You may laugh at him and his video, just like I did. But being a bicyclist, or even a pedestrian, in a car-centric world is dangerous and could easily get you killed. For example. In the UK cyclists made up only 0.5% of the total traffic but accounted for 5% of the entire number of road deaths and 11% of the serious injuries during 2009. The report, done by the road safety charity Brake, also concluded that “while road casualties overall had decreased, cyclist deaths and injuries had not”.

And a recently released report shows that between 2000 and 2009 more than 47000 pedestrians were killed in the USA. The study also shows that more than 668000 other pedestrians were injured because of accidents.

“The Transportation for America report asserts that transportation agencies across the country continue to design infrastructure with only vehicle traffic in mind. “It’s a serious problem that doesn’t get a lot of attention,” said Michelle Ernst, who wrote the report.

Most pedestrian deaths occur on “arterial” roadways, designed for traffic without sidewalks or bike lanes to accommodate walkers or cyclists, the report said.”

But luckily there are cities where they have bicycles and pedestrians in mind when they design their streets and transportation systems.

Photo credit: jurvetson

French cities such as Paris, Lyon, Grenoble, and Aix-en-Provence are planning to test a ban on gas guzzlers such as SUVs, according to John Voelcker over at Greencarreports.

Paris is set to be one of the first cities to experiment with such a car policy. In 2012 city officials will begin to set restrictions on dirty gas guzzlers that emit an high amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) per kilometer. It is still unclear what kind of specific details the French restrictions will have as they are still being debated.

"An official within the Parisian mayor’s office, Denis Baupin, identified older diesel-engined cars and sport-utility vehicles as specific targets of the emissions limit.

"I’m sorry," Baupin said on RTL Radio, "but having a sport utility vehicle in a city makes no sense." He suggested that Parisian SUV owners replace their sport utilities with vehicles that are "compatible with city life.""

Besides this ban on gas guzzlers in a number of French cities the European Union has issued several policies and strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the European transport sector. These policies include a regulation on CO2 emissions from newly manufactured passenger cars that will take effect in 2012 as well.

In USA the state of California actually has a similar regulations on heavy SUVs on residential roads in effect. But as Andy Bowers points out the regulation is not being enforced by the authorities or city officials.

"And don’t expect to see stickers on new SUVs with warnings like "CAUTION: This Vehicle May Be Illegal On Many California Roads." At a GM dealership in Santa Monica, I asked a salesman (who declined to give his name) whether he informs buyers that the Tahoes and Suburbans he’s selling them are banned on most streets in the city. "I’m not aware of it," he said.

I suspect the biggest impediment to enforcing these bans is political will—SUVs are wildly popular, and it will take brave city and state officials to challenge the right of residents to use their own streets. (Of course, like a FedEx truck, heavy SUVs are allowed to use local roads for a few blocks if they have business there—like going to or from a house. But in general, they’re supposed to take the shortest possible path between designated truck routes.)"

Related reading: Politicians wants to ban gas cars in Norway after 2015

Here are two videos from Streetfilms and the BBC which shows two cities in Scandinavia where bicycles dominate. You have probably already heard about Copenhagen and the city’s great reputation as a bicycle city. But you might not have heard about Lund, a Swedish town where around 60% of the population use bicycles and public transportation.

"The Politics Show East has been to a town in Sweden where 60 per cent of people leave their car at home. In the town of Lund the majority of the population use bicycles and public transport."

The second video, from Streetfilms, shows Copenhagen "through North American eyes":

"While Streetfilms was in Copenhagen for the Velo-City 2010 conference, of course we wanted to showcase its biking greatness. But we were also looking to take a different perspective then all the myriad other videos out there. Since there were an abundance of advocates, planners, and city transportation officials attending from the U.S. and Canada, we thought it’d be awesome to get their reactions to the city’s built environment and compare to bicycling conditions in their own cities.

If you’ve never seen footage of the Copenhagen people riding bikes during rush hour – get ready – it’s quite a site, as nearly 38% of all transportation trips in Copenhagen are done by bike. With plenty of safe, bicycle infrastructure (including hundreds of miles of physically separated cycletracks) its no wonder that you see all kinds of people on bikes everywhere. 55% of all riders are female, and you see kids as young as 3 or 4 riding with packs of adults."

