Bicycle themed greeting cards

For your friends who are as nutty about cycling as your are: Get Christmas cards with bike chains in the design from Skeese Greets. Via Dallas/Fort Worth Cyber Cycling.
Photo info: Bike chain christmas chain by richardmasoner.

Election commentary: Tin ear in Detroit?

By Steve Andrews. Reproduced here with permission.

Since the late 1980s, in the aftermath of the 1985 oil price crash, Detroit and Congress have seemed joined at the hip in a mutual suicide pact. Detroit promises to pound out larger and faster vehicles, and key members of Congress swear they will sideline any effort to tighten fuel efficiency standards.

Nearly two decades later they’ve succeeded to a tragic degree, under both Republican and Democratic administrations. During that time the auto/light-truck fleet’s fuel efficiency declined by close to 10%. While this pact isn’t the only reason Ford and GM are nearly on life support, terminating this efficiency lock-out deal a decade ago would likely have helped both American car buyers and Detroit’s manufacturers.

Now come the results from last week’s election. A voice for change echoes across the land. Energy policy even earned more than lip service in many races. Yet the ink on the e-vote tally wasn’t even dry when Detroit’s own Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), ranking member in line to chair the House Energy and Commerce Committee, declared that he wouldn’t raise fuel-efficiency standards for U.S. automobiles. A congressman since 1955, he told CNBC on Wednesday, "I’m not sure that there’s any urgent need for us to address those [fuel economy] questions."

This is nuts. Even the normally conservative International Energy Agency’s director Claude Mandel stressed last week that on the efficiency front, "Urgent government action is required. The key word is urgent."

How nuts? AutoNation president Mike Jackson recently claimed that the American driver’s love for power and size, fostered by government policy, has led to "car obesity." Jackson compared the situation to the government putting out two plates; broccoli covers one - "you should eat your broccoli" - but the other is piled high with donuts on a half-price sale. Most folks go for the donuts - the inefficient light trucks and SUVs. Saying, "You can’t leave national security to markets," Jackson called for a $1/gallon new tax on gasoline, spread over a number of years. Sounds like a vote for urgently addressing fuel economy.

In fairness to leadership in Detroit (and very little fairness is due), the American driving public is also on the take here. "We’ve built our entire society to run on cheap gasoline and don’t want to suffer the consequences of major changes to that policy. No gasoline taxes. Don’t force us (via CAFÉ standards) to drive smaller, lighter, more fuel-efficient vehicles. We just want the sugar, no medicine."

But backstopping all of this looms a harsh reality: worldwide production of petroleum liquids will peak, plateau and decline, a process that ASPO-USA projects could happen anytime between now and 2015. Oil industry banker Matt Simmons advises that it would be prudent to assume we’re peaking now and respond as fast as we possibly can to mitigate the attendant negative impacts to our society and economy.

Of late, an estimated 95 percent of federal policies focused on expanding supplies of conventional and alternative liquid fuels: enhanced oil recovery, ethanol from corn, liquids from coal, more oil from Canada’s tar sands, eventually ethanol from cellulose and oil from shale. But it’s pretty clear to this writer that they can’t expand fast enough; there will be a gap between demand for liquids and supply, even before supply plateaus and declines. Further, alternative liquids typically require unusually high levels of energy inputs and generate undesirable environmental outputs. Last year at the Denver ASPO-USA conference, Congressman Roscoe Bartlett posed the seminal question for our policy deliberations: "should we struggle to fill the gap?" That conservative Republican’s answer: no.

Given the scope of our looming transportation fuels problems -- related to national security, long-term supply vs. demand, lack of fuel diversity, too much reliance on the auto, etc. -- a crash program to develop a fuel-efficient fleet won’t by itself create a smooth transition to the post-petroleum era. But it’s time to stop treating efficiency as the wallflower at the dance. No more "it goes without saying..." treatment.

John Heywood, director of MIT’s Sloan Automotive Lab, told the ASPO-USA conference in Boston two weeks ago that substantive reductions in vehicle fuel consumption will require both technology improvements and (the dreaded) changes in consumer behavior. To achieve a crash one-third fuel consumption reduction, fiscal and regulatory measures will be needed.

What might those measures look like? Congress shuns both CAFÉ standards and gasoline taxes as poison pills, yet both should still be on the table. During the 1970s, CAFÉ worked. A few sample elements of a broader program:

• Set an oil savings target for the transportation sector, such as 1 million barrels per day by as proposed by Senator Landrieu during the 108th Congress, but make sure it has a demanding timeline and enforcement teeth. One path would include closing fuel economy loopholes: the dual-fuel loophole, the truck loophole, etc.
  
• Provide incentives for accelerated development of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Apart from being very efficient vehicles, PHEVs fuel-switch a large portion of their energy consumption from gasoline to grid-supplied electricity.
  
