It's incredible to think that Earth Day turns 40 today. But as we blow out the candles, it's certain that Earth Day is far from being "over the hill." The movement toward environmental sustainability is celebrated every day in Georgia by employers, commuters and schools to the tune of 800 tons of pollution kept out of the air we breathe.
In some ways, Earth Day transcends many of the important days on our calendars:
It's like New Year's Day, when we resolve to make changes that make us better stewards of the place we call home.
Earth Day is like the Super Bowl, when champions are crowned for their accomplishments.
Telemanager of the Quarter Connie Hickey, Director of Information Services at ADP (L), with Clean Air Campaign Alternative Work Arrangement Specialist Erin Clark (R).
It's like President's Week, too, with an eye toward the big decisions and the key figures that make history.
It can even bear similarities to Tax Day, when fiscal responsibility is top of mind.
It's like a wedding anniversary, commemorating the start of something special and the journey toward something extraordinary.
Another way to look at it is like Labor Day, in that we've still got a lot of work to do to achieve our shared goals.
Earth Day can also resemble Halloween sometimes, when we discover the scary facts about neglecting our home state.
And it's also like Thanksgiving, when we get together and express our gratitude for all that has been done in Georgia by 1,600 employers, tens of thousands of Georgia commuters, hundreds of schools and dozens of partners to improve our quality of life.
Earth Day is every day. And when more Georgia employers, commuters and schools choose to think in these terms, the place we call home is made better … for us to enjoy today and for future generations to enjoy tomorrow.
There's no doubt that where we choose to live, work and play all contribute to our individual perceptions of quality of life. Land use influences our mobility and dictates how we spend our time and money, among other things. And in a growing region like ours, there has never been a more important time to get smart about managing growth.
Urban planning is one discipline that seeks to improve the way the built environment and the natural environment work together. But much of the resulting work from urban planning - zoning ordinances, building codes, buffer areas and the like - has not yet reached the conscious (or the conscience) of the general public.
How do we get more people to care and take ownership of the issues our region faces with respect to sprawl, traffic congestion, pollution and consumption of natural resources? Sing about it.
Melanie Hammet, metro ATL resident since 1985, combined her talents as a local artist and elected official serving the City of Pine Lake to merge ordinance and art. Her new album, "Edifice Complex and Other Urban Plans," debuts April 10, exploring land use concepts and delivering thought-provoking observations to which we can all relate. One particular song of interest to The Clean Air Campaign about traffic features cameo appearances by a trio of vehicles.
We caught up with Melanie to find out more about "Edifice Complex:"
Q: What changes have you observed over time with respect to land use, mobility, expansion?
A: The biggest change has been in my self-education. Thanks to the Atlanta Regional Commission, Southface, the Livable Communities Coalition - to shortlist a few - there are great resources for learning about land use, and land misuse.
Q: What made you choose to make Pine Lake your home?
A: I was attracted to Pine Lake because the tree-land-house-car-people ratios seemed reasonable and sane. I was attracted to taking a leadership role in the City to help maintain those ratios.
Q: What motivated you to create "Edifice Complex?"
A: I was part of a volunteer effort to guide the re-writing of our zoning code. We’d hired an urban planner through Dekalb County and we had lots and lots of public input.
During this two-year period, I saw the challenge of translating zoning language and city planning into real, high-impact conversations. The results of bad land design are profoundly personal and the code that creates it is exactly that: code.
Q: How was the album put together?
A: In 2008 I applied for an artist residency at Seaside, a planned community in Florida. Although Seaside is a model development for land-use practices, my application was to the arts branch of their Institute. It just so happened that my project was to compose songs that reflected land-use/urban planning concepts. I was accepted into the program and had a month to focus on reading - James Howard Kunstler; Allan Jacobs; Jane Jacobs - walking all over the streets and pathways of Seaside and the surrounding areas; and writing the music that became “Edifice Complex.”
Q: What challenges do you see in getting individuals to take action on these issues?
A: As a community leader, I feel the challenge is to find direct, actionable tasks with direct, achievable results and then to enlist individuals in participating and feeling successful. Otherwise the issues are too large and too defeating.
Q: What motivated you to explore and write "Car Tune?"
A: I never realized how pampered the automobile was in our planning culture until we started dissecting zoning code. It’s almost comical. We make sure the sightlines of our streets and signs are good for "The Vehicle," that we have lots and lots of pavement for "The Vehicle," on and on it goes! It’s so obvious we don’t even notice the extent of it.
