‘Walk and Roll,’ school gates close each Wednesday

School is out this week, in observance of Thanksgiving, but I want to reinforce “Walk and Roll” each Wednesday at Santa Rosa Charter School for the Arts.

Rogue Commute Challenge

In the spirit of reducing our carbon footprint, of enhancing personal wellness and honoring the interdependent web of life, I’m asking co-workers if they'd be interested in forming “Rogue Commute Challenge” teams.

‘Bikenomics’ by Elly Blue

My latest “Suggest a Title” recommendation to my public library concerns Bikenomics, How Bicycling Can Save the Economy by Elly Blue (Microcosm Publishing, 2013).

In a recent eNewsletter, Utne Reader magazine directed my attention to an excerpt from chapter 1, “The Free Rider Myth.” In it, Blue challenges the “myth” that auto users pay for the roads they drive on.

Blue argues that drivers only pay for half the cost of our roads. The rest is paid for through sales, property or income taxes — whether or not we drive. And much of the money goes to pay interest on loans that financed road construction projects.

‘Crunch’ by Leslie Connor

I subscribe to various email lists related to library services to children, and in response to requests for recommendations on two very different topics, one book immediately came to mind.

I posted a review of Crunch by Leslie Connor (Katherine Tegan Books, 2010) in December 2013.

More recently, I recommended the book across one of the listservs I subscribe to. My recommendation was in response to a request for books with an environmental theme.

Set in present-day, Crunch depicts what happens when gasoline supplies abruptly disappear.

Table-top ironing board balanced on bike rack

My latest delivery of sewn bills and crowns for Hat People in southern Oregon was a trip that saw me taking a table-top ironing board home.

New blog about travel by bicycle and bus

“This librarian travels by bicycle and bus.” I’ve started a new blog to officially house my writings about auto-dependence alternatives. Its blogroll will grow as I migrate entries from my library-themed blog.

Bear Creek Greenway: Ashland to Phoenix trip

Bridge along the Bear Creek Greenway north of Ashland

Jonathan and I rode our bikes up the Bear Creek Greenway on Saturday, from Ashland to Phoenix, Oregon. The trip represented enormous progress in our efforts to free ourselves from dependence upon driving a car.

12 percent of households don’t have car

From the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (citing a 2009 National Household Travel Survey), come a variety of statistics about U.S. transportation that may startle and inspire. Among them, one in 12 U.S. households does not own a car and 11.9 percent of all trips in this country were done by walking or bicycling.

Automobile bias in job interview videos

In an online discussion of videos about interviewing techniques, a classmate raised the point that an assumption by the producers that applicants will drive to an interview, is a “bit off the mark.”

‘Crunch’ by Leslie Connor

In Crunch by Leslie Connor (Katherine Tegan Books, 2010) a family’s bicycle repair business is the only thing keeping people on the road when gas supplies dry up.

A long-distance truck driver and his wife are stranded several hundred miles from home when gasoline supplies abruptly disappear. Fourteen-year-old Dewey and his siblings must manage the “Marriss Bike Barn” while meeting family responsibilities.

With no cars on the highway, cyclists take to the lanes. Suddenly, everyone is turning to the Marrisses for much-needed bicycle repairs.

Book advocates greater investment in public transit

For the past three weeks, my daily commute on Lake Transit has offered me an occasion to read Straphanger by Taras Grescoe (Times Books, 2012).

Considerable gap between transit and auto costs

Cost of travel for transit-proximate and car-dependant households
Source of data: Taras Grescoe, citing Brookings Institute study

From Taras Grescoe, author of Straphanger (Times Books, 2012), comes this amazing statistic about the cost of travel in households that are near public transit versus those that rely upon cars.

Kate Wolf Festival has ‘green’ emphasis

Jonathan spent this past weekend at the Kate Wolf Festival, where he worked in our friend Evan’s clothing booth. The festival takes place each year at Black Oak Ranch in Laytonville, home to the Hog Farm and Camp Winnarainbow circus camp.

Green publications should promote public transit

Screen capture: Voting break-down from Mother Earth News poll results

An email from Utne Reader this week invited me to take a “green vehicle” survey that was hosted by Mother Earth News. The first few questions had to be left blank because they involved the answerer’s primary vehicle and “public transit” wasn’t an option.

Via Twitter, I asked why “public transit” wasn’t listed as a choice for primary vehicle.

The administrator of @MotherEarthNews indicated the purpose of the survey was to gather driving data but that my message would be passed along.