And while I am at it I might as well share some of my own favourite cycling blogs.

The first one out is Carbuster’s editorial blog where they discuss all topics related to the "carfree movement". If you are interested in transportation issues I can highly recommend you to start subscribing to both the blog feed and the actual Carbuster magazine.

The Guardian has a good biking blog where they post about “all things cycling – in the UK and around the world”.

Crap Cycling & Walking in Waltham Forest is a good cycling blog. Just beware, you can get really depressed from reading their posts. Another similar blog is Bristol Traffic. If you are even more interested in biking topics in and around London you should also check out Real Cycling.

If fashion is your thing you might want to check out Cycle Chic from Copenhagen.

Other cycling blogs worth subscribing to are A view from the cycle path, Bike Hugger, EcoVelo and Planka.nu which is a Swedish network of commuter organisations working for free public transport.

Do you know about other great cities where bicycles has a dominated role in the traffic? Do you know about any other interesting cycling blogs? If yes please share them with the rest of us in the comment section below. Thanks!

Breakfast: good for you and the planet!

Many teens either skip breakfast or grab something starchy and sugary on the way to school. However, from a nutritional point of view, breakfast is the most important part of the day. The solution? A fast and easy breakfast smoothie. You can make your own with protein powder, yogurt and frozen berries, or try Vega smoothie mixes. They have protein for energy, plus all your vitamins and minerals to start the day right. Vega compared its Whole Food Optimizer to a “traditional North American breakfast” including hashbrowns, eggs and bacon, and a “light North American breakfast” including yogurt, cereal and banana. According to the Vega website, there are 38 times more greenhouse gas emissions created by traditional breakfast and 10 times more greenhouse gases created by the light breakfast compared to Vega. Thus, switching to Vega for a year would be equivalent to turning off a 60 watt light bulb for 12,500 hours, or 521 consecutive days (Source: http://sequelnaturals.com/).

Transportation

If no school bus is provided for your school, consider car-free ways of getting to and from class every day. Walk, bike, or create a “walking school bus”, where a group of children walk to school supervised by one or more adult. It’s safer in numbers, easy on the planet, good physical activity and simple for parents, who can take turns supervising. Visit http://www.walkingschoolbus.org/ for more details. If all else fails, carpool or take transit.

Waste-Free Lunch

• Use stainless steel water bottles instead of plastic disposable ones. As I’ve mentioned before, stainless steel is non-toxic, durable, easy to clean and does not rust. Green Bottle (http://www.greenbottleonline.com/) has plenty of fun designs kids will love to brag about to their classmates. They come in 12 oz, 20 oz and 25 oz sizes with a variety of lids including sport tops.
• Look for non-toxic, BPA free Tupperware such as Preserve. Some companies like By Nature and Bento Box Systems offer complete lunch sets for kids including cloth napkins, reusable bags and storage containers. Nubius Organics sells toxin-free reusable cutlery made from bamboo.

Clothes

For back to school clothing shopping, thrift stores are the way to go. Treasure hunting at second hand stores can be just as much fun as showing off the new fashions. It’s amazing to see how many designer labels and never-worn items there are. Plus, kids and teens love having unique pieces that’ll be the envy of all their friends.

For new clothes, even the biggest stores such as Roots Canada, H & M and The Gap are jumping on the organic cotton bandwagon for kids clothes. It’s never been easier to find eco-friendly clothing close to home and at reasonable prices. Just make sure the percentage of organic fibre is high—be wary of 10% organic cotton/90% polyester blends! Bamboo, hemp and soy are other great earth-friendly fabrics.

Supplies

• Before school starts, sort through supplies from the previous years and keep whatever possible. You’ll be saving money in the process.
• Refillable pens and pencils are a smart alternative to disposables. Or, if you prefer, Earthzone pencils are made out of 100% post consumer recycled newspapers—no wood used!
• Paints should be water, not oil based.
• From binders to notebooks, avoid PVC plastic, instead opting for cardboard and paper. In all your paper purchases, look for recycled and non-chlorine bleached options. Remember that unless it says “Post-consumer waste” it may be scrap paper that never left the factory. Try Ecojot Notebooks—they come in cute, stylish patterns and are 100%  post-consumer recycled. For printer paper, most big brand retailers offer recycled options as well. Along the same lines, reduce before you re-use—don’t print rough copies of assignments unless absolutely necessary.
• Backpacks should ideally be made from all-natural materials, such as durable hemp. Otherwise, check out PVC free options at http://www.nubiusorganics.com.

