Last weekend, I volunteered at a super awesome event here in Atlanta: Atlanta Streets Alive! For four hours on Sunday, we closed busy North Highland Avenue to cars and opened it up to pedestrians, bikes, dancing, music...people. It was a magical day, and I loved seeing a road that I associate with traffic jams and parallel parking taken over by people soaking up some sun and getting a little bit of exercise.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to take a ton of photos on Sunday, because my volunteer shift was at the info booth on the north end of the event. The upside to working the info booth is that in my downtime I got to peruse the flyers and pamphlets on the table, including the awesome map above showing what Atlanta's transit system, MARTA, could look like if we pass the upcoming Transportation Investment Act on the July 31st ballot.

MARTA is notorious for not going anywhere. We basically have two rail lines right now: North/South and East/West, and the system is badly underfunded. To give you an idea of how big these changes are, take a peek at the current MARTA map:

If you live here in Atlanta, July 2nd is the deadline to register to vote in the July 31st election that will decide the future of the Transportation Investment Act. If you want to see the map above become a reality, vote YES! The folks at Citizens for Progressive Transit (CFPT) shared the language that you'll see on your ballot, so you'll know exactly where to vote yes on the 31st:

Ballot Question: “Shall [YOUR COUNTY'S] transportation system and the transportation network in this region and the state be improved by providing for a 1 percent special district transportation sales and use tax for the purpose of transportation projects and programs for a period of ten years?”

The one percent sales tax will fund rail expansion and repairs to existing rail lines as well as "other transportation initiatives," like adding and maintaining bike lanes. What I heard from the CFPT folks over and over on Sunday was that if this Act doesn't pass on the 31st, Atlanta's transportation future is going to be pretty bleak.

Have you ever ridden your bike to an event only to find that there's nowhere to lock it up? Bike valets to the rescue!

I spotted this bike valet service at Atlanta's Sweetwater 420 Fest. My husband and I walked to the show, but it looks like lots of folks took advantage of the convenient, secure bike parking.

The bike valet is a service of the Atlanta Bike Coalition, and the money they earn goes to keep the bike advocacy organization going. They can park up to 100 bikes in a station, and attendants are keeping an eye on the bikes at all times. Bike theft is pretty rampant here in Atlanta, so that set of eyeballs on your wheels is super reassuring.

I love the idea of catering to cyclists instead of motorists. Does your city have a bike valet service anywhere? Tell us about it in the comments!

You know we love little ways to add green to small spaces, but what about bigger areas that could use more green space?

Pretty much any major city could use a little oomph in the green space department, don't you think? Cities tend to be more about buildings and roads than parks and gardens. That's why NYU student Marco Antonio Castro Cosio focused his master thesis bus rooftops. He describes the project, Bus Roots, on his website:

Reconnecting urban communities with nature in a practical and playful way. Bus roots is a public and playful project that uses plants as a creative medium.

It connects the citizens with their community while trying to use the least amount of resources and improving the quality of the environment around it.

Between city buses, school buses, and even private coaches, rooftop bus gardens could actually add a good square footage of green space to cities. What impact would it have on air quality if these buses were transformed into miniature rolling parks? Even better: what if you planted food in these rooftop bus gardens?

Adding rooftop bus gardens to New York's MTA buses alone would add over 1.5 square feet of green space to the city. Not to shabby!

Source: Wake Up World

Image Credit: Photo via macascos

We talked last week about some of the benefits of a single car family, and Jade shared her experiences as part of a one car household. She touched on some really great tips and benefits of sharing a car, and it got me thinking about my own car-sharing experience.

My husband and I have been a single car family since 2006. When we bought our house, we sold my car and used half of the money from the sale to buy a scooter and the other half to pay off credit card debt. Honestly, just paying off that debt made selling my car worth it to me! Not only do Dave and I share a car, but we have quite a few friends who do the same, so I thought I'd share some tips we've learned over the years.

Coordination is Key

Jade talked about this, and it sounds like she and her husband work a lot like Dave and I do, but another couple I know has a much more hectic schedule. For them, just communicating about the car won't cut it. Between his job and band practice and her job and side businesses, they are constantly on the go.

So, how does a super-busy family coordinate? This couple keeps a shared Google calendar, where they enter all of their appointments and whether they need the car. Since they can access the shared calendar from anywhere (including their smart phones), it's much easier to figure out when the car is free.

Alternative Transportation

Most of the folks I know who share a vehicle also own or rent homes that are near a bus stop or train station, and they prioritized that on purpose when they were house- and apartment-hunting. It's much easier to be mobile if you're just a short walk or bike ride from public transit.

Like I mentioned at the beginning of this post, my husband and I also have a scooter. This is great for in town car-free trips where we can't walk or ride our bikes. We share a 50cc Honda Metropolitan. What's great about a 50cc scooter is that you don't need a motorcycle license to drive it, and you're not even required to get insurance (though sometimes I get a little nervous about not being insured).

Once you've paid for the machine, all you have to do is put gas in the thing once in a while and deal with occasional maintenance. To get an idea of how those little scoots do on gas, check out my pal Jo's piece about his Honda Metropolitan's stellar gas mileage. His experience is pretty typical - mine gets 90mpg, and 80-90mpg is what the folks I know who own 50cc scooters seem to report, too. Your mileage will depend on how well you maintain your scooter, how much you weigh, and how much heavy stuff you tote when you scoot around.

