My Morning Commute

[lordofthemark]

@mstone 187938 wrote:

It’s actually up over 11 years now. A car is also a large enough resource that at the end of it’s life it’s worth scrapping. The scooters tend to end up in a landfill or a river or a giant pile of venture capital or something.

I think that’s a huge and unsupported assumption.

But the main problem is that you’re not factoring in the materials and impact of the drones dropping the scooters.

The scrapping cars requires a fair amount of energy (as does all the maintenance done on cars quite apart from the parts – have we mentioned lubricating oil yet?) (I also assume that IF scooters ever really get big enough to matter, disposal of them, as well as service lives, will be better addressed than now)

Obviously the big question about scooters is their net impact on the rest of the transportation system – are they substituting for walking, are they complimentary to transit, do they help enable car free or car lite lifestyles – that’s actually a serious thing to debate, unlike the concern about their short service lives.

As for drones, I had hoped it was clear I was responding to how scooters are actually used today. I mean having autonomous vehicles replace all transit probably won’t be good either.

Note of course, if we priced carbon, than the economics of scooter usage AND car usage (and acoustic bike usage, etc) would REFLECT the full life cycle GHG impacts. It would even reflect the benefits of scooter usage encouraging urban lifestyles, with smaller home sizes leading to lower HVAC, etc. That is the magic of price based solution – it naturally effects ALL impacts, one’s we don’t even think of, or have trouble estimating. But supporting price based solutions to global warming makes me a neoliberal shill, I guess.

[bentbike33]

@lordofthemark 187945 wrote:

But supporting price based solutions to global warming makes me a neoliberal shill, I guess.

Worse, it makes you an economist.

[lordofthemark]

https://www.portlandoregon.gov/transportation/article/700917

E-scooters are replacing automobile trips. Thinking of their last e-scooter trip, 34 percent of Portlanders said they would have driven a personal car (19 percent) or hailed a taxi, Uber or Lyft (15 percent).
The auto trip replacement numbers are even higher among tourists and visitors (48 percent). Thinking of their last e-scooter trip, 34 percent of visitors would have taken a taxi, Uber or Lyft, and 14 percent would have driven a personal vehicle had e-scooters not been available.
Among all respondents, e-scooters appear to be more popular among men (62 percent) than women (36 percent). In response to the question, “What gender do you identify with?”, 62 percent of respondents said “man”, and 36 respondents said “woman”.
All respondents – Portlanders and visitors – prefer to ride e-scooters on the street, in the bike lane. Riders’ stated preference was for the bike lane over even off-street trails. Riding on sidewalks was users’ least preferred option.
E-scooters are bringing new Portlanders to the bike lane. Forty-five percent of survey respondents reported “never” biking and 78 percent had never used BIKETOWN prior to using e-scooters.
Portlanders are reducing or considering reducing their auto ownership due to e-scooters. Six percent of users report getting rid of a car because of e-scooters and another 16 percent have considered it.

[DrP]

Ride started out great, cold, but great. All downhill from there – and not just literally.

Saw the tracks of a car that came down the hill along the MVT just before Trollheim (see comments elsewhere on that).

As I passed under the memorial bridge on MVT, noticed a truck was stopped on the road (the one further from the trail). A school bus behind it and several cars on the muddy grass just uphill from the roadway. And all other cars just stopped behind it. No idea if the truck had been involved n an accident or it just realized that it couldn’t go under the bridge (I did not notice its height).

As I went over Rt 110 on Connector Road (bridge from Boundary Channel Drive to the Pentagon main hub), where I take just right of middle of the lane because the area is all ruts and tire popping debris, my frequent harasser called out and told me the law said I needed to be all the way at the right (usually he just yells to get off the road and/or curses at me). I told him it was unsafe over there but he insisted I needed to be there, but then got behind me as we approached the policeman at the bottom of the hill. Black jeep-like vehicle, Michigan plates.

As I stopped at the traffic light at Fern and Army-Navy Drive, in the middle of the lane to go through the intersection (I was first in line), a car behind me started honking and telling me to get to the left so he could make a right on red. I yelled back that I was where I was supposed to be and his impatience was not my problem. I was not in the mood to be nice. Right side, left side, where do these drivers want me. Oh that’s right, NO WHERE. Grrrr.