Q: How did you create the sounds for "Car Tune?"
A: I decided that my car wasn’t going to sit idly by while I was in the studio laboring over recording the song. Ben Holst (the engineer), and I dragged microphones into the driveway and put my Ford, his Chevy, and a nearby Toyota to work. "Car Tune’s" instrumentation is provided entirely by the trio.
Q: What do you see as the biggest opportunities for improved mobility in the region?
A: Geez, that’s the million-dollar question! Here’s my thought: when I lived in Manhattan, I spent a long Saturday walking from the northernmost tip of the island to the southernmost. I did it because I COULD do it. Can you imagine the Atlanta equivalent? The biggest opportunity is to make walking sexy. In our culture, driving is sexy. If we could flip that relationship, people would clamor for sidewalks and human-size cool stuff to look at and trees that shaded the paths.
Release Party
"Edifice Complex" will have its concert at The Clubhouse in Pine Lake, an eclectic community near Stone Mountain, on April 10th at 8pm. Tickets, directions, and info are at http://edificecomplex.net/
Greetings and happy spring! We've put on our gardening gloves and dug deep for this edition of Merging Lanes with one goal: to plant thoughts of sustainable transportation in your mind. So, what's going in Georgia? Lots:
HB 1218 - Transportation Funding in Georgia
It came in like a lion. Will it go out like a lamb? The state transportation funding bill (HB 1218) that was introduced early in the legislative session has reached a critical point in the calendar, where it must move from the House to the Senate or be put on the shelf. The Transportation Investment Act of 2010 still has many details that need to be worked out, such as whether counties can opt out of the "regional" arrangement and how projects will be approved. In 2008, a different version of a transportation funding bill missed by three votes at the end of the session. In 2009, competing versions of transportation planning and funding bills could not be reconciled before the session ended. What are the odds that another legislative session will come and go without action on transportation funding? And for Georgia commuters and employers, what is the cost of another year of status quo?
Lane ends 2000 feet.
Friday is Ride MARTA Day
A grassroots movement is gaining momentum to build citizen support for MARTA as the transit agency comes to grips with a funding shortfall that is likely to result in service cuts by the start of summer that could affect thousands of patrons. "Ride MARTA Day" is coming up this Friday. If you can hop on a bus or ride the train to work this Friday, consider showing your support for MARTA.
Lane ends 1000 feet.
Actions Speak Loud
It's an understatement to say he leads by example in his role at The Clean Air Campaign. Hats off to Mark Telling, The Clean Air Campaign's Director of Finance since 2002, who just earned recognition as a Clean Air Commuter Champion.
He makes it look easy. Because it is. Preferred commuting modes? GRTA Xpress and telework. When asked why he does it, the predicted answer we thought we'd get from the seasoned finance professional would be savings on commute costs. But Mark says his motivation is simply to avoid the stress of driving alone in traffic. Mark's efforts at clean commuting have kept 25,000 pounds of pollution out of the air we breathe. Congrats!
Lane ends 500 feet.
Bumper Sticker Moment of Zen
When you're languishing in bumper-to-bumper traffic, the least the driver in front of you can do is give you something to ponder.
Thanks, biodiesel guy, for doing your part. Got any good pics of bumper stickers with traffic or sustainability messages that gave you a chuckle, or maybe sparked an epiphany? Send them our way and we'll share them in this space.
Merge
Calling all employers: sign up for the Alternative Work Arrangement Webinar on March 25. It’s our first Webinar of the year and will teach you how your company can be successful with compressed work weeks and telework programs.
Many of you have attended The Clean Air Campaign’s Lunch and Learn events in past years, but for 2010, we’re shaking things up a bit. First, say goodbye to the name Lunch and Learn. This program will now be called the Employer Program Education Series. The focus is on helping employers get the most out of their commute options programs. An additional change this year will be the format of this series. To make Clean Air Campaign events more congruent with what we represent – less traffic and cleaner air – we’ll be hosting most of them online as Webinars. In many cases, you’ll no longer need to drive to an event; we’ll come to you via your computer. This will save you time, help keep pollution out of the air we breathe and even make it possible for you to access our presentations online at a later date, whether you missed them the first time or want to watch again. So what are you waiting for? Sign up today for our first Webinar of the year!
Hats off to Harold Reheis, a founding father of The Clean Air Campaign and former chairman, who yesterday officially rolled off The Clean Air Campaign's Board of Directors after some 15 years of service.
