City of 2.5 million in India plans 1 day per month #freetransit

Times of India: ""If more and more people get used to the public transport, it will reduce the dependence on the private vehicles. It will also help in better traffic management," said Aba Bagul, a corporator, who had given proposal.
The PMPML has given green signal to proposal. The public transport runs nearly 1600 buses. Around 10 lakh people use the public transport every day in the city. Apart from providing service in city areas, the public transport buses even ply in the near by villages of Pune."





see also Fare-free South Asia

Free Corporate Transit - Private means unequal

Why companies are going the extra mile to beat congestion - JLL Real Views: "Corporate buses taking employees to the office may not be a new idea but they are a popular one, especially between San Francisco and Silicon Valley. When Google launched its shuttle service for its Bay Area employees back in 2004, it served about 150 employees at the time. Today, Alphabet – Google’s parent company – operates a fleet of more than a hundred biodiesel buses and estimates that more than half the company’s 11,000 Bay Area employees use the service on a daily basis. Amazon recently joined the club with its Amazon Ride service shuttling employees to its two Seattle office locations."

Large companies in the US know very well the benefits of economies of scale. They have their own health centers and bus fleets. Is this what you want for the future? Just look at India.

Turkey threatens EU with migrants

Reuters- Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan threatened on Friday to unleash a new wave of migrants on Europe after lawmakers there voted for a temporary halt to Turkey's EU membership negotiations, but behind the fighting talk, neither side wants a collapse in ties.

Now that cheap oil has peaked, you can expect more energy wars and mass unemployment. Even though coal and natural gas have not peaked, oil has a special role in the economy, just like blood in the human body.

So now there are too many people. They can't kill us fast enough in war, so they create massive refugee camps. These will get bigger.

Now migration is being used as a weapon. This will become usual and normal, like climate disruption.

Americans vote for racism and then wonder why there's no buses

Center for Transportation Excellence: "“This remarkable passage rate for public transportation measures sends a strong message to President-elect Donald Trump and to  Congress that Americans support moving forward with funding from all levels of government that connects infrastructure investment with job opportunities and our country’s economic vitality,” said APTA Acting President and CEO Richard A. White."

Ballot measures prove year after year that Americans want public transit. Why don't they get it? Because they vote for oil trolls. The oil industry has known for a long time that is can't win politically, so it cobbles together "tea parties" and such which are mainly just racism. So a voter was liquidating a retirement account to buy a car, his friend asked why not take the bus. There is no bus. Well, his friend says, you should fight racism. Huh?

#Parisagreement proposals contain science-fiction of carbon capture

theconversation : "Some models suggest that up to 1 trillion tonnes of carbon dioxide needs to be removed from the atmosphere to meet the 1.5℃ goal.

This idea is increasingly being called out as a risky and “highly speculative” strategy to limit warming to 1.5℃, as it puts food security and biodiversity at risk, and may not even be possible to deliver. The Convention on Biodiversity has also now weighed in on the issue, declaring that carbon removal techniques are highly uncertain.

A recent report from the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), summarised here, argues that the scale of negative emissions assumed by many climate models is improbably high."

Scientists spend a lot of effort combating disinformation from the profit system. As soon as they win one argument, another pops up.

History of climate denial/delay

• there is no warming
• ok, there is warming, but it is not man-made
• ok, it is man-made, but it's not dangerous
• ok, it's dangerous, but we have a quick fix 

This argument will never be won. We should simply go directly to people and advocate for policy that leads to actual culture-change. For example, if cities were car-free, more people would urbanize and birth rates would fall.

20 Billion BBLS of undiscovered oil in Permian Basin - time of mass death on earth

USGS : "Undiscovered resources are those that are estimated to exist based on geologic knowledge and theory, while technically recoverable resources are those that can be produced using currently available technology and industry practices. Whether or not it is profitable to produce these resources has not been evaluated."

This oil is theoretically in the Permian Basin. Ironically the late Permian was the time of the largest mass death on Earth. So if this undiscovered oil is "discovered," then burning it will put all that dead life back in the mix for another mass death.

#parisagreement a hoax, funded by carbon emitters

Creative self-destruction: the climate crisis and the myth of 'green' capitalism: "The disconnect between business and climate action was symbolised by the announcement earlier this year that a significant portion of funding for the Paris meeting comes from major fossil fuel companies and carbon emitters; a situation French climate officials admitted was financially unavoidable."

