Shek's Footprint

$4500 is given towards a new car to people whose clunker achieved 10 mpg or more lower than the new car. $3500 if the mpg difference between the clunker and the new car is less than 10.

Lets assume that most people with an 18 mpg clunker “upgraded” to an SUV achieving 5 mpg more. They received $3500 from the $1,000,000,000 allocated funding. Some simple division later, approximately 285,000 clunkers were pulled off the streets (1,000,000,000 / 3500). Therefore, there are now 285,000 people or families on the road saving 5mpg (or saving 0.012 gallons per mile) more than they usually were.

An average family drives around 15,000 miles a year. This leads to 180 gallons of gasoline saved per family per year. For the 285,000 clunkers replaced, we save 51,300,000 gallons of gasoline every year. Increase the federal funding to $3 billion and we will save a little over 153 million gallons of gasoline every year.

If the average clunker is replaced by a vehicle achieving 7.5 mpg higher, with a $3 billion stimulus, America will save almost 205,200,000 gallons of gasoline every year.

The total consumption of Finished Motor Gasoline is 137,801,370,000 gallons (approximately 8,989,000 barrels per day in 2008. Data from http://www.eia.doe.gov/basics/quickoil.html). Hence, a $3 billion funding, by saving 205,200,000 gallons of gasoline, saves only 0.1489% of total consumption. Not too significant in my opinion.

To achieve a 1% reduction in nationwide motor gasoline usage, around $20 billion (that is $20,000,000,000) needs to be pumped into the new-car market replacing over 5.7 million vehicles with a new vehicle achieving 7.5 mpg higher.

I wonder if gasoline consumption can be reduced by 1% by utilizing only $3 billion in bicycle infrastructure and alternate energy driven mass transit and rail infrastructure? The budget for this year’s Mass Transit infrastructure is $8 billion, $5 billion more each year for the next 5 years, not including operating costs. The Cash-for-Clunker’s $3 billion will be a nice addition to the mass transit budget and shave off 8 months from the 5 year proposal.

Further, evaluating the impact on a family, and assuming $3 billion in funding, these 857,000 families (285,000 X 3, assuming one clunker per family though there is no such rule) will save around 180 gallons of motor gasoline related expenses. At an average cost of $2.50 per gallon of gasoline, each family saves a measly $450 a year and gains $15,000 or more debt on a depreciating asset. With $3 billion in funding towards overhauling the streets to make bicycling actually and subjectively safe, families may be able to reduce from two cars to one, saving upwards of $4000 annually in car payments, insurance and gas.

My 50 year old mass produced dutch city bike, a text book definition of clunker, needs no replacement. At the most, it needs $50 of TLC. The next time someone tells me to get a registration for my bicycle, I’ll tell them at least I don’t need Cash for my Clunker!

Walkscore.com is a fantastic way to find what shops and businesses you can comfortably walk to from your home. My apartment gets a whooping score of 20 out of 100. Needless to say, I wasn’t surprised to learn that Walkscore.com graded Jacksonville as the least walkable city in USA (news link). A bicycle effortlessly bridges the distance gap between walkable destinations to drivable ones.

So how is living car free in a part of town with an undesirable quality? Challenging would be my answer on an optimistic day. The grocery store is only a mile away. With a tiny bit of planning, grocery shopping is achieved in one trip on the weekend. The trusted Xtracycle is a fantastic grocery hauler. For that mid-week craving of Mexican food or to buy a critical grocery item I missed, I whip out the old single speed Dutch bike. Its front basket has plenty cargo capacity for a doggie bag or a case of Yuengling.

Zaxby’s, the only fried chicken restaurant worth visiting, is 5 miles away, mostly through deserted local roads. A trip there takes 30 minutes. I usually go alone as what I do with my fried chicken isn’t pretty. Riding back can be tad adventurous. Sitting on a hard saddle for half an hour after ingesting spicy buffalo sauce smothered chicken fingers isn’t ideal. The Town Center Mall with its departmental stores, pet food stores and Friday Farmer’s Market is within 3 miles away. In fact, I am hopping over there this evening for errands, all on a bike.

Dry cleaning seems challenging but easily solved if you ask the good Turkish people to fold your clothes into boxes. A trip to the movie theater dictates a longer route than one would take if driving but I chose to not ride on roads with a loosely imposed 45 mph speed limit. A trip to downtown is 12 miles long and a fairly pleasant one. A trip to the beach is 13 miles long and not so pleasant. Surprisingly, distance is not a challenging factor. I have gladly ridden 10 miles to a dentist, had her drill, scrape and clean my teeth and ridden back smiling, only this time with better teeth. On days with tighter schedules, I have hired a taxi cab.