• Establish a feebate system. This revenue-neutral approach establishes sliding-scale fees for vehicles less efficient than a newly established standard, plus sliding-scale rebates for vehicles that beat that standard. For the standard, consider figures developed (for CAFE purposes) by the Union of Concerned Scientists: 40 mpg by 2012, 55 mpg by 2020.

This challenge isn’t rocket science. Several small European vehicles on the market today get over 60 and 70 mpg. Even light trucks and SUVs can make a great leap forward; over two years ago, Toyota started selling in Japan an SUV that gets 41.7 mpg -- the four-cylinder Highlander. More than technology, the largest challenge is finding the political will to move forward with.

Given the relatively flat or negative movement in fleet efficiency today, even a crash program won’t produce a silver bullet. But it’s probably the best -- and most ignored -- silver BB available today. We need Rep. Dingell and the next Congress to act on that widely accepted premise.

Steve Andrews helped co-found ASPO-USA in June, 2005 and volunteers through the ASPO-USA Board of Directors. During past work as an energy consultant, he worked with builders, cities, utilities, planners, public television, the University of Colorado, and a host of other clients.

Human powered cargo transport

Lords of  the Logistic shows photos of people carrying huge loads on their backs or bikes. Via Bicycle C-U and other places...

technorati tags:cycling

Environmentally friendly bra more than meets the eye

Inspired by the Mighty Morphing Power Rangers, lingerie maker Triumph unveiled the mighty morphing "Bra Rangers," so called because the bra cup can be unfolded and used as a shopping bag. Read more at Terradaily. Via Sue and her Urbana-Champaign bicyle blog who was glad to *ahem* get this off of her chest.

Ridley Scott: Boy and Bicycle

Ridley Scott: Boy and Bicycle

British director Ridley Scott created the low-budget "Boy & Bicycle" in 1965, featuring his younger brother Tony Scott riding a bicycle around town. Ridley Scott went on to direct Alien in 1979 and Blade Runner in 1982, neither of which had any bicycles. His film A Good Year opened today.

The bike-riding younger brother Tony Scott directed Top Gun in 1986; his Enemy of the State in 1998 had one of the good guys getting away from the bad guys on a bicycle when he gets creamed by a firetruck. Tony Scott's Déjà vu opens later this year.

Via ScreenGrab.

Volunteer at the 2007 Amgen Tour of California

Calling all fanboys and fangirls! The 2007 Amgen Tour of California needs volunteers to help run the race. There's a lot of grunt work involved, but some of these -- like "Medical Control" -- look like a lot of fun!

Course Marshals – Assigned adesignated area along the race course to assist with the coordinationand safety of the field of play for all race venues; keep the courseclear of pedestrians, spectators, cars, etc; PR Ambassador: keepspectators informed.

Hospitality– Assist with set up/tear down of hospitality/expo areas and check-inat venues in start or finish cities: IMPORTANT that individual isfamiliar with host city and local government officials, VIP’s, etc.

• StartCities: Assist with LOC Hospitality Tent decoration (flowers, tableskirts, etc), Work check-in (credentials); meet and greet localguests/VIP’s.
• Finish Cities: Assist with LOC HospitalityTent decoration (flowers, table skirts, etc), Assist Tour HospitalityCoordinator work check-in (credentials); meet and greet localguests/VIP’s.

Media:

• Start Cities: Assist with distribution of media credentials at Media Check-in.
• FinishCities: Assist Tour Media Operations staff in the Media Office: Assist with Credential distribution, Serve as “runners”, assist withgeneral Q&A and office set-up.

Medical Control - Athlete escorts to and from Medical Tent for post-race testing.

Security –Assist Tour Security Staff with access-control, including on-course,hospitality, awards, green room and press conference. Will be providedspecial Security T-shirt.

Site Decoration/Restoration – Assist Logistics Crew with hanging and tear-down of banners: on-course, hospitality, etc. Broken into Two Shifts (Morning Set-up and Load-in:2 hrs.; Afternoon Breakdown 2 hrs.).

Lifestyle Festival EXPO–Assist Tour Lifestyle Festival Staff with Expo coordination: guidevendors and Exhibitors to their tents for set-up; assist with Festivallogistics as needed; assist with Marketing activities in EXPO. Brokeninto Two Shifts (Morning Set-up and Load-in:2 hrs.; AfternoonRunners/Activities and Breakdown 2 hrs.).

Sweepstakes/Economic Impact Surveyors - Responsible for ensuring each person attending the Festival is aware of our Sweepstakes and has had a chance to enter.  This position assists the onsite Survey/Sweepstakes Coordinator both pre and post-Festival.

Volunteer Check-in – Assist Volunteer Coordinator with set-up, check-in/registration and deployment.

Click here to sign up. Hat tip to Biking Bis.

technorati tags:amgen, tour+of+california, toc, volunteer