Before the mission became a movement centered on less traffic and cleaner air, Reheis remembers working in the mid-90s "just to understand how Atlanta could meet tighter standards" for ground-level ozone. "We focused on wringing everything we could out of stationary sources," he explained, referring to the emissions that come from fixed objects like smokestacks. "We realized we had to work at everything in order to reach the goal."
According to Reheis, the best experiment to show how vehicle traffic and air quality are so closely linked happened when the Olympics came to metro Atlanta in the summer of 1996. It was during this two-week stretch that two important situations were recorded:
1. The Georgia DOT found traffic congestion was held at bay by area employers who led the charge to help their employees remain productive without having to drive in to worksites at rush hour
2. The Georgia EPD found that air quality was noticeably improved during this window, with no violations of the ground-level ozone standard while the Olympic torch was lit
Harold Reheis, a founding member of The Clean Air Campaign and former chairman of the Board of Directors, receives a plaque commemorating his 15 years of service.
In his role as both a regulator with the Georgia EPD and an architect of The Clean Air Campaign, Reheis expressed to his colleagues on the Board of Directors the significance of creating a non-regulatory organization, focused on voluntary actions, to cause change. "The balance of regulatory controls and voluntary commute options programs showed that a plan could be drafted and acted on to meet air quality standards," Reheis said. "I'm excited about where we've been and what we've achieved. We need to keep working to identify more ways to solve the problem."
On behalf of the entire organization and all the people you've influenced in your work for less traffic and cleaner air, thanks, Harold, for the passion and the vision you brought to improve our quality of life.
Happy New Year and welcome to the next decade. Coming off an economic meltdown in 2009 on par with the Great Depression, it has been a lean year for good news in Georgia. Let’s gear up for a fresh start.
What's in store for 2010 on the transportation and air quality front? Lots of unfinished business on transportation, and what will likely be new and tougher regulations on air quality, including first-ever regulations on greenhouse gas emissions.
Consider this a preview of coming attractions of what we're watching for in policymaking circles over the next 12 months:
Georgia Transportation Funding
Georgia policymakers have been stuck in what seems like an endless loop of discussion on how to fund transportation in our state without ever moving to a conclusion. A lot has been said on the subject but not much has gotten done. Last session there were significant changes made within GDOT, and its new Planning Director just released this report as a vision for transportation infrastructure across the state for the next 2-3 three decades. The report leverages the work of McKinsey last year and its IT3 findings last year. It’s long (77 pp), but worth a read, at least the Executive Summary.
There are lots of ideas on the table to get Georgia moving: a statewide master list of projects and a commitment to transit, but these projects need funding in order to become real. And the State has been under-investing on transportation for decades, compared to its peers. As the report points out, at current levels of funding, “over the next 20 years, congestion costs across all of Georgia’s metro areas will increase dramatically, and many transit services will be reduced or eliminated due to lack of operating funds. In metro Atlanta, congestion costs per person will double.”
What is needed is new funding, “equivalent to a 1 percent sales tax statewide, in addition to a robust approach to tolls.” Will this be the year that transportation funding legislation clears the gauntlet and the voters will be allowed to decide the issue? We’ll see. For many, “election year” and “new taxes” don’t necessarily go together.
Federal Transportation Funding Reauthorization
The federal funding mechanism for how we fund transportation has been broken for years. The Federal Highway Trust fund is spitting foam, paying out more than it is taking in with gas tax revenues – hardly a winning combination. This funding was scheduled to be reexamined this past fall, but given all the lofty issues in play in Washington, Congress applied a few band-aids and put it on the shelf until 2010. When it is revisited, what will the next chapter in our nation's transportation policy look like? How do we fund transportation beyond the motor fuel tax? Mileage-based fees? How can we wring more efficiency out of the systems we already have?
Air Quality Standards … the Sequel
Something noteworthy happened last summer: the EPA reopened review of federal air quality standards for ground-level ozone (set in early-2008) years ahead of schedule. Several areas in Georgia failed to meet the standard before it was placed on hold, which has bought more time to make improvements. A new standard will be set by the feds, rooted in health and science studies about the effects of ground-level ozone exposure on public welfare. My money is on the new standard being tougher than the previous one. The proposal comes out in the next couple of weeks, and the EPA can expect lots of comments and lawsuits. Meanwhile, air quality standards for an unprecedented number of other pollutants are now in the process of being tightened (sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, lead, toxics). But the real game changer is the fact that EPA is poised to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from millions of stationary and mobile sources never before regulated … potentially the most sweeping environmental regulation in history.
