Carfree Tokyo

China Dust Clouds

noreply@blogger.com (StompinRhino) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 05:28:00 +0000

China's dust clouds have been getting some attention around the world of late. To be honest I am afraid for Japan on this account, due to proximity. The dust can noticably impare air quality as far away as Tokyo, and it seems the effects are felt elsewhere also - in fact, just about everywhere.

A Japanese study using a NASA satellite has apparently found that one 2007 storm in China's Taklimakan desert made "made more than one full circle around the globe in just 13 days" according to this Reuters article.

A frightening thought and yet another reminder that there can be no shirking from dealing with the effects of global environmental damage, of which climate change is really just one element. Americans, Canadians and Europeans can no longer export the environmental impact of their consumption to China and the developing world without facing the consequences directly.

On a side note, I notice that the article also quotes the researchers as saying that "Dust clouds contain 5 percent iron, that is important for the ocean." It has been said that iron in the ocean can increase absorbtion of carbon dioxide, reducing the impact of global warming. Ironically (pun intended) this means that the dust storms - perhaps themselves partly a consenquence of global warming as well as urbanization and bad land use practices, may also be mitigating the impact of CO2 emissions elsewhere.

An interesting thought, and really in line with the somehow comforting Gaia concept of an essentially self-regulating Earth environment - including living and non-living elements. That is, until you imagine life with lots of big dust storms like this and realize that this particular "self-regulation technique" does not a nice living environment make for us humans...cough cough

Driven to Distraction

noreply@blogger.com (StompinRhino) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 05:01:00 +0000

This is old news now, but very noteworthy. A July 21, 2009 article in the New York Times revealed that the U.S. government withheld important data on risks of distracted driving, stating:

"In 2003, researchers at a federal agency proposed a long-term study of 10,000 drivers to assess the safety risk posed by cellphone use behind the wheel. They sought the study based on evidence that such multitasking was a serious and growing threat on America’s roadways.

But such an ambitious study never happened. And the researchers’ agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, decided not to make public hundreds of pages of research and warnings about the use of phones by drivers — in part, officials say, because of concerns about angering Congress."

The article includes statements by the likes of the former head of the highway safety agency who is quoted in the article as saying he was urged to withhold the research to avoid antagonizing members of Congress who had warned the agency to stick to its mission of gathering safety data but not to lobby states.

Fortunately the research data has since been released and in case you weren't convinced of the danger, the article notes also that "The highway safety researchers estimated that cellphone use by drivers caused around 955 fatalities and 240,000 accidents over all in 2002."

This article, and in fact there is now a whole series on the topic on the NYT website, to me really shows the importance of public opinion in shaping public policy. Congress can be bought out, and at times that can be extremely detrimental to the nation, but it can only go so far if the public opinion turns against them.

I sometimes wonder if the US would not be a very different place if there were all of a sudden no automobile advertising, which incidentally stood at something like US$10 billion or more in 2008. Good use of public bailout money that is... car companies start to fail because we realize we just don't really want life with cars so much any more, then govt steps in and bails them out so they can keep pitching cars that we don't want to us.

Stats and views from the USA

noreply@blogger.com (StompinRhino) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 03:31:00 +0000

I did say I would try to focus more on Japan, but I found some very thoughtful comentary on US automobile dystopia by an investment analyst on a Seeking Alpha blog "The Ramifications of Growing Global Gas Guzzlers" and thought I would share.

Many interesting stats and insights from the US Department of Energy's Transportation Energy Data Book. He also hits the issue on the nose by pointing out that while the US is now (slowly)starting to head in the right direction, we need to be (very) worried about global car ownership.

Blog Intro

noreply@blogger.com (StompinRhino) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 07:37:00 +0000

Introducing another interesting little blog: The Sexify Blog *in Seoul*. The owner of the blog posted a comment here a long time ago, but I didn't follow up. Perhaps it was the peculiar title. However it is actually an entertaining and well organized blog - related to all things urban cycling, by a British person based in Seoul, with some good commentary and a few interesting links.

