The Global Ideas Blog

Travel woes and foes

Lots of new Transport Ideas flowing into the Global Ideas Bank at the moment.....everything from an idea for a practical city bicycle to a dashboard speedometer to bring home to you how damn fast you're going.

Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner, but my transport issues are all tube / city-centre related. Interesting to scan through the London mayoral candidates on transport then. You can see them all here: London Elects. The present incumbent, Ken Livingstone, is planning to follow up the success (?) of the congestion charge and increased buses with, amongst other things: "Tackle the air pollution that causes 1,600 premature deaths in London each year, making London a Low Emission Zone - with rigorous pollution standards for lorries, buses, coaches and taxis" and "Make travel on buses anywhere in London free for young people under the age of 18 in full-time education." Interesting ideas. Needless to say they're all planning to run the tube throughout the night or something ridiculous....although we'll be happy if it's just running on the day.

Bhutan: tobacco-free?

Just writing some entries for the forthcoming Global Ideas Book 2004, and amongst those was a piece about Bhutan becoming the first country in the world to become tobacco-free. 19 out of its 20 districts have already declared selling tobacco products as illegal, and smokers will be fined if caught doing so in public. Only the capital remains to come under legislation, and that should happen this year. It's a sobering tale for those Irish or New York smokers who thought they were hard done by. Even the airport's duty-free shop doesn't stock cigarettes anymore.

More generally, Bhutan seems to be at the forefront of a lot of (depending on your views) progressive measures as it makes the transition from monarchy to democracy. An idea featured in a previous Global Ideas Bank bulletin was the way they measure their nation's wellbeing: by Gross National Happiness, rather than Gross National Product. If only the same was true of some other countries....who shall remain nameless....

Biodiesel spreads in the US

Wired report on the swift increase in the uptake of biodiesel in the US today.

"Biodiesel fueling stations are sprouting like weeds across America, where production of the alternative fuel rose 66 percent in 2003. Experts say the rapid growth of the renewable fuel will stretch the country's tenuous petroleum supply while helping people breathe a little easier......

Biodiesel enthusiasts may soon find their oil-alternative fuel easier to acquire. According to the National Biodiesel Board, the number of consumer biodiesel fueling stations rose nearly 50 percent last year to 200. So far this year, 25 new stations have opened, including 10 in Colorado and five in New Hampshire."

[Full article here]

Which can only be good news for us all. There is more on biodiesel in this piece on the GIB: Biodiesel fuel made from recycled cooking oil which also points out that there are two things that might be encouraging biodiesel use: a normal diesel-engined car does not have to be altered in any way and, most importantly, there is no shortage of restaurant grease to use for raw material. That's right: frying stuff might make us all obese, but at least we'll be travelling green......

Brain-fuel

Cattle brains and other "high-risk" parts of livestock infected with BSE may be made into bio-fuel under a directive from the US government today. As reported on ENN this week, "Under the new USDA program, a $50 million loan guarantee program would be set up to help small businesses in rural areas develop ways to turn cattle brains and other high-risk parts into a "bio-based source of energy."

It's a shame that the British government couldn't have tried something similar, rather than creating the massive, sickening inferno of cow corpses that they did during foot and mouth, or simply culling cows as they did in the BSE crisis. Amazing where a little lateral thinking can take you....