John Burke, CEO of Trek Bicycles, and Andy Clarke from the League of American Bicyclists visited Omaha yesterday and gave a series of presentations to highlight the benefits of and encourage efforts towards building Omaha as a Bicycle Friendly Community.

They discussed how bicycle friendly communities can work to address a myriad of issues for a city. These issues include impacting the obesity epidemic, traffic congestion, pollution, dependence on foreign oil and carbon footprints. Creating bicycle friendly is accomplished through combining good city design and city policy supports with strategically targeted transportation dollars.

I attended the breakfast session, where business and non-profit leaders were introduced to these concepts. John and Andy outlined a number of troubling trends and statistics which they believe should motivate Omaha to rally towards solutions. While they pointed out that there are several solutions to this range of issues, they proposed that the bicycle is the simple solution to several of these complex problems.

John provided 4 examples that prove that bikes can support a metro’s transportation needs. He showed that in the Netherlands 25% of all trips are taken by bike, and in Boulder the number is 21%. He reminded us of London’s congestion reducing strategies, and explained some of the political initiatives that have helped transform Portland.

Omaha was challenged to educate the city’s residents and public servants in order to help develop bicycle infrastructure. The city leaders were challenged to make Omaha a leader in this initiative, and become a model for other cities to follow. They readily agreed that Boulder and Portland have different cultures than Omaha. But they show it can be done. And they believe that Omaha, a city in the heartland, can show that this model can work anywhere in the state.

Kerri Peterson from Activate Omaha (host) opened up by explaining that Omaha has previously applied to be designated by the League of American Bicyclist as a bicycle friendly community. Despite our expansive recreational trail system, the application was denied.

Since then, efforts have been underway to change that outcome. Over $500,000 in private funding has been raised to design and build a 20 mile bicycle loop.  The first bicycle transportation map has been created. The City has instituted a Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee to review and recommend infrastructure improvements. This momentum is just the beginning and we would like you to join us to continue the push to change the physical face of our community.

Kerri also pointed out that the Bicycle Commuter Map was so well received by the city, that the 5000 copies printed were all distributed within 2 months. The supply was intended to last 3 years. They are currently reprinting, and the map is available for download now.

I’d encourage everyone to be involved. Bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, along with a well-developed public transportation system, can change the face of the city in which we live.

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Watch a version of John’s presentation.

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(Greenbiz.com) Businesses are becoming greener, not just because it’s right but because it makes sense.

Paul Marerro didn’t consciously try and start an environmentally conscious company. It happened naturally. Working out of a home office in Tampa, Fla., Marerro provides database and application enterprise architecting, report writing and project management services.

As his company grew, he hired a full-time employee in Iowa and added contractors in Cincinnati and Florida. All had worked for Marerro before in traditional offices. But the time for traditional offices has passed, both for Marrero and for a growing number of companies.

“It’s all telecommuting,” Marerro said.If he had more full-time employees, he’d consider a virtual office, which would allow facilities like a conference room and phone-answering service. But for now, he’s happy, he said.

Marerro doesn’t have much waste and while he can’t go totally paperless, waste paper is shredded and recycled. His business cards are made from recycled paper and all invoices are e-mailed. When he visits his largest client in Philadelphia, he walks or takes public transportation around the city.

“The green has worked its way in,” Marerro said. “We consume electricity but nowhere near the amount of an office building. It’s a room in your house.

“Ideally, Marerro said he’d like to grow the business while expanding his green practices to include solar panels for his home and office. “But it’s also nice to have several large clients, stay focused, give quality and there shouldn’t be a lot of waste,” he said.

Real estate executives and facility managers at medium to large companies are sometimes way off when it comes to occupancy rates, says John Anderson. Most think their facilities are being used 80 or 90 percent of the time. Upon tracking the data, they are often surprised to learn that they are using their space less than 50 percent of the time.

Anderson’s PeopleCube office hoteling software allows employees to schedule activities to secure a work space or room or office as needed.

The office and employer of the future invite employee participation and collaboration, which is key, Anderson said.

“You input your own carbon footprint. For example, you don’t own a cubicle so you rent one for a day. You set the air conditioning and lighting as you like, contributing to the carbon offset.”

Facilities represent the second highest expense for large businesses and the No. 1 manufacturer of emissions, according Anderson. Many employers are paying too much to heat and cool conference rooms that are hardly used and to illuminate cubicles too often left empty. Allowing employees to telecommute from home at least part of the week could cut costs significantly.