Which should come first, cycling popularity or better planning?

noreply@blogger.com (StompinRhino) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 02:33:00 +0000

Very interesting study here. I never knew that bicycle use in Japan doubled from 1975-1977. According to this article it appears to have been triggered by a change in public policy in favour of bicycle use. Pity they didn't think of a system like the Paris Velib project, which would have eliminated some of the need for spwrawling parking facilities.

Taken for a Ride

noreply@blogger.com (StompinRhino) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 01:49:00 +0000

Fairly well known documentary about efforts to derail mass transit in the US. Just thought I would put it up here in case anyone has not seen it. Really wish a similar thing would be done about Japan's own sordid history of motorway construction - right up to the reduction of highway tolls today as "economic stimulus."

What sound should electric cars have ?

noreply@blogger.com (StompinRhino) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 09:41:00 +0000

As noted in a recent Reuters blog article Gassing About Electric Cars, motor engineers these days appear to be faced with a peculiar problem - what sound to give electric cars?

Automotive industry participants obviously do not buy into the idea that we should have fewer cars on the road. More is better from their perspective. Anything else and even Government Motors will not be saved. Hell, the auto industry hasn't even liked the idea of moving to electric vehicles. However the industry has recently been forced to concede that at a bare minimum, a shift of the current fleet to electric vehicles will be necessary if we are to avoid a future not worth considering.

Now, as I have noted in previous posts, for various reasons I think the switch to EVs is just one very small part of the change that is necessary. In fact it may even lead to more difficulties down the road as the world gears up nuclear power stations to provide all the electricity necessary.

One thing I do find amusing is that electric vehicle designers are confounded by the noise of electric vehicles - or lack thereof. Why should it be a problem for a vehicle to be quiet? Well, not so surprisingly, automobiles are extremely dangerous. Those of us lucky to have good hearing have relied on it to save our lives. It is no surprise to know that deaths by automobile are highest among the elderly. The elderly cannot hear vehicles coming. Pretty soon we will all be faced with this issue. So what to do? Give cars artificial noise. Well this will bring a whole new dimension to the fight over noise pollution in cities. Not only are drivers making a lot of noise - it will be entirely preventable.

Meanwhile the USA has poured another billion dollars down the drain with their "Cash for Clunkers" program, while urban renewal projects that promote walkable cities are being knocked back due to lack of funding.

When Can Deflation be a Good Thing?

noreply@blogger.com (StompinRhino) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 03:16:00 +0000

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13610845
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2008/11/20/whats-so-bad-about-deflation-remembering-irving-fisher/
http://economics.about.com/b/2007/12/03/is-deflation-necessarily-a-bad-thing.htm

The Real Tragedy

noreply@blogger.com (StompinRhino) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:26:00 +0000

- Private Cars in China Up 28% in 2008
The number of privately owned cars in China rose by 28% in 2008, making the
total number of civilians owning private cars 19.47 million, according to the
National Bureau of Statistics of China (probably an unreliable source).
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/02/private-cars-in-china-up-28-percent-2008.php

Even if the figures are overstated, this is the real tragedy. China, Russia, Brazil, India. If they all start driving like "Westerners" do, we are screwed.

Honda: Insight or Incite ?

noreply@blogger.com (StompinRhino) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:12:00 +0000

Really great commentary from Worldwatch Institute on the advertising for the new Honda "Insight" hybrid, which the company touts "theoretically seats 6.75 billion."

OPINION: The More Hybrid Drivers the Better?

The Worldwatch Institute gets right to the crux of the issue when it notes that more hybrid drivers does not in any way deliver energy saving. In fact, if the world's people (all 6.75 billion of them) were to drive hybrids or any kind of motor vehicle it would be an unmitigated disaster.

There is an interesting paradox in energy called Jevon's Paradox, which simply put notes that technological advances in energy efficiency tend to increase output rather than decrease overall consumption of the resource, so much so in fact that you end up with greater overall consumption due to the elasticity of demand. In other words, improvements in fuel efficiency do not automatically lead to decreased consumption - in fact the opposite is true.

In the context of hybrids, this would mean that the more efficient the vehicle, the more we would tend to drive. Looking at Honda's advertising, this is clearly their goal. It has nothing to do with saving the environment, though they would have you think it does.

