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1. Microsoft developers trim code internally to cut costs
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2. links for 2008-05-07
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3. National bike month! National bike month!
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4. Three easy ways to lower gas prices
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5. Gas tax Rorschach
Microsoft developers trim code internally to cut costs
Ted Samson - Microsoft
National bike month! National bike month!
It’s national bike month, don’t you know. Get ready for tons and tons of bike blogging!
There’s nothing more powerful than the so-called demonstration effect, which is why I continue to be so enamored with the Copenhagen Bicycle Culture Blog, a site that tirelessly and cheerfully celebrates the seemingly trivial aspects of mass bicycle culture in Denmark. Hopefully the pictures below will put a smile on your face. If they do, go read Alex Steffen’s essay “My Other Car is a Bright Green City” and consider what you can do to bring us closer to that vision. (Click any image to see the original post.)
A bike passenger enjoys Denmark’s liberal outdoor drinking laws while getting towed through Copenhagen.
Here’s a simple idea that never occurred to me: every taxi in Denmark has a rack for hauling up to two bikes. It costs about $2 per bike, at the present horrendous exchange rate.
Think you need an SUV to haul loads? Think again. Cargo bikes are serious business in Denmark.
Think you need a minivan to haul the kids to school? This slightly hypnotic video suggests otherwise.
Three easy ways to lower gas prices
We’re all about practical solutions here at TerraPass. While politicians pander, consumers complain and gas prices soar, you — yes, you! — can personally play a role in getting those fuel costs under control real quick. How? Glad you asked…
Drive less
This tip is shamelessly ripped off from the Environmental Economics blog, so I’ll just quote in full:
Drive Less! - The env-econ grass roots solution to high gas prices. Drive Less is an answer to the question “What can we as consumers do to bring down the price of gas?” “Drive Less!” places the burden on drivers to take action. Gas prices are high because drivers are willing to pay high gas prices. “Drive Less!” and gas prices will fall.
You might be thinking that this advice is little help to those protesting truck drivers, who need to drive to earn a living. Ah, but that’s the beauty of the “Drive Less” campaign. When demand slackens, the price of gas drops for everyone. Drive less for the environment, for your wallet, and for your trucker brethren.
(I once came across a great stat on how much gas prices would drop if everyone shaved just a few miles from their weekly travels. Alas, I can’t find it anywhere. If anyone knows the figure, please post it in comments.)
Slow down
Maybe you can’t drive less. But surely you can drive more slowly. According to the Congressional Budget Office, drivers appear to slow down when gas prices rise. The effect is so small that it’s almost certainly unconscious, but it is nevertheless a rational response to high fuel prices. Easing off the accelerator can boost your car’s fuel efficiency 10% or more, depending on conditions.
So get over to the right lane, turn on cruise control, and enjoy the scenery.
Update: Pete reminds me to shill for our very cool ScanGauge II real-time mpg computer. This little number makes Sunday driving fun.
Join the trucker protest
Truckers demanding that Congress put caps on gas prices have the wrong policy prescription, but there is at least one simple solution at politicians’ disposal: raise the weight limit on trucks.
The U.S. has one of the lowest freight weight limits among developed countries. In Canada, trucks can haul up to 138,000 lbs. When they hit the U.S. border, they have to slim down to 80,000 lbs. Lower weight limits mean more trucks on the road, which increases not only carbon emissions but also deadly traffic accidents. One study suggested that a 7% increase in the weight limit could shave off 8 billion miles of driving annually.
Like so many efficiency measures, this one seems like a freebie. It’s not, actually. Infrastructure would have to be improved to handle the heavier loads. But it’s still a quick-ish fix.
Bonus tip: inflate your tires
This is just a no-brainer — make sure your tires are properly inflated. Then throw on some of our jazzy LED tire alerts to make sure they stay that way.
Gas tax Rorschach
This is weird. Contrary to the expectations of everyone on the universe, the media has covered the gas tax holiday in a fairly substantive way. As a result, a slender majority of voters actually oppose the idea. Particularly on such an emotional issue, it’s somewhat remarkable and encouraging to see voters narrowly favoring the non-demagogic position.
Commentators, on the other hand, have been far less restrained, wildly over-interpreting the issue at every step.
A few blogger types have suggested that the gas tax pander permanently destroys the credibility of Hillary Clinton (and, presumably, John McCain) on the issue of climate change. There’s simply no way, the logic goes, that someone who cares about carbon emissions could ever come out in support of such a plan. This is plainly nonsense. Although the gas tax pander is deeply disappointing, the political calculation behind it is obvious. It in no way completely invalidates Clinton’s solid climate plan.
Others have suggested that voters’ failure to respond to the pander reflects a newfound maturity on the part of the electorate: American’s are finally ready to get serious about enacting a hefty carbon tax.
There’s clearly a heavy dose of wishful thinking going on here. The gas tax holiday created a fairly unique media event. It provided a sharp point of contrast between two members of the same political party locked in a high-profile contest. Moreover, both the simplicity and the sheer badness of the gas tax holiday idea allowed journalists to explain the underlying economics, rather than covering the issue as a he-said/she-said shouting match.
It’s certainly nice that, under these unusual conditions, roughly half of voters see the gas tax proposal for what it is . But climate change policy is a lot more complicated. There’s been dramatic movement on the issue over the past two years, but we’ve still got some distance to go.
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