All Charged-Up and Nowhere to Go

May 25, 2014. Times Article Viewed: 5726

Both the NY City and NY State legislatures are preparing to vote in the next month on legalizing electric-assist bikes. Would giving politicians and their staffs’ test rides, where they are, be a better strategy than putting on a mini-event, at a fancy resort in NJ, 90 minutes away from the city?

OK, I admit it. I hate the New York Post. I used to love it. There were writers like Murray Kempton, who fashioned poetry out of the muck, and dazzled us with the hard evidence of his enduring love affair with words, and our humanity, and inspired us with his justifiable suspicion of everything else. He was only associated with two material objects in this universe, aside from his typewriter and pencil, and they were a pipe and a bike. He was a minimalist to the core, although his sentences sometimes led through long and dimly lit caverns. He told the truth, never pretended to know anything that he didn’t and showed you how to find enough irony in a situation, to keep you from having to shed real tears about it.

Rupert Murdoch, the current owner, spends a fortune each year to provide himself with an editorial sidearm and the political leverage which comes with it. Now, this former illustrious rag, is a nail-studded, poisoned club, to be swung at its “enemies”, in angry drunken lunges, devoid of reason, truth or compassion. They get almost everything wrong if it has a political dimension. One of the problems with this modern-day version of William Randolph Hearst and his “You supply the photographs and I’ll supply the war” mentality, is their fealty to their advertisers. One day’s worth of ads in a shrinking world of tabloid newspaper advertising is the old reliable, in his case 29 pages long, car ad section. Counseling any reduction in the consumption of anything, is halfway between treason and heresy. Since he also owns the Wall Street Journal, this article of faith has been elevated to the level of Prime Principle.

One consequence of this arrangement is that this classic tabloid, America’s oldest newspaper, the NY Post, is in an unrelenting war against anything having to do with human-powered transportation. Economical bikes are the enemies of the people and those who ride them are barely human. Before bike-share was established they had regular screaming headlines, claiming that this was going to result in something resembling a battlefield, the streets littered with the bodies of both cyclists and their victims. Ambulances would need to cruise the streets constantly, to pick up the bodies and get them out of the way of legitimate vehicles. After 7 million rides and zero casualties, they are in trouble. Pedicab drivers from other countries are their new devils and restaurant deliverers a constant target. Only 1% of us commute by bike, so pandering to the other 99% comes naturally to them. (This is in spite of their ordinary sympathy for the wealthiest 1% when their interests are threatened) They can even do it self-righteously, with phony allegiance to principles that don’t even exist.

We owe a debt of gratitude to one of the richest men in this country, Michael Bloomberg, also the master of a media empire, who could, due to his wealth, resist the automobile industry’s stranglehold on the political system. He pushed for congestion pricing because he knew it would cut down on traffic considerably and improve the air outside at least as much as his smoking bans did indoors. He couldn’t get past the outer boroughs addiction to easy passage for their beloved cars, but he decided to do the next best thing and put in lots of bike lanes and even a bunch of bus lanes. Unfortunately, he had a City Council that was totally beholden to the usual suspects and unable to do much more than step aside and let it happen. The new Council is much more activist though and totally behind the current Mayor’s Zero Vision plan, to slow speed limits and rein in dangerous misbehavior by those tooling around in multi-ton machines, texting and talking their brains out.

Last week we were treated locally to an event put on by the titans of the bike industry in this country, INTERBIKE, who puts on the yearly show out west and Bicycle Retailers Magazine, BRAIN, and Outdoor Retailer. They assembled a small handful of electric bike manufacturers, a tiny fraction of the industry, and provided them with an opportunity to give rides to journalists at a fancy resort in New Jersey, a 90 minutes car ride away from New York City, the city with the lowest rate of car ownership in the country. This recognition, by the largest factors in the bike business, of both e-bikes, and the East Coast of the United States, is very welcome, albeit long overdue.

When I first became involved in this issue, the “Bike Show” was one floor, and a mere fragment of, the “Toy Show” here in New York City and obviously strongly tilted towards the young. A few major manufacturers dominated the industry and the most original element of any given show was likely to be based on snazzy paint jobs. Now that Las Vegas, one of the least bike-friendly places on the planet earth, is the home of the yearly INTERBIKE show, our side of town has become almost incidental to the process.

This is all in spite of the density of population on the East Coast and therefore the relevance of slower means of travel, like bikes, to the transportation systems. Besides bikes are not often considered transportation. They are for sport, for exercise and pleasure. They are marketed to young people primarily, although somewhat less than in the past, and there is a real dichotomy in their demographics. They go largely to the upper and upper-middle classes and the lower classes, delivery workers, etc. They are either the only affordable, or at least most economical, way to travel, or just another recreational option, a way to get out into the country.

In Scandinavia and the Netherlands, 25%-50% of trips are made by bikes, not 1%, and we all have the same arms, legs, hearts, etc. We also have the same need to keep those limbs functional and in that regard, we in the US are also way behind, in health, vitality, life span, etc. Breathing the by-products of hydrocarbon incineration, daily, at close range, is clearly not a good idea, whether you are in Beijing or NYC.

Is this a plot by doctors to make us unhealthy? Not really, but many are concerned, that they do far too little, to exert their influence on the political process, especially when it comes to policies that either damage or improve our health profile. They should be riding and promoting bikes like mad. What activity could be more supportive of good health?

It is notable that the 5-Boro Bike Tour, which had its big ride and accompanying Expo only a few weeks ago, had 85 exhibitors rather than the tiny handful in New Jersey. In the afternoon, bike store owners were invited to ride some of the bikes on display around the grounds of the golf club and residential development surrounding it. While there were surely benefits to this demonstration and exhibit, I could not help wondering where everybody was? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to have this affair in NYC itself, on some piece of private property, like it was in NJ, which also currently bans electric bikes from its roads? Since the NY City Council and State Legislature are going to be voting on this issue, within the next month, could invitations have been provided to all of its members and their staff, to have what will probably be their first ride on these devices? We know that the level of positive responses from those who have actually ridden one of these machines is stupendous.

The US Open attracts over 10,000 journalists to its event. The NYC press core alone is huge. As rare as such an event has recently been, maybe it suggests a stronger East Coast presence on behalf of the industry in the future. A great many journalists and store owners from Philadelphia, Boston, Washington DC and Europe might find their way to a great demonstration event, with a chance to try a wide variety of machines. The public too is hungry to see what the fuss is about and could be a part of such an undertaking. Being in NYC puts you in the middle of the media industry, from magazines to web companies, Google, etc. etc. The interest in this subject, if you measure it by the number of stories written about it and mentions it, is immense. It is an anomaly, that there is a subject, about which almost everybody knows only a little tiny bit, especially regarding the legality, and what they think they know is usually wrong. The industry needs, but can’t afford apparently a huge public information campaign. When it includes a multitude of free rides at County and State Fairs and block parties, and a scattering of celebs, the breakthrough will come in a big rush.

The missing piece has been, as is so often the case when it comes to worthy causes, the financial one. The cost of machines has been a few thousand dollars, significant for bike stores but not enterprises like car showrooms and TV stations, where multiple $10,000 bills are expected. The profit margins are a bit better than ordinary bikes, but the volume, at today’s low level of awareness, is still very small. In New York State electric bikes have not been approved by the Department of Motor Vehicles, so they are technically not permitted. Some argue that the Federal law grants them rights to the road, but there have been problems for some users, especially restaurant deliverers, whose ignominy is magnified by their need to get there as quickly as possible. Regardless, stores are nervous about renting them, which would provide the key step in giving the public a chance to find out if they work for them, all due to the liability risk that accompanies a product in legal limbo.

The problem with determining its relevance is that 99+% of people have never been on an electric-assist bike. They have no idea how pleasurable and empowering it is to realize that you have the ability to decide when and how much handy power you want, in moving along. Even car drivers do not get to make this choice. Since our health ultimately depends heavily on how well we are able to keep ourselves limber and use our faculties, this is not a small matter. It is an immense advantage that human-scale transport has over industrial-scale solutions. Cars kill and not just when they hit you. They are slowly killing you while you are sitting there when you could be standing, pedaling or even cranking. The key question is: who makes the choice, you or the machine? Are you controlling it, or is it controlling you? Is the answer $60,000 multi-ton robots or $6000 shared devices, measured in tens of pounds?

If you are in heavy industry, there is no question, this beneficial adaption would be a catastrophe. If you are insuring things or loaning the money to purchase them, this will not please you at all. If you are tired of wasting time in traffic and ready to get closer to the ground and in closer touch with nature and what is around you, this will be a positive development. Whether it is a wheel or a shoe, transport is bottom-up. When we begin to direct its development from down here on the ground, rather than in the boardrooms of the petroleum and automobile industries, much can change. I am afraid that there are decisions being made on behalf of the bicycle and e-bike industries, that are also not fully appreciative of the immense potential here, both for themselves and for others as well.