Way to go Honda... very inciting, but lacking insight.

So a smoker kicks Lucky Strike for low tar. Woohoo! Actually, no. He's still a smoker - and the chances are pretty good he will just smoke more cigarettes to compensate. In the process the habit becomes even further ingrained into his daily life...

Japanese Media Critisize Honda Over F1 Pullout

noreply@blogger.com (StompinRhino) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:01:00 +0000

ARTICLE HERE. Well they damn well would winge and complain wouldn't they. The advertising industry is one of the forgotten beneficiaries of the automobile industry. And a hefty largesse it is too.

I find it quite heartening that they could not find a buyer for this team. It just goes to show what the public think of the "sport" of motor racing these days.

World's Most Livable Cities

noreply@blogger.com (StompinRhino) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 04:07:00 +0000

What do these images have in common?

Reuters shows a Photo slideshow of the top 25 "most liveable cities of the world." Not surprisinging, not a single one of them has images of highways or automobile transport. The fact of the matter is, when thinking about what makes their city great, nobody really cares how fast you can get from one side of the city to the other. Nobody is proud of their auto traffic jams, noise, or drunken or dangerous drivers.

But what these images do have in common is a theme of peace, quiet, and any images of roads are ones that are tree lined and free of cars, roads physically connect people but in a more peaceful and more meaningful way, where there is time to communicate with others. One even has an image of a Velib type bicycle sharing as the quintessential image of their livable city - the new Bixi system in Canada.

Something for all city planners to think about.

http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/rpSlideshows?articleId=USRTR24YP2#a=1

Compressed Air Car

noreply@blogger.com (StompinRhino) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:47:00 +0000

This is a Reuters video about a compressed air car being developed for the European market in the near future. Nice idea, and a damned sight better than what we have now.

A few notes:

1) Sceptics quoted in the video note that it "does not meet modern automobile safety standards". What these people do not realize is that this is not a normal automobile. It is a complete rethink of the car. In other words, at low speeds "modern safety standards" are complete overkill. The more speeds are reduced, the more such "standards" can be relaxed. Why would anyone want to relax standards? One simple reason - less weight. Lower weight drastically reduces the energy input required. The incumbent motor industry realizes this, therefore pushes the "modern" auto safety standards line as hard as they can, because high-speed crash "standards" means greater weight, which means higher energy input levels are required. On that playing field oil/gasoline wins (if we ignore the myriad problems associated with it).

2) OK so let's consider the compressed air car as a people mover (ignoring for a moment that it is fairly clear the long term goal should be just re-development of our cities around walking, cycling and public transport). OK, so this thing runs on air and does not spew out pollutants. That's good. It is also lighter, which means it consumes less energy - good again for environment. Hopefully it is also inherently slower - because given its lower weight, it will need to be slower for safety reasons. This not only protects the occupants of the vehicle, but everyone else around. Assuming there will be more pedestrians around in the coming post-auto era, this is definitely a good thing.

However, we must ask one question... "Where does the compressed air come from?" Even if we give these guys the benefit of the doubt and assume that they have also developed solar powered compressors to provide the air that charges these cars, there is another question: "Where are the compressors and solar panels created...?" Are they also created and transported with renewable energy?

This reminds one yet again of the KISS principle, and the simple beauty of just making cities walkable again. Most of us have legs - so let's use them, eh?

God only knows, at current obesity rates, most of us could use a good walk...

(Austin Powers as "Fat Bastard")

Demotorizing our Urban Centres

noreply@blogger.com (StompinRhino) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:50:00 +0000

With the popularity of PPS, Transportation Alternatives, Velib and the like, it seems many movers and shakers are finally realizing that "de-motorizing" the urban centres of our cities may be necessary to achieve the drastic cuts in fossil fuel energy consumption that are required to avoid the global warming disaster that scientists now seem to agree we are heading for ever more rapidly. De-motorizing a city results in drastically less CO2 emissions (transport is estimated to generate around a quarter of CO2 emissions) but also less pollution, less noise, less stress, less loss from death and injury, more human interaction, better sense of community and a range of other tangential benefits. And face it, who wouldn't enjoy walking through the city on a tree-lined (car-free) boulevard?