The survey asked how interested I would be in various types of articles about green vehicles. None of the proposed subjects involved public transportation.

Public transportation made a dismal showing among polling options on the Mother Earth News website in response to “What’s your main means of going places?” Any option that didn’t involve personal auto use gained only minute percentages.

The breakdown in a screen capture I took at roughly noon on Tuesday was car: 43.21 percent (105 votes), truck: 23.87 percent (58 votes), SUV or crossover: 16.46 percent (40 votes) and van: 8.23 percent (20 votes). Among those options that didn’t involve the use of a personal vehicle, the vote spread was bike: 2.06 percent (five votes), feet: 2.88 percent (seven votes) and public transportation: 3.29 percent (eight votes). A total of 243 votes had been cast.

In response to my observation that auto dependence dominates in the Mother Earth News poll, its Twitter account administrator indicated, “I guess this shows that green cars are a good way to get people involved, some areas have terrible/no public transit.

This point may be true, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that “green” personal-use vehicles are the only way to go. I think that if we’re serious about our society’s sustainability, we need to invest in public transit infrastructure. “Green” publications such as Mother Earth News should take the lead in ensuring this is so.

Any carbon footprint that a person’s auto travel makes will be dramatically reduced if he or she shares a commute with many other people.

According to an executive summary for the first half of the fiscal year, 2011/12 for Lake Transit Authority, Lake Transit recorded more than 200,000 passenger boardings from July to December. “This is a 29 percent increase over the same period in 2010/11.”

Individual route productivity included Route 4A along Soda Bay Road with an increase of 72.8 percent, Route 2, which travels over Cobb between Kit’s Corner and Middletown had a 44.6 percent and the Route 8 loop around Lakeport increased ridership by 42 percent.

The Routes 3, 4 and 7 “intercity backbone” between Calistoga in Napa County through Middletown, Clearlake, Kelseyville, Lakeport and Upper Lake to Ukiah in Mendocino County added nearly 15,000 passengers for a 45-percent increase in use.

So as a commuter who daily rides the bus, that puts me in good company.

I ride the bus because it makes my commute affordable. I pay $40 per month for a rider’s pass that gives me unlimited use of in-county routes. Two days before payday, I don’t have to worry about whether I can put gas in the tank.

With gas prices what they are, I couldn’t afford to live and work at nearly opposite ends of Lake County if I had to commute by car. I am blessed with a work schedule that compliments the times when Lake Transit buses operate.

I don’t need a car when I’m at work and I rarely need a car when I’m at home. Much of what I need is within walking distance of my family’s apartment.

Before I travel by auto, I try to determine first if I could make the trip by public transit. That doesn’t mean I never use a car but it does mean I do so consciously.

I really think our society needs to move in a direction where public transit is the norm.

Emergency responders and news reporters need to travel by car to respond near-instantly to happenings and society should license them to do so. They serve vital roles of public safety and information. But the majority of people do not likewise need to instantly be out and about.

We already buy in to the notion that driving is a privilege and not a right by requiring motorists to be licensed and vehicles registered with the DMV.

It wouldn’t take much more to instigate a system where auto use is based upon the purpose it serves for the benefit of society.

Massive investment in public transit to get people where they need to go when they need to get there is a logical first step toward reducing dependence on personal vehicle use. All the better if public transportation is powered through “green” technology.

Online and print publications such as Mother Earth News are in a position to help shape public opinion about the worthiness of such a venture.

I hope they use this position wisely.

Published Feb. 21, 2012 in the Lake County Record-Bee

Gas prices make the bus a bargain

Among the messages on an e-mail group I subscribe to, were the instructions not to buy gas on April 15. The timing was ironic because I had added gas to the tank only one day before.

Traveling by bus on week-long system pass

The car has been out of commission this week. Something is wrong with the struts and we've been afraid to drive it. For $15 I got a week-long system pass. I used it to get to and from work and also used it to get down to Calistoga.

‘Alternative’ festival needs to practice what it promotes

The rutted dirt driveway seemed to go on forever and we shifted uncomfortably on our hay-bale seats as a man on a tractor pulled the makeshift shuttle up the road. Uncomfortably jostled by ruts in the roadway, I was relieved to disembark at journey's end.

Limited options for road trips out of county

Good luck turning left if you’re driving south on Calistoga Street through Middletown during the evening commute. You can wait an awfully long time for a break in the stream of northbound headlights — finally trying to beat the yellow when the stoplights change at Wardlaw or at State Route 175.