I wrote this white paper for my clients at pothole.info, a website dedicated to exploring the problems and solutions associated with deteriorating pavement.
For example, the non-profit group The Road Information Program (TRIP) reported in 2004 on poor road conditions in Virginia, concluding “the quality of a region’s transportation system is an important factor in where businesses and industries decide to locate, expand or downsize. A modern transportation system is of critical importance if Virginia is to capitalize on economic development opportunities.”
Other TRIP findings:
- Regional road conditions are considered by companies when locating manufacturing and distribution facilities.
- Some companies actually cite poor U.S. road quality as a deciding factor in locating operations offshore.
- The state of Minnesota promotes the quality of its highways in economic development marketing.
- The state of California recognizes road quality as integral to “job creation and a positive impact on an average person’s daily life.”
- The state of Utah’s Chamber of Commerce has an official position on road quality: “A safe and efficient transportation system is foundational for Utah’s economic vitality, quality of life and growth.”
My engagement with Pothole.info is fascinating – and a little disturbing. This is a universal experience, poor pavement, and one of huge economic impact. America has invested $1.75 trillion in its nearly four million miles of roads since the 1950s. How that investment will be protected, and the impact these roads will have on our economy and quality of life, will be a major part of the political discussion for years to come. It can also be a major part of how federal, state and local dollars are used to stimulate an economic recovery.
This work also adds to my portfolio as a construction industry writer. I am a feature writer for American Business Quarterly, Luxury Homes Quarterly and Green Business Quarterly, publications that look at some of the best examples of construction, design and sustainability in American companies.
It takes six pounds of plant protein to produce a pound of beef. If you know nothing else, that fact helps drive home the central message on the environmental cost of Western-style diets now being adopted in developing nations that include China, India and Brazil – following Americans’ 33 percent increase in consumption of animal protein since 1960. This article for Hairloss.com reviews the global as well as personal reasons for adopting a diet that leans much more toward plant foods and away from animal sources of protein. It doesn’t mean we all have to turn vegetarian – it’s all a matter of proportions.
As a white paper writer, I enjoyed putting together this study on America’s aging roads and the concerted effort to make modern highways more resilient. The article is published on Pothole.info, where I am a primary contributing writer. My client’s interest is in raising the important questions on infrastructure re-investment, protecting the multi-billion dollar, 50-plus year investment we have in roadways.
The bad news is so many of our roads are reaching the end of their life expectancy. The good news is we truly are seeing better technologies and practices emerge that save money for government entities as well as individual motorists. The end goal is safe, smooth highways that carry passengers and freight efficiently.
In time for the annual pothole season, my client has launched Pothole.info, a website/blog on all things pavement. It takes a look at the crumbling infrastructure of America’s highways, roads, streets and bridges – why this is happening, how it affects us and what can be done about it.
Since going to work on this as a primary website content writer in 2009, I have become an asphalt geek. And a bit of an advocate – without proper attention to this huge problem, our economy can be greatly affected in macro as well as on the individual level: damages to cars from pothole hits average $400 for every motorist. Add to that slowed traffic and more expensive shipping of all industrial and consumer goods and the costs climb even further.
There are smarter ways to build and repair roads (known as pavement preservation). But it still requires money, an allocation of government dollars to this vital task. To illustrate, consider how a dollar spent on preventive efforts saves $7 in road rebuilding costs. This website is building to become the most complete repository of current news, information and even a little bit of humor on potholes and road preservation.
Every type of gym-based cardiovascular machine has its merits. This article written for Hairloss.com takes a look at the pros and cons of treadmills, ellipticals, stationary bikes and stair machines. But there’s really no need to choose: the best fitness schedule would include each, and each used in different ways.
I review two important books on the subject of what we eat, why and to what effect, for RealJock.com. The books are (former FDA chief) Dr. David Kessler’s The End of Overeating (Rodale Press) and In Defense of Food (Penguin), by Michael Pollan. Both lead to two conclusions: The agricultural and food manufacturing industries exist not for human health but are instead driven by the imperatives of free enterprise, and that human health suffers when foods are processed. As tough as it is to reconcile ourselves with these facts, it is just as easy to make changes on a personal level (assuming reasonable access to fresh foods).
The editors at RealJock.com – where I am a writer on health, fitness and related social topics – picked my article, Build a Budget Home Gym, to be among the site’s ten favorite fitness and health articles of 2009.
A particularly important bit of advice from a therapist interviewed for this article on handling stress-filled holidays is how we need to unhook family relationships from holidays. The other thing is how we don’t have to love everything about people (which has a corollary, that we don’t have to hate everything about them as well). Per the website’s fitness emphasis, I also touch on the relationship between interrupted exercise routines and stress.
Time is always of the essence, especially where it comes to fitness. Most often the problem is there just isn’t enough of it to get in a workout. Instead, “exercise snacking” might be the solution. This article explores times when you might have five minutes to kill, so a glute isometric or bodyweight squats might be just the answer. Words to live and get fit by: “Something is better than nothing” (Greg Whyte, author of “Fit in 5″).
The facts and fiction about the effects of soy on men, their testosterone levels and hair loss are explored in this article written for HairLoss.com, where I am the fitness and nutrition section editor. Because there is a lot of unsubstantiated chatter on the Internet – in particularly, on bodybuilding blogs and e-commerce sites – about the pros and cons of soy for men, I sought expert (read: scientifically supported) findings and positions from WebMD, MayoClinic.com, and Dr.Andrew Weil. Conclusions: soy can be a good source of protein and unsaturated fat and it might have a slight benefit (not yet proven) in blocking DHT, a contributing factor in hair loss.