Help Make Vegetarian License Plates a Reality!

My home state of Virginia has a program that allows small groups to create custom license plate designs. Several groups that I work with in Richmond decided to pool together to create one to celebrate and promote vegetarianism. The vegetarian license plates would be available in a year or so, but only if the groups get 350 pre-paid applications to show that there is a demand. The deadline for the submission is now only two weeks away and at this point they still don't have enough applications. If you or anyone you know is a vegetarian in Virginia please encourage them to get the plate, it's only a $10 commitment (refunded if the plates don't get made). All the details can be found on the Veggie Plates site HERE.

Customize your own Vegetarian License Plate

The folks at PETA are helping spread the word about the Virginia Vegetarian License Plate with a fun little custom plate generator:

EAT ME
Create your own vegetarian license plate for Web posting-and if you're a Virginia resident, you can apply for a real one!

More folks are needed to sign up for the plates if it's to become a reality (It's only a $10 commitment!) Info and forms can be found HERE.

Virginia's Vegetarian License Plate in the News

The proposed vegetarian license plate I designed has been getting some press including this recent segment on the local news. However, a lot more pre-orders are needed to make it a reality, so if you're a Virginia driver and want to help out, get the details HERE (it's only a $10 commitment!)

Vegetarian License Plates in Virginia

As part of the work I do each year with the Richmond Vegetarian Festival I was asked to design a custom license plate for vegetarians by Vegan Action and the Vegetarian Society of Richmond.

They need 350 Virginia residents to sign up for these plates before the end of this year for them to go into production, after which time souvenir plates will be available for purchase to non-residents as well. The additional cost is only $10 (which needs to be prepaid, but it will be refunded if enough signatures aren't collected). The process takes a while, so the plates, once approved, will be available in April 2011 at the earliest. If you or someone you know lives in Virginia and is interested in signing up for these follow the directions below or for more information send a note to VeggiePlates AT live.com:

Submit VSA-10 (completed) with $10.00 application fee
($20.00 fee for personalized plates) to:

Richmond Vegetarian Festival
P.O. Box 6692
Richmond, VA 23230-0692

Checks should be made payable to “Vegan Action”

50 Cars or 1 Bus

A Swedish bus company takes the environmental math of cars vs buses literally...



via

James Howard Kunstler on Suburbia

Author James Howard Kunstler entertainingly critiques suburban sprawl at TED in 2004.





Thanks Chris!

PARK(ing) Day: September 21

Started in San Francisco in 2005, PARK(ing) Day is now an international event of small proportions. City dwellers worldwide are encouraged to build a mini-park in a parking spot to draw attention to how streets are utilized and the lack greenspace in urban areas. Find out more and directions for making your own Park(ing) Space here.

Thanks Mim!

Backlog

Sorry for the silence from me (and thanks to Brad for keeping the site rolling), mid-week holidays clearly throw me off. Anyway, I have a backlog of stuff to write about, so here are a few quick links to start:

Despite everything More US Commuters Are Driving Alone.

Corporate Car Fleets and Car Rentals go Green.

San Diego fights Walmart.

Cities are building more bike paths.

Since all of these are from the Christian Science Monitor, I think this a good time to explain the appeal of this paper:

• Despite the name the content is not religious (nor biased towards a religious viewpoint). There is only one article that relates to Christian Science per issue and it is clearly marked in a box at the end of the paper.
• They have a top notch international staff of reporters (rare outside of the big players, most papers rely on Reuters and AP).
• They are extremely balanced in their reporting.
• They do not sensationalize and are one of the few papers that actually goes out of their way not to encourage copycat behavior.
• Their motto is "To injure no man, but to bless all mankind."

Sign-Free Cities

Several European cities are following the example of the Dutch town of Makkinga, which has removed street signs as a means of fostering better driver/pedestrian interactions and ultimately increased safety for all. From a recent(ish) Der Spiegel article:

...About 70 percent of traffic signs are ignored by drivers. What's more, the glut of prohibitions is tantamount to treating the driver like a child and it also foments resentment. He may stop in front of the crosswalk, but that only makes him feel justified in preventing pedestrians from crossing the street on every other occasion. Every traffic light baits him with the promise of making it over the crossing while the light is still yellow.

...It may sound like chaos, but it's only the lesson drawn from one of the insights of traffic psychology: Drivers will force the accelerator down ruthlessly only in situations where everything has been fully regulated. Where the situation is unclear, they're forced to drive more carefully and cautiously.

Read the entire article here.

Car-Free America

Car-free zones and times are on the rise in the US (though mostly centered around existing public spaces like parks) according to a recent Christian Science Monitor article:

• New York is proposing to shut down perimeter roads of Central Park and Brooklyn's Prospect Park all summer long.

• Atlanta plans to transform 53 acres of blighted, unused land into new bike-friendly green space.

• Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago, and El Paso, Texas, are planning events to promote car-free days in public parks, most in the hope that the idea will become permanent or extend for months.

"Cities across America are increasingly declaring that parks are for people, not cars, ... and closing roads within parks is one result of that," says Ben Welle with The Trust for Public Land's Center for City Park Excellence, in Washington.

Resistance can be fierce at first, he and others say, because of worries about traffic congestion, parking problems, and loss of visitors for businesses and museums. But studies are showing that traffic problems can be minimized, shops and museums get more visitors, and residents begin to cherish their where-the-action-is location.

Read the entire article here.

That new car smell may be slowly killing you.

If you have to buy a car, be sure to find out how toxic they are first at HealthCar.org.