When Whipple Road was given a make-over, we thought this important vein in Mount Pleasant would have state of the art design. Sharrows for cyclists, a wide pedestrian path, etc. I gotta say, we’re a bit disappointed. The lanes are just wide enough so that SUVs can whiz past cyclists straddling the asphalt/concrete line. The sidewalk is right next to speeding traffic. Badly engineered ramps and crossings fill with giant puddles when it rains.

I know the goal of the project was to add a center turn lane and stoplight, but you’d think a more progressive attitude for pedestrians and cyclists would be present. It’s clear this project was not about how people use the road, but how the machines do.

I want our city to become sustainable in every way, including about ability to leave our cars parked. It’s National Bike Month, so get out there and pedal around this amazing city. Support local groups like Charleston Moves, and read Nikki Seibert’s blog. Learn the cycling laws in our area, and get out there an explore.

Check out these great stats from this blog post:

• More than half of cars trips made by Americans would take less than 20 minutes on a bike, but ninety percent of all trips of between one and three miles or less are taken by car.  Likewise, fifty-nine percent of trips less than one mile are made by car.
• Increasing the bicycle and pedestrian share of trips between one and three miles from the current level of 4 percent to about 10 percent would avoid approximately 21 billions miles of driving.
• In 2007, less than half of all Americans met the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) recommendation of at least 30 minutes of modest physical activity on most days.
• Americans spend some $33 billion a year on weight-loss products and services.
  
• Modest increases in bicycling and walking for short trips could provide enough exercise for 50 million inactive Americans to meet recommended activity levels, erasing a sizable chunk of America’s activity deficit.

Wow, we can do better! How can we get our city to be more progressive?

When I visit places like San Francisco, Portland, Vancouver, and Montreal, I always notice how progressive the airports and hotels seem (I’ve blogged about this here and here). The hotels I stay in always have programs promoting the reuse of towels, recycling bins rooms, and CFLs in all the lights.

That got me thinking about Charleston’s hotels, and what sustainable practices they are using. I decided to call around and ask the major Charleston hotels five simple questions – the results are in the Hotel Scorecard below.

I asked the hotels if they were doing these five simple things…things that cost relatively little money. Sure it would be nice if hotels were using solar energy, collecting rainwater, and composting, but those things are difficult and expensive to implement. I wanted to see if Charleston hotels were doing any of these simple things, because I see other hotels doing them when I travel.

As you can see, the Charleston hotels aren’t doing much at all. I gotta hand it to the Francis Marion Hotel and Embassy Suites for at least using CFLs and encouraging the reuse of towels, but there’s room for improvement across the board. I mean, two of these hotel chains have web pages bragging about their sustainability efforts (see below). I’d like to see the rest of the hotels adopt a couple of these practices, even if it’s just to save money instead of the planet – I’ll take it.

I’d also like to note that the Hampton Inn and Holiday Inn refused to participate in my survey, citing corporate regulations on discussing these things (OK?) If you have connections at any of these hotels, please pass along this information and ask that they green up their hotels. Look for this report to come out again in one year with updated scores.

What do you all think about this?  Should hotels green up their practices, or is it our responsibility when we travel to do it ourselves?

Let the Hotels Know What You Think

Help us tell these hotels that Charleston deserves greener digs, and that they should be doing a better job as hosts to thousands of tourists each year. Two of these hotels have sustainability sections on their websites talking about all the amazing things they are doing – we call that greenwashing, and it’s not enough. Let them know what you think:

Embassy Suites: phone | email | website | sustainability
Charleston Marriott: phone | email | website | sustainability
Charleston Place Hotel: phone | email | website
Francis Marion Hotel: phone | email | website
The Mills House: phone | email | website
The Market Pavilion: phone | email | website

Many cities have built high-occupancy vehicle lanes that allow carpoolers to use special lanes on the far left. This is a great incentive that encourages ride-sharing, and one that may work well here in the Lowcountry. Any way we can keep cars off the roads, and get others thinking about their own driving habits, is a positive step towards a more sustainable future.