Traditionally, tracking and analyzing data from workflow patterns involves looking backward. Anderson suggests a mind shift that would require companies to establish baselines before demonstrating and measuring savings going forward.

Using the data more efficiently can help lower carbon footprint by reducing real estate costs and increasing energy efficiency up to 30 percent, he said.”You need to establish what your baselines are before you can demonstrate and measure savings going forward,” Anderson said. “Companies are just starting to do that today.”

John Larson remembers when a U.S. Interstate Highway collapsed three blocks from where he worked in Minneapolis-St Paul in 2007. There was an immediate reaction by politicians and transportation officials who needed to reroute hundreds of thousands of vehicles every day. If these commuters’ companies had put a telecommuting plan in place, that problem could potentially have been solved almost instantly.

Larson is a spokesperson for Results-Only Working Environment, or ROWE, a new way of managing people developed by two women who worked in human resources at Best Buy. The idea of ROWE is to allow flexible schedules, forcing managers to concentrate on outcomes rather than hours.

Best Buy adopted the ROWE plan at its headquarters, staggering arrival times for employees throughout the work day and cutting down on commute times.

“Those 4,000 people in Best Buy — 2,500 to 3,000 still go to work each day but not all at the same time,” Larson said. “People go at all hours so you don’t have a giant crush of cars stalled in traffic.”

Only a handful of companies have adopted the results-only philosophy. “But if ROWE became the status quo, it would have a tremendous impact on the environment,” Larson said.

Anderson’s 65 employees book conference space and cubicles on an as-needed basis, telecommuting when they don’t need to be in the office.

Telecommuting is a huge incentive, PeopleCube’s John Anderson said. It helps employees balance work and home life. Not having to drive an hour or more each way sometimes results in employees spending that saved commute-time working.

“After the salary, the number-one attraction is telecommuting,” he said. “You’re now dealing with millennial kids exiting college and they’re very environmentally conscious. Employees want to know that their company is driving in those directions. It’s a recruiting strategy too.”

Employee participation can sound like a scary proposition for the traditional office scenario.  There are two schools of thought regarding control, according to Anderson: One is that employees aren’t going to help, so bosses have to force them to do what bosses want. The other is that the more employees are included in decision-making, the more they will help.

Educating employees about green office practices is vital, Anderson said.

“You’d be surprised what the employee population is willing to do,” he said. “People are more willing to pitch in if you incent them to participate.”

Incentives include funding transportation if employees leave their cars at home, bringing a homey feel into the office by having living-room type set-ups or having a Starbucks in the building.

Some of the more radical changes in green offices of the future have to do with amenities-based interiors and designs based around increased productivity. Think laundry room at the office so you don’t have to send out.

Some banks, insurance and technology companies are creating positions for sustainability officers dedicated to reducing carbon footprint. Others resist, saying they want to be environmentally conscious but have to have a return on their investment in everything they do. Whether they’re in stocks, paper recycling or can recycling, there’s a prevailing mentality in the executive suite that if you’re not in the office today, you’re not really working.

“Our employees that telecommute are probably more productive than those that come in,” Anderson said. “As long as I’m getting a day’s work out of you I don’t really care. Telecommuting has a high degree of success.”

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Content from Dana Sanchez as posted on Greeenbiz.com.

Cyclists and community organizers from around the metro gathered downtown on Saturday for an all-inclusive discussion of cycling accessibility. The event was hosted at the Midwest National Park Service Headquarters on the Omaha riverfront. I have to praise the location first. The building is situated right at the foot of the pedestian bridge, and has a wonderfull view of the river and downtown. To top it off, the building is Leed Gold Certified.

Corey and I were only able to attend a short portion of the day-long event, but we made sure to join at the portion that was most important to us. We were there for the review of the Omaha Streetscape plan hosted by Omaha By Design’s Connie Spellman.

She gave a concise but informative presentation about Omaha’s initiative to integrate pedestrians, bicyclists, and the environment into our streets. The streets that are now exclusively built for cars. (Did you know that Nebraska doesn’t have a Department of Transportation? Only a Department of Roads. Makes you wonder how we don’t have a better mixed use planning.)

She highlighted the successes in the Benson Ames Alliance master plan. Next year they are beginning the first phase of the streetscape redesign.

