Website that tracks CO2 emissions!

Power plants are the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, accounting for 40 percent of the CO2 pumped into the atmosphere. A new Web site shows how much carbon is coming from each plant or power company around the world www.carma.org

Last Report by IPCC

Officially, tomorrow, nearly 200 governments will sign their names (again) to a statement that human activities are largely responsible for triggering climate change, that the impacts of climate change are already being felt, and that the cost of minimising future impacts is a sum that has previously been described as negligible ( see more in....New Scientist - Earth
www.newscientist.com/blog/environment/2007/11/ipcc-let-political-battles-begin.html?feedId=earth_rss20

Green Rebates & Incentives in US

Are you aware of the Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy (DSIRE) website? This is a great resource describing federal, state, and local incentives applying to commercial, utility and residential categories. Check to make sure you are taking advantage of all of the incentives available to you and increase your energy efficiency!

Incentives or policies to reduce the use of Plastic Bags

The other day I was doing my grocery shopping on my local supermarket. At the register, there were for sale reusable bags for $99 cents. I thought this would be a great idea to buy a few bags and bring them back to the store in my next visit. But how many of us will carry those all the time so we can use them the next time we have to buy? it is something that we have to start using and get use to carry them in the trunk. After reading an article in the NY Times, I learned about some policies adopted to reduce the use of plastic bags, here are a few of them:

• shops that offers reusable bags
• raffles for free food or gifts certificates for people who bring their own reusable bags
• San Francisco banned the use of petroleum-based plastic bags in large supermarkets and pharmacies
• In Ireland, the government taxed plastics bags in 2001, consumption fell by 90%
• IKEA is charging plastics bags and is selling huge reusable bags, excellent to carry heavy stuff and groceries for the home
  

Its Nuclear Power coming back to the US?

A company in Texas in seeking approval to construct 2 nuclear reactors in US. Last time in US to approve work of a nuclear plant was in 1978 before the Three Mile Island accident in March/79.
Advanced boiling water reactor, a new technology more reliable. It reduces risk of meltdown, reduce cost and time of construction. There are four reactors like this one in Japan and two are under construction in Taiwan.
If construction will be approved, would the US start to go ahead like France? we will see.............

Is It Too Much GreEn?

clipped from www.sustainablepratt.org

Are we seeing too much Green? June 25th 2007 An article in The New York Times asks us to think critically about the current "Green" Madness we are seeing in retail. We all want to be consciencous consumers, but deciding what is truly environmentally friendly is getting tough. The article centers around Mega Retailer of all things domestic, Home Depot. The mega chain offers over 60,000 "green" products, not just compact flourescent lightbulbs. Consumer beware! Some of these products may be jumping on the increasingly crowded eco-bandwagon. Just because a product is packaged in recycled cardboard, may not mean it is kind to the earth.

Graciela Carrillo: Bogota – A Model for a Car-Free City, by Graciela Carrillo

Graciela Carrillo: Bogota – A Model for a Car-Free City, by Graciela Carrillo

MIT study "The Future of Coal"

I just downloaded the study made by the MIT group about the future of coal in a carbon-constrained world (released last week). The study evaluates the technologies and costs associated with the generation of electricity from coal along with those associated with the capture and sequestration of the carbon dioxide produced coal-based power generation.

Coal-based energy plants produce most of CO2 emissions in US and within the next 5 years most of the US plants will be 40 years old of productive life (average is 50), besides the 2 new plants that TXU (Texas utility company) is going to build.

I think the sequestration of carbon is a great idea, but do we want to continue with coal-based plants? I think we need to push for more research on renewable energy generation and also on incentives.

You can find the MIT study "The Future of Coal" here:
http://web.mit.edu/coal/

Step It Up NYC 2007

clipped from www.boston.com Global warming protests begin Saturday Participants with the "Sea of People" project march down the street in Lower Manhattan during the Step It Up 2007 rally, Saturday, April 14, 2007 in New York. Americans worried about global warming staged a nationwide day of protests on Saturday, raising their voices everywhere from ski slopes to the Manhattan shoreline. More than 1,300 events were organized in every state under the banner Step It Up 2007 _ a call for Congress to require an 80 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. (AP Photo/Dima Gavrysh Scientists say melting polar ice caps and glaciers will cause ocean levels to rise, although estimates vary. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has projected that ocean levels will rise 7 to 23 inches this century, but other scientists warn the sea level could rise 10 feet or more, enough to flood Lower Manhattan and other low-lying coastal areas.