2010 holds the promise of a year of big changes that affect the future course on transportation and air quality. Much more to come…
We talk often in this space about collaboration and the many partnerships that exist between The Clean Air Campaign and the state of Georgia. Our efforts to promote less traffic and cleaner air are done in concert with agencies like the Georgia Department of Transportation and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, Atlanta Regional Commission and the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority.
And at times, the circle of collaboration gets wider, bringing more groups together in order to help serve the public. This was the case earlier this year, when the state legislature passed HB160, known as the “SuperSpeeder Law.” The law is designed to get tough on high-risk drivers who endanger other motorists and ignore warnings to slow down. Fees collected under the “SuperSpeeder Law,” which goes into effect January 1, 2010, will help fund Georgia’s trauma care hospital system where, according to the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, some sixty-percent of all trauma care admissions are crash-related. Read more about the Super Speeder Law and the threshold for speeding fines here.
Of course, the lead message from the Governor's Office of Highway Safety that goes with the “SuperSpeeder Law” is the financial “triple whammy” of a citation, an additional fee and the threat of losing driving privileges for the lead-footed.
But there is also an environmental case we should think about, and a productivity case for slowing down. It is well documented that driving a car at speeds above 70 and 80mph and aggressively accelerating wastes fuel and burns fuel more rapidly, creating higher concentrations of air pollution. It is also clear that traffic accidents stemming from aggressive driving and speeding can wreak havoc on the commute to and from work, especially when these accidents occur during rush hour. Commuters can’t afford to speed … and the state can’t afford to deal with more smog and gridlock, let alone accident victims.
So, take note of the “SuperSpeeder Law” that goes into effect January 1. If your safety and the safety of others on the road isn’t enough motivation to ease off the gas pedal, consider the financial and environmental consequences of driving too fast.
Thirty percent of your employees don’t show up for work one day. What would you do? Would you close for business? Try to make it with a skeleton staff? And how would these choices impact your bottom line? Now imagine that those same employees – or more – were unable to get to work for three days or longer.
It’s a scenario that most Georgia business owners don’t think will happen to them, and, hopefully, it won’t. But recent history indicates that we need to prepare. Most of us never imagined that North Georgia roads would look like rivers last September as a 500-year flood swept the state. But that’s exactly what happened.
Georgia is also susceptible to tornadoes, as we saw in March 2008 when one spiraled through downtown Atlanta and caused damage in 15 counties across the state. Ice storms can literally freeze northern portions of state, and Dr. Patrick O’Neal, chief of the Georgia Department of Community Health’s Emergency Preparedness and Response Division, expects one third of Georgians to contract H1N1 flu. My goal is not to cause panic, but to show businesses the importance of preparing for, weather-related emergencies, pandemic, and other unforeseen disasters today.
I believe many business owners approach continuity planning with the best of intentions. But it can fall to the bottom of the list among payroll, sales and day-to-day operations. Ready Georgia, the emergency preparedness campaign from the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, also supported by the Georgia Department of Community Health Division of Public Health, can help. It offers a Ready Your Business guide to assist Georgia companies of any size with disaster planning. The guide can help planners identify key decision makers during a disaster, assess which disasters your organization is most vulnerable to, and determine essential business functions that must be maintained. It also helps organize important communication information, such as customer phone numbers, vendor email addresses and insurance provider contact information, in one location.
Working in conjunction with organizations like The Clean Air Campaign, can help businesses develop a comprehensive crisis plan to see them through a variety of situations. The Clean Air Campaign offers no-cost assistance to start or formalize a worksite telework program and can also help you apply for tax credits that cover the cost.
Business continuity plans that include telework programs can help protect our state’s economy, your business and the future of your employees. It’s time to move emergency preparedness to the top of the list, and get your business Ready.
Charley English is the director of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency and the Office of Homeland Security. He oversees all state governmental actions designed to ensure mitigation and preparedness, appropriate response and timely recovery from natural and man-made hazards which may impact the state of Georgia.
It's easy to dwell on the problems facing metro Atlanta with respect to gridlock and air pollution, but there are lots of things going right … and some of the best work being done anywhere to beat back traffic and tame smog is happening right here. The Clean Air Campaign and its partners recognized the region's best workplaces for commuters on Tuesday, celebrating the 10th annual PACE Awards along with a crowd of about 200 guests.
