other vessels transiting the can-be-stormy Strait of Juan de Fuca entrance to Puget Sound, returned to duty on July 1.

"The tug" is actually two boats that will split the assignment: the Hunter and the Gladiator, both under contract from Crowley Maritime.

What is notable is that this marks the first time the tug will be on duty for 12 continuous months. In past years state funding was only available for part of the year. As if oil spills check the calendar. This time the state legislature voted a full 12 months, but there is no guarantee for the following year.

Year-round funding has been tied up in a disagreement between Gov. Christine Gregoire (D) and the environmental community. Gregoire wants a year-round tug, but wants the Federal government to pay for it, but so far a provision has not made it through Congress. Not that The Occupant would sign it. Anyway, there are high hopes that Sen. Maria Cantwell will have success with a new proposal, which would bill industry for tug costs (the Coast Guard Reauthorization Act, S. 1892).

What the tug is protecting:

Photo-illustrated article about Neah Bay (Seattle Times)

The Gladiator (R)

Court ignores environmental factors

2008-07-07T14:00:00.000-07:00

I have received word that a state appeals court has struck down King County's "65/10 rule," requiring property owners retain 65% of forest and limiting impervious surface to 10%. This rule is critical to the issue of reducing stormwater runoff, which is a major source of pollutants that enter Puget Sound.

65/10 is meant to comply with Washington State Growth Management regulations, but my source has told me the appeals court has held the rule to be an illegal fee.

More as it develops.

Update (1518 PDT): The Seattle P-I has the first media report on the ruling. (since updated and extended)

Update (08 July 0926 PDT): King County's rural-land restrictions go too far, court rules - "In a case that could determine how far local governments can go in limiting forest-clearing across entire watersheds, a state Court of Appeals panel ruled Monday that King County's critical-areas law went too far.
. . .
‘I am a happy man today,’ said Steve Hammond, who voted against the ordinance as a Republican council member and is now president of [the Citizens' Alliance for Property Rights, CAPR]..." (Seattle Times)

From the portion of the opinion quoted in the article, it appears the court indeed ignored the environmental dimension and focused narrowly on its interpretation that 65/10 is an illegal development tax -- even if indirect.

The court seemed to say 65/10 could be made legal by making it apply on a case by case basis, not as a blanket rule. But this would be a huge staffing burden on the County, that is already facing a multi-million dollar budget shortfall. Case by case evaluation of 65/10 would require a massive spending increase -- wouldn't that be a tax?

Basically, the ruling is a victory for right-wing 'property rights' advocates. Clearing land relates directly to increases in surface runoff, aka stormwater, which as already mentioned is a leading source of Puget Sound water pollution. By pulling the protections of the 65/10 regulation, the appeals court is removing protections from entire watersheds -- which shed water that flows downhill into rivers and streams that enter the Sound, thus the name (duh, Your Honors). Gravity does not take property boundaries into account.

The next appeal, if the County decides to go there, would be to the State Supreme Court -- which has a sizable property rights contingent. And in fact, the new ruling cites as its precedent for preservation=tax the Supremes’ own ruling in Isla Verde v. City of Camas (2002). In other words, 65/10 is likely muerta.

By the way, the Steve Hammond mentioned above is the former county councilman who, following Hurricane Katrina, proposed making prevention of looting a higher priority than rescue. Predictably, in addition to being a Resmuglican he is also a former evangelical minister.

Update (10 July 1545 PDT): King County will appeal to the Supremes

Locking-in green behavior

2008-07-03T10:30:00.000-07:00

Ten observations related to how people are adjusting to high fuel prices, and maybe we can have a discussion.

1. "Peak oil" is on the digital lips of many progressive bloggers. This event, assuming it has happened, signals the start of a fundamental restructuring. The economy will have to respond by replacing oil with another energy input.

2. Progressive opinion leaders are observing, however, that the problem is not supply, and speculation is responsible for higher pump prices. This is borne out by events and expert opinion:

John McCain's Connection to Big Oil

3. Are we familiar with the concept of elasticity of demand? It's from Econ 101 -- when something is purchased at a certain level even when the price rises, demand is said to be more inelastic.

At a certain price, buyers begin switching to substitutes. For gasoline that point is about $4, and some examples of substitutes are transit, biodiesel, fuel efficient cars, and carpooling.

4. Assuming an Obama Administration ends the market manipulation, penalizes the oil futures market and sends key offenders to jail, the likely result will be oil and gasoline prices that fall back to the $2 - $2.50 per gallon level. The crisis will be over, and presumably so too will be the switch to substitutes.

For discussion: How do we get switchers to not go back to their old behavior?

5. I think appealing to personal sacrifice for the good of the planet is effective with only a limited demographic. Most people are working hard to make ends meet, and they need to get those things done in a way that is a balance of convenient, cheap, and fast. Thus, while we should continue to devote effort to consumer education and sustainability outreach as the carrot approach, a stick is still needed.

6. The key is that the dominant oil-based paradigm has struck the convenient-cheap-fast balance for a long time, and only now has lost the cheapness advantage. Idea 1: encourage conservation behavior now, by increasing the federal gas tax by a modest amount. This should be of a size big enough so that people notice it and choose to conserve, while being fair to those at a percentage of national median income to be determined. I propose 50 cents per gallon; it could be called the Green Fee.

