Voters in the Pacific Northwest made loud statements on Tuesday in support of reducing the region’s car dependency.  In Oregon, Measure 49, the ballot initiative restoring sanity to land use regulations, won by a wide margin.   Measure 49 was designed to be the antidote to Measure 37, the 2004 initiative that allows property owners to bypass state and local land use controls.  The legal chaos that resulted shortly after the passage of Measure 37 and the impending destruction of hundreds of thousands of acres of Oregon farmland and forests caused voters to do an abrupt about-face in just three years.   Property rights advocates claim the battle isn’t over, but Oregonians have been given a glimpse of life without any restraints on property rights and are not likely to be fooled again.

Continue reading "Out with the Old" »

Permalink | Comments (1)

It’s been a few weeks since my last post, and while I had legitimate reasons to be distracted, I have discovered how difficult it can be to flip the writing switch on after some time off.  I apologize in advance if my rust shows.  During my blogging respite, fall arrived here with a fury.  The changing of the leaves and drop in temperatures are only incidental diversions to us.  What really matters is when the rains start and this year they started early.  The arrival of rainy season transforms our carefree biking lifestyle into a strategic battle against the elements. The gear is piled high next to the door and every day typically finds one of us without some necessary piece of equipment for biking in the rain.  I have to admit that going into Year 2 of our carfree lifestyle, I find myself less excited than last year about the upcoming seven months of biking in inclement weather.  Last year, the combination of ignorance and bravado led me to severely underestimate the challenges of biking daily in the rain.  Before I had the chance to contemplate winter cycling, we had experienced the worst torrential rain in years.  After that initiation, the rest of the winter was a piece of cake.  Unfortunately this year, I know what’s ahead, and these first few weeks of rain reminded me why suicide rates are higher here in the Northwest than the rest of the country.

Continue reading "Rain O'er Me" »

Permalink | Comments (0)

Oil has been hovering around $80 a barrel for a few months now.  Even more surprising than the steady rise in oil prices is how little panic is being voiced over the stratospheric cost of our favorite fossil fuel.   People seemed to have used up their capacity for fretting over oil prices last year, when $60 a barrel seemed unimaginable.  The Wall Street Journal offers up the “Wal-Mart Effect” to explain our collective shrug over oil prices:

For every extra dollar taken from drivers' pockets at the pump in the form of higher prices in recent years, low-cost exporters from China and elsewhere have put roughly $1.50 back in the form of cheaper retail goods. Even at today's near-record prices, U.S. households today spend less than 4% of their disposable income at the pump, vs. over 6% in 1980.

Like the coupon for 20% off on your next purchase, the Wal-Mart Effect doesn’t actually put money back in our pockets.  It relies on the reality that we are manic consumers with holes burned in all of our pockets.  Sadly, our consumption-fueled indifference may even buffer us against $100 a barrel oil.  Imagine how well insulated we would be if we reexamined our need to consume cheap imported “necessities.”  We could even coin a name for this revolutionary theory.  How about the “I Already Have Plenty Effect?”

Continue reading "Fasten Your Seat Belts" »

Permalink | Comments (1)

Sprawl and car dependence go hand in hand.  Communities that grow without bounds tether people to their cars.   Efforts to link ever expanding populations through public transportation become fruitless.  Benefits to the environment from improved auto fuel efficiency are negated by sprawl.  Sprawl, by its very definition, pits man against nature, and to look the other way or accept a laissez faire attitude about land use is to choose sides.  This is the fallacy of the single-minded focus on automobile technology.   Improving fuel economy is not a sufficient objective, especially if higher fuel efficiency results in an increase in vehicle miles traveled.   And if increased car use results in the conversion of even more open space into parking, which, as Katharine Mieszkowski so eloquently chronicles in Salon, fuels much of sprawl’s insatiable appetite for land, you could even argue that we’re better off leaving the car as is.  Retaining the nasty, guilt-inducing qualities of the car may be just what we need to keep people from getting too comfortable living closer to the wilderness than civilization.

Continue reading "Taming Man" »

Permalink | Comments (1)