So what is the challenging part, you ask? It is the people who meet you on the road through their protective shields of glass and metal. Living in a neighborhood with a walk score of 20 subjects you to people, who usually love their car-dependent life styles. They also have a patriotic attachment to things like big rims on their Kia and the roads they drive those low-profiles on. Most walkscore-20-dwellers will take the on-road-bicyclist-infringement without any patience. The bridged gap between walkable destinations and drivable ones is ugly.

Since the week of excruciating encounters of the motorist kind, I have taken a step back to evaluate my position. I traveled all of last week and effectively stayed off the bicycle since the evening of 12 June till this morning when I rode to work. I pumped through a small hill outside my apartment breathing in a high humidity sauna aired morning glow. The effort required was more than usual. I was undecided if my breathless lungs were signaling me to ride more often or confirming a well deserved hiatus from bicycling.

I occupied my week long business trip to ponder over my position on bicycle advocacy. Lately, I have felt like a martyr when advocating for bicycles, I hadn’t seen any difference made both in the minds of bicyclists and motorists. I have strongly considered moving out of this bicycle hating neighborhood and moving to the urban core where bicycles are more readily accepted. My views about pushing pedals in this part of town have been more and more pessimistic.

I have been commuting on my bicycle for a year. Over this year, I have evolved as a bicyclist, in both range of trips and attitude. During my beginning months, I had a lot more gumption that masked a significant volume of incoming motorist harassment. The gumption to ride is still alive, proven by the fact that I am not tempted to buy a motor vehicle to alleviate the pain. The masking powers of gumption has dwindled. There are stretches of road in which I feel nervous when controlling the lane. To some extent, rage has taken over and I have been known to flip a bird when honked at, yelled at, spat at and lit cigarettes thrown at. The reaction portraying a higher quality would be to ignore but is easier said than done. A bird-flip has more instantaneous fulfillment. I am working on a non-reactionary attitude.

The uncomfortable encounter with a police officer left a foul taste in my mouth about the protectors and upholders of law that I pay taxes to protect and uphold. Unfortunately, some police uniforms come with a cape and an external underwear. They are the unnecessary evils similar to belligerent motorists, except they are armed with mace, tasers and citation tickets.

Bikejax has successfully managed to influence people to ride their bikes, which in return makes more motorists aware. Starting off with the volunteer support at the Jazz Festival, we have uncovered a few people that deserve a mention. My goal would be to bring more people under the spot light for commuting in this part of town. In the form of commuter profiles on Bikejax, we will introduce Rebekah Wallis, Jose Falqez, Jonathan, Matt Bishop and Matt Martin. They have an infectious gumption which inspires me. I also noticed an older gentleman riding his bike on the dreaded service road; not on the sidewalk but the actual road! Kudos to you sir.

As I type the last paragraph and get ready to bike home for lunch, I can not ignore the tiny knot in my stomach from nervousness and anxiety. Some scars heal with time and patience used to be a strong virtue. The days do look brighter after the brief hiatus.

Matt from Bikejax accompanied me on a suburban afternoon ride to the movies. Please visit here: http://bikejax.blogspot.com/2009/01/kick-it-suburban-style.html for pictures and Matt’s perspective on riding in suburbia. 

Image courtesy Bikejax

The ride happened on a Florida winter afternoon

These are some pictures from my ride in a cycle rickshaw from Bandel to Chinsura in the Hooghly district of West Bengal. Bandel and Chinsura are suburbs of Kolkatta. They are poorer suburbs with a lot of history built around the banks of river Ganga. A commuter rail provides transportation to Kolkatta. The cycle rickshaws and auto-rickshaws provide transportation from the train stations. There are busses but are very unreliable. 

The cycle rickshaws are modified roadsters. They are comfortable for two people. Some are modified with facing seats for school children. There are no gears. The rear sprocket seems to be a larger one. The front sprocket looked like a 42-48 teeth.

The slide show has pictures of people in various forms of cycling around. The particular day this picture was taken was the morning of a holiday. Hence the crowd appears to be slim. There are pictures of multiple people on a bike, a cargo trike etc. 

A few things to notice: no helmets, no bike lanes, no stop lights and much more. All movement, pedestrian to cars to large trucks happen in a sort of mini critical masses.