VIDEO: Transportation (Presentation to Chamber of Commerce, 11/14/11)
We’ve been snowed in the last couple of days, and the walkability of our 1880′s-era neighborhood has had a chance to shine.
As Soren and I traveled on foot to the corner grocery, the post office, the coffee shop, and our friends’ houses, we encountered 10 times as many pedestrians as we normally do and 10 times fewer cars. It was so sociable, so cheery, so safe to pull Soren on his sled down the middle of the road. I almost wish the snow would stick around!
Port Townsend’s historic core was built before automobiles were mass-marketed, so it is inherently walkable. Redesigning car-oriented cities around people instead is the challenge for our times.
Creating walkable communities is – to mix metaphors – “the silver bullet in the sustainability toolkit.”
Residents’ health, safety and sense of place are all improved by lessened dependence on automobiles for transportation.
In the continuation of uploads of video from my November presentation to the Chamber of Commerce, this 5-minute video excerpt on “Transportation” describes some of the ways innovative businesses and nonprofits here in Jefferson County are replacing gas-guzzling transportation with walking, bicycling and even sailing!
I highlight Bob’s Bagels‘ bicycle deliveries, Finnriver Farm & Cidery‘s collaboration with Salish Sea Trading Cooperative to get their product to the Seattle market using no fossil fuels, and the ReCyclery, a community bicycle shop that recently moved to a more visible location in town with plans to anchor a non-motorized transportation learning center.
My talk also introduces the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute, which relocated here from Florida in 2010. I’m really excited about their presence here, and the role they can play in making Port Townsend and Jefferson County a learning lab for sustainability issues.
A sample of the Powerpoint images I displayed to showcase the work of the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute can be seen below. Photomorphs courtesy of WALC.
Potential for a road remake in Orange Beach, Ala.
WALC’s vision for a road remake in Orange Beach, Ala.
Click here for more video clips from my Chamber presentation.
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The snow storm last week incited me to walk to work for a couple of days. It’s a 45 minute one-way trip (compared to a 7 minute drive), but because my office opened late, it was easy to fit into the day. It proved to me that we will change our habits when our priorites (and choices) shift.
Thank you Shelly for the shout out and for conveying some of the inspiring potential of our new location! We are hard at work to open in the next couple of months. We are shooting for an opening date of April 1st. Everyone, keep your eyes open for us!
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P.S.- I must mention that the Finn River cider delivery was carried out using ReCyclery volunteers and The ReCyclery’s trailer. Christie K. contacted us to help make the delivery a possibility and our volunteers trucked the trailer all the way out to Chimacum, with one volunteer doing half of the actual delivery from the farm to the boat. Thank you ReCyclery volunteers! Woop woop!