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Each time I walk to a Flexcar in my neighborhood, I pass scores of parked private cars. I sometimes fantasize about strolling up to one of them, swiping my Flexcard over the dash, and driving away. I’d be debited automatically; my neighbor would be credited, less a slice for Flexcar. And I’d have a vastly larger pool of vehicles at my disposal. This fantasy is less fantastical than it may...

Editor’s note: Guest contributor David Kershner is a land conservation consultant who did research for Sightline’s book Tax Shift. In case you haven’t noticed, environmental tax shifting is receiving national attention, thanks in part to Al Gore. Last month Gore gave a speech at New York University in which he proposed replacing the payroll tax with a carbon tax . Last week Time Magazine columnist Joe Klein wrote that he...

I wish I’d written this: a seven-point prescription for using energy more efficiently. It’s written from the perspective of a Manhattan resident, but the advice makes just as much sense for Cascadia. The author is an economist, and it shows: all of his energy-saving prescriptions are about pricing. There’s no mention of R&D, or emerging technologies, or changing people’s mindsets about energy. Just ideas about how to change the way...

When, oh when, will Eric end this Ahab-like fixation on the takings ballot measures? Don’t hold your breath. Yesterday, Washington’s Office of Financial Management released estimates of the financial impact of Initiative 933. It’s not pretty. Analysts are ballparking the costs to taxpayers at between $7.3 and $9 billion over the next six years. I won’t get into the technical details today—partly because I haven’t studied the analysis carefully yet....

Our car-less family vacation in Vancouver, BC, was a big success. Here’s a full report, for those of you who shared your own car-lessvacation stories and are interested in such things. For the rest of you, you might want to skim the travelogue to find the five lessons I draw. The only nail-biter (if you can call it that) was the very first leg of the trip, which resembled the...

In addition to proposing a small sales tax increase to expand bus service, King County is also proposing to raise bus fares by an average of 75 cents over the next decade. That got me scratching my head about the bizarre way that we price bus rides. The incentives are precisely the reverse of what they should be. Leaving aside discounts for children, seniors, and the disabled, the fare structure...

“Density without ripping out single-family housing.” That’s how one proponent described new rules that would allow some Seattle homeowners to turn detached garages or other backyard structures into apartments. It’s a great idea. Putting an apartment in your back yard can let your neighborhood accomodate new residents without changing its character. From the street, the neighborhood looks the same; the only change is that more people get to enjoy it....

Very worth reading: a Tyee article about the former mayor of Bogota, Columbia, who catalyzed sweeping reforms in the capital city: Enrique Peñalosa presided over the transition of a city that the world—and many residents—had given up on. Bogota had lost itself in slums, chaos, violence, and traffic…He built more than a hundred nurseries for children. He built 50 new public schools and increased enrolment by 34 percent. He built...

On Friday, CNN spent 7 hours following Amy and me around, and interviewing our kids, about living on a low-car diet. The resulting 2.5-minute segment appeared on Anderson Cooper 360 on Monday. And you can watch the clip online on CNN’s technology page. (Look in the green box on the right side of the page called “Watch Free Video.” Look for the story, “Save the planet, ditch your car.” Oh,...

Individuals and institutions can take simple steps to create compact, complete communities that enable residents to get around without a car and encourage physical activity and connections among neighbors.