We are in the initial stages of a new “Movement” as it applies to movement and it is being propelled via a new “Medium”, Hybrid Human-Electric power. The question “How do I get there?” turns out to have so many answers, applications and varieties that it qualifies as a creative “Medium”, like Dance or Sculpture, not just a mechanism. Unlike those classic arts, its history is one of suppression rather than expression, its prospects held down by its own “leaden” identity. It is now an opportunity, to open up the issue of expedited movement, to artists and other creative makers. Sure, it is a functional exercise, mostly engineering, on one level, but it is also the key element in the re-design of our streets and public spaces and our relationship to them re-conceptualized. We are talking about what is beautiful, unusual, unique and fantastic, something that changes how you view the world.

There is work that needs to be done here, to forge links between the health, environmental and other public interests involved with this issue. One person who is already part of this coalition is Tim Blumenthal, the President of Bikes for People, who was the main speaker at the NJ Charged-Up event. His organization has been known for their pro-bike activities, and happily, he and his group are completely supportive of electric bikes. This has both symbolic importance and practical benefits as well, as better information begins to circulate. There have been times historically when this was not so when the strength and endurance needed to take part in cycling was considered essential to its nature and identity and motors were considered “cheating”, a sign of weakness, or an unwillingness to suffer the pain that athletes must endure. That self-limiting attitude, fortunately, is in the past now.

This more recent acceptance of diversity within the cycling community is a vital step on the path to legality and legitimacy. The League of American Bicyclists (a 120-year-old organization originally known as the “League of American Wheelman”) has also taken the same enlightened position. Their support will be essential in the struggle across the country to craft rules that will enable us to accept the blessings that bikes, with helper motors, can provide great swaths of our population. The complete acceptance of the many forms of cycling and its evolution into a fully functional and refreshingly diverse, healthy and vibrant element of our transportation system is now possible. It is clear, that if we would legalize the future, we would immeasurably improve the likelihood that we will have one.

Times Article Viewed: 5726

A Serious Conversation with Myself

May 11, 2014. Times Article Viewed: 5762

Sometimes I blog to get things off my chest and maybe, get you to think a bit differently about a topic near and dear to me. Sometimes, I just do it to clear my head. This time I’m hoping you’ll introduce yourself and join the conversation.

“There used to be a little grey cloud that followed me around and rained worry on me all the time, about the environment and things like that.”

“Sounds like a drag. Is it still a problem?”

“Not really. I took care of it.”

“What did you do?”

“It was easy, I just moved into that cloud. Now it’s somebody else’s problem.”

“Don’t you mean me?”

“That could be. There’s plenty of room up here if you want to join me though.”

“But if everybody moves up there, who is going to take care of everything down here?”

“It’s probably too late to do anything about anything anyway, so it makes no sense to worry about it.”

“Aren’t you afraid that it could all just fall apart, trap your grandkids in a deluge or avalanche of grief?”

“Yeah, I’d probably have to really increase my dosage, of whatever it is that they’ve been giving me.”

“Does it concern you that you may be witnessing the total breakdown of the world you were gifted with at birth?”

“If I cared about anything, I suppose that is something that I might care about, but honestly I don’t.”

“Maybe there is some secret technology breakthrough that will solve all of these crises, a reason to hope?”

“More inanimate devices seem unlikely to re-connect us to the life-force, which has been in open retreat.”

“What happened to the concept that your whole life is devoted to enhancing the prospects of your heirs?”

“It was discarded as archaic, selfish and unrealistic, as they are unworthy, undeserving, and unappreciative.”

“Don’t you worry that your kids will abandon you in your dotage, ignore you and forget you exist?”

“They’ve been practicing that day and night since they were little tykes, have got it down pretty good.”

“So you don’t care if there is a habitable planet left when you are carried off onto your next adventure?”

“I doubt if a piece of rock has many feelings for me and the sentiment is just about the same over here.”

“What about all the plants and animals, and all that fervent praying for everlasting life, etc. etc. etc.?”

“Well it’s nice to look at all that stuff and music in church is sometimes cool but none of that really matters.”

“You mean that was all an act, a charade, a Big Lie, just a way to get what you wanted on the cheap?”

“I guess you could say so, but I was just doing the same thing everybody else was doing, no big deal.”

“But don’t you see that not paying attention turned your chicken coop into a fast food joint for the foxes?”

“You vegetarian-types think it’s all about the “Big Picture” but you forget it can be pretty rough down here.”

“Does anybody think that emptying out the oceans of anything alive, down to the plankton, is survivable?”

“More hysteria, whipped up by professional environmentalists who depend upon these wild exaggerations.”

“What about the fishermen, whose empty boats and long faces speak loudly about their changing daily lives?”

“They can get jobs as truck drivers or plumbers, tell stories about how great things used to be sometimes.”

”But if this isn’t just one cog in the wheel, is it possible that it could be a crucial one, that we can’t do without?”

“Look, maybe our species is like a restless teenager, tired of the routine, looking for some risky behavior.”

“Sure, but don’t you hear all the time about a terrible accident, where one of these kids goes over the edge?”

“And girls have babies when they’re too young and maybe we expect too much of those who are in power.”

“Once you take on those responsibilities though, shouldn’t we expect a much higher order of behavior?”

“Only if we are delusional since they have demonstrated historically that they are just like us, only bigger.”

“So what about the guy who writes this blog, who thinks that we all have to make new kinds of bikes, jump to the human-scale, etc.”

“He’s just like all the rest, except worse, because he fosters the hope that there is actually a way out of this .”

“Well, we have our hands and brains so shouldn’t there be a way to use our ingenuity to crack this case?”

“Nobody beats the rap unless somebody gets to the judge, which is why politics actually matters.”

“So if it doesn’t help that he writes this thing, the proof is that nobody, at least hardly ever, comments on anything?”

“That’s how I would interpret this lack of response, either nobody is actually reading it, or nobody cares.”

“Then, does it even make sense to keep going on about this stuff, creative designs, World’s Fair blah, blah?”

“I’d suggest there be a pause, see if anybody noticed, to open up the discussion to everybody else and see.”

“Maybe that Disqus system doesn’t work just right and the comments get swallowed up and disappear?”

“I suppose, or very few people get through those 2000 words all the way to the end where the comments are.”

“Or do readers think that you said it all, and it really doesn’t require their commentary on your commentary?”

“There is really no way to know what they are thinking if they won’t say anything even when you ask them to.”

“So should I stop writing every week? I’d like to ask you to decide. Is there anybody there? Anybody care?”

Please create your own Commentary and begin a conversation. Help put the Common back in Commentary.

And identify yourself and let us know that you exist. Check-in. It makes this all worthwhile. Thank you.

Times Article Viewed: 5762

Some Thoughts On Slowing the Automobilization of the Planet

May 04, 2014. Times Article Viewed: 7600

Could it be that the curious devices depicted in the famed Hammacher Schlemmer catalogs point the way toward slowing, if not ending the rise of the automobile as the dominant machine force on the planet?

While a focus on the rewards of unbridled wealth, and the lurch towards hyper-consumerism, are two trends that I normally abhor, there is, regardless, much to be admired about the Hammacher Schlemmer catalogs and their cornucopia of treats and sometimes very practical devices and objects. Next month their cover will feature my friend Rob Cotter’s revolutionary “ELF”, the vehicle that has begun to change a million minds about the practical nature of hybrid human/electric powered vehicles, from its economics to its aesthetics. One of the ways that the world changes, is as a result of people voting with their wallets and generating buzz, and by earning profits and fueling entrepreneurism, inspiring more breakthrough projects.

As usual, this month the catalog features a variety of mobility devices. They range from the Worksman Trading Company’s genuine ice cream cart tricycle to a gizmo that projects laser lines on to the ground at night so you can make your own bike lane as you go along. Even stranger are two machines that are as odd as they are provocative and both use human power as their essential feature. One is an edition of the “Monocycle” that was featured in the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympic games [pictured above], its slowly spinning rings of light providing a serene parade, symbols of balance and coordination based on our energies, the human element. This was a beautiful, almost magical display, with a strong statement to make about our capacities and abilities.

While traveling inside a giant glowing ring has its charms, I have long felt that we could stand to make our lightweight vehicles, in such a way that the passenger can travel very close to the ground, for the sake of minimizing wind resistance, improving safety by lowering of the center of gravity and the stability that this provides, while enhancing the comfort of the rider. This still allows for this person, or even the number of persons, to use pedals or hand cranks to propel the vehicle in an ergonomic, efficient and comfortable fashion. Of course, the problem that immediately comes to mind is that buses and trucks and tall SUVs, could squash you like a bug that way, plead that they hardly knew you were there, and drive away without so much as a summons.

