(Don't) Blame Canada - Toronto's Bike Sharing Program

For those of you that have been steady readers since I first started this blog last year (there are about 150 of you from what I can tell… *internet high-five*), then you probably realize that I am somewhat obsessed with riding my bike even though it is a relatively crappy mountain bike that I treat like a road bike.

So, it probably comes as no surprise that I am going to keep on punching away on bike-sharing topics. The most recent development comes from Toronto where they are starting a new bike sharing program as an extension of their public transportation system.

I love these programs because they address two topics which I think everyone needs to take seriously:

• Carbon Emissions
• Personal Health

Here is how Toronto’s program will work:

In order to rent bicycles through BIXI’s program, users are encouraged to subscribe to an annual membership, however, occasional users are also welcome and can take out bicycles using credit cards. Similar to bike-sharing programs around the world, BIXI’s annual members can rent bicycles for free for the first half-hour, with additional charges for extra time of usage.

Bike sharing is awesome because instead of one person owning a bike and parking it for an entire day where it isn’t used, multiple people can enjoy a whole system of bikes. This alleviates traffic, carbon emissions, and fat people - all things I would like to see resolved in the near future.

Either way, take a look at the full article, it is good stuff: Full Article

Plastic Vs. Paper: A Gap In Logic

I've been doing a lot of reading about the pros and cons of both paper and plastic bags that you get at a grocery store, and the bottom line is they both suck.

Paper is bad because you are chopping down trees and it is more difficult to transport to end consumers, and plastic is bad because while it is less energy intensive to recycle, only 5% of plastic bags are ever turned in to be recycled, leaving 95% of the bags created to floats around the waste stream for 1000+ years.

One solution to this problem was to apply a bag tax on consumers in Washington, DC. This worked wonderfully for their situation because the money collected through these fees was turned around and used to clean up the Anacostia River. However, I realize that this isn't the solution for everywhere because you don't always have an environmental concern to apply the taxed money towards.

With that said, I still don't understand the gaps in logic displayed by some readers in the comments section of websites. Here is a truly inspired response from a person I will call Stubborn McAsshat:

"If a tax happens, I'll simply request paper...Additionally, I will probably visit grocery stores in other towns more frequently, get my stuff in the plastic bag and drive the bags to be recycled some time down the road."

Here is a person that knows that plastic bags are bad, but they are still so stubborn towards any form of a tax that they are willing to burn more gas just to avoid an additional plastic bag fee. Keep in mind that the tax they are referring to is a $0.05 fee for each plastic bag.

I truly do believe that incentive programs are the way to go so that you are rewarding consumers who use reusable bags instead of penalizing consumers with taxes, but when I see people acknowledge that their current habits are bad and still continue forward with them - it makes me angry.

But I digress! It is 60 Degrees outside and I'm going to ride my bike for the first time in forever!