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Mark Ovenden: Transit Maps of the World If you like maps and you're a transit fan then you'll love this new collection of transit system maps from around the world. Includes rare and historic maps, diagrams and photographs. Beautiful and fun. (***)
- locate an available Zipcar near you using GPS and Google Maps technology; - reserve said car; and, best of all, - have your reserved Zipcar honk at you if you can't find it.
You can sign up to learn about updates and find out when the app is available. I've heard rumors that the app might have other features by the time it comes out; what else would you like them to add before the launch this fall?
The Monday, April 20 Washington Post included an 8-page "advertorial" insert called Environmental Leadership--presumably in anticipation of Earth Day (not available on-line). It included about a dozen guest articles on a wide array of environmental topics. Great! (although one of the advertising supporters is the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, which promotes the oxymoron "clean coal." You can read more about my opinion of carbon capture and storage here.)
One of the guest writers is Nancy Sutley, the new Obama administation Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Her column, "Now is the Time to Switch to a Clean Energy Economy" runs the gamut, touching on a wide array of environmental issues--the normal rhetoric one would expect. But I stopped when I read this line: "We plan to put a million plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road, dramatically increasing the fuel efficiency of our nation's fleet of vehicles with batteries built in the U.S."
Let's make some optimistic assumptions: - Plug-in hybrids are the equivalent of 100 mpg - All 1,000,000 new hybrids replace SUVs (average 18 mpg)
If we use 2006 as a proxy, replacing 1,000,000 SUVs with plug-in hybrids, then the new fleet economy rises to 20.38 mpg, an minuscule increase of .08 miles per gallon. Or put another way, an increase of about 425 feet per gallon. Another way to achieve the exact same reduction in fuel consumption would be to reduce the distance each car drives by about 50 miles per year--a 0.4% decrease.
Now don't get me wrong: I am totally in favor of transforming our economy to more environmentally sustainable technologies and systems, but I think a hyperbolic statement like this sugarcoats the magnitude of the challenge in front of us and overstates the benefits.
Let's put those million vehicles out there, but it's just a down payment. I think it would have been much better to say, ""We plan to put a million plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road, a small but important first step in transforming our nation's fleet of automobiles" =========================== Steve Offutt - Arlington
If you are a person with a disability or a senior citizen using a
regular SmarTrip® card, you could save 50% on your bus and rail fares.
Exchange your regular SmarTrip card for a Senior SmarTrip card or a
Reduced Fare SmarTrip card for FREE at Metro Headquarters, 600 Fifth
Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001
10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Wednesday, April 8 Wednesday, April 15 Wednesday, April 22
Please
bring photo identification (valid Metro Disability ID Card, completed
application for the Reduced Fare Program for People with Disabilities,
proof of age 65 or older). These events are being held for the sole
purpose of exchanging an undamaged, regular SmarTrip card for a Senior
SmarTrip card or a Reduced Fare SmarTrip card. For any other concerns
or questions about SmarTrip(r), please call 1-888-SMARTRIP (TTY
703-620-8782) or visit MetroOpensDoors.com.
We purchased our 2007 Toyota Hybrid Camry in March of 2007 and I have previously written about it four times (first, second, third, fourth postings). I want to re-emphasize what I highlighted in my most recent post: if you live in Arlington and are shopping for a new car, there are significant tax advantages to buying a hybrid--significant enough to potentially pay for the entire incremental cost.
Back in October we paid our 2008 personal property taxes on our car. In Virginia, as you may know, we have what is called the "car tax." The car tax is a 5% tax on the value of your personal vehicle. Arlington has reduced this tax for owners of hybrid vehicles by exempting the first $20,000 of value from the tax. So for 2008 instead of paying $1068 personal property tax, we paid just $68. That's a lot of savings!
In fact, since we purchased the car, we have saved $3050 in taxes: a federal tax break of $1300 (more information on the federal tax break here), a 2007 Arlington County personal property tax reduction of $750 and this year's $1000 reduction (more on the Arlington tax break here). Wow, that was enough to pretty much pay for our entire summer vacation to Yellowstone this past year: flights, hotels, rental car, food. . . . Or thinking another way, in a couple more years, the tax breaks will have completely paid the extra amount we paid to get the hybrid instead of the regular Camry. All the gas savings are gravy. One caveat, though, the Arlington break is dependent on an annual approval process by the county, so it may go away in the future.
Want to learn more about hybrids? Here are some links:
The efforts of the transportation professionals working to make it easier and easier to get around this region are working, as demonstrated by this experience I had recently.
Not long ago I purchased my new "toodler" bike, for toodling around. It's an old, rehabilitated 3-speed with a basket on front that I use to run errands and make short trips. I had a doctor's appointment in Falls Church the other morning, which is about a 10-12 minute toodle on the bike. I left early to go to the post office and mail a package. While at the post office, the weather took a turn for the worse and it started to rain pretty steadily. I didn't mind riding in the very light drizzle I encountered going to the post office, but this was a lot harder. It would be a real drag to ride all the way to the Dr.'s in this rain. What to do?
My first thought was to lock up my bike and catch a bus (if one was coming); I could pick up my bike later. But when was the bus? Well, as it turns out, I had bookmarked the mobile services site on my Blackberry a month or two ago . It's a great service for your handheld device, and it's free. It tells you when the next bus is coming based on what time it is right now (it doesn't know where you are yet; you have to enter that yourself). Next bus, 6 minutes. That would get me to the Dr. right on time.
And then--BING!-- I remembered that all the Metrobuses have bike racks mounted on them. I could take my bike with me. If it stopped raining, then I could ride home; if not, I'd figure out something else. I was a bit anxious, because I had never used the bike racks before. It turned out to be a cinch, even without any experience. The instructions were right on the rack, and I loaded my bike in about 5 seconds. I also have a SmarTrip card, so I didn't have to worry about exact change or fumbling for money.