Bogota – A Model for a Car-Free City, by Graciela Carrillo

INTRODUCTION

Bogota’ mass transit was characterized by a low service quality and inefficiency system. The average travel time to work was one hour and ten minutes[1], old buses congested the cities, operated by private companies. The local government regulated the bus lines, but many of the lines were illegal, without permit to operate. The road network was crowded by 95 percent of private cars totaling about 1,000,000 vehicles transporting only 19 percent of the whole population (by Transmilenio S.A). Traffic generated 70 percent of air pollution and traffic accidents were very common. To address all this issues, the municipal government directed by the City’s Mayor at the time, Enrique Penalosa, implemented different strategies to get the people out of their cars. One of the strategies used to improve traffic transit quality was a new mass transit system named TransMilenio. The new transit system is a model that combines public planning of the network structure, municipal regulation and supervision, and private operation of the system. The purpose of this paper is to describe Bogota’s car-free strategies; focus on how the city adopted the new mass transit Transmilenio, its background, and process of implementation and finally, present the reader some lessons learned from the implementation of these strategies.

Bogota’s Car-Free Strategies

In order to introduce a structural change in the inefficient transportation system, the local government implemented an integral mobility strategy; its primarily goal is to promote non-motorized mobilization by improving and creating public spaces, new pedestrian zones, and 172 miles of cycleways called “ciclo-rutas” (by IDU, 2004). Another complement that integrates the mobility strategy along with the ones described above is a new mass transit system, Transmilenio, which infrastructure includes exclusive bus lanes based on the Curitiba model in Brazil.

Since bikeways were introduced in Bogota, the number of daily trips by cycling has grown drastically (from 1% in 1995 to 4% in 2002) (by Transmilenio S.A, 2002). It is an advantage for the success of the system that Bogotá’s climate is mild and its high density (31,000 people per square mile), and mix-land use patterns. Also, to promote cycling, the former Mayor in 2000 Enrique Penalosa, established that the first Thursday of February the cars could not be use by the people. Only by cycling, mass transit or by foot people could arrive to their destinations. In addition, every Sunday 75 miles of the main roads of the city are close since 7am to 2pm to create a “Ciclovia” – cycling way. It is accounted that as many as 1.5 million cyclists of all age’s use the cycling ways on Sundays. In order to improve quality and accessibility of pedestrian walkways, the city did installed bollards along sidewalks to prevent cars to park on sidewalks and bikeways. Moreover, in order to diminish the congestion caused by private cars, 40 percent of private cars can not drive on the streets during peak hours (6am-9am and 4pm-7pm), a restriction called “Pico y Placa”, or Pick and Badge. Recently the new strategies adopted by the local government were defined as “the world’s best combination of dedicated busway services and feeder bikeways and pedways” (by Planning Magazine, May 2003).

TRANSMILENIO SYSTEM

Bogotá’s Transportation Background

The mass transit system of Bogota before the implementation of Transmilenio in 2001 was characterized by an oversupply of inefficient vehicles. The city’s budget was only allocated for road expansion and only the construction of overpasses-bridges in a few critical intersections. The road maintenance was neglected. Roads were full of holes in the pavement, making the average speed much lower plus overrate of cars driven in the roads made impossible to get to one place to another. A metro and elevated highways were proposed, but at that time there was no way to finance them.

The transportation system in Bogota consisted in a public bus system which infrastructure network was planned and administered by the local government and private companies managing the bus lines and its profit. At that time there was an unclear definition of property of rights on the curbside and on the road; the absence of property defined rights to waiting passenger implies that the fare from a passenger on the curb does not belong to a specific company with permit to work on that specific line. The lack of regulation made that a big number of illegal routes were the predominant structure of the system. Another failure in the system was the problematic cause by the relation between the bus owner and the driver. The profits of bus owners depend on the number of passenger carried per bus. On the other side, the salary of the driver was calculated on the number of passengers carried. Therefore, drivers were competing on the streets for passengers to higher their salaries. Consequently, drivers were causing safety problems and a lot of congestions. The drivers did not respect assigned bus stops or delineated areas for bus transit in the pursuit of passengers and, in the extreme, did not respect route-assignment at all. This common “fight” between drivers was locally known as “the penny war”.