Connie made a point to motivate members of the audience to contact their City Council Person and the head of Omaha Public Works to advocate for better bicycle and pedestrian transportation options. She said that these public servants (an underutilized word, but so important in this time of jaded politics) really do want to hear from constituents and act on their behalf.

This summit reinforced the good and the bad for cycling in Omaha. The good is that Omaha isn’t a huge city. It is practical to move around by bike or foot. Also, the bus system has recently added bike racks to the front of busses. And of course, Omaha has over 80 miles of bicycle trails snaking across the city. The challenges are streets that are often poorly designed, crowded with drivers who are impatient and uninformed. And, the topography of our city, make East/West traffic difficult. The hills are challenging, but the bike trails and bike lanes are limited in this direction.

I asked if there is ONE street in particular that we should contact our local representatives about. I wanted to know which East/West street had the greatest chance of being renovated in the near future. She strongly suggested that we advocate for Leavenworth Street. This street is well graded, and is dangerous currently because it carries too much traffic. Redesigning this street can greatly contribute to the quality of life for neighborhood residents as well as cycling commuters.

I’m making my calls this week. I’d encourage you to do the same.

It looks like this video has been out for a while, but I just came across it and love the message. Good Magazine features the collaboration between the Karaba Coffee Co-op and the Portland, Oregon coffee roaster that buys its coffee. By providing bikes it has solved the problem of lugging huge bags of coffee through the unpaved hills of Rwanda, boosted production, and given birth to a new non-profit.

Lugging huge bags of coffee through the unpaved hills of Rwanda to a processing plant was back-breaking work for the Karaba coffee co-op. In this original GOOD video see how a collaboration between Karaba and a Portland, Oregon, coffee roaster has solved that problem, boosted production, and given birth to a new non-profit.

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(Warning…Political Content) Watching the presidential debates a couple of weeks back, I couldn’t help but take note that there was hardly a mention of behavioral changes on the part of Americans to address gas prices and energy consumption.

There has been some lip-service given to developing public transportation infrastructure, but I doubt that will happen until it is virtually too late. I’m so frustrated now that so many Americans are demanding that the government and industry solve the resources problem for them.

At a meeting we went to recently on Transition Towns and Peak Oil there were some scary numbers thrown around about how technology solutions aren’t going to solve our problems. Hybrid cars, wind & solar energy, nuclear, or the mythical clean coal don’t stand a chance at picking up the slack left by declining oil production.

I’m a HUGE advocate for making changes to our behaviors in order to reduce consumption. The benefits are endless, you save money, help reduce environmental harm, and maintain better health. I sincerely hope that more people in the community start to adopt similar solutions.

But…I found this video today and am truly troubled. Watch for yourself.

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“Omaha—smack dab in the middle of America,” starts the city profile on SustainLane. Omaha ranks #25 on the site’s sustainability index of the nation’s 50 biggest cities, notably beating the front-range Colorado city of Colorado Springs and sunny San Diego, CA.

The site’s peer-reviewed, national study ranks cities by at least 16 factors, including each city’s ability to maintain healthy air, drinking water, parks and public transit systems, as well as a robust, sustainable local economy with green building, farmers markets, renewable energy and alternative fuels.

“We’re beginning to see the top- and bottom-ranked cities move farther apart, with the cities taking sustainability seriously increasing in desirability nationwide and enjoying better odds of long-term economic prosperity,” said SustainLane Media CEO James Elsen. “Specifically, the top 15 cities are creating more vibrant city centers and offer higher quality air, water, food and transportation choices that yield smaller carbon footprints per resident than those at the bottom of the list. We predict that the lower-ranking cities will increasingly struggle to sustain their resident and business populations and local economies.”

Why does Omaha rank where it does?

The city markets its own brand of compost called OmaGro. Omaha also recently switched to single stream recycling and has upped the types of plastics it accepts, making it easier for residents to divert waste away from landfills.

On the the transportation front, the city would do well to turn its attention to upping public transit ridership. In our survey, it 48th of 50 in this department. Mayor Mike Fahey is thinking about resuscitating the city’s old streetcar system; he might also consider offering alternative transportation subsidies, as many higher-ranking cities do.

The biggest limitation to making Omaha more sustainable may lie in getting more people to buy into the idea of living green, says the mayor’s deputy assistant, Andrea Fox. To help with outreach, the city is collaborating with the Green Omaha Coalition, a group that aims to promote a healthy, sustainable community through public-private partnerships, educational programs, and proposing policy solutions.

