Bucking the trend? Why Dutch women don’t work longer hours and still be happy:

November 18, 2010 at 12:42 pm

Maybe y’all American women want to consider moving to Netherlands? Great read

Amplify’d from www.economist.com

IN AMERICA, as pretty much everywhere in the world, the happy narrative of development and freedom has involved more women working in the cash economy, achieving financial independence and thus greater autonomy. It’s interesting when you find a country that seems to buck these sorts of universal narratives, and as Jessica Olien points out in Slate, the Netherlands bucks the women’s-development narrative in a pretty odd fashion: it has extremely high indicators for gender equality in every way (education, political participation, little violence against women, ultra-low rates of teen conception and abortion) except that women don’t work. Or not full-time, anyway, at anything like the rates at which women work in most OECD countries. Moreover, they don’t seem to want to. Nearly 60% of Dutch working women aged 25-54 worked part-time in 2001, compared to 15% in the United States, 25% in France and 35% in Germany; but where 25% of French women working part-time say they want to work full-time, just 4% of Dutch women do. The Dutch began identifying women’s failure to participate in the workforce more aggressively as a major social problem in the 1990s, which led to a tax reform intended to incentivise women out of the cosy “trap” of part-time work. Instead, most women used the better tax treatment as a way to work less. And Ms Olien, an American who’s spent a few months living in the Netherlands, wonders whether the Dutch haven’t got the smoother end of the stick:

Read more at www.economist.com

 

Finally! Washington, DC Unveils First Public Curbside ChargePoint Charging Station

November 17, 2010 at 12:36 am

Washington, DC’s first public curbside 240V Level II Coulomb ChargePoint station is now located at the Franklin D. Reeves Center, 2000 14th Street, in northwest DC. There are two spaces available for charging vehicles on the west side of 14th Street adjacent to the Reeves Center. The installation of the ChargePoint station was done by PEPCO and Coulomb distributor NovaCharge, LLC.

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty today, along with the Department of Energy Undersecretary Cathy Zoi, District Department of Transportation Director Gabe Klein and other officials unveiled the first curbside electric car charging station in the District.

Image Courtesy: DDOT (via Flickr) - Click image to access more pics from the event

“This is yet another fantastic way the District is at the forefront of providing alternative and environmentally friendly transportation options for District residents and visitors,” said Mayor Fenty. “We are excited to make this technology available and easily accessible to everybody.”

Click here to read the full story.

Related articles

Enhanced by Zemanta

Mullahs and Muscle Cars! Iconic vintage Detroit V-8s revving up a rare American cultural connection … in Iran!

November 12, 2010 at 4:03 pm

(Source: New York Times)

Image Courtesy: Ali Samandarian via New York Times

Today’s New York Times carried this nice article about a small but thriving group of classic car enthusiasts in Iran .

…The setting was a gathering of the Tehran Café Racers, but aside from a few minor details — Persian lettering on the license plates and on the cans of Coke sipped over lunch — it could have taken place at any number of racetracks in America. The loose-knit group, an affiliate of a club based in Florida, is part of Iran’s enthusiastic classic car culture. Vintage Detroit models play a big role in the activities, and driving events take precedence — the track session was the group’s first since its founding earlier this year.

“I was expecting a better turnout for the American car contingent,” Ramin Salehkhou, a 44-year-old American-educated lawyer who started the Tehran branch of the club, wrote in an e-mail. “But three of the guys, owners of a 1968 Dodge Charger, a 1970 Ford Mustang Mach 1 and a 1978 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, had to bail out.”

A rare high-performance Camaro belonging to Mr. Salehkhou is at the core of the Tehran group’s formation, and Detroit was well represented among the 30 cars at the track. American cars usually account for 30 to 40 percent of participants at club gatherings, he said.

….Last month, a classic-car rally in the ancient city of Isfahan attracted a variety of American vehicles, including Chevy sedans from the ’50s and ’60s as well as some Camaros and Pontiac Firebirds.

Click here to read the entire article

Transportgooru Musings: Post-revolutionary Iran would be the last place I’d expect to have a classic car culture, especially featuring some classic american icons like the Chevy Camero and Mustang. Hopefully this  comes to grow and capture the minds and hearts of more Iranians.  After all, love for cars has no boundary and national identity. Can the muscle cars of Detroit achieve what diplomacy and multi-party talks couldn’t achieve – winning the hearts and minds of Iranians and their rulers? Time will tell.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Picture is worth a thousand words! This one speaks a couple of thousands against distracted driving

November 5, 2010 at 2:29 pm

(Source: USDOT Secretary Ray LaHood’s Fastlane Blog)

After looking at this picture, I’m sure you will never drive while talking on the cell phone.