When I was done, it was still raining. I did the same exercise in reverse: checked the schedule on my Blackberry, caught the bus, loaded my bike, touched my SmarTrip and got most of the way home. I still had to ride a few blocks from the closest stop to my house, but that was a lot more pleasant than if I had had to ride the entire two miles in the rain.
So all the pieces fit together to make this trip work: Mobile information, bike racks on buses, SmarTrip. Thanks, everyone. ========================== Steve Offutt, Arlington bike toodler Here's a video on how to use the bike racks. I couldn't find a WMATA one, but this is the same type of rack
Intructions for following us online or via your cell phone via Twitter are in the links (stories) below as are instructions for helping us out. Also let us know what you think of "Going to the Inauguration in 2009?" Will you please leave us a comment?
Tell us that you'd like to help either @CarFreeJan20 or e-mailing us here
At reply us via text right before you leave to travel. We will be awake at 5am on Tuesday, so anytime after that works. (Example Text: To 40404: @CarFreeJan20 I am leaving my house now and I'm looking forward to a fun-filled day).
Tweet as often as you feel is necessary to relay any pertinent travel information. We love information about the crowdedness of metro stations, buses, roads, and bike path. Any information related to travel could help, so tweet as much or as little as you want. (We will be following each of you via text messages, so we can relay your info in real-time!)
We'd like to use a rating system to describe your travel (via metro, bus, train, bike/walk, et cetera) like:
If you see: extremely crowded; you only text: 5(means that you would not recommend coming to this station, use alternative route) -- example: Clarendon metro is extremely crowded.
If you see: very crowded; you only text: 4 (means that I'd avoid it if I could) -- example: This (picture if possible) bike route is very crowded on New York Avenue in NW DC
If you see: crowded; you only text: 3 (about average of crowds relatively speaking)
If you see: moderately crowded; you only text: 2 (what we hope are the gems, the possibilities - means that it is better than most for the day and we'll advise our fellow twitterers to take this route)
If you see: less crowded;you only text: 1 (the best possible tweet that we could get - this is why real-time travel updates could potentially be so powerful.
Remember: Every text message about travel should include hashtag #carfreedc so we can relay this information in real-time! (Thanks Tanya @nerdette for the help)
Example: If I am taking the metro at Clarendon and I see (picture below), I would simply text: #carfreedc 5 inside of Clarendon metro station
If you travel and find a way to get to a part of DC where walking is easier or biking is easier, make sure to tell us. The metro is going to be a mess on Jan. 20.
5. What we will do is take your updates and relay them out to the entire twitter community.
6.The people who turned on text alerts will get real-time travel updates and hopefully have a smooth travel experience -- because of you!
The people who decide to help with receive a free book, as well a chance to win an Obama SmartTrip card.
Thank you for actively caring for your Inauguration friends by using your time to help others! Please let us know how we can be a resource for you in the future!
We want to make your travel to the Inauguration as smooth as possible. In addition to all the great information put out by the various government agencies (see here) and traditional news media (see here), we're BETA testing using Twitter to see if people participating in the event can also provide real-time, user-generated content that is useful to people attending the events.
Here's two ways to use Twitter to follow us on January 20th:
Join Twitter and make an account. You can make a Twitter account in less than a minute and it is free! Once you make an account, click "follow" and turn on text updates. This will allow you to get up to the minute updates on the best travel options at that particular time.
What are the updates going to be about?
Leading up to the inauguration, we will consolidate all the information on the Internet and send you what is relevant in terms of travel, so there will be links to important articles.
On the big day, the information on our CarFreeJan20 page and the text updates to your phone will pulled from the most relevant information we're getting from our Twitter volunteers (we are still looking for an additional 50 people) in the field attending the event. We also will be pulling information from main stream media and other governments in the dc/metro area and relaying out to the Twitter community.
Our goal is to become a hub for real-time travel updates and assist as many people that we can!
More Inaugural transportation can be found here on CommuterPage.com's special Car-Free Inaugural page. Twitter explanined on Wikipedia.
Today, we are looking for 50 more people (of our 100 person goal) to actively tweet about their travel to/from the Inauguration (Government 2.0 - Trying To Make Your Travel Easier for the Inauguration, January 12, 2009). Everyone willing to help will be a part of history. This is the first time ever Arlington County has attempted to take user-generated content to help the greater good. You can help everyone get to the Inauguration easier by simply tweeting about the crowded buses, metro stations, walking paths, and more. Make history with us, like you made history on November 4th. We appreciate you taking the time to make everyone's travel easier on Inauguration Day. Also one lucky person will be given a rare Obama SmartTrip Card!
Listed are the four steps necessary to help us and to get a free book:
1. Follow us onTwitter 2. Direct Message us or @ Reply us telling us that you'd like to help us on Jan.20th 3. We will respond via a direct message to inform you if you've been selected to assist us with real-time travel updates. 4. If you've been selected, on the day, tweet every 10-20 minutes updating your commute - you can take pictures, inform us of the overflow of traffic, or anything else that you deem relevant to helping people travel during the Inauguration
Once you decide to tweet your updates on January 20th, get your free book by e-mailing us your information here or by communicating with us on Twitter.
Along with a free book and possible Obama smartrip card, tweeters will also have their twitter accounts highlighted on our blog after Inauguartion Day as a thanks for participating.
For those of you who want to follow the action, but aren't the 50-100 people assisting us, we will posting more for you later. Our goal is to make traveling to the Inauguration on January 20th as smooth as possible.