At-School Projects

Environmental class projects don’t have to be reserved for Earth day. There are tons of fun ways to encourage environmental activism to suggest to teachers and school staff. Younger children may enjoy taking nature walks, going on field trips to the recycling depot, and planting trees in the school yard. Students in older grades may wish to start a class vegetable garden and school compost project, or petition for organic options in their school cafeteria.

You might have seen these pedal-powered Ecocabs rolling around in cities like Toronto, Dublin and Berlin the past few years. And now these eco cabs can be seen in Stockholm, Sweden.

Stockholm’s Ecocabs will be available from May through September each year and will costs you 40 Swedish Kronor (about $6.50) per 15 minutes.

The drivers of these ecocabs won’t have to do all the pedalling for themselves. Each ecocab have a 12v self-charging battery-driven engine that helps the driver go up hills (and to run the indicator lights). The maximum speed is 25 kilometers per hour but the average speed is usually half of that.

Compared to ordinary cabs these ecocabs have to rely heavily on advertisements to keep them rolling. That’s why they are filled with advertisement, as you can see on the above picture.

Now we only need some pedal-powered delivering and transporting firms.

Well, that was the question behind a recent survey commissioned by the Fairfax County (VA) Economic Development Authority, one of the leading economic development organizations in the US.

700 American adults were asked this question:

What do you believe should be the highest priority, in terms of investing money and resources, in order to achieve a meaningful technological advancement in the next 10 years?

The result might surprise. According to the survey Americans wants a solution to the gas crisis more than they want a cure for cancer, heart diseases or other similar medical breakthroughs.

37% of the people who took part in the survey “thought money and resources should be placed into a breakthrough in fuel efficiency or alternative fuels, while 30 percent wanted the effort placed against an advance in medicine.”

The environment (climate change) was only ranked on third place with 14%.

Security and defence was ranked shortly after the environment with 10%. Transportation and space exploration each had 3% while telecommunication and media was placed at the bottom with only 2%.

The full survey result can be found below:

Top priority for technological breakthroughs?
Surprise: Four in 10 Americans say “fuel efficiency and alternative fuels”

Focus on medical and environmental concerns place second and third in national survey by the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority

Second survey reveals similar priorities among British respondents

Fairfax County, Virginia USA, April 3, 2008 – Nearly four in 10 Americans polled in a new survey say that improving fuel efficiency and developing alternative fuels should have the highest priority for investments that will lead to meaningful technological advances within the next decade.

In a just released national survey, commissioned by the Fairfax County (Virginia) Economic Development Authority (FCEDA, www.FairfaxCountyEDA.org) and conducted by IPSOS Public Affairs, an independent, leading global research company, 37 percent of those polled selected “fuel efficiency and alternative fuels” from a list of seven categories of potential investment. Placing second was “medical” (30%) followed by the “environment” (14%). As a percentage of the total, the other categories registered at 10% or less.

“These results are a snapshot in time of what people believe today should be the focus of technological investment,” said Gerald L. Gordon, Ph.D., president and CEO of the FCEDA. “As one of the world’s most prominent breeding grounds for creative discovery and technological exploration, Fairfax County needs to know what is important to people. These survey results tell us that there is a tremendous interest in new technologies that will address a range of energy, medical and environmental concerns. These are instructive findings for large corporations, emerging startups and the investment community.”

The top line results of the survey, conducted by telephone of close to 700 American adults on March 7-9, were as follows:

If you had to choose from the following categories, what do you believe should be the highest priority, in terms of investing money and resources, in order to achieve a meaningful technological advancement in the next 10 years?

