Shek’s Footprint

The Car is up for sale. I am following sale techniques from here: (link)

I have put it up on Craigslist with a link to my sale site. Next in line is to put it up for sale on Autotrader, Cars.com and Cars4Jax. I will wait for a few days to see if I get any response from Craigslist though. Some color printouts of the sale site will go up on the apartment complex notice board and the break room at work too.

Update:

Cars.com ad: link

Cars4Jax ad: link

I have spent a lot of time talking about bicycling. That is not necessarily deviating from the topic of reducing my footprint because it involves removing a car from my life. Of the other things that I have been doing to save electricity usage is using a clothes drying rack in my balcony and the most recent one being switching off the water heater for a majority of the day. 

My plan is to switch off the water heater all day and switch it on at 6:30 am when I wake up. I shower by 7:15 am which is plenty of time to heat up enough stored water for the whole day, which involves another shower. The only problem is to remember to switch it on in the morning! I did not remember this morning and was left with low pressure mildly warm water to bathe with. Thankfully, the fall weather in Jacksonville has been pleasant, some what windy too so I did not have to scrub too much.

Not using the drier and switching off the water heater should reduce my usage significantly. 80% of the light in my apartment is CFLs. I know about the mercury problem and I promise to dispose of them safely if they ever go bad!

On a separate note, I am not tracking my carbon footprint yet. I understand the benefits of measurement but downsizing usage is a proven method of reducing ones footprint. I also want my footprint measured more accurately and not an approximate as provided by most websites.

Today was a particularly stressful day. It started off by a stupid online purchase. I am usually very prudent but this one was accomplished in a lot of haste. Now I know not to repeat it again. I then participated in charity for our employees affected by Ike in Houston which lifted my spirits a bit.

I was caught in torrential rain while returning home from lunch, the one that soaks you to the bone. The old black rain jacket kept my upper body dry and warm but my pants got totally soaked by the time I could find some shelter. As I stood at the side of the road watching the cars go by at normal speeds, I couldn’t help but feel under prepared. I had an extra change of clothes at work, so getting wet was not a problem. The problem was the lack of visibility for motorists in heavy rain conditions. I was stuck in the two lane no shoulder part of my commute. The situation’s apathy carried with itself an accusation for not being in a car.

The snickering comments of the nicotine-pumping lung-burning suv-driving co-worker about this being the time to use a car did not help either. The discomfort of soaked socks and drippign pants is easily eclipsed by the lack of choice, freedom and the impassiveness of fellow citizens. I truly was running out of patience with each mounting mile like Hummers of gas.

A complete new rain wear is on order. It folds into a small pouch that should hopefully fit in my also newly ordered Minnehaha Small Canvas Saddle Bag. After work, I went to the bike shop in the St. John’s Strip Mall (Town Center) to get a new saddle for my dutch bike. The dutch bike deserves the likes of Brooks saddles but she will have to wait for the time being. The ride back home was uneventful for the most part. It was also pleasant. Cool breezes and random specks of thin rain drops kept my tempers cool. I am sure the very act of bicycling brought my frustrations levels down too. The better part is that Laya was excited to see me no matter how wet and grumpy I was. She did her supersonic sprints in my tiny bedroom and on my bed, sniffed me over and tried to play with me. She is a sponge for frustration. All dogs are.

Get a bike, get a dog and live a happy life.

See sidebar for my new page (link). I keep getting asked why I am selling my car. I have written a short essay to lay down the logic and the math before people raise controversies over my multiple reasons…

Happy reading.

Bicycle commuting improves the general quality of life. It lets the environment sustain while improving the health of the people. Cars are a great invention and are surely a convenience. Bicycling makes us more independent from cars giving us a renewed sense of freedom.

I have been having an interesting discussion on BikeJax about the feasibility of bicycle commuting in Jacksonville FL. See discussion here: link. I am of the opinion that a 20% goal of bicycle commuters is a realistic goal in Jacksonville. The successful execution of the goal needs a bicycle infrastructure in the form of bike lanes, urban trails and motorist awareness. Moreover, there needs to be parallel infrastructure towards mass transit such as street cars, light rail/commuter rail etc to compliment bicycle commuters.

What the future of bicycling needs the most, however, is a Cycle Policy. A piece of document depicting the mission of the city towards cyclists. A mission statement will provide a strong foundation to the efforts and development of bicycling in this city.  There are a series of videos on youtube that I stumbled upon and have embedded at the end of this post. They are about Copenhagen’s bicycle culture. I understand that Copenhagen is a much smaller city than Jacksonville is and they are much more starved for land to park cars than we are. With the growth of population, car usage increases but bicycles soften that rise.

Here is a list of Copenhagen’s Cycle Policy and my takes on what they may translate for Jacksonville. It is taken from the videos below.

1. Increase cycling to work to 40%. Jacksonville can aim at 20% to begin with.
2. Decrease risk of being injured by 50%. This is a common goal that will resound harmoniously among bicycle commuters and recreation cyclists in Jacksonville.
3. Increase feeling of security so 80% of cyclists are satisfied. This would go along making bike lanes along strip-mall-infested roads more safe by installing barriers between cars and bikes. Strip malls create frequent drive ways that increases the chances of accidents and feeling of insecurity. This policy statement may be used as is for Jacksonville. It should also target unsafe driving among inattentive motorists. A start would be to apply the hands-free only cell phone driving laws.
4. Increase cycist travelling speed by 10%. My average speed on the cyclocomputer is 10 mph on the dutch bike. 90% of the usage of this bike is for work. If there were bike lanes all the way to work, my average speed would definitely increase. I think this is a modest goal that will make bicycle commuting more and more favorable.
5. Improve cycle track comfort leaving less than 5% of surfaces unsatisfactory. This statement deals with the maintenance of comfortable road conditions so it is satisfactory for bicycles and they can commute without breaks and detours. This one may need a lot of infrastructure to achieve through out the entire city of Jacksonville. The city can try to acomplish that goal in the major corridoors of bicycle commuters first.

Cophenhagen spends 3 million euros a year on cycling infrastructure. Adjusting for the cost of labor in Denmark, I can safely assume that they would spend a lot more if they were to widen roads constantly. A natural population increase will keep demanding more roads, more lanes on existing roads, more interchanges and proportional maintenance. Roads require a lot of maintenance due to wear and tear which vehicles produce easily and bicycles barely.

For people who complain about the bad Florida weather, Copenhagen summers range between a high of 72 and a low of 57, winters hover around 32 (reference wikipedia). Showers are possible in any season. Bicycle commuting drops down to 70% in the winter (reference video). Using mass transit or showers at work will solve the hot weather commuting problems. I commute 2 miles in a dress pant and a dress shirt. That is a manageable commute in summer.

Please see this video. It is playlist of five parts.