Time to clear out some links I've collected:

On the great TreeHugger site, contributor Lloyd Alter writes about attending John Sewells first lecture on suburban planning that I mentioned on Monday. Sounds like a great lecture, and I'm sorry I missed it.

As you probably already know, George W. Bush told Americans that "America is addicted to oil" in the State of the Union address last week, and in the understatement of the year also admitted that oil is "often imported from unstable parts of the world." He went on and talked about ethanol-powered cars, and hybrid and hydrogen cars, but didn't mention public transit, or even worse biking. BikeBiz does a far better job of saying this than I can.

Meanwhile, Exxon Oil (yeah, the ones who killed half of Alaska by letting a drunk guy captain one of their oil tankers... they obviously are smart and know better than the rest of us...) says that "the United States will always rely on foreign imports of oil to feed its energy needs and should stop trying to become energy independent." and that:

"No combination of conservation measures, alternative energy sources and technological advances could realistically and economically provide a way to completely replace those imports in the short or medium term."

Hmmm, I wonder why they are saying this. Could they have a vested interest in seeing Americans use as much oil as possible? Could they be making record-breaking profits from it? So hard to say.

Here in Toronto, the Toronto Transit Commission is raising it's fares again. Cash fares from 2.50 to 2.75, tickets/tokens from 2.00 to 2.10, and Metropasses (unlimited monthly travel) from 98.75 to 99.75.

I saw a story Global News did on it just now, and they say that commuting from Yonge & Finch to the Eaton Centre for a family of 4 is cheaper by paying for gas and parking than it is for the 4 to "Ride the Rocket".

I'll leave out the fact (or maybe I won't) that I loathe Global News because of what their perception of "Real News" is (I once saw a 6:00 newscast LEAD OFF with a story about how there is too much discarded gum on sidewalks, and THEN move on to stories about gun control and provincial politics...) so that I won't go on too much of a tangent, but did Global think of the $25/day it takes to just own the average Canadian vehicle (with financing, insurance, and maintenance, according to the CAA)? No, of course not.

Did they point out that instead of paying cash for the TTC an average 22 working days per month (which works out to $121) or standing in line and buying tokens ($92), people could buy Metropasses and only spend $100 for unlimited travel? No need for transfers? Oh, and that the Metropass is transferable so your wife or husband or sister or neighbour or pet monkey can use it?

Of course they didn't. Global News is to Stephen Harper and his conservative wanks as FoxNews and Bill O'Reilly is to the Wank House. Oops, I mean White House.

Wow, that turned into a rant. Oh well.

The TTC better use those numbers to promote Metropasses, if not Metropass Affinity Program (MAP) will. I'll mail Moscoe (TTC Chair) about it. Hell, MAP will anyways. It'll be launching soon, if you're wondering.

Happy Biking. It's Free! Yay!

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