Remember last year when the the Mayor’s office was routinely deleting emails? Policy chief Michael Kineavy said he assumed the emails were being backed up (blame the IT department!)–and described his practice of emptying his inbox every day and then emptying the deleted items folder for good measure. Kineavy defended his actions as just his way of being neat and not an intentional circumvention of the public records law, but many viewed the behavior as classic “double-deleting”–making sure there was no data available to be backed up when the nightly backups ran. The Mayor’s office quickly improvised a recovery strategy and found over 5,000 lost emails from backups of other people who had corresponded with Kineavy, but warned that a complete recovery would cost over $250,000 to do a forensic reconstruction of the hard drive.

New software and services are quickly making the whole story sound like an unsophisticated, pre-Internet tale of backwards bureaucracy. Companies like Needham-based Sonarian now offer a hosted email archiving solution–and tools to archive instant messaging and social media–that will eliminate excuses and make it reasonable (and accurate) for a staffer to say, “I assumed it was all backed up.”

These tools are also changing the business–and arguably career–model for information technology professionals. In the past, companies invested a ton of time and money in hardware and redundancy in-house to ensure business continuity and disaster recovery. The first wave of change came through software as a service (SaaS)–the idea that instead of say setting up my own perfect backup plan, I could just pay someone else to provide the service. We quickly transitioned away from swapping tapes and installing software to configuring lightweight agents on servers to push the backups out to some offsite backup farm. Personally, we discovered services like Carbonite and Mozy to ensure our laptops were safely backed up without having to think about it.

But cloud-based services take it all to the next level. At Carbonite…I suspect there is a server room somewhere in Boston with row upon row of network storage array devices where all those backups (including my own) live. In this sort of set up, a handful of engineers are responsible for building a bulletproof system and monitoring it constantly to make sure it works. The cloud approach forgoes the server room altogether in favor of Amazon Web Services. I assume there are no employees of Sonian loading tapes or swapping out failed RAID controller cards at 3am. Instead, the systems architect builds a solution of services in an environment of redundancy and scalability instead of having to create and manage that environment.

From a business model perspective, the company looking to provide a valuable service is liberated from the hardware and “spontaneous human combustion” type problems endemic to life as a systems administrator. They can focus on the service, not the exceptions and crazy, unpredictable failures.

From a career development perspective, the systems administrator’s role is changing. It has been a long time since anyone could lock themselves in an IT room and segregate from developers, but increasingly, if you see your job as performing miracles and keeping things working smoothly–your days are numbered. We have to build solutions today–and the mindset of assuming everything will fail, so we must plan around it–kills the creativity needed to architect exceptional service. Instead, we need to find systems in the form of services we can trust and develop solutions. If you are still trying to figure out how to get Microsoft SQL Server log shipping to work reliably…it’s time for you to reboot. It doesn’t work reliably enough.

Cloud computing is not magic. I’ve been hearing about SaaS and “the cloud” for years–mixed in with a bit of talk about Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Lots of buzzwords and excuses to have industry conferences, but what does it all really mean?

• It means if you, as a technology professional, are still banging your head against the wall solving stupid problems, you need to stop. Find services you can trust and create solutions that you are proud of instead of collecting war stories about how things all worked out in the end. Let other people manage the things you cannot control instead of trying to build redundancy everywhere.
• It means that if your business is pouring money into capital expenses and extreme specialists to build a system that won’t break…you are focusing on the wrong thing. You need to build a business that can be exceptional, not one that is less likely to fail.

Yesterday, Patch (the hyper local news publisher funded by America Online) launched a Westwood, Massachusetts site–the 11th town so far in Massachusetts. I met the editor and am impressed that they are making an effort to cover the news in this town of 15,000–potentially filling the void left when the Daily News Transcript stopped being daily. A few people have asked me what does this mean for my site, WestwoodBlog.org?

The short answer is that is a source of more news and that’s good. Paul Gillin analyzes the Pew Research Center’s report on the differing priorities of bloggers and journalists and observes how bloggers need the mainstream media to provide source material for discussion. Although I have probably done more “original reporting” on my site than a typical blog, my goal has always been to stir up conversation and share information–not to be a reporter or investigative journalist. The site is a service for residents–to empower them to post their own news.

I think that local connection to the community is what is missing in most news coverage. You can send a reporter to every meeting of every board and commission, but when you don’t live in the community, you don’t see or hear what people are talking about and you don’t develop a sense of what matters. The news reporters can find stories–and tease out the facts and events or what is going on, but there is no feedback. Comments on news stories are not really participation because the story has already been written. Conversations on blogs are ongoing discussions. Blog posts in the form of citizen journalism can be biased–but that makes them better in some ways because they represent not what an outsider observed, but what a resident experienced.

Blogs and news, proceeding independently, are unsatisfying. The blogs can’t cover everything and can degenerate into opinionated diatribes. News stories can miss the context and move on to the next story. But together, these forms of media can create a “news ecosystem” that is mutually supportive.

A number of citizen contributions on my blog have led to news stories. In one case a resident blogged about the preservation of a school building–and then, a few days later, was interviewed and quoted in the newspaper. Another posted an article about a school music program being cancelled due to budget cuts–and again, ended up quoted in a mainstream news story. In many cases, I post articles that direct people to more specific stories in the media or to resources on the town website. As content contributors and community participants we share in the value not of any one source of news and information, but in the evolving ability to participate through this medium.

Yesterday, New Jersey hyper local blog Baristanet announced it was expanding to cover three additional towns where the New York Times has withdrawn from the local print publication market. It will be interesting to see how Maplewood Patch and Baristanet compete, coexist or cooperate. But whatever the outcome…print left town.

I think the best outcome here will be a sort of “confederation” of content. I wish I had the time and resources to create something like Baristanet–to pull together the independent voices of writers and residents not only in Westwood, but in Dedham, Norwood, Walpole, Milton, Canton–something I would call “Neponset News.” I think several sites like this could be destination sites–like Universal Hub in Boston–where people start–and then find what matters to them via links to source material (news) and community perspective (blogs). But I need to find a job.

Most of the hyper local news initiatives like Placeblogger and Outside.in start from a “tell me where you are” perspective. I will never go to some generic web site and enter my zip code as a means to find out what is going on in my community. I am unimpressed by technology-driven sites that just pull a bunch of localized data into one place. I am disappointed in sites that crank out a templated advertising vehicle for every town. But if regional hyper local sites can develop clear, localized brand identity–they can become destination sites that informally mediate the discussion of what matters in the community.

Significant changes to Massachusetts Open Meeting law take effect on July 1, 2010. The new rules do not directly promote collaborative technologies–e.g. how a town might use a wiki to improve governance, for example, but some common sense clarifications do open the door to removing some anti-technology sentiment. And I think the documentation requirements will push more towns to an electronic–and shareable–approach that increases the practical transparency of government by making data transmittable. The major changes in law are summarized on Mass.Gov–with the biggest being how enforcement has been moved from local District Attorneys to the AGs office. The Town of Littleton also has a good summary with links to more resources. The substantial changes of note to local boards and commissions are:

Notice must include agenda – Notice of public meetings must be posted 48-hours prior to the meeting, excluding weekends. So, if the Board of Selectmen wants to meet Monday night at 7:30pm, they must post the notice no later than 7:30pm on Thursday night. Previously, Saturday night was “good enough.” Now there is also a new requirement that this notice include “a listing of topics that the chair reasonably anticipates will be discussed at the meeting.” That is a small, but significant change since most meetings are currently posted without agendas–or agendas are posted the day of the meeting if at all. I’m guilty of this omission myself–it’s not part of a vast conspiracy to hide the truth or anything, just lack of advance planning.

This is huge progress. Attending town board and commission meetings is a low probability exercise in irrelevance since most members of the general public will have no idea what is going to be discussed and no context to contribute in a meaningful manner. Under the new law, residents will learn, by Thursday night, what topics the Selectmen will be discussing on Monday.

All documents become part of the record – Section 22 of the new law specifies that meeting minutes include “the date, time and place, the members present or absent, a summary of the discussions on each subject, a list of documents and other exhibits used at the meeting, the decisions made and the actions taken at each meeting, including the record of all votes.” Subsection (e) goes on to say, “The minutes of any open session, the notes, recordings or other materials used in the preparation of such minutes and all documents and exhibits used at the session, shall be public records in their entirety and not exempt from disclosure…[references to employment contracts, etc. omitted]”

Speaking from the perspective of a town advisory board chairman, this is a burdensome requirement, but it fills a huge gap for the citizen seeking to understand what happened at a meeting. Every meeting of our Board of Selectmen is punctuated by the three members referring to materials contained in large binders compiled by town staff prior to the meeting. Sometimes a Selectman will make a point of “reading into the record,” if there is a letter of commendation or something. Now, ALL that material is a public record. Ideally this information should be made available to the public as soon as it is distributed to the members of the committee. I do not see language in the law that anticipates such pre-emptive publication, but the knowledge that whatever is prepared will become a public record should remove objections to its early disclosure.

I contacted our Board of Selectmen and learned 1) we are already in compliance; having saved 23 years worth of those packets for posterity and 2) no one has ever requested to look at them.

Remote participation is possible – One of our Selectmen was injured last winter but, thanks to a special agreement worked out in consultation with the District Attorney, was able to continue participating in meetings from his hospital bed. The new law allows the Attorney General to propose regulations that would allow remote participation by members of boards if everyone can hear everyone else and a quorum is physically present. No more excuses to miss meetings–we can Skype you in. This change will not take effect until the regulations have been proposed and approved.

Email usage is clarified – it is still impermissible to use email to develop policy. The valid policy basis for this is that the public can’t see what committee members are talking about when they prepare for a meeting via email. However, the new law spells out a number of specific clarifications to make it clear that emailing agendas, meeting minutes, materials for discussion at the meeting, and for procedural issues–is permitted.

Finally, I believe the centralization of administration makes it much more likely this law will be able to adapt to the changing needs of communities. When I inquired about how much of my committee work could be done online, I had some guidance from the town based on the AGs opinion…but ultimately I would need to call the Norfolk County DA for a ruling. I think they are busy prosecuting real criminals. Now the AG has created a Division of Open Government…I’ll have to send them a link to my article on wikis…

Drupal is one of the most popular and free content management platforms used to build sophisticated web sites. A new service, Drupal Gardens, provices a hosted and simplified version of Drupal so you can start without the installation and configuration tech tasks that put this out of reach of most users. Drupal Gardens is not “magic” but it does create an opportunity that did not exist a year ago, and it clears many roadblocks that can stand in the way of a person with a vision for what they want to create.

A content management system or platform allows a person creating a website to combine many types of content from different sources without having to write code.  My community website, http://westwoodblog.org was built with Drupal and required no “programming work.” But it was not easy. It did require a great deal of technical troubleshooting and persistence.

There are many things I would like to change about how WestwoodBlog looks and works. I end up doing many, many Google searches to find technical descriptions of what to install and how to configure it. It would be terribly misleading to imply that a non-technical person could have created WestwoodBlog. You cannot escape the time or expense required to work with Drupal effectively. But Drupal Gardens may change that.

This detailed review of Drupal Gardens provides a nice step-by-step illustration of building a site. But as you will quickly see from that review, you still kind of need to know what you are doing. It’s easy to start, but hard to finish. As soon as I started trying to implement more advanced things, I found myself right back in the same old Drupal administration pages I have become familiar with on WestwoodBlog. I became sidetracked trying to figure out how to embed an RSS feed from a Twitter list into the news aggregator–whoa! TMTI: too much technical information.

Drupal Gardens is a bridge to your proof of concept site. In 15 minutes I had a new website up and running. I successfully leap-frogged over things that took me DAYS to get past when I was first setting up WestwoodBlog. I was able to start thinking about more difficult aspects of the website I wanted to create instead of dealing with the systems administration challenges. When I’m ready to deploy, I could export the site and work with a developer to optimize it.

Without Drupal Gardens…no matter what sort of “one-click install” your discount hosting provider may have, you are going to run into a roadblock when installing your own Drupal. It will be stupid stuff–can’t figure out why it can’t read the database…uploaded something to the wrong folder…lots of little annoyances get in the way and it’s like trying to pack up the minivan with 3 little kids for a vacation trip. You never leave on time and then somebody needs a diaper change. Drupal Gardens gets you on the road fast.

Drupal Gardens will be at the July 14 Mass Innovation Nights. Vote for them to present and perhaps we can hear first hand about their vision for bringing Drupal to the masses.

Electric bikes have been around for years but recent advances in battery technology and Bedford, Massachussets company Pietzo, may have finally made them practical for commuters seeking an environmentally-responsible alternative to gridlock. I test rode several today, and I encourage others to hop on one of these bikes and learn how it could change your life.

I’m a serious bike commuter–I’ve blogged about my commute into Boston on my fixed-gear, but I haven’t found too many takers on that urban adventure. I think these bikes could change that.

A hybid electric bike is a “bike with a boost.” It has a battery-powered motor that can assist pedaling or be used to exclusively power the bike. The smallest battery will hold a charge for a minimum of 20 miles–more if you are also pedaling. The Zephry model pictured is also a folding bike–allowing you to take it on the commuter rail or easily wheel into a workplace and up an elevator.

I was not sure what to expect as I hopped on this bike on a hot, humid June morning, wearing my khakis and Doc Martens. Usually my bike commute would involve “gearing up” into spandex, special shoes, etc. and planning on a 2nd shower (or just not riding on a day like today). What I found was an easy experience that left my shirt far dryer than it would have been if I had walked 3/4 of a mile. All in all I rode about 3 miles to test it out. And I’m still wearing the same clothes.

When I started pedaling, I felt the electric assist kick in–which helped me quickly get up to a decent speed on the busy Great Road in Bedford. I was not doing the typical “accelerate to avoid angry motorists” start. I tried the electric-only option for a while too, but I really enjoyed the simple assist coupled with my leisurely pedaling. At one point, when I needed to make a U-turn across a 3-way intersection, I was glad to have that extra electric acceleration so I could quickly and easily get going, get out of the way, and focus on navigating the traffic instead of pedaling up to speed.

Pietzo has a nice blog post about why avid cyclists would ride a hybrid, but I was more impressed by how this bike should appeal to the non-cyclist:

• No sweat. Seriously. Having walked to the commuter rail station many times in the heat of summer, I can honestly say this bike is better than walking and it extends your range dramatically for other short trips.
• Lightweight. The folding bike in particular is really just like a regular bike but with a battery. It’s not going to tip over and it is easy to maneuver out of the garage, out the back door, etc.
• Multi-modal opportunity for suburbanites. I live about 3 miles from another train station that has 15-minute trains to Boston. That is about a 15-minute bike ride (in cool weather, with special shoes, etc.) But on the Zephyr, I could simply choose the bike over the car and save $5 parking. Then I’d take the bike with me on the train for an easy ride from South Station up whatever hill I need to climb. That combination would be faster than any method of transportation I have been able to dream up in the last 5 years.