Image Courtesy: Eva Levine via Sec. Ray LaHood's Fastlane Blog

Sec. Ray LaHood’s blog post offers some details behind this horrific mangled mess of metal:

  • A garage New Canaan, Connecticut has put this mangled vehicle on display along with a “No-Cell-Phones” sign . This one was destroyed in a crash that may have been caused–not by drunk driving, but by a distracted driver.
  • The red VW Jetta, now barely recognizable, was being driven by a 19-year-old woman. When she entered Interstate 95, she struck another vehicle, causing her car to spin out and hit the median, where it was hit by a tractor trailer. The young driver was killed in the accident.
  • The deceased driver’s family gave written approval for the Garage owner  to put it on a highly visible corner of his property with hopes of deterring at least a few “distracted drivers.”

What a powerful message, in deed.

NC2

Image Courtesy: Eva Levine via Sec. Ray LaHood's Fastlane Blog

Click here to read more.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Change I Like! Census Bureau Says A Lot More People Are Biking to Work

October 6, 2010 at 3:44 pm

I knew it! I felt It! I sensed it! The number of people getting around by bicycle is growing steadily. According to American Community Survey, conducted annually by the Census Bureau, the number of bike commuters grew 0.3 percent between 2005 and 2009. Rise in gas prices or the hard-hitting recession, etc, etc are among the many reasons.

A couple of undeniable factors that influenced this trend are: (1) the rising awareness among the public about the health benefits of biking and (2) the forward thinking city administrators and staff (such as NYC Transp. Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and DC DOT’s Gabe Klein ) who have provided the necessary infrastructure that encourages safe biking.

Hope this trend continues and more cities take the cue.

Amplify’d from www.wired.com

You’re right. That’s almost nothing. But bear in mind that’s the median for the entire country, which includes a whole lot of rural and exurban areas where bike commuting isn’t viable. Bike commuting is still an infinitesimally small percentage of all commutes, accounting for just 0.55 percent of commutes last year, according to the League of American Bicyclists.

But if you look only at urban areas — where bike commuting makes far more sense — the gains are huge. Given the Obama Administration’s emphasis on bike-friendlier transportation policies, the growth almost certainly will continue.

The League of American Bicyclists dove into the numbers and found bike commuting in the 70 largest cities (.pdf) in the United States climbed 35 percent between 2005 and 2009. Kansas City, Missouri, saw the biggest increase, climbing an astonishing 1,095 percent. Indianapolis followed with a jump of 392 percent. New Orleans rounded out the top three with an increase of 155 percent.

See more at www.wired.com

 

Change I Like! Census Bureau Says A Lot More People Are Biking to Work

October 6, 2010 at 3:42 pm

I knew it! I felt It! I sensed it! The number of people getting around by bicycle is growing steadily. According to American Community Survey, conducted annually by the Census Bureau, the number of bike commuters grew 0.3 percent between 2005 and 2009. Rise in gas prices or the hard-hitting recession, etc, etc are among the many reasons.

A couple of undeniable factors that influenced this trend are: (1) the rising awareness among the public about the health benefits of biking and (2) the forward thinking city administrators and staff (such as NYC Transp. Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and DC DOT’s Gabe Klein ) who have provided the necessary infrastructure that encourages safe biking.

Hope this trend continues and more cities take the cue.

Amplify’d from www.wired.com

You’re right. That’s almost nothing. But bear in mind that’s the median for the entire country, which includes a whole lot of rural and exurban areas where bike commuting isn’t viable. Bike commuting is still an infinitesimally small percentage of all commutes, accounting for just 0.55 percent of commutes last year, according to the League of American Bicyclists.

But if you look only at urban areas — where bike commuting makes far more sense — the gains are huge. Given the Obama Administration’s emphasis on bike-friendlier transportation policies, the growth almost certainly will continue.

The League of American Bicyclists dove into the numbers and found bike commuting in the 70 largest cities (.pdf) in the United States climbed 35 percent between 2005 and 2009. Kansas City, Missouri, saw the biggest increase, climbing an astonishing 1,095 percent. Indianapolis followed with a jump of 392 percent. New Orleans rounded out the top three with an increase of 155 percent.

See more at www.wired.com

 

Counting the kills! California’s roadkill data crowdsourced from citizen observers

September 13, 2010 at 5:29 pm

Sometimes people ask me what I do at work.. I wish I can say something like this: “I’m Doctor Roadkill. I collect and upload roadkill data to the California Roadkill Observation System, a mapping Web site built by researchers at the University of California, Davis, to better understand where and why cars strike animals.”

Amplify’d from www.nytimes.com

Begun a year ago, the Web site — www.wildlifecrossing.net/california — is the first statewide effort to map roadkill using citizen observers. Volunteers comb the state’s highways and country roads for dead animals, collecting GPS coordinates, photographs and species information and uploading it to a database and Google map populated with dots representing the kills. The site’s gruesome gallery includes photos of flattened squirrels or squashed skunks.

