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News clippings related to transit, mobility and quality of life
MoveNews #106 for the week of June 20, 2010
Regional
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SANDAG has a survey online to collect public input on regional transportation options. I only takes a few minutes. Express your preferences! See: Our Region. Our Future. Get Involved. Or, go directly to the survey at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TMGQQFZ
WalkSanDiego Community Walks
Saturday, June 26, 2010; 9:00 a.m.
Kensington Walk - meet in front of the Kensington Library, 4121 Adams Ave. Join us in celebrating Kensington's centennial with a walk through this wonderful community, with highlights of its history and a tour through some of the beautiful neighborhoods. A modest paced, three-mile walk on flat terrain.
Saturday, July 17, 2010, 9:00 a.m.
Balboa Park II Walk - meet at 6th Ave and Laurel St
This walk will explore the legacy the 1935 Exposition had on Balboa Park and San Diego, with highlights of the buildings and activities the fair provided to San Diegans and visitors from around the world. As usual, some great historic photos from that time. A modest 4-mile walk on mostly flat terrain.
The walks are open to everyone; they are free to WalkSanDiego members, with a suggested $5 donation for non-members. For further information, contact Dave Schumacher at dsc@sandag.org
The link between urban design and health
Cal Health, June 11, 2010
Health policy, Dr. Richard Jackson says, is about more than medical care. It is about farm policy. Transportation. Housing. And so much more. Because how healthy we are is determined largely by where and how we live. ... "We have built America around cars," Jackson said. "We have not built it around people." ... Our dependence on cars has made walking passé and created a culture hostile to bicycling. The result is a society in which few people move under their own power, starting with children. ... "We have engineered fitness out of their lives," Jackson said. ... 30 percent of California ninth graders are overweight or obese.
The American Public Health Association (APHA)released 'The Hidden Health Costs of Transportation,' a new publication that addresses how our nation's current transportation system contributes to today's soaring health costs and impedes progress toward improving public health.
American Public Health Association, May 19, 2010
http://www.apha.org/about/news/pressreleases/2010/hidden+cost+of+health+care.htm
LINK to 12-page PDF: "The Hidden Health Costs of Transportation" http://www.apha.org/NR/rdonlyres/F84640FD-13CF-47EA-8267-E767A1099239/0/HiddenHealthCostsofTransportationShortFinal.pdf
Innovation
Barcelona: "Treat Buses Like Ambulances"
Human Transit, June 9,2010
The new "rapid bus" network proposed for Barcelona looks a lot like the Los Angeles Metro Rapid: No exclusive lanes, but strong signal priority, emphasis on fast implementation, and judging from the map, very wide stops. ... They are looking at a concept developed by Volvo called a "moving cocoon," in which lanes can be cleared for buses only when a bus is approaching, but used by cars at other times.
Will more people choose the stairs when you make them fun to use?
Of course! 66% more people chose the stairs over the escalator after adding the new design elements in this experiment from Stockholm, Sweden.
Does Congestion Relief Equal Climate Relief?
Sightline Institute, November, 2007, Increases in greenhouse-gas emissions from highway-widening projects
We recently took a look at the greenhouse gas implications of building a new lane-mile of highway in a congested urban area. Our conclusion is that every extra one-mile stretch of lane added to a congested highway will increase climate-warming CO2 emissions more than 100,000 tons over 50 years. Those emissions are broken out as follows:
- Road construction and maintenance: 3,500 tons
- Net congestion relief: -7,000 tons [that's negative, folks]
- Additional traffic on the roadway: 90,000 tons
- Additional traffic off the roadway: 30,000 - 100,000 tons
- TOTAL: 116,500 - 186,500 tons
For a variety of reasons (which the full memo (pdf, nine pages) discusses in greater depth) these are conservative estimates. And to put all this in context: CO2 emissions in the US currently average about 20 tons per person per year. So 100,000 tons per lane-mile is a fair bit of CO2 - not as much as a coal-fired power plant, but worth being concerned about.
Fast Facts
30 percent of California ninth graders are overweight or obese.
Source: The Hidden Health Costs of Transportation
MoveNews #106 was edited by Carolyn Chase and published by Move San Diego, Inc. as a service to our members. You may subscribe, unsubscribe, or send article suggestions by sending an email request to: info@movesandiego.org
NOTE: if there is no link provided to an item, then there is no additional content on that item. All links were current as of the date of publication.
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