In what some called a crazy stint, this April the LA crew of riders who call themselves the Crimanimalz hit the highway to make a statement in a city renowned for its hours and hours of commuter traffic. The ride through the city’s Friday commuter traffic jam, also dubbed the “If You Rode a Bike You’d be Home by Now Ride,” is now a monthly event. Check out images of the bold event to bring the car city bike freeways, bike paths and safe bike routes here and video here. The ride even has it’s own Wikipedia entry.

Bicycling as a sport, whether it is for participants or spectators, has always held a special place in the hearts of Italians. Professional bike races, including Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France are followed passionately by the Italian people. This mass interest in cycling as sport helps to make Italians among the world’s most knowledgeable consumers of bicycles. Everything you have ever heard about bicycling in Italy is true. The weather, roads and cities are all perfectly suited for bike touring. Each of bicycling and walking itineraries throughout Italy is carefully crafted to blend the best that our country has to offer by taking the active traveler off the beaten track.

A growing number of Italian citizens look today at alternative mobility as the solution to a stressful way of life.

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Part of this week’s EcoWorldly cycling series: Cycling and its importance in countries around
the world.

A bicycle, I once read somewhere, is the most efficient form of human transport ever developed. Coupled with the fact that bicycles are relatively cheap and trouble free, and suffer few of the traffic problems that dog other forms of transport it’s no wonder that cycling has never been more popular.

But I’m starting to wonder if this popularity might start becoming a problem?

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But our affair with the car has blinded us to some of the obvious drawbacks, such as its lack of compatibility with urban life which leaves our cities clogged by semi stationary vehicles with fuming engines and fuming drivers.

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As part of NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s long term sustainability plan, PLANYC 2030, congestion pricing is intended to reduce the amount of cars coming into the city, thus reducing the amount of auto emissions contributing to air pollution. While many city council members like the idea of cleaner air, some are questioning the details of the plan.

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Photo courtesy of Gyre via Wikimedia Commons.

Carpool to work. Even if it is just a couple of times a week, sharing a ride with a spouse, neighbor or coworker can cut down on gas costs, and may even make your ride faster if your route involves an interstate or freeway with an HOV lane. And keep in mind that you don’t have to work at the same building or live on the same street to carpool if you live or work in areas near those with similar commutes.

Carpool to school. If you take your kids to school every day, you probably pass other moms and dads who do the same thing. See if there are other families in your neighborhood that you can trade off days of taking the kids to school. (Just make sure everybody is ready on time.) You also might want to consider carpooling with other families for after school activities or weekend soccer games.

Carpool for fun. Instead of meeting your friends at an event, drive together. If you’re going to a concert or major sporting event for example, parking can be a nightmare. Meet up at someone’s house and drive together.

Carpool on vacation. You wouldn’t normally think about carpooling with people outside your family when taking a road trip, but you might be able to find someone going your way. ZipCar founder, Robin Chase, began GoLoco to help you create your own personal transportation network to find people in your area who want to share the ride.

More from Green Options:

Daily Tip: I HOV You

With the move away from city centers, and rapid increase in the number of cars on the road, it soon became clear that no amount of roads could handle the ever growing number of cars trying to cram on to them. Ever feel like you spend your whole life stuck in traffic? Well you are not alone: with the increase in the number of cars on the road, traffic congestion continues to worsen in American cities of all sizes. This gridlock is creating a $78 billion annual drain on the U.S. economy in the form of 4.2 billion lost hours and 2.9 billion gallons of wasted fuel—that’s 105 million weeks of vacation and 58 fully-loaded supertankers.

Talk about waste. A gallon of gas has about 19 pounds of CO2, meaning that 2.9 billion gallons of gas wasted means 55.1 billion pounds of CO2 needlessly pumped into the atmosphere every year.

These are among the key findings of the Texas Transportation Institute’s 2007 Urban Mobility Report. Improvements to the methodology used to measure congestion nationwide have produced the most detailed picture yet of a problem that is growing worse in all 437 of the nation’s urban areas. The current report is based on 2005 figures, the most recent year for which complete data was available.