This was a not so enjoyable commute. I keep thinking I need to tell the officers at the Pentagon intersection about the harasser, but I then expect him to try to run me off the road at a later time – he has that vibe about him.

I need to think pleasant thoughts or I will start biting my coworkers heads off.

[huskerdont]

Do you ever vary your route (or can you vary it)? Sometimes when I get a crazy harasser or have an incident, I just find it easier to go elsewhere for a bit so that person does not have the opportunity to plan and carry out some sort of crazy.

[DrP]

@huskerdont 188257 wrote:

Do you ever vary your route (or can you vary it)? Sometimes when I get a crazy harasser or have an incident, I just find it easier to go elsewhere for a bit so that person does not have the opportunity to plan and carry out some sort of crazy.

Thank you for the idea.
I do not see him everyday, so it is a bit random, but it has been repeated once or twice a month over the past several months. With the weather, I have varied my route just to avoid the MVT and the ice, snow, and slick Trollheim on several occasions. It may also be my timing (if I can just get out of the house a little sooner…).

[Crickey7]

Do you wear a GoPro? I find it helps with harassers if I point to it and shout that they are being filmed.

[scoot]

@Crickey7 188259 wrote:

Do you wear a GoPro? I find it helps with harassers if I point to it and shout that they are being filmed.

That move might backfire on the Pentagon reservation.

[DrP]

@scoot 188260 wrote:

That move might backfire on the Pentagon reservation.

That is my fear. I have been trained over the years to not use cameras anywhere around work (whether at a gov’t site or a corporation (IP issues on top of others)) that I just do not try it (my personal cell is a flip phone, no camera for that reason).

[dasgeh]

@Crickey7 188259 wrote:

Do you wear a GoPro? I find it helps with harassers if I point to it and shout that they are being filmed.

Or just give the video to Pentagon police. If he’s a regular there it’s possible he works there…

[Emm]

@scoot 188260 wrote:

That move might backfire on the Pentagon reservation.

Probably depends if you’re on a private pentagon road, or a public road. If you’re on a public road you can film, AND it’s legal to film or photograph the outside of government buildings*. There’s been a number of cases on this, and every time the person filming has been in the right ultimately.

*some exceptions likely apply, but I have a hard time believing the outside of the Pentagon is one of them with how often it’s photographed and filmed. I run my fly12 all the time when biking through the pentagon on public roads though, and see tourists take pictures too.

[scoot]

You may be right. Back when VA-27 trail access required riding through the 9/11 Memorial I would frequently see tourists with cameras there, and I never saw police attempt to stop that.

But since the signs that prohibit photography don’t indicate any distinction and are themselves located on various public roads, I’d be more inclined to approach the police with just an oral statement about my history of interactions with this driver, rather than to volunteer video upfront.

[AFHokie]

@Emm 188267 wrote:

Probably depends if you’re on a private pentagon road, or a public road. If you’re on a public road you can film, AND it’s legal to film or photograph the outside of government buildings*. There’s been a number of cases on this, and every time the person filming has been in the right ultimately.

*some exceptions likely apply, but I have a hard time believing the outside of the Pentagon is one of them with how often it’s photographed and filmed. I run my fly12 all the time when biking through the pentagon on public roads though, and see tourists take pictures too.

CFR Title 41, Section 102-74.420 covers federal policy regarding photography.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930AZ using Tapatalk

[elizsnyder]

you do realize that the electricity used by electricity powered cars is made by primarily by burning fossil fuels.

[DrP]

Oh, what a beautiful morning….
Crisp, clear air, wonderful sunrise,
and a long line of bikes (well spaced, not a jam) on Custis from Spout Run up the hill to the bridge to nowhere. Mostly in florescent yellow/green jackets, but a few not (to lend some individuality) and most with red flashing lights. It felt like this was the cool way to commute (as opposed to a few weeks ago, bundled up, only seeing one or two others – the cold way to commute). Spacing widened so no back-ups at the lights in Rosslyn, which was also a bonus.

[Author]

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