The View From Endeavour

On May 28th Astronaut Gregory Johnson (Astro_Box) tweeted from the Space Shuttle:

“A near perfect overflight of Long Lake (Traverse City, MI) from the Cupola yesterday. Very excited!”



I can see my house from here!

Complete Streets Are For Everyone

NPR had a story this week on how Complete Streets make streets safer for pedestrians who are crossing them. Especially for those people who cannot sprint across an intersection.

As America Ages, A Push To Make Streets Safer

Including Seniors and the less mobile.

This is a concept that doesn't get much coverage - social costs.

When pedestrians are unnecessarily injured there is a cost to society that is accrued - lost wages, lost productivity - plus the opportunity cost of having medical personnel respond to an accident that could have been prevented by better design.

Rather some people shout the simpler slogan of "unfunded mandate". Yes, unfunded mandates are a burden but in this case it ignores the fact that it is a concept to guide a design process for when roads are built or repaired so the money is already there. I like to save the unfunded mandate accusation for when it really is a problem.

Do people in earthquake zones call building codes an unfunded mandate? No. Because like the Complete Streets design concept, taking time to do things right the first time saves people from having to pay a lot at some later time.

Yampa River, Downtown Steamboat Springs

Photo by John F. Russell

Water rolls over Charlie’s Hole on the Yampa River in front of Bud Werner Memorial Library. The hole is a popular spot for local kayakers this time of year, and has become a draw for swimmers and people who enjoy being around water in summer.

Boardman River, downtown Traverse City


Via wikipedia

Doesn't look like a blue ribbon trout stream to me.

The Steamboat library sits at the edge of downtown and patrons enjoy watching the kayakers and fly anglers as they read. And this one river with its quasi-whitewater park brings $7.2 million to the Steamboat Springs economy each year.

In Traverse City we do a decent job of hiding the Boardman River in concrete and parking lots.

The Boardman deserves better.

Planes And Trains

I doubt that the following two news items are related, but they should be.

If you want cheaper air fares out of Traverse City then there needs to be a viable competitor such as rail.

At the beginning of the week The Ticker reported renewed interest in passenger rail: Passenger Train to TC?

Then later in the week the TC Chamber of Commerce released the letter received from Delta and it was reported in the news that TVC would be seeing lower air fares. See IPR: Delta To Add Seats Into TC

Again, I do not think Delta lowered fares to head off any possibility of passenger rail but in a perfect world that is how it would work.

Complete Streets Are Safe For Everyone

New study shows making roads safe for pedestrians make them safer for cars too.

Via Discovering Urbanism: New study sheds light on roadway safety for all

Quote from the study:

"This study finds that the factors associated with a vehicle crashing into a pedestrian and cyclist are largely the same as those resulting in a crash with another vehicle. Designs that balance the inherent tension between vehicle speeds and traffic conflicts can be used to enhance the safety of pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists alike."

Northern Michigan To Get World's First Industrial Biobutanol Plant

Via Biofuels Digest: Cobalt, American Process to launch first cellulosic biobutanol plant

This could be big.

Why It Matters

Butanol is the alcohol fuel you've never heard of. Biobutanol is butanol that has been produced with the help of microbes.

We've all heard of ethanol. Butanol is like ethanol in that it is an alcohol fuel and can be used in cars and it is commonly used by industry.

It is unlike ethanol in that in can be used as a straight-up replacement for gasoline with no engine modification; it has a higher energy density than ethanol; and can be shipped in existing gasoline pipelines because unlike ethanol it does not absorb water (ethanol has to be shipped by truck).

This is a bit of good news after the roller coaster rides provided by natural gas and biomass.

The explosion of natural gas leases in northern Michigan dried up as quickly as they appeared (TheTicker). Plus, the geological formation holding the gas (Utica Shale) only produces economical recovery rates through hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and this process is being found to have all kinds of faults (yes, that is geology humor) like what is currently happening in Pennsylvania (See Reuters: U.S. natgas well blowout raises safety concerns).

As far as biomass is concerned, TCLP was forced to abandon plans for a biomass burning power plant after community concerns (See IPR: TC L&P Abandons Biomass)

What It Could Mean

The Alpena Biorefinery will initially use waste wood from a particle board plant. But if successful it could mean a need for more cellulose sources in the future. The forests of Michigan perhaps, but even better would be planning ahead. If I ran a power company I'd find fallow land, plant native and quick growing woody plants that can be used as feedstock (e.g., willows) in biomass operations, then see what happens.

In 10-15 years if we're using alagae, wind, and solar to meet our energy needs then lease the purchased land to farmers; if biobutanol is a big deal then use the mature plants as the source for alcohol fuels.

Additional Reading
AP: Companies announce plans for Alpena refinery that converts wood waste to industrial chemical

Ecoseed: American Process and Cobalt Technologies to build world’s first biobutanol refinery

Sustainable Planet: World’s First Cellulosic Biobutanol Refinery to Be Built in Alpena, Michigan

Official site: Alpena Biorefinery

"Focus Is About Saying No"

The title quote is attributed to Steve Jobs.

This is why your old Mac's mouse only had one button and why the iPhone has only the physical Home button. The lesson Steve Jobs has given the world is say No to what is extraneous so you can focus your efforts on solving problems elegantly.

The people of Traverse City have spoken and they said "No Road".

No doesn't mean don't do anything though. People have their own reasons for voting No, those include:

"No" because the City must focus on traffic as a whole system.
"No" because there is no evidence showing that Boardman Lake Avenue will work.
"No" because roads like these have historically increased traffic.
"No" because other cities are tearing out roads that cut off neighborhoods from each other and amenities.
"No" because this road does not make the neighborhood safer.

We're trying to focus on the problem so we're saying No to building Boardman Lake Avenue.

We want to focus on enjoying and making better what we have.

Focus on building a trail and an Old Town park.

Focus on access to Boardman Lake.

Focus on complete street design. We want Cass, Union, and Lake Ave to be residential streets too. To do that they have to look like neighborhood streets. This means traffic calming.

We need to focus on making the streets we have better.

Focusing on Traverse City traffic issues is about saying No to Old Town's Boardman Lake Avenue bypass.