This looks like fun!

In North America, we have rails-to-trails, turning old rail lines into bike and hiking trails.

In #Japan, they kept the rails...

The Kamioka Line, discontinued in 2004, is now a “rail-mountain bike” attraction known as “Gattan Go!!”

Hey MSP folx! Between now and end of January you have a chance to weigh in on how Met Council should distribute some $250mil in Federal transportation funds in the upcoming Regional Solicitation. This gamified exercise makes it easy. Dare I say maybe even a little fun?

https://zanassoc.mysocialpinpoint.com/2023-regional-solicitation

I joined Mastodon back in November 2022 and decided to write a piece about what my experience here has been like.

(Spoiler: it's turned me into a local activist. 😆 ✊ )

https://www.ourawesomefuture.net/mastodon-a-gateway-drug-for-activism/

#mastodon #activism #environment #sustainability

If you’re a person fortunate enough to not live under horrifying conditions right now, and a person who has any amount of money, large or small, to spare:

Doctors Without Borders and World Central Kitchen are still doing their best to help people on the ground in or around Palestine, Congo, Sudan, Ukraine,and other hard hit places in the world.

Both have websites with various country codes if you search.

Massachusetts is the first state in the US requiring gas companies to phase down fossil gas for heating.

The state set out a clear path toward electrification of heating and could lead regulators in other states to follow suit.

HT Bruce Nilles

This approach was informed by @RegulatoryAssistanceProject work on Clean Heat Standards. https://www.mass.gov/doc/clean-heat-standard-2-page-summary/download#:~:text=The%20Regulatory%20Assistance%20Project%20is,Plan%20for%202025%20and%202030.

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07122023/massachusetts-natural-gas-ruling/

https://bikeportland.org/2023/11/22/guest-opinion-cycling-in-amsterdam-was-eye-opening-and-boosted-my-resolve-382023

#PDX #bicycling #bikes

"…Coming back to the U.S. and saddling back on my bike, I felt a visceral loss of freedom and safety…

…To reach their vision of a safer, more livable city with a smaller carbon footprint, Amsterdam made biking the easiest way to get around town…

…I am convinced the Dutch ride less for their health, and maybe even less out of concern for the environment, and more for pure convenience…"

This morning's bike to school included a near miss encounter with one of these high-front road tanks. The driver was flying around a curve on a downhill, and came terrifyingly close to smacking into my kid as we were finishing a turn.
Had the driver not looked up and hit the brakes, the consequences would have been deadly.

Our roads are dangerous already. We choose to make them even deadlier by refusing to regulate the vehicles on them.

https://www.iihs.org/news/detail/vehicles-with-higher-more-vertical-front-ends-pose-greater-risk-to-pedestrians