I66, 495 and many major roads to possibly be shut down for six months

There is a new standard in DC.  If one person dies in over a year it must be shut down.  So safety officials have now announced that "166, 495 and any road where a pedestrian, cyclist or driver is killed will be shut down entirely until they are made safe".

Not only that said the safety official "We will have to shut down all the car dealerships".

When asked about this Don Beyer Congressman from Virginia  commented "This is not fair.  I don't like this.  I own the car dealerships.   Now I'm okay with metro shutting down and forcing more people to drive, after all it serves my interests.  But don't mess with my car dealerships".

When one driver was asked they said "Yes shut the road down.  I don't even care that nothing has improved in years of weekend work.  We will have world class roads six months from now".

Meanwhile other politicians said "We will tolerate it.  After all we have private jets, helicopters and limo drivers who don't obey the traffic laws including driving and parking on the sidewalks".

Other officials could not be reached for comment as they were busy dining and partying at the Mayflower Hotel.  But one did comment "I want a bigger bonus for all of this.  If the people can't get to work and have no money to shop at the grocery store, let them take a helicopter to the Mayflower and dine here too!"

Is anything being done about the SUV driver who hit a woman in a crosswalk?

The pedestrians and cyclists did everything right.  The woman was in the crosswalk.  Someone got the license plate number JSC 2652 (PA).  Calls were made to 911.  Yet it seems as if nothing has happened or ever will.

Patrick Miner took this and another image below and posted it to twitter including the Philadelphia Police in the tweet.  Yet, there has been no response from the Philadelphia police on twitter that I could find.  Meanwhile there have been numerous tweets on the Philadelphia police accounts including posting pictures of suspects involved in non-violent non-life threatening crimes.  I also tried to contact the media department on Monday of the Philadelphia Police and have not received a response.

I'm sadly surprised that even with the license plate number nothing seems to have happened.  I would think unless there were some unusual circumstances it would simply be a matter of showing up at the residence of whomever has the license plate number.

And someone must know who did this anyways.   If you see or know the license plate number JSC 2652 PA please share your knowledge.

We need to fight for justice against traffic violence until the problem is stopped.  Until then you might as well go visit Europe instead of Philadelphia, New York, DC and other cities that do nothing about traffic violence-you are far safer there, than in a city filled with indifference towards cyclists and pedestrians.

And please keep tweeting about this, blogging about this, and drawing attention to this until something is done!

List of movies that do and don't promote car and suv culture

Here are some lists of movies for those of you looking for movies that don't feature cars or that don't feature suvs.  Now granted this is obviously not an very extensive list.  It basically reflects movies I've seen recently (yes, mostly on Amazon Prime for those of you who probably guessed from the list).  I'll add more as I see more and feel free to comment about other movies you have seen or if you feel some of this information is incorrect.  I'll try to create updated lists as I see more movies.  

Movies without cars

Ex-Machina

Macbeth (2015)

Maya the Bee (2015)

Noah

Solomon Kane

Movies without SUVs

Ex-Machina

Macbeth

Margin Call (I think?)

Maya the Bee (2015)

Noah

Project Almanac (possibly none-hard to tell)

Solomon Kane

Movies with low use of cars/where characters get around by ways other than cars at least some of the time)

Annie

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (maybe none?)

Movies with low use of Suvs (or other gas guzzlers)

Da Vinci Code

Ghost Busters

Men in Black

Project Almanac (possibly none-hard to tell)

Wild Card

Wolf of Wall Street

Movies excessively promoting car culture/ car centric

Amy

Da Vinci Code

Everything Must Go

Ghost Busters (is also anti-EPA)

Instellar

Margin Call

Men in Black

Mocking Jay Part II (note this movie gets knocked down not because of what is directly in the movie, but because of using the movie and its actors to do commercials for gas guzzling pick-up trucks)

Mortdecai

The Captive

The Voices

Wild Card

Wolf of Wall Street

Movies excessively promoting SUV culture (or other gas guzzlers)

Instellar

Mocking Jay Part II (note this movie gets knocked down not because of what is directly in the movie, but because of using the movie and its actors to do commercials for gas guzzling pick-up trucks)

The Captive

The Voices

Metro shut down is about liability not safety

I know I'm about to piss a whole bunch of people off, but please at least try to understand.  Unfortunately, so many people have a horrible knowledge and understanding of statistics.

Statistically, you are far more likely to die commuting by any other form of transportation other than rail (unless you count flying).  So thus forcing people to commute by other forms of transportation does not increase safety.

Many employees had no choice but to go to work during Wednesday's metro shut down.  The worst affected in many cases are the working poor who do jobs that require a physical presence, whom can't afford to miss work, and whom can't risk losing their job because they could not get to work.  Even harder, many of these people have less options, not to mention less safe options to get to work.