Electric hybrids make economic sense. Use the Pietzo savings calculator to see how much money you could save by bike commuting. I’ve done that calculation myself, but I had to add back in many other costs like bike clothes and lost time due to a mandatory wardrobe change on each end. The beauty of these bikes is they make everyday commuting feasible for the Lycra-averse professional.

Pietzo will be exhibiting at tomorrow’s Bike Friday in Boston and at the July 14 Mass Innovation Nights event in Waltham. More information is available on their web site at http://www.pietzo.com/

Meat is overrated. After several weeks since I ate meat as part of my diet, I’m not really missing it. So I guess I am coming out as a vegetarian. It’s no big deal. But it wasn’t something I decided, planned, or forced myself to do. It just happened.

My family started thinking more critically about food after reading Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma. For a time, the image of filthy cows crowded into feedlots knee-deep in their own excrement and doped up with antibiotics to counter their sickness to the unnatural corn diet we force upon them–did give me momentary pause as I ordered the occasional Double Whopper with Cheese. But I got over it and did it anyway. For awhile. But at some point, it actually did stop tasting good. One day I looked at my half-eaten Whopper–and threw it in the trash.

I am not going to say meat is evil–and I do still love a great steak or a bunch of fresh roasted pulled pork barbeque. But most of the time, what we eat for meat is not special. It’s bulky and poor quality with little or no taste other than salt. I started to notice how I kept adding more and more spices to my spaghetti sauce. I started to notice how the chicken cubes in the stir-fry were only distinguished from the tofu by their grisly, rubbery nature. We did try better quality meats–including grass-fed organic hamburger…but along the way, we just started to realize–this is optional. It’s not that much better.

We started cooking with vegetables. We already loved garlic and I discovered that more and more, what I enjoyed in a stir fry or melange of squash and peppers was the taste of vegetables and spices. We joined a Community Supported Agriculture farm and tried what they gave us. We found that grilling peppers and squash gave them a great char taste we liked. And ultimately, when we looked at the price per pound on the meat we were buying…the question became, why are we bothering with this junk?

It’s not about deprivation or fooling yourself. We tried many of the mimic products along the way and I’m not going to recommend tofu dogs or most types of “meatless meatballs” to anyone. If you compare to what you imagine you are missing, you will always come up short in your expectations. But take a critical look at what you are really missing. When you do find a great steak, by all means, go for it. But those chicken nuggets…you might was well be eating tree bark–as long as you can dip it in some high fructose corn syrup, you won’t know the difference. So why not just say no?

Say yes to more creative ways of cooking and eating. Nobody is going to pick up a brick of tofu and take a bite, but you can marinate it in sesame oil, soy sauce, and garlic, then bake it in the oven to create tasty flavorful cubes that go well in a mix of vegetables. You don’t need to put a slab of fat on those green beans–just steam them fresh and enjoy the flavor of what they naturally taste like. Have you had fresh beets? There is flavor to be found.

I came from a meat-lovers background so talk like this sounds pretty radical. But it is all about preference. I do believe my diet is healthier for me. The fact that I enjoy it allows me to avoid participating in the demand for meat products that results in all the food industrialization we hear about and ignore. But I don’t obsess on the details and conflicting studies or micro advice. I’m not going to publish a guidebook: The Meat-Lovers Guide to Going Vegetarian but simply suggest people eat more of the natural healthy things they like and see where it takes them.

Westwood Community Access Television is using a simple, but powerful combination of old and new media technology to jumpstart their efforts to bring public access TV to Westwood, Massachusetts. While the administrative and technical details for taking control of local origination programming are still underway, we are using Ustream to livecast from our minimalist control room in the basement of Town Hall.

The signal below is a taste of what you will see when we do go live. It is very much a work in progress and may not always be on, but we wanted to get something up and running and start to gather feedback–and demonstrate the progress we are making.

The truly clever idea our Director, Greg Moberg, came up with–after we successfully did a live webcast of a town meeting–was to take the output from our video server and use it as an input to the equipment (a NewTek Tricaster) we had used to webcast. We created a free account on Ustream and configured it to livecast directly from the Tricaster. This allows us to operate all the equipment in the basement as if we were live…and then just route it to the web. One day, we swap cables and this signal will be broadcast on the local cable channels too.

In the meantime, we have a sort of alpha soft-launch. We can share the site with people and begin to develop our schedule, programming calendar and start generating interest in the community. We have a long way to go–if you watch the channel now you mostly see canned content from the video server vendor–but we will soon be broadcasting the public meetings we have taped.

Life was good when you had your iPod all synced up with your old computer. Then, you lost that computer somehow. You didn’t care because you had 8 GB of songs safely stored on the iPod, right? Then, you bought a MacBook and thought, “I’ll just plug the iPod in and sync it back to iTunes.” You were greeted by this message:

Now hopefully, you had the good sense to click cancel right away and start googling “how to copy music from your iPod to your Mac” and landed here. I did that and found many confusing, involved tutorials. I knew I was in trouble when I had to start typing in linux man page commands to figure out what the tutorial authors were asking me to do.

If my tutorial does not work for you, try this one. But hopefully, these instructions will work for most people.

Apple does not want to make this easy because then bad people would copy other people’s iPod songs and commit digital piracy. That is not my goal here. I just wanted to get my songs back and consolidate what I had on my Mac (I had ripped dozens of CDs already into iTunes) with what was on the old iPod. Here’s how I did it:

1. enable disk use on the iPod
2. use the Terminal application to access and copy the source .MP3s from the iPod to the hard drive
3. import the MP3s into the iTunes Library

First, connect the iPod and cancel the message asking you if you really want to erase it. Then, in iTunes, select the iPod and click on the summary tab. Check the box to enable disk read. Confirm that you want to do this and understand you will need to eject manually. Click the Apply button to save this change.

Now launch the Terminal application. This puts you in a command-line shell–the opposite of what you might ever expect to see on a Mac. From this point on, you will be typing unix commands, but they are very simple:

• cd – change directory
• ls – list files
• cp – copy files

Type

cd /Volumes

then type

ls

You should see the name of the iPod like this:

new-host:~ daveatkins$ cd /Volumes
new-host:Volumes daveatkins$ ls
Macintosh HD    USER'S IPOD

If you do not see the Ipod, make sure you clicked the Apply button after checking off enable disk use.

The music files on your iPod are stored in a folder under USER’S IPOD (or whatever yours is called): iPod_Control/Music. They are hidden from the Mac Finder and they are in folders with cryptic names like “FA, FF, FC, etc.”

Copy the music files from the iPod to your hard drive using the following command:

cp -r -X USER\'S\ IPOD/iPod_Control/Music/ ~/Music/copiedstuff

To make this easier, take advantage of the command line’s ability to “autocomplete” text as you type by matching files and folders it knows are valid. Type “cp -r -X US” then hit the TAB key. Then type “ip” followed by TAB. Then type “M” and TAB. Now, type “~/Music/copiedstuff” and hit the RETURN key. This will ensure that the command you enter matches the specific names of folders on your system.

The -X option in the copy command removes extra information from the files that, among other things, make them hidden. There are other ways to accomplish this task, but this seemed the simplest to me. It does not remove digital rights management, it just makes the copies of the .MP3s visible so you can attempt to import them. It is also “safe” because you are making a copy of what is on the iPod so you can verify it works before you risk deleting anything on the iPod.

If you have many music files, the copy command may take a few minutes to run before returning you to the “shell prompt” of “new-host:~ daveatkins$”

When the copying is done, close the terminal application. Go back to iTunes and uncheck the box for enable disk use. Remember to Apply the change. You should now be able to disconnect the iPod without having to manually eject it. Set it aside for “safekeeping.”

Now go to iTunes and choose File…Add to Library and locate the “copiedstuff” folder you created.

Import the music. You may see some messages like this if the files are protected:

Cancel these screens unless you have a password. The rest of your files should import and be added to your Library. Verify that the songs play.

Now we are ready for the fun part. Plug the iPod back in and do an erase and sync. The old music from the iPod and whatever you had on your Mac should now be merged on the iPod.

You might think painting a crosswalk is only slightly more complicated than putting a yellow line down the middle of the road. Take a look around at the faded and nearly invisible crosswalks in your community and you can begin to appreciate that it’s not that simple. I had the opportunity to watch a demonstration of a new surfacing technology a few weeks ago in Boston and found it fascinating to literally watch paint dry…no, seriously!

Nature and automobile are hard on Boston streets. I’d argue a greater hazard to cyclists than cars is the unpredictable but uniformly bad condition of pavement where potholes appear even before construction of new roads and bridges ends. The roadway is in a constant state of flux. To attempt to apply a layer of an additional material (paint) on that surface is destined for eventual failure.

The solution I saw demonstrated is called StreetPrintXD. At 6 1/2 minutes, my homemade video is long–if you want to see a short, complete install demo video, you can watch the one produced by Integrated Paving Solutions instead. But mine does put it in some perspective as you can see the workers installing on a busy Boston street in 90-degree heat.

First, the asphalt surface must be evaluated–if the road is more than a year or two old, you will need to do a “mill and fill”–to lay down a fresh coat of asphalt where the crosswalk will be. In the video, you can see how the roadway around the crosswalk is older and lighter.

The mill-and-fill is a big deal that will add to the cost of any project because a machine must be rented and traffic disrupted for half a day…and of course you will have to hire a police detail.

Once the surface is ready, a heater is used to soften the asphalt so the paint will stick. The “paint” is aggregate-reinforced thermoplastic. By incorporating aggregate into a plastic mixture, the material is made more like the asphalt surface in terms of its wear characteristics. Regular thermoplastics have glass beads instead of aggregate which mean they will move differently under stress and lack the irregular reinforcing characteristics of roadway materials.

Once the asphalt is soft, rather than simply apply the coating, a mesh template is hammered into the pavement. In the final product, this creates a look of brick, but it also creates valleys of indentation that will be shielded from the immediate friction of automobile traffic. This feature is a key attribute of another product, DuraTherm, which has been used to create more elaborate, patterned crosswalks instead of the traditional brick look. These patterns hold up well because the pattern is impressed into the roadway so car tires do not contact it.

After stamping out the pattern, the coating is applied as big plastic sheets, heated, and stamped down into the indentions in the pavement.

A coating of sand is applied while the coating is still wet to more closely match the traction of the asphalt. Maintaining traction is critical for safety–remember the Tour de France time trials in the rain a few years ago with cyclists spinning out of control on pavement markings? The key is to maintain the same coefficient of friction across the surface–not to create either an extra slippery or suddenly extra sticky surface. Changes in the coefficient of friction turn the momentum of a moving object into unexpected horizontal forces that can start a skid.

The final product is expected to last as long as the roadway surface.

Most crosswalks will not be able to afford this treatment. In the video above, we are looking at Melnea Cass Blvd which sees 30,000 vehicles per day. When it’s not that busy, it’s probably being salted, sanded, and plowed. So a quick spray of Krylon isn’t going to last a day out there.

But even on our less busy town streets, I see how quickly the traditional paint jobs fade. Each spring our DPW goes back to repaint lines and crosswalks as needed. Roughly speaking, for a 2-lane road, the treatment above should cost about $5-10,000 including the preparation work. A newly-paved road would be cheaper–the actual materials cost is $13-17/square foot and if you avoid the mill-and-fill, it makes everything faster and easier.

A fair question to ask–especially given this cost–is “why bother?” In the case of our town, we don’t have the funds and are applying for a grant. But the objective is to get the attention of motorists who blow through crosswalks even when school crossing guards are present. We have “knockdown” signs in the road which do in fact get “knocked down” all the time. Perhaps if we only deployed the beacons I blogged about yesterday, it might make enough of a difference. But part of the goal is to increase awareness and respect for walkers overall. As the paint fades we face a long winter/spring season before repainting eventually happens…unless it rains too much that year. If we could make a permanent infrastructure enhancement in the most critical locations, I believe we could begin to affect behavior norms by telling everyone: this crosswalk is here to stay.

For about $10,000, a community can install an eco-friendly system to make crosswalks safer for pedestrians and much more visible to drivers. A new type of lighting system, the Rapid Rectangular Flashing Beacon is proving even more effective because the flashing lights–more like police and emergency vehicle lighting–get the attention of motorists.

As my town’s Pedestrian and Bicycle advisory committee researched ways to improve crosswalk safety, we noticed existing, effective crossings in neighboring towns. In Wellesley, busy route 135 can be crossed much more easily thanks to this crossing:

A newer technology–with a solar-powered option–is described below:

I obtained a quote for a similar system from Electrotechnics Corporation (ELTEC). Because the system is solar-powered and wireless pushbutton-activated, the installation could be as simple as planting two poles in the sidewalk. There is no need to run power to the system or trench the roadway for wires. Just install the poles and go.

RRFBs are new, but they have been embraced enthusiastically in St. Petersburg, Florida where, after obtaining interim approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation, RRFBs were installed in 19 locations. A study of some of those locations and other deployments in Chicago and Washington, D.C. indicated “a highly significant level change following the introduction of the RRFB that showed no sign of decay over time.” A full report from St. Petersburg is available here. A video about the crosswalk program really punctuates their commitment to systemic, infrastructural improvements citywide.

But for smaller communities who are simply looking for ways to make particularly problematic crossings safer, this technology could be the answer on multiple fronts. The modularity of the solution eliminates a few hurdles–there is no need to coordinate with the electric utility or dig up the roadway. The deployment must still be “designed,” to ensure it complies with local and state standards. And it’s still at least a $10,000 project which can be tough to fund given the reality of level budgets and cost-cutting required in the current economy.

Google maps have helped our town’s Pedestrian and Bicycle advisory committee by allowing us to project a satellite or streetview image on the wall for discussion. Using screencast software, I recently incorporated this into a presentation for a grant application to fund enhancements at two crosswalks:

I was looking for a simple way to share these ideas. I used Camtasia Studio from TechSmith because it allows for greater editing of the video, but an even easier solution is to install their free Jing software. Then you can capture a screen video–along with the audio you narrate. It will upload the resulting tutorial (5-minute limit on the free version) to a website and give you a short URL you can email or instant message to someone.

The coolest feature in the video above is the web browser integration with Google Earth. Simply click on the button at the top right of a map for “Earth,” install the plugin as prompted, and your map will turn into a 3D-ish representation that you can “flyover” using your mouse and scroll wheel to zoom in for greater detail. If a streetview exists, you can even drop down to the street level perspective and step through an intersection. In our meetings, this was invaluable to show members of the committee the automobile perspective approaching the problem intersections.

