Articles on EV World
Of Oranges and E-Bikes Sometimes our economic system finds a perverse logic in bulldozing orange grove, crushing tomatoes, and throwing away milk, just like it does seeking to ban the use of electric-assist bicycles. Originally published: 29-Sep-2013
Read MoreBike Sharing and the Fountain of Youth It may turn out, in retrospect, that the smartest move humanity ever made in the pursuit of both a sustainable economy and eternal youth was the invention of the bike share system. Originally published: 01-Sep-2013
Read MoreFreedom By Another Name Should Smell As Sweet Can the answer to some of our most pressing problems as a planet be as simple as a bicycle? Originally published: 15-Sep-2013
Read MoreFreeloading When it comes to the consumption of our planet’s resources, we all need to pay our share of the tab. Originally published: 20-Oct-2013
Read MoreIron Boots Why do we fill public space with tons of private conveyances in which one person occupies the space of many? Originally published: 03-Nov-2013
Read MoreAs Easy As Pedaling Backwards Getting creative with our futures is probably the only way we have to improve them and giving bicycles with electric-assist legal status in New York is one way to do that. Originally published: 11-Nov-2013
Read MoreThe Long Smooth Shadow of the Swiss Tour de Sol What we could have learned from the original Tour de Sol thirty years ago might have helped avert Hurricane Sandy and the devastating typhoon that ravaged the Philippines. Originally published: 24-Nov-2013
Read MoreHELP! The only two states that allow recreational pot use are playing Call it the Pipe Bowl The new Mayor of New York has made it one of his first priorities to reduce the number of roadway casualties in that city to Zero, from the 271 who currently expire each year, in addition to the […]
Read MoreCOCOA COffee COnversation Action The original colonial Tea Party was a bit of blame-the-victim, racist, black-bag op terrorism, with a spoonful of patriotism, and so is the current one for many of its most passionate adherents. The difference is that back then, we were rising up against protected monopolies and giant corporations, whereas the current version is largely […]
Read MoreHigh 5 Pickers and gatherers of produce, People getting their hands dirty, by pulling roots and breaking stems, filling baskets and boxes, are making about a penny a pound for their work, give or take. When the final products of their efforts are passed along to the consumer, the price will be measured in dollars a […]
Read MoreNUTRITION, HEALTH, AND TRANSPORTATION THE BIG QUESTION; IF YOU ARE DOWN TO YOUR LAST TEN DOLLARS, DO YOU GET FOOD, YOUR MEDICINE OR GAS FOR THE CAR? We need water, air, and the occasional snack, to survive. Clothing and a roof over your head may not be quite as essential, depending upon local climate and social customs of […]
Read MoreTrike-share and the future of electric transport Many of the most disturbing events taking place around the world, the Middle East, Ukraine, etc. revolve around the supply of fossil fuels. It is a militarized world because there are stores of wealth, instead of more equitable distribution, and they must be defended. The tools used […]
Read MoreEvolving Bikes into Future Trikes While there is almost no image more elegant or romantic than a person simply riding a bike, we are constantly being enticed into embracing something grand, a car, a nice big house, which is intended to inflate our sense of well-being. Seldom on display is the ragged couple, exhaustedly […]
Read MoreHybrid Muscle/Electric-Powered Vehicles are the future PUCK magazine, in downtown New York City, gave political satire its most powerful boost. Its momentum has propelled it 150 years into the present day in the form of Comedy Central and millions of youtube videos. The impatience of these cartoonists with corrupt politicians, greedy accumulators and the webs […]
Read MoreThe Snell Report https://books.google.hr/books?id=TE3wTD1ckF4C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false In 1974, Bradford Snell, a legislative assistant to Senator Hart of Michigan, and Judiciary Committee staff attorney, delivered an historic report on the partnership between two great American industrial powers, the General Motors Company and the Standard Oil Company (Firestone was the junior partner), which resulted in the dismemberment of our […]
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Longtime NYC Advocate for human-scale vehicles, including electric-assist bicycles and pedicabs, as well as a stronger local, creative and public role in determining public-space issues. I imagine streets in the future filled with clean, quiet, weather-protected, multi-person conveyances that are beautifully and uniquely crafted, shaped and decorated by human hands, gifting our roadways with […]
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In Pursuit of the Perfect All-Weather LEV Oct 19, 2014. Times Article Viewed: 49086 Bicycles are great, but they have their shortcomings, especially as the weather turns wet and cold. What’s a need to make them viable year-round are creative solutions that meld form and function into the perfect Light Electric Vehicle. Late 19th-century ‘Socialable’ […]
Read MoreThe Downscaling Conundrum Aug 24, 2014. Times Article Viewed: 9331 For over 150 years of the industrial revolution, bigger has always been better, but in the 21st century figuring out how to downscale will be the most daunting challenge mankind will face. Many of the most disturbing events taking place around the world, the Middle […]
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Transformers: Mastering Our Machines Jul 06, 2014. Times Article Viewed: 8863 We face a choice: we either learn how to master the machines we create and use them to enhance our lives or they will come to dominate us. One of the candidate designs proposed for replacing New York City’s payphone kiosks The big movie […]
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E-Bike Share: Perfect Wave of the Future Jun 08, 2014. Times Article Viewed: 8317 Instead of spending hard-earned income on an asset that sits 23 hours out of the day and takes constant ‘care and feeding’ in the form of toxic, polluting fuel, just to move 170 pounds of human, how about something 1/50th the […]
Read MoreA Glimmer of Hope for E-Bikes in the Empire State Jun 02, 2014. Times Article Viewed: 6804 What a difference a year and a new city administration can make. There is no opposition now as, in the waning weeks of the current session of New York State’s legislature, there’s a chance that bills legalizing electric-assist […]
