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Behind the scenes of the Pooping Cars movie
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.”
Whatever city we visit, Elliot insists on riding the metro. Delhi was no exception - and in fact, New Delhi's underground transit was by far the newest and nicest infrastructure we enjoyed during our entire stay in India.
Elliot on the metro platform in New Delhi. Clean, shiny & air-conditioned!
That being said - like everything in India, it's different. And crowded. First, you need to buy a token to get on the train - and you can only get a token from a person in a booth at the station from which you are departing. You can't buy a return token - just one-way. So there are long lines to buy tokens at every station. Then, there is another long line to get through the security screen. Or actually, two lines: one for men, and one for women and children.
Lines to get on the New Delhi metro, stretching into the distance.
Womens' and mens' security lines for the New Delhi metro.
Once you are through security and into the station, the platforms are clean and air-conditioned and rival (or beat) anything we have here in the US. The trains are smooth and quiet and air-conditioned. Sometimes, they're not even crowded.
Elliot makes two new friends on the New Delhi metro.
After one good experience, we decided to ride it again - but this time it happened to be rush hour. And the trains were packed. I mean, really packed.
Our friend Naveen asking if we're sure we want to do this?
Elliot squeezed into a packed car on the New Delhi metro.
I've been riding public transit my whole life and I think this was honestly the most packed in I've ever been. But like most experiences we had in India, the people were quite gracious about it.
Friendly stranger on the packed New Delhi metro.
In addition to cycle paths and canals, Amsterdam boasts an impressive public transit system. Elliot insisted that we try both the trams and the underground metro.
Elliot waits for a tram in Amsterdam
Elliot and his dad on the back of a tram in Amsterdam.
Elliot and his dad enjoy another tram ride in Amsterdam. Note the on-board ticket booth in the back. Trams have both a driver and a separate ticket vendor.
Elliot was thrilled to find out the city had an underground metro.
The train arrives to take us to Schiphol airport - and home.
Our next stop was Cologne, to visit my old friend Claudia and her mom. Cologne, too, had gotten a new underground metro since my last visit. Plus a whole lot of other ways to get around.
Elliot loved Cologne - and its protected bike lanes
Subway in Cologne
Signs in the Cologne metro, showing the Cologne "Dom" cathedral overwhelmed by climate chaos. The signs say: "What are you doing for the climate? Riding the bus & train more!"
Way back in the early 1980's, I spent a year living with a family in Rouen, France. They taught me French, and how to drink wine mixed with water, and a thousand other things for which I will always remain deeply grateful. On this trip we made a point to visit my host family, and I got to introduce them to Elliot.
Since the last time I was in Rouen, a few things have changed. For one - they cleaned the cathedral. (It use to be black.)
Rouen Cathedral - so spanky clean I hardly recognized it!
They also installed a metro, and a Bus Rapid Transit system called Le TEOR. We didn't get to ride the metro (Elliot was very disappointed), but we did get to ride the TEOR.
Waiting for le TEOR in Rouen with my host family
Raised platforms means fast level boarding, even for my host mom (in her 70s, with a bad knee).
On board Le TEOR in Rouen
Le TEOR was awesome. Elliot totally approved.
Elliot gives Rouen's TEOR Bus Rapid Transit the thumbs-up.
One thing I found interesting: the Rouen metropolitan area has a population density (940 people per square km) which is slightly lower than Palo Alto's.
Le TEOR in downtown Rouen
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.
Elliot with Malachi Chadwick, Britain's cheeriest climate activist, in the 10:10 offices
One of our many reasons for visiting London was to meet up with Malachi Chadwick, the Director of "Communications and Climate Optimism" for an NGO called 10:10. If you're not familiar with this cheeky band of earth-saving activists, you're in for a treat. Founded as a spin-off from the riveting docu-drama "The Age of Stupid", their tagline is "Climate Change Sucks - Do Something About It." They're all about solutions, and about engaging people through hope and empowerment, rather than fear. They rock.
We had a great time with Malachi, although we were both sad to have so little time and so much to talk about. Still, it's good to know that there are smart people like him working on the same issues, half a world away. And we'll always have the internet...
The London Transport Museum - a mecca for transit enthusiasts.
We also visited the amazing London Transport Museum. Housed in the city's former flower market, the museum is a goldmine for transit junkies, packed with information and media materials, and dozens of the actual vehicles used to transport Londoners over the past 150 years.
The original omnibus - complete with horse poop!
We were particularly delighted at this display, which engages kids in figuring out how much horse poop was left on the streets of London before the days of internal combustion and electrification. (Answer: 1000 pounds of dung per day!)
What they didn't include was an assessment of how that relates to the amount of CO2 poop generated by car traffic today. I actually ran the calculations (for San Francisco, not for London), and the answers are pretty shocking. Look for those in a future blog post...
The museum did, however, include a plaque with this quotation:
From the London Transport Museum
Today, humans are creating more than 38 billion tons of carbon pollution every year - in fact, over 2 million pounds of it gets spewed into the air every second. This massive amount of pollution is now threatening the climate that all life depends on, and in the US, almost a third of that pollution comes from transportation. But the problem with CO2 is that you can’t see it, you can’t smell it, you can’t taste it - and that makes it hard for people to take it seriously. But what if you could see it? What if the 19 pounds of crap coming out of your car’s tailpipe was... crap?
Elliot Ingle, a bespectacled 8-year old wearing a necktie and lab coat, takes us on a short journey to imagine just such a reality. Using a combination of live action video and animation, “Worse than Poop” will illustrate basic scientific facts (why DOES a gallon of gas produce 19 pounds of CO2? How is that possible - and where does it go?). It will also work to undermine some outmoded cultural norms (what’s a better status symbol - a poo-spattered Lexus or a spiffy clean Tesla - or a fun shiny bike with a cool sidecar?). Featuring mom’s minivan (one pound of poo per mile!), the lumbering Suburban (19 pounds of poop in only 10 miles!), the Tesla S (faster than a speeding Captain Underpants!), the Nissan Leaf, the Mitsubishi i, and a flotilla of electric and people-powered bicycles and scooters, “Worse than Poop” will engage children ages 5-12 in the most important issue of our time: rejection of the fossil fuel lifestyle.
It’s bound to make a difference. I mean, what kid doesn’t love talking about poop?
Climate change facts, what is climate change, climate change definition.
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