Private jets (AKA PJs) are really bad for the environment, like really bad. We’ve looked at efforts to ban PJs before, this time let’s examine the relative carbon emissions of different classes of flying. If you’re not rich enough to afford a PJ or a first class ticket then you’re
Continue readingTag: Transportation
Things Are Good: France Pays People to Stop Driving and Start Riding
Car drivers take up way more road space than they need since the size of their vehicles are disproportionate to their usefulness. Smart countries aim to limit the number of single occupant vehicles on the road for this reason and to ensure that all people can easily get from one
Continue readingThings Are Good: Another Urban Myth Busted
Road users always complain that other people are breaking the law, every group of road users accuess another of breaking the most traffic rules. Truckers think cars are the worst, car drivers think cyclists are the worse, and cyclists think all vehicles are bad. When it comes to an objective
Continue readingThings Are Good: This Parking Space Technique Holds 10 Times More Vehicles
There’s a fiction that cars are needed in cities and we should provide parts of our limited land in urban centres so one person can leave their car. This fiction perpetuated by car brains hurts our cities and is really not good, to solve this problem the city of Rotterdam
Continue readingThings Are Good: Lets’ Ban Private Jets
A forward-looking individual decided to start a campaign to ban private jets and it’s gaining steam. The movement to get rid of private jets is growing and now celebrities like Elon Musk and Taylor Swift are getting lambasted in the press about their planet-destroying transportation options. Given how much damage
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – David Quammen writes about the ongoing race between scientific discovery and an evolving coronavirus. And Heidi Sheehan reports on new research showing a similarity between long COVID and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome based on the inability of receptors to properly receive calcium. –
Continue readingThings Are Good: Boston’s Mayor: Free Transit for All for a Better City
The new mayor or of Boston, Michelle Wu, knows what it takes to improve life in the city. She sees free transit for everyone has a way to increase the liveability of the city, its economic performance, and the city’s climate resilience. The pilot routes of free transit in the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your long weekend reading. – David Macdonald writes that if there’s a risk of a recession being caused by interest rate hikes, it’s because people with wealth and power have chosen to engineer one on purpose. And Ken Klippenstein and Jon Schwarz report on an internal
Continue readingThings Are Good: 13 Year Long Study Confirms Bike Lanes Make Streets Safer for Everyone
Bike lanes not only protect cyclists from negligent drivers, they protect drivers and pedestrians too. A longitudinal study reveals that it’s not the cyclists which make the streets safer, rather it’s the infrastructure that separates cyclists from giant metal slabs that matter. Bike lane only made of paint did nothing
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Yasmine Ghania reports on the wastewater analyses showing that Saskatchewan is facing a new COVID-19 wave. Ed Yong discusses how the BA.5 wave looks to be the first one dominated by reinfections. Elliot Aronson and Carol Tavris highlight the cognitive dissonance which has
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – The Economist reports on new research estimating that COVID-19 vaccines saved 20 million lives in their first year of availability – though that reality makes it all the more galling that there’s been so little progress both in ensuring greater availability of
Continue readingThings Are Good: Get Paid to Report Bike Lane Blockers
Austin spent millions on improving their infrastructure and now they are looking to citizens to enforce the rules of using that infrastructure. Anybody who reports a vehicle blocking a bicycle lane will now get a bounty when the driver of the vehicle is charged. Yes, it’s a Wild West bounty
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Thomas Walkom points out that most Canadians have far more reason to fear an austerity-fuelled recession than any foreseeable level of inflation. J.W. Mason points out that the U.S. Fed is similarly looking to squeeze workers over inflation that has nothing to
Continue readingThings Are Good: This Electric Truck Sees You
@TfL statistics show that 26% of pedestrian fatalities involve a conventional truck, yet they only account for 4% of road miles. One of the ways we maximise visibility is to place the Volta Zero driver in a low and central position, helping cities feel safer.#electrictrucks pic.twitter.com/KQjalDpz4S — Volta Trucks (@TrucksVolta)
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Tom Brodbeck writes about the need to treat the victims of the COVID-19 pandemic as human beings, rather than mere statistics to be reported once and never thought of again. – Gabriel Favreau discusses how the pandemic (combined with a negligent government
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Bruce Arthur is rightly frustrated by an attitude of utter denial and amnesia toward a pandemic still in progress. And Fenit Nirappil, Craig Pittman and Maureen O’Hagan report on the deterioration of the U.S.’ response, including a dramatic increase over the case load
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Beatrice Adler-Bolton discusses how the U.S.’ debate over the most basic of COVID-19 protections reflects fundamental choices as to whether people should have even the slightest respect for each others’ health and well-being. Glen Pearson notes that a (however unjustifiable) willingness to
Continue readingThings Are Good: Reducing Traffic Pollution Greatly Increases Health
It’s well known that vehicular traffic is deadly no matter where it is and how much of it exists. Even with all the evidence cities in North America put cars first with the occasional protections like bike lanes and pedestrian crossings. What we also need to talk about is the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Jennifer Rigby and Julie Steenhuysen report on the latest COVID-19 wave and its direct connection to the elimination of public health protections. Eric Topol writes about the role additional boosters may play in somewhat mitigating the second Omicron wave, while Paulina Kaplonek et
Continue readingThings Are Good: SF’s Busiest Street Removed Cars and Traffic Improved
Market Street in San Fransico connects many communities within the city, yet using it to navigate from place to another was a slog. Until they got rid of cars last year. The removal of cars on the popular main street made getting around the city faster, easier, and healthier. Anyone
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