Cars Make Us Fat

A recent article by No Impact Man reiterates what is perhaps the environmentalist’s most persuasive argument: What’s good for the planet is good for us. This is as true in our diet decisions (natural, wholesome foods versus packaged, processed, nutrient-stripped crap) as it is in our transportation selections.

Ditching the Car for a Motorboard in L.A.

We at Carectomy are always pleased to come across news of people making the car-free plunge. But when the news comes from Los Angeles, the quintessential car-centric, freeway-laden American city, there’s an extra degree of joy. Kathryn Pope’s surgical tools for her carectomy: public transportation, car-sharing for “special occasions” via Flexcar, and a motorboard for local scurries.

Bike-Sharing Programs Coming Our Way

Lyon and Paris, France, offer the successful bike-sharing models that other cities are scrambling to copy. Their Velo'v and Vélib programs, respectively, offer thousands of bikes available for checkout at automated stations all over the city. Here’s a partial recap of some of the U.S. bike-sharing initiatives underway.

Want to keep your house warm without your furnace? A 30-person dance party is pretty much the only way to do it. By the end of the evening, you'll be opening windows.

Now imagine that your house is Stockholm Central Station, where 125,000 hot bodies hustle to and from their commutes every day. All that body heat has traditionally been somewhat of a nuissance. But now, the city of Stockholm is actually going to capture the body heat and use it to heat a nearby office building.

Apparently the system is fairly simple. Just a bunch of pipes that will collect the heat, and pump it out of the too-warm train station and into a new office building being built nearby. Body heat from Stockholm Central Station will provide roughly 20% of the heat for the new building. For a system that will only cost about $30,000 to build, it's a no-brainer for the City of Stockholm.

Via Physorg