Speaking of which, am I the only one who thinks EVs are a fantastic great red-herring? If you believe the motor industry and battery making companies, EVs are the world's only hope. But surely it is marginal at best, for until most or all the energy for electricity generation, not to mention the factories that produce the EVs, and the mining for the resources that produce them, comes from clean sources there will be little or no net gain to the planet from switching to EVs. Doh!

By applying the KISS principle(Keep It Simple Stupid) those who choose to do so can deal with many of the critical transport issues on a personal level by simply riding a bicycle instead. I do not expect everyone to suddenly start riding bicycles - not at least until some of these boulevards are built.

All Tokyo Train Stations 100% Smoke Free From April 2009

noreply@blogger.com (StompinRhino) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 04:47:00 +0000

So, as of April this year, all Tokyo JR train stations are completely smoke free. This is something of a milestone to be celebrated given that some stations have close to a million people pass through them each day.

I find it very encouraging that Japan has finally joined the anti-smoking movement. It should only be a matter of time before residents of the city realize that automobiles are just as "meiwaku" - but in many more ways than just the stink, carbon emissions (or noise). Tobacco kills, but for the most part only kills the persistent smoker themself in a way that might almost be seen as evolutionarily satisfying if it weren't for the issues associated with the drug and the demography of the addiction patterns. Allowing driving to become our main form of transport on the other hand, endangers all of us. In fact, it endangers the people around them more than the driver themselves, which does not engender responsible driving.

The big question is whether we will we realize this before billions are invested in EV technology, and before China goes too far down the automobile path...

I guess the only safe automobile might be a true AUTOmobile - one that drives itself. Whether or not that can be reconciled with the environment is another question given that high automobile use encourages urban sprawl, and the high cost of the systems necessary for automatic driving.

The Invisible Hand

noreply@blogger.com (StompinRhino) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 01:20:00 +0000

http://seekingalpha.com/article/141807-life-insurance-companies-tobacco-investments-profits-over-health?source=feed

Article on the twisted state of health/life insurance companies investing in tobacco industry, while excluding smokers from policies. Insurance companies win on both and anyone who smokes gets doubly shafted.

It makes you wonder about evolution and where it will all end up.

Inner city Driveways and Garages Strictly Not Allowed

noreply@blogger.com (StompinRhino) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 13:27:00 +0000

Very interesting article here in the New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/science/earth/12suburb.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

Of course, as usual, Japan appears to still be going in the opposite direction. I am told that many wards of Tokyo will raise taxes on vacant lots in an attempt to force owners to build on empty plots. One exemption however is car parking. So, them message is clear: pave over and create a 4-car carpark and you will save tax. Some wards even go so far as REQUIRING SPECIFICALLY that car parking park be created on a vacant lot if a building is not to be erected immediately.

Imagine if a slightly different policy were implemented - that driveways and garages could not be created in built up areas. There would be less parking. It would become more expensive. Less people would drive. More people would walk or cycle. More people would catch the train. Trains would make more money and (hopefully) improve service and increase lines. Community based organizations would prosper (less bed-town phenomena). Only good things could come from this - except perhaps the inevitable vitriol that would come from old men who like to drive cars. But I would enjoy that. When these old men complain, I know we have got something right.

The Carbon Cost of Hydrogen

noreply@blogger.com (StompinRhino) — Thu, 21 May 2009 07:44:00 +0000

Nice to see Reuters looking at this.

Hydrogen is definitely not the best answer. The best answer is for government to admit that supporting auto as an asset is not the way forward. If no private lenders will lend to people who want to borrow money to buy automobiles, then probably THERE IS A VERY GOOD REASON. Why is the government supporting automobile credit? OK cars are handy sometimes, but WE HAVE MORE THAN ENOUGH OF THEM. If we could just get our act together we could probably do just fine with a tenth of the cars currently on the road. And given the environmental crisis on our doorstep, and that hydrogen is not the answer people are hyping it to be, it may come to pass sooner rather than later. Is this the root of the crisis? It is of course tied up with demographics, because as people age they drive less and discover for the first time in their lives just how inconvenient, how inhospitable, how downright hostile Western cities are these days for the non-driver.

