Daily Score Blog

According to the Census Bureau, the typical American worker spends about 100 hours--just over 4 full days--commuting to work each year.  And that's just the morning commute; it doesn't even count the trip back home.

Now, 100 hours may not seem like that much spread out over a full year.  But consider this: most workplaces offer just 80 hours of paid vacation per year.

Washington's commutes (pdf link) are tenth-longest in the nation, but are a mere 30 seconds longer than the national average:  24.8 minutes, vs. 24.3 minutes for the typical US resident.  Oregon and Idaho commuters have it a little easier:  they average 21 minutes (ranked 36th of 50 states) and 19.5 minutes (41st of 50), respectively.

I intend to celebrate this piece of news with a pint of strawberries and a bunch of arugula: the number of farmers markets in the United States doubled from 1994 to 2004.

Of the Northwest states, Washington may have the greatest total number of markets (more than 90, according to this Seattle Times article (the USDA lists 87) with a record number, at least two dozen, expected to open in Seattle and King County this spring. Many have already opened.

The article cites signs that the King County area is in the early stage of a farmers-market boom, despite some resistance from shopkeepers in parts of Seattle where stores still sell produce outside their storefront groceries.

Oregon's farmers markets are also booming, with a number of new locations this year and lots of creative additions to markets, from preserving and pickling workshops to health education classes. The Portland Farmers Market opens a full month earlier (starting this Saturday), expecting that if they open the shoppers will come. The state has more farmers markets per capita than Washington or Idaho (62 total, with 13 in Portland alone). Idaho has 26 farmers markets, according to the USDA; and BC has around 90.

There's no new information here, but this article is worth reading for the reminder: Puget Sound's marine mammals, including orcas, are awash in toxics.  Of particular concern are fire-proofing chemicals known as PBDEs.  Levels of the compounds have grown exponentially since the 1980s, and recent science suggests that they can harm mammals' brain development much as do their chemical cousins, PCBs.

Earlier this week I grumped that this Seattle Times editorial misled readers about the finances behind a four-cent per gallon statewide gas tax.  Among other problems, the editorial overstates how much a four-cent per gallon gas tax could accomplish.  Over 30 years, it would finance less than $2 billion in infrastructure projects, which would only begin to pay for the highway projects--such as rebuilding the Alaskan Way Viaduct (expected to cost $4 billion without cost overruns) and the SR-520 floating bridge ($3 billion or so)--that the editorialists supported.

Now, it looks like the Washington Senate is considering a 15 cent per gallon gas tax hike, as part of a larger package that would raise about $8 billion for transportation projects -- with nearly half of that money slated for the Viaduct and the floating bridge.

That's getting a little closer to reality.

This Sunday begins daylight savings time, ushering in many months of longer evenings. Don't you wish it could be like this more of the time?

It should be, argues David Prerau in a New York Times op-ed today. Originally conceived by Ben Franklin as a form of energy conservation (saving candles actually), it still has untapped potential to reduce electricity consumption, as well as improve our lives in other ways. According to Prerau, extending daylight savings time by a week or two in the spring and autumn:

can save us energy while also preventing traffic accidents, cutting crime, helping trick-or-treaters safely across the street, and providing millions of gardeners, softball players and backyard barbecuers an additional hour in the sun.

It's worth a read.

UPDATE (4/7/05): The full US House of Representatives will likely soon vote on an energy bill that will contain a bi-partisan ammendment extending Daylight Savings Time by two months.

Cascadia's guru on pay-as-you-drive (PAYD) auto insurance and related transportation pricing innovations is Todd Litman of the Victoria Tranport Policy Institute. He provides a useful summary of who's doing PAYD in his newsletter, which I'll simply insert below the fold. The growth of PAYD programs is very encouraging, because PAYD is among the most powerful incentives for sound transportation and land-use patterns. There are rumors that a Cascadia locale could be the next place to host a PAYD insurance offering--more on that, if it comes to fruition.

The standoff against Weyerhaeuser and provincial forest management policies reached its ninth day today. Haida Gwaii residents have blockaded roads and seized cut wood in protest against destructive and short-term logging practices on the island.

UPDATE (3/31/05): Keep up with the latest developments.

Interesting.  According to this report (pdf download) from the Urban Land Institute, the number of familes with kids in the US is on the decline.  Childless households, however, are growing at a steady clip.

Take a look:

In the same vein,  less than half of all married couples in the US actually have kids under 18.  And single-person households outnumber married couples who have kids under 18 living with them.