7. Idea 2: allocate Green Fee revenue to facilitate conservation behavior.

Set a national goal for transportation energy use. The DOE already tracks this in a number of ways, I suggest energy per passenger mile (the energy required to move one person one mile), measured in BTUs. Buses and trucks use roughly 4000 BTU/PM, while cars use around 3500, and rail transit around 3000. (Bicycles about 1500.) But one reason people have relied on cars is that alternatives are not always available. Therefore:

8. Use a portion of the Green Fee revenue for infrastructure, incentives and innovation.

A. Give funds to jurisdictions to achieving average reductions, e.g., increasing ridership of existing transit systems through more frequent service or expanding hours of operation. B. Fund order of magnitude reductions, e.g., by expanding reach of transit infrastructure, broadly institute tolling, offer tax credits to employers who equip their workforces for telecommuting.

9. What if we set a transportation energy goal at 1000 BTU/PM? How could we get there?

For example, how would we lower rail transit's 3000 BTU/PM by two-thirds? Answer: you would have to triple ridership while holding energy used (existing service) steady. Commuters are the biggest growth market for transit, but rush hours are already high ridership and can't be tripled unless you take service away from non-rush periods.

Thus, the inescapable conclusion is that the current transit system must be enhanced with newer low-energy transportation technologies and approaches. There should be R&D on use of lighter weight materials -- what if a train undercarriage could be made with less steel? What operational practices could result in less empty vehicle movement and higher occupancy, without affecting service frequency? What if the roof of every transit vehicle was covered in solar panels? Personal Rapid Transit (800-1000 BTU/PM) falls into this broad category as well.

10. Change the paradigm underlying the other paradigms.

Another basic from Econ 101, probably from the first chapter of standard texts, is that an economy's basic inputs are land, labor and capital.

Some definitions include a fourth input, "enterprise." This had me scratching my head, as this is actually an old old practice that went away because it can't be quantified. Then I saw other references call it "management" and even "entrepreneurship." It feels like confidence-building therapy for middlemen, so I will feel free to ignore this fourth input.

Instead, I am tempted to nominate energy -- considered a factor of production -- as a fourth input. What doesn't take energy? It is not just consumed in production processes, but in many non-productive aspects of our daily lives.

Idea 3. Here's a long-term, transformative goal: a public, shared investment in clean, renewable energy. The sources can be as many as are viable -- solar, wind, tidal, geothermal, fusion, whatever. The important result is that by virtue of resulting from public investment, the energy produced (the input) could be free except for the cost of operation, maintenance and delivery (imagine a publicly-owned local utility that didn't have to pay for electricity).

And what would we do with the savings? Make a list. National health insurance, free college, free daycare...

Sustainability is People

2008-06-19T11:30:00.000-07:00

Seattle experienced a passing this week: Edith Macefield, 86, a longtime Ballard resident who loved animals and the opera, and may have been a spy in World War II. But she is best known as the person who dug in her heels and made a developer build around her little house:

Edith's story always made me smile, and she was always a popular figure in the media and blogosphere. I think it gives everyone a little charge to see someone fight ‘progress,’ or at least keep the powerful at bay. I suppose it's Davida v. Goliath.

It once again got me thinking, though, about the delicate subject of creating sustainable cities, because the way it's happening so far is via redevelopment. This frequently brings gentrification and cases such as Edith Macefield's -- albeit not nearly as visually compelling.

I'm going to pose a subject for discussion, and I'd like your comments. And I'm not fishing for a particular answer.

Whether it's a city drafting a master plan, a developer buying up parcels for a mid-rise project, or activists pushing for a new transit system, I see a tendency in discussions to speak of people as little units of supply and demand. "Build it and they will come" is often used when talking about the need for compact, walkable communities.

What I'm saying is that sustainability requires plans that are implemented by people, therefore like all human plans there are unintended consequences that impact real people. When a new urban village plan causes real estate speculation, how do you realistically mitigate that? How do you do congestion pricing and be fair to all income levels? How do you protect the urban tree canopy when infill construction causes trees to be cut down? How do you make photovoltaics affordable for all homeowners?

And what of the Edith Macefields of the world? An important part of sustainability is encouraging people to have an attachment to place. What if instead of a commercial project, her home was in the path of a new transit station? Would she still have been seen as a heroic Little Guy, or an obstacle to a sustainable future.

A little extra effort, please

2008-06-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

I bet there are a lot of stark, unfriendly pedestrian routes in your town. One of my least favorite is the corner of Pine & Boren (satellite view) in downtown Seattle.

It's not so much a corner, as a place where two freeway overpasses happen to cross. One point for utility, minus a thousand points for aesthetics.

If we're going to promote more walking as transportation, we need to convert these concrete strips into green connectors. Centrala, a group of designers in Warsaw, have envisioned exactly that for their city: pedestrian bridges spanning traffic, with enough space for green.

All I want is this kind of extra effort from all you architects and urban planners out there.

