Friday, March 24, 2017

Cost of sprawl: sleep deprivation

CityLab: "That research, which recently led both the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics to urge later start times at American schools, shows that teenagers need at least nine hours of sleep a night, and that during puberty the body starts producing the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin at 11 p.m.—a full two hours after adult bodies do. And teens keep pumping the stuff out until around 8 a.m.; perhaps not surprisingly, virtually all American teenagers don’t get nine hours of nightly rest."
In the US, suburban school students have their own bus system. This expense benefits the sprawl profiteers, builders, developers, oil, cars, DIY stores, and such, but is paid for by tax payers. In addition, to make these buses work, students must give up sleep.

When people tell you that #freetransit is too expensive, these are just some of the egregious costs of #autosprawl that can be listed that would be relieved by ending the autosprawl system.

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Global fossil-fuel subsidy calculated to be $1.8 trillion

Motherboard: "So what's the damage? It's pretty colossal. For the last year in his model, 2010, Stefanski found that the total global direct and indirect financial costs of all fossil fuel subsidies was $1.82 trillion, or 3.8 percent of global GDP. He also found that the subsidies meant much higher carbon emissions released into our atmosphere."

Sunday, March 5, 2017

World urban traffic congestion costs "hundreds of billions"

eurotransportmagazine: "The International Energy Agency expects urban growth demands to double road and rail travel by 2050, causing significant strain on public transport infrastructure. Furthermore, in cities around the world, rising congestion is costing hundreds of billions and affecting the health of the public. This is obviously a cause for concern, and puts sustainability and the liveability of cities as a focal point when deciding upon future transportation projects."