Another advantage of integrating this information into an online video is the power to share. I played the video (about 4-minutes) at the presentation I made to the group that decides what programs to recommend for funding, and although I think standing there next to the video of myself talking was a little strange, it was effective to be able to email that link out to other members of the group who were not present. Most presenters brought easels and cardstock, or handed out multi-page printouts.

The project was recommended to proceed to the next level. Tomorrow I will post examples of how technology can be used to actually improve the safety of these crosswalks.

The iPhone 4 is out and while mobile and tech gadget gurus will analyze its features, this 2-minute video describing the “Facetime” feature deserves the Oscar. The video pulls all the right heartstrings and makes the case for why you just have to buy your grandparents one of these NOW. From the Apple website:

People have been dreaming about video calling for decades. iPhone 4 makes it a reality.

For thirty seconds, we have a predictable application–Dad away on a business trip in his hotel room alone. He watches baby crawl then Mom and the kids laughing and playing. Life is so good it’s like you don’t even have to really be there.

Then we move on to the grandparents watching daughter and granddaughter prepare for graduation.  A different daughter away at college shows Mom (or older friend?) her new clothes…but then Apple really pulls out all the stops…

A pregnant woman talks to her serviceman husband…and shares the sonogram. She switches to the second camera so he can see the baby on the monitor. He is so overcome with emotion…they start signing each other. It’s a beautiful mini-opera of empathic consumerism.

I’m not being cynical or facetious…well, not entirely. I’ve hooked up my iPhone with Ustream and called my mom to show her the kids on Christmas morning. It would be cool if it were so easy and if we could get her hooked up with Skype or something to do a 2-way video call. But there are a couple of practical issues.

One is the wifi–this Facetime feature only works between two iPhone 4s that are on a wifi network. It is not transmitting the video over the cellular network; you need access to an open wifi network that doesn’t mind you video streaming on their bandwidth. If you are at home, no problem, but it’s not quite a no-brainer.

Two is just the fact that everyone has to have an iPhone. That must be why Dad is working all the time and sitting in that hotel room watching his baby crawl via the iPhone parental link.

But it is cool stuff; you just can’t deny it. The video chat will not replace or patch relationships any more than friending your relatives on Facebook.  But it fills an undeniable need. The advertising is perfect to offer a solution that is far more enticing than just the gadgetry. We dream about the Star Trek communicators and transporter beams not because we want to go where no one has gone before, but because we want to be where we should have been all along.

This blog started in 2006 as the writing anchor to many of my endeavors. I am simplifying, consolidating and focusing my online presence to more clearly define the DaveWrites “brand” around what I do best:

• notice opportunities to use technology to make our lives better,
• research how it works, and
• write about it in a way that everyday people can find value

Someone asked me what the heck “DaveWrites” was/is the other day…and I just said, well…it’s where Dave writes. But it is a little more than that. I realized that most of my work–although it involves a very significant technical element–is more about creating content and sharing information in context to drive action. Many people become frustrated when they cannot make things happen. I write. And things happen.

Saturday, I ran the Harpoon 5-miler here in Boston. Thanks to a new technology, this was the simplest and easiest race ever for tracking my time. The race bibs had ChronoTrack B-Tag strips–completely eliminating the hassle of a timing chip. I did OK:

Nettime  Pace  Name                   Race# City/state
=======  ===== ====================== ===== =======================
 40:19   8:04  David Atkins           2566  Westwood MA

For those unfamiliar with road races, the technology has evolved dramatically in the past few years. When there are 3000 people in the race, it can take a person standing at the back with the walkers and strollers, 3 minutes or more to cross the starting line. You cannot count on the actual (guntime) timing from when then starter’s pistol goes off to when you cross the finish line to know your true time and pace. So most races now measure “nettime” the difference between when you cross the starting line and when you cross the finish line. But how is this done?

Until a few years ago, it wasn’t. Runners came to the finish line, tore off a tag from their race bibs and handed it to a volunteer. Other volunteers stood by with stopwatches and called out the times. Someone wrote all that down. That is still how its done when a race cannot afford the more sophisticated electronic tracking systems.

Until this year, those systems consisted of a timing chip you tied to your shoelaces. At the end of the race, you would bend over and remove the chip (don’t pass out!) and put it in a bucket to be collected by the race organizers. Fail to return the chip–pay a fee. Last year, that system was replaced by a disposable tag you threaded through your shoelaces. But, even with a video and instructions, those tags were hard to figure out.

This year, the tag was embedded in the race bib itself. No confusion. No delay. Just pin the bib to your shirt and run. A few minutes after crossing the finish line, you go to a results wall where the real-time numbers are being posted.

The technology behind the bib is called Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). The start/finish line is covered by mats containing radio transmitters that emit an electric field and induce a small current in the tag you are wearing which then broadcasts back your ID code. It is the same idea behind Fast Lane transponders and keyless entry systems. The transmitter/receiver creates an electromagnetic field around a highly localized area. The materials in the tag act as an antenna to collect the energy from that field and reflect back a unique electronic signature which is then detected and recorded along with the timestamp.

The link to RFID above provides a full, technical description of the electronics involved, but the advance for the purpose of racing timing appears to be in reducing the weight of the transponder so significantly that it can be unobtrusively added to the back of a race bib. There are just two plastic strips on the bib–antenna material far enough apart to be able to pick up the very high frequency signal from the mat and yet still resonate back an accurate and unique signal.

For those who can remember televisions with “rabbit ears” for antennas, you may also recall how frustrating it was to adjust the antenna, then step away and lose the reception. Perhaps someone was appointed to hold the antenna or stand nearby during critical moments of football games, etc. The principle is similar–a high frequency electromagnetic field is influenced by other conductive materials which generate interference by “reflecting back” some of the energy. Sometimes this enhances the signal; other times, it gets in the way. But the challenge for RFID is to do this in a reliable, predictable manner so that 100% of the time, the system will activate your race bib and then get the right number back–all done simultaneously with dozens of other runners who might be crossing the same field at the same time.

ChronoTrack seems to have nailed it with these race bibs.

This past weekend at the Burlington, VT ECHO Center, I saw this curious sign:

Once I downloaded the app reader described on the sign and pointed my iPhone camera at the honeycomb pattern, the software decoded that pattern into a web address and started playing a video about a tree planting with the Missisquoi River Basin Association in Highgate, VT. (It works off the image displayed here on your screen too–try it out!)

Watching the video on an iphone while standing in front of a museum display case was a bit awkward (better with earphones), but because I took a photo of it, I was able to access it later. That is much easier than bookmarking a URL or keeping track of a paper brochure.

It worked smoothly–the app install on my iphone went quickly and then it was just as easy as snapping a photo. The app viewfinder displays a frame that turns green as soon as it recognizes the pattern. Then, it sends you straight to YouTube.

My mind started racing. The code/patterns are free and easy to create on the BeeTagg web site. The process is very similar to a URL shortening service like bit.ly–just go straight to the BeeTagg Generator, enter a url and even add your own logo…then save the resulting jpeg image:

Then post that up on a billboard, right? It makes more sense than putting long web addresses on billboards or reading them over the radio.

But I was thinking of other applications–local content for my community. It’s fun to embed user-generated content like YouTube videos into a blog post, but how do you get people to the blog in the first place? I’ve written travelogues like this bike trip in France report but what if I could leave posters with codes on them behind at stops along the way for future travelers to watch?

I could design a walking tour of the historic district of a town with these codes posted at the various stops. How hard would it be to go around town with a Flip video camera, record short narrations by local people who grew up here, then print out some laminated signs to post? A project like that could be done in an afternoon and then it would be a free resource for the community.

How about a scavenger hunt? Find the BeeTagg and watch the video that leads you to the next clue.

How about tutorials and assembly instructions? Scan the code on the IKEA box and watch someone put the dresser together. Many times. Repeat. Try again. Recharge the phone. Better idea: snap a photo in the store, then go home and launch the product page in your web browser where you can visualize it in the room, then click a button to order.

What makes this revolutionary is that it shortcuts the cumbersome process of remembering and typing a web address into a browser. In the same way that bit.ly and tinyurl made it possible to quickly share links on Twitter, these BeeTagg codes can take links off the computer and into the physical world where a person can simply snap a photo.

Real estate listings. Forget about those “talking house” signs that ask you to sit in your car and listen to the am radio for a narrated Realtor pitch. Just scan the code off the for sale sign, go home, and load up the listing. Like this:

The potential applications are endless…and liberating because they can be done by people for free without complicated software. Having a Smart Phone with a camera IS a bit of a barrier, but for now, this is a low to no cost technology that might connect a few more people to their communities through a clever use of technology.

If you would like to see more Federal money spent on local projects to promote and make safer more bicycling and walking, call your Congressional Representative and ask him or her to be a co-sponsor on H.R. 4722, the Active Community Transportation Act. It is important to make the call this week, in support of the National Bike Summit.

Perhaps it is ironic that I follow an angry post about generationally-irresponsible recovery spending with a call to borrow more money against the future, but there is a big difference between investing to leave something for the next generation vs spending money to help the current generation cover the mistakes of the present.

The Active Community Transportation Act would make grant money available to communities for investments in infrastructure that promote walking and biking.

I want to keep this post positive, but I cannot ignore the sense that many people feel biking and walking are recreational activities and should therefore be lower priority. But in fact, because the impact of small investments here can be so large, they should be a higher priority.

The types of projects grant money like this could support could include components as small as improved crosswalks. For about $10,000, we could install a solar-powered pushbutton-activated flashing light and repaint a crosswalk so that dozens of kids and their parents would feel safe walking to school. We could deploy several of these across a busy, wide stretch of road that serves to divide part of our community and effectively “knit” the town together and reduce reliance on car trips. We could make it easier for people to choose to ride the commuter rail and walk to church by bringing the focus down to the sidewalks and streets and investing is small things that pull our communities together.

The benefits are not just aesthetic. We have a childhood obesity epidemic to combat. We have a national health crisis that, regardless of what insurance companies may or may not be doing, is driving the cost of health care higher and higher. We have recurring cycles of foreign oil dependency and occasional bouts of awareness with global warming, carbon emissions, and general sustainability. Do more than buy a Prius. Thank about ways to change the way we live to be more sustainable and more responsible to the future and then ask what stands in the way?

Active Transportation is a path through the obstacles. It’s a part of the solution that, unlike many government projects, is more efficient and has “externality benefits” rather than costs.

It’s efficient because this kind of grant program encourages community-based action. Our local advisory committee would gather information, talk to our neighbors, participate in the grant application process and assist in project managing and monitoring the implementation. The overall grants will be designed to support networks of improvements costing $5 to 15 million each.

“Externality benefits” are the intangible things like improving the strength of a community. It would be impossible to measure the economic impact on house prices down to such a micro level, but I would bet that over time, the increase in walking and perception of safety across a divisive roadway would translate into higher home values. I know we moved from one house because the street was busy and didn’t make an offer an another because it was “on the other side” of the road that we’d have to cross to get to school. Not everyone will share these valuations…but when small projects like these are happening all over the country, the sum effect has to be a net gain.

Will there be boondoggles and “bike paths to nowhwere?” Perhaps. But at least then we can start talking about the best way to do things. How many bike paths could have been built with the money that was used to make it possible for me to drive to the airport in 30 minutes instead of 45? I’m guessing a few hundred thousand.

This week marked the 1-year anniversary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act–the stimulus bill that pumped $787 billion into the U.S. Economy to avert financial catastrophe and a 2nd Great Depression. We can debate all day about could have, should have, would haves with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, but I do believe, on balance, the actions taken by the administration over the past year probably did avert disaster. But…

Today I saw this quote from Governor Patrick:

“When you talk about what you do for your son, that’s what this is all about.”

Governor Deval Patrick, to Derek Lilly, a father of five, who had been describing what it feels like to be a role model for his son now that he has a job thanks to a Stimulus-funded job development program at Boston ABCD.

How can anyone defend the bailout of greedy bankers and free market enthusiasts as something we did for our kids? We did it because the cost of all other alternatives was far worse. We borrowed the future of the next generation to pay off the failures of the present and ensure that angry mobs of unemployed people didn’t burn down the Capital.

What does the future look like? I believe the next generation will find a way. As someone who is in Generation X, in my early 40s, I worry not so much that people like me and younger will simply suffer under the burden of higher taxes, long-term high unemployment rates, and increasingly diminished opportunities that result from paying off or not paying off this huge debt…I worry about what future bad choices we’ll be asked to make.

We are setting the stage for a generational war to replace the so-called cultural war. Instead of Red and Blue states, we will have Green and Gray states. We will see policy choices that increasingly “pay back” the current leadership generation for their abdication of stewardship. We will see a world where policy makers don’t have any sympathy for the “lazy” 70-year old who wants to retire or expects to receive a pension. Out of necessity, younger people will take charge of this mess they have inherited with solutions from their own perspective that is shaped by this world that is unfolding over the next decade.

I’m not saying young people are or will be heartless or seek to actively punish anyone. But the world of choices we are shaping will force harder and harder decisions that will hurt those who do not seek and maintain power.

There is already anger in this country and there should be more. We averted disaster. Great. But don’t tell me this benefits my kids. Tell me what we are going to do to ensure a future worthy of our stewardship. Tell me what sacrifices we are going to make now and then have the guts to lead on those issues.

A number of people who are unemployed in Massachusetts and have lost their benefits due to situations with part-time employment, freelance income, and problems accepting or refusing employment have commented on my blog or sent me emails asking for help. I made some calls today and decided to post some information here in the hope that it can help…

Disclaimer: I have not gone through this process myself (and hope I will never have to) and I do not have personal knowledge of the facts involved in any individual case. I am not representing anyone as an attorney; just reporting what I understand the process to be. If you know better…please comment appropriately and help everyone…

The most important thing you can do if you believe your benefits are being wrongly denied is to continue to file your weekly claim by phone or online. If you don’t file those weekly claims, even if the original denial is reversed, you will not be able to collect benefits retroactively.

When your benefits are canceled or denied, you should receive a letter informing you of this decision and your right to request a hearing. I get the impression that some people are told on the phone that they no longer qualify for benefits and then they just give up. Don’t do that. If you receive this letter, it should include instructions on how to request a hearing which initiates the process described on the DUA web site.

Make your appeal timely–you have 10 days from the original letter to contest the determination.

If you do not receive a letter, you can contact the Adjustment Unit of the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Division of Unimployment Assurance to state your claim and request a hearing. These hearings can take weeks or months to schedule, during which time you should keep filing your weekly claim.

Write a letter, identifying yourself, including your Social Security Number and any case/claim number information you have, and stating that you would like to request a review of your eligibility for benefits. State the facts about your claim–when did you file, what conversations did you have on the phone, what the current status of your benefits are as you understand them… It is best to state the procedural facts clearly and unemotionally to make it clear what you are asking for and what actions have been taken by DUA up to this point. Then, you can describe your circumstances–why you did what you were told disqualified you.

