Ian Sacs

<p> On my coveted “Bane of Americana” list just behind my cell phone company&#39;s automated customer support option to “Press &#39;3&#39; To Stay On Hold” (not kidding!), is the so-called “Passenger Pick-Up System” at airport terminals.  Instead of realizing a purported orderly and safe system, by forcing cars to circuit the entire loop road in an attempt to perfectly intercept with arriving passengers, airports are perpetuating a half-brained scheme reminiscent of Disney World&#39;s Mad Tea Party ride. </p> <p> <img src="/files/u20603/madteaparty.jpg" width="448" height="336" /> <br /> <strong>It&#39;s Always Six O&#39;Clock At Terminal Eight!  </strong> </p>

<p> A friend introduced me yesterday to rambunctious bicycling advocate Fred Oswald via a <a href="http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/05/_scott_shaw_the_plain.html">recent article</a> out of Cleveland’s press. Much debate swirls around his not-so-uncommon opinions. Mr. Oswald’s argument can be boiled down to two points: supporting a critical need for much more bicycling education on sharing public roadways with other vehicles, and fighting an industry-borne fallacy that breaking up streets with allocated spaces, such as bike lanes, is good for the biking community. The former is, of course, not contestable. We all agree that safety and training are absolutely critical to developing a strong and healthy bicycling community.

<p> This extended holiday weekend is much anticipated personally because it signifies the return to a recreational activity that thrills me more so than any other.  By this time most years the weather has warmed up enough to prevent any further delay in getting my cheap, little sailboat ready “for the season”.  While there is very strong merit in, and a touch of <a href="/node/38336">previous discussion</a> on, the return to sailing vessels for the purposes of international commercial shipping, this Memorial Day weekend I rather turn to the merits sailing has as a sustainable, low-impact, and surprisingly cheap way of having fun and experiencing the splendor of nature first hand.  Won&#39;t you please take a few moments to consider how a traditional form of waterborne transportatio

<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> Shared streets, the contemporary vernacular used to describe streets that have been intentionally redesigned to remove exclusive boundaries for pedestrians, bicyclists, cars, etc., work well within a special set of conditions.<span>  </span>It is, in reality, just a new way of describing the original use of streets (see <a href="/node/38401">this previous post</a> for more on that).<span>  </span>The most promising candidates for shared streets are those where traffic volumes are not too heavy, the route is not a critical corridor for vehicular through-traffic, activities and attractions along the street are plentiful, short distance connectivity is viable, and a critical mass of pedestrians (perhaps enough to pack sidewalks at certain times) exists.<span>  </span>A shared street may also be suitable in places where there is a desire to induce such conditions; however, care must be taken to understand the larger network effects of shifting or slowing down vehicular traffic.<span>  </span>But in some instances, seemingly unrelated changes to traffic patterns or the effects of a coincidental collection of the above conditions sometimes go unnoticed until a street that may have been all about cars gradually shifts into something I refer to as a “<em>de facto</em> shared street”.

<p> Introducing car sharing (ZipCar, Hertz Connect, etc,) to a development can significantly reduce parking demand and, hence, construction costs. </p>