Posts Tagged ‘Texas’

The Morning Dig: Sunshine State Blues Edition

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

3tier_wh_solar_irradiance• Gallup-Healthways’ Well-Being Index, which ranks metro areas according to poll responses about physical and emotional health, work environment, and life evaluation, packs a few surprises. Florida has three cities in the bottom ten! (Gallup)

• Amidst talk of a transportation crisis, Texans don’t seem that scared. As compared to education or to health care for the poor, Texans say they’d much rather cut highway funds to trim their state budget deficit. (Dallas Morning News)

• Detroit’s Mayor Dave Bing said at a conference on the city’s future that “Without a doubt, we’ve got to downsize the city,” and market its strengths, such as casinos and the Detroit River. (Detroit News)

• There is renewed hope for Kansas City’s streetcar and commuter rail lines. Its projects look much more competitive through the new federal lens, which takes into account livability and job creation as issues related to transportation. (Kansas City)

• A company that produces “prospecting tools” for alternative energy released one map detailing where solar can best be harvested in the hemisphere and another of global wind energy potential. (GOOD - pic via 3TIER)

• UK Transportation Secretary Lord Adonis rejected the plan to connect Heathrow directly to the country’s planned HSR lines. Conservatives are not having it; check out this graphic to see the difference in plans. (Times Online)

• And “[i]t would be tragic,” writes Bob Herbert, if “the absolutely essential modernizing of the American infrastructure” did not take place — particularly when so many of our bridges are approaching crisis levels. (NYTimes)

The Morning Dig: Car-Sharing Surge Edition

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

800px-zipcar_dc_4996_03_2009• Car-sharing went up a staggering 117% between 2007 and 2009. According to analysts, a person who drives 12,000 miles a year can save $1,834 annually by forsaking his or her own vehicle and shifting to a car-sharing service. (Treehugger)

• Is it ironic or just sad that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality thinks that tightening emissions standards is “arbitrary, unnecessary and unachievable”? (NYTimes)

• A fashion photographer, a writer, a former mayor, and the chair of London Food share their visions of London in 2030. One imagines compulsory cycling, and lots of white ghost-bicycles. (Guardian)

• New York unveiled “Active Design Guidelines,” an overlay to the livability initiatives of several departments that aims to “promote physical activity and health through design.” (Urban Omnibus)

• “If Texas had had its act together,” said Ray LaHood, “It would have gotten some high-speed rail money.” Zing! (Houston Chronicle)

• A writer at GOOD gives a guided tour of what it’s like to turn a city street into a bicycle corridor. (GOOD)

• And not to be an alarmist, but as it turns out, every hour spent driving takes 20 minutes off your life expectancy. (This is a terribly convoluted way of thinking about things.) (MSN)