Transport Decarbonization Alliance launched at One Planet Summit

Very good news - last week’s One Planet Summit in Paris included the announcement of a new international alliance aimed at decarbonizing transportation globally. 

 “The attention that transport received and the commitments for climate action in transport that were made during the One Planet Summit are unprecedented. After the One Planet Summit, the transport sector is better positioned in climate change mitigation and adaptation than ever before.”

http://www.ppmc-transport.org/transport-at-one-planet-summit-countries-cities-and-non-governmental-actors-actively-support-the-ppmc-transport-decarbonization-alliance/

Paris: City of Light, and Awesome Transport

Paris is really not at its best in the summer. It's hot, the Parisians are either on vacation or wishing they were on vacation, and the lines for every tourist attraction are insane. Plus it was grittier than I'd remembered. Truth be told, Elliot wasn't a total fan - but there were a few things he really liked. First, the metro:

Elliot really loved the Paris Metro.

He particularly loved the double-decker RER trains.

We were also smitten with the ignognito but - once you figure out what to look for - totally ubiquitous "autolib" electric city cars. Located at curbside stations all over the city, every 100 meters or so. Silent, clean wheels when you want them. So cool.

Autolib - all-electric city carshare, all over Paris. Elliot approved.

There were also some random cool things to see:

Elliot spotted this Twingo, complete with wheelchair on the back

And one day, we borrowed some bikes and took off for La Villette. 

Bike lanes! In Paris! It was awesome.

Bike paths the whole way - and the light was incredible.

At La Villette (the largest science museum in Europe) we visited a bunch of exhibits - including this one, about transportation. It was like instant animation for Worse Than Poop! - you walked up, took your photo, and a machine magically pasted your head onto a transportation device, which then floated by 30 seconds later on a series of screens. All they were missing was the CO2-poop.

Elliot watches as my head floats by on a double-decker London bus.

Bittersweet Wednesday

Today was a big day - in part because today I officially FINISHED Worse Than Poop! Last night, I received the last and final animation, and I just finished editing it into the final cut. I am uploading the finished film as I type! Those of you who supported our Kickstarter campaign will be receiving a download link very soon.

But as anyone who isn't living under a rock will also note, today is also the Day After Election Day here in the US - and in particular, an Election Day on which almost all of the candidates and issues we were supporting got thoroughly trounced at the polls.

Elliot watches Brian Schmidt interviewed on election night at KMTV.

One particularly bitter loss was for our friend Brian Schmidt, who was running for re-election to the Santa Clara County Water District Board. His opponent, a Silicon Valley millionaire, refused to abide by voluntary campaign spending limits, and outspent Brian 22-to-1. His opponent had no experience in two of the three areas for which the Water District Director is responsible (environmental management and flood protection), but in the end he managed to win the election by a narrow margin. This morning, I told Elliot, "This is a tiny microcosm of what is wrong with our entire voting system - and we need to fix it." When you have unlimited spending, the rich - or their proxies - get elected. Which in most cases does not make for honest or good government - or, for that matter, an electorate that believes in the process of democracy. (Is it any wonder that we had less than 30% turnout at the polls in California, in the most expensive mid-term election in US history?)

However, I am choosing to focus on the positive. One measure that did pass yesterday was Palo Alto's Measure B, which will fund some much-needed bicycle infrastructure here - including retrofitting a truly dreadful narrow cement bicycle underpass at the California Avenue train station that has tormented me and countless Palo Alto cyclists for decades. 

This nasty underpass' days are numbered! Try pulling your kid in a trailer through that...

And as my friend Joylette Portlock says, no one ever got depressed into action. With the government this country just elected, we're going to need more action than ever - so I also made a donation today to the Sierra Club, and signed up to participate in a visioning exercise here in Palo Alto for 'big, bold' ideas for sustainability.

And as for Worse Than Poop! - I'll be meeting next week with Carleen Cullen of Cool the Earth, to see if we can hash out a plan to get some funding for a Spanish-language version, some DVD packaging, a study guide, and a resource-rich website. We'd like to include all of these - for free - with Cool the Earth's climate kits, distributed to schools across North America. I'm also talking with some other organizations looking at the possibility of using the film for climate awareness outreach to children and families. There's plenty of work to be done - it's time to just roll up our sleeves and get busy.

Walking & Rolling...

This fall, I agreed to become a Traffic Safety Representative for Elliot's school, along with a Spanish biking superdad (and Facebook programmer) named Ender.

Our awesome Walk & Roll banner, painted by the after-school kids club.