The solution is lighting, contained within thin telescoping filaments, projecting 8 or 10 feet high, deployed when needed only, flashing unmistakable signals that there is a small, perhaps hard to see, vehicle alongside you. This can also be a means of developing the personality of these modes of travel, by focusing on the graceful aesthetics of gently moving objects and how much they can lend to the landscape, instead of being huge, endlessly repetitious examples of the same massive, personality-less, potentially-lethal objects. While you ride peacefully, nice and close to the ground, all that commotion up there can be fresh and surprising, intermittent instead of continuous, colorful and fun. Accompanying this eye candy with sound displays, musical and otherwise, (the sound of a flock of birds seems appropriate), adds another variation, and one that can contribute to the safety of nearby pedestrians too.

The catalog’s other featured vehicle is propelled by electric energy, which is being generated by the four passengers, through the use of rowing bars. The manufacturer claims that it can reach speeds of 60 MPH and costs $60,000. One of its most interesting aspects is the mechanism whereby their rowed energy is converted into electric energy stored in a battery, which is used to power the motor which actually propels it. It is described as “battery agnostic” meaning it can be “upgraded as future battery and motor technologies advance”. While it has the flavor of the wonderful Kinetic Sculptures from the 1980s, it is also a very serious lesson in the art of combining power-sources and having a good time. It is reminiscent of the wonderful tiny railroad-tracked vehicles, that were moved by the up and down exertions of the two operators. It is another version of Derk Thijs’ excellent Rowbike from the Netherlands, a proven winner for decades, which also cleverly employs cables to carry the power to the wheels.

Getting around is recently becoming much more of a subject of interest to the geek community. Communication has been conquered. One push of a button and you are in the Land of Infinite Apps. Information is ubiquitous. We speak now of “overloads” and the impossibility of turning it off. Both have been shrunken down into something that fits into the palm of your hand, soon to be an amulet around your wrist or neck. Minimalization has proven to be the key to accelerating our access to what had preciously existed as two trivial factors, that we barely knew existed, clunky black phones and their fat yellow paper directories.

Now it is time for Transportation’s close-up, to be followed by its right-sizing, which, if history is any guide, means it’s on the road to virtual disappearance. It is the next mountain ready to be turned into a molehill. This will be even more fun than taking on TV Networks and Ma Bell. This is the really big one, that fills the streets and empties out the bank accounts. There is no aspect of our lives riper for revolution than transport. This is the next step beyond Social Media to the Mobility Movement, the MoMo. Who’s riding with who and where has implications even beyond the Human Be-Ins that rocked the sixties with Peace and Love and all that other good stuff.

There will be, and already is, a monumental change in this arena. We are getting ready to subtract, from the personal monetary equation, its second-biggest factor, your domicile being the one that requires you to take on the greatest amount of debt. (Schooling, of course, is starting to rank up there with the top causes of “voluntary” serfdom). Cars take up an exaggerated amount of both real three dimensional-space and, if you live in the country especially, virtually control the ability to access essential services. With the advent of bike share and car share though, rideshare is on the horizon and nothing could be a greater threat to the hegemony of the current automobile paradigm than a sharing economy. This doesn’t just threaten the auto and oil companies, this is a potential attack on the entire mall culture and a return to local shopping, slower living and an ethic of greater cooperation on all relevant issues before us.

The “Autocracy” is also a huge element in electronic media, TV, cable, and satellite. You can not avoid the pitches for brands that go on constantly, much less the ads for car insurance and oil companies, injury lawyers and finance companies. Programs themselves feature cars as top prizes on game shows and the essential instrument of heroic cops speeding around to catch the bad guys. Traffic reports dot the news stories and horrifying accident pictures are reliable fodder. Aside from work-related associations, we have accustomed ourselves to ways of life that permit us to largely seal ourselves off, from all but family members or a few intimates, in any meaningful activities or exchanges. We treasure our privacy more than almost anything else, even though it does nothing for us but give us some seeming protection from others. Do we have so little to offer each other that we should want to remain at these distances and with these barriers in place? As the importance of what you drive becomes less important than what you have to say, (and recent surveys suggest that, in a radical departure from the past, young women are much more interested in guys with practical vehicles than flashy ones), many sacred “truths” are being questioned.

Granted, folks ignoring each other, is far better than the anti-social activities featured in the news stories about civil wars and bar fights, but does this constitute a society? We are happy to be safe and secure in our houses too, and nobody says that this is not important, but we don’t even imagine a world, in which the conditions that exist are not inevitable and unchangeable. TV reinforces the same stereotypical ideas and attitudes that prevail. If you tilt right you go to Fox, Lefties congregate on MSNBC. It’s almost like High School, with the jocks and the nerds in everlasting battle. So the jocks get the girls, but later on, the nerds will marry them because they have a better sense of humor and earning potential. The missing element here is the artists, who don’t buy any of it, who thrive on total social interaction and crave change instead of being frightened and alienated by it.

The many parents who testified at the Vision Zero hearing about the death of their children under the wheels of multi-ton vehicles were touching in their deep concern. The Chair, Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, let them speak their piece and seemed genuinely moved by their stories of loss and despair. Nobody had to recruit them to speak. They are compelled to right this wrong, to bring us to our senses. Some responsible legislators are asserting a new reality, in which local streets are not allowed to be high-speed highways and cars not permitted to rudely nudge and intimidate pedestrians out of the way. I like bikes but shoes are the ultimate human-powered vehicles and NY’s Mayor DeBlasio is kicking an important program into gear, with his Vision of safe and friendly streets for pedestrians. He has the Police Department re-arranging its priorities and adding new programs to enforce traffic laws more stringently, especially involving the most dangerous infractions by motor vehicles. It’s not going to be enough but it is a start. Smaller and slower vehicles, along with better laws and enforcement, are the best paths we have to safer streets.

Linked here is a flier we prepared for the 75th Anniversary Celebration of the opening of the 1939 World’s Fair, and the Public Hearing on Vision Zero the same day. This Fair made one of the most persuasive arguments ever, for the total Automobilization of our planet. It is here, synchronistically encountering a bold proposal, to initiate severe and rarely, if ever, imposed restraints, upon oversized motorized vehicles’ domination of our urban roadways and spaces. This is a remarkable conjunction of events, possessing considerable historical irony. The additional coincidence, of the 50th Anniversary of the opening of the 1964 Fair, on the same day as “Earth Day” this year, further emphasizes the urgent need for new ways to move about, in smaller, slower, cleaner and safer vehicles, to reduce our consumption of space and all other resources, before we use them all up and run out of everything, including excuses.

Times Article Viewed: 7600

Attaining Vision Zero

Apr 27, 2014. Times Article Viewed: 4811 

If New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio wants to see accident deaths drop to zero in his city, he will have to ensure that there are fewer cars and trucks and more pedicabs and bicycles on his streets.

April 30th marks the 75th Anniversary of the NY World’s Fair that brought us Television, lots of cars and many other modern miracles. On that same date next week, the Transportation Committee of the NY City Council, under its Chairman Ydanis Rodriguez, will hold an important Public Hearing on Mayor DeBlasio’s Vision Zero, his initiative to reduce the number of traffic fatalities here to that number. Every year, hundreds of pedestrians and scores of cyclists are killed by motor vehicles in New York City, fewer than previously but still a lot. This is in addition to the hundreds of motorists killed by other motorists as well. The count of injuries is in the tens of thousands and the Mayor has decided to confront this carnage and to begin the process of reducing it to, in his words, Zero.

At a Town Hall meeting before a host of City Council members, the head of the city’s Department of Transportation, and other luminaries, 100 different one minute long public comments gave a good picture of their neighborhoods’ concerns and their expectations, for this bold proposed step, to improve our transport infrastructure and make it less likely that a step off a curb lands you in a hospital or worse. Many residents pointed to a corner or intersection that they found particularly problematic, and the guys who represented the taxi and black car industries gave statistics that showed that professional drivers are actually less likely to be involved in accidents than some other categories of drivers, regardless of appearances. Well, maybe. Everybody was grateful that a blue-ribbon panel had descended into their midst and was listening to their serious concerns and gripes and was offering to respond to them. Not everybody thought that anything different would actually come out of this exercise, but they were all willing to take their time out to give it a try.

A top police official listened while the question of enforcement and the lack of it, in crucial areas, came up again and again. What good are laws if they are not enforced? The city promised a more aggressive policy towards speeders, those who don’t give pedestrians their right-of-way and DUIs. A lot of people pled that the whole traffic system is slowed down, especially in residential neighborhoods, even on some major arteries, with many more bike lanes a popular request.

One minute is very little time if you are trying to say something. I used mine to point out that this was the week of the anniversary celebrations of the Fairs that took place in this very Borough 50 and 75 years ago. These events were influential in convincing everybody that cars were the wave of the future. They were a factor in rendering our roadways rail-free and bike-free, which helped to guarantee the hegemony of the automobile. I’ve suggested that we use the reminder, that these historic happenings provide, to inaugurate a program to encourage the creative design of human-scale and human-powered vehicles, perfect for dense urban environments. There are few things that the political leaders of New York could do that would have as dramatic an impact on the safety and civility of the streets of the city. Sure, reining in marauding garbage trucks in the middle of the night is important too. The 22 different bills being presented on April 30th, on this historic occasion, address a whole range of problems and opportunities. Although not included in this first batch of street-calming and traffic-controlling measures, the creative downscaling of the machines we use to get around may be the healthiest response of all, to this dangerous and toxic traffic mess.

