Donald Shoupe shows how charging for parking can have an impact on reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled. Having walked the district (Redwood City downtown) mentioned in the article I can testify that the traffic does disappear and features and sounds in the pedestrian environment suddenly come into relief. By setting a higher price for parking as you near the new downtown theater, Redwood City has told drivers, to decide where they want to park, where the costs are cheaper, before coming into the district. In addition the rate for three hours is similar to a train ticket making the mobility choice more realistic.
The solar powered meters are visual enhancement to the pedestrian environment but cause an immediate mobility choice problem for bicyclists. The new single wireless meter replaced dozens of the old coin operated parking meters which doubled as bike parking all over the downtown. Now I have to ride around looking for parking burning un-necessary calories!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/opinion/29shoup.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Over the course of a year, the search for curb parking in this 15-block district created about 950,000 excess vehicle miles of travel — equivalent to 38 trips around the earth, or four trips to the moon. And here’s another inconvenient truth about underpriced curb parking: cruising those 950,000 miles wastes 47,000 gallons of gas and produces 730 tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. If all this happens in one small business district, imagine the cumulative effect of all cruising in the United States.

What causes this astonishing waste? As is often the case, the prices are wrong. A national study of downtown parking found that the average price of curb parking is only 20 percent that of parking in a garage, giving drivers a strong incentive to cruise. Drivers often compare parking at the curb to parking in a garage and decide that the price of garage parking is too high. But the truth is that the price of curb parking is too low. Underpriced curb spaces are like rent-controlled apartments: hard to find and, once you do, crazy to give up. This increases the time costs (and therefore the congestion and pollution costs) of cruising.

And, like rent-controlled apartments, underpriced curb spaces go to the lucky more often than they do to the deserving. While the car owner with good timing can enjoy his space free or cheaply for hours or days, others who are late for a meeting or a job interview are left to circle the block, making themselves — and other drivers — miserable. The solution is to set the right price for curb parking...

Because the city returns the revenue to pay for added public services in the metered district, the downtown area will receive an estimated $1 million a year for increased police protection and cleaner sidewalks.

Article continues.
Gladwyn

Gore testimony follow up

Gore testimony follow up
Staying on the national news beat for little longer.

Olbermann on Gore's testimony:


Gore issued this statement:

Some more thoughts on yesterday's hearing
I had a really interesting day at the House and Sen ate. Having served in both houses for several years, I was struck by how many members now accept the scientific consensus on the climate crisis. Of course there were a few who did not -but that wasn’t a surprise. The fact that the naysayers are increasingly isolated is very encouraging.

There was a big reaction in both the House and Senate when I told them about the more than 519,000 of you who signed the powerful messages I delivered yesterday. In fact since the hearing I have already had a lot of follow-up contacts from members of the committee wanting to introduce legislation that embodies the recommendations I offered. I was also contacted by many others, who want to solve the climate crisis and put it at the top of the Congressional agenda.

I am particularly grateful to Chairman Dingell and Gordon on the House side. And of course on the Senate side Chairwoman Boxer brought the hearing room to spontaneous applause when she held up the gavel and informed Senator Inhofe he's not in charge anymore

That was a moment that made me smile.

But there's a real divide in the country. The percentage of people who are 'highly concerned' is only 41%. And even for that 41% the urgency relative other concerns is uneven. Hat-tips to Grist for all of the above.

Now back to your regularly scheduled local news...

Gore at the House of Representatives

Gore at the House of Representatives



It's cutoff somewhat abruptly at the end but it's worth watching - inspiring, with concrete ideas. Laying out some of the key steps Congress can take.

But as Bill McKibben stated, “there is no silver bullets, only silver buckshot.” It’s key to remember that the solution lies at every level: personal, local, state, and national.

Santa Clara signs the Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement - right on the heels of the big rally.

They're planning a boatload of stuff. See the activity on their May 20th meeting. The Mayors' Agreement is #13.

(Yea, Santa Clara is not in San Mateo county...)

Someone FOR global warming...

