Last week, President Obama stood firm against Republican pressure and big oil’s demands and denied TransCanada’s push for construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. This is very good news for clean energy and environmental communities, however, TransCanada intends to swiftly propose a re-route of the massive pipeline through less “environmentally sensitive areas”, which include attempting to avoid Nebraska’s Ogallala Aquifer, an aquifer critical to Nebraska’s natural habitat, livelihood and farming community, never mind its fresh drinking water supply.  This point of entry has been the main challenge for the company.  It will be interesting to see where President Obama stands on the predicted newly proposed route, which is anticipated to arrive at his desk within two weeks.

The proposed $7 Billion Keystone XL pipeline would carry crude tar sands… [view entry]

The Altstadt

Cars are prominent in Freiburg, but there is a different relationship between people, bicycles, transit and cars compared to home.  Cars defer to pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit as they negotiate the city streets.  Bicyclists and pedestrians move around each other fluidly.  There is also a higher level of convenience in using non-automobile travel modes.

Freiburg has made the Altstadt – the old core of the city – a car-free zone.  Only residents who live within the zone and service vehicles can drive in.  Pedestrians, cyclists, and the tram are freer to move.   Fraziska Breyer of the City government told us that when the car-free zone was proposed, businesses were very concerned that shoppers would shun the center.  But the decision has instead made the… [view entry]

Kaiser Joseph Strasse, in Freiburg Center

I’m on a personal study tour of Germany and Holland to see what German and Dutch cities are doing about reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change.  The tour is organized by ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, an organization that the City of Cambridge has been a member of since 1999.  Our tour leader, Jade Jackson, is leading our group of 4 Canadians and 2 Americans through Freiburg and Dresden Germany, and then on to Bonn to attend the ICLEI Climate Resilient Communities conference.  We will end up in Rotterdam in The Netherlands.  I thought I would try to share what I see and learn along the way.  I hope you find it useful and interesting.

In Cambridge, we often… [view entry]

So there’s a new iPhone app in town, actually a couple.  Sure, iPhone apps have saturated the market, but these new apps, courtesy of Cambridge-based Nextransit, are something to pay attention to.  In recent years, cities such as San Francisco, New York, DC and Boston have granted mobile app designers access to real-time transit GPS data, enabling commuters and local patrons alike the ability to not only predict, but to pinpoint when the next bus, or subway, will arrive.  Say goodbye to waiting in the rain, or snow drifts as high as 10 feet — as with this past winter in Cambridge  – for the next bus.  Nextransit makes it a point to turn the typical bus ride into a calculated, visual, streamlined and, dare we say, even fun experience.… [view entry]

Cycling in Groningen, Netherlands

Recently, I had the opportunity to travel to the Netherlands and visit many different areas within the country. I landed in Amsterdam and took a train roughly 200 kilometers (125 miles) to the city of Groningen in the northern part of the country. The trip took about as long as it takes to get from one end Boston to the other via the green line (sadly I’m only half joking here). It doesn’t take long to notice the public transportation system in the small European country is as efficient any.

Stepping out in Groningen, we made our way to catch a bus to the apartment where we would stay for the next few days. Finally outside of airports and train stations, I… [view entry]

Boston’s bike-share program has spread to Cambridge, Somerville, Brookline and Arlington. Boston was vying to be the first city in the nation with a wide, successful program, but has struggled with funding over the past two years.  Last July however, the federal government awarded $3 million to support Boston’s program, with the money earmarked for purchasing bicycles and docking stations.  The program would allow riders to borrow a bike from a docking station for a short, set period of time, afterwards returning the bike to a different docking station for another rider to use.  Minneapolis, Denver, Washington, D.C., and Montreal have launched similar programs and the Velib program in Paris, France has shown marked success with over 90,000 bikes currently in operation.

Nicole Freedman, Boston’s bike-share director, expects membership… [view entry]

Following the release of President Obama’s 2012 federal budget, buzz around high speed rail projects in the US has increased. In the budget, $8 billion is allocated for high speed rail projects in FY 2012 and $53 billion is allocated over the next six years. Vice President Biden, a self-proclaimed train lover and regular rider, stated recently “We know that public infrastructure investment increases private-sector productivity, promotes growth, and creates jobs.”

Nevertheless, debate on up-front costs, accessibility and ridership continues to haunt the high-speed rail future in the US, even though Ray LaHood, the current Secretary of Transportation, believes that no realistic alternative currently exists that makes more sense stating “…there is no amount of money that could build enough capacity on our highways and at airports to keep up… [view entry]

Sick of traffic? Tired of the long, isolated commute to and from the office? You’re not alone, and many analysts say it’s only going to get worse. In fact, according to a recent Grist article, Texas A&M just released its Urban Mobility Report, a report that quantifies just how much of a toll daily commuting and car congestion take on your physical, financial and emotional well being. Not to mention how much personal time you lose sitting idle in traffic. It was also reported that metro Chicago and DC are the worst-off given the current “years delay per auto commuter” index. Astoundingly, Chicagoan and Washingtonian car commuters lose 70 hours of their lives to rush-hour traffic every year. These cities are, not surprisingly, followed closely by Los Angeles… [view entry]

On December 29th, Massachusetts officials announced a state-wide plan to cut heat-trapping carbon gases emitted by homes, cars and businesses in the state by 25 percent below 1990 levels over the next decade.  The targets set by the plan are the highest allowed under climate legislation passed by the state in 2008 and among the most stringent in the nation.  This aligns Massachusetts with states like California and New Mexico, who have already announced similar action.

The Massachusetts plan relies mainly on existing programs such as energy-efficiency standards for building construction, renewable-energy mandates and curbs in the electricity sector under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, of which Massachusetts is a signatory.  Ian Bowles, the state’s energy and environmental secretary, highlighted that… [view entry]

The Massachusetts Chapter of the Sierra Club is urging Boston-area residents to come out and voice their support for a first-ever increase of emissions standards for medium and heavy-duty trucks.  The Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation announced a proposal calling for a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and fuel consumption from heavy trucks and 7-10% reductions from other trucks between 2014-2018. The EPA and DOT are holding a hearing in Boston later this month to discuss this proposal; the trucking industry is expected to oppose the standards.

The vehicles covered by this announcement consume 20% of all on-road transportation fuel used each year, despite representing only 4% of all vehicles on the road.  Furthermore, unlike passenger vehicles, these large pickups, freight trucks and garbage trucks (for example),… [view entry]