This traffic has a lot of causes: bigger cars, more cars, people living farther from where they work, people no longer taking public transportation, and poor design of roads and cities to handle this increased traffic. "There is no ‘magic’ technology or solution on the horizon because there is no single cause of congestion," noted study co-author Tim Lomax, a research engineer at TTI. "The good news is that there are multiple strategies involving traffic operations and public transit available right now that if applied together, can lessen this problem."

As they say, time is money. The 2007 mobility report notes that congestion causes the average peak period traveler to spend an extra 38 hours of travel time and consume an additional 26 gallons of fuel, amounting to a cost of $710 per traveler. Along with expanding the estimates of the effect of congestion to all 437 U.S. urban areas, the study provides detailed information for 85 specific urban areas. The report also focuses on the problems presented by "irregular events"—crashes, stalled vehicles, work zones, weather problems and special events—that cause unreliable travel times and contribute significantly to the overall congestion problem. Worsening congestion, the study notes, is reflected in several ways:

• Trips take longer
• Congestion affects more of the day
• Congestion affects weekend travel and rural areas
• Congestion affects more personal trips and freight shipments
• Trip travel times increasingly are unreliable

Researchers spent two years revising the methodology, using additional sources of traffic information, providing more—and higher quality—data on which to base the current study. The report identifies multiple solutions to the congestion problem that, researchers say, must be used together to be effective. These include:

• Get as much service as possible from existing infrastructure
• Add road and transit system capacity in critical corridors
• Relieve chokepoints
• Change usage patterns
• Provide choices
• Diversify the development patterns
• Keep expectations realistic

With the increasing cost of oil, and the consequences of this wasted time, money and fuel, combined with the horrible ecological cost of this waste, it is clear that the current system is not sustainable. In my mind, the most important changes are changing use patterns, and diversifying development patterns. The creation of bike routes and walking paths will allow people who live close to ride their bikes to work, or walk. Building mixed zoned places will allow people to have a house near the place they work.

How is your commute? Do you spend a large amount of time in your car each day watching the traffic jam move slowly? What would you do to solve traffic jams? Want more highways in your neighborhood? Would you install bike lanes? More bus routes? Leave a comment with how you beat the daily gridlock.

Today’s post is by Leslie Valentine, an editor and writer at Environmental Defense.

When I visit friends and family in other places, whether it’s Portland or Los Angeles, Austin or New York City, I’m always struck by how traffic and commuting inevitably come up in conversation.

Those who live in the central core of a city are grateful they don’t have far to drive, or can walk or ’sub’ it to work. Others trade stories of commutes from hell, driving in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the main route into downtown. Everyone laments how it seems to be getting worse and worse every year in these lively, growing places.

Many growing cities and towns are traffic-choked and plagued by pollution. But population growth accounts for only a small share of increasing road traffic in recent decades.

What’s really going on is that Americans are driving more: We are taking more trips on motorways, making longer trips and driving alone more. More people live in car-dependent suburbs not conducive to walking or transit.

Sadly, incentives are skewed toward car use: "freeways" subsidized by general tax revenue, "free" parking paid for by employers, low mileage drivers subsidizing insurance costs for high mileage drivers, and countless policies favoring low density sprawl over infill mixed-use development. (Read more about our broken transportation system.)

But this has to change. We can’t keep building our way out of traffic jams and pollution with more roads and highways – it just doesn’t work. And the costs to our health and quality of life are too high. Our transportation experts at Environmental Defense have long studied the problems and are working on smart solutions. (Read more about solutions to traffic problems.)

One key is to use existing infrastructure much more efficiently. Incentives like congestion pricing and bus rapid transit lanes are two ways to get traffic moving. With tools like these in place, an existing highway can move more people more quickly with less environmental damage.

Says Environmental Defense regional director Andy Darrell: "Our country is growing, and we’ll always be building something new. The key is to build new communities in ways that decrease dependence on the traditional car and increase opportunities for walking, cycling and innovations like car-sharing, advanced vehicle technologies and new ideas for transit."

Take action: Help support transportation solutions. Earn points for your state for the personal actions that you pledge.

What do Singapore, Oslo, Toronto, and London have in common? They are among a number of cities to adopt traffic-reducing legislation. Popularly known as congestion charging, this legislation aims to improve the health of urban areas.