SustainLane.com is the web’s largest people-powered guide to sustainable living. The site connects interested consumers with the tools and information on everything related to green, including:

• The largest directory of local, green-friendly businesses in the United States with over 20,000 small business listings;
• Consumer-generated how-tos, news and product reviews of new green offerings in the marketplace; and
• A community of likeminded individuals willing to share information and personal experiences with each other.

I’ve found the site to be a rich resource for information on virtually any sustainability topic.

I was sitting on my front porch earlier this morning, sipping on my first cup of coffee for the day. The birds weren’t out yet and the wind wasn’t blowing, it was quiet.

Then, from down the street, came the roar of an engine. I looked down the hill to see a pair of headlights racing up the street. As the dark SUV sped past, a hand reached out the window and tossed a plastic wrapped newspaper in the general direction of my neighbors house. Without hesitation, the engine roared again and the ‘paperboy‘ continued up the hill.

What happened? I never had a paper route. But I remember when I was in elementary school my best friend did. Whenever I spent the night, I would wake up early with him. We would grab the stack of flat papers from his front porch, pull out a bag of rubber bands, and wrap the papers up. Then he would strategically load his double sided bag and we would walk up and down the neighborhood streets, carefully tossing papers onto porches as we went.

I can’t remember the last time that I saw anyone walking a paper route. And I certainly haven’t seen any kids doing it.

So many things disturbed me about this morning’s experience (not the least of which that someone was speeding down my street…grrr). The fact that an SUV is apparently required for a paper route is ridiculous. As if this isn’t inefficient enough, the driver is racing around with totally inefficient driving habits. Then the fact that this guy cares so little about his work that he barely slows down to toss the paper with any sort of consideration for the customer. And of course, what happened to the rubber band? It wasn’t raining. Why the plastic bag?

I think that our society needs to take a long look at ourselves. We need to slow down, live in a way that is healthy for ourselves and our environment, we need to live in the moment, and we need to be considerate towards others.

So disturbing.

Found this little gem on Urban Velo. I’m so glad to see Gary Fisher investing in the cycling lifestyle with gusto.

When I was working at Fisher, I had the great pleasure of spending time with the man himself. His wild energy and boundless imagination were difficult for me to keep up with sometimes. My philosophy at the time was to listen intently, and take notes furiously. Because I always walked away with a list of ideas that may or may not change the world.

Gary was traveling a lot at the time, and came back from the Netherlands and Asia raving about all of the utility bikes that crowded the streets there. He started talking about the joys of riding slow, and totally integrating bikes into life.

We took a few of his ideas and started creating some city bikes, but nothing that fully captured his vision. Then, after I left, the Simple City came out. That bike was certainly a step closer to Gary’s vision. Now I see that the El Ranchero is in the works.

The El Ranchero is a ‘long-bike’, built to carry massive amounts of cargo. The bike is long for stability and capacity, but when designed properly, still handles well and is relatively lightweight. According the the Fisher designer:

This project was done as a pure concept. We recognize the potential of long tail bikes as a real solution to people’s everyday needs. Everyone needs transportation and everyone needs to transport their stuff. We’d like to help people with that task by making the whole scenario easy. It’s another part of One World - Two Wheels.

Our research showed a real need for people to carry their kids to school, soccer practice, or with them while they run some errands. The supermarket, home improvement store, and transportation to work were some of the common scenarios. To make this all easier, we added a dedicated child’s ‘cockpit’ complete with saddle, bars, and foot pegs. The bags keep your stuff dry, swallow a week’s worth of groceries, and instantly fold up to keep the bike narrow when not needed. We also added a front bag to keep some of the smaller items in easy reach and it’s detachable so you can take it with you. While loading up everything, the double kickstand keeps the bike planted so there’s one less thing to worry about.

I gathered from a friend that just got back from the GF factory show, that this bike is on the list for production. But i wouldn’t expect to see it in the showroom soon. I have a feeling though that Gary is going to be pushing hard to make it happen. Plus, I trust that Aaron, Chris and Mikey up at Fisher are also going to fight the good fight to make it happen. Good luck fellas.

New data from the Department of Transportation reveals that driving slid for the eighth straight month in June.

According to the DOT, Americans drove 12.2 billion miles less in June than they did in June 2007, a drop of 4.7 percent. That’s the largest monthly drop since the decline began in November.

