"VISION ZERO" FOR TRAFFIC DEATHS: WILD DREAM OR CRITICAL GOAL?

For Release Sunday, September 30, 2007
© 2007 Washington Post Writers Group

By Neal Peirce

"Vision Zero" -- no more deaths from highway accidents.

The idea was born in Sweden, where it's had spectacular success in reducing traffic fatalities. Now zeroing out all traffic fatalities must become an explicit U.S. and worldwide goal. Otherwise we have no prospect of taming the appalling roadway death toll -- 42,000 lives lost yearly in the United States, close to 1.2 million worldwide.

That's the message of Dr. Mark Rosenberg, founder and former director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

My first reaction was skepticism when I heard Rosenberg make the case at a Global Urban Summit in Italy this summer. But he makes a compelling comparison to global eradication of smallpox -- a stunning public health success. The know-how for a cure -- the vaccine -- had been known for decades, but it took a world-wide commitment to finally control it.

Traffic deaths, Rosenberg insists, constitute an epidemic we can prevent. Sweden has succeeded, driving its yearly toll down to 440, lowest since World War II. Annual traffic-related deaths of children, once 118, sank to 11 at last count.

How did the Swedes do it? Tough seat belt and helmet laws, to be sure. But they've also begun to remake their roadways. Red lights at intersections (which encourage drivers to accelerate dangerously to "beat the light") are being replaced with traffic circles. Four-foot high barriers of lightweight but tough mylar are being installed down the center of roadways to prevent head-on collisions, and as side barriers at critical locations. On local streets, narrowed roadways and speed bumps, plus raised pedestrian crosswalks, limit speeds to a generally non-lethal 20 miles an hour.

Britain, New Zealand and the Netherlands are also registering major success with safety redesign and tough roadway rules. New Zealand cut its death rate by 50 percent in 10 years. But in the United States, we're "stuck," notes Rosenberg, at 42,000 to 43,000 deaths a year, adding:

"If those 42,000 deaths came from air accidents, air traffic would come to a screaming halt, all airports closed until we fixed the problem. But because our staggering numbers of road deaths come in ones and twos, they don't get attention. Fatalism is our biggest enemy."

Across the world, says Rosenberg, road injuries are likely to double by 2020 and could well total 100 million by 2050. The big reason: rapid motorization of India and China, indeed the entire developing world (the capitalistic dream of every automaker from General Motors to Toyota).

Cars and trucks are especially lethal in developing countries as they accelerate on roadways filled with pedestrians, cyclists, jitneys and sometimes farm animals and hand-drawn wagons.

Without the protection of riding in one's own vehicle (our "steel cages," Rosenberg notes), vast majorities of children and adults in such countries face high danger of direct and deadly vehicle impact. In Vietnam, for example, there are almost 3,000 fatalities for every 10,000 crashes.

Indeed, the World Health Organization (WHO) projects that highway deaths may well pass global death tolls from HIV-AIDS in the next two decades. And the death toll doesn't include serious injuries, which WHO estimates as high as 50 million annually, many resulting in lifelong paralysis and permanent disability.

I asked Rosenberg if Americans have any stake in the developing world's traffic dangers. A "big one," he replied, noting that U.S. business people (engineers and CEOs), soldiers, students, all travel there. Plus, he insists, we could play a huge humanitarian role with our resources and knowledge.

Some developing world cities -- Bogota, Colombia, for example -- have shown it's possible to cut roadway accidents dramatically by rigorous crackdowns on reckless or drunk driving and improved street layouts.

But if developing nations were helped to build their new roads, and remade old ones using technologies like Sweden's traffic dividers, literally millions of lives could be saved, tens of millions of frightening injuries avoided.

Rosenberg, a former U.S. assistant surgeon general and now executive director of the Task Force for Child Survival and Development, is making a life cause, helping create a world network to spread the "Vision Zero" concept.

And, he notes, there's been lots of international action since the United Nations General Assembly first debated the issue in 2004. A UN Road Safety Collaboration was brought together by WHO. The World Bank is mobilizing resources to help developing countries in particular. George Robertson of Britain, a former Secretary General of NATO, chairs a new Commission on Global Road Safety (which Rosenberg leads). There's now a push for a 2009 UN Ministerial Conference on road safety -- a first-ever meeting of cabinet level officials from both developing and developed countries to set a global strategy.

"A hundred million lives are at stake," says Rosenberg. "With 'Vision Zero" we have a chance to avoid an unimaginable disaster. It's hard to walk away from it."

