I've begun my mornings with a new ritual, drinking an acid cup of coffee drowned in cream, accompanied by the Wall Street Journal. I never have enough time to read everything I want, so I skim the pages to find something interesting. Today I didn't have to go far.
As soon as I saw classic pen drawing of Rob Anderson's face, I thought, "He's up to something..."
Reading the title, "San Francisco Ponders: Could Bike Lanes Cause Pollution?" I was hooked. I love a good scandal when it involves supposed hypocrisy of environmentalists. Furthermore, I love bike riding (and know first-hand how controversial a topic it is) and wish my city was more bike-friendly, but could that do more harm than good?
Reading on I learn with glee that Mr. Anderson is a man whose writing career stemmed only from a cooperative effort with his brother to create a witty and acerbic newspaper full of scathing commentary and now, his blog. Ha!
Blogging matters. His plain, blogger template blog was featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. He has a bad attitude and is out to cause trouble, but he's also got a good point: will excess biking lead to more pollution in a city that will never give up cars? Will the increase in bikes lead to an increase in traffic jams and idling, thereby increasing pollution? Who knows. But Mr. Anderson and his cohort Ms. Mary Miles fought the city to find out conclusively with a detailed study of the effects of more bike-friendly policies. It should take a year to complete, but you better bet I'll be subscribing to Mr. Anderson's blog to watch the parade leading up to then.
Bloggers, does this inspire you or what?
2 Comments:
I'm curious to see what you are thinking...