Depths of Disgrace

noreply@blogger.com (StompinRhino) — Fri, 15 May 2009 05:31:00 +0000

A little off topic, but wow. SEC employees under investigation for insider trading?! By whom? The SEC? HAH! These guys are supposed to be the watchdogs... What a disgrace.

Canadian Smokers (sorry, drivers) up in Arms

noreply@blogger.com (StompinRhino) — Sun, 10 May 2009 10:42:00 +0000

This article is great. It reminds me a lot of the "Great Whinge" that smokers kicked up when the tide of public opinion turned against them a decade or two ago. Front page on the Globe and Mail National Section, the article is a good whinge about how automobile lovers are under attack from all sides in the city of Toronto. The hilarious hypocrisy that says it all about this kind of view is the Porsche advertisement at the bottom picturing the automobile drivers wet-dream of a road - fast, scenic, pedestrian free, even sidewalk free, and no other vehicles on it except your own, not even a motorcycle. This is a dream that not only excludes all non-drivers but is also fundamentally unattainable. Yet, this is the very dream that generations of last century's Americans were sold, came to pine for and ultimately paid billions in real money in an utterly vain attempt to attain, the only lasting legacy of which is horrific snarling traffic, chronic sedentarism, pollution, the ongoing liability for maintaining these automobile dystopias left for future generations, and half a century of neglect for non-auto transportation infrastructure. I could go on, but you get the picture. I think this article shows the level that the auto-crowd have fallen to. Like the smokers complaining bitterly when the public first began to call for bans on smoking in pubs and restaurants a few decades ago, the next step is capitulation. Let's take it all the way.

53 Miles Per Burrito

noreply@blogger.com (StompinRhino) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 04:35:00 +0000

Interesting little article linked above - a reminder of the efficiency of different forms of transportation. Makes you wonder why many roads are effectively designed to make life difficult for cyclists.

Norway Considers Ban on Gasoline Automobiles

noreply@blogger.com (StompinRhino) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:20:00 +0000

The fact that Norway, the world's 6th largest oil producer is seriously considering banning automobiles run on fossil fuels from 2015, should be a wake up call for Japan.

This sort of pressure is only going to get stronger so as one of the world's primary automobile producing countries, Japan really needs to pay attention. The writing is on the wall.

It also goes to show that even countries with a large stake in the old "dirty" economy need not hold back from striving to become leaders in the new green economy. As usual it takes a combination of legislation, popular/consumer support, and innovation.

In Japan the popular support definitely exists, as does the corporate innovation. All we need now is politicians and bureaucrats who can take the necessary legislative and regulatory steps.

Liquidity Crisis or Solvency Crisis ?

noreply@blogger.com (StompinRhino) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 02:11:00 +0000

The auto industry is where the argument that this crisis is one of liquidity alone breaks down. Increasingly, people are discovering that even with tens of billions of dollars in money from the US federal government, the auto industry is just not viable. Why? Because citizens (aka "consumers") are turning away from automobiles and in particular automobiles made by failed automobile companies.

Liquidity crisis it may also be, but ultimately it is the solvency of such companies as GM and Chrysler, together with the many outer-suburban sprawl related real estate industries (and the banks that supported them and lent to them) which is in question here.

We can only hope they all are liquidated before more money is wasted trying to sustain a failed business model, so that the government can spend its money productively helping to build the new, sustainable green economy rather than propping up old mistakes from a former era when the automobile industry was King.

Does that sound radical? Perhaps, but it might also be said that there are two kinds of radical ideas in the world: the kind that would take us on a path which diverges significantly from that which we have followed to date (for better or for worse); and the kind which diverges significantly from the generally accepted practices or beliefs of the population.

If you read the next post here about Norway considering a ban on fossil fuel burning automobiles from 2015, you will note that these ideas is increasingly only radical in the former sense - that it marks a departure from previous behaviour, but with increasingly strong popular and legislative support.