The purpose of this letter is to get a hearing, not to win your case outright. So don’t tell them your life story and don’t provide extraneous facts about your employment or other information that they don’t know about that might raise additional issues!

For example, if you were told that because you quit a job, you can no longer claim benefits, you should say something like this: “The Tele-Claim representative told me that because I had stopped working as a dishwasher, I was no longer eligible to file for weekly benefits. I stopped filing my weekly claim but never received any formal notice of this decision.” As you relate the facts, focus on “what” happened, not what you believe, think, feel, desire or wish. Then, request a review very explicity by saying, “I would like you to review my denial of benefits and give me an opportunity to appeal the decision.” Then, you go into the consequences: “Based on what I was told, I stopped filing weekly claims. I was never fully employed and [rest of story.]

That’s just my advice on writing a persuasive letter–obviously eveyone has their own situation, but the important thing is to lay out the procedural facts as accurately as possible and ask for an opportunity to provide additional information to help them make a more accurate determination of your status.

Send this letter to:

Adjustment Unit, DUA
Department of Workforce Development
Charles F. Hurley Building
19 Staniford Street, 2nd Floor
Boston, MA 02114

Then wait. Unfortunately, there is a backlog and it could be 6-8 weeks before you hear anything. However, after 3 weeks, you can call the Hearings Department at 617-626-5200 to verify that the case has been opened/entered into the system, at which point you would receive a docket number that can be used to check status on the phone.

Don’t give up. If I were in the situation described by some of the people who have contacted me, I would send a letter and start filing my weekly claim immediately AND argue that my failure to file previous weeks was not my fault because I was told to stop claiming. If the online form will not allow you to file a weekly claim…call the Tele-Claim center at 617-626-6338. If that person says “you’re not eligible,” then you should say “I am filing an appeal and want to certify that for this week, I was available for work, looked for work, and did not earn any money.”

Pace yourself. You still need to find a job, but these benefits–if you deserve them–might be the difference between digging out of debt for years after you find work. So:

1. write that letter and mail it
2. do your weekly claim – keep the work search log going too so you have documentation of your efforts to find a job and you don’t create another problem
3. wait 3 weeks, then call the Hearing Department at DUA to verify the hearing process is initiated. If it is not…hopefully they can help you on the phone to know what to do next.
4. go to the hearing and make your case

If the hearing results in an adverse judgment…you have the right to appeal the hearing as well.

As with any bureaucratic process, it would be nice if someone told you all this up front…or if someone acted as your advocate/guide/counsellor along the way. But that’s not how it works, so live, learn, and share.

Comment spammers are relentless. I spend time every day just deleting the comments that make it through Akismet and other spam filters.

The spam-filtering service Akismet defeats most automated spam, but I suspect there is a class of low-wage human-powered spamming going on based on some internet marketer’s idea of link building.

The reason some people post short comments like “Nice job. Keep up good work.” or “Good information, thanks for the post!” is because the comment form gives them the opportunity to link to another web site. That link becomes a part of my blog because it is published with the comment. This a legitmate way to build connections between bloggers. When I comment on someone else’s blog that has much more traffic than mine, I hope that people will check out my site to see what else I’m writing.

But the reason spammers comment on blogs is to improve search engine rankings. Links from blogs to web sites increase the ranking of those sites, because search engines believe sites with many inbound links are more authoritative and creditable. So a business might pay a marketing firm to go out and comment on all the blogs they can find. Then, they report back to the company: “we’ve generated 100 inbound links for you!”

The sad thing about such an approach–apart from my annoyance at these bozos–is that it is a fraudulent scam on the companies who are paying the “internet marketing firm.” Read Google’s opinion of comment spam on their blog. The message from Google is clear:

• it does not work; they will detect it and ignore it
• it can hurt you; they will penalize sites that use it

My simplistic description of how inbound links affect search engine ranking is NOT very accurate. Google has spent the last decade refining their algorithms for ranking sites. So it is not as simple as getting some links.

None of this is new. I’ve been deleting comments like this for years, and I try to avoid even thinking about it because it is a distraction from working on something that might actually generate some revenue for my business. But I think all bloggers should review Google’s recommendations on how to fight comment spam just to make sure they are not just hitting the snooze button every day for years. Let’s walk through Google’s recommendations with some real world practical commentary…

I think the CAPTCHA and Akismet approaches are the most worthwhile to pursue. Many of us set up our sites years ago and it’s worth a review of the technologies available to update our sites to make sure we are minimizing the amount of predictible spam, then, just delete those bogus comments that slip through.

This post turned into more than a few minutes diversion…feel free to submit your own comments and links to practical ways to fight spam. I’m sure this post will itself create a moderation challenge for me.

As I formalized the business organization for Dave Atkins Media, Inc., I learned a few things I am going to share here–sort of a corollary to my popular post on What I’ve Learned about Unemployment in Massachusetts.

But First Things First

Until you are seriously committed to starting a business, you don’t need to do anything more than find clients with work to do and make sure you get the work done on time. Thinking about tax issues and forming a corporation or LLC…even doing a business plan, spreadsheet, etc.–these are all distracting time-wasters that get in the way of generating that first bit of revenue. As a sole proprietor, working out of your home or a coffeehouse, the first step in forming a business is to get a client.

When you contract with your first client, rather than worry about whether you have formed an LLC yet or obtained a DBA certificate from the Town Clerk…just make sure you have a signed proposal that states the work you will do, how much you will be paid, and which includes a limitation on your liability such as:

CLAIMS. All claims for defective or incomplete Services must be made in writing fully setting forth the nature of the alleged defect or damage, within thirty (30) days from the date of the invoice. CLIENT’s failure to so notify PROVIDER shall constitute acceptance of the Services. PROVIDER’s liability is limited to the total cost of services invoiced.

Then, do the work. Do it well. Repeat.

When I started Dave Atkins Media a year ago, this was the rule I set for myself because I knew that as someone with legal training and curiosity about everything…I would quickly get lost in the fascinating details of things that mostly don’t matter. For accounting, bookkeeping, and taxes–use excel. Use a single worksheet of date, revenue, expense, description to start. Don’t run out and buy Quickbooks yet.

I also used Freshbooks–an online invoicing and time tracking system–to record my hours and expenses–then, each week, I would generate a report which gave me earnings – expenses = the amount I reported as freelance income for unemployment claims.

Ready for Prime Time
I reached a point where I decided to go “all in.” It would be nice if that point had been precipitated by a steady stream of cash flows and the growing realization that my business was taking off–but it didn’t work like that. I just decided that I needed to get out of my house and separate the business from my personal finances. I decided that whatever I built, it was going to be much bigger than just some temporary hourly contract work thing that I did until the next job came along. I think, for me it coalesced around the finding of an office space in the center of town with the opportunity to post a sign.

Choose the Form of Business
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has some guidance online: Forming a Business, Step by Step. It’s a good starting point, but it is easy to get lost in the details.

I chose an S-corporation as my business form. I started to write about why here, but then I found a blog in California that covers it pretty well. His decisions are influenced by the particulars of California law, but the Federal tax issues are the most significant to consider.

To form an S-Corporation:

Note: Your tax year will be January-December for all things. No Fiscal Year treatment for S-Corporations in Massachusetts.

Go to the Secretary of State’s Corporate database search and make sure the name of your company is not already taken. More info here.

Obtain a Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN). You will fill out an online form and get an ID number immediately.

Use the online filing system at the Secretary of State’s website to create your Articles of Incorporation. Some key “hints”:

• specify 275,000 shares of undesignated stock. That is the maximum amount. If you want to change this later…$100 fee to file and $100/100K additional shares authorized.
• specify 1/1/2010 as the effective date of organization. Do NOT make the mistake of forming a corporation in November or December if you can postpone to January. This will save you $456 in minimum corporate excise tax you would otherwise pay in March 2010 for the first partial year.
• One person can serve as President, Secretary, Treasurer and Director. It looks silly, but if you are a sole incorporator, this is what you do.
• Submit the form and pay with your credit card.

There are two forms you must file with the IRS to elect S-corporation status. Go to the IRS website to download the forms in instructions for:

• Form 2553 Election by a Small Business Corporation
• Entity Classification Election (“check the box form”)

The paperwork is far from over, but you are now a corporation. You will need to draft and file additional documents including your bylaws and minutes from an initial meeting (with yourself!). I’ll blog about that separately…but it is critical that you follow the rules and keep up with the formalities/requirements.

I’m excited that our Pedestrian and Bike Safety Committee was able to work with our town to secure almost $3700 in reimbursement funding to buy bike racks. And our monthly meetings are defintitely raising awareness about Pedestrian and Bike Safety issues and beginning to build a coalition of people in town who share a desire to make improvements. But it is really inspiring to read this story of how a group in California, over the course of a year, obtained $800,000 in grant money to improve sidewalks in their neighborhood.

It can happen, even in difficult economic times. We confront a budget crisis here and the likelihood of multiple property tax override campaigns next year. Despite recent good news about the fact that state aid for school funding will not be cut, even “level-funding” of Town departments has become the best we can hope for. The question is not what will be cut, but how much will be cut. Many people are going to oppose those overrides because times are hard for everyone and it’s a reasonable case to say, why can’t the town just “tighten their belts” like the rest of us…and postpone new expensive projects?

In such an environment, talk of sidewalks and other improvements that cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, faces an impossibility argument–but only if we assume the money has to come from the existing budget. When people are truly behind an idea, they can make it happen.

Tomorrow, our town of Westwood is dedicating a Veterans Memorial park that has been in the works for many years. Originally, Town Meeting approved $25,000 for the park, but it took the efforts of many people over the years to make the project happen. Then, when it became clear that $25,000 was not going to cover the project, the town conducted a brick sale–selling memorial bricks to residents to honor Veterans. Within a few weeks, hundreds of bricks were sold and in total, the Town raised over $45,000 of additional private money.

Figure out what needs to be done first. Get true consensus and involve as many people as possible so the idea is not just a good idea, but something many people want to happen and believe in. Then, find the money and make it so.

It’s easy to get sidetracked by negativity. Did you see how $9 million of Federal stimulus funding is being used to construct a footbridge to connect parking lots to Gillete Stadium? That is NOT my idea of walkability–to spend millions of taxpayer dollars to subsidize private development of a project nobody asked for? Meanwhile, we need this bridge fixed so people can walk under it from one side of town to the other and not be killed:

Instead of griping about things though, let’s think of the question in a more optimistic manner…if Robert Kraft can get $9 million for a parking lot bridge, why CAN’T we get this bridge improved? What can I do to make it happen? Shall I go back to that bridge with a stroller and videotape what it is like to push a baby carriage along under that bridge? Shall we form a neighborhood group to advocate for fixing the bridge? How do we make this thing “shovel ready?” I don’t think it would be that hard to light a fire around this issue, but we need other people to step up and a relentless focus on positive solutions…then, we will find the will to make it happen, the consensus to do something that is supported by the entire neighborhood, and the funding to accomplish the impossible.

The fact is, when you are laid off, you can lose your health insurance immediately, despite the so-called protections of COBRA. The only thing COBRA does is entitle certain qualififying persons (most people who are laid off) the opportunity to continue their health insurance under the same group plan they were eligible for when they were employed.

I’ve blogged here before about how to maintain health insurance while unemployed–essentially, you should 1) elect COBRA immediately because the Federal Stimulus subsidy means you will have at least 65% of the premium covered for 9 months, and 2) apply for the Massachusetts Medial Security Program and other resources which will subsidize an additional 80% of your out of pocket expenses through a reimbursement as long as you remain unemployed and enrolled in the MSP. These are generous benefits that all unemployed, eligible persons should take advantage of immediately.

Immediately is the key word. I thought I understood it all, but the learning process continues as I recently ran into difficulty confirming future doctor’s appointments for my kids. I was told my insurance had been canceled immediately upon termination from my last job–before I even received the paperwork for COBRA. This is at the discretion of the employer.

Technically, under COBRA, you have the right to choose whether to elect continuation coverage for 60 days following termination. Then, you have 45 days to make the first payment. In every employer I’ve worked for in the past, this was explained to laid off employees as “don’t worry about health insurance; you have 3 1/2 months before you’ll have to pay anything.” But it’s not that simple. The employer may decided to wait 60 days–during which time they are actually continuing to pay for your health insurance and the insurance company does not even know you have been terminated. But they are not required to be that generous. If instead, they terminate your coverage immediately, then you will lose health insurance on the day you lose your job.

I was advised by my insurer, Tufts, to simply tell the doctor that I’ve applied for COBRA…hopefully that will be sufficient to enable us to continue receiving medical care until my former employer processes the paperwork of my COBRA election form and reinstates my health coverage. But it illustrates how important it is for you to NOT wait and to IMMEDIATELY make your COBRA election on the day you are laid off. The law only provides you the opportunity to purchase health insurance; it does not automatically provide continuity of coverage. As I’ve noted before, given the Federal Stimulus benefit, this is a “no-brainer” now, but that benefit will go away in a few months and then, once again, the unemployed will face the very real fear of the immediate loss of health care and difficult choice to being paying over $1000/month–while unemployed–to keep their families covered.

Here is a short video of some serious critical cycling mass in Copenhagen, Denmark…

I’m wrapping up a final list of bike racks for our town to obtain through the Metropolitan Area Planning Council’s (MAPC) Regional Bike Parking Program. Today is the deadline to order bike racks which are then reimbursed by this program. Our town administrator and school officials are excited to get the racks and hopefully, this will be another small step towards increased biking and walking in Westwood.

Here’s one of the racks we hope to replace/improve:

The popular understanding of the origin of street design in Boston goes back to the original wisdom of cows pastured on the common and commuting home to farms. Although this is more folklore than fact, it does reflect the liklihood that streets were developed piecemeal in response to short-term needs and not as a part of an organized plan.

Such is always the case, unless a community has a blank canvas upon which to write…and millions of dollars of funding…and popular support for centralized design and planning of an urban utopia. Expect that confluence of opportunity sometime in the next century. In the meantime, improvements are opportunistic: a bike lane here, an updated intersection there…a new development bringing potentially more problems but at least some cash to manage solutions. When those micro-opportunties happen…advocates need to be ready to propose improvements, but these improvements should be seen NOT as accomodations for interest groups, but as opportunities to develop “complete streets” – recognizing that…

The streets of our cities and towns are an important part of the livability of our communities. They ought to be for everyone, whether young or old, motorist or bicyclist, walker or wheelchair user, bus rider or shopkeeper. But too many of our streets are designed only for speeding cars, or worse, creeping traffic jams.–National Complete Streets Coalition

Increasingly, communities are adopting policies to incorporate this new kind of paradigm. Even as they do so, however, they are not immune to the misunderstandings of those who view these measures as expensive luxuries that detract from “fixing potholes.” What opponents fail to realize is that today’s potholes were yesterday’s bogs and other “cow obstacles.”

