News Bits and Pieces - Florida Planning

VIEW 2008 CLIMATE CHANGE SUMMIT PRESENTATIONS

The 2008 Serve to Preserve Florida Summit on Climate Change, hosted by Governor Crist, was held June 25-26 in Miami. This year's Summit focused not only on the need to pursue alternative fuels for environmental reasons, but also for the economic benefits brought about by the infusion of green technologies. Panels and keynote speakers emphasized the need to lead this important effort. If you were unable to attend, many of the presentations were videotaped and and can be viewed online at www.myfloridaclimate.com/env/home/webcast_watch_it_live.

HIGH GAS PRICES A TURNING POINT FOR U.S. TRANSIT

A recent report published by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) proposes that high gas prices will result in quantum shifts in driving behavior in the U.S. CIBC World Markets Inc. experts Jeff Rubin and Benjamin Tall, in their ''Heading for the Exit Lane'' report, expect the 57 million Americans with both cars and direct access to transit to act more and more like Europeans, who have long paid much higher gasoline prices since the 1950s. The analysts predict that some 10 million Americans will stop driving over by 2012. Read this report at http://research.cibcwm.com/economic_public/download/sjun08.pdf.

NEW CERT WEBSITE ONLINE

In April, the Florida Division of Emergency Management brought online a new website, www.floridadisaster.org/CitizenCorps, to provide information on Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) and the Citizen Corps. The Florida Division of Emergency Management supports the Community Emergency Response Team program which trains residents to be prepared for emergency situations in their communities and neighborhoods. Local CERT teams receive training in disaster preparedness, disaster fire safety, disaster medical operations, light search and rescue, terrorism, communications, disaster psychology and team organization. CERT teams provide immediate assistance to victims, collect disaster information to support first responder efforts and provide the first neighborhood help in the immediate hours following a major emergency. The new website will allow those interested to apply to become a member of a CERT team and find information on CERT teams and Citizen Corps councils in their local area.

CALCULATE YOUR SAVINGS BY RIDING PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
The American Public Transportation Association has created an online tool to help you calculate the savings you could experience by riding public transportation. This calculator will help you compare the price of using public transportation with the price of paying at the pump and then parking your car in town. This calculator has been set with default values based on national averages for June, 2008; however, you may set variables such as the price of gas and the length of the round trip to match the price of gas in your area and the length of your round trip. To see what you might save, go to www.apta.com/services/transit_calculator/index.cfm.

ROLE OF NEIGHBORHOODS IN ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE
The Congress for New Urbanism has developed a new video highlighting how walkable urbanism can reduce driving and slash carbon emissions. Entitled A Convenient Remedy to the Inconvenient Truth, the video points out that the design and location of neighborhoods plays significant role in your overall energy use and carbon footprint. That's largely because the typical American subdivision and its surrounding environment is designed completely for driving. To meet their daily needs, residents have no choice but to drive over a spread out landscape of homes, stores, office parks, schools and other destinations. The video uses a number of revealing examples to show how the choice of a walkable, mixed-use transit-connected neighborhood can slash in half or more the 21,250 miles per year the average U.S household puts on its cars and trucks. View it at http://www.cnu.org/climatemovie.