It Takes More than Awesome Bicycles to Make Biking a Viable Transportation Option

It's going to take a lot more than cool new commuter bikes like the one pictured here to persuade more people to use bicycles for transportation, not just recreation, in the Richmond region. It would be helpful if Virginia jurisdictions designed balanced communities where a variety of destinations were located within easy biking distance. In the case of my home county of Henrico, it would be helpful to actually have bicycle paths.

But every innovation helps, even if it comes from the people who design bicycles rather than communities. According to the Cycling for Boomers blog, Wisconsin-based Trek, the largest U.S.-based bike manufacturer, this year is introducing two chainless models that replace the clunky, maintenance-intensive chain with a greaseless, rust-proof carbon fiber belt.

The lighter, longer-lasting carbon-fiber composite belts can't be cut, won't stretch or slip and won't leave grease marks around your ankles, says Eric Bjorling, Trek's lifestyle brand manager. There is one drawback: One of these bad boys retails for $990.

Price aside, I doubt we'll see many of these in Richmond. The city has some super-cool mountain biking trails around the river, but only a handful of bicycle lanes that could be used for commuting. The western end of Henrico County, where I live, has no useful bicycle lanes at all -- despite the existence of several potential routes. One bike path could run along the James River (either on the old canal tow-path or a railroad right of way; I'm embarrassed to say, I can't recall which, but I have it on good authority). Another path conceivably could run underneath a Dominion electric transmission line -- not bad, if you don't mind a little static cling in your hair. A county bike path network also could tie into bike-friendly University of Richmond. And that's just in my neck of the woods.

There are scads of lightly traveled subdivision roads that could provide bicycle access if only they connected with one another. Of course, pervasive "pod" subdivision development means that most subdivisions dump traffic onto traffic arterials where even Lance Armstrong would take his life in his hands.

From what I've been told, any effort to build a bicycle network in Henrico would meet resistance from home owners worried about "strange" people riding through their neighborhoods. Yeah, like a burglar will break into your house and make a getaway with your big screen TV loaded on the back of his bicycle! Maybe the brush with $150-per-barrel gasoline, which will surely return when the recession ends, will encourage people to adopt a broader attitude.

The Uranium Mining Debate Just Grew a Tentacle

The debate over uranium mining in Pittsylvania County just got more complicated Tuesday after Virginia Beach City Council was informed that Virginia's largest city would be at risk of mining operations 200 miles away.

Director of Public Utilities Thomas Leahy laid out a worst-case scenario: A hurricane or tropical storm could destroy the landfill-like containers that contain the radioactive mining waste, contaminating water supplies downstream as far as Lake Gaston, from which water is piped to Virginia Beach. Norfolk, Chesapeake and occasionally Portsmouth and Suffolk also draw water from the lake, reports Aaron Applegate with the Virginian-Pilot.

Walter Coles, owner of the land that contains one of North America's largest uranium deposits, wants to lift a state mining moratorium. The impact of such a decision would ripple across the state. For one, lifting a moratorium for Pittsylvania County would have implications for the mining of uranium in Orange County, site of another large deposit. And now the residents of the state's second largest metropolitan area are given reason to fear mining.

On the other hand, uranium mining could create massive wealth for an economically depressed region of the state and add to the growing industry cluster of nuclear industry-related businesses in Virginia. In any fossil fuel-energy constrained scenario of the future, nuclear power will be a growth industry.

You want a vivid illustration of Ed Risse's concept of "urban support regions"? You couldn't ask for a better one. Hampton Roads may be surrounded by water, but it lacks sufficient supplies of fresh water within its own boundaries to supply its population. The region must draw upon its rural hinterlands to slake its thirst. Not only do Norfolk and Chesapeake drain the Roanoke River Basin, the city of Newport News wants to tap the Mattaponi River by means of a reservoir in King William County.

For a great overview of the Lake Gaston pipeline to Virginia Beach, check out this article. (Image credit of Lake Gaston water pumping station: Virginian-Pilot.)

Emmett Hanger's New Idea: Index the Gas Tax to Average Fuel Economy

Sen. Emmett Hanger, R-Augusta, has proffered a partial solution for Virginia's transportation-funding woes: Index the gasoline tax to the average fuel economy of vehicles on state roads.

According to an editorial in the Staunton News Leader, Hanger has joined the growing number of legislators to worry about the impact of improving gasoline mileage on the primary source of funding for state road maintenance and construction. With the introduction of a slew of new technologies, miles per gallon could well double or triple, and better mileage will translate into commensurately less gasoline consumed and fewer taxes paid at the pump.

Hanger's idea provides a rationale for increasing the gasoline tax that tax-phobic citizens just might buy. Annual adjustments, which probably would amount to less than one penny per gallon annually, would help extend the life of the gasoline tax as a funding source. Hanger deserves credit for acknowledging the problem and for trying to think outside the box.

But the idea still has flaws. First, the incremental added revenue won't come close to meeting the needs of Virginia's Business As Usual transportation policy. Perpetuating our one-man-one-car society requires billions of dollars now, far more than could possibly be milked from this tax. Second, by taxing gasoline consumption, the plan would tax those who burn gasoline, not those who crowd the roads. Such a tax would only accelerate the shift to non-gasoline fuels, most notably electricity.

The biggest problem is that we need to think beyond perpetuating the transportation status quo and think seriously about creating a 21st century transportation system. Funding that system is one critical piece of the puzzle, but only one. Without Fundamental Change in planning land use and transportation policies, Virginia will simply stumble from crisis to crisis -- no matter how much it raises in taxes. Hanger's plan can't paper over that reality.