Complete Streets is not about a master plan to impose a new design on cities, but an effort to develop a shared use strategy that recognizes how our needs are changing. We need safer ways for active transportation to be supported in our communities. Partly, it is “aspirational”–we do want to encourage more walking and biking–but successful change looks for real needs: where are people currently trying to walk and bike? It can never be about “build it and they will come,” it has to be “thank goodness they finally did something about that bridge!”

Adopting a Complete Streets strategy means coming together as a community to adopt a policy that commits to a vision of the future where the needs of all users are considered. It provides a reference point for “why do we want to do this?” and “why are we doing this?” so that changes/improvements are not seen as accommodations or concessions to appease a minority of outlier users, but as necessary steps towards ensuring a better future for all.

A few Halloweens ago, I picked up a barrel of “Halloween Pretzels” from Costco–mini-pretzels in orange and black bags in a big plastic container. About the ONLY one happy about that choice was our dog who got into the “treats” when the untouched bowl was left on the floor inadvertently. I believe we finally choked down the last remnant sometime in the following spring. Having learned my lesson, I am happy to see a giant bag full of candy in the kitchen now awaiting Saturday night.

Thousands of empty calories await as we prepare to march our children around the neighborhood in this annual ritual of excess. Given the explosion of childhood obesity in America, am I worried? Not really.

I’ve been following a number of stories in the past few weeks connecting the obesity crisis in America to health care. CBS’s Sunday Morning devoted an entire show to “Size Matters.” A radio program on NPR last week devoted an hour to a discussion of Overweight America. The radio show considered, in particular the question of how we advocate for weight loss without “blaming” overweight people.

We focus far too much on symptoms of a problem that has much deeper roots than can be addressed directly. For solutions, we leap to radical and drastic methods like surgery or the search for medications that will fix us. We guilt each other into diets or pursuing unpleasant exercise routines we hate…and then we watch the food we eat selectively–seizing on the most minute reports of the bad or goodness of a particular food, while oblivious to a landscape of excess that surrounds us.

But I digress. The folks at Zillow, where you can look up the value of your neighbor’s house, have created a Trick or Treat Housing Index for Seattle (their company location) neighborhoods. It’s basically a list of affluent, walkable neighborhoods–big surprise–but what I find interesting is the walkable connection.

A 30-minute walk once a year with your kids is not going to compensate for eating thousands of calories in a glorious choco-fest of indulgence this weekend, but perhaps living in a place where this traditional activity is easy will. 20-minutes of walking to a train and from the station to work everyday does make a difference. Deciding, several times per week, that it would be enjoyable to go for a walk around the neighborhood adds up to many miles of exercise. Hopping on a bike with a kid in the bike seat to go to the library occasionally…it all adds up to an active lifestyle that is foreign to many Americans who have become isolated in car-dependent housing developments.

So I look forward to enjoying Halloween and the “fruits of our labor,” so to speak, with no guilt or worry. We will eat crap and be happy. We will join our neighbors in this annual tradition that fills our side streets with parents and children walking from door to door, meeting each other, and collecting candy. It’s a great American tradition, but what is great about it is not just getting the candy but the whole experience that is fundamentally-rooted in an active, community-engaged lifestyle that reminds us of how simple, safe–and relatively healthy–our lives were before we over-thought and over-did everthing.

Every horrific death of a cyclist leads to rounds of recriminations and a brief “coming together” of the cyclist community to draw attention to how, in the battle between car and bike, bike (and biker) always loses. In Toronto this summer, a prominent politician (former Attorny General of Ontario, Michael Bryant) engaged in an altercation with a cyclist–the end resulting being the cyclist clinging to his car and eventually being dragged under the rear wheels and killed. The cyclist, a 33-year old father of 3, was a bike courier.

The Toronto Cyclists Union, after some initial reaction and anger and protest, is adopting a very different and positive campaign to attempt to get drivers to notice and respect cyclists–described in the YouTube video below:

The Cyclists Paving the Way campaign aims to “flip” the negativity and emphasize positive driver behavior by encouraging bike riders to hand out little “Thank You” cards to drivers who do “small” actions that acknowledge and respect cyclists…little things like looking before opening a car door or clearly checking for a cyclist when turning.

I like the idea and although I’m not sure about the logistics of handing out cards in busy traffic, I know that I’ve observed–even in Boston–some standout behavior from people driving cars that should have been thanked. I was shocked one day, at the Mass. Ave and Columbus Ave intersection, to observe a driver asking a guy on a bike about whether or not he (the driver) was OK to be using a lane with a bike drawn on it for his right turn. (Yes, the bike lanes convert to “sharrows” at major intersections.) I’ve also noted a number of times when I could feel cars patiently waiting for me to “clear” an intersection as they approached from behind to make a right turn…and many times when cars at 4-way stops waved me through as I slowed to pause…

We tend to remember the negative 10 times more than the positive, it seems. The story of the person in a car who buzzed me or yelled at me for no reason–that sticks in my mind for weeks or months, but really, most of the time, most people in cars are actually trying to co-exist. When I have crashed a few times over the years, I’ve had people jump out of their cars and offer to drive me somewhere–I was embarassed, actually–it was no big deal–but we tend to forget or cynically refuse to believe that actually, most people out there are kind and considerate. If they were not–you wouldn’t be able to get a mile down the road without being killed as the opportunities for mayhem are so great…and, as I said in the beginning, in a conflict between car and bike, the car always wins.

I hope the Toronto experiment works. It’s not always going to be practical and presumably a cyclist motivated to be this kind of “goodwill ambassador” will be safety-conscious enough to give out these little cards without creating a distraction. But it would be great to see those kind of interactions happening–with less emphasis on the demands for enforcement, penalty and road justice that color most discussions of how bikes and cars get along.

Yesterday, the League of American Bicyclists announced their updated list of Bicycle Friendly Communities. The closest town to Boston is Brunswick, Maine…and, in the past, Burlington, Vermont has been a winner. Both communities won the Bronze designation.

Despite some recent improvements, the City of Boston is not on the list yet. I would argue that their recent efforts make them a strong candidate, but the reality is cycling in Boston is still perceived as a life-and-death adventure and an award, at this point in time, would stretch the credibility of the League.

To win designation as a Bike Friendly Community, a community of any size (award winners range from Chicago and New York City down to Sitka, Alaska and Oxford, Mississippi) submits an application to report what has been done to make their community more bike friendly. It can be both a recognition of efforts and a promotion to encourage more residents to consider cycling.

The 28-page application is, itself, something of a roadmap for change. As communities review the application, they will quickly self-select whether or not they should be applying yet–and gather ideas for steps to take towards making an application credible.

We should be putting Massachusetts on this map. If Sitka and Oxford can be bike-friendly, then, with a bit of work, so can Westwood. Other towns like Brookline, Newton, Milton, Concord and Lexington are probably farther along, but all share significant cycling and cycling advocate populations and official town advisory boards. I would love to see one of these signs posted at the entrance to our town…of course, I’d love to see some bike lanes first!

Of course it would not be fair to just post signs without having made things any safer or friendlier. But as we deploy bike racks, involve our advisory committee in the repaving of roads (a small project next week on Gay Street is taking into account our committee’s recommendations), promote our schools participation in Safe Routes to Schools, and look for more and more ways to support and encourage cycling, I believe we should make these efforts as visible as possible–not to “claim credit” but to send a message that bicycles are a welcome part of our community.

Last Friday night, I attended an unconventional book-signing/networking party in Boston that brought together Gary Vaynerchuk, Jeff Cutler, and Mike Langford along with the usual suspects of the Boston social media scene. I picked up a copy of Gary’s book and then–because I missed the earlier train home, had an hour and a half to read it while waiting for the next commuter rail.

Gary is a “rock star” in the social media space because he used Twitter and Facebook to take his video blog, Wine Library TV, to stratospheric levels of popularity. He’s an inspirational phenomena of optimism, energy, and attitude whose contagious enthusiasm motivates and inspires.

I have a skeptical streak…and I will not to waste time here critiquing but instead focus on my takeaways. Like so many sources out there…you take what you need; you find the parts that challenge you to think.

People like Gary have aligned their passion with a platform that essentially makes sharing and self-promotion one and the same. The more he talks, the more people want to listen. Are his ideas revolutionary? No. Is there some deep insight in this book that will change your life? No. Is there a plan you can apply to your business idea to make a fortune and replicate Gary’s success, including a 7-figure book deal? No. So what is the point?

The point is that social media channels like Twitter, Facebook, and blogging give every person the power to both publish their own experiences AND, more importantly, CONNECT with others who share and amplify those passions. Find what you love to do and “Crush it!” Every person can become an enthusiastic authority about something and then, as they draw attention to their passion, perhaps they can “monetize” it. It’s not even all about money though really–if you could just afford to live your dreams, would it matter to make $60 million or $60 thousand a year?

But on this path, you really need to “Crush it.” To do that, you need to love what you are doing. A hobby blog about something you are kind of interested in is not going to do it. Starting a blog at your company and following the steps to promote it…is not going to do it. It’s not that Gary Vaynerchuck has a great video blog about wine. It’s that Gary Vaynerchuck is the Wine Library TV guy.

It’s not about expert opinions. I don’t know if Gary is an expert on wine. It doesn’t seem to matter. If you want a professional wine evaluation, I’m sure you can get that from people who are much less famous and making a lot less money. But they are boring. Gary is fun. You can complain that it’s not fair (if you are one of those people, for example) or you can realize, hey, it doesn’t freakin matter. Maybe if I find the thing I love and share it with everyone, they will love me enough that I can just do that and be happy.

But you’ve got to Crush it. Can you think of 100 or 500 blog posts you could write about the thing you are excited about? Do you want to scour the internet for information on that topic, commenting on everone else’s blog and engaging with everyone you can find? Are you motivated to hustle in this way? If not, don’t bother because there can be only one.

You need to find that passion…the thing that keeps you awake at night and is the burning fuel that will sustain you through what others would see as a lot of hard, tedious work. The good news is that social media gives you another tool that has the potential to hit the ball out of the park.

But you also have to pay the rent. That statement is the dream-killing, self-defeating reality check on so many aspirations for so many people. Fine, so pay the rent. Get a job and work 8 hours a day or whatever. But that leaves 16 hours for other things. After family and eating…ok, I guess you need to give up sleep. That’s the deal, really.

If you want to turn a dream into reality, you need to “Crush it.” You go “all in” on it and when you see an opportunity, you throw everything you have at it. Sunday, the Patriots beat the Titans 59-0 in 3 quarters of football. That sucks for the Titans, but it’s what happens when one team gives up against a team that doesn’t have a concept of “dialing things back a bit.” It does not mean you have a license/excuse to neglect other priorities…but when you are doing the thing you love–you need to give it all you have.

The passion is hard to find.

I found it hard, it’s hard to find, oh well, whatever, nevermind.

I don’t really know what Curt Cobain was thinking when he wrote that, but for me it symbolizes the fleeting nature of dreams for so many…especially those of us in Generation X who allow our cynicism to truncate promising optimism.

I do not write from the platform of a $60 million wine busines. I’m excited I found a project to do some consulting work this week that could turn into a longer term project. But what keeps me awake at night is thinking about how I can take this topic of active transporation, apply it to my town, and pull together my love of cycling and running, my desire to be a part of civic life, and my analytical and techincal skills to not only support my family, but make my world a better place.

A few weeks ago, I set up an IdeaScale web site to gather suggestions for ways to improve Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety in Westwood. It has turned out to be an effective, easy way to collect ideas and our challenge now is to do something about those ideas.

The site is simple to use–that is its principal virtue. I have experimented with other online tools to help improve communication and/or organize things before, with mixed results:

• The WestwoodWiki went nowhere–I think mainly because it requires a great deal of participation, awareness, and faith that one’s investment of time will be meaningful. A wiki is a website anyone can edit–allowing group collaboration in drafting documents, etc.–and although I believe it can be a great tool to foster civic engagement, and there are great examples of this in larger cities like Melbourne, Australia or Davis, California, it is hard to get the ball rolling, so to speak.
• WestwoodBlog has been successful, but inconsistent. It totally depends on my effort to stir up news and events and is most valuable when there are “hot” issues in town. If I post something about Westwood Station–the controversial development project that is now stalled due to the economic slowdown–it generates a ton of activity. If I encourage and solicit candidates for Town Election to post their ideas, this generates some commentary. And the topic I created for Walkable Westwood, has been a good place for me to publicize our efforts on Ped/Bike Safety…but the blog is a very general purpose, news-oriented site that many read, but few contribute.

The IdeaScale Site has generated 44 ideas and included several hundred people participating by voting those ideas up or down.

• I seeded the site with many of the ideas our group had already been talking about. This gave us a place to document and discuss those ideas. We had talked about circulating spreadsheets and drafting a group report, but I found publishing the ideas moved us forward more effectively.
• The site was relatively easy to use. I had a few reports of difficulty…and very few people went to the trouble of creating a login account–but as anonymous, guest users, they were able to quickly submit ideas and comments (60-plus comments so far).
• The “discussion” has stayed on track. On the blog, things can go off on tangents since there is no overall purpose, but on the IdeaScale site, it is so focused on a single purpose, I think this has avoided some of the community management problems that could result from just posting a blog item and asking for feedback.

The big question is “what next?” I believe our committee has had great discussions so far and is building an increased awareness of active transporation issues in Town, but I want us to start creating some “small victories”–little accomplishments that demonstrate we are putting ideas to work.

At our last meeting, we began to work through the ideas submitted. I exported the ideas into an Excel spreadsheet and, based on suggestions from other members of the group, created scoring columns for urgency, population impact, and relative effort–summing a 3-point scale so that when addedd together, each idea received a score ranging from 3 to 9. Then, we can sort the ideas and identify the most urgent (immediate safety issues) ideas affecting the largest number of people with the fewest obstacles to implementation as projects we should form subcommittees or working groups to address.

We began by sorting the ideas by their IdeaScale vote score and then working down through the list. The process of discussion itself was valuable–given this framework for approaching it. I projected the spreadsheet on a wall from my laptop and edited it in real-time. For each idea, I clicked on the hyperlink from the spreadsheet to a web browser that allowed us to read the full idea submitted and see the comments. In another browser window, we used google maps to view satellite imagery of the specific locations involved.

As a group, we then reached a consensus on the 3 ratings for each item. Unfortunately, our meeting was already running very late, so we only managed to review the first ten ideas–but along the way we have already begun to identify some projects and priorities and talk about solutions with people in the room who can make a difference–e.g. the Town Engineer, Safety Officer, Town Planner, Planning Board members, PTA representatives, DPW representatives, and other interested people. At our previous meetings, we have had a lot of discussion, but I believe this more structured approach is leading us towards a more methodical review of ideas.

