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Portland Sees Explosive Growth in Bicycling
Aaron Naparstek, Streetsbkig
Clever hedge fund managers have figured out ways to make money off of weather futures, the electricity grid and quite a few other unlikely sources. What I want to know is if anyone can help me find a way to invest my retirement savings in bicycling in Portland, Oregon. According to the latest numbers, it’s a serious growth industry.
Between 2004 and 2005 the number of cyclists using the four bridges that cross Willamette River into Downtown Portland grew 15 percent. That’s impressive. Yet, the growth rate jumped to 18 percent between ’05 and ’06. The next year, according to a sneak peak at preliminary ’06-’07 counts, the number of bikes using the four bridges jumped 21 percent. (Check out Clarence Eckerson’s StreetFilm, Portland: America’s Most Livable City, if you want to see what these heavily-biked bridges look like for yourself).
Part of what makes these numbers so remarkable is that the growth in cycling took place during a time when bike path construction essentially flattened out.
(28 September 2007)
Impressive graphs at original
Transportation is Moving — Slowly — Toward Sustainability
Kevin Klustner, Green Biz
This essay is an exclusive excerpt adapted from Kevin Klustner’s upcoming book, “Energy Efficiency — The Future is Now,” which will be released this month. Greener World Media debuted previous chapters about energy efficiency in the construction, information technology, and industrial sectors on our sites during the past two months.
The transportation sector is a powerhouse when it comes to the amount of fuel and energy it consumes. Combined, road and air transportation account for nearly 20 percent of global energy demand.
And while it appears that little can be done at this point to curb fuel and energy consumption in the commercial aviation sector, the automotive industry is poised to take great strides in the coming years.
(No date. ?? October 2007)
Dingell, gas taxes, CAFE and diet – 3 data points
Jerome a Paris, Daily Kos
Should CAFE standards be tightened? Should a gas tax be imposed? How do you fight global climate change without imposing a crippling burden on the poor?
Some unexpected data points below.
…[GRAPH] That graph (from this ICCT report on cars and climate change (pdf)) shows that Europe and Japan already have today average CAFE at 40 MPG. So those (including Toyota) that say that reaching 35 MPG by 2020 is not possible are deeply unserious.
As a second data point, I’d like to flag an other table in that report, which provides the average carbon emissions (in CO2 g/km) of the cars produced by various manufacturers in Europe: [GRAPH]
…The European operations of US manufacturers (excluding Chrysler, but they have a pretty small operation and specialise in cars like the Jeeps or the Viper) and Toyota are amongst the best.
So this is not a case, should tough emission standards be imposed, of US manufacturers at risk of being overwhelmed by foreign competition – they are already perfectly competitive in markets that value thriftiness and low emissions.
It sounds more like a narrow-minded defense of recent investments in production lines for huge SUVs (as Toyota’s new Tundra factory in Texas), and a belief that Americans won’t go for the kinds of cars that sell in Europe (smaller ones)
Which brings me to my third data point. The reason Europeans drive smaller cars is, of course, that gas taxes are very high, and thus fuel efficiency is valued. and the easiest way to have thrifty, low-emission cars is to not endow them with 200hp engines. That’s why 11 European cars – none of them hybrids – have lower emissions than the Toyota Prius: they are smaller. Which has lots of other positive consequences:
(8 October 2007)