Pedaling for the planet - Join the Danish Ambassador in Historic Ride

noreply@blogger.com (StompinRhino) — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 12:29:00 +0000

Wheel time: Franz-Michael S. Mellbin, the Danish Ambassador to Japan, on one of his twice-weekly early-morning bicycle rides. "In Denmark," he says, "people would be probably more impressed if you say, `I bike 20 km to work every day' than to say, `I've got this nice Mercedes and I go to work in this every day.' " TOMOKO OTAKE

WEEK 3

Pedaling for the planet FULL ARTICLE HERE

Join Denmark's ambassador on a cycling tour he's hosting in Japan to mark a climate-change meet back home.

For more information about the COP15 cycling events, call the Japan Cycling Association at (03) 6229-2715 or the Danish Embassy at (03) 3496-3001, or visit www.cop15.jp

Great video interview by NHK (in English) HERE

There will be nine consecutive stages around Japan from Sapporo to Kyoto with kick off in Tokyo on 23 May. A 10^th stage will take place in Copenhagen, where messages on climate change collected from people taking part in the stages in Japan will be handed over to the prime minister of Denmark, the co-chair of COP-15. More information about the events in the enclosed flyer and on the Embassy’s homepage: http://cop15.jp/Default.aspx?ID=25

noreply@blogger.com (StompinRhino) — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 11:20:00 +0000

This on the top page of Reuters. Yahoo. Sounds like we are finally getting somewhere - and we are not going by car!

America's road hogs veer off freeway 6:00am ET

Car ownership and the serendipitous pleasure of the highway have been a celebrated part of American life. But several signposts suggest America's love of driving is stalling. Full Article

"serendipitous pleasure of the highway" is a bit too poetic a description for the horror of the highway, but there were a few choice quotes in this article:

> "I see people cutting back who don't even need to cut back."
Duh. It is called a fundamental shift in consumption patterns.

>"It was as if people had started a new travel behavior, a new habit," Miller said. "And they have stuck with their habit."
Yup. Get used to it. Auto advertising dollars are like water on a ducks back these days.

>"We were road hogs," said John Townsend, spokesman for the American Automobile Association's mid Atlantic club.
Spoken like a true recovering alcoholic. Damn right you were.

>Some warn the American consumer will revert to old habits if the economy roars back.
If the full power of the money set aside by the US federal government for rail networks, transit and other sustainable transport initiaves is allowed to flower into real "brick and mortar" new public transport and transit systems to support the car-free lifestyles that people are so very clearly wanting, then there is very little chance that America will go back to its bad old ways. And if it does, we are all screwed. China, India and others will be watching very carefully.

>Americans also have started to embrace car sharing. Zipcar, the world's largest car-sharing company that rents cars by the hour or day, saw its membership soar 50.3 percent in the past 12 months.
>Zipcar chief executive Scott Griffith said he sees a major shift in philosophy that could stay in place for a long time.
>He said his firm's surveys show people take 46 percent more public transit trips, 26 percent more walking trips and about 10 percent more bicycling trips after joining Zipcar.
>"To me what their understanding is, I can live a more sustainable life and also save a lot of money by changing my behavior in some ways -- like using car sharing and driving less in total," Griffith said.

Go Zipcar. These are big numbers. More evidence of this change in behavior. The credit crunch may yet be seen as the financial world simultaneously realizing the need to abandon a model of economic growth that had previously supported the US economy for several generations - suburban sprawl. Their reasons for abandoning this model were not altruistic of course. The smarter (and richer) of the financial wizards simply noticed that Americans themselves were slowly but resolutely abandoning that model themselves and that the returns from propping it up and frothing it up were becoming progressively thinner. Hurray for people power. Bring it on.

Funny though, how the options people have affect behaviour in different countries.
The article says "America's road hogs veer off freeway, hop on bus" but I suspect they only use the bus because there are very few real lifestyle-friendly, car-free options in the United States comparable to the compact cities of the old world where kids can walk to school and people use trains and bicycles. 70+ years of auto infrastructure and urban sprawl means the only non-automobile option is a bus, a poor substitute for true sustainable living, but I suspect that it is only an intermediate trend until the infrastructure can be put in place so that people can really enjoy the fruits of car-free life.