Related article:

The world's only Vision Zero Circuit Visit the Vision Zero Circuit, 33 km of roads and 6 km of streets reconstructed according to the Vision Zero principles. The Vision Zero Circuit was formed in the year 2000-2001 as a part of a national project in Trollhättan, a town with 53 000 inhabitants North of Gothenburg.

The results are interesting in many aspects; the average speed is lower, there are fewer serious accidents and the new solutions are more aestetically appealing.

The project was a co-operation between The National Road Administration, Saab Automobile, The Municipality of Trollhättan, The National Society for Road Safety (NTF), The National Police Authorities, The Västra Götaland Region and The Swedish Association of Local Authorities.

Salt art has tongues a-waggin'

Salt art has tongues a-waggin'

Baker City art lovers marvel over a new contest at the feed-and-seed that shows cows (and horses, goats and deer) are truly worth their salt












Skyler Martin, 17, holds a salt lick on The Dailey Ranch in Keating where he continues a ranching tradition with his father and grandfather. Skyler says his grandpa, Meb Dailey plans to enter The Salt Lick contest but not before he discovers the perfect entry.

BAKER CITY -- As Whit Deschner walked through the woods behind a friend's cabin one afternoon, a weathered salt lick caught his attention. What a curious shape, he thought. Could it be art?

A photographer, farmer and the kind of guy inclined to see the humor in everyday things, Deschner had a hard time getting the question out of his head. That's easy to understand when you consider he lives in rural Baker County, where cows outnumber people 5-to-1. Salt licks -- those blocks of NaCl that ranchers use to supplement the diet of cattle -- are about as common as sagebrush in these parts.

Soon, a plan crystallized. Why not organize an art exhibit featuring the work of cows? Or horses? Even wild elk and deer?

Deschner called a friend who runs a coffee shop near Interstate 84. The friend, who thought salt a fine medium for self-expression, wasn't eager to host such a show because salt and coffee don't exactly go together.

Deschner, a Washington state native who is 53, was not deterred. He phoned a former neighbor who runs a feed-and-seed store, and his former neighbor loved the idea so much, he offered to provide every rancher who brought in a licked salt lick with a new 50-pound block in exchange.

Inspired, Deschner asked a handful of Baker City businesses to donate $50 toward prize money. None turned him down. The winner of the salt lick art contest will receive $200, second place $100 and third $50.

In Baker City, an old gold rush town, news of the contest spread quickly. A poster advertising the exhibit, to be held at the town's Crossroad Art Center, appeared in storefront windows up and down Main Street -- and on the Internet at www.saltlickcity.com. On the poster the words "Cow Art at its Finest" are superimposed over a photograph of a bull sticking out its tongue.

Rancher Mary Lou Wirth, whose family runs 250 head of cattle in nearby Medical Springs, heard about the contest from a granddaughter whose watercolors of elk hang at the Crossroads gallery. The idea made perfect sense to Wirth. She has often marveled over the strange shapes salt licks can take.

The rules, she saw, were simple:

"All entries must be salt blocks licked by cows or other livestock. Range blocks licked by wildlife will also be permitted. Blocks licked by humans will not be permitted. Licks may be subject to DNA testing. Blocks with human DNA will be eliminated and offenders banned from future contests.

"All entries -- unless you really, really want your salt lick back -- will be displayed at Crossroads Art Center for the month of October. Judging committee will judge blocks for originality and artistic flair."

Wirth, like fellow ranchers of large herds, buys salt licks by the ton and had plenty to choose from: blocks spread over several summer pastures, blocks left upright, blocks knocked over, blocks licked primarily by cows but touched by the occasional wandering wild elk. She chose one, her husband another. Hers she named "Twin Side Delight" because it looked the same on both sides, which struck her as pretty unusual.

The Wirth licks were the second and third to arrive at the Oregon Trail Livestock Supply store in Baker City, which also runs a "Cutest Foal" photograph contest. According to the poster behind the counter, Mark and Stacie Holt won that agricultural competition and received a prize of six bags of Equine Junior.

Soon after the salt lick posters appeared, 10 more blocks, some cradled in bubble wrap and paper towels, arrived at Crossroads Art Center.

One came in named "Cow Lick Cathedral." Another was dubbed "Icnivad." The "One-Eyed, One-Horned Flying Brown Bovine Eater" appeared with a poem:
A field of bovine not too smart,
Were told to create a work of art,
Given a salt block to lick,
Each tried to make it slick,
A sculpture emerged -- off the chart!