SCDOT is wondering what you think about HOV lanes, and have opened a public survey to find out. Please take the survey before they close it on October 22nd, or visit their website for more information. Public meetins are also being held on the issue, so it’s not to late to get involved.

He didn’t want to chat for long – said he wanted to keep his heart rate elevated. I think I surprised him by stopping and thanking him. Not too long after, I spotted another obvious marathon man jogging capably and smartly with a plastic bag. I wondered if he, too, was picking up litter. Sure enough, I watched him stop briefly to put a discarded item in his bag.

Then I remembered the fabulous internet! I’ve read the Adopt-a-Highway Program signs, but what can individuals do to make a fighting difference against litter? I began with Keep Charleston Beautiful, a division of the Parks and Recreations department composed of community leaders appointed by Mayor Joe. An annual clean sweep week seems to be their most hands-on offering.

I was impressed with Palmetto Pride site, especially their list of programs and contacts. They also list a lot of ways to become involved, and local contacts.

South Carolina Litter Control is a non profit association, currently and actively seeking sponsorship. They have a partnership with Palmetto Pride, and work with local officials and concerned citizens to fight the litter fight.

I will continue to check these sites, hopefully join in a beach sweep. If you know of other efforts, I would like to hear about them. My spare time is rather limited right now, so I will join Steve and marathon man in a personal mission to clean up our area. Every litter bit counts!

One of the biggest uses of stuff is driving! The cars, gas, parts, emissions, roads, parking lots, accessories – it’s a nightmare of consumerism, and a giant resource hog. Driving less is one of the top 5 things you can do to reduce your impact on the planet, but one of the hardest concepts to approach. Help has arrived…

Charleston resident Nikki Seibert has set up The Road Less Traveled, a blog capturing her experiment with car-free living. Many of the posts are about her bicycle-based adventures, but she also touches on carpooling, riding the bus, and alternative travel facts.

When I decided to sell my car and start riding my bike and taking the bus, I got a wide range of responses, many of which wanted to know how I was planning on doing it (or why, for that matter). This blog is going to help you understand what it really means to be car-free, why everyone should consider it, and how it can realistically be done.

Be sure to check out The Road Less Traveled. Cheers to Nikki for sharing her life with the rest of us!

Overall, our driving habits haven’t changed this much since the 1970s, and I think it’s a good thing. Here are a few local ways you can change you own habits, and help out mother planet at the same time.

• Ride CARTA – Riding the bus whenever possible will keep you out of your car, and keep emissions out of the air. Lucky for us, CARTA has some great routes for getting around Charleston.
• Buy Biodiesel – Fill up your diesel vehicle with eco-friendly biodeisel from OM Fuels, located in the Fox Music parking lot on Montague Avenue.
• Participate in a rideshare program – If you don’t mind sharing a ride with relative strangers, you can find local carpoolers on Craigslist.
• Buy a local hybrid or smart car – We have local dealerships that sell the Prius, SmartCar, and Honda Hybrids. If it’s time to get a new car, this is a great opportunity to cut some emissions and vote with your dollar.

• Attend the Alternative Energy meetup – Fuel is often a topic at the monthly Charleston Alternative Energy Meetup, and you can learn a lot about how green up your vehicle (and other things) by attending.
• Use the bike paths – Keep your car in the driveway and pedal to work. Bike paths have popped up around town, and local interest is driving the creation of more.
• Move closer to where you work – Summerville to Downtown commutes just don’t make sense. That goes for James Island to East Cooper commutes too. Now, I know we can’t all just move, but factor this into the decision the next time you’re thinking about it.
• When you’re stuck on the Don Holt, turn off your car! – If you’re at a complete stop in bumper-to-bumper traffic, turning off your car can save a lot of gas and keep nasty stuff out of the air. It’s a myth that turning off and on your engine uses a ton of gas, so turn that key the next time your standing still (if you can bear the heat!)

