Climate Change
Basics
Smoggy China to Observe World Car Free Day
The Financial Times reports that China's cities will participate in this year's World Car Free Day. These actions have a measureable effect. A recent
study found that when Beijing ordered 800,000 cars off the roads for three days last year, local nitrogen oxide air pollution fell by 40 per
cent.
May 11, 2007
There Are Certain Facts That We’ve All Got to Face Up To
Given that it was only a few months ago that Mayor Michael Bloomberg could be heard saying, "We like traffic, it means economic activity, it means people coming here," his pitch for a whole new set of progressive transportation policies at last week's meeting of the Regional Plan Association was all the more remarkable:
May 10, 2007
PlaNYC Team Releases Transportation Technical Report
The PlaNYC team has released the technical report providing the detailed background data for the transportation recommendations made in Mayor Michael Bloomberg's April 22 Long-Term Planning & Sustainability speech. It's a big download -- 25 megabytes and 166 pages -- but if you are a New York City transportation policy wonk, it's totally worth it.
May 1, 2007
Who Wants to Drive Into a City That’s Under Water?
Elizabeth Kolbert, author of the outstanding Field Notes From a Catastrophe, covers climate change for the New Yorker. In this week's issue, she takes up congestion pricing and Mayor Michael Bloomberg's 2030 plan:
April 30, 2007
Black Clouds Over China
The balloon says: Drive one day less and look how much carbon dioxide you'll keep out of the air we breathe.
April 26, 2007
PlaNYC: Foster the Market For Renewable Energy
One interesting case study in the mayor's plan is the real-time pricing of electricity. According to research done at Carnegie Mellon University, Americans would save nearly $23 billion a year if they shifted just 7% of their usage during peak hours to less expensive times - the equivalent of the whole nation getting a free month of power every year.
April 25, 2007
What $13 Billion Looks Like
With the above chart and these comments in mind, here's some food for thought from the PlaNYC Transportation chapter:
April 24, 2007