Amory Lovins; Advanced Energy Efficiency- Concepts and Practice
March 26 – 30, 7:30pm

Amory Lovins, cofounder and CEO of the Rocky Mountain Institute, will speak at a weeklong, free evening lecture series entitled "Advanced Energy Efficiency: Concepts and Practice." The talks will cover five different topics: buildings, industry, transportation, implementation, and implications. Located at Dinkelspiel Auditorium on the Stanford campus.

Visit http://www.maproyalty.com/professorship.html for more information.

This looks facinating and unfortunately I can't make it...

Great turnout - nearly 300 people attended the Unite to Fight Global Warming rally in Redwood City.

From the San Mateo County Times:

The families who came to Sequoia High School to hear speeches by Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope, state Sen. Joe Simitian and other leaders didn't need to be convinced of the urgency of the global climate situation or their responsibility to do something about it. Many people arrived on bicycles, and nearly everyone raised their hand when asked if they had seen Al Gore's environmental documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth."

They came to be recruited as foot soldiers in the battle against public apathy. The Cool Cities campaign, which unofficially began in November, hopes to use residents' lobbying power to persuade every City Council in San Mateo, Santa Clara and San Benito Counties to adopt the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.

Media included Univision, channel 2 and print media.

People came out energized and eager to get involved in the Cool Cities campaign!

Kudos to the many folks who put this together.

Z-squared commercial building coming, a possible first, with with the construction of Kaneda's office in San Jose. Z-squared means zero carbon-dioxide emissions and zero energy use from the grid.

When the $1.8 million rehab of Kaneda's Integrated Design Associates or IDeAs is finished in June, his dozen or so employees will have 17 skylights, access to plant-filled patios and even a bocce-ball court. No gas will be used to heat, light or cool the building; instead, all the energy for the 7,000-square-foot facility will come from photovoltaic panels installed on the roof.

Ok, from a true lifecycle cost - factoring in materials and construction (and ultimate demolition) - it's not zero emissions, nevertheless it's an important landmark and hopefully a sign of things to come.

Bruce Karney's solar coop was in the SJ Mercury this weekend. Through group purchases of solar installations, people are getting big price reductions - as much as 30%.

Energy consciousness has reached a tipping point in this part of the world, and very interesting things should happen from this point on," Karney said.

That's right! This is the kind of solutions-oriented action we need to solve the climate crisis.

We highlighted Bruce's efforts last month.

Save money for the climate
A study from Oxford University reported in The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,2030648,00.html

said that "Working men earning more than £40,000 a year are responsible for the
lion's share of climate change emissions from personal travel,
according to a Oxford University survey. It found that one in five
people are responsible for 61% of climate change emissions from
private transport and that most of these are well-off men."

The study is relevant to us in the Bay Area because of our high income relative to the rest of the world. CO2 is the result of burning fossil fuels. Only those who can afford fossil fuels will burn it, and we are capable of doing that a lot. ABAG inventories of Bay Area CO2 shows that more than 50% of our emissions come from the transport sector.
www.abag.ca.gov/jointpolicy/Climate%20Change.pdf

Saving a lot of money by reevaluating our travel habits can make a big difference for the climate.

Blue Man Group makes the point well...

New San Mateo city new web page on its green practices.

The city does indeed deserve credit for the things listed, including support for the Bay Meadows project which will reduce auto use by putting housing where it's most needed (right on the Caltrain stop!), the green library, energy efficiency audits of its buildings, etc.

But like all the efforts in local cities it's very piecemeal. The city really stands to benefit by a more comprehensive approach though a Green Ribbon Taskforce and real action plan.

San Mateo Climate Action has requested a meeting with city manager Arne Croce to discuss the timing of the city's efforts.

Carl Guardino, Executive Director, Silicon Valley Leadership Group and Linda Craig, President, League of Women Voters of the Bay Area will be joining Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope at the rally on global warming March 18th.

When: Sunday March 18, 2007
2:30 PM - 4:30 PM

Where: Historic Carrington Hall
Sequoia High School
1201 Brewster Avenue
Redwood City

RSVP: http://lomaprietaglobalwarming.sierraclub.org/rsvp.php

Ride "Carl's Cool Caltrain" by joining us at the San Mateo station at 1:20pm to take the train to the event. Meet Carl Pope!