Daily Score Blog

Last Friday was bike to work day and I was in Vancouver for a meeting being hosted by the Candian Centre for Policy Alternatives on climate justice. Before I got on the train for home I walked over to the Burrard Bridge. I have been reading lately about efforts to create a dedicated bike lane on the bridge.

In other posts I have written about what supports increases in bike ridership. One big issue is safety. Vancouver, like Portland and Seattle, is struggling with making biking a viable alternative to driving to work. 

The City of Vancouver is discussing some major changes on the bridge to improve safety for cyclists. The proposed dedicated lane for bikes has created a lot of controversy.

Urban gardening's great. The 0.03 Mile Diet is the ultimate in eating locally and seasonally. It can provide valuable perspective for how much water, fertile land, and labor go into growing our food -- after taking up gardening, I can't toss wilted veggies without serious guilt pangs. The popularity of pea patching is growing rapidly: the number of American households tending their own produce increased  nearly 20 percent over the past year. Locally, Seattle Tilth had its biggest annual sale ever this month, selling almost 60,000 edible plants to backyard farmers. Besides, it's gotta be cool if the Obamas are doing it.

But there's a hitch. That raised bed along your house or parking strip could be tainted with years of flaked-off house paint and other urban pollutants. The New York Times this week provided cautionary tales about gardens with unsafe lead levels.

Don't hang up your trowel and rubber clogs just yet, though. You can have your carrots and eat them too.

Editor’s Note from Alan Durning: I read with great interest Jeff Mapes’ new book on the US cycling movement. Here’s a guest post that Jeff wrote for The Daily Score in honor of Bike to Work Day:

As I researched my book Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists are Changing American Cities, I couldn’t help myself. Everywhere I went, I critiqued the local streetscape by asking: is it good or bad for bikes?

When I visited my sister and brother-in-law on the Sammamish Plateau east of Seattle, I was quick to judge. We drove up a steep hill to get to their house, the main roads were narrow and filled with fast-moving cars, and the distances were long--too long for easy cycling. Except for the East Sammamish Trail along Lake Sammamish, there didn’t seem to be any infrastructure at all for cyclists or pedestrians.

In short, the fast-growing Sammamish Plateau seemed to share the crux transportation problem of sprawl everywhere: residents seemed locked in their cars for every trip.

My bike-riding brother-in-law John—a man who is hardened enough to have often commuted by bike to such far-flung workplaces as Redmond and downtown Seattle-- proved my perceptions wrong.

A National Wildlife Fund survey (conducted by Public Opinion Strategies, April 7 through 9, 2009) reaffirms research I wrote about yesterday commissioned by Pew. Here it is in a nutshell:

The American electorate is overwhelmingly supportive of a number of different reforms to America's energy policy, including a proposal to cap carbon pollution through a new global warming plan. A solid majority is supportive of every element of such a proposal, say it is the right amount of change to America's energy policies, and perhaps most significantly are willing to pay higher energy prices in order to increase the amount of the nation's energy needs being met by renewable energy.

After hearing viewpoints from both sides, two-thirds think Congress should act now rather than wait. Majorities of most key voter sub-groups are more likely to side with taking action now rather than waiting, even after hearing the concerns raised about cost.

Even Republicans are evenly divided when the issue is placed in this context (46% take action; 50% wait). Finally, voters place emphasis on developing clean energy technologies and conserving natural resources as a potential use of funds derived from a global warming plan, followed by tax credits for consumers.

For the full executive summary, click here (pdf).

Image courtesy: victoriapeckham, flickr.