Paper nor plastic? - Part Deux

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.

The enemy of my enemy is Light Rail

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.

Infernal plastic doo-dads

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

RoboTrike

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

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.