At the end of the 1990s the excess bus supply, accompanied with a substantial increase of private vehicles, exceeded the traffic capacity of the city. From 1991 to 1995, the number of cars registered in Bogota increased by 75 percent and 40 percent of the country’s vehicles were circulating in the city. Moreover, the public transportation fleet doubled during 1980-1999. As a result, these problems conducted the government to rethink the management of the entire bus transport system. Therefore, it was created and implemented Transmilenio by 2001.

Implementation and Operation of the New Transit System

One important factor in the implementation of the new transit system has been the city government’s capacity to act, characterized of a strong leadership with careful design and planning. This leadership has combined with the mobilization of necessary funds, state-of-the-art technologies adopted to run the system, the establishment of a good management company, Transmilenio S.A., and a big investment in infrastructure, and an efficient single fare pricing system. Another important factor in the implementation of the system was the National Government’s decision to support a new transportation system for the city.

The creation of the managing company was born upon the authorization of the District Council allowing the involvement of the Bogotá Capital District in its organization. TRANSMILENIO S.A. was incorporated in October 1999 as a state stock company of the Bogotá Mayor’s Office (by Transmilenio S.A.).

The local government was very active looking for participation of the existing transportation companies in order to convince them to take out their bus lines in a friendly way. The government was aware that the bus companies acted as a “mafia” and could oppose the proposal. Therefore, the strategy was to formulate plans of investment in the system by those existing traditional bus owners and they practically were forced into participating in the system process. On the other side, the actors who could be most negatively affected were the small bus owners and drivers that were not part of the traditional bus owners. They started to react against the proposal and performed strikes blocking streets in order to stop with transportation in the city. The challenge was achieved by the creation of a new coalition between the local government and the traditional transportation companies, who defeated the proposal and finally implemented the new system.

Two mechanisms were used for this purpose: promoting the System among transporters, in order to dispel their doubts while helping them become aware of its advantages and their opportunities for taking part in it, and acknowledging the experience in Bogotá as a main assessment factor in tenders. As a result, nearly 94% of the public transportation companies became associated in order to take part as trunk operators in the four corporations chosen as concessionaires or licensees. (by Transmilenio S.A).

The system is organized through concession contracts awarded by public competition under a set of rules controlled by a central authority, Transmilenio S.A. The new transport firms are to own a number of buses that meet certain specifications, whose operation is subject to the leadership of Transmilenio S.A. Therefore, the income of the concessionaries does not come anymore from the number of passengers carried, unlikely, the new contracts establish a per kilometer traveled payment, finishing with the so known “the penny war”. Feeder buses are also organized through concession contracts awarded by competition. These buses are in charge of bringing passengers from Bogota’s outskirt areas into the Transmilenio system. They operate on the regular streets, not in Transmilenio infrastructure.

In addition, the concession contracts obligate the operators to scrap buses that previously operated in Transmilenio corridors in order to start operating one Transmilenio bus.

The operation of the bus system is very similar to a rail-based system. While some buses stops at all stations, other operates as express routes stopping only in a few stations. This is because of the two-lane design and the location of stations at the center of the roads. Also, passengers can change from a local bus to an express bus as well from one route to another with the use of a single ticket, such as in rail-based systems. Cover stations are spaced every quarter-mile. Fare’s passengers are paid before boarding at the entrance of the station with a ticket.

The system is designed to carry 45,000 passengers per hour in each direction, number that characterized many metropolitan rail systems in the world. Pedestrian overpasses, pedestrian sidewalks and bikeways serve most of the stations. It is believed today, that around 45% of people that uses the system, reaches the stations either by foot or bicycle along the 172 miles of bikeways that has the city. Some principal stations also provide the rider a bicycle a rental place or garage. Therefore, the system is designed to recover 100 percent of its cost through passenger fares.

It is expected that by 2015, the complete Transmilenio System will carry 80 percent of the city’s population, compared with 72 percent in 1999, and it will run at an average speed of 25 km/hr compared with 10 km/hr in 1999[2].

The System is intended to cover 95% of the urban area and within 28-year term, meet the mobility needs of most part of the population. The Proposed System has a trunk-route extension of 388 kilometers to serve 5,5 million passengers/day. For this purpose, the District secured in 1999 a continuous financing process through the allotment of 50% of the surcharge on fuels and, during the same year, it was able to obtain the commitment of funds to the project by the National Government (by Transmilenio S.A). In addition, the subsequent Administration (2004 - 2007), committed itself to ensure the continuity of the System.

