Tim Kovach

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What Are the Drivers of Driving Alone?

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In the midst of running my statistical analyses for last week’s post on why fireworks are almost as trash as I am, I caught the statistical analysis bug and wanted to keep running regressions. Naturally, I decided to look at a dataset that I use frequently for my job and which I had recently been parsing through yet again – the American Community Survey’s means of transportation to work data.
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Employers Play a Major Role in Shaping Commuting Behavior

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For sustainable transportation advocates, changing people’s commuting behaviors can seem like our white whale. While commutes account for just 19% of total personal trips in the US, they play an outsized role in our transportation system, accounting for 27.8% of total vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Their timing is also critical. The concept of rush hour revolves around our commute patterns. In cities like Washington, DC and Los Angeles, rush hour congestion can make life hell commuters, costing them time, money, and sanity. But in cities that are not growing and have no real congestion issues normally, these rush hour periods are particularly important. For a city like Cleveland, commuting patterns directly influence the transportation infrastructure we end up with. The influx of drivers heading to and from work each day provides justification to expand our already overbuilt road system, which has serious impacts on development patterns, travel … Continue reading → The post Employers play a major role in shaping commuting behavior appeared first on Tim Kovach.
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Fun With Cleveland Bike Lanes!

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I don’t even know where to begin with this one. Earlier this summer, shortly before Republicans invaded Cleveland, the publicly-funded downtown Hilton Hotel opened to much fanfare and self-congratulatory praise. The hotel’s completion coincided with the repaving and restriping of Ontario Avenue – which runs adjacent to the structure – from St. Clair to Lakeside. The project included the addition restoration of an on-road, striped bike lane, the first and only one located in downtown Cleveland (unless you include the stretch on the north side of Superior from around West 6th to the Detroit-Superior Bridge, which, don’t). Here’s what the lane is supposed to look like, courtesy of bike messenger and Twitter-er-er-er Dave Schalmo (@Courier429). You can see the valet parking signs conveniently placed in the middle of the lane, perhaps suggesting that the people at the Hilton weren’t too thrilled about the placement of said lane. Well, that … Continue reading → The post Fun with Cleveland bike lanes! appeared first on Tim Kovach.
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Do ‘Ozone Action Days’ Actually Inspire People to Act?

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“Ozone: Good up high, Bad nearby.” So goes the U.S. EPA’s catchy (?) refrain to help people distinguish between (good) atmospheric and (bad) ground-level ozone. Fortunately, we have gotten some good news on the former in the past few days. A team of researchers has concluded that we are finally building up more good ozone; that is, the massive hole in the protective ozone layer over Antarctica is finally beginning to heal thanks to the phasing out of chlorofluorocarbons under the 1987 Montreal Protocol. It seems like the ozone layer may be on course to fully recover by the middle of the century. Unfortunately, the news is not as great on the latter front, as we are also seeing an increase in ground-level ozone. On Tuesday, NOACA issued an ozone advisory, warning residents of Northeast Ohio that ambient levels of ground-level ozone may reach harmful levels, which … Continue reading → The post Do ‘ozone action days’ actually inspire people to act? appeared first on Tim Kovach.
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