So, is ‘Old Ashmont’ up for grabs now?

Examples:

(wo)/man – The communicator is a man, speaking about a woman or man.

wo/(men) – is a woman, speaking about women or men.

wo/man – is a couple.

Interstate Highways are Discriminatory

That’s right, federally funded interstate highways break the law. They discriminate against bicyclists without providing equal access to a interstate bicycle highways. Now some of you may claim bicyclists don’t need such paths but it’s simply not true.

If you build it, they will pedal it.

If bicycle highways existed, bicyclists would use them. This highway system exists partially today, in disconnected swaths of path that rarely mimics the effectiveness of a motorized vehicle interstate freeway. U.S. Bicycle Route 1 is a bike trail that connects Maine to Florida, but in reality the trail is disconnected and often utilizes existing mixed-use streets and trails. It is by no means equivalent to I-93 or I-95, which will take a motorized vehicle up and down the eastern seaboard without ever having to get off the path.

Now I understand that we’re too developed now to build a continuous, segregated bike path from Maine to Florida, but at the least we can make a continuous path using bike trails and bike lanes. There is no reason why we can have roads and highways and freeways everywhere but no single path for cyclists to travel long distances.

Finish U.S. Bicycle Route 1

The goal of suing the federal government is forcing them to finish and maintain U.S. Bicycle Route 1. Currently, only parts of the route in Virginia and North Carolina are officially deemed acceptable. That, is not acceptable. Connecting the route fully from Florida to Maine would not only increase the number of long-distance bicyclists but would also improve bicycling for cyclists living near the route. Crossing through urban areas, the route may split onto a mixed-use street with ample bike lanes.

While the positive impact of bike lanes is debatable, they can serve as a marked path to continue through the urban area and onwards to the next destination. Ideally, I’d love to see a road or two in urban areas be designated as bicycle use only, but accomplishing such a feat in our current car-frenzied environment is unlikely. Removing cars and car lanes from core urban areas helps everyone, including car drivers, and improves the quality of life for everyone, especially residents of those dense urban zones, but the car lobby is simply too powerful and too ingrained at this moment to even suggest this utopian ideal as a feasible option. For now, bike lanes are the best, most feasible option we’ve got.

Are you in?

Whether you pedal or drive or walk, this plan would have an impact on you. So what do you think? Is a dedicated bicycle highway system feasible? Would it benefit bicyclists and possibly other citizens via reduced traffic in urban cores? Is suing the federal government for discrimination the best path forward? Should we include states, since they own and operate these roads, or is the federal government the correct target since a east coast bike highway would require state coordination and federal funding?

Would love to hear your ideas and thoughts on the topic.

You Honk, I Slow Down

Besides, it only serves to give you less space when honking at cyclists like me. I’m a big believer in owning the road as a safety precaution. If you think you need more space, take it. Pedaling confidently is much safer for the cyclist, other vehicles and pedestrians.

Does this mean I always take up the whole lane anytime someone honks at me? No, it does mean that when I hear a honk I slow down and look around. If the honking was valid, for example I fell asleep at a green light or was blocking an emergency vehicle, then of course I adjust appropriately. If the honking was to encourage me to move over so you can speed past me, then I usually move further into the lane and block you from passing me.

Why do I do this?

Because 90% of the time if you can’t pass a bicycle you either shouldn’t be passing because the road is too narrow or you suck at driving. Often, it’s the latter. Years of cycling has taught me that moving aside for the aggressive driver is more dangerous than owning the lane and preventing this person who shouldn’t be allowed to drive from barreling past me at unsafe speeds.

I also own the lane if I need to because cars and New England winters have turned the road surface into a scene right out of Wack-A-Mole. If I need to take up the whole lane and slow down a bunch of cars to avoid the potholes created cars, then that’s what I’m going to do. You getting to the next red light is not a priority for me, me getting there safely is.

So next time you see a bicyclist taking up “too much space” or impeding you somehow, look around first and see if there’s a reason for it. Don’t instantly blast your horn because it may simply slow you down even further.

Four candidates for Swagger Oakland?

The Government is (not) Always to Blame

While I agree with Jeff’s epiphany, there’s a layer he (intentionally?) avoids. Yes, our government and governments all across the planet share a huge responsibility for our damaged ecosystem but it’s not completely their fault.

The real problem is that governments by their nature (or at least “democratic” ones) must satisfy their constituents. You would think this means governments are there to help citizens, but right now that’s not the case. Huge corporations are tossed into that constituent pool and easily overpower humans. Since corporations don’t need clean air, they don’t give a damn and in turn government doesn’t give a damn. It’s an extremely short-sighted view (after all, without humans, corporations are screwed) but it’s reality. It’s not a conspiracy theory or a ‘big business is evil’ rant, it’s simply fact.

Corporations exert more power than citizens and thus shape government’s plans more than we do.