A press release from the DOT says that, since November, Americans have driven 53.2 billion fewer miles than they did over the same period a year earlier, a drop that is more pronounced than the drop that occurred during the 1970s, a era marked by severe gas shortages. Rural travel has fallen 4 percent since late last year, while urban driving has fallen only 1.2 percent.

The biggest declines seem to occur in big states with wide open spaces. Driving was down 6.1 percent in Alaska, 6.2 percent in Kansas, 7 percent in Maine, 7.7 percent in Montana, 6.7 percent in Nevada, 6.9 percent in Washington, and 6.8 percent in Wyoming.

The Associated Press supplements the DOT’s data with a poll of the over-50 crowd, in which more than two-thirds say that high gas prices have prompted them to drive less.

Four in 10 said they have used public transportation, walked or ridden a bicycle more frequently since gas prices have risen, according to the AARP poll, which was being released Wednesday.

Elinior Ginzler, AARP’s senior vice president for livable communities, said she’s concerned that communities don’t have adequate sidewalks, bus shelters, bike lanes and public transportation options as more people look for other means to get around.

“More Americans age 50-plus are trying to leave their cars behind but face obstacles as soon as they walk out the door, climb on their bikes or head for the bus,” Ginzler said.

While a drop in driving is certainly positive from an environmental perspective – it directly translates into lower greenhouse gas emissions and more breathable air – all this suggests that many Americans, particularly those living outside of cities, are getting squeezed by high gas prices.

Maybe our energy crisis is also, in part, an infrastructure crisis. If more of us had access to public transit, if more of our neighborhoods had sidewalks and safe bike lanes, if more of us could buy our necessities on Main Street instead of at the strip mall on the outskirts of town, then our baseline would be lower, and maybe the spike in gas prices wouldn’t hit us so hard.

A lot of Americans would like to see these kinds of infrastructure improvements. One survey found that 40 percent of households would like to live in walkable urban areas. And, as I noted in my blog post in May, a survey by Rodale Press found that 40 percent of Americans say they would bike to work if they felt it was safer, and a 2008 Zogby poll found that 53 percent of Americans would take mass transit if it were close to their home and work.

But it seems that there is little political will to curb America’s car culture. Even as record ridership is straining mass transit, transportation officials seem more concerned about maintaining roads. In late July, amid worries that decreased driving is depleting federal funding for road upkeep, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters proposed a short-term solution of borrowing money from mass transit funding.

Source: Christian Science Monitor

On Saturday, Corey and I attended a meeting of the Omaha New Urbanism & Sustainable Development Meetup Group (website). The meeting brought together a diverse group of people whom all share a vision for vibrant and livable neighborhoods in Omaha.

The conversation was riveting, and those in attendance were up to their elbows in real-world experience. The members are clearly out in the community making change happen.

‘New urbanism is an American urban design movement that arose in the early 1980s. Its goal is to reform many aspects of real estate development and urban planning, from urban retrofits to suburban infill. New urbanist neighborhoods are designed to contain a diverse range of housing and jobs, and to be walkable.’

Those of you who read my posts regularly already know how I feel about sustainable development. And if you check out the links to the right of this you will find several interesting resources on sustainable communities and transportation.

There are a couple of new urbanist developments in the work in Omaha right now. Omaha By Design has a nice online feature where you can learn more about Midtown Crossing and Aksarben Village. It is great to see these pedestrian friendly neighborhoods being born. They promise to bring excitement and new personality to the heart of the city.

As a side note, during the meeting we talked a bit about the Place Game. This program is hosted by Omaha By Design (see above), and teaches us how to evaluate our neighborhoods.

The Place Game is based on the key factors that make a great public space. These factors were identified 30 years ago by William H. Whyte in his book, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces.

Check out the Place Game to see examples and learn how to play. And stay tuned for more from the New Urbanism group. Their plans are coming together for a really cool hand-on workshop in October.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - With the old gas-guzzler in the garage, you’ve got your bicycle ready and your sneakers laced up. Now all you need is a map of the quickest, safest routes for riding around town. Well, not so fast.

As more commuters consider ditching their cars to save money on gas, Internet mapping services, cities and community groups are being pushed to lay out the best routes for biking and walking - just like drivers have found online for years.

Technical and practical roadblocks stand between such a network becoming ubiquitous, but there are signs of progress in this world of $4-a-gallon gas.

Google just launched a walking-directions service. MapQuest is reporting more use of its “avoid highways” function and offering a walking directions service on cell phones. And some cities have developed detailed online maps to help walkers, bikers and transit-riders find the fastest routes.

