Comments on: The Mile and a Half Plume http://www.howwedrive.com/2009/07/10/the-mile-and-a-half-plume/ Just another WordPress weblog Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:59:48 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Chris http://www.howwedrive.com/2009/07/10/the-mile-and-a-half-plume/#comment-8145 Chris Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:35:06 +0000 http://www.howwedrive.com/?p=1035#comment-8145 This is incredibly interesting and raises two questions for me (and maybe others). 1. Does harm from car pollution rise at the rate of increased volume, or is there an exponential impact as traffic volume hits a critical mass? 2.Similarly, is it just as harmful if all that traffic is distributed among a set of side streets in a neighborhood, or is the harm more intense if all the traffic is on a single highway...maybe that's actually less bad? -Chris H., urban planner in SF This is incredibly interesting and raises two questions for me (and maybe others).
1. Does harm from car pollution rise at the rate of increased volume, or is there an exponential impact as traffic volume hits a critical mass?
2.Similarly, is it just as harmful if all that traffic is distributed among a set of side streets in a neighborhood, or is the harm more intense if all the traffic is on a single highway…maybe that’s actually less bad?

-Chris H., urban planner in SF

]]> By: IvanK http://www.howwedrive.com/2009/07/10/the-mile-and-a-half-plume/#comment-8129 IvanK Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:47:21 +0000 http://www.howwedrive.com/?p=1035#comment-8129 Tom, This WalkScore website does a pretty poor job of differentiating quality businesses from substandard ones. Living, like yourself, inside the BQE I was interested to see what the WalkScore of my residence would be. I've always considered my neighborhood (Bed-Stuy off the J, just across Broadway from the beginnings of Bushwick) to be fairly dull and empty and rarely go anywhere within a short walking distance (let's say 20 mins) from here for errands or in my free time. There is one bar I can walk to, a cheap and not very good diner, and a cafe that has recently opened up that I have yet to check out. So I was very surprised to see that I got a score of 85 (Very Walkable). Looking at the map, there appears to be a profusion of grocery stores, restaurants and cafes which, knowing what they actually are, turn out to mostly be bodegas. There is certainly no good grocery store within walking distance, which you wouldn't be able to tell from the map. In fact, my neighborhood fails most of their criteria for a walkable neighborhood (parks and public space, mixed income mixed-use, accessible) despite the high score. I know this wasn't the topic of your post, but just wanted to let you know that the metrics they use to define businesses should ideally be improved to take into account quality. This is of course impossible to do without user input which would mean they wouldn't be able to use a simple algorithm as they do. Great idea though and I hope they are able to keep improving it. Anyway, love your blog, keep up the great work! -Ivan Tom,

This WalkScore website does a pretty poor job of differentiating quality businesses from substandard ones. Living, like yourself, inside the BQE I was interested to see what the WalkScore of my residence would be. I’ve always considered my neighborhood (Bed-Stuy off the J, just across Broadway from the beginnings of Bushwick) to be fairly dull and empty and rarely go anywhere within a short walking distance (let’s say 20 mins) from here for errands or in my free time. There is one bar I can walk to, a cheap and not very good diner, and a cafe that has recently opened up that I have yet to check out.

So I was very surprised to see that I got a score of 85 (Very Walkable). Looking at the map, there appears to be a profusion of grocery stores, restaurants and cafes which, knowing what they actually are, turn out to mostly be bodegas. There is certainly no good grocery store within walking distance, which you wouldn’t be able to tell from the map. In fact, my neighborhood fails most of their criteria for a walkable neighborhood (parks and public space, mixed income mixed-use, accessible) despite the high score.

I know this wasn’t the topic of your post, but just wanted to let you know that the metrics they use to define businesses should ideally be improved to take into account quality. This is of course impossible to do without user input which would mean they wouldn’t be able to use a simple algorithm as they do. Great idea though and I hope they are able to keep improving it. Anyway, love your blog, keep up the great work!

-Ivan

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