Climate Change roundtable for Seattle readers

2008-06-09T10:13:00.000-07:00

A last-minute invitation came my way this morning -- let's find out what the technocrats are planning.

=====================

YOUR HOUSE, YOUR CAR, OUR CLIMATE: STATE DEPT. OF TRANSPORTATION DEPUTY SECRETARY TO DISCUSS HOW LAND USE IN WASHINGTON AFFECTS CLIMATE CHANGE

WHAT: At this evening discussion roundtable, two influential state and community leaders will discuss the core issues that are key to Washington’s ability to tackle climate change: the connection between land use and transportation.

WHO: David Dye, Deputy Secretary of the Washington Department of Transportation, will discuss how the Department is responding to the challenge of reducing emissions from transportation in Washington.

Rod Brown, senior partner at Cascadia Law Group, will discuss what changes we may see based on the actions taken during the 2008 Washington legislative session relating to growth management and climate change.

WHEN: Monday, June 9, 2008, 6-8 p.m.

WHERE: REI Flagship Store, 222 Yale Avenue North, 2nd floor meeting room.

COST: Admission is free. Refreshments provided.

This event is organized by the Washington Foundation for the Environment, and co-sponsored by People For Puget Sound and CH2M Hill.

I just adore a penthouse view

2008-06-02T11:00:00.000-07:00

Blurring the line between city and Green Acres, Seattle architecture firm Mithun has come up with this concept for a high-rise urban farm:

Read the rest of the story about 'growing' interest in urban agriculture.

Are machines the CO2 answer?

2008-05-31T18:00:00.000-07:00

An Arizona company, GRT, is the subject of a Guardian piece about using a machine to extract CO2 from the air. According to GRT it can build scrubber units each able to collect a ton of CO2 per day.

The article -- using a cliche I particularly hate -- stresses the concept is "not a magic bullet," as it would take millions of the machines to handle all of our carbon emissions. But while it doesn't solve the problem by itself, "this can help" and "this will help," says Richard Lackner, a Columbia University physicist who leads the team building the scrubber.

In other words, CO2 scrubbers are neat ideas that might be technically possible, but are a long way from implementation. What they need to do is miniaturize them, and install them in CO2 producing machines and processes.

This reminds me of another technological fix-it I was recently alerted to, a marine "upwelling pump" by a start-up called Atmocean. The idea is to increase oceans' ability to sequester CO2, by pumping more cool water to the surface, stimulating algae growth. The algae would soak up CO2, et voila.

Atmocean says it would deploy their upwelling pumps at 2 km intervals across 80% of the oceans.

Do you know how much of the Earth's surface is ocean? Neither did I: 361,800,000 square kilometers; 80% of that is 289,440,000 square kilometers. I calculate 72,360,000 pumps would be needed.

I have no idea what one pump would cost. But if it were $10,000, the total cost would be 1/100th of the $70 trillion global pool of money (all the money in the world).

So -- technically possible, but highly unlikely.

And I'm not crazy about the idea of messing with the ecology of the oceans. Yes, what they're doing is exploiting a natural process. But there's nature, and then there's nature. Atmocean doesn't mention on their website that the oceans are already absorbing greater quantities of CO2, with the result that the oceans are acidifying.

Along with acidity comes lower presence of carbonate, which interferes with marine species that need calcium carbonate to make shells and skeletons.

Most of that acidic water used to be only at lower depths -- the water Atmocean proposes to bring to the surface.

Video - new pudu deer in Seattle

2008-05-30T14:00:00.000-07:00

James Howard Kunstler doesn't get it

2008-05-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

I'm in agreement with James Howard Kunstler's overall messages about planning, sprawl and walkable communities. But his conclusions about Personal Rapid Transit are based only upon his encounters with PRT advocates at conferences and his own snap judgments.

Kunstler's remarks are on his podcast, 13th edition, starting around :01:30.

His perception of PRT (like a railroad with one person per carriage) is so superficial, it shows he hasn't taken the time to learn about the concept. Instead, he calls advocates "a particular kind of crank" and "crazy." Klassy, Mr. Kunstler.

Kunstler rails (*rimshot*) against the amount of PRT infrastructure he thinks would be needed, but later praises light rail (around :05:00) without a mention of the cost of its infrastructure.

Of course, about PRT he also admitted "maybe I'm missing something." Well I guess so.

(h/t Michael D. Setty -- thanks for the email!)

Paul Krugman gets it

2008-05-13T13:33:00.000-07:00

The size of the car vs. transit problem, that is. It's in his blog at the New York Times.

NPR picks up on Masdar City zero-carbon project

2008-05-06T22:30:00.000-07:00

Masdar -- and its Personal Rapid Transit project -- are prominently featured on NPR yesterday and today. It's part of the Climate Connections series.

May 5 (PRT introduced at :6:30)
May 6 (PRT @ :1:45)

Big news -- the PRT system will run off the city's solar power grid!

Baby gorilla video

2008-04-18T19:05:00.000-07:00

Bicycle safety PSA video

2008-03-28T14:32:00.000-07:00

Uses a power-of-suggestion trick that worked on me. Your mileage may vary.