russklettke.com

April 8, 2010

Cars vs. bikes a false choice

When our country debates things that touch all our lives – healthcare, climate, and transportation, to cite a few topics – it’s easy to draw lines around simple “for” and “against” positions. But life isn’t entirely made up of binary choices, and I think this article for my client pothole.info,

FUTURE TRANSPORTATION FUNDING: ROAD REPAIR VS. SPECIAL ROADS FOR BICYCLISTS

helps illustrate the point. Road building and repair funding is mistakenly thought to be anti-green, while those who favor non-motorized transit (walkers and bikers) and public transportation are often characterized as unrealistically wed to environmental principles that fit neither our culture nor our economy.

We can leave the huge debate and discussion on the broad topic for another day. But this article finds a third way, where good roads are appreciated and used by bicyclists. How funding is allocated should take this factor into consideration. (Full disclosure: this writer gets a break on his car insurance because he drives less than 4000 miles a year, using his bike to travel an equivalent distance during the approximately eight months/year of bike-friendly conditions in Chicago.)

What I like most about this topic is how being a web content writer (in this instance, a white paper writer) sometimes allows me to mine out information that is lacking in mainstream and fringe media discussion.

February 24, 2010

Why can’t we build better roads?

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.

Powered by WordPress