It is easy to find room for improvement in any city or country. Often we take the aspects of a culture that represent real efforts towards sustainability for granted.
For me Public Transportation, like universal health care, is a basic requirement of a civilized society. Bermuda has excellent health care, though private and expensive no-one is turned away and I've never heard of anyone being bankrupted or made homeless by an insurance company here.
The Public transport here is excellent. One can get a ferry or bus to within an easy walk of anywhere on the island. A bus pass costs $55/month, far less than owning, maintaining, licensing and insuring a private vehicle. Now I've recently heard that they've made it free for kids going to school. This decision should remove thousands of cars from the road during morning rush hours and when school lets out in the afternoon. I've seen kids as young as 5 years old traveling alone to school in safety. The entire community looks after the young children here.
Another step the government has taken is to ban the import of two stroke motorcycles which significantly improves the air quality. On the down side, stupidly large vehicles are now allowed to be imported for private use. Heavily taxed, though this makes no difference for those with more money than brains, there is even a hummer or two on this island of narrow twisty turny roads. Strangely, even with this wonderful public transport system, there are more cars per capita here than anyplace in the world.
Overall, the transport system here is more sustainable, reliable, and even enjoyable than any place I've ever lived.
Thanks to The Buses of Bermuda. Book. 2004, Colin Pomeroy for the image from http://www.bermuda-online.org/getround.htm
What have you done today to lower your impact?
We are washing away the foundations of our existence on every front. It is high time we move from crashing about on the planet like a bull in china shop and find a way to go forward with intent. We must find systems of living based on sustainability. The systems and tools exist, it is up to each of us to adopt them.
Blog Archive
-
▼
2009
(353)
-
▼
March
(46)
- Sheffield Star online post #9, Insulation basics
- Check out this music video about energy efficiency
- Earth Hour, What did you learn?
- A Farm for the Future
- Kids and Earth Hour
- Human potential is directly proportional to Human ...
- Need land to grow more food?
- GM based agriculture incurs more costs than benefits
- EPA halts permitting of mountaintop removal mining
- Progress in Washington on Climate Change
- Transition 101- post #1
- World Oil production has peaked. Are you ready?
- A couple interesting UrbanAg sites
- Yes We Must!
- cool animation about warming earth
- You think I'm against GMO's.....
- The dangers of the blinkered US media
- The Transition Handbook
- Is it too late?
- Sustainable cities?
- Sustainable agriculture petition
- Business as Usual
- Will your state benefit from Climate Change legisl...
- Composter made from recycled pallets
- 6 key messages from Copenhagen
- It's Broke, don't fix it!
- Finally, Some Good News About Our Oceans
- Do you own property near a coastline?
- Gulf Stream Instability
- Acidic Seas threaten mass extinctions
- This Dusty ole Dust... The west is drying up
- Mr. Coal Waste goes to Washington
- Foodzoning the foodshed on Transition Culture
- Thrift, a source of renewable energy
- BT Cotton kills the soil
- Green vs. Conventional Energy
- Public Transport in Bermuda
- Time is running out to STOP NAIS!
- Nuked By Friend and Foe
- Coal: Cleanup, Costs, and Consequences in Tennesse...
- Island economies and sustainability
- Financing microgeneration in Bermuda and elsewhere
- Coen Brothers chip in to stop dirty coal.
- Today is the day. Stop Dirty Coal!
- Electric transportation in Bermuda
- Protest Dirty Coal Energy, Tomorrow
-
▼
March
(46)
Sunday 8 March 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Thanks for visiting and for the nice comments.
Post a Comment