“They haven’t yet reached the Holy Grail of ‘I want to go from here to there, show me my options,’” said Bryce Nesbitt, a walking and biking advocate in the San Francisco area.

The first challenge: how to account for factors that make bicycle and walking routes different from driving paths.

Pedestrians need sidewalks, but don’t have to abide by one-way streets. Walkers and bikers can cut through paths or trails not meant for cars, but they must avoid highways. Bikers, unlike walkers, need to think about whether a road is paved, and are prohibited from sidewalks in some cities.

All these variables mean the fastest, easiest route for a driver may not be the same as for someone on foot or riding a bike. And developing a comprehensive system for non-drivers requires a tricky step: collecting huge volumes of local metadata and getting them on national databases used by mapping services.

“In the U.S. we are primarily a driving country, or have been for a very, very long time,” said Christian Dwyer, MapQuest’s senior vice president and general manager.

Advocates believe making electronic walking and biking directions available on the Internet could help change that culture, especially in urban areas.

The technical challenge involves overlaying detailed information for walkers and bikers onto existing online maps, and then applying it to algorithms used to lay out the quickest routes. If some path, walkway or shortcut is on a map but not accounted for in the algorithm, it may be useless.

“There are some horror stories of the past of people being routed onto the Appalachian Trail or a couple driving off the ferry dock,” said Jay Benson, vice president of global strategic planning for Tele Atlas, an international mapping company that supplies data to Google, MapQuest and others.

But if these tweaks are done right, the Internet mapping services could tell a biker to use, say, a riverside trail to avoid congestion, while showing a walker to dart through a parking lot to cut off a corner - or at the very least to head against car traffic on one-way streets.

Some local efforts are already having some success.

In Atlanta, a nonprofit group set up a Web site last fall that lets people punch in whether they are walking, biking or using transit - and then get specific directions. New York also has a site that helps bikers avoid roads that aren’t meant for biking and make maximum use of roads with bike lanes and greenways.

In Broward County, Fla., planners are working on a project that would let users factor in things such as speed limits, traffic volume, lane widths and shortcuts.

The project, shooting for online launch by next summer, has programmers looking at aerial maps and punching key factors into the route-setting algorithms. They also incorporate things like where people or bikers can make left turns but cars can’t.

“I get a lot of calls from people, especially now with gas prices being up, looking for routes for how to get to work,” said Mark E. Horowitz, the county’s bicycle/pedestrian coordinator.

This week, Google Maps launched a feature that offers walking directions for trips shorter than 6.2 miles. That is being added to a feature already helping visitors find the best mass transit routes.

Mapmakers and route planners say they need to capitalize on existing community knowledge. That would be a change for companies like Tele Atlas, which typically goes out and test drives road routes itself. But it is open to accepting bike and pedestrian route information from cities and community groups if it can be verified from multiple sources.

In Philadelphia, for example, regular walkers and bikers know many shortcuts that save time. A bicycle commuter traveling from the northern edge of downtown to residential and commercial areas to the south knows he doesn’t need to meander through the congestion of Center City; taking a paved trail along the Schuylkill River takes time and heartache off the trip.

Such “secrets” could be shared with newcomers or tourists if they were added to online maps.

“The easier you make it for people … the more they’re going to do it,” said Joe Minott, executive director of Philadelphia’s Clean Air Council.

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Omaha has a fantastic Commuter Map for cyclists and pedestrians that is available online, I recommend you either download it as a PDF or visit your nearest bike shop to pick up a copy. Also, there is a bicycle commuter challenge happening right now which you can sign up for at the Midwest Cycling website.

Article written by PATRICK WALTERS

(Reprint from Alternet.org) For the first time in nearly two decades, I am no longer a driver. A few months ago, facing spiking gas prices and much-needed repairs, I donated my car to an organization that takes care of foster kids.

It’s an odd feeling to be on this side of being green. Without a car, my sense of time and space have been immediately altered. What was once a matter of expediency is now an effortful navigation.

“I’ll be there in 15 minutes!” I used to tell a good friend who once lived nearby but who now resides, without a car, at an inconvenient distance. Going to my favorite Asian food market suddenly has turned into another arduous chore: Once a 30 minute event, it has become a two-hour ordeal, with bags in hands, and bus transfers.

