This is the forty-eighth issue of my free newsletter. Your feedback is most welcome!
EARTH & US: Transportation
As gas prices continue to rise and awareness of “Peak Oil” spreads, and the grim effects of global warming become ever more apparent, more scrutiny must be given to the replacement of private automobiles with public transportation.
There are plenty of reasons to support public transportation: air quality, access for the poor, the elderly, the disabled, and youth, and greater livability of a city. Parking decks are very expensive to build; adding buses is cheaper. Automobiles are the second-biggest air polluter (after coal-fired power plants).
Buses usually run on diesel, which is high in particulates; but fortunately, they can easily run on cleaner-burning biodiesel blends. The second highest cost for poor families, after housing, is transportation. The elderly are often trapped at home if they can no longer drive, and become dependent on others for many of their needs. Children rely upon their parents to drive them everywhere, and many streets are too busy to be safe for bicycling. Only a few Asheville streets have bicycle lanes. Even walking is difficult in many areas due to the dearth of sidewalks; people who rely on cars for everything barely notice this lack. Is it any wonder that people develop weight problems, when so few are out walking?
Does a city need to be large in order to have an excellent mass transit system? This question comes up frequently when transportation is discussed in Asheville. Decatur, Alabama has a better transit system, and is a smaller city. A big problem in Asheville is simply sprawl. People want the feeling of “living in the country,” so they live all spread out rather than in apartment buildings or multi-family homes within the city limits. Sprawl bankrupts cities by driving up the costs for water and sewer systems, not to mention roads. Density of population is what makes mass transit work. Instead of one family per 2-3 acres, a public transit system requires at least 6-8 homes per acre. This means that transportation cannot be considered without also discussing land use, planning, and development.
We live in a culture that typically views buses as “only for the poor.” Private cars are a symbol of wealth; many regard them as a basic necessity. Buses are inconvenient because the routes are limited, they run infrequently (one per hour is typical on many routes), and most buses do not run after 6 pm—not even late enough for many people to use them for transportation home from work. In Asheville, the buses are never full and often almost empty. So, how can the image of public transportation be shifted? In Chapel Hill, NC, the downtown buses are free of charge, hence very popular. At Evergreen College, a free bus pass for students solved all the parking problems on campus. Even if the buses were free one day per week, with routes and times being published regularly in the newspaper, more people would probably consider using them. This could be a tool to market mass transit and get people who have never ridden a bus to try it.
Park 'n Ride lots are a sensible idea for folks commuting from outlying towns—leaving their automobiles in lots outside town and having frequent shuttles into downtown. This would avoid the need for more parking garages. Highway funds can be used to build such lots and subsidize the shuttles.
In some countries, there are “people's cabs:” usually beat-up old cars which are privately operated like taxis, but running the most needed routes for low prices—taking on the job not being done. Berkeley, California has a “City Car-share” system that allows people to pick up a green VW Beetle from one of several locations and use it to run their errands for a few hours and return it. For longer out of town trips, renting a car is cheaper; but for just a few hours' use, this system is economical, and I used it when I was car-less for 18 months.
In a recent Earth Team effort to inspire people to conserve energy at the Jubilee Community in Asheville, the youth group created a painting of a nature scene covered up by pieces of gray, black and white paper depicting smokestacks spewing pollution. For every act that conserved energy, people removed a piece of the smokestack picture to reveal the lovely natural scene, and wrote on the scrap of paper what act they had done. It was wonderful to read all the reports of people installing compact fluorescent bulbs, low-flow showerheads, energy-efficient appliances, and starting compost piles. Although there were several notes of people carpooling, walking, or bicycling, there was—tellingly—not a single note that said “I took the bus.”
The question that haunts me is: Will we wake up and take these modest steps toward a saner, more sustainable way of traveling, before we are in the midst of a true crisis?
The following is a poem I wrote about Peak Oil.
"Approaching the Iceberg"
by Cathy Holt
The peak oil curve
Shaped like an iceberg—
There is much below the surface
On which we live our lives
That we don’t wish to see,
While the great solid steel ship of our society,
So formidable, fortified, thrusts forward,
So seemingly invulnerable, yet easily punctured—
Helpless by its own gigantic hurtling momentum
To respond with reason to the quite visible,
Rapidly approaching crisis choice point—
So we keep the lights burning and the band playing.
Let us cut the engines now.
The iceberg has been sighted.
We do have lifeboats
That look like windmills, gardens, bicycles, solar collectors;
Conversation, and conservation.
Together, we’ll recover from fossil fuel addiction,
Make amends for all the violence we have wrought
Upon each other and the Earth.
Forgive one another.
Grow food in the cities, and feed each other.
Travel less, discover village life’s rich texture.
Co-create a gentler, simpler world.
Work for peace.
Declare our water
Sacred.
Cathy Holt
"My religion is kindness." -Dalai Lama
www.thekindnesscampaign.org
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