The formula for improving the safety on our roads begins with the issue of scale. We identify two forms of this phenomenon, one is the Industrial Scale and the other Human Scale. One is measured in tons of pounds and the other in tens. The lightest vehicles may currently share the roadway in many urban environments but most are banned from highways and discouraged from using many roads on which they are legal. Historically, the smaller vehicles fall into a few separate categories. Some, like mopeds, motorcycles, and scooters, can weigh hundreds of pounds and go fairly fast. Neighborhood Electric Vehicles are an odd duck that is not allowed to go more than 35MPH and is not allowed on roads which are posted at 45MPH or faster. Bad luck chum, you are wedged in a regulatory crevice from which you may only emerge in a planned community or golf course. They are Industrial Scale because they weigh 1000 pounds or more, but share some other vehicles’ problems with access to the road.

Pedaled bikes and electric-assist models, that can only be moved when the pedals are in use, are in their own category and it is the one with the most potential to aid the Mayor in his worthy goal. All Industrial Scale vehicles are inherently dangerous, just due to the combination of speed and weight which results in their substantial momentum. Relatively slow, 15 or 20 MPH, lightweight bikes, even those with electric-assist motors, can not do the harm that a 3000-pound compact can, even at a modest 30 MPH. It has been customary for us to use minimal conveyances, like cycles, only in fair weather. The exception has been the amazingly hardy food deliverers, who manage to get around under the harshest imaginable conditions when mere mortals are retreating into trains and taxis.

We have accustomed ourselves to use, almost exclusively, these single passenger vehicles we call bikes. When it comes to automobiles, only racing cars ever fit just a single person. In China, you were allowed to have a passenger on the back or bar of your bike if you were in the country, but not the city, due to safety concerns allegedly, but hardly enforced. Sadly, the “Sociables”, multi-rider tricycles of the 19th Century are now considered exotic and the social aspect of travel on the smallest scale has been absent for over 100 years apart from a few tandems and trailers for kids.

These limitations can be overcome in many ways and thereby improve utility tremendously. This is not to say that this task is not a demanding one: these are design challenges of the first order. You must make something that is going to share the road with monsters. The weather is going to change and that includes possibly strong winds. You want to be as portable as possible, but not easy to steal, lightweight, but not easy to break, unusual or unique and therefore somewhat unfamiliar, but still easy for anybody to use safely. This is a difficult assignment but fortunately, the world is filled with ingenious people, many of whom like tough cases, who want the satisfaction of solving complex and demanding puzzles.

Doing things on a human scale can also mean hand fabrication and wide customization as well as variety and diversity of design. Hand craftsmanship has become less and less evident as market imperatives and heavy competition demand economies of scale that can only be achieved through mechanization, sometimes even leading to automation. There are great advantages to having a machine that can crank out aluminum pipe by the mile and do it fairly economically, consistently, and in a wide selection of sizes and specifications. Regardless of the efficiencies that can be achieved through some use of highly automated machinery, many operations benefit from the contributions made by live attendants, monitoring progress or completing certainly associated hand-tasks. It has been demonstrated that the ability to add the human touch to a piece can both enhance its beauty and its value.

Many factory workers are recent immigrants from parts of the world where hand metalwork and woodwork and other crafts are still popular and have many practical applications, so there are a goodly number of people practiced in the arts of handcraft. If we shift from totally mechanized to moderately so and leave room for hand-painting, first-class leatherwork, a host of optional features, some of which require measuring the recipient and testing their tastes and needs, the product is upgraded considerably, life-span extended and otherwise made better. If the only focus is on profit than it is inevitable that the human factor will be minimized. Unless there is more bottom-up momentum, if the customer is not a known person and, like the maker, an anonymous, unidentified element, we will have lost an essential aspect of our goods. What was once passed down through generations is discarded now after a few uses. We need to regain our respect for both people and the objects that they help bring into the world, give them as much care and concern as we would our spawn.

Even though cars now come with sealed modules and big replaceable units, there are still plenty of mechanics who know how to take things apart and put them back together as well as modify existing parts to fit special needs. Our biology compels us to explore ways to fulfill our requirements continuously and we do not entirely lose the ability to contrive and invent simply because we use it so little. Those who are used to employing their ingenuity, of course, will find it easier to put it into use. Artists, for instance, would be lost without it. We could all stand to have a closer relationship with our basic natures, and in touch with the instincts and talents that go with it, whether they reside within ourselves or in others.

I would urge any readers of this blog who are in the NY metropolitan area to consider coming to this hearing and speaking on behalf of enhancing a city with more electric transportation of all kinds, taxis, buses, cars and all. The trains already run on Niagara Falls juice. Many are accustoming themselves to a world filled with bikes, thanks in large part due to the currently fragile but much-loved bike-share system. It is time to begin to incorporate the new, higher-tech electric-assist bikes of all kinds into the mix, in many cases to replace the huge and dirty vans that now fill the streets. The rapid expansion of same-day delivery is going to require a bouquet of new configurations, preferably with narrow profiles, and perhaps with three wheels, that will serve the now instant-gratification society, that Amazon and eBay have decided to further advance. The same improvements that will be made to cargo bikes will translate easily to passenger-carrying vehicles like pedicabs as well.

The food delivery business is making considerable strides in generating more positive practices in the industry to help lessen the unhappiness felt when a deliverer rides his bike on the sidewalk or narrowly misses colliding with a pedestrian. This is a difficult issue, since the congested streets of midtown Manhattan especially, mean a constant dance to avoid cars and other big and dangerous vehicles. Bikes (not just electric-assisted ones) are far less hazardous of course, but also somewhat less predictable since they may want to avoid going an extra four blocks when they can simply slip carefully up the current one. There will need to be increased civility by everyone, even including pedestrians, if a reasonable situation is to be reached under such difficult and stressful conditions. Meanwhile, encouraging as much activity to take place at the Human-Scale rather than the Industrial, improves our prospects considerably, lessens noise and smoke, hazard and threat.

Likewise, the 850 pedicabs plying the streets of NYC are now being deployed with greater care and concern about the quality of the fleet and their drivers. The rash of bad actors has mostly left town and the new administration may improve the operations of the department enough to restore some balance in this activity. One needed improvement is the legalization of electric-assist motors of course and the incorporation of the Fair Sex fully into the industry by humanizing the experience, making it less of an extension of brute strength. Better weather protection for both drivers and passengers and progress on other needed design changes is in the works.

The groups that will be forming to design and build their own vehicles, might well consider making their project one that involves transport of people or, even better, one that is able to transform itself from freight to a passenger vehicle with ease. Providing capacity for the transportation-challenged also has to be high on the agenda. Lessening the pressure from an overabundance of large motorized vehicles will require a conscious process, of substituting multi-ton nightmares with minimal, muscle-propelled works of art, that doesn’t fill the air with poison or crush the unwary.

In his documentary “The City”, made as a prelude to the 1939 World’s Fair, the opening of which we are celebrating here, Lewis Mumford said, ”We used our hands and mastered what we put our hands-on”. This was part of his plea, to recover the values that once characterized our society, the competence and care that were so diminished, during a period of rapid expansion of industrialization, and consequent lower standards, with nobody “personally” responsible for what emerged. Re-connecting to our natural identities as ingenious creatures and re-making elements of our world, with our hands, beginning with those which we all have the greatest access to, like bikes, can help give us back the confidence we deserve and need, to move forward on all of the other issues which require this kind of creative and compassionate attention. Your contributions are welcome at SharingUmbrellas.org

Meanwhile, if you happen to be in the neighborhood, don’t forget to come to NYC City Hall on Wednesday, testify and celebrate the birth of a new Vision of getting around, one that goes way beyond GM’s slick Futurama, that thrives on the human-scale and protects and enhances the life-force, instead of diminishing it.

Times Article Viewed: 4811

Muscle Power As Fuel For Our Creative Juices

Apr 20, 2014. Times Article Viewed: 7492

We’ve shaped our society around cheap, but dirty and exhaustible energy. In the 21st century, it’s time to start thinking creatively about healthful ways to re-power our lives, by burning caloric energy instead of hydrocarbons.

We are surrounded by machines, but it is still only through the earnest efforts of homo sapiens that anything ever actually gets done here. Our fuel, the most important source of power on this planet, (forget fracking), is measured in calories, a beneficial by-product of our neighboring star’s long-burning fires. These handy green shoots live in the earth until their synchronized internal clocks order them all to break out into the air and begin their transformation into Cheerios and cheeseburgers. Not that long ago, most of us spent most of our time tending to this element of our lives. In more recent years, the whole system has appeared to be on automatic pilot, seamlessly delivering the fruits and vegetables, grains and spices that we crave and need. Our re-created Eden often feels just right and few question the inevitability of all this or our qualifications to enjoy its benefits.