Sharing a car isn't without its frustrations and inconveniences, but honestly I love it. Even if you have to go as far as sharing a calendar to coordinate, you save so much money, and you're reducing your emissions to boot. It also really gets you thinking about whether you need the car for a particular errand, you know what I mean?

Car owners looking to insure your family car might check out car insurance quotes online.

One of the major incentives to becoming a one car household is not just that it greatly reduces your carbon footprint, but that it also saves you a huge amount of money - an estimated $60K over just 5 years, actually, which includes gas, insurance, maintenance and repair, among other factors.

But I've got to be honest, becoming a one car family is not for everyone. There are a lot of factors that you need to take into consideration when you're sharing a car, like the availability (and closeness) of public transport, what kind of commute you and your significant other have to take for work, and how compatible your schedules are. You also need to commit! Don't keep that second car around "for emergencies" - go whole hog, and sell the thing!

From friends that have become a one car household, one of the biggest (intangible) positives about only having one car is that you get to spend more time with your significant other - and your family, if that's applicable.

For those that are considering becoming a one car household, honestly, it is simply a new habit, and people are quite adaptable. Sharing a car isn't as difficult as it seems - it's mostly a matter of keeping organized and being open to asking others for help.

1. Organization and Communication

Now that we have cell phones, coordinating schedules on the fly is not nearly as difficult as it used to be. One of the key things with only having one car...is, well, you only have one car. So if the two of you work an unwalkable or unbikeable distance to work and prefer driving over any kind of public transportation, then you'll have to keep to a schedule. When are you both done with work? When do you start? If these are too disparate, it would probably be best to work out for one of you to carpool with co-workers.

It may seem daunting to schedule out your days so rigorously, but don't you do it already? We all (vaguely) plan when we will need to buy groceries, when we get dinner with our girlfriends, (hopefully) a date night...now it's just taking all of that into consideration a little bit more in advance so that your standard planning for the week can be balanced with more last minute plans that might require a car.

2. Accommodate

Does your partner want to grab drinks with friends after work? Offer to be the DD. Know that they want to have a guys night at a more out of the way restaurant? Let them have the car and make plans to do something at home, or invite some girlfriends over. With one car, a schedule is of much greater importance, and it's like you have a second marriage to your car - it's all about give and take.

And if you ask to carpool with friends or family - always be gracious and work around their schedule, not yours!

3. Simplify

Being a one car household might complicate things in the beginning, but in the long run, it simplifies your life and begins the process of allowing you to trim the unnecessary things out of your life in other ways. You may no longer see the worth of upgrading that computer that you only bought two years ago or question if you really need three TV's...reducing to a one car household gets your mind ticking in other ways as well.

You spend more time with each other, and find ways to enjoy your time without having to drive somewhere. The challenges that you may face are small in comparison to the benefits that you will reap from moving to a one-car lifestyle.

Jade Evans lives in a one car household (as it is only herself!) but makes every effort to walk or bike rather than drive. She is a freelance writer who works with an online shipping company that can work with you if you're moving cross country with their long distance movers and various other shipping services. She's been writing for years, but only recently started doing so professionally.

Image Credit: Creative Commons photo by Joe Shlabotnik

What do you get when you combine inexpensive, IKEA table legs with a scavenged wood pallet? A super sweet desk, complete with storage!

To create your own pallet desk, you can leave the pallet as-is, or you can take it apart and add wood blocks in between the top and bottom to boost the storage potential even more. IKEA hacker Pierre Vedel created this helpful illustration, showing how he created the extra space:

How to Dismantle a Pallet

One of the tricks of working with wood pallets is taking them apart. It's easy to damage the wood if you're not careful. Luckily, we ran across this helpful video on how to dismantle a pallet:

Have you guys seen any other cool pallet projects lately? Share away in the comments!

h/t: IKEA Hacker

Rising gas prices are all over the news lately, and we're not even at the point where prices typically peak each year. Of course, high gas prices are just one reason to want to maximize fuel efficiency or find alternatives to using that car. Cars are huge polluters. In fact, cars and trucks are the number one cause of air pollution here in the U.S.

So, what can we do to use less fuel, save some cash, and protect the planet?

1. Walk or bike for short errands instead of getting behind the wheel.
2. Take public transit. New to public transportation? Google Transit is an excellent tool for planning car-free trips.
3. Carpool when you can. Whether you're headed to work, school, or errands, see if you can find a buddy who's headed in the same direction.
4. Coast when possible. When you do have to drive, keep your foot off of that gas pedal when you can. If you're headed down a hill, coast instead of hitting the accelerator. You can also coast as you approach a red light. It's easier on your brakes if you're going more slowly when you apply them, and you'll save some fuel to boot.
5. Don't idle. That includes waiting in the car and even at long stop lights. If you don't drive a hybrid and are going to be stopped for more than 1 minute, turn the car off. In cold weather, it's not necessary to "warm up" the engine, and it's not even good for the engine to do so.
6. Turn off the A/C while you're driving around town, but roll up those windows when you hit the highway. The A/C saps your car's fuel, but when you hit highway speeds, the extra drag from open windows ends up being more of an energy suck.

What are some other ways that you can save on fuel to help the environment and beat rising gas prices?

Image Credit: Creative Commons photo by carol.am