If your city suffers from congestion, stuffiness, poor air quality, slow public transportation, and irritating gridlock, you may be able to benefit your community by recommending congestion charging to your local officials.

What wouldn’t we give for clean air, less asthma and lung and heart disease, safer streets, and a healthy environment? But these are only a few of the perks of pushing for this legislation in your hometown or city.

Toronto commuters can now get home from work twice as fast (and surely with fewer bumper-to-bumper headaches). Londoners enjoy lower fairs on better-funded public transportation and a 20% drop in polluting carbon emissions, which will benefit health as well as the environment. In Melbourne, 86% of motorists said that the toll enabled them to get around the city more easily. Even in Norway’s Trondheim, where congestion charging met with initial resistance, public approval climbed from 26% to 64% in the first four years after the legislation was implemented. In other words, by all accounts this is exceedingly popular and effective legislation. (Commission for Integrated Transportation)

Here’s where we come in. We all know that the United States is the biggest per capita emitter of climate-altering CO2 and that much of this pollution comes from the vehicles we drive. As Environmental Defense puts it, “If U.S. cars and light trucks were a country, they would be the fifth most polluting nation in the world.” Now we can hang our heads, count our toes, and feel guilty, or we can do something much more interesting and exciting. And this is where the fun starts.

Contact your local mayor and city council to let them know how great it would be to see a congestion charge implemented in your city. This is a great chance to improve funding for city streets and public transportation, benefit the physical health of your city’s residents, reduce the number of auto deaths and injuries each year, clean your air, fight global warming, and do it all by getting involved in the governance of your city. It’s good, old-fashioned activism in a positive, inspiring way.

Some more good news: you may find more support than you would think for congestion charging in your city or town. Across the U.S., municipal leaders are already showing willingness to look for ways to reduce carbon emissions. Over 500 city mayors have already signed the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. Congestion charging is a great way to meet their climate goals (and yours).

Other Eco-Creativity Opportunities

If a congestion charge doesn’t feel quite right to you, consider what other solutions your city could find to its traffic troubles and pollution problems. In Trento, Italy, my Trentino friends tell me, cars take turns sharing the road: one day only cars with odd-numbered license plates are allowed on the road, followed by cars with even-numbered plates. Because Trento is in a valley, auto exhaust pollution poses an even more serious health risk, so this legislation helps keep people healthy and drivers happily traffic-free.

Another solution is to leave letter writing behind and join a local bicycle group and turn your commuting and errands into healthy and fun bike rides. This accomplishes traffic calming as well with one less car.

Taking Activism International

The London congestion charge has succeeded in improving public transportation, safeguarding health, cleaning the air and environment with reduced CO2 and particulate emissions, made commuting easier, and become more even popular today than it was when it was first signed into law.

However, the U.S. Embassy decided several years ago to stop paying this road charge, angering city officials and causing general international unrest. While this is nothing particularly new for U.S. foreign relations, wouldn’t it be nice if for once we could just get along with the rest of the world? (This story was the subject of an article by my fellow blogger, Heidi Strebel: “London Mayor Wants to Crush American Ambassador for Refusing to Pay.”)

So here’s another great activism opportunity. Feel free to contact Ambassador Robert Tuttle by phone at 442074999000 ext. 2211, or at the following address, to request politely that the U.S. Embassy repay its accrued debt to the London government and resume its payment of the London Congestion Charge. Always remember that when you call or write someone to take action, kindness and courtesy are important attributes. There’s an old adage that you catch more bees with honey than with vinegar. Personally, I would think that pollen or flowers would work best, but who am I to rewrite wisdom?

Before you contact the U.S. Embassy in London, you can also listen to both the argument of the London city Mayor, Ken Livingstone, who insists that the U.S. Embassy settle its tab with the city, as well as the defense of U.S. Minister David Johnson that the “charge” should be considered a “tax,” which would exempt foreign officials from obligation.

Ambassador Robert Tuttle
Embassy of the United States in London
24 Grosvenor Square
London, W1A 1AE
United Kingdom

Dear Ambassador Tuttle,

Sir, I just read a news article about your unwillingness to pay the London congestion charge on any of the vehicles used by the American Embassy in London. I understand your concern that the Embassy not be subject to foreign taxes in accordance with the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. However, it is in the best diplomatic interest of Americans at home and abroad that the American Embassy in London comply with the city of London and pay the congestion charge, which is, after all, a charge and not a tax.