In the 1950s, with the rest of the world struggling to re-build and lots of wartime technology to translate into consumer goods, this made sense. In the 21st Century, with the fortunes of the most fortunate and everybody else seemingly heading into different dimensions, the social fabric is stretching to the breaking point and only the most oblivious deny that we are in a heap of trouble. Good jobs are as scarce as hen’s teeth and four-leaf clovers. Nobody wants to leave their current positions, no matter how tired they are of doing it, lest the economy suffers another sharp blow and their protein is called cat food. This dismal situation leaves fewer and fewer good opportunities, so recent college grads are moving in with their parents in record numbers, postponing starting families and wondering if anything will ever change. When you add the accelerating effects of automation and the out-sourcing of nearly everything, the clouds that have been gathering, threaten even darker days ahead.

Owing to a growing sense of uncertainty, we have begun to focus more on our futures. Where does it leave us, if we are fashioning machines to run our machines for us when the next generation of robots, automated cars, etc. appears to move us one full step further from the processes that are responsible for the manufacture of all of these products? Since this meant smokestacks and mines for a century, we heaved a great sigh of relief when more and more of this got off-shored, grateful for the freedom from the conspicuous burdens that accompany this dirty activity. Much later on, it sunk in fully, that there were no ready replacements for all of those missing jobs and whole regions of the country took a drastic nose-dive, while the rust-belt finished rusting. Compared to the noise and dirty dust of the Industrial Revolution, clean service industries like hair-dressing, retailing and food-serving, often paid less but, in some important ways, beat the pants off of dank factories, nasty chemicals and the endless repetition of the assembly line. We thought we were moving ahead.

If you are at a broken stop-light though, how does high tech save you? If you are Detroit and you can’t keep your streetlights on, how long will it be before the water stops flowing? We take everything for granted and we are not prepared for the next phase, whatever it may be. Tending the same burger grill or passing paper bags filled with low-nutrition, highly-processed treats, loaded with sugar and salt and an amazing number of chemicals that you have never even heard of, is also deadening, and it doesn’t take long to realize it. Since you must attempt to project a pleasant demeanor, no matter how you actually feel, there are special demands from this kind of work that even exceed those extracted previously. Monastery-like prohibitions on certain kinds of speech are ordinary, the recitation of insipid conversation, “Have a nice day” etc. is widespread. The loss of individuality and personality beneath a blaze of motivational messages and unending uniformity is the result of this model. A consumer is a puzzle to be solved or a piece to be moved. We are mysteries only to ourselves. Our habits and responses are carefully monitored and processed by a “Feedback Machine” that reinforces an artificial sense of belonging but robs us of our essence, our personhood.

I think the only remedy for this is a great burst of creativity. It is also important that this energy emanates from everywhere not just current centers of activity. When the tools, materials, and skills needed are widespread, so should the ideas and projects be disbursed as widely as possible. Since the issue being addressed here is transportation, the moving of persons and their goods, it is a universal need and a vital factor in the economies and social lives of all those living on this rock. Our growing reliance upon fossil fuels to enable us to get around and grow our crops can not continue. It will either bankrupt us or turn us against one another in the struggle to maintain our lifestyles and the identities that they give us. Droughts and storms are disrupting the supplies of essential foodstuffs and Beijing and Shanghai live in places so polluted that people wear masks every day just to stay alive. The climate-change denial goes on, like the burning eyes and the runny nose, without pause.

If you own a factory, you probably don’t want to hear about “Paradigm Shifts”. If your products become obsolete, you are in trouble. You may even want to slow down the process of change altogether since this is one way to prevent your fade into history. On the other hand, if you are a person looking to have a future, you are paying attention to the shifts in demand and fashion that are going to shape that future and to determine your role in it. This difference in agendas is inevitable, given the difference between institutions and individuals, the pull of the past and the needs of the future. It is more common for individuals to be carried along on the waves generated by institutions than for those organizations to yield to the needs or desires of mere people. There is a way to modify this relationship, to give more leverage to the individual and the key is scale and creativity. Working on the human scale, on lightweight muscle-powered vehicles, for instance, does not require any institutional help. A hacksaw, a discarded bike, and some epoxy or solder and you are in business.

Our hands and our imaginations are the portals to our alternate universes. The other essential ingredient is the appreciation, and help, that others can provide to a project. Cooperation is easy when you are an infant, impossible when you are a restless child and the path to progress when you finally grow up. It is most often brought forward when it is part of a sports program or other activity that is directed from above and requires you to relinquish your will in order to be provided with a role, one which was mostly pre-defined for you. Working from the bottom up without direction from above is uncommon, but that is where the action really lives. Expertise and experience are valuable of course, but the initiative is the first ingredient, along with imagination, and nothing follows without it.

There are three distinct types of small, slow, human-scale and muscle/electric-powered vehicles that need to be re-conceptualized and re-designed. Bikes, work-trikes, and wheelchairs are each deserving of their own study, but share more features than not. In addition, there are so many conditions, from weather to terrain, which is completely different from one place to another, that there is much variety that is absolutely necessary. Other differences, from access to financing options to earning potential, can also have a major influence on developments. Conditions found in highly urbanized spaces, in developed countries, and those in places with poor roads and poor opportunities to re-charge batteries, demand different solutions. The aesthetic element, not as important as the economic, in locales where access to resources is severely limited, may nevertheless be the key to accelerating the needed conversion, from industrial-scale to human-scale transportation. When the public realizes how much color and graceful movement can add to their surroundings, they will insist that this process be nurtured in every way possible.

It is not just here in the dense urban spaces of the Northeast of the USA that this condition, the pollution, traffic delays, threats of harm, and all the rest occur. This is an important matter everywhere. Now that Amazon has announced that they want to provide same-day delivery for groceries, along with everything else, the number of cargo bikes needed is going to multiply quickly. The range of vehicles available to fulfill this mission is small. The ongoing effort to encourage creative design in muscle-powered vehicles, SharingUmbrellas.org is one venue through which designers and makers can expose and share their ideas. We are also using pedicabs that were designed in the 19th century to be used by disposable drivers, who are not even afforded a little protection from the rain. Using small electric-assist motors, this form of transportation can vault into the 21st Century and provide a healthy green form of mobility, much better than the current version of it does. Again, it is a creative design that is the key to a more humane, efficient and colorful edition of this modality.

There are no prizes yet to mobilize this program and nobody denies the benefit of having plenty of resources to fuel activity such as this. It is also important though, to demonstrate that it is the energy provided by individuals, their muscle-power and brain-power, which enables us to take on and resolve the dilemmas that life puts before us. If we want to have our institutions serve us, instead of the other way around, we have to assert our priorities and act on them, not wait for someone else to do it. How many great designs for vehicles, the bike and trike in all of its infinite configurations, wheelchairs and new machines to help the transportation-disadvantaged, are already out there and ready to be evaluated and put into use? How many could there be, if we begin to give this development the attention and importance that it deserves?

The GM Futurama at the 1939 World’s Fair, on the eve of a World War already swallowing up countries and populations, promised a perfect environment. It is not fair to criticize them for being so good at selling their vision, to a public tired of Depression and Prohibition and ready for a consumer-driven society and economy. One consequence of their eventual success though is a roadway system that fills almost all of our spaces. Some of them surround the original site of the Fair itself now, like the infamous Long Island Expressway, referred to as “The longest parking lot in the world”. The peninsula that they lead to now houses millions.

There are possible remedies. Could our highway emergency lanes provide for a continuous flow of slow, (but in many cases faster-moving), small, muscle-powered and electric-assisted devices, protected from the weather and provided with many of the creatures comforts that we can no longer do without? The ELF and TWIKE are good beginnings – as is the mobile coffee shop featured above – but we need an infinitude of variations on the theme. This week begins our celebrations of the Fair that Automobilized our world, and SharingUmbrellas.org says that we need to apply ourselves, on a very broad basis, to redesigning the pedicabs, bikes, trikes and cargo vehicles (and cars) of the future around the human scale. This task belongs to many. At the same time, we should also be fixing the roads, turning some highways into safe 150 MPH speedways, so that our local streets can be turned back into the gardens and play-spaces that can sustain our lives and bring us together, instead of forcing us apart. Fairs, not Fears.

Times Article Viewed: 7492

A World’s Fair At a Human Scale

Apr 06, 2014. Times Article Viewed: 5872

An invitation to use the power of the internet and crowd-sourcing to commemorate the 75th and 50th anniversaries of the New York World’s Fair.

As one way to take notice of these remarkable historical events, designers and builders, artists and engineers, mechanics and craftspeople, are all invited to help invent and make more real, the human-scale, human-powered transportation systems of the future. For the next two years, we are inviting individuals and groups from everywhere on this planet, to submit and exchange their ideas and be part of a massive crowd-sourcing experiment, both online and in your little, or big, neighborhood. We are suggesting that a small plot of public land, or volunteered parking lot or other private property, be provided locally, to help expedite the development of the most beautiful, and highly-functional, cycles and wheelchairs, cargo and passenger-carrying vehicles, the futuristic new machines best suited to serve the needs of our varied environments.