Positive Impacts

• Travel time for passenger reduced in 32 percent.

• Traffic fatalities reduction in trunk corridors in 93 percent.
• Greenhouse gasses emission reduction in 336.666 ton per year of CO2. In addition SO2 was reduced in 43 percent; NO2 in 18 percent; PM 12 percent.
• Noise contamination has been improved in 30 percent.
• Transmilenio provides people with handicap disabilities a choice to mobilize throughout the city.
• Improve Quality of life of Bogotá’s people
• The city recovered public spaces – pedestrian walkways
• The strategies made the people aware that they have to take care of the city and its components. The city belongs to them.
• Enhance maintenance of the roads, budget of the city provides an amount for maintenance.
• Improve peoples safety/security
• Vision of the city as a landmark.

Lessons learned

The capacity to act of the local government including a coalition with existing transportation companies, enable the city to facilitate the system implementation.

By utilizing the existing road infrastructure, a bus-based mass transit system can be constructed in an affordable way, providing a low cost and less polluting metropolitan mass transport system.

The operation of the system by a private sector with the leadership of the local government is very important to a successfully cost recovery plan through the fare collection with no subsidies.

In order to enhance the quality of the service provided for the passenger is very important to have a feed system that provides efficient connection with the existing road transport systems.

References

Transmilenio S.A (2006) , Transport in Bogota, before and after Transmilenio – www.Transmilenio.gov.co

Transmilenio S.A (2002) “A System of Mass Transit of High Capacity and Low Cost” www.nestlac.org/consulta/transmileniobogota.pdf

IDU (2004) Instituto de Desarrollo Urbano, Cicloways System – www.idu.gov.co

Juan Carlos Echeverry, Ana Maria Ibanez, and Luis Carlos Hillon (August 2004) “The Economics of Transmilenio, A Mass Transit System For Bogota”, University of the Andes, Bogota, Colombia.

Planning Magazine (May 2003) Green Connectors: Off-Shore Examples

Myung-Kyoon Lee (2003) Transmilenio Bus rapid Transit System of Bogota, Colombia – www.iges.or.jp/APEIS/RISPO/inventory/db/pdf/0043.pdf

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[1] One hour 10 minutes is provided by Transmilenio S.A - www.Transmilenio.gov.co . Other resources estimate that average trip was two hours twenty minutes.

[2] Data for 2015 provided by “The Economics of Transmilenio, A Mass Transit System For Bogota” by Juan Carlos Echeverry, Ana Maria Ibanez, and Luis Carlos Hillon, Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia. August 2004 www.gobrt.org/The_Economics_of_Transmilenio_a_Mass_Transit_System_for_Bogota.pdf . Data for 1999 provided by a presentation called “A System of Mass Transit of High Capacity and Low Cost” by Transmilenio S.A. www.nestlac.org/consulta/transmileniobogota.pdf

Gore testified that is not too late to deal with climate change

clipped from www.nytimes.com Gore Urges Quick Action on Global Warming He rejected the contention by opponents of quick action on global warming that the United States should only impose mandatory controls on greenhouse gases if China, India and other rapidly developing nations agree to do the same. ''The best way and the only way to get China and India on board is for the U.S. to demonstrate real leadership,'' Gore said. ''As the world's largest economy and the greatest superpower, we are uniquely situated to tackle a problem of this magnitude,'' he said Gore advised lawmakers to cut carbon dioxide and other warming gases 90 percent by 2050 to avert a crisis. Doing that, he said, will require a ban on any new coal-burning power plants -- a major source of industrial carbon dioxide -- that lack state-of-the-art controls to capture the gases. He urged the Democratic-controlled Congress to adopt an immediate freeze on greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

Meeting with the PlaNYC 2030

clipped from www.worldchanging.com PlaNYC Update: Joining Forces with Another Powerhouse Planning Project Joshua Wiese March 13, 2007 10:46 AM Yesterday two major New York City community development projects partnered for a day of dreaming big. ReDefining Economic Development NYC (RED) joined with PlaNYC 2030 to bring together community organizations working on environmental justice, affordable housing, and economic opportunity issues. The goal of the event, hosted by Judson Memorial Church, was to be sure these groups offered feedback to PlaNYC 2030, as well as learning about RED.