What these demographic shifts mean, of course, is that there's a growing number of households who don't look like Ozzie and Harriet -- and who might not be all that excited to live in the sprawling suburbs that attracted so many families during the baby boom years.  Which is one more reason that I'm not so concerned about the declining number of kids in urban downtowns: the rising number of singles and childless couples will still mean strong demand for downtown living.

A new report issued today at a conference in Seattle details the struggle to improve ecological conditions in the inland marine waters of British Columbia and Washington--the Salish Sea, as it is sometimes called--an effort that is complicated by trans-border and jurisdictional issues. At the conference, Washington's governor, Christine Gregoire, proposed spending $31.5 million over two years to address the most pernicious threats to Puget Sound's ecology.

Oregon is wrestling with whether to establish marine reserves, where fishing and other extractive industries would be prohibited. Fishing management has been especially contentious since 2000, when the state's once-lucrative groundfish industry collapsed and was declared a "national disaster." Conservationists believe that protected ocean waters will allow fish stocks to rebound. Fishermen, especially sport fishermen, aren't so keen on the idea.

As one old-timer in a Salem Statesman-Journal article puts the issue: "Years and years ago, we could go out and fish all of the bottom fish we wanted to."

It seems like that was exactly the problem.

The City of Seattle is proposing another positive step: lowering requirements for off-street parking that drive up the cost of housing in close-in neighborhoods. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has the story.

Unfortunately, reporter Vanessa Ho seems intent on fomenting controversy. She writes:

As bad as it is now, parking on Capitol Hill -- Seattle's densest neighborhood -- may get even worse under a proposal by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels. The mayor wants to reduce the number of required minimum parking spaces for new multifamily housing on much of Capitol Hill and in two other neighborhoods: First Hill and the University District.

Good news, Washington's economy is getting stronger, at least as it's measured by GDP. From 2002 to 2003 the state's economy expanded by a rousing 5.1 percent. But is that really an accurate way to evaluate the health of the economy?

Unfortunately, in tandem with economic growth, reported releases of toxic chemicals from major industries also increased by 3 percent (an additional 600,000 pounds of toxics distributed around the state's land, air, and water). The Olympian reports. 

There's a lesson here, I think. Despite its omnipresence, GDP is a lousy way to measure our society, and even our economy. To quote the inimitable Alan Durning:

GDP doesn't track how people are, but only how much they spend. GDP fails to distinguish between losses and gains, because it only adds and doesn't subtract. Gutting ecosystems for commodities--and leaving fisheries depleted, forests cleared, or rivers dammed--shows up as a plus in the accounts. So do expensive misfortunes: whether money is spent on vacations or hospital stays, playground equipment or car wrecks, births or funerals, it's all the same in the GDP ledger.

Thomas Friedman's usually pitch-perfect commentary on energy and security hit some high notes yesterday, but it also went off key twice, in disappointing ways.

First, the sweetest passage from his New York Times column:

By doing nothing to lower U.S. oil consumption, we are financing both sides in the war on terrorism and strengthening the worst governments in the world. That is, we are financing the U.S. military with our tax dollars and we are financing the jihadists--and the Saudi, Sudanese and Iranian mosques and charities that support them--through our gasoline purchases. The oil boom is also entrenching the autocrats in Russia and Venezuela....Finally, by doing nothing to reduce U.S. oil consumption we are only hastening the climate change crisis.

Now, the ear splitters:

A new study by a researcher at the University of British Columbia shows that BC's over-the-counter policies for emergency contraception (aka, Plan B) have made a big difference. As the CBC reports, the number of BC women who used Plan B doubled to 18,000 a year after the province moved the medication off the prescription-only list in late 2000.

The researcher estimates that expanded access to Plan B has prevented about 200 unwanted pregnancies a year in the province. Of those, about half likely would have ended in abortion. Fewer would have ended in miscarriage. And the remainder would have resulted in unwanted births.

The CBC also reports that Canada is finally about to follow British Columbia's lead and offer emergency contraception without a prescription nationwide. It's about time! This step was announced last May.

When will the US Food and Drug Administration do the same?

 (This post is part of a series.)

The Seattle Times editorializes today in favor of a four cent per gallon hike in the Washington state gas tax.

Now, I'm typically in favor of higher gas taxes, on the grounds that the fuel's massive externalities--ranging from overseas defense costs, to government subsidies to oil companies, to infrastructure costs for roads and highways, to global warming and air pollution--aren't reflected in the price that consumers pay at the pump.

So in principle I should be in favor of a gas tax hike.  But, in this case, I think the editorial is doubly mistaken.