I have finished my independent study. I am going to post it bit-by-bit here on gimme-five for everyone to read. Thank you, everyone, for the input you’ve given me over the past few months. I appreciate it, and I hope you enjoy reading my study.

Note: If you’d like to keep track of whenever I post a new article about this paper, check out the sustransitpaper category.

Introduction

The current state of transportation in the United States is both a blessing and a curse. An increasingly mobile society is convenient and leads to economic development. However, the current transportation system also creates significant social costs, such as congestion, accidents, noise, pollution, and resource depletion.[1]

These social costs are severe, and they are not entirely borne by their creators. For example, a car driver bears significant costs when involved in an accident or stuck on a congested freeway. However, the same individual does not pay for the environmental impact of oil extraction when filling up at a gas station, or the increased congestion created by driving to work instead of taking the subway.

My roommates and I are trying to conserve energy.  We haven’t turned on our air conditioner all year, and only had our heat on for a total of about a month.  It was really hot today… probably 95 degrees in Williamsburg this afternoon.  But keeping the windows open and running fans, combined with occasionally splashing water on my face and taking a cold shower made things pretty bearable.

I do feel less productive in the heat, though.  I’ve been sitting here working on homework, but it’s moving very slowly.  I don’t know how someone living in Florida could do this.  Oh well… anybody else ever voluntarily turn off the A/C?

[Ed Note: Pictures to come soon, hopefully.]

I volunteered at Step It Up 2007 at William and Mary today.  For those of you who don’t know, Step It Up is a nationwide climate change rally held on April 14th, 2007.  On this “National Day of Climate Action,” people all over the country held rallies (there are over 1,400 total rallies, at least one in each of the 50 states) calling for Congress to take action now on mitigating climate change, and asking them specifically to reduce CO2 emissions 80% by 2050.

The day began at 8am.  I helped lug some tables and chairs from William and Mary’s campus center over to the Wren Courtyard, the area the event was being held.  Next, I helped carry some tall bamboo from the small bamboo forest we have at William and Mary over so we could hold up signs promoting the event high enough so the farmer’s market across the street could see.

After the bamboo was acquired, I walked over to the farmer’s market across the street with a few members of William and Mary’s Student Environmental Action Coalition to pass out fliers informing people that our climate change rally was just across the street and we would have speakers, free food, and free compact fluorescent lightbulbs.

For those of you who keep up with gimme-five, you know that I am in the process of working on an independent study in the Economics department of William and Mary.  The study is on the economics of transportation, with particular focus on the environment.  Although the last article (about ethanol) was part of my independent study, I thought I would give an explicit update.

I am planning on creating a policy proposal to address a three-pronged problem associated with transportation.  The three pronged problem is:

1. We are running out of liquid fuels
2. Congestion is becoming worse in and around major cities
3. Our current system of transportation is not environmentally friendly.

Of course, there are many sub-problems associated with the three points mentioned above, however, I will try to focus on the three broad issues.  Of course, this idea is not set in stone yet and is dependent upon what my professor and I decide is an appropriate plan.

There have been a number of different policies proposed or enacted to address one, two, or all of these problems.  These include:

• Subsidies and development for electric cars and hybrids
• Alternative Fuels and Technological Improvements

Hey everybody, I just ran the Shamrock Marathon this past Sunday, the 18th of March, and I thought I’d mention how it went on gimme-five since I haven’t written anything on here in a while.  I know this doesn’t fit in with the usual gimme-five banter, and my time isn’t as fast as “Shaniqua’s” marathon PRs, but oh well.  Enjoy.

Shamrock Marathon Race Report

After months of training, the day of the Shamrock Marathon had finally arrived.  I awoke at 5:00 AM after a “wonderful” sleep at the Super 8 in Virginia Beach.  The hotel wasn’t actually as bad as most people claimed.  Sure, the stairwell doubled as a bathroom (or at least smelled like feces) and the floor and bed generated tons of static electricity that my girlfriend Jessie and I unfortunately shocked each other with many times over the course of the night and morning, but other than that, it wasn’t so bad.  [Side note: the static electricity really hurt.  I got up and reached for a metal part of a light switch and saw a gigantic blue spark when I was shocked…]