Green Gal

On Wednesday, August 26, Green Guy and I attended the 5th Annual Silicon Valley Bike Summit in Palo Alto for a day of presentations and conversations about the state of bicycling in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, what new roadway and technology improvements are planned to improve bicycle safety, and how we can encourage more people in our community to safely bicycle for transportation, fun, and health. Getting There - Caltrain After a short bike ride to the Caltrain station, we boarded the bike car along with fellow active transportation advocates Richard Masoner ( Cyclelicious ) and Jaime Fearer ( California Walks ), both of whom spoke at the summit later that day. As with a number of other bicycle advocates who have an online presence, I had only ever communicated with Richard by Twitter, and it was great to meet him in person. His blog is a really great resource for all things bike in this area, and he's also on Facebook and Twitter . Jaime Fearer, who I hadn'...

Last night, Green Guy and I biked into downtown San Jose, leaving our tree-lined neighborhood for the big tall buildings across the freeway. Though we've lived here since the beginning of June, I am still always blown away when I see those high rises right downtown, so close to where we live and yet such a different part of this city. We biked downtown in search of City Lights Theater Company , a small theater in the SoFA District of San Jose. SoFA as in South of First Area, which the San Jose Downtown Association's website states "serves as downtown San Jose’s visual arts and entertainment district. Cool, organic and creative, SoFA is a place where you can interact with some of the most eclectic and artistic people in the city." We saw and heard evidence of this in the form of various small theaters, as well as the sound of music and dancing footsteps emanating from a doorway we passed on our way. I had actually read about this area and its music scene in the loca...

By 6:15 AM today, I was biking down the hill from campus, enjoying the moments of stillness right before the sun rose. Lights twinkled in the city below, a familiar view that has been part of my experience at UC Santa Cruz for the last four years. Most of the time when I see the city's twinkling lights, though, it's at night. Seeing it this early in the morning dispelled any lingering desire to be in my warm bed, and it prepared me for a day of engagement with transportation issues. I was on my way to the Silicon Valley Transportation Choices and Healthy Communities Summit in Palo Alto, and this 15-minute bike ride was leg one of a multi-modal journey! After biking fast down the hill with my bright yellow jacket on, I arrived at the Santa Cruz Metro Station downtown with about 5 minutes to spare. I put my bike on the bus rack, paid my $5 for the trip over the hill, and sat down to breathe. I promptly closed my eyes and half-slept while sitting and not le...

Imagine the UC Santa Cruz campus without cars or buses circling its horse-shoe shape. No cars driving up behind the sea of pedestrians on Steinhart Way, cramming people off the road or forcing people on bikes to give room to the large metal isolation machines (commonly known as cars) that keep people separate from their fellow slugs. Think of the roads that could become walkways and bikeways (as Steinhart really is and should be since only authorized vehicles are allowed through), people reclaiming space and not having to stop and let cars and buses pass when crossing guards are directing traffic. No bus pollution right in your lungs as you bike up Hagar behind a Metro or loop bus. Walking and dancing in the street, more people walking through forest paths instead of busing around campus, bikes zooming around instead of rusting in a sideyard. Healthier people, healthier air, more human powered transportation. Today, while biking through rain ...

Sure, sometimes you end up next to the smelly guy on the train or you wind up getting the bus with the loud cell phone people or the crazies. But the more you take public transportation, the more skilled you become at selecting seats, using body language (like angry faces and glaring to avoid conversations!), and just learning to deal with it because there are plenty of reasons--I'm about to name five--why public transportation is awesome. Here's why I love public transportation, and why I encourage you to utilize it as often as you can in your daily life. 1. Public transportation reduces the number of polluting, traffic-causing cars on the road. Every time you take public transportation when you might otherwise have taken a car takes one car off the road. Think about people who take PT every day to work, school, or wherever they going when they could have driven. Certainly a bus requires more fuel than a compact car, but if you fill a bus with people and take the cars...

Starting this blog 3 years ago was probably one of the best decisions I ever made. I didn't quite realize how important the blog would be to my life or that it would become a valuable place for me to explore my writing style, learn innumerable new sustainable lifestyle tips, and truly hone in on what I’m passionate about. Green Gal on her way to high school a few years ago. Around the same time that I started the Green Gal blog, I also started a literature blog called perennial Thoughts . My whole life I figured I’d study literature, and I was right. But I also figured I’d go on to become an English teacher or a writer of fiction. In eighth grade health class we had to create a timeline for our lives, and on mine I put that by age 25 I would have published my first book. I figured it would be creative writing, or something fictional. I participated in NanoWriMo a few years in high school and joined the school’s writing club. I wrote for our local Patch back whe...

Today I spent 5 hours on public transporation, commuting back and forth to UC Santa Cruz for my Sustainability Office internship. I was going to write my blog post on the train home, but I ended up working on the green guide that I'm editing and updating for the City. So even though I didn't post the waste auditing blog post today like I promised, I was actively involved in sustainability work most of the day. Sometime soon, I'll share more about my work at school, and the waste auditing post is on its way... it will be up tomorrow morning after my train ride to Santa Cruz! Here's a glimpse of my 6:45 AM start at the train station this morning... Thanks for reading! Check back tomorrow morning for some trash talking--photos and thoughts on waste and how dang much we produce each day without even thinking!