The emphasis must be on safety, affordability, durability, and accessibility but each project is an independent entity and may set its own goals and “rules of the road”. We know that 1HP electric-assist motors on bikes are legal by US Federal statute and important when needed to carry heavyweight or overcome wind or difficult terrain. We are choosing to abide by the 20MPH Federal speed limit on electric-assisted bikes. This project does not permit ICE (Internal Combustion Engine)-Age motors. Throttles are also forbidden, so that the vehicles produced must be pedal-activated and thus may be classified as bicycles, wherever they may be, and welcomed on the road.

Multi-passenger, weather-protected, unusual and unique vehicles are among the most desirable. It can be a drawing, a scale model or a working model. It can be imaginary or completely practical. We are hopeful that this endeavor will enable many connections to be made between creative individuals and others like themselves, who find that they are able to work together, as well as investors and governments, eager to expand this activity for economic, environmental, health or humanitarian reasons.

The World’s Fairs of old were devoted to bringing forth technology that could benefit mankind, were inclusive of all Nations, and endeavored to bring pleasures along with their lessons and marvels. These features are worth preserving. One of the participating sites in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, the site of two great Fairs in the past. Thanks to technology, this event can take place, at the same time, in your city and on your electronic device. In some ways, this may be the first true World’s Fair, open to everyone and devoted to our potential to learn and to dream. It may also be a mechanism to help coordinate the contributions that so many may be able to make to the establishment of an easy-to-negotiate, peaceful, just, and healthful place for ourselves and all others. Please consider beginning a local effort in your neighborhood.

Times Article Viewed: 5872

Empathy and a Nickle’s Worth of Change

Mar 23, 2014. Times Article Viewed: 5779

When you’re down to your last ten dollars, do you buy food, medicine or gas for the car?

I want to propose a simple way to begin to change society for the better. It costs just a nickel, but first, let me set the stage.

We need water, air, and the occasional snack, to survive. Clothing and a roof over your head may not be quite as essential, depending upon local climate and social customs of course, but are still pretty important. If you are a person of deep faith, you have the conviction that all of this will arrive, in good time, due to the grace of the Almighty. All that is required of you is patience and fortitude and the ability to suffer the pain which comes from realizing that there is still something missing from this picture. It can even feel as if all of this seemingly undeserved and unnecessary distress was put there on purpose, to put your faith to the test, since it feels otherwise to be so purposeless and random.

If you are more modern in your ideas, you might consider it the job of the government to make sure that you can fulfill these basic, human needs. Some would put companionship in the “absolutely needed” column too, but, aside from our sentimental preferences, we have a demonstrated ability to exist, even prosper, without any nearby two-legged accomplices, for quite some time. Got to have drinkable water and breathable air no matter what though. So why are our supplies of both under attack and in jeopardy? Are we completely out of our minds? Do we think that playing Russian Roulette with our essentials makes the game more interesting, raises the stakes and creates excitement out of the mundane? Is it possible that what we have always taken for granted, as belonging to us, is being completely commodified, and that everything has, or will soon have, a price tag, even the air we breathe?

Meanwhile, if so much has been reduced to numbers, pushed so far into the abstract that we can hardly recognize its connection to our reality, how do we push back and reassert the need to recognize, acknowledge, even celebrate that linkage? Since passivity is the ocean that we swim through to reach our life rafts of activity, it is no wonder that there is so little coordination amongst us in this continuous, ongoing process. Each person is too involved in staying afloat, paddling towards their destinations and making sure that there is plenty of oxygen in the immediate vicinity, to worry much about anybody else, except their own blood and kin.

So, if a problem arises which requires the coordinated effort of these various arbitrarily-distanced souls, there is no mechanism for enabling that to take place. The institutions we formerly relied upon, as narrow-focused as they were, religion, proximity and the rest, are moribund. Sports teams serve as place setters for real community and symbols replace actuality. You root for the home team, maybe win a few and probably lose the rest. Then a Katrina happens and we are all brought back down, for a little while, kicking and screaming, to raw reality. Then the Dream Machine kicks in again and we are glued into our easy chairs, back on the program, braced for the next wave.

The ultimate injury suffered here cannot be quantified and in most cases does not even have a name. It is embodied in a concept which we named “empathy”. It is the ability to share someone else’s pleasure or pain, accomplishment or loss. It is natural to us, as is the mechanism which permits us to shut it off and become absorbed in ourselves. If you listen to popular music, the most common word in songs is always “you” and close behind that “love”. The focus is constantly directed to the other, because that is where your affirmation lies, with your lover or your child. The ability to care more for them than for yourself is the path we have been given to escape the tyranny of our own bodies and selves, to displace our attentions and affections on another. Since the other primary drive programmed into us by our natures and our conditioning is to focus on ourselves and to relegate others to bit parts and extras, this is the exposure of our centers to the light, the closest we may ever come to a revelatory experience.

When we can provide all who are alive, and all that is alive, with the grace afforded by these flashes of unselfishness and unification with what is outside of ourselves, this can be a long sea voyage to the land where change lives. Without mechanisms to sustain you on your way, it becomes very difficult to hold your course though, so we need to become designers and builders, to re-form the institutions and methods that we have contrived, or which, in most cases, been imposed on us over time. Since so much of this existing framework was constructed with only minimal feedback from the consumers of all of this society-building, there is obviously a lot of slack to take up.

When the equipment provided to us to help in our encounter with raw nature has been in the manner of weapons, to force nature back into a predictable and beneficial state, for the sake of distributing ever bigger prizes to the populace, there is no reckoning of the long-term effects of so much manipulation of our resources. This is a giant experiment, which many reckon has gone off the tracks, literally, when it comes to trains and figuratively when it comes to everything else. Take the food supply. Here is one thought about how to help put it back on the tracks.

A Nickle’s Worth of Change

Pickers and gatherers of produce, People getting their hands dirty, by pulling roots and breaking stems, filling baskets and boxes, are making about a penny a pound for their work, give or take. When the final products of their efforts are passed along to the consumer, the price will be measured in dollars a pound.

If retailers were willing to mark prices in increments of 5 cents (not a common figure currently) this could be used to signify that they are passing this much down the line, to these hard-working men, women and children, an additional 5 cents per pound for their hard labors. Consumers can make certain this way that those employed to supply them with their needed nutrients are being compensated in a more reasonable way than is common today.

How are foreigners and migrants going to be able to keep track of and report what they are due? Rewarding cooperating growers with better sales will help and a well-monitored program of verification and tracking of funds. Of course, a mechanism must be implemented, to make certain that these funds are not diverted before they reach their intended recipients. For these reasons, one cent of the five will need to be used to devise and operate an efficient and honest process to make certain that everything works as well as humanly possible.

Any funds not needed to administer this program are to be used to enable other populations who are accustomed to receive a minuscule portion of the profits generated through their sweat-fueled efforts, apparel workers, etc., to accomplish this same purpose. Perhaps clothing prices will include a 25 cent additional payment to the gatherers of the raw materials, along with those who sew or dye the cloth, with $.25 prices reflecting retailers’ participation.

Will employers simply lower wages by the amount of these “bonuses”? Unfortunately, some will try to, so effective means must be employed, and constantly improved and updated, to thwart humanity’s worst impulses and habits or nothing will change. Great public shame must be heaped on criminals who rob the poor to help themselves and they must know that they will be identified, blackballed and ejected from civilized commerce.

The details needed to make this a reality must be gleaned from a number of conferences, by telecommunications and in person, and the participation of all those to be affected by these measures, workers, growers, retailers, distributors, and consumers of food. Time is of the essence since this has already taken far too long to implement. These actions must be carried out in harmony with not in place of other attempts to improve the working conditions of all farm laborers.

Times Article Viewed: 5779

New York’s De Facto Ban and Real Ones

Mar 15, 2014. Times Article Viewed: 2003

There is no better way to counteract global warming, change bad societal habits, and to respond to the negative effects of oversized, petroleum-fueled transportation modes and their threat to our economic and atmospheric survival, than to rapidly expand the use of every kind of bike and trike, especially electric-assisted ones and including pedicabs and cargo bikes. Current Federal Environmental laws, the Clean Air Act etc., require that we encourage cycling in every possible way already. Because many traffic laws, involving potentially dangerous behavior by cars and trucks, like sudden turns and excessive speed, are virtually never enforced though, these streets resemble stop and go highways, not pathways. This hazardous environment keeps most people from even considering cycles as a means of transportation, providing an ongoing, illegal, de facto ban on this activity, for them and their families.

