FoS.blog: The Friends of Seattle blog

Seattle Inventor's Prototype Personal Windmills Shows Promise

We've written about micro wind-power generation before, so we were pleased to see today's newstory about a Seattle inventor who has developed a clever design for a personal windmill.

Thomas Key, who works on the renewable-energy program of the Electric Power Research Institute, believes that micro wind-power generation is infeasible, and he cites city zoning restrictions as one obstacle. But the City of Seattle's proposed revisions to the multifamily housing zoning code would allow personal windmills to be built.

Windy Seattle: Micro Wind Power May Not Be Economically or Environmentally Beneficial---Yet

It is likely that personal wind farms, rooftop solar panels, and the like will not save the planet, but we have a hunch that they might be one of the many little things that we can do to achieve one big thing---reduce the environmental effects of generating electricity. The Nickels administration seems to understand this, so its proposals (PDF) for revising the multifamily-housing zoning code would allow for small wind turbines and solar panels lower than 10 feet in height to be installed on the top of multifamily housing without violating the zoning code. We like this innovation. Make renewable energy lawful, as opposed to illegal.

[Photo by Glogger from the Wikimedia Commons, published under a GNU Free Documentation License]

But in the Business section of this morning's New York Times we see an article questioning the economic efficiency and the environmental benefits  of the kind of small wind turbines that would be installed on multifamily housing buildings in Seattle.

D.C. Launches Its Own Bike-Sharing Program

Because we support bike-sharing programs, we thought you might like to know that D.C. has launched a bike-sharing program of its own:

Apparently a bike-sharing program was also implemented for the Democratic Convention in Denver, and Ron Sims has reported that a bike-sharing program is currently being planned for King County. Yes, please!

Car-Free Sunday in Columbia City Appears to Have Been Very Popular

The city's first Car-Free Sunday was not treated well by the weather, but according to the Bus Chick the Car-Free Sunday, Columbia City version, was well-attended on Sunday. Of course, Nicole Brodeur famously whined that "Seattle is so desperate to be green and gracious, it's making some of us red with rage." She complained about the city's plans for turning over city blocks to people, letting happy walking, playing, and bicycling take priority over noisy, dirty automobiling. From the looks of the Bus Chick's photos, the people -- including many families -- who visited Rainier Avenue on Sunday's Car-Free Day didn't seem to be "red with rage." Instead, they were enjoying each the city as it's best enjoyed -- as people, as a community. We love the car-free days; now let's take it to the next level and start our own full-blast Ciclovia street festival.

By the way, here's a great video of how they do car-free days in Milwaukee:

Here's one from New York:

The West Seattle Blog posted a great overview of this coming Saturday's Car-Free Day on Alki.

The City Needs Bike Boulevards

We're not always fond of traffic calming techniques. Our reasoning is that traffic calming often makes a street near-useless for any purpose other than neighborhood parking. If the City is going to impose traffic calming on so many streets, at least it could do what Portland does and make the traffic-calmed streets useful for other purposes, like biking:

Happily, the Bicycle Master Plan provides for bicycle boulevards of Seattle's own. Unhappily, the Plan calls for only 18.1 miles of bicycle boulevards. More! More! More!

Using Belgian Blocks to Improve the Urban Environment for Pedestrians

Car-dominated streets are lousy places to walk. To reduce the impacts of traffic, the City of Seattle runs a Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program. "Traffic calming" refers to the tricks that the City uses to make it a pain in the ass to drive through side streets---traffic circles, chicanes, speed humps, and curb bulbs. We like curb bulbs because they make it easier for pedestrians to cross the street, but we confess to being frustrated with the other measures. They turn side streets into little more than glorified parking lots for single-family neighborhoods. A better solution is surely available---a solution that is friendly to pedestrians, and yet does not defeat the purpose of having streets in the first place. Here's an interesting idea: pave streets with Belgian Blocks. It's not a new idea; Belgian Blocks once covered city streets everywhere.

Photo of New York's Greenwich Village by Flickr User wallyg, Used Under a Creative Commons License

Still, it's an idea worth revisiting. Not only are stone-paved streets lovely to look at, but they are longer-lasting than concrete and blacktop. Most important of all, their rougher ride induces drivers to slow to a more reasonable speed. Streets paved with Belgian Blocks could strike the right balance between making the urban environment pedestrian-friendly and keeping our streets usable for vehicles. Of course, stone-paved streets might be bad for bicyclists.

Paris Planning New Electric Car Sharing Program

After posting about municipal bike sharing progams, we came across CoolTown Studios' post about a new electric car sharing program in Paris.

Zipcar is great, but Paris's Autolib program seems better. It's car sharing 2.0. Not only are the cars electric, but the computerized system allows users to park the cars at any drop-off point (700 of them!) and then, after completing the trip's purpose, to pick up a different car. This system would allow for more efficient use of the cars and the city's curb space. With Zipcar's system, in contrast, the cars just sit there unused when the driver doesn't need it, and the cars are more tethered to their parking spots.

Hey City of Seattle, why let Paris have all the fun?

Bike Sharing and So Can Seattle

Barcelona:

Read more about the Barcelona program.

Corporate-sponsored program in Vancouver, BC:

Paris:

Read more about the Paris program.

Bring this to Seattle, please!

UPDATE: Portland is struggling to get its own bike-sharing program off the ground. (Via Planetizen)

We Should Start Our Own "Ciclova," the Ultimate Street Festival

Watch this video by Streetfilms:

Dear City of Seattle:

Please make this happen here.

Sincerely,

Friends of Seattle