The PACE Awards program is the good news about traffic and air quality. It is among the most tangible examples of the shared responsibility that exists between the public and private sector to take actions that improve the way we commute and the air we breathe. And in this tight economy, where everybody must find creative ways to do more with less, commute options programs have become a frontline strategy to create stronger workplaces.
The Clean Air Campaign's executive director, Kevin Green, talks traffic and commute options with a crowd of 200 employer and property management partners at the 2009 PACE Awards.
When the curtain fell on the 2008 PACE Awards last October, nobody predicted the budget ax would fall at the same time. But the bleak economy and the ripple effect of shortfalls in the state budget in the months that ensued made the PACE program impossible to sustain financially.
Still, when it became clear in early-2009 that the recession was going to make it tough for the business community to have enough good stories to rally around, The Clean Air Campaign and the local Transportation Management Associations responded with a scaled-down PACE Awards program built on sweat equity that has successfully kept the torch lit for recognizing the region's best commute options programs.
From a terrific field of more than 50 applicants, four employers (small, medium, large, public sector) and a property manager were recognized for their great programs to make it easier for commuters heading to their worksites to choose alternatives to driving alone. Get the scoop on the winners and finalists here. One employer led a commute options essay contest during President's Week in February, asking commuters which U.S. President they'd like to share a ride with and why. Another employer rolled out an innovative bike share program that has been well received.
PACE hardware. In all, five organizations, representing the most outstanding workplaces for commuters, were recognized with awards at the 2009 PACE event: Georgia Natural Gas/SouthStar Energy Services, Porsche Cars North America, Emory University, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Carter.
In addition, the accomplishments of a handful of commuters whose long term individual efforts at clean commuting have kept 50,000 pounds of pollution out of the skies were recognized at the PACE Awards.
50,000 pounds of pollution kept out of the skies through sustained efforts at clean commuting. That's what Howard Mindel (left) has accomplished, making him among the first 50K Clean Air Commuter Champions in Georgia. Howard, a dedicated bicycle commuter, receives his certificate of appreciation from The Clean Air Campaign's Mike Williams (right) at the 2009 PACE Awards.
Many thanks to Midtown Alliance and AT&T for the donated venue, Aramark for catering services, WABE-90.1 FM for being a media sponsor, Perimeter Transportation Coalition for contributing the trophies, a great stable of PACE Awards judges from a cross-section of organizations with an interest in the issues we follow and all the employer, property manager, agency and funding partners who work to promote commute options in Georgia. Looking forward to next year's program, and hope you can be part of it!
Between job demands, commitments and traffic congestion, there simply aren't enough hours in the day anymore. So it's obvious more people feel compelled to multi-task in this go-go world, which begs this question: if we attempt several tasks at once, will any of them get done effectively?
I'll narrow it down to the things we try to do when we're behind the wheel, slogging through traffic congestion to and from work. In metro Atlanta, 84% of us make this trip alone each workday and it takes us an average of 36 minutes each way ... plenty of time to become tempted to:
Change radio stations, talk on our cell phones, text message or scroll through e-mails on our mobile devices, rummage through articles
piled on the passenger seat, soothe cranky children in the back seat who ask, "are we there yet?," reach for our coffee, scan the newspaper headlines, shave, eat, or get dressed.
All while driving. Did I miss anything? What's the strangest thing you've seen another commuter doing while behind the wheel?
The more "productive" we try to be while driving, the higher the risk that we're going to hurt ourselves or others. The AAA Foundation released a national study on the culture of traffic safety in 2008 that describes how many of us do some of these activities from behind the wheel. 53% of respondents indicated they talk on a cell phone while driving. 14% of respondents indicated they text while driving. And a study by Exxon is purported to have found that as many as 70% of us eat while driving.
Yikes. Here are the compelling reasons why more commuters need to look into alternatives to driving alone:
- According to the Governor's Office of Highway Safety, the majority of two-vehicle collisions in Georgia (46%) are rear-enders.
- Stack this finding next to the latest trend data from the Urban Mobility Report, a study we reference often with respect to traffic congestion, and you'll see that 53% of traffic congestion (delay) in Atlanta is linked to road incidents.
- It should come as little surprise, then, that a recent survey by an auto insurance carrier found Atlanta commuters are 26% more likely to get into an accident than the national average.
With more demands being placed on workers to do more work and more challenges to juggle work and personal tasks, sharing the ride just makes sense. More carpool, vanpool, rail and bus riders are stepping forward with their stories about finding ways to be productive as passengers. Certainly it's safer for everyone when "productivity" is attempted only from the passenger seat.
Add comment