The site’s founders hope to soon hire a software engineer to design a smartphone app. They think one would attract new and younger volunteers, speed up the process, and, with built-in GPS function, assure more accurate location information.

About 73 million GPS-enabled cellphones and 23 million automotive GPS units will be shipped in the United States and Canada this year, according to IMS Research, a market research firm. “GPS is very pervasive,” said Bill Morelli, an analyst with the firm.

The roadkill maps give researchers a better understanding of the environmental impacts of roads. They intend to use the data to build statistical and Geographic Information Systems models to predict roadkill hot spots and to determine where animal road crossings, culverts and warning signs may be most effective on current and future roadways.

Read more at www.nytimes.com

 

Wanna be skinny & healthy? Forget those crazy diets and take public transportation

August 20, 2010 at 1:57 pm
American Public Transportation Association
Image via Wikipedia

(Source: APTA)

Have you ever wondered what is the key to a good health and long life – I knew that it has to be the public transport.  Look at the Europeans —  healthy & happy– riding their bikes, trains, trams, buses, etc.  If you still don’t believe what I’ve said, you now have the proof.

The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) has released a report that explores ways that public transportation affects human health, and ways to incorporate these impacts into transport policy and planning decisions.

Evaluating Public Transportation Health Benefits, a study conducted for APTA by Todd Litman of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute aggregates the findings of several recent studies and concludes that people living in transit-oriented “smart growth” communities enjoy several health benefits, not seen in other communities, including residents drive less, exposing them to a lower risk of fatal vehicle accidents.

People who live or work in communities with high quality public transportation tend to drive significantly less and rely more on alternative modes (walking,cycling and public transit) than they would in more automobile-oriented areas. This reduces traffic crashes and pollution emissions, increases physical fitness and mental health, andprovides access to medical care and healthy food. These impacts are significant in magnitude compared with other planning objectives, but are often overlooked or undervalued inconventional transport planning.

Various methods can be used to quantify and monetize(measure in monetary units) these health impacts. This analysis indicates that improving publictransit can be one of the most cost effective ways to achieve public health objectives, and publichealth improvements are among the largest benefits provided by high quality public transit andtransit-oriented development.

Some of the key findings from the report are listed below:

  • U.S. Center for Disease Control recommends that adults average at least 22 daily minutes of
  • moderate physical activity, such as brisk walking, to stay fit and healthy. Although less than half
  • of American adults achieve this target, most public transportation passengers do exercise the
  • recommended amount while walking to and from transit stations and stops.
  • The United States has relatively poor health outcomes and high healthcare costs compared with peers, due in part to high per capita traffic fatality rates and diseases resulting from sedentary living. Public transit improvements can improve health outcomes and reduce healthcare costs.
  • Inadequate physical activity contributes to numerous health problems, causing an estimated
  • 200,000 annual deaths in the U.S., and significantly increasing medical costs. Among physically able adults, average annual medical expenditures are 32% lower for those who achieve physical activity targets ($1,019 per year) than for those who are sedentary ($1,349 per year).
Enhanced by Zemanta

The #Onion News – Millions Of Barrels Of #Oil Safely Reach Port In Major Environmental Catastrophe

August 13, 2010 at 4:41 pm

God bless The Onion – America’s Finest News Source.

Amplify’d from www.theonion.com

PORT FOURCHON, LA—In what may be the greatest environmental disaster in the nation’s history, the supertanker TI Oceania docked without incident at the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port Monday and successfully unloaded 3.1 million barrels of dangerous crude oil into the United States.

According to witnesses, the catastrophe began shortly after the tanker, which sailed unimpeded across the Gulf of Mexico, stopped safely at the harbor and made contact with oil company workers on the shore. Soon after, vast amounts of the black, toxic petroleum in the ship’s hold were unloaded at an alarming rate into special storage containers on the mainland.

From there, experts confirmed, the oil will likely spread across the entire country’s infrastructure and commit unforetold damage to its lakes, streams, and air.

“We’re looking at a crisis of cataclysmic proportions,” said Charles Hartsell, an environmental scientist at Tufts University. “In a matter of days, this oil may be refined into a lighter substance that, when burned as fuel in vehicles, homes, and businesses, will poison the earth’s atmosphere on a terrifying scale.”

Read more at www.theonion.com

 

National Renewable Energy Laboratory Publication – Plug-in Electric Vehicle Infrastructure: A Foundation for Electrified Transportation

August 3, 2010 at 3:41 pm

(Source: via Transportation Research Board Weekly E-Newsletter)

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has released a report that explores the components of plug-in electric vehicle infrastructure, challenges and opportunities related to the design and deployment of the infrastructure, and the potential benefits.

Enhanced by Zemanta