It is of the utmost importance to Americans at home and abroad that ambassadors of this country build a positive political image. In order to maintain a positive image, the American Embassy and its employees must perform their duties with a sense of responsibility for the city and the country where they work. Flouting city laws and angering elected city officials is definitely not good press for America, especially when the law being broken concerns the health of local residents.

The London congestion charge is designed to benefit and protect the residents of London. Health officials, like the American Lung Association, are quick to remind us of the obvious connection between car exhaust and respiratory and cardiovascular health. By reducing the number of commuter vehicles used daily, the congestion charge helps to reduce harmful air pollution. Among the congestion charge’s other contributions to London are safer city streets with 38% fewer private cars, better public transit through much-increased ridership, 2 billion pounds a year to serve the city, and a 20% reduction of carbon emissions, according to Mayor Livingston’s office.

By ignoring the congestion charge, the American Embassy undermines this important legislation, which helps to protect the health and wellbeing of London residents. It is doubly surprising that the American Embassy should show such little respect for laws governing the capitol city of England, which has been a steadfast supporter of American interests.

I respectfully ask you, Sir, to consider the best interests of London residents and the good image of the United States of America, which you represent abroad, and to comply with the London congestion charge.

Sincerely,

Happy Activism!

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fictiondreamer/523447351/

Editor’s note: We’re pleased to welcome Kira Marchanese to the Green Options blog! Kira, Director of Internet Communications at Environmental Defense, will be taking over for Jessica Bosanko, who’s moving on to other pursuits, including a wonderful-sounding trip with her partner to South America. We’re glad to have Kira on board, and very grateful to Jessica for her time and effort in contributing to Green Options.

Today’s post is by Tom Elson, from Environmental Defense’s Living Cities program.

If you spend time in a dense urban area like New York City, you know the frustrations of gridlocked streets: blocked intersections, horns blaring and tempers flaring. But there’s an invisible cost to traffic, too: the damaging health effects from breathing the air polluted by so many cars and trucks. Vehicles stuck in stop-and-go traffic produce up to three times the pollution of cars moving steadily.

But New York and other metro areas are on the road to clearer streets and clean air. Congestion pricing is one of the innovations that will help them get there.

The idea is simple: at times when the roads are busiest, drivers pay a premium to use them. Think of the way you buy an airline ticket. When you check fares, you get a wide range of prices depending on factors like when you want to fly and how many stops you’re willing to make. We know that flying at convenient times costs more, and we might take a red-eye to save money.

The concept is the same on the road. An electronic toll system collects the fee as drivers enter busiest sections. The system charges drivers more during the busiest times. Those who take mass transit or reschedule their trip can save money. (See more about congestion pricing.)

This isn’t a new idea. London started charging motorists to enter its central business district in 2003 and has seen traffic congestion cut by nearly a third. Sooty particles and nitrogen oxide pollution dropped by roughly a fifth each. Singapore, Stockholm and several cities in Norway have also reduced traffic, travel time and pollution.

The idea is still new enough in this country to raise questions, though, as last week’s debate in New York shows. Critics of congestion pricing worry that boundary neighborhoods – those just outside the pricing zone — will see an increase in traffic and cars trying to park there. Studies in London and Stockholm show otherwise. Those cities limited conflicts around the boundaries by issuing residential parking permits and creating park-and-ride facilities.

Commuters who live in areas with poor public transit fear not being able to drive – but revenue from collecting tolls is generally used to improve transportation. London, for example, raised hundreds of millions of dollars, which it invested in better transit such as new buses. Ridership rose dramatically, and bicycling increased. There, as in other places that have tried this system, skepticism gave way to enthusiastic support for the plan.

This year Mayor Michael Bloomberg embraced congestion pricing and unrolled a plan as part of his sustainability ‘greenprint’ for New York. A remarkably broad coalition of 140 civic, religious, health, business, labor and environmental groups supported the plan, despite strong opposition from some legislators. After intense negotiations, Bloomberg and state leaders agreed to consider a three-year pilot program.