Owning a car has always been a luxury in the Third World, something beyond the pale of the middle class. In countries like Vietnam, Peru and Bangladesh, just to name a few, only the very rich owned cars. When I came here from Vietnam with my family at the end of the war, I remember such delight when my older brother bought his first car. We were still sharing an apartment with my aunt and her children, but as we cruised the streets at night, it felt as if we were becoming Americans.

The automobile, after all, is intrinsically American, and owning one largely determines how we Americans arrange our daily lives — it is as essential to us as the train and metro are to Japanese or Europeans. Indeed, a car is the first thing a teenager of driving age desires; to drive away from home is an established American rite of passage. Even the working poor are drivers here.

For immigrants, the car is the first thing we buy before the house. Vietnamese in Vietnam marvel at the BMWs and Mercedez Benzes that their relatives drive in America, and no doubt the sleek photos sent home cause many to dream of a life of luxury in the United States.

It seems a natural progression that the housing crisis should quickly lend itself to a car crisis. Both were readily available at one time, with easy loans and cheap gas. But now, with skyrocketing gas prices and faltering mortgages, many have had to give up one in order to keep the other.

Not surprisingly, the car is often the last thing that downtrodden Americans let go. “I can see losing my house, but I can’t imagine losing my van,” one unemployed friend told me. “I can live in my van. But not being able to get where I need to go would be worse than not having a house.”

Mobility defines us far more than sedentary life, thus the car is arguably more important than the house. Americans, despite accepting global warming as de facto, are still very much in love with the automobile. On average, we own 2.28 vehicles per household.

Our addiction to the automobile is as much a symptom of our nomadic culture as it is a matter of necessity: Urban sprawl, combined with little public transportation, makes the car essential. A job seems almost always to require it. The distance between here and there is daunting without a vehicle at one’s command.

The car, culturally speaking, is mobility and individualism combined. It is sex, freedom and danger. Thelma and Louise escaped from urban ennui by hitting the freeway with the wind in their hair, the horizon shimmering chimerically ahead. They found romance on the road. Indeed, their final moment approaches the mythic, as the blue Thunderbird Convertible flies across the Grand Canyon, taking the notion of freedom beyond any open road.

Our civilization, too, is driving toward an abyss. The covetous American way of life — in the age of climate change and dwindling energy resources — has become unsustainable.

On TV recently, former Vice President turned eco-activist Al Gore called for a radical change in our collective behavior. He wants us to completely replace fossil fuel-generated electricity with carbon-free energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal by 2018. “The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk,” he said. “The future of human civilization is at stake.” We are now being called upon, the Nobel Prize winner told us, “to move quickly and boldly to shake off complacency, throw aside old habits and rise, clear-eyed and alert, to the necessity of big changes.”

Going greenI wish he were exaggerating, but my gut tells me that the green guru is pointing us in the right direction. How and if we’ll ever get there, how we’ll find a collective will to act, I have no idea. But I do know this: Humanity has arrived at a historic juncture and it now seems that a drastic shift in the collective behavior is called for. If this means finding the will to be frugal and give up certain luxuries, then so be it.

America was built on the premise of progress and expansion. Yet our vision of a future of unimpeded opportunities and comfort is now in conflict with the health of the planet. The consumer culture requires continuous acquisition, and it is built on the concept of disposable goods. Our way of life — which is copied the world over — has created an unprecedented crisis on a planetary scale.

I can tell you from experience, however, that being on the right side of the green divide is not easy. As I trudged to work this morning, a 40-minute trek, I dearly missed my car. As I budget my time and memorize bus routes and timetables, it seems as if I am returning to my humble immigrant beginnings, repudiating some notion of being an American. But I’m not. Giving up the car is my new American responsibility.

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Reprint of article from Alternet.org written by Andrew Lam

The reign of Toronto’s legendary Igor the Bicycle Thief has ended. He seems to be personally responsible for the City’s reputation as the bike theft capital of North America. This picture shows just some of the 2,000 bicycles police have pulled out of houses, garages and warehouses.

Igor Kenk, 49, was the owner of the notorious Bicycle Clinic bike shop in Toronto. The shop had a long reputation for selling stolen bikes.

Armed with a search warrant, pry bars and rubber gloves, officers raided a tumbledown garage in a muddy back alley on Elm Grove Avenue, one of three more that police cleared of bicycles yesterday after previous raids at Mr. Kenk’s shop, home and a pair of rented garages.