It’s early. This was just one meeting and as it approached 10pm, I was torn between the desire to get things done versus the reality that everyone needed to get home to their families. It was not a simple, “that’s a 1, this is a 3,” kind of discussion as people have many perspectives on each idea and it is incredibly valuable to hear that input as a group. But we began to get into a rhythm of discussion and then a conclusion that, ok, that sounds like it affects the whole town…or, ok that will require work, but it is not impossible…”

I’ll report more as we progress.

Last Wednesday, Westwood schools postponed their participation in International Walk to School day due to a torrential downpour. This morning, we await the dawn to melt the first frost of the season, as the thermometer at my house reads 34 degrees and the Norwood airport reports 28. But clear skies should make this a spectacular fall day.

Meanwhile, the concerned parents and bureacrats in Saratoga have eeked at bit closer to permitting kids to ride bikes to school at Maple Avenue Middle School. The Board of Education did in fact strike down the 1994 policy forbidding bike riding, but transferred authority to the local school principal to determine whether it was safe or not. Advocates for change aren’t thrilled–it simply transfers the issue to the local school where administrators may continue to say it is not safe, nothing has changed, etc. But I think this is a victory as it opens the door to a local discussion and changes the conversation from “bike riding will not be tolerated” to “how can we make this school safe?”

The reality is that the perception of bike riding as an unsafe activity persists no matter what official policy is adopted. Parents are not going to encourage/allow their kids to ride bikes if they feel it is unsafe. Adults will not bike commute to work if they fear for their lives. Those who extol the virtues of active transportation must find solutions to real and perceived dangers through a combination of what are described as the 4 E’s of planning: Education, Engineering, Enforcement, and Encouragement. Additionally, a 5th E, Evaluation, is critical to success of Safe Routes to Schools programs as it “closes the loop” on making sure great ideas, as they are implemented, actually work.

These success stories from communities that have improved their walkability illustrate the key theme of inclusion. Change must “bottom up,” it cannot be imposed from above or simply “fixed” by changing a law or building a sidewalk. How we get there is vitally important to success.

Is it my imagination, or has the Boston Globe been sentenced to some form of secret penance that compels them to run “the other side” stories every once in a while? First there was a report of Boston’s unruly riders–scofflaw cyclists who annoy and confound drivers with their callous disregard for law and safety. Now it’s the pedestrians turn as we learn that “Despite increased risks, jaywalkers abound on Boston’s busy streets.”

These enforcement actions are a good idea. Some communities have even obtained state grant money to support increased police presence to stop cyclists and pedestrians who fail to follow the rules. But I don’t accept the common explanation for people breaking the rules–that they are stupid or too self-centered to care. Too much of the commentary on these stories easily dismisses the situation as personally irrelevent because the problem is caused by other, “bad” people.

The real problem is courtesy–and unfortunately, these controversy-baiting stories only raise the temperature and harden the judgments of many. Remember that story last week about the Saratoga Springs school policy against kids riding bikes to school? Well tonight, the Board of Education will hear a report from a committee that has been working on this issue for the past four months.

…the committee is comprised of about 24 school and town officials, students, parents and representatives of Saratoga Healthy Transportation Network.

The group met five times over the summer to investigate current walking and biking access to every school in the district and develop a potential plan for safe, alternative routes. In addition, the advisory committee brainstormed options for how to promote biking and walking to school.

Will the policy change? Maybe. But more importantly, people in the community are working on this issue. The original news story talked of the school district having to “backpedal” on a policy from 1994, but it seems the local process is working.

Measuring a baseline is the first step towards assessing and ultimately achieving improvements to walkability. Walk Score has generated a ton of news lately–winning a Rockefeller Grant to improve their service, providing a quantitative basis for the CEOs for Cities study that illustrated a link between walkability and housing prices and providing a measuring stick for communities to compare themselves to one another. A quick lookup of our new home versus our old one confirms what I already knew: a 12% increase in walkability, although it feels MUCH greater.

Walk Score is imprecise–it depends on searching google maps for known points of interest like grocery stores and other amenities. But it gives us some relative basis for comparison and can prompt a discussion of what factors go into generating a higher score. Ultimately, when the Walk Score shows up in real estate listings, it becomes a “marketing tool,” and that’s not bad–it helps quantify the often vague assertions in home listings of “walk to shops, parks, trails” which could mean there is a patch of green grass somewhere withing 2 miles of a house. It helps get people talking specifics and reinforces the idea that walkability is a valuable topic.

I’m also impressed by what the League of Illinois Bicyclists has done in compiling a “Complete Streets” audit of road construction projects. They evaluated 46 recent Chicago area road projects for pedestrian and bicyclist safety and generated a 100-point scale that combines ratings for ped, bike, crossing and context to arrive at a “complete” score for the project. That study, published today, was cited by the Chicago Tribune to support their conclusion that “the best streets are built by those who will use them.” Projects administered by the state department of transportation scored lowest, while locally-planned and originated projects scored highest. Big surprise: central planning fails to serve the needs of the community.

These are two examples of data-driven analysis–and how it can influence the public debate. As we talk to our neighbors, we hear so many ideas and so many observations…but it is hard to get from talk to action. The big “deal breaker” of course is money–and I’d love to hear how cash-strapped communities have come up with funds to pay for projects. The short answer is that it is not a short process. There are grant programs that take time. The planning takes time and resources of busy people. At every step, there are questions of impossibility: how could we ever afford that?! The residents will not support it. Someone will object…whatever. These kinds of quantiative tools–combined with a more qualitative–quality of life–perspective and vision for the future are the best recipe for progress…

Over the years I’ve lived here, I’ve developed more and more respect for our Mayor, Tom Menino. Now it turns out he’s discovered cycling and goes for an early morning ride in the Hyde Park neighborhood every day. That can only be good news for those of us who brave the potholes and insane drivers of Boston as we try to bike commute. I would not characterize Boston as bike friendly, but it is a very bike-aware city. Drivers are familiar with cyclists, they just don’t like them. Here are some lifesaving tips for cyclists.

I enjoy riding my bike to work for two reasons. First, I like the activity…it is just fun to be able to ride a bike for a couple of hours on days that I ride in and out. Second, it gives me a different perspective on the city than I would have otherwise. I don’t claim to relate to the people of all the neighborhoods I ride through, just because I’m on a bike, but I see parts of the city I would never notice if you just got in your car and rode the MassPike from suburban Westwood in to work downtown. My daily ride takes me through Dedham, Roxbury, West Roxbury, Roslindale, Jamaica Plain, the South End, and parts of Southie. Sometimes I ride home through the Back Bay, out past Fenway and BU, Allston-Brighton, through Newton, Brookline, Needham, etc.

I’ve been listening to the bikescape podcast for a couple of years, and I finally managed to listen to last months podcast on Portland, OR. It really made me want to visit. Then, I watched the video on the bikescape website and it made me want to move there!

I’ve known Portland is a great place to live and work for some time and I’ve driven around the city going up and down the West coast, but I never stopped to visit. In the podcast, Jon (the amazing guy who has recorded over 60 of these hour long podcasts about cycling in San Francisco, New York, England, LA, etc.) narrates as he, his wife, and two kids cycle the neighborhoods of Portland and talk with local cyclists. I never realized how “Berkeleyesque” Portland was until I heard the local people talking about living there.

Bikescape is a great podcast. I’ve subscribed to a few “newsy” podcasts in the past, but got bored with them. Something about the “urban folksy” manner of Jon and the cool, laid back people he talks to really communicates a sense of “bike culture.” I listened to his podcast on fixed gear bikes a couple years ago and since then, I’ve become a fixie enthusiast myself. It is hard to explain to people why you would enjoy riding a bike with no shifting and no freewheel (no coasting; if the bike is moving, the pedals are moving your feet.) but when I listened to people talk about it, I found it infectious.

As I searched through his archives for a link to that Fetish for Fixies podcast, I realized the extraordinary memorability of so many of his conversations. I’m not really much of a part of the cycling community here, but listening to these people over the past couple years has helped me feel a bit connected to something larger.

The city of Boston is having a Bike Summit next week. If I can manage to take a few long lunches from work, I have to check it out and see what I can report back here.

Boston is currently conducting a “bike summit” to brainstorm ideas for making the city more bike friendly. I attended a public session today at city hall about bikes and economic development. I wish I could report that the session itself was worthwhile, but I think we only scratched the surface of what is possible. However, the great news is that a lot of people came together in one room from many successful efforts across the country.

Part of the opportunity for economic development is in bike tourism. Jennifer Toole, of Toole Design Group in Washington, DC described how bike tourism has benefited Vermont, where a study indicated that the economic revenue generated by bike tourism exceeds maple syrup revenue. An economic impact study from western Canada discovered that mountain bike tourism is responsible for over $10 million annually. The image of cyclists as cheap vagabonds who cruise through town and buy a couple of bananas is way off. For Boston though…I have a hard time envisioning the city itself as a bike destination.

I think the greater value of making the city more bike friendly is in how it can transform our urban experience. Boston is already a “creative class” city–our culture and educational resources are a huge magnet. But Boston is expensive and rough around the edges. I love the city, but when you start to look at what other cities are doing to enhance their overall quality of life, you start to think, maybe I’m paying too much to live here. Maybe there is greater value to be found elsewhere.

Louisville, KY held a bike summit a couple of years ago and has launched an aggressive program to integrate bikes into the life of the city. A specific goal is “We want to attract and retain young professionals to expand the economic base in Louisville.”

In Chicago the McDonald’s Cycle Center offers bike commuters lockers, showers, repairs, rentals–you name it. But that’s just a start. Nick Jackson, of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation spoke to the Boston group today about the vision behind these efforts to transform the city over the coming decades.

Another Chicago project involves education and publicity efforts behind a program to encourage “Shop by Bike.” Bikes could extend our pedestrian radius within a city; consider that in any given city you typically have smaller “squares” that are local hubs of activity. These squares, like Porter Square, Inman, Davis, Harvard, Central, etc. are hubs of activity with retail/restaurants in the center and apartments above and around. If people felt they could ride their bikes half a mile to buy something, it would dramatically extend the development possibilities. Right now you have the problem of opening a restaurant that is too far away from the square…or in a no-mans land between two squares. But on a bike, a half mile is less than five minutes. Add a rack and bag to your bike–and find a secure place to lock it up…and it changes the way you view your neighborhood.

But we have a lot of work to do in Boston. I found it ironic that my effort to attend this workshop illustrates just how much of a fanatic you need to be right now to bike Boston…first, I rode my bike in to work–13 miles dodging potholes, being ever vigilant for crazy drivers, constantly watching for right-turners who would cut me off, timing things to avoid running over oblivious pedestrians, choosing to ride on the sidewalk at times, running stop signs and red lights as a lesser of evils choice to get out of traffic-pinching situations and, after riding a short stretch of interstate onramp that is the only way to get from the South End to Southie, finally arriving at work where I changed clothes in the bathroom and tried not to sweat too much.

At lunch, I rode over to Government Center through the financial district. Again, pedestrians everywhere, delivery trucks, one way streets…I hardly ever run lights, but I found that the safer course of action for me was to run the red lights and go the wrong way a few times. Then I got to government center with its many, many steps on the plaza that I got to carry my bike across.

Whew. It’s very different from riding in Vermont or upstate New York or even the western suburbs.

Can Boston be a bike city? I think so. There are a lot of cyclists, it’s just not quite mainstream enough yet. Sometimes, I reach a stoplight and am standing there with 3 or 4 other cyclists commuting to work. Sometimes there is a line of us making our way down the Southwest Corridor park, a multi-use trail that takes me from Jamaica Plain/Forest Hills all the way downtown. But we don’t have the culture of San Francisco, that’s for sure. And we’re not New York City–but I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.

Cities like Portland really amaze me–as I blogged about a few days ago. They seem to have the whole package of housing and transit. It would be great to live in a reasonable family neighborhood, with clean air and trees, then hop on my bike and ride 20 minutes to the urban core…instead of an hourlong adventure through some of the most depressed parts of the city.

I don’t think we’re moving anytime soon. But the bike component is a key feature for any city to achieve the kind of living balance that so many of us want these days. We don’t want to commute by car in from the suburbs. We want to be a part of where we live and work. The bike can really help that feeling of connectedness.

Following the Boston Bike Summit last October, the city has created a program, Boston Bikes, and is working to improve cycling in the city. I’ve been receiving emails from Nicole Freedman, Director of the City’s Bike Programs that are encouraging:

• This year, the city will recognize all businesses that complete some bike friendly requirements with Boston Bike Friendly Business Awards, as part of the overall city green initiative. It’s too late now to nominate a company, but it will be interesting to see how many qualified for this inaugural program.
• The city is creating a city-wide bike map, collaboratively with cyclists by publishing instructions on how to edit a google map that contains routes all over the city. Cyclists of all abilities will edit the maps to rate the streets to help the city compile a baseline map of how difficult or easy cycling in the city is.
• You can report road hazards online through a form on the city website.
• You can sign up for the city’s newsletter here to be notified of additional initiatives.

This is encouraging on several levels:

• It appears the city is finally taking cycling seriously. I know my opinion of Mayor Menino improved dramatically when I read about his own cycling efforts.
• The city is looking for ways to use technology and grassroots energy to make a difference. I was amazed at the use of google maps…and while the implementation is a little rough, it is very encouraging to see a city agency taking risks and inviting the public to come in and mess with these maps. A more typical governmental approach might be to hire a consultant to do a study or develop some expensive technology boondoggle that would take forever to develop and never be used. This kind of “scrappy” internet approach is a breath of fresh air in city governance.

During the Bike Summit this fall, I blogged about bikes and economic development–a topic that was picked up by some other urban/economic development bloggers like Wendy Waters at All About Cities and Richard Florida. I think there is something about cycling that really captures the passion of creative people–at all socioeconomic levels. It’s part of the secret sauce of developing cool places to live and work…

One good thing about high gas prices…they may be encouraging more people to consider bicycle commuting. And more people riding bikes means drivers will be more aware of bicyclists and perhaps those of us who ride already will be a little safer.

I’ve noticed more bikes on my commute to Boston as reported by this Boston Globe article, although I do take offense at the author’s comment that

For bicycling enthusiasts – once a subculture of bike messengers, car haters, cash-poor students, and eco-activists – it’s beginning to feel like a tipping point.

I didn’t realize I was part of that subculture. I thought I was more of a “lycra-clad effete euro-poseur” on my road bike than part of a fringe subculture. Thanks, Boston Critical Mass for the email update about that Globe article.

