For Health, For Happiness, To Save Money, To Meet New Friends, Because it’s a Beautiful Place, To Declare Your Independence From Oil, Because getting there should be half the fun……..
Good article in todays L.A. Times on a major problem. Death By Automobile. Although it doesn’t come to the conclusion that cutting auto use might be the answer, it does bring up some horrific numbers.
It also bring up the point that horsepower is way outa control these days. If there’s thing I think would make our cities more conducive to biking and walking, it would be to bring down the speed limits.
Sobering thoughts on ethanol production from USA Today
Let’s do some math.
To get a gallon of ethanol, you need a little more than 26 pounds of corn, and an acre of land can yield about 9,400 pounds per year. In other words, one acre of land can generate about 362 gallons of ethanol per year.
But people in the U.S. use about 174 million gallons of gasoline per day just for their cars (so says the Department of Energy). If the Magic Fairy came down and all our cars suddenly ran on ethanol we would need about 261 million gallons per day.
That would require more than 260 million acres of corn to produce. Considering that in 2000 farmers in the U.S. harvested about 73 million acres of corn, it looks like they’ll need to get cracking.
Cycling as a way of life in Italy. Read more
Historic Downtown Torrance has had it’s share of troubles becoming all that it can be.
I don’t know if anyone has proposed it yet, but why not have a completely CAR FREE downtown? Or maybe a car free street, say Sartori.
This may not be as far fetched as it sounds. We’re at a place in time where people are searching for something different. Look at Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, I don’t think going CAR FREE has hurt business there. Look at all the very popular farmers markets, business seems to be thriving at these as well. I don’t believe it’s what their selling, you can get the same products or produce anywhere, people like them because they’re scaled for people. People like to stroll and shop and look at other people, it makes us feel alive and connected. Cars are only a distraction and a danger to this sort of living.
Most people around here, myself included, have never had a place like this. We’ve been brought up dependent on automobiles and that way of life is all we know, but as oil prices rise and traffic gets worse I find myself longing for places like Venice, or some other car free place, they just seem more human.
Let’s envision places where toddlers don’t need leashes, where young and old mingle and chat safely, places where we can truly relax. Historic Old Torrance could be one of the first of these places in the South Bay.
If you like or don’t like this idea, hit the comments button at the top of this post and start a discussion.
illustration by QuickHoney
