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Results for category "conservation"

Get Thee Bicycling

May is National Bike Month so get your bikes out and take a ride — alone, with friends or your entire family. Looking for a special event? Find it here.

Don’t have a bicycle? You can probably find a bargain at a local garage sales or get one for free on The Freecycle Network. Feeling lucky? People for Bikes is giving away bicycles — sign up and take a chance.

Run errands around town on your bike and save gas, get moving/burn calories, and see your neighborhood from a fresh perspective.

Denmark, where people ride bicycles every day, was found to be the “happiest nation in the world” by the University of Leicester’s World Map of Happiness a few years ago. Could it be they’re leaders in “bike culture?” Let’s check the facts:

1. In Denmark, at last count, 18% of the population cycle daily.
2. In Copenhagen, 36% of the population of the Greater Metropolitan area cycle daily to work or places of learning. That is 500,000 daily cyclists.
3. If you exclude the Greater Metro Area and just count Copenhagen proper, 55% cycle daily. On a hot summer’s day that number can reach 65%.
4. 80% of the above cyclists continue to ride throughout the winter.
5. In urban areas in Denmark there are separated bike lanes along most streets. In the country, most roads have separated bike lanes off to the side.
6. Denmark has the world’s safest bicycle culture. Our safety statistics are exceptional.
7. The busiest bike stretch in the nation is Nørrebrogade in Copenhagen. 35,000 cyclists use the street each day.
8. The average speed of cyclists in Copenhagen is 15,3 km/h.
9. Danes cycle just over 1000 km a year per capita. The Dutch occupy second place, just under 1000 km.
10. There are 1.7 million people in Copenhagen and 1.7 million bicycles.
11. Only 40% of Copenhageners own a car.
12. 36% of Copenhageners ride a bicycle, 35% take public transport and the rest drive or walk.

Come on, get out there!

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The 4-Day Week

That’s right: a 4-day week. Not only a 4-day work week, but a 4-day school week, too. It’s being considered in New York State, and state employees across the country have been doing it since this summer (when gas prices were much higher).

Prof. Goose came up with “16 reasons why the 4-day work week was a good idea” on The Oil Drum:

The notion of our standard work week here in America has remained largely the same since 1938. That was the year the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed, standardizing the eight hour work day and the 40 hour work week. Each Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday workers all over the country wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast and go to work. But the notion that the majority of the workforce should keep these hours is based on nothing more than an idea put forth but the Federal government almost 70 years ago. To be sure it was an improvement in the lives of many Americans who were at the time forced to work 10+ hours a day, sometimes 6 days of the week. So a 40 hour work week was seen as an upgrade in the lives of many of U.S. citizens. 8 is a nice round number; one third of each 24 hour day. In theory it leaves 8 hours for sleep and 8 hours for other activities like eating, bathing, raising children and enjoying life. But the notion that we should work for 5 of these days in a row before taking 2 for ourselves is, as best I can tell, rather arbitrary.

If we telecommute for part of the week, will our jobs be off-shored? How do we figure out alternate child care? If both work weeks and school weeks get synchronized, wouldn’t that make sense for everbody?

Just saving energy by not having to drive to work as much is reason enough to consider the 4-day work week. Sign the petition.

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