Humans are 100% at fault

No matter how you cut it, the damage done to the environment falls completely on human beings. The rest of the ecosystem is not dumping massive quantities of oil and debris into the oceans, nor is it polluting our air with carbon and who knows what else. It’s us. Each and everyone one of us. Even if your’e a tree-hugging, carbon avoiding, water recycling human, you’re still to blame simply by being associated with the human herd at large.

Ever driven a car, turned on a non-green-sourced light, bought food from a supermarket or in anyway participated in our global economy? Guess what, you screwed up the environment doing so. Though I try to ride my bike everywhere, limit my meat intake, and generally live well, I still screw up the environment, a ton! Right now, typing on this computer that was charged from a non-renewable resource, I’m damaging the environment. Heck, my battery meter just went into the red so I immediately plugged back into the socket. Frack you environment!

The problem doesn’t lie with just governments, corporations or humans or any other single entity. It’s a complete and systemic failure of humanity. For all of our wonderful inventions and advances, the net impact on this planet and our place in the universe has undoubtedly been negative. We’ve taken, taken and taken and given so little back.

What’s the solution?

Change everything.

It sounds crazy and impossible but it’s actually a lot easier than you think. The environmental problem is at its core an economic problem. In fact, nearly every single problem we have is an economic problem. Almost all of our problems derive from our circumstances; limited resources and constantly increasing demand creates friction between humans, the environment, and progress. Corporations take advantage of these circumstances to make a profit.

There’s nothing wrong with that but it does mean that in our current system these circumstances are self-perpuating. A light bulb that works for 100 years can only be sold once, but a light build that lasts for a year can be sold indefinitely. There’s no incentive for any individual or entity in our current system to act in the best interests of our long-term progress.

We Must Demand Satisfaction

Government incentives would help, but it starts with us. We need to demand these incentives. We need to boycott companies that hinder progress for short-term gains. We need to change. I’m not advocating communism or anything like it. Capitalism works but we need to change to focus on quality, not quantity. We need to reward companies that make long-lasting products, even if it costs us more in the short-term. We need to realize that improving the quality of life of those worst off eventually improves quality of life for everyone.

It might hurt in the short-term. It might be tough and laborious in the short-term. It might cause more problems now. But for us to truly progress and live in better unison with our environment we absolutely need to ingrain economics into everyone and everything on this planet. We need to live knowing that resources are limited and that we must use them efficiently. Using limited resources efficiently needs to be our primary tenet and because it is not we simply must start from square one. There’s too much clutter in these tubes mate and the best way to de-clutter is to throw it all out.

We need to change everything, but we need to start with ourselves.

I can do better, you can do better, we can do better.

At the same time, Justin Tadlock released Outline, a new child theme for Hybrid that is quite pleasant on the eyes and will do nicely until I come up with a custom look.

I’ve also been wanting to show my Google Reader shared items here on the blog for a while and found the nifty Recommended Reading plugin last night from fellow New Englanders C Murray Consulting.

Hope you like the new look, let me know if anything looks out of place.

The site does one thing and one thing only, tells you if a zip code is in Boston, Massachusetts.

Is It Boston????

ISB is a fun little side project after reading a few comments from Boston’s Aquapacolypse where people wondered and debated whether places like Brighton, Charlestown, and Cambridge are in Boston [hint, two of them are]. It’s also a solution to a long standing gripe amongst all Bostonians, people saying they live in or are from Boston when they are not.

Personally, after spending a few years in California and North Carolina, I understand why someone from Newton says he’s from Boston and I’ve grown OK with it. But what does bother me is when people tell me, a Boston resident of 23 years, that my home neighborhood Dorchester is not part of Boston. Even showing a letter addressed to Boston, MA that arrived in my Dorchester home wasn’t enough so Is It Boston strives to be the definite source on whether a place is or isn’t in Boston!

Getting the data

Getting the data turned out to be a bit of a fuzzy matter. Thanks to Matt Cutts’ post Fun with zip codes, I got pointed over to the U.S. Census Bureau and their beautifully formatted list of U.S. zip codes.

Alas, their data, while pristinely formatted, wasn’t completely up to date. I then set out to compile my own list and double-check all the zip codes manually against the U.S. Postal Service’s data. If you live in Boston and would like to help the cause, check that list and let me know if your zip code should be there and what neighborhood it’s a part of.

Making the site

Once the lists were in place, making the site became a pretty easy venture. We basically take a zip code, check it against the lists and report back the results. If there’s interest, I can put together a tutorial on how I went about it. I’m also considering releasing the source code and cleaned up data so others can make their own Is It Insert_Location_Name_Here.

My proudest bit about the site is it’s size and load time. The home page only has two requests [not counting Analytics scripts] and weighs in at a minuscule 3.7 kb. Load time off The 42nd Estate’s servers averages between 3/10 to 4/10 of a second. I love minimalistic sites and you can’t get much more minimal than that!

Photo credit: Craig Stevens | CC-NC-ND 2.0