'via Blog this'

US bipartisan agreement on dumping good money after bad into #autosprawl

Conservatives vs. Trump’s infrastructure plan - POLITICO: "Even so, Trump cheered infrastructure advocates from both parties when he gave the issue a prime mention during his victory speech early Wednesday."

'via Blog this'

Asphalt lobbyist steps into power with Trump

Curbed : "In a year when Americans have driven more miles, consumed more gas, and created more climate-destroying emissions than any other moment in history, the idea that we might continue to promote a car-centric, highway-widening transportation policy is frightening. This would be a striking departure from the work of current Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx, who has openly advocated for pumping money into transit projects—not highway projects—to build healthy, equitable communities."

Voters Want Transportation Investment - 69% of ballot measures approved

Mass Transit: "According to an analysis by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association's "Transportation Investment Advocacy Center" (ARTBA-TIAC), 69 percent of the 280 transportation funding ballot measures up for vote across the nation were approved, with results still pending for seven local areas. "

Trump a symptom of declining net energy

Occupy, Tea Party, and the Politics of Less | ZDNet: "There are no quick fixes to this challenge. It has evolved over roughly half a century, through Democratic and Republican regimes alike, and we have roughly half a century to respond to it, starting right now. Any response that doesn't address the fundamental issue of declining net energy is doomed to fail. I like to think we can respond intelligently, and I would never short human ingenuity and compassion. On the other hand, it’s hard to argue against a reversion to the mean of human history."

Humans will not achieve the 2% #climate target

Climate negotiations haven't delivered reductions in emissions after 25 years, ... we can't figure out carbon capture and storage, we don't even have negative emissions, and we have vested interests...

The biggest subsidy

There has been much written about how cars and sprawl are subsidized. Public money is used to pay much of the costs, while private business owners profit from the system.

This autosprawl system is putting carbon in the air and causing warming that threatens the whole biosphere. There is no charge for this, it is free. This is the biggest subsidy.

Technology will not save us, just the opposite

How Researchers Could Miss the Real Energy Story | Our Finite World: "In fact, in my opinion, the story is very different. The very thing that should be saving us–technology–has side effects that bring the whole system down. 

The only way we can keep adding technology is by adding more capital goods, more specialization, and more advanced education for selected members of society. The problem, as we should know from research regarding historical economies that have collapsed, is that more complexity ultimately leads to collapse because it leads to huge wage disparity."

Students in Malta to study #freetransit

timesofmalta.com:The possibility of providing free public transport to encourage commuters to swap their cars for buses will be one of several questions researched by economics students at the University of Malta this year.
The research proposal, one of several presented by students at a seminar in Valletta this week, was prompted by the continuous rise in private car users and congestion and the detrimental results on the environment and economy.
Zero-fare public transport has never been implemented on a nationwide basis but was introduced in the Estonian capital of Tallinn, which has a population only slightly smaller than Malta, three years ago.
It has also been introduced in a number of individual towns and cities around the world. In Hasselt, Belgium, public transport use increased by 13 times since fares were removed in 1997.
During the University of Malta seminar, the student behind the proposal noted that initial research into case studies overseas has shown that free public transport was responsible for other benefits such as a reduction in obesity from a more mobile public. The question will now be tackled in depth over the course of the year, incorporating secondary data and fresh analysis.
Meanwhile, other students will be examining questions such as the effect of lifestyles on productivity, the determinants of obesity and the demand for health services.
The effect of governance on well-being, the effect of the financial crisis on growth, the phenomenon of negative interest rates and of asset purchases by banks all form the basis of other research proposals."

Diabetes, high blood pressure risk lowered with walking and cycling to work

belmarrahealth: "Diabetes and high blood pressure risk can be lowered by walking or cycling to work. The study included data from 20,000 people across the U.K. who completed the survey. The researchers found that walking, cycling, and using public transit were associated with lower risks of being overweight, compared to driving or taking a taxi."

The best way to get back to walking is to break the critical mass of the subsidized private auto. The way to do that is to make urban buses and trams fare-free. The health benefits will more than pay for the missing fares.