I have found that the best way I can contribute is by simply not driving. This is an excellent time of year to keep my car in the garage. The neighborhood pool, friends’ homes, the nearest grocery, and even Splash Island are rewarding destinations, especially when we bike there. Because it is summer, I am able to plan our weeks so that we don’t see the inside of my car for days in a row.

I am writing this early Monday morning, July 7th. My boys and I have not been in my car since last Thursday, July 3rd. I am lucky to be a stay at home mom, as it enables me to make these efforts. But maybe one day a week, we all should try to find alternatives to our cars, no matter our situation.

“We hope that new riders will consider trying CARTA on National Dump the Pump Day, which will highlight transit nationally,” said Howard Chapman, executive director of CARTA. “We’ll do the same locally by offering free rides—reinforcing that CARTA is a way for people to save money and also help save the environment in a small way.”

CARTA ridership is up 20% from last year, so let’s keep that trend going. Get out and ride those buses, and let CARTA know that we will use public transportation if it is there. The more we ride, the more they will try to improve the system – which will hopefully include better bus stops and more routes throughout the area.

Over the last few years, I’ve spoken with many Prius owners about the car, and a pattern emerged. There was very little talk about saving money on fuel, despite the seemingly unstoppable surge in gas prices we are seeing. Instead, people bought them because it was simply the right thing to do. Skeptics often say that the savings in gas will never pay for the car, but this isn’t an exercise in ROI; it’s a chance to make a good choice for the planet…and I’ll pay for that.

Yes, I’m happy about the lower emissions, but that’s certainly not the whole story. One of the most effective ways to create social change is to vote with your wallet, and buying a Prius does that in a big way. The hybrid system is so amazing, and I really don’t understand why Detroit can’t seem to figure this out. Sure, they are “trying”, but a $50,000 Chevy Tahoe Hybrid that only gets 14/20 mpg is both laughable and embarrassing. Clearly they aren’t trying hard enough.

Along with doing the right thing comes setting an example, and that was certainly part of my motivation. I agree with Mary Gatch, who was quoted in this Treehugger.com post (you go girl!) describing the satisfaction of having people ask her about Prius. I like this as well, but not as much as I like having my two boys ask me about it. Influencing them means a lot to me, and I’m already imagining them telling their college friends about all the kooky green stuff we made them do growing up. But you know what, that stuff will stick, and their generation will see things differently…and that should be reason enough for all of us all to get hybrids.

So, if you have a chance to get a Prius, jump! And if enough of us jump, mother nature will certainly notice (and maybe Detroit will too).

Graham and I sat on the bench and caught the CARTA bus at 9 a.m. The bus was on time, so our wait was minimal. We boarded, paid $1.25, and rode route 40 downtown. Graham was comfortable and quiet on my lap, until we drove over the Ravenel. Then for the first time, I had fun with my little guy pointing and observing all the action in our beautiful harbor.

Graham and I got off the bus at Meeting and Mary Streets. We visited the Children’s Museum, had a snack, and waited for the bus home. It was on time again.

The Good News: I created less carbon emissions that day. I did not have to park my car or pay for parking. The bus driver was friendly and capable, and she performed some amazing maneuvers. Even Graham was impressed. We sat back and enjoyed the ride, and will do this again.

The Bad News: There are many problems that could keep future passengers away. There is only one CARTA bus route in Mt. Pleasant, so fitting the times into busy schedules can be tricky. The lack of signs and benches is disgraceful. I certainly do not want to stand with my children by the side of Hwy 17 waiting for the bus. Also, there is no drop-off by the library, which is a key public resource for both the young and old.

Perhaps the best way to fix the lack of accessibility is to continue raising awareness, which is a major goal of Go Green. We will continue to ride and spread the word. I wonder what the mommies will think of this one? I wonder which will ride with us first?