Since our city streets have been largely turned into highways, are laws and regulations to limit cycling here calculated to reinforce that identity? It is not just a problem within urban spaces, it also affects the routes into cities, including the bridges and tunnels, many of which prohibit non-motorized vehicles. Marked highways and many other high-speed roads also do not permit any kind of bicycles to be on them, (not that it would be much fun with big trucks running 85 mph), and even “Neighborhood Electric Vehicles” are severely restricted. Is this legal? Couldn’t we use emergency lanes for slow-speed travel? Is it time to overturn the historically lower-class status of the smaller and slower? Is this an undeclared class war, where one side gets the ammunition and the other side gets 20% off discount coupons? Where is the Geneva Convention when we need it?

Fortunately, a Resolution was introduced this week in the NY City Council by Council Member Rafael Espinal [pictured above], which asks the Council to urge the State Legislature to pass their bills, legalizing electric bikes, throughout the State. This will amend the State Vehicle and Traffic laws, to allow electric-assist vehicles to be used. It is clear that for the sake of our future and because we have a moral duty to not do injury to our fellow human beings, we must hurry to expand the role of quiet, non-polluting, least expensive transportation, as the preferred means to provide for our basic human needs. Yet, those who benefit from the poisonous, bloated, unsustainable status quo will not permit this needed change to take place, if they can corrupt the political process enough to prevent it. Here is the press release:

“MARCH 11, 2014 (Brooklyn, NY)- Council Member Rafael L. Espinal, Jr., of Brooklyn today introduced a resolution in support of State legislation that would legalize the use of electric-assisted bicycles in New York. The State bill, introduced by Senator Martin Malavé Dilan and Assembly Member David F. Gantt, would amend the State Vehicle and Traffic law to include electric-assisted bicycles in the definition of bicycles and thus permit their use. “Many people would benefit from the State legalizing the use of electric-assisted bicycles. From people who make food deliveries for a living to commercial cyclists, to people who have health problems, all will benefit from e-bikes,” stated Council Member Espinal.

Council Member Espinal doesn’t understand why New York State has lagged behind and not implemented the Federal standards established in 2002 that set the parameters for electric-assisted bicycles. “It just doesn’t make sense for the State to maintain the status quo. The use of electric-assisted bicycles can have positive effects on New York’s economy and environment. It is a mode of clean transportation.” Others echoed the same sentiment. State Senator Martin Malavé Dilan indicated that it is the right time to move this legislation. “More and more New Yorkers are turning to electric-assisted bicycles as a cost-effective and environmentally responsible alternative mode of transportation. Uses for e-bikes range from the daily commute to local delivery route, but their practicality could also benefit the elderly and disabled. I can’t think of a State and City more suited for the electric bike than New York. The time has come to embrace them,” said Senator Dilan.

The Coalition Urging Responsible Biking, also known as CURB, applauded the introduction of the Council resolution and believes that it is a vital step towards getting the State bill passed. “Electric-assist bicycles are an important new, slow, safe, healthful and economical mode of transportation. We applaud Council Member Espinal’s efforts to make certain that they are available to our citizens, especially the older population, those for whom riding ordinary bicycles is a challenge, and those with long commutes and long workdays,” stated Steve Stollman, a spokesperson for CURB.

No date has been set yet for a hearing on the Council resolution but Council Member Espinal hopes that a vote can take place before Albany ends this year’s legislative session in June.”

The Yellow Taxi industry lobby is one of the most active and well-funded elements of the local Autopoly, which is composed of a variety of large interests. Their influence is legendary. This has never been a fair fight. The history of the current system begins in the 1930’s when GM and Standard Oil used over 400 secret holding companies to destroy this country’s rail infrastructure, from trolleys to interurban rail to rail freight. The way to demolish cycling as a potential rival as urban transport was easy: just design roadways to serve cars and make sure they are as fast-moving, un-policed and potentially dangerous, as they are.

Events over the last few years have given cycling a much higher profile though, and it is already a staple of TV commercials, for cars especially, as symbols of health, self-sufficiency and balance. Meanwhile, the lingering effects of a transit strike some time ago and the arrival of $4 a gallon gas, have had their impacts, along with rapidly escalating awareness of health issues and both personal and societal costs. So. in spite of the most oppressive conditions imaginable, hundreds of thousands have gotten on their bikes in this city in recent years. Bike-share has been a huge help of course, and sidewise, even given a boost to vehicle and ride-share for cars and other similar phenomena. Given proper encouragement, the number of various kinds of cycles, personal, passenger, freight, on the roads in these five boroughs could easily multiply every year, indefinitely, until human-scale transportation became the dominant mode of travel. Shouldn’t that be our goal?

Groningen, a modern industrial city in the Netherlands, has created a system where 50% of all movement is done with bikes. In China, for decades, up to 90% of the transportation in many major cities was through human-powered vehicles of all kinds. India and China are now both following our lead in wastefulness and their recent embrace of cars and motor scooters is adding incredible amounts to the total of pollutants being generated. We must remove the onus from those willing to consume only their rightful portion of space and other resources, and who are now demanding proper protection, from those determined to use many times their share of everything, often recklessly and invariably with an undeserved sense of entitlement.

Multiple-person propulsion is a beneficial evolution that can be encouraged and improved by augmenting it with lightweight electric systems. While tandems are in some use, they are pretty rare, and virtually nothing exists that permits a number of people to ride the same machine at the same time. In the 19th Century, “Sociables”, trikes for a gentleman to give his lady a pleasant excursion, while demonstrating his manly strength and care, were very popular. Potential heavy use of newer designs, useful for everyone but especially by the disabled community, as well as those who are simply having a harder time than previously getting around, justifies a heavy investment in these possibilities. There are already a few examples of machines that accommodate a person in a wheelchair and a second person using a conventional bike as well. This is just one configuration. We could be on the verge of a number of advances in the design of mass transit/multiple user vehicles and even in our definitions of these devices. Especially important are machines that are as useful, to the “Temporarily Able-bodied”, as they are to those with moderate to severe difficulties.

There can be a whole new class of vehicles, which enable us to remain vertical even though the strength of our limbs has begun to fade, but has not disappeared. We can foment conveyances that allow us to continue to travel, in a similar manner to the one we always have, perched on ledges, straight up, instead of crunched down into a wheelchair. We can design systems that will allow us to continue to use our own arms and legs to propel us while we are provided with some electric-assistance as well. These slow-moving vehicles can permit us to get the exercise that we need, in amounts that we determine for ourselves, and remain able to carry on with our lives without being put into the category of “disabled”.

Instead, there is an army of people who seldom wander into the outer world, who are virtually trapped within their living spaces, because there is no way yet for them to simply move about the way they once did, nearly as easily as then. In practice, most of the time, given the proper device, on our largely level land, a user would be relying principally on their own power, thereby gaining some strength and improving overall vitality. At other times, when a little boost is needed, it is provided. Arms and legs being used remain usable. The opposite, sadly, is also true.

In the late 19th century, when bikes were the biggest craze in the country, innumerable devices were built and in use which helped to expand the reach of the field. The use of heavy materials like iron and the lack of modern improvements like aluminum tubing, hi-tech lubricants, and gearing, skinny pneumatic tires, and hydraulic brakes, limited the effectiveness of many of these machines. In many cases, the principles on which they were based were sound though. Multi-person and multi-modal systems are optimal for the sake of our health and our wealth. It is time to re-build the transportation system and replace it with one that works. Pedicabs are one of the first paving stones on the path to sanity on our streets, and we need to look to the future while we also go back to Square One, to find more answers. Porter’s “Wheels and Wheeling” was a complete survey of the many forms of human-powered vehicles of the time, and contain innumerable very interesting ideas, that can now be re-examined for their relevance to this time, 125 years later.

Battery research is finally taking off. Nickel Metal-Hydride and Lithium-Ion are already here and capacitors and fast-charge options are coming on board. The potential of sugar batteries and other exotic ideas to break through and create new industries and possibilities is undeniable and Germany, Japan, and other countries, including this one, are encouraging these developments with funding and other incentives. When we are able to apply these improvements to ultra-light, human-scale vehicles, their utility is expanded maximally, because the weight of batteries ceases to be a serious drag on the potential of the vehicle to meet all of our needs. The weight problem, unfortunately, held back small, electric motor-assisted devices from progressing for many decades, because the law of diminishing returns clocked in early, and the weight of the batteries themselves became an unsustainable burden. Not any more.

Attempts to limit the spread of human-scale and self-propelled transportation, by auto-ad addicted tabloids, TV stations and others, is going to fail. This is in spite of the formidable combined power of parking lots, car companies, the oil industry, insurance interests etc. etc. because the ice shelf is breaking off in huge chunks and even though this is the coldest winter in memory, it was only a year ago, when it was 72 degrees in January, and nobody was buying parkas. People are finally getting really scared. It has taken a huge accumulation of this undeniable, visible evidence, to crack the solid wall of reassuring propaganda put out by the guilty industries. After decades of soothing lies, the fuzzy term “Global Warming” has been replaced by the much less comforting “Extreme Weather” and the deniers and doubters are scurrying for cover.