Read MoreAll Charged-Up and Nowhere to Go May 25, 2014. Times Article Viewed: 5726 Both the NY City and NY State legislatures are preparing to vote in the next month on legalizing electric-assist bikes. Would giving politicians and their staffs’ test rides, where they are, be a better strategy than putting on a mini-event, at a […]
Read MoreWiFi Hotspots and the Sharing Community May 18, 2014. Times Article Viewed: 6856 New York City has an RFP out to create 10,000 WiFi hotspots around the city presenting the community with the choice of further homogenization or the chance to express each neighborhood’s distinctive character. WiFi-Share • Bike-Share • Space-Share • Life-Share • Belief-Share […]
Read MoreA Serious Conversation with Myself May 11, 2014. Times Article Viewed: 5762 Sometimes I blog to get things off my chest and maybe, get you to think a bit differently about a topic near and dear to me. Sometimes, I just do it to clear my head. This time I’m hoping you’ll introduce yourself and […]
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Some Thoughts On Slowing the Automobilization of the Planet May 04, 2014. Times Article Viewed: 7600 Could it be that the curious devices depicted in the famed Hammacher Schlemmer catalogs point the way toward slowing, if not ending the rise of the automobile as the dominant machine force on the planet? While a focus on […]
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Attaining Vision Zero Apr 27, 2014. Times Article Viewed: 4811 If New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio wants to see accident deaths drop to zero in his city, he will have to ensure that there are fewer cars and trucks and more pedicabs and bicycles on his streets. April 30th marks the 75th Anniversary of […]
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Muscle Power As Fuel For Our Creative Juices Apr 20, 2014. Times Article Viewed: 7492 We’ve shaped our society around cheap, but dirty and exhaustible energy. In the 21st century, it’s time to start thinking creatively about healthful ways to re-power our lives, by burning caloric energy instead of hydrocarbons. We are surrounded by machines, […]
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Who Killed the Streetcar? The “Snell Report” Apr 13, 2014. Times Article Viewed: 6961 In 1974, legislative aide and anti-trust attorney Bradford Snell, released a 100-page report on GM and ESSO’s “Secret holding companies”, calling for a restructuring of the American transportation system, starting with the break-up of the Big Three. When something is done […]
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A World’s Fair At a Human Scale Apr 06, 2014. Times Article Viewed: 5872 An invitation to use the power of the internet and crowd-sourcing to commemorate the 75th and 50th anniversaries of the New York World’s Fair. As one way to take notice of these remarkable historical events, designers and builders, artists and engineers, […]
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A Plan B for New York’s Bikeshare System Mar 30, 2014. Times Article Viewed: 6470 Rumors are rampant that New York City’s Citibike bicycle share program is struggling financially after one of the worst winters on record. Here’s a Plan B for improving and maybe even saving this valuable service. Now that the NYC Bike-share […]
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Empathy and a Nickle’s Worth of Change Mar 23, 2014. Times Article Viewed: 5779 When you’re down to your last ten dollars, do you buy food, medicine or gas for the car? I want to propose a simple way to begin to change society for the better. It costs just a nickel, but first, let […]
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New York’s De Facto Ban and Real Ones Mar 15, 2014. Times Article Viewed: 2003 There is no better way to counteract global warming, change bad societal habits, and to respond to the negative effects of oversized, petroleum-fueled transportation modes and their threat to our economic and atmospheric survival, than to rapidly expand the use […]
Read MoreLegalize the Future……Please Mar 09, 2014. What is taken for granted in most forms of transportation, weather protection, the potential for multiple riders, access to creature comforts and the ability to carry freight, is absent from virtually any current versions of human-powered and other minimum-impact vehicles? Tiny, 1HP electric-assist motors enable a very significant upgrade […]
Read MoreGetting Somewhere Slowly Mar 02, 2014 25 years ago we put on a show at the Municipal Art Society in NYC called “Going Nowhere Fast”. It covered a full range of transportation modalities and identified the problems and possibilities inherent in them, from Rail Freight to Solar Cars. It was a largely dismal survey of […]
Read MoreMake Bike Not Car Feb 23, 2014. It appears to me that we are turning into a world of activists, that we are reversing decades of minimum involvement by the masses in the determination of their destinies. It is happening on different continents and the response of established governments is not exactly the same, although […]
Read MoreHuman Energy and Our Love of Waste Feb 16, 2014 Oddly, when charts are made, measuring the use of energy and its production, the most important form of it, human-power, is ordinarily excluded entirely. Fueled by calories, most available from rooftops, yards, fields, and window-boxes, truly locally-grown foodstuffs, we require only muscle-power, with a little […]
Read MoreSlowing Down New York City Can Speed Things Up Ironically, travel across large parts of New York City hasn’t gotten any faster than it was in the horse-n-buggy age; and instead of horse manure, we’ve substituted hydrocarbon pollution. It’s time to rethink the system. Originally published: 02-Feb-2014
Read MoreNo Comment Jan 26, 2014. I’m not sure what Disqus is, but I know it eats comments. One of the pleasures of writing pieces like this is the responses that it can provoke. Sadly, often nothing is said in response to the 2000 or so, of what I am willing to admit are sometimes intentionally-provocative […]
Read MoreWhy Conspiracies Are Almost Always True ‘Conspiracy – a secret plan made by two or more people to do something that is harmful or illegal. : the act of secretly planning to do something that is harmful or illegal.’ – Merriam-Webster Dictionary Originally published: 19-Jan-2014 If you have a hard time figuring out how Building […]
Read MoreBaby, It’s Cold Outside! While much of North America was under the grip of the Polar Vortex, the southern hemisphere was cooking in record high temperatures. Originally published: 12-Jan-2014
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