Whether or not gas prices directly correlate with bike commuting is the topic of a thoughtful post at Jason Welker’s wikinomics blog. I commented there about the additional factors I think go into the “rider calculus” for me at least.

Over at WestwoodBlog, I write about my vision for increased walking and biking in Westwood. I include the following list of resources that are great for anyone looking to improve pedestrian and bicycle transportation:

• Dan Burden’s Walkable Communities is a website with tons of articles about this topic. Walkability is not just for cities or small towns–and it is part of a whole sustainability movement. I could go on…but Dan does it better.
• Cambridge-based Livable Streets sends out a newsletter that compiles links to interesting articles on many transportation issues in the Boston area and nationally. They also hosts events such as this upcoming talk about how residents of Jamaica Plain and Roxbury fought back the big highway projects of the 60s to save their communities.
• walkBoston is not just about Boston; this resource hub is helping facilitate efforts in 58 communities across Massachusetts. walkBoston piloted the first Safe Routes to School program in 2000.

These are just a few resources to get people started thinking about improving the walkability of their communities. Here is a link to the topic thread of my blog posts on Walkable Westwood.

On a beautiful fall day in New England, who would want to drive a car to work? For some time, I’ve been meaning to carry a camera along my bike ride to work and take some photos. Last Friday, I got that chance.

My trip begins on Gay Street in Westwood–a wide, tree-lined street with farm/mansions at one end and houses like mine at the other. Usually, there is a line of cars up the hill from the stoplight, but on this day, I left a bit later and found no traffic. I was unable to snap a photo of the interminable bridge construction on Washington Street crossing route 128…but perhaps, before my kids start college, I will be able to ride my bike across a new, smooth bridge instead of dodging potholes and racing cars on the currently 2-lane bridge into Dedham.

I take Washington Street through Precinct 1 in Dedham, to Dedham Square.

After the square comes the circle–a terrible idea where Washington Street meets Route 1, resulting in a mess of concrete and asphalt that divides Precinct 1 and Dedham Square from East Dedham. Often, I avoid the circle by taking East Street, but that’s under construction too, so today, I braved the circle and charged on through and headed up Washington St past the former Dedham Mall.

Washington Street is a wide, 4-lane road that also serves a number of busses that make their way from the former Dedham Mall into the Boston neighborhoods of West Roxbury and Roslindale. In the moning, the traffic is not bad and although trucks and buses can sometimes come a little close for comfort, my bigger concern is dodging the ruts and potholes.

I always get caught at at least one light; this time, I’m left to look up the last stretch to Bellevue Hill and the West Roxbury Parkway/Eneking Parkway. I used to take the parkway because it is a nicer ride through Brookline, but Washington Street remains the most direct and efficient route, so I usually stick with that.

From the top of the hill, on a clear day, I can see all the way down into the city, from the clock tower at Forest Hills station on to the downtown skyline. The downhill ride is fast–sometimes 25mph or more. Coming home, this becomes a more leisurely ride, allowing ample time to experience the full ambiance of the housing projects along the way…

Forest Hills station is another cycling dilemma, not suitable for leisurely photo projects. The buses I have been competing with all down Washington Street converge on the station. But, after navigating through the maze of buses, taxis, and pedestrians, I cross the street and begin cycling down the southwest corridor multi-use path. The path take me through Jamaica Plain. The southwest corridor is a good idea…and most of the path is a great bike ride. But it can be challenging to cross certain streets. Some sections of pavement, especially around Green Street station, are so bad that most experienced cyclists opt for the road instead of the path.

The road also makes it easier to cross at Jackson Square. Jackson Square is the T stop abutting the Heath-Bromley projects. Some of these areas…I hear about them later on the news as crime scenes. But I’ve never felt unsafe riding through Roslindale and JP. On a bike, the biggest danger is your own lack of attention…then road/street hazards…then cars…then, maybe pedestrians.

The southwest corridar park takes me all the way to Ruggles station and the Northeastern campus.

As I ride up Columbus in the morning, I’m shielded from the bright sun by the campus buildings, then I cross Mass. Ave into the Back Bay on Columbus Ave.

I work my way through the South End via Warren Street and cut through on Waltham St to the “South of Harrison” artist district…past a big bus garage…until I encounter a highway mess.

The most difficult part of my ride is getting from the South End to Southie. It’s not a long ride, but I need to go up this 4-lane road to a left turn under the I-93 overpass and along roads under the highway until I can cut over to Southie on either the 4th St or Broadway Bridge. The problem here is that these roads are all ramps and feeders and not really suitable for bikes. I’ve tried other routes, but there is always a trade off and just too many on/off ramps in this part of town to avoid. I was shocked to see a woman running a baby carriage across this intersection, againt the light that I was afraid to cross against…insanity.

After crossing into South Boston, the final leg of my ride is up the Harbor walk along Fort Point channel, next to the Gillette Factory. Each morning I get an awesome view of downtown lit up by the rising sun and constantly changing as new construction projects alter the Boston skyline on a daily basis.

This ride takes about 50-60 minutes. I could probably do it faster, but I’ve learned that is the speed I can do without breaking too much of a sweat so I can still go into work without grossing everyone out. I hope.

Today is the last day in the world I’d ride my bike because it was -3 degrees when I woke up. But exciting things are happening in Massachusetts and Boston related to cycling:

Bicyclist Safety Bill

Governor Patrick signed the Bicyclist Safety Bill into law. This legislation has been underway for 8 years. MassBike has a detailed review of what the law means to cyclists and drivers, but some key items include:

• Motorists can be ticketed and fined $100 for “dooring” cyclists. That’s what happens when someone kicks their car door open in front of you and you crash into the door.
• The “right hook” is outlawed. That’s when a car passes you quickly so they can make a right turn in front of you. You die.
• Motorists must yield when making left turns in front of bikes. This is to avoid “T-boning” accidents where motorists don’t realize how fast bikes go and turn in front of them.
• Bikes CAN legally ride to the right of traffic and motorists turning left must yield. This is what happened to me a few months ago when I crashed my bike in Dedham. Under the law now, that motorist is absolutely at fault for hitting me.

I wish I could claim credit for helping pass this law, but the credit belongs with the cycling community and MassBike in particular.

Boston Bikes Update

The city of Boston has been making great progress towards its goal of becoming bike friendly. On Thursday, January 29, at 7pm, at the main branch of the Boston Public Library, LivableStreets Alliance will host the 1st annual “Boston Bikes Report” by the city’s Director of Bicycle Programs, Nicole Freedman.

This event is free and open to the public. The focus of the meeting will be on future steps needed to create the “world class bicycling city” that Mayor Menino has promised. There will be additional discussion about what could be done to significantly expand the cycling population — and its political influence — by attracting “traffic intolerant” bicyclists.

“Traffic intolerant bicyclists” means ordinary people who are not insane like me…who rides his bike 13 miles into Boston through conditions that prompt my wife’s friends to say “how can you let him do that?” The dream is that Boston will transform, during our lifetime, into a city where cycling and walking are pleasant, preferred activities that everyone does without fear.

My primary bike is still bent out of shape and frozen in the garage, but I’m looking forward to warmer days (and a job in the city!) so I can resume my bike commuting. In the meantime, I encourage everyone who can to check out the progress being made here in Boston.

There is a great article in the Globe today about the Charles River Wheelmen and their Saturday Morning Fitness Ride in Needham. The weekly ride has proceeded uninterrupted for 617 weekends, including a few during blizzard conditions.

When we first moved back to Massachusetts from California in 2002, we lived in Needham. Every Saturday morning, around 815am, I would suddenly see a brightly-colored peloton of riders turn down South Street. That inspired me to want to join. My wife and I had mountain bikes in California, but they weighed a ton and we never really got into it. But we went out and bought a pair of hybrid bikes and began riding.

The roads in certain areas of Massachusetts are inconspicuously marked with “arrows” signifying informal bike routes. The Saturday fitness ride is a simple inverted “T” pointing the direction of the ride and indicating where to turn. The northwest suburbs around Concord are serious cycling country as you will find intersections with four or more different symbols painted on the side of the road. Follow these arrows and they will take you on bike loops of 30-50 miles or more. While we found it difficult to make it to the start of organized group rides, we made an adventure out of going to the start of these rides and following the arrows.

The great thing about cycling in Massachusetts is how green the countryside is. Out in the suburbs, just past Route 128, there are miles and miles of roads past farms, fields, and conservation land, and passing through the many classic New England town commons. Ice cream shops make a great resting point. And occasionally you meet up with other cyclists.

As we had kids, we invested in bike trailers and bike seats to take the kids along for the ride. With three kids now, it is harder, but someday soon, they will be ready to start riding their own bikes!

The reason I say the Saturday Morning riders changed my life is that it led me to start a more active lifestyle. The irony is that I have never actually made it to that ride; I was always too late and now, I would have to ride over from Westwood (and leave my wife with 3 kids for hours!) But as we rode the beautiful country roads of Needham, Dover, Sherborn, Wellesley–and took trips out to Concord/Acton/Boxborough, we found something we loved doing that also made us healthier. I was 210 lb when we left California; I’m 179 now. I had been a smoker for years, but stayed quit and have no desire to go back. When it got too cold for me to ride, I started running and, because I was fitter to begin with, enjoyed it and started running marathons.

Another aspect of cycling is harder to quantify–it is the greater sense of participation in the environment. When I was working in Boston, I bike commuted whenever possible, and felt a much greater connection to the city because of it. It’s not just about saving gas or being healthy, there is a feeling of connectedness when we ride or run through our communities, taking time to absorb the sights, sounds, smells, and feeling of the environment through different seasons and different conditions.

I have not ridden my bike since my crash a few months ago, but it’s more due to weather, road conditions, and lack of time than injury (I am completely fine!). But I am looking forward to the day when the snow melts and I carve out some time again to return to the road. Until then, I run when I can.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have not managed to ride my bicycle, but I’ve heard a ton of noise and incitement in the Boston Globe and on the Boston Critical Mass email list to which I subscribe. The Globe has run two controversial articles describing what they perceive as a growing conflict and tension between drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians.

First, the Globe ran a story about how urban bike riders have attitude and fail to follow the rules of the road. I was shocked and dismayed to learn that some cyclists run stop signs and red lights.

But this conflict-baiting op-ed piece attempts to place the blame for driver misbehavior on scofflaw cyclists and suggests that the “cure” is just to get cyclists to obey the law.

A while back, I read a great blog post entitled The Myth of the Scofflaw Cyclist and I wish all these frustrated, angry motorists would go read that first before they leap into their attacks on the bike riders. I’m not saying that people who fail to follow the rules are without blame, but I do believe blame is irrelevant.

An op-ed piece today make the point about road safety…the author observes that our roads are designed to kill people. His point is that we should modify our infrastructure to increase safety by doing things like installing speed humps, center lane divider strips, and rotaries to calm traffic.

What bothers me about these stories is the reactions–the continuing, irrelevant discussion of right and wrong, of blame and personal responsibility. Cyclists should obey the laws just like cars (fail to do). Drivers are inconsiderate. Cyclist/Bikers are jerks. (Other) People (than me) are stupid, inconsiderate, etc., but, hey, until you start following the rules, who can really blame them?

Enough already. As someone who rides a bike in the city, I went through a period of paranoia and indignation but this was cured by a few crashes where I realized that if I end up in a conflict with a car, it doesn’t matter who was right or wrong because I won’t be around to argue about it. My crashes didn’t involve cars–they were road hazards and I was lucky. But I know that irrational attitude–on both sides–that can develop. And it can end in death.

We need to change the road, not the rules. We need to stop believing that education and common sense are enough to protect us as a society from the tragedy of accidents. We need to say, OK, drivers and cyclists alike are breaking the law and endangering each other, so what can we do to make it less likely they will do that?

Can we start by accepting a proposition that our roads are for people, not vehicles? That some people will choose to run, walk, bike or drive on these roads and we should make the roads safe for ALL those modes of transportation?

Can we adopt a realistic attitude with respect to compliance?

Why do people drive “too fast” on a given road? It is not just that they are busy on their cell phone, sending text messages, or rushing to some important event. They drive as fast as they feel safe driving. So the fact that they are speeding is probably evidence that the speed limit is not realistic. The road is too fast.

Why do cyclists run red lights and stop signs? Most of them don’t do it while issuing a middle-finger salute to the cars around them. It’s not a brazen defiance of authority, but rather a choice, based on a belief that what they are doing is safe under the circumstances. Individually, you can say “stupid choice.” But en masse, random stupidity cancels out and you are left with empirical evidence that these traffic controls fail to provide believable safety for people on bikes.

I’m not saying there is zero value in education and enforcement. But when you see rampant disregard for existing laws, why would you think more laws or more education would help?

I believe our most fundamental challenge is to restore a sense of community–a building and strengthening of the ties within our neighborhoods and between our communities, especially the neighboring towns where development is uncoordinated and often in opposition to the interests of the next town over. But what can any of us really do about that on a daily basis? It’s not even really my problem–it’s a theoretical observation, an explanation for some frustration about how our society can’t seem to solve big problems like ensuring health care for all citizens or delivering accountability and integrity from our government.

So instead of dreaming up “macro solutions,” perhaps we should consider some basic, day-to-day activities that permeate (or could permeate, with greater participation) civic life: walking and bicycling — what many term “active transportation.”

Boston has begun to improve the cycling infrastructure with new bike lanes, a bikeshare program, and bike commuting promotions like Bike Fridays. We should support, advocate, encourage, and educate about the benefits and practicality of cycling in the city with the dream of transforming participation into something like what the Netherlands experienced over the past 30 years. My ride in from Westwood is a physical way I feel more connected to the city, and I think the more people who share that kind of connection, the better.

For walking, we need to get out of our houses and apartments and onto the streets. Our kids need to feel safe walking to school. We should meet and know our neighbors. Walkable communities are not only safer, they are stronger–and the more people who share this experience, the more a sense of “connected place” will develop.

There are plenty of problems to solve and things to improve in our society, but where do we start? I think a sustained emphasis on encouraging and making safer these modes of active transportation could have systemic benefits to facilitate all other efforts while providing immediate improvements to our quality of life.

Today is International Walk to School Day–but not for some communities where walking and biking have been banned. Two recent news stories are discouraging on many levels, but do not represent the norm as more and more communities are, in fact, adopting alternatives to driving.

• In Saratoga Springs, NY, a woman and her 12-year old son are defying school officials who, on the day before school started, advised all parents that “walking and biking to school would not be tolerated.”
• In Marblehead, MA, the town’s participation in today’s event was cancelled while the school works out “issues related to program administration, safety, and liability.”