Fuel efficiency and alternative fuels Medical Environment Security and Defense Transportation Space Exploration Telecommunications and Media Don’t know/Not sure

37% 30% 14% 10% 3% 3% 2% 1%

There were some notable demographic distinctions among the findings, including:

• For female respondents, the top investment focus was medical (33%), which was cited foremost by 26% of men.
• More than four in 10 men (43%) said fuel efficiency and alternative fuels should be the highest priority, while only 30% of women placed it on top.
• Forty-six percent of college graduates named fuel efficiency as the number one priority versus 31% for those with high school degrees or less. (The highest priority cited by high school graduates was “medical” at 36 percent.).
• Respondents in western states cited medical as the utmost priority at 34% versus 33% for fuel efficiency and alternative fuels.
• Older survey participants were more inclined to select fuel efficiency and alternative fuels – 42% for those ages 55 and older versus 37% for those aged 35-54 and 31% for those between the ages of 18-34.

A parallel survey conducted by the FCEDA in Great Britain found that respondents favored advancements in “medical” technology and “fuel efficiency and alternative fuels” (38% and 33% respectively) above other categories. A desire to see breakthroughs in the “environment” ranked third in GB with 14 percent. As a percentage of the total, the remaining categories registered at 10 percent or less among British respondents, as they did in America.

The top-line results of the survey, conducted by telephone of more than 500 adults throughout Great Britain March 7-9 by Ipsos MORI, were as follows:

If you had to choose from the following categories, what do you believe should be the highest priority, in terms of investing money and resources, in order to achieve a meaningful technological advancement in the next 10 years?

Medical Fuel efficiency and alternative fuels Environment Transportation Security
and Defense Space Exploration Telecommunications and Media No opinion

38% 33% 14% 8% 4% 1% 1% 3%

There were also some notable demographic distinctions among the British findings, including:

• 44 percent of male respondents said fuel efficiency and alternative fuels should be the highest priority, while only 23 percent of women placed it on top.
• Women chose “medical” technology as the top investment focus (46%) while men placed medical second on their list (28%) behind fuel efficiency and alternative fuels.
• Survey participants ages 55 to 64 were more inclined to select medical as their top priority (43%), while respondents 65+ selected fuel efficiency and alternative fuels (36%).
• In terms of regions, the South East, Wales and the South West chose fuel efficiency and alternative fuels above all other categories (38 and 39% respectively). The Midlands, North England and Scotland all pinpointed medical as their key issue.

Survey Methodology
The FCEDA survey was conducted March 7-9, 2008 by Ipsos Public Affairs, which is owned and managed by research professionals. As part of its weekly U.S. Telephone Omnibus Study, IPSOS interviewed 692 adults ages 18 and older. The margin of error for the entire survey is 4% at a 95% confidence level.

About the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority
The Fairfax County Economic Development Authority (www.FairfaxCountyEDA.org) promotes Fairfax County, Virginia, as a business and technology center. In 2007 Time magazine called Fairfax County “one of the great economic success stories of our time.” It is the Washington, D.C., area’s private-sector job leader and is a major hub for regional economic activity. The FCEDA maintains marketing offices in San Francisco, Bangalore, Frankfurt, London, Seoul and Tel Aviv.

The new Ford Transit Connect is smaller and more compact than the older yellow cabs. They are designed with less horizontal space and with more vertical space. But it will actually have more space for passengers and their cargo than the older cabs. It also features dual sliding doors which help cause less pain in an over-crowded city like New York.

The Ford Transit Connect uses a standard 2.0-liter, four-cylinder engine which uses 30% less fuel and releases 90% less exhaust fumes than the older cabs. The new cab will get an estimated 19 mpg in the city.

The driver of the cab will get an in-dash computer, running Microsoft Auto software, which is linked to Internet and offers traffic, weather, and navigation information and help.

Did you know that about 90% of the world’s goods are shipped the water way? About one billion ton of CO2 is emitted by ships, every year. The ships energy demands are expected to rise by 75% in about 15-20 years.

Did you also know that 4% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions come from ships? This can be compared to the aviation industry that emits about 2%.

According to a leaked UN study, the annual emissions from the world’s merchant fleet have reached 1.12 billion tonnes of CO2. That is nearly 4.5% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Image credit: Angelrays. Image licensed under a
Creative-Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works license.