New York City is one of nine finalists for $1.2 billion in federal grants to try congestion pricing and other traffic-busting incentives. Eight other cites — Atlanta, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Denver, Miami, Minneapolis, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle — are vying for funds by proposing a variety of traffic-reducing tools, from tolling and parking management to express buses to telecommuting support. New York’s is the most comprehensive, with specific traffic-reduction goals leading to substantial cuts in air pollution and real public health benefits.

You can help! If you live in one of the cities trying to implement smart traffic policies, contact your elected officials and ask them to support congestion pricing.

Cars in traffic in New York City

Last week, after Mayor Bloomberg announced his bold "greenprint" for New York City, Environmental Defense called for people to share stories about traffic. Arturo, a resident of Long Island City, Queens, New York, responded. He describes the perils of living on a busy high-speed thoroughfare:

"Trucks, buses, cars whiz by at high speeds. The green [light for drivers] is at least 90 seconds, perhaps longer, so vehicles are inclined to drive very fast. …. I play a game of chicken every time I cross. And during rush hours, other pedestrians like me are forced to jaywalk," he writes.

Besides the dangers of navigating traffic-choked streets on foot, Arturo's story illustrates dangers that are harder to see. "Soot accumulates on my windowsill and I clean that off on a regular basis. I was happy when I saw the local bus now employs hybrid-electric vehicles. My lungs will be thankful."

His story reflects the frustration and hope that many residents of vibrant, growing urban areas feel. Across the United States, city residents often face a daily dose of gridlock, smog and soot just going about their daily business.

Science has long shown that air pollution from trucks and cars is bad for your health. What's new is that over the last decade, scientists have looked more closely at street-level exposure and found a high-risk zone of about 500 to 1500 feet. If you live within that range of a heavily trafficked road, you face much greater risks than someone living farther away. The soot and fumes from cars, trucks and buses are linked to asthma, lung and heart disease and cancer. (More on how traffic is killing us.)

So how do we deal with future growth do if we already have problems now? Mayor Bloomberg's groundbreaking plan to make New York the world's cleanest, healthiest city can be a model for sustainable growth for cities across the country. How New York handles growth and achieves healthy air, less traffic, green buildings and energy efficiency — and more — will set an example for other cities around the world. (The director of our Living Cities program shares his thoughts on being on the mayor's advisory council.)

Part of the mayor's plan is a promising tool called congestion pricing. Places like London have used a pricing system to encourage less driving in the city at peak times, and achieved remarkable drops in both traffic delays and pollution. (More on congestion pricing and the results in other cities.)

We hope alarming stories like Arturo's about New York traffic are on their way out. But in the meantime, we'd like to hear from you, too. Do your kids go to school or play near a congested road? Tell us about your encounter with traffic.

Carpooling is great for the environment, and your wallet. By sharing a ride with people coming and going in the same basic direction, you save on gas and help decongest roads. And who knows, your stress level just might go down. Wikipedia suggests that there is even another element involved: "Carpools may provide social connections in an increasingly disconnected society." Sure, we'll buy that. But we're not going to sell the benefits too much - they are obvious.

So why don't more people carpool? We're pretty sure it boils down to the fear of lack of independence. You're concerned that if you need to go somewhere, or leave early or late - then what will you do? Our suggestion is to try it before you knock it. Many cities and states run official carpool programs. They allow you to type in your starting point and destination, and receive a list of available rides, or requested rides that fit your needs. Some even provide a certain number of taxi coupons per year, in case you need to go home early or late one day.

Find any official programs by searching for carpool, vanpool, or rideshare in your local area. Also check out the Rideshare Directory for national and state listings of services. Plus, to get your carpool started off in the right direction, check out Wikipedia's Steps to Carpooling Success, which includes discussing "possible irritants" like cell phone use or smoking.

Okay, we said we weren't going to sell you, but money talks. Calculate your potential savings.

Rebecca says: Imagine what our roads would be like if everyone carpooled. Imagine getting to work faster because you can ride in the carpool lane. Speaking as someone that has no commute - if you can't live near where you work, do what you can to make your trip less costly to the environment, your pocketbook, and your time. Who knows, you might just gain an extra hour or two of your life back everyday.