These stories are “easy targets,” for walkability advocates and that is my first complaint. The newspaper coverage of the New York story in particular follows the pattern that has become so typical of print-based media’s clumsy attempt to remain relevant in an online world. Controversy-baiting stories leave little room for reasonable discourse as dozens of intemperate commentors react to the story that has set up the town for criticism without providing adequate context to explain why presumably reasonable adults in the community made decisions and now find themselves on the online hot seat. Online media (including this post of mine, to some extent) jump on the bandwagon as the Sarasota Springs story makes it to the Huffington Post, shows up in my LinkedIn Groups, and will undoubtably be a feature item in the many Pedestrian and Bike update email newsletters to which I subscribe.

Maybe the folks in Saratoga Springs ARE idiots, but I suspect there is much more to the story…the policy has been in place since 1994. The parents and administrators are probably focused on 100 other issues and it is unfair-based on the limited information reported-to leap to conspiracy and anti-progressive theories. But it is more fun to do that and it sells papers and generates online traffic. Meanwhile, the parents and community members probably feel angry and misunderstood, but dare not venture into the online argument of anonymous people who know nothing and judge everything.

In Marblehead, the local newspaper, the Marblehead Reporter, does a better job of providing context. Parents, administrators, and school officials are not characterized as opposing walking, but it seems the promotional effort “got ahead of itself.” The town had recently experienced a tragedy when a high school sophmore was hit and killed by a motorist…then, a “Wellness Committee” coincidentally launched a promotion of Walk to School Wednesdays. School Board Chairman Dick Nohelty said that the program was not passed through the proper channels before launching.

The Marblehead story is a cautionary tale for walkability advocates about the importance of inclusion and consensus. These ideas–promoting walking and bike-riding–are not self-evident truths or causes “against” anyone. In fact Marblehead, like my town of Westwood, is fully signed-up for the Safe Routes to Schools program. School Superintendent Paul Dulac noted that he’d like to see that program “more integrated” before a walking campaign takes place.

It should not be controversial to organize a walk to school or choose to ride a bike. But anything involving the safety of children is an extremely touchy issue that, when it makes people uncomfortable for whatever reason, will prompt conservative reactions. I’m learning for our own committee, it is easy to make mistakes and to not include the right person, talk to people the right way, promote an idea prematurely, etc.–but I think it can be managed by maintaining a positive attitude and accepting criticism as a learning process. We can’t lose sight of our overall goals as we navigate the details.

Update: a torrential downpour here has cancelled today’s walk…so perhaps next week, I’ll report on how this went.

According to land use strategist Chris Leinberger, speaking at the Walk21 conference in New York City yesterday and reported on StreetsBlog:

If the American Dream of the Baby Boomers was all about being able to have a car and a house in suburbia, the new American Dream is having the choice between living in drivable suburban places and walkable urban ones.

This summer, CEOs for Cities released a study showing how the walkability of a neighborhood increased the value of homes in that neighborhood. In Charlotte, NC:

Controlling for all other factors including size, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, age, neighborhood income levels, distance from the Central Business District and access to jobs, “if you were to pick up that house in Ashley Park, and place it in more walkable Wilmore, it would increase in value by $34,000 or 12 percent,” Cortright said.

But it is not an “either/or” challenge. Some important distinctions:

• According to Leinberger, “About the the same number of people want to live in a pedestrian-friendly environment as those who want to live in a drivable suburban one…” In other words, there are always many factors at play in the personal preferences of home buyers, but desire for walkability is playing an increasing role. It is not necessary that everyone be walking…but the trend appears to favor walking which is beginning to translate into measurable economic value.
• Most of the discussion so far has been about urban vs suburban–a distinction I find stereotypical and non-applicable in my New England town. Although we are only a dozen miles from the center of Boston, we have two “villages” separated by relatively rural spaces. It’s not quite “farmland,” but the town has set aside conservation land in a community that has evolved over several hundred years–limiting the amount of cul-de-sac sprawl. Getting across town on foot is currently impractical but within these villages, many amenities are accessible on foot. There is a great opportunity here.

We all know the potential advantages of living in an urban village, but most of us in towns and suburbs have weighed those advantages against much higher disadvantages which include the following perceptions:

• urban schools are unsafe and less integrated into the community
• urban living is more expensive
• parking is a nightmare and cars are still a necessity
• personal safety is a concern
• “anonymnity” is less desirable as we “settle down”
• most people still want “space”

I’m just listing those perceptions to illustrate, not to start a debate. Most people like where they live and it is an arrogant and presumptive mission to tell them they should change their attitudes. Instead, we should focus on the opportunities to get the best of both worlds.

We can transform our suburban towns into walkable communities, retaining the strengths and advantages of already desirable communities. When more residents can walk to amenities like shops, parks, schools and small local restaurants, the economic viability of these highly localized services will be strengthened. It does not mean “no more trips to WalMart,” but perhaps a few more customers per week at Cafe Diva or Islington House of Pizza will prompt them to stay open longer or be able to hire another person. Perhaps the foot traffic to these places will result in a new customer walking into the “Ski Shop” or choosing to drop off dry cleaning at the Crown Cleaners instead of using a chain store. As activity increases, perhaps a new business will open…

Over time, one new customer at a time, we grow. While we grow, our children become healthier as they walk to school and our playgrounds, spending less time in front of video games and more time outdoors. We see our neighbors more often and the strength of our community grows. Isolated houses sit on the market for months while starter homes on 10,000 sf lots get multiple offers. It all feeds together into an economic and social revitalization that begins, literally, with a few steps…

To encourage more people to bike, ask women what they want. And make it safe for kids to ride their bikes to school. These approaches would dramatically increase the utilization of cycling as a mainstream activity.

According to an article in the October Scientific American, women are an “indicator species” for bike-friendly cities. Those of us who bike frequently are familiar with the lycra-clad warrior mindset and the urban bike messenger culture, but we are also familiar with comments like “I’m surprised your wife ‘lets’ you ride to work.” We have learned to temper our tales of close calls and have adopted an extremely defensive approach to bike commuting–out of a necessity for survival.

The Scientific American story reviews some of the first bike infrastructure studies done in the US and concludes that when women’s concerns about safety and utility are addressed, cycling adoption increases. On-street bike lanes do not adequately address safety concerns because they do not separate bike from automobile traffic. Cyclists must still negotiate tricky intersections to get anywhere useful. And most bike paths are constructed in useless park areas–supporting the idea of cycling as a limited recreational activity, but not helping anyone get a bag of groceries home.

The studies will raise some gender bias eyebrows, but in the aggregate, we should acknowledge that gender roles do still exist and if we want to see more bikes on the road, we should ask what women want.

Kids don’t need much encouragement to ride bikes, but their parents need to know they will be safe. The Safe Routes to Schools program has been very successful not only at encouraging kids and parents to walk to school, but has also increased the comfort level of parents around allowing their kids to ride their bikes to school. Among other activities, SRTS and MassBike conduct bike safety workshops at schools (and also bike commuter workshops for adults) and promote inprovements to bike infrastructure around schools.

We are a long way from what has become routine in the Netherlands where nearly every child bikes to school, but if you notice in the photos of kids and parents, you will not find them competing with cars, but traveling their own separate bikeways. I have posted this video before, but I just love it:

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Finally, for those who question, why bother? Here is a clip from a Safe Routes to Schools presentation here in Westwood that illustrates how the rates of obesity have grown over the past 24 years.

Integrating bike transportation into our daily lives would help raise our overall level of activity and help us adopt healthier lifestyles. But to work, it needs to be practical and safe–something people choose to do not as a separate chore like going to the gym to work out and lose some weight, but as a preference to driving. We the lycra-clad road warriors are on the margins…advocates and planners should look to the mainstream needs of women and children for clues to achieve truly radical change.

Our decision to sell our 4-bedroom house and move to a 2-bedroom rental probably perplexes many people, but I’m finding there are many who do understand. Right now, I cannot say that we are truly simplifying our lives–as the stress of a new job and moving, along with our tantrum-happy toddler makes life anything but less complicated. But we are finding ourselves re-examining some key values and liking what we are finding.

Much of what some people describe as voluntary simplicity calls to me and my family. Unfortunately, it is a topic risky with implicit comparison and judgement against those who have and spend more money. But I’m not saying we are “better,” it’s just that we have found our priorities shifting and the stark contrast around us makes us more aware of how much we used to take for granted.

Behind the house we sold, our would-have-been-new neighbors tore down a tiny old house and have built a two-story that is the largest house on the street. They cut down the trees (the trees were dying anyway) and suddenly one day, we looked out and where there had been only green, there was now a two story house looking down into our back yard.

It is a nice house. And I can totally remember a time when I would have dreamed of something like that. But I don’t anymore. I don’t want that. I’d rather have more time to do things I want and more freedom from mortgage and debt to spend money on other things.

As I was searching for information on bunk beds, I ran across Internet discussions of parents inquiring whether it was “legal” to allow two kids of different gender to sleep in the same room. We actually have reached a point where people think it might be illegal to not buy one bedroom per child! Well, folks, we’re going to put all three in one room; don’t call DSS on us!

I love the location where we live now. We are only a block away from Islington Center and a 5 minute walk from the train to Boston. The other morning I walked down to the Barber Shop at 730am, sat in a room full of men waiting to get haircuts, then caught the train to the city. I felt like I was in an episode of “Mad Men” or something, but the haircut turned out OK. Yesterday, the neighbors across the street showed up with homemade cookies to welcome us to the neighborhood!

It’s a small house…but it fits. The kids bedroom magically fit a twin bed, toddler bed, and crib, with room for 2 dressers and a changing table…all in a 12×11 room. Our kitchen is just the right size for our kitchen table to fit against the window and seat 5. The living room and dining room merge together in an open floor plan that allows us to have all our living space in essentially one big room. Our bedroom…OK, an 8.5×10 room is pretty small, but so far so good. And our front porch is closed and usable as a playroom. I figure we are living in about 800 square feet now–vs. the 1900+ we left.

How long can we “stand it?” I don’t know…I’m thinking we’re going to like this. We sold a lot of stuff we’d had for 10 years or more and moved around with us–some of it hadn’t been unpacked since California. There are so many things…you realize, “why do I have 6 pairs of jeans when I wear the same ones over and over?” I’m sure I’ll have more observations as living small becomes more routine, but so far, I like the feeling of efficiency and sustainability.

This blog started not long after I read Richard Florida’s Rise of the Creative Class and blogged about how we chose to live in the Boston area. I followed that up with a post about how we further narrowed our search and moved from Needham to Westwood in 2006.

We like Westwood and I feel like I’m really becoming part of the community. But especially during my recent layoff, we realized how much money it takes to just be here. Lately, we’ve felt like we didn’t go far enough when we sold the expensive Needham house and found this great house in Westwood. What do we need vs. what do we want?

We don’t need a home office. My laptop is all I need; it’s finding the time to write that is the real challenge. We don’t need a big yard; I could care less about a lawn–my view is, “I cut the grass last week; problem solved. But then it came back.” We do need a place to ride bikes or walk to a park. We need 3 bedrooms…I can’t see “tripling up” the kids, but I do think bunk beds will be fun. So we started to seriously consider “downsizing” to reduce our mortgage further and focus on things that matter to us.

We’re not alone in wanting to downsize. Increasingly, people are discovering the virtues of living closer together and realizing space wasn’t what they wanted or needed after all.

One thing we REALLY want and need to avoid is the situation when we last moved and spend about 5 months with two mortgages. So we’ll sell first and then the fun will begin. We will be looking for a 3 bedroom, one bath, probably around 1200 square foot ranch or cape in Islington or the maze (neighborhood near Westwood High School) at the low end of the housing market here in Westwood. If we need to do work on the house, that’s fine as long as we can live in it while we renovate, but it’s all part of our calculation.

This weekend is our open house. Come check it out if you are in the market for a great house in a great town.

I still get nervous when it’s my turn to speak at a meeting. When I organize and lead meetings, I still feel like the novice upstart. I still assume there are older people who know better, and I wonder if they will take me seriously.

Then I realize I am 43 years old, and I recall what I thought of 43-year olds when I was 12. I thought they had it all figured out. They were my parents, my parents’ friends, the leaders in the community, etc. Sometimes I thought they had it figured out WRONG, but it never occurred to me that those “old” people felt the same feelings–when they were chairing a town committee or standing up to speak in front of a couple hundred people–that I still feel. It is a surreal experience to consider what I would have thought of myself.

We are all still kids in many ways. We don’t have it figured out. When we start something new, we are just as nervous as the first time we had to stand up in front of the class. When I talk to people about topics that I have a lot of knowledge about…the reality is, I am still hoping people don’t figure out I’m a phony or something. I don’t think it ever goes away.

But the excitement of learning doesn’t go away either. We are forever young in that when confronted by new experiences, we are like kids again, learning by experience, making mistakes, and figuring out enough to get through today’s challenge. As long as the challenges never end, we keep repeating the cycle, and while there is some discomfort in those feelings, there is also the thrill of learning something new and discovering that we can.

I’m too young to write advice on how not to get old, but I believe finding those moments of uncertainty in our lives–and embracing them, not fearing them–is how we stay young.

My posts on unemployment in Massachusetts have drawn commentary here and attention from the media and government. A producer from WBUR called me last week to set up a panel discussion on Friday where I will join an economist and the Commonwealth’s Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development, Suzanne Bump to talk about the situation in Massachusetts and respond to listeners who call in with questions. I’ve also been talking with a staffer at that agency, where they have started a blog about jobs and unemployment.

I would like to invite people to post questions here…to relate their experiences…to say things you would like me to think about while I’m on this radio show. I can’t answer specific personal detail questions, but it would help to be able to pass along the kind of real questions and stories that people have.

When I talked to Secretary Bump in person after the Town Hall Meeting, I learned a few things:

• The reason initial claims are not online is due to the complexity and age of the existing system–which is being overhauled. Now, I still don’t understand why a simple web submission form could be deployed, but I did not get into all the details with her…
• My situation is not typical. Many people have complicated claims where they did not work for the same employer all year or their employer disputes their eligibility, etc. The claims process is much more complicated for many than it was for me, so it is a mistake to assume everyone’s situation is simple.

Update: As I was writing this post, I noticed a tweet from my friend Rachel Levy, who was also interviewed by WBUR and quoted in a post just now. It does make me pause to ask myself why I am putting myself out there and whether I’m developing an unintentional brand as “celebrity unemployed.” Does this press help or hurt me?

I don’t know. What I do know is that dozens of people have contacted me about my blog posts and have asked me questions I’m not qualified to answer regarding benefits. I do know that I spent a lot of time and frustration on the phone and I believe there are ways to solve these problems. I am excited that my writing about these solutions has drawn the attention of the media and people in our state agencies who have the power and resources to do something about it. So I keep doing it. I feel like there are thousands of people who feel no one is listening to them and if I get the attention of somebody, I should make the most of it.