One of our main responsibilities as TSR is to run the semi-annual Walk & Roll event, as part of National Walk to School Week. Walk & Roll events encourage families to get their kids to school by bike or on foot. Since our k-5 school pulls students from all over the city and beyond, we also include carpooling - and riding the bus - as acceptable ways to "walk and roll" to our school. 

Ender rides the bike blender on Walk & Roll, Day One. The blender is made by Rock the Bike, and was donated by GreenTown Los Altos.

Our awesome Walk & Roll team in front of the Wall of Fame: Palo Alto Safe Routes to Schools coordinator Kathy Durham, Vanessa Warheit, Palo Alto Mayor Nancy Shepherd, PAUSD Superintendent Max McGee, Ender Martinez, and Amy Butte

Fresh off my trip to New York for the Peoples Climate March, I was really fired up to make a difference - so I pushed for a full week of action. My rationale was that starting a new habit takes repetition - and if we could get people out of their single-family-cars for an entire week, they might be more willing to keep up their new habits on a regular basis.

Bike racks were full during Walk & Roll week - and car drop-offs were really, really low.

The week we picked turned out to be a four-day week - which was probably a good thing, as we were all completely fried by the end of the week! Every day we got to school early, served bagels and coffee to parents and students, shared carpooling resources with parents, and punched punch-cards for every student participating in the event. We had students put stickers on a giant "How Did We Get to School?" chart, and we asked families to post their "Roll Model" pledges on a "Wall of Fame." We kicked off the week with smoothies made by "bike blender" - powered by parents and the Palo Alto Mayor and Superintendent.  Every afternoon, we punched punchcards and cheered on the families that were biking, walking, and carpooling. But despite the grueling pace, Walk & Roll Week gave me a great opportunity: to look kids, and parents, in the eye, and give them a heart-felt THANK YOU for doing the right thing. I got to be relentlessly positive every morning for four days in a row - which, when you're dealing with climate change, is a real blessing.

PAUSD Superintendent McGee helps students get their cards punched

Ender takes on the mad morning coffee rush (and he doesn't even like coffee!)

Bagels donated by Izzy's Brooklyn Bagels - served fresh every morning

The results? 

Students participating: 279

Number of walk/roll/school-pool trips logged to/from school: 1,563

Number of students logging 8 or 9 walk & roll trips: 103

Average # of walk & roll trips per participating student: 6

Pounds of CO2 poop (estimated) NOT emitted by our school: 1,700

Yours truly - in a sea of walkers & rollers

Time will tell how many families continue their good commuting habits. But with the drought persisting, we've at least got plenty of dry, warm days ahead to help encourage biking. 

Bike to Work Day!

Today was the SF Bay Area Bike to Work Day. Elliot and I got up an hour early, to greet people at the CalTrain station.

Kathy Durham, Palo Alto's Safe Routes to School/Commute coordinator, gives Elliot goodie bags to hand out.

We made a giant poster and handed out flyers - along with free bagels, coffee, and goodie bags. Elliot even dressed up in his professor costume. Crowd funding has made us shameless.

Vanessa and Elliot, in between waves of cycle commuters.

Sven Thesen at 7am, waiting for commuters and chanting "Worse Than Poop!"

Towards 8am, more people started  arriving - including the Mayor and the City Manager.

Elliot & Vanessa with team Bike Palo Alto - including Kathy Durham, Mayor Nancy Shepherd, Chief Transportation Official Jaime Rodriguez, and City Manager Jim Keene.

One cyclist, when he heard about Worse Than Poop!, asked Elliot to sign his flyer.

The lucky recipient of Elliot's very first autograph.

Enter... the Velomobile

Elliot has been talking for a while about wanting to invent a 'bike car' when he grows up. This afternoon, I had to break it to him: someone has beaten him to it. 

I first heard about the velomobile over at resilience.org - Post Carbon Institute just posted their top ten most popular articles, and this was one of the more uplifiting. Kris de Kecker's exhaustive exploration of the velomobile lays it all out: what the velomobile is, how it works, how the electric version is 80x more efficient than an EV, why and how it's illegal in some places, and what needs to change to bring more of these fabulous machines to the world.

Evonik wind explorer

A little digging also took me to this article, about the benefits of cycling and velomobiles, and the cost - to society, to your checkbook, and even to your sex life - of driving.

Flykly smart wheel

This all makes me wonder about what might be possible if and when someone decides to combine a Velomobile with a Flykly smart wheel? (Flykly, by the way, just blew past their third stretch goal on Kickstarter, raising 5x their initial goal of $100k.) Maybe it's just me, but this all gives me hope, and makes me feel like we are a little bit closer to a poop-free future!