[edited for the website]

This is our first ever special issue on Transportation in the ten years of publishing HopeDance. Transportation has been in the background of other issues like Energy, Permaculture, Food, Local Economy and EcoVillages, but to focus on a topic so thoroughly can help us see how integrated it is into our lives as well as its interconnectedness to other crises we are facing.

We start off with a bang. James Howard Kunstler has been writing about urban development, smart growth, new urbanism, suburban sprawl for years. Recently his attention has turned to peak oil and what that means to the very radical solutions we are to embark upon. Amy Landau, our NY correspondent, reports on bicycle activities in NYC that can show bike communities in our tri-county area some possibilities in terms of strategies and activities. Regular contributor David Weisman takes a break from his anti-Diablo activities to articulate a subject dear to his heart: the train system. His love and deep concerns for alternative transportation, as well as the fun and joy of traveling on Amtrak, are embedded in each sentence of this superb essay.

We have been privileged to have Lisa Quinn report on specific solutions to assist people getting out of their cars and onto buses and bikes. Her enthusiasm and optimism are contagious... and it’s her job!  She explores TDMs or Transportation Demand Management, a term that city planners use to describe strategies, incentives and disincentives to help calm traffic congestion. As program director of SLO Regional Rideshare, Lisa reports in user-friendly language the work that is going on behind the scenes that decreases congestion, aids in curbing air pollution, works with schools to deal with children who are on the verge of obesity (through Safe Routes to School programs) and other programs to solve our transportation crisis.

Using such profound insights from Ivan Illich and others, local gadfly Eric Greening gives us an overview of why and how we are getting around. William Seavey explores the myriad ways of our current attempt at “greening” our cars. Cartoonist Andy Singer explores being car free.

We are continuing our book and film review section and have included a World Music review section edited by Francesca Nemko. Many of the book reviews were commissioned exclusively for this Transportation issue, so please browse. The County sections have blossomed to include many reports of cool projects, programs and activities regarding Transportation. Because of the popularity (finally!) of global warming solutions, many communities are seeing our transportation needs as a major culprit and as a way to zoom in on the solutions.

Once again this issue on Transportation, like previous other special issues, could become a publication unto itself. We have merely scratched the surface. Does anyone wish to take this project on?

If you like what you see, get this issue into the hands of policy makers and political and personal change agents. Consciousness changing is a prerequisite for behavioral changes. Policy changes can be the direct result
of consciousness changes or out-of-the-box thinking.

We have covered biking, green cars, bus commuting, trains and being car free all in one issue. I hope you enjoy it as much as we had fun collecting all the articles and the cool solutions as well as agonizing over the pieces we couldn’t include.

I wish to especially thank the people in government positions who have contributed to this collection (and for opening my eyes to the good things local government can do in these most challenging times): Mary Byrd, Larry Allen, Susan Rains, Aaron Arlin-Genet, Thomas Mericle, Erika Lindemann and Lisa Quinn.

Our next issue will be on Re-Localization.

Bob Banner
Publisher