We have to figure out who are friends are and are not, especially among the public officials who are guiding this process. Some politicians are willing to assassinate the future of cycling here and the radical upgrades to our archaic, and urban-unfriendly transportation system, that they provide. They need to be called out on this, educated, and compelled to explain and change their actions. There are few remedies for what ails us, that are capable of delivering the pleasures that easy-cycling provides. Correcting the problems in our agricultural and medical systems, for instance, is going to involve a lot of pain and radical readjustments. Removing the distortions that have plagued our transportation options over the past century is, by comparison, a walk in the park, or maybe a nice slow ride through one.

The good news is that if we are successful, in our attempts to radically reform our mobility systems, we will have learned enough to consider taking on the even-tougher issues. And we will have a much better chance of dealing with them successfully, once we have developed the networks capable of resolving our transportation conundrum. Dislodging archaic, deeply-dug-in elements of our existing systems, that benefit practically nobody, but have seemingly always been there, is going to generate lots of opposition. Inertia is a powerful force.

Also, we have become so accustomed to taking the path of least resistance, that is, doing nothing, that any approach which fully engages the life-force, will perforce, involve some difficult re-programming. Regardless, we need to re-learn how gratifying it is to overcome, to struggle and to persevere. Just think about how much more satisfying it is to earn something, rather than just being given it. Maybe, in some ways, we should pity the rich. They already have everything, so there are some great pleasures here, that they are unlikely to ever be able to experience, except vicariously. What a pity.

Times Article Viewed: 2003

Legalize the Future……Please

Mar 09, 2014.

What is taken for granted in most forms of transportation, weather protection, the potential for multiple riders, access to creature comforts and the ability to carry freight, is absent from virtually any current versions of human-powered and other minimum-impact vehicles? Tiny, 1HP electric-assist motors enable a very significant upgrade in the potential for rider satisfaction delivered by human-scale transport. If deployed artfully, these safe, comfortable and attractive little (ideally, shared) devices, can change our mobility paradigm and steer us back onto a sustainable path.

Currently, too many discussions of electric bikes, in this part of the world especially, focus entirely on the behavior of some restaurant deliverers who use these machines to help make it possible to get hot food to impatient customers, while it is still hot. The city has a host of enforcement mechanisms available to influence the various practices of highly-regulated businesses like restaurants. They have already instituted a bunch of regulations, putting big numbers and the names of the restaurants on deliverers backs for instance, and complaints against these hard-working, mostly immigrants, have plummeted. Regardless, the rapid pace of food delivery has nothing to do with our need to expand our transportation options in urban environments, clean up the air and rid our streets of oversized, overpowered and dangerous machines. Tabloid headlines ignore their importance in helping to improve the health and freedom of movement of numerous populations, including the elderly and the out-of-shape. Conflating these issues demolishes our ability to understand them and enjoy the benefits of this new technology. 

There is a very active effort, at the moment, to encourage the current electric bicycle-riding food deliverers to modify their behavior in order to lessen the criticism coming from pedestrians, magnified by the tabloids, but real nevertheless. At the same time, the City and State are being asked to fully legalize this important new form of transportation. A group, Coalition Urging Responsible Biking, CURB, is also carrying on a campaign to improve the most upsetting habits of some deliverers, to discourage riding on sidewalks,  crowding pedestrians and riding in an overly-aggressive manner. (You may go to www.NYCURB.org if you care to endorse this effort). Posters are being made and distributed and bikes are being modified into a pedal-activated mode, putting them more into line with the current NYC law, which permits this modality but bans throttle-activated models, which are really more like mopeds. Pedal-activated electric-assist bikes are bikes.   

The recent bill in the NYS Senate will limit speeds to 20 MPH, as the Federal law requires, so the alleged 25-30 MPH models, if there are any, will need to be retired. The State can require approved vehicles, with less than the1 HP motors that are allowed, to have proper brakes, etc. too, maybe even to have to identify labels, permanently affixed to legal models and end the confusion over this issue.  

The city is concerned about enforcement, but the regulation of food delivers’ habits, and bicycle messengers’ before them, has been an ongoing concern for decades, long before bikes became modestly-electrified. The new, stricter regulations, improved education and peer pressure, along with closer relations with the restaurant industry, will do much to correct current problems. Meanwhile, there is no question that nobody should be riding bikes on sidewalks, no matter what. Also, biking so aggressively that it actually threatens pedestrians’ health and safety, should be treated seriously. Of course, in fairness, such a campaign to alter behaviors must include far more dangerous vehicles, from motorcycles to huge trucks too. The targeting of cyclists, riding the least dangerous vehicle, while ignoring potentially fatal maneuvers by far more hazardous vehicles, in the same space, obviously makes no sense.  

Amazon and eBay have just announced same-day delivery in NYC and some other cities, soon to be many more no doubt. We know that it will be impossible for an army of vans to further clog up NYC streets with pairs of deliverers heaving packages, of everything under the Sun, everywhere, at once. The brick and mortar universe has no choice but to join the party and seriously improve their own delivery services, in order to keep up with the online onslaught. This new tsunami of traffic can only be accomplished by a giant flotilla of cyclists, many of them soon wheeling new, creatively-designed evolutions of current models. Some of these vehicles will need to be helped along by electric-assist motors. We are leaving the ICE Age. The Internal Combustion Engine and its tendency to inflate the size and weight of our conveyances to historic heights, has reached, maybe even gone well beyond, its limits and is, as a sheet of ice, slowly receding. Happily, in its place, is a bunch of fauna and other earthly delights, especially in the form of some room to get around more easily, smoothly, quickly and safely. 

The best examples of this activity currently are pedicabs. Made very popular in South Asia and the Far East, they are only a tourist-gimmick here, not serious transportation, as they have been in some countries for a century. Without an electric-assist motor, carrying three passengers, as is the habit here, in places like Central Park, filled with long hills, makes this job incredibly difficult. The only issue is the fear of some, that an electric-assist motor would turn these colorful trikes into dangerous, deadly projectiles. Fortunately, the industry has already, informally, agreed to a very safe 10 MPH speed limit, to erase such fears from the picture, so there is no reason not to begin to use this needed and highly-appropriate technology today. One benefit is that It will create a huge number of new, good, green jobs, especially for women, who are largely precluded from the profession, due to the brute strength now needed to perform the task. Creative design is an important factor here too, as a tiny motor makes possible improved weather and collision-protection and the provision of a little heat and other amenities.

The standard design of “Safety” bicycles is about 120 years old. It has turned out to be a very durable configuration, but it has not advanced in many ways until the efficiency of the lithium-ion battery freed it from the tyranny of very heavy lead-acid versions. 90+% of the populace does not ride a bike, even once, in a given year. The primary reason, aside from dangerous highway-like roads, is that we have evolved a value system that renders physical effort, unless in a gym or athletic event, unpopular. We are accustomed to easing and the effort of working up a sweat pushing pedals is not a pleasant prospect for most. Yet, we know that everybody needs a certain amount of physical activity, sometimes called exercise, to maintain good health and vitality. Finding a way to accomplish that, in a pleasant way, while also fulfilling another universal need, to get from one place to another, is a terrific discovery.  

Electric-assist bikes bring freedom of choice, give you license to determine how much effort you want to expend, at that moment, into your personal transportation. We are accustomed to either/or situations. Once you have made your choice, you are either going to be responsible for your own motive power, or you are going to relinquish it to a motor. Ebikes that are truly pedal-able cycles, that work very well even without any motor assist, were very rare until quite recently, but are now widely available. What this means is that the user is able, from moment to moment, to evaluate their situation and determine how much energy they themselves want to provide and how much they prefer to gain from the motor. 

This decision is made by you, not the machine. This arrangement puts the human species, its needs and potential contributions, first. It takes the decision-making power away from the machine and it gives it back to the person operating it. This is revolutionary. It is paradoxical too. Because you give your energy to something, you are empowered. While some cyclists may prefer a purer form of muscle-powered biking, the other 90+% of the population in this State is currently being denied legal access to those devices that would best enable them to get some healthy exercise and have an easy, un-sweaty journey, at the same time. We are also being denied the opportunity to recover our will, our capacity to choose.

This is nuts. And it’s just not fair. It is a form of bullying, a system that allows resources according to what you already have. It rewards aggression instead of accomplishment and produces a flood of white noise that drowns out the music. The difference between being carried along and moving is profound. Combining the two is a new experience for most of us and more closely resembles the natural matrix within which we all find ourselves. It suggests the next step, where we are players of music instead of just listeners, designers and sewers of clothing instead of just wearers, makers of something besides supper. We’re getting closer to the moment when we find ourselves, as a survival mechanism, becoming Socratic skeptics, who have run out of patience with the pat answers and transparent myths that compel us to be true believers, when, what that really means, is shutting down your mind. Waking up our bodies, teaching ourselves to merge human energy with mechanical forces and harmonizing them could be one sure step towards re-booting and re-balancing our entire system. So what are we waiting for?