>> At Slate, Tom Vanderbilt’s written a defense of jaywalking, pointing out that so-called jaywalking stats are often skewed to make pedestrians seem like the cause of accidents:
The answer is not jaywalking crackdowns. These tend to be hard to enforce, lower the public opinion of the police, reinforce the idea of car dominance on city streets, and, most importantly, do not provide an effective bang for the buck.
Instead, here’s what should be done. First, spend more money on making walking safer; despite the fact that pedestrians make up a large part of the traffic deaths in many states, funding is always disproportionately scant. Second, provide good places to walk. People instinctively strive for the conservation of energy, and failing to provide proper crossings in the presence of clear “desire lines” invites a jaywalking problem.
Read the whole article to see what Tom’s third, fourth, and fifth recommendations are. Tom’s ideas have a lot in common with Christopher Beam’s ideas about what to do about traffic law-breaking cyclists; both authors focus on larger infrastructure issues that tend to be car-centric in most places.
>> Canned food often means BPA-tainted food because most cans have BPA-containing epoxy liners. However, BPA was even found in “BPA-free” cans of tuna sold by Vital Choice:
Dr. Urvashi Rangan, director of technical policy at Consumers Union, said the cans did not have epoxy liners, the usual source of BPA. Rangan said the BPA likely leached into the packaging from the factory where it was made or came from environmental sources — seawater or the fish itself.
Vital Choice CEO Randy Hartnell said his firm was an early adopter of BPA-free packaging. “We’ll get to the bottom of it and fix it,” he said.
Earlier: BPA industry seeks PYM (pregnant young mother)
>> Schools are using toxic cleaners with chemicals linked to cancer. Environmental Working Group held an event earlier this week at Santa Monica High to bring attention to the issue — and to support Cali legislation pushing for greener cleaning in schools. Earlier: Sunday solutions: Green cleaning.
>> Somewhat relatedly, you can now support green schools by bidding on a celeb. Spend time with Stephen Colbert, Oprah, or Dave Matthews Band by putting in a winning bid in the 6th annual Chevy Chase Green Auction.
Photo by splorp
It will be interesting (and scary) to understand what the long term effects of this, if any, will be. Growing up as a generation who always had a canned meal at the tip of our fingers means that we might have consumed BPA like no other generation. It is really getting difficult to figure out what we can consume these days.
Comment by Ben — November 5, 2009 @ 7:39 pm
Even scarier now that BPA’s been linked to male sexual dysfunction!
Comment by Siel — November 24, 2009 @ 6:24 pm