Police uncovered a chaotic mess comprising not only bicycles, but an array of orphaned items including a dead Coke machine, a stack of roofing shingles and a female mannequin sporting an X, made of electrical tape, on each breast.

Katherine Vettese, who lives on Elm Grove Avenue near Igor, said he and his junk-laden pickup truck were a frequent sight in the alley behind her home. “He would always be here with a big, huge pickup truck full of odd stuff,” she said. “All the time.”

Forbes reports, that business and government executives from across the U.S. gathered in Washington to exchange ideas on energy efficiency. The forum was a run-up event to the annual energy efficiency conference hosted by Johnson Controls, a Wisconsin-based company specializing in improving auto and building efficiency.

The focus of the gathering was to share ideas for improving energy efficiency that didn’t necessarily require a significant in technology. One of the primary focuses was on resource reduction in order to get the most out of what is available. This is also the strategy that Harvest uses in helping clients implement sustainable marketing programs.

UPS was noted as an example of using behavioral changes to reduce resource use. “Two years ago Big Brown established a policy instructing its drivers to save energy and gasoline by turning off their vehicles at even the briefest stops. Through a specialized computer system developed by UPS itself, the company discovered that by not idling their trucks, drivers ran their engines an average of 24 minutes less per day, for a savings of $188 per driver each year. Doesn’t sound like a lot, but with more than 90,000 drivers worldwide, that translates into a cost savings of close to $17 million annually.”

Forbes wrote up a list of 10 money-saving efficiencies that the group came up with:

Lighting Improvements
Compact Fluorescent lamps, which lasts up to 15,000 hours longer than the standard bulb, can save up to 75 percent in energy costs.

Reducing Vehicle Idling
By not letting vehicles idle, UPS saves about $190 per driver per year. And with more than 90,000 drivers under its wings, that about $ 17.1 million in savings.

Building Orientation
Buildings facing north-south instead of east-west can reduce energy consumption by as much as 20 percent. “E” or “H” shaped offices maximizes sunlight and window area, reducing light costs. While long, thin buildings maximize natural ventilation.

Green Roofing
Reduce cooling costs by planting green roofs to soak up sunlight during the day. Light-colored roofs can also reduce cooling expenses by about 40 percent because it reflects light.

Water Recycling
Industrial cooling to irrigation can be taken care of with reused or treated water.

Maximizing Thermal Efficiency
Save as much as 40 percent on thermal heating costs by maximizing the efficiencies of the entire production line instead of individual components. Operate furnaces and boilers at or close to design capacity. Restricting loose air used for combustion will lead to heat savings.

Bicycles
Use bikes as a form of transportation. This will reduce traffic and carbon emissions. In 2007 Paris made more than 20,000 bicycles available to subscribers, similar pilot programs are also planned in the U.S.

Energy Auditing
Have your building audited for wasteful energy to determine what efficiency improvements are needed. Reducing drafts alone can save around 30 percent in energy costs per year.

Driving the Speed Limit
Drive slow, fast driving wastes gas. Keeping tires properly inflated could also improve gas mileage by about 3 percent. Keeping the car light by emptying out unwanted items from the truck can also improve the car’s efficiency.

Lobbying
Lobby congressmen to renew policies such as the federal tax credits for residential energy efficiency improvements, which expired at the end of 2007.

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Source: Environmental Leader

Today I wrapped up my second sustainable workplace presentation. Offices across the city are starting green teams to help transform organizational practices. Because of my connection with the Green Omaha Coalition and my company’s sustainable objectives, I was invited to share information and tactics that I have learned.

On Tuesday I was at the Child Saving Institute. They have a brand new building in Midtown, which I was stoked to get a closer look at. The design is fantastic, and it is a great environment to inspire future-thinking. The group that attended was enthusiastic and well-informed. When went a full hour, and several people hung out afterwards to talk more.

Today I was joined by Dale from Firstar Fiber to present at Pioneer Investments. They have a 70 person office in Regency Court. The group was smaller, but they were thirsty for knowledge and full of energy for change.

I try to keep things fun and interesting, putting the need for change into societal context. I share techniques that utilize the 3-pronged strategy of reduce, reuse, recycle. The focus swings from paper use and energy savings, to transportation and lunch breaks. I think that there is something in there for everyone, with practical tips for any office.

I’m feeling pretty good right now, but it feels like Omaha is moving in the right direction.

If you are starting a green team in your Omaha area office, please contact me and we can see if it is feasible for me to give the presentation at your company.