Ideal Bite

Little-known fact: I spend my nights and weekends working on another project, Where's Lulu - a website where people can review restaurants and shops based on their accessibility.

So I've been meaning to cover what I think is an interesting, green vs. disability topic: Are hybrid cars too silent?

The National Federation for the Blind thinks so - blind people can't hear them coming when they're walking down the street. The organization's asking carmakers to add the equivalent of noisemakers to hybrid cars. NPR did a test, and it's hard not to see where the Federation's coming from.

On a related note, Nissan's new electric car, the Leaf, will likely make noises Read the full post... 

I got a bike a couple months ago, and I've been riding it to work probably like three-quarters of the time. I kept buying my transit pass, because it was still pretty convenient to have, and I can buy it pre-tax, so it's not too pricey.

But SF just raised the prices again, so I'm gonna cancel it for the next round and just ride my bike every day. So instead of getting $45 from me a month, they get zero.

I'm sure this is just a function of my noneconomist, non-cityplanner brain, but why do cities make public transit so expensive? I get that it's expensive to operate, but it seems like if they just made it free, more people would use it, equalling fewer drivers, and money saved on road repair, health care, paying ticket sellers and fare enforcers, etc.

But the more expensive they make it, the more attractive driving/biking/walking/whatever becomes as Read the full post... 

Like the shower, the bus is a great place to think. Case in point: my commute this morning yielded three blog topics I could write about for you today. Here goes:

Wind. While I was waiting at my stop a gust blew over me and I couldn’t help but think – free energy! There's all this wind that we can harness, let's hop to it.

Paper. When I got a seat on the bus I pulled out a receipt to jot down notes on wind, when I thought: When did receipts become novels? Jeez, this was a long one. Can't they just email us our receipts? That way, my bag isn't full of 'em, you save a few thousand trees, and I have a record of everything I bought for the year come tax time.

Random. I think my bus crush hopped on at some point and I started to wonder: does Read the full post... 

Michael J. Fox promised me hoverboards by 2015. I'm pretty sure that ain't happening.

But I got a taste of some other futuristic technology last week at the California Fuel Cell Partnership. The CFCP is a rare display of collaboration between major car companies, oil companies, greentech companies...pretty much anyone that has to do with using or providing energy. Their goal: To make cars powered by - wait for it - hydrogen fuel cells that are affordable and practical to manufacture.

So when Volkswagen invited us up there to check out its fuel cell Passats that were developed in conjunction with Tongji University in Shanghai, I jumped at the chance to assuage my disappointment with Marty McFly.
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Last year, I ranted hardcore about the fact that the director of the EPA wouldn't let CA go ahead with its own strict car emissions laws. Now, it's new administration, new policy. The big news yesterday of course was Obama's auto emissions plan, which calls for way greener cars by 2016.

One of the “tragedies” of the new plan, according to naysayers, is that cars are gonna cost more initially. They're right. But in addition to the cash drivers will save at the pump (more efficient cars = less gas to buy), the haters aren't taking into account the potential billions of dollars in health care costs, not to mention the thousands of lives we'll save each year.

Less Read the full post... 

This Earth week, we've unrolled three chats with Goldman Environmental winners Yuyun Ismawati, Maria Gunnoe, and Rizwana Hasan. Today belongs to Marc Ona Essangui from Gabon. (Yeah, OK, I'll lay off the links for a sec.) Last year, Marc worked to get his government to renegotiate a multibillion mining and development plan - Read the full post... 

If you're just catching on to our Earth Day (today!) special on the seven winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize, catch up here and here. Then meet environmental lawyer Syeda Rizwana Hasan (see photo). Here's the deal: European and Asian countries (many countries, including the United States, have technically banned the practice) send their outta-work ships to Bangladesh, where workers dismantle them on B’s beaches. The result: toxic chems - including asbestos, PCBs, lead, and arsenic - leach into the water, and lack of Read the full post... 

Here in SF, we have early voting. Meaning: As early as 29 days before the election, you can go to City Hall, walk downstairs, get your ballot, and voilà! Voting completed.

I originally thought that early voting was some great magic conjured up by ever-busy urbanites of SF, but then the boyfriend (who is working for one of the presidential candidates in Indiana at the moment) disabused me of that misconception by telling me that they do early voting in some of even the most rural counties in the country. I'm continually amazed by the radness of the United States.

There is one major drawback to early voting, though - no "I Voted" sticker. Ever since I got to vote in a local countywide election on my actual 18th birthday, and left school midday to cast my ballot simply so I could show off the sticker the rest of the day, my exhibitionist Read the full post... 

I'm no germaphobe, but even if you wear gloves, pull your shirt over your hands, or somehow manage to sit down before the bus moves and use your pants as a buffer, you still kinda have to make contact with...whatever...when you take those things off. Still gotta wash your hands.

Fellow publicly transported people, we're all in this together: Can ya just shower already, make sure you're not leaking anything, and stay at home if you're sick? Pretty please?

-Jenifer Morgan...off to lather up...

Read the full post... 

Heather got up at the crack of dawn last Thursday to drop a couple tips on getting better gas mileage. See her in action on Good Morning America.

-Toshio...off to buy a bike helmet...

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