Even worse metro rail did not run buses along the train routes and gave extremely limited notice.  If they had waited a few days for the weekend my guess is they could have run buses along the train routes.  Keep in mind some train stations see zero bus service during most hours including DCA.

So basically, by forcing people of rail, metro might be decreasing their liability, but not increasing safety.  Sure you can say someone could have died in a fire.  But someone is far more likely to die because of a jay driver hitting them, a reckless driver, etc.   And if someone dies because of a jay driver or other reckless driver or poor road design (just to name a few things) metro isn't liable.

Which begs the question why is zero considered the standard on metro rail, but not when it comes to any other form of commuting?

Worse though while politicians come down on metro, where is the concern about the ever increasing number of pedestrians and cyclists being killed?  Why aren't they attacking the car companies for all these deaths?  Oh wait that's right the car companies give them money and are in their pockets.

In fact, if I could propose 5 ways to seriously decrease deaths and serious injuries they would be the following.  Now when have you ever heard a politician suggesting these?

1.  Once a pedestrian or cyclist is injured or killed at a crossing by a turning vehicle, do not allow vehicles to make turns at that crossing until the intersection is fixed.

2.  Enforce jay driving laws.  I've never seen one driver ticketed for jay driving ever.

3.  Enforce no parking in bike lanes.  I really should not even have to say this.  But it amazes me counties invest all this money in bike lanes and then don't bother to ticket those parked or standing in them-which is a revenue maker.

4.  Restrict who can drive an SUV as the death rates to pedestrians from SUVs are much higher.

5.  And for goodness sake, make sure there is always a safe place for pedestrians to walk when there is construction.  It's ridiculous what I've seen over and over.  Multiple lanes for cars without a single one taken away and zero sidewalk.  

Update: Kaufman Green Guide Dublin: Guinness to be Vegan by end of 2016

I wanted to share the good news.  Guinness is going to stop using fish products in its production process by the end of 2016.  In other words us vegans will soon be able to go to Ireland and enjoy Guinness.

The implications go even further though than just drinking beer as:

1.  Some popular food products in Ireland such as brown bread are often made with Guinness.  Thus there will be more food available to vegans too.  

2.  The Guinness Museum is  a popular tourist attraction in Dublin.  I now feel a lot more inclined to recommend a trip there since now they are making their product vegan.  Vegans will also be able to get more out of the tour as you will be able to enjoy the samples that come with the tour (including a free pint)-thus making the cost more reasonable.  

3.  Mixed drinks really aren't such a thing in Ireland (at least from my experience) so if you wanted to enjoy the bar scene with an alcoholic drink your choices were a bit limited.   

Cheers!  

People not Statistics-Feb 22nd and Feb 23rd

I get really sick of hearing about people killed by the ridiculous car-culture referred to in statistical terms.  Each person killed should be treated as a human.   Maybe only then will we start realizing just how severe the killing is.

So I'm going to work on compiling stories of the lives of those murdered by car-culture.   Here are just a few people who we remember who were murdered by car culture either on Feb 22nd or Feb 23rd (of any year) or has a birthday on these dates.

Before I list this though I'd like to mention unfortunately I doubt I will be able to keep this up on a daily basis but will try to do as many of these posts as possible.   If anyone would like to help volunteer with this project please let me know.   Also if you have a person to add, pictures, or information to add to a bio for the following year please contact me.

Christopher Beaulieu (Feb 23, 2015):

Christopher was an experienced cyclist from the Edmonton area of Alberta who at the time of his death at age 21 was training for an upcoming tour. He had 2 sisters and one brother.  Sadly, his parents and even some of his grandparents had to bury him.   He was killed by a pick-up truck.

Jay Carlile (Feb 23 2004): From Paris Texas.  Happened in Texas so unfortunately no information or justice, only victim blaming.

Juan Guillermo (Feb 22, 2015):  Juan was a cyclist from Chile who was attempting a world record, trying to cycle around the world in 5 years.  At the time he had already cycled 140,000km out of the 155,000.  He died in Thailand hit by a pick-up truck that was being driven recklessly. He had a wife and daughter both of whom were present when he was killed.  If there is any silver lining Thailand takes this much more seriously than many other countries and there is a minimum 10 year jail sentence.

Update: Kaufman Green Books and Guides Gives

Last year I wrote this post in which I offered to help young vegans.

In case anyone wondered how much help I was able to give these are the statistics:

Zero-no one asked for help.

So as promised, since no one asked for help and I could not donate that way, instead I ended up making a donation to Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.  In fact, I made the donation in excess of the amount promised.  For those of you not familiar with this charity as a brief summary they are medical professionals who encourage improved health through vegan diets, alternatives to animal testing, and have even recently opened up a clinic in Washington DC.