When not used for poetry and art, salt blocks keep a herd healthy. White blocks are pure salt, red blocks contain added iodine, tan blocks provide selenium and other trace minerals, blue offers cobalt and yellow is spiked with sulfur. "We don't have any of those -- thank goodness," Deschner says. "They stink."

But is a block of salt really art? Crossroads Art Center director Alyssa Peterson thinks so. She considers them like Marcel Duchamp's controversial "readymade" art.

"As long as you're seeing it as a three-dimensional form, it's no longer a salt block," she says, "it's a work of art."

Deschner hopes others agree. He's accepting entries until Oct. 3, and the show will remain on display until Oct. 24, when the gallery holds a special event and announces the winners. The blocks will then be auctioned and the proceeds will go to Parkinson's research at Oregon State University.

Until then, the licked licks will sit in the window facing Main Street, where they have already attracted stares and stopped passers-by.

If there's any question that salt licks are art, Deschner believes the answer lies in the viewer's response. "I see people walking by and it puts a smile on their face. I think that's what art is supposed to do.

"Isn't it?"







Click photo to enlarge

Larry Bingham:

503-221-8262; larrybingham@news.oregonian.com.

Green skies?

Green skies: Engineer's work may reduce jet travel's role in global warming

by Hilary Parker
Posted September 13, 2007; 10:10 a.m.

Princeton Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Fred Dryer has a lofty goal: end the nation's reliance on oil for jet travel.

With potentially major benefits for energy security and the environment riding upon his success, Dryer is advancing the fundamental knowledge of jet fuels while developing practical, innovative energy sources.

"In order to make alternative jet fuel sources feasible, they need to be compatible with petroleum and produce similar combustion performance," Dryer said. "This will only be possible if we fully understand how both petroleum and alternative fuels burn and design engines based on this fundamental knowledge."

Backed by government and industry grants, Dryer is leading two new research efforts to advance these technologies. The first, a major project funded by the U.S. Air Force, is focused on developing computational and kinetic models that accurately simulate the burning of jet fuel, a complex and poorly characterized mix of chemicals. At the same time, he is putting his basic understanding to use as he develops jet fuels with near-zero net greenhouse gas emissions in a project funded by NetJets, a leading provider of business jets.

The Air Force program is one of the Defense Department's highly competitive Multi-disciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) grants. One of only ten such projects supported by the Air Force this year, the collaboration involves researchers from four institutions -- Princeton, Case Western Reserve University, Pennsylvania State University and the University of Illinois-Chicago. The award, with an overall value of up to $7.5 million, will provide support for three years with the option of a two-year extension. Research began in July and the kick-off meeting for the project will be held Sept. 17 in Princeton.

Dryer and his MURI collaborators, including Princeton Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Yiguang Ju, will develop methods to predict and evaluate how jet fuels will behave in actual engines and characterize the emissions they will produce. While current guidelines specify some overall properties of jet fuels, they do not spell out the actual chemical composition. Depending on the source and processing method, jet fuel typically consists of hundreds to thousands of molecular structures that behave in a variety of ways.

The models developed by the team will represent and characterize the behavior of this broad range of jet fuel species using only a few types of molecular structures as surrogates for the larger whole. Dryer previously developed similar "surrogate fuel" models to represent gasoline, which are now being used for engine design by the automotive industry.

"The composition of fuels changes with the geographic source, the refining process and even with the season," Dryer noted. "Since we have an energy security problem, we need to be sure that alternative fuel sources are going to work and, in order to do that, we need to understand exactly how petroleum-based fuels work alone and in combination with alternative fuels."

Alternative energy sources, if designed appropriately, also could significantly reduce the amount of greenhouse gasses released in creating and burning jet fuel. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, aviation is responsible for around 10 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions from transportation in the nation, or roughly 2.7 percent of the country's total greenhouse gas emissions. The second research program, supported by NetJets, augments Dryer's fundamental MURI work and brings in additional expertise from the Princeton Environmental Institute to develop "greener" alternative fuels.

"NetJets is pleased to be working with the engineers and scientists at Princeton to develop new jet fuels with near-zero net greenhouse gas emissions," said NetJets Chairman and CEO Richard Santulli. "Princeton has a longstanding history of leadership in aerospace science. We feel they will make great strides with this research."

The NetJets-funded research project provides the opportunity to make substantial progress toward the launching of green technologies not only for corporate jets, but also for commercial aviation and transportation in general, according to Robert Williams, a senior research scientist at the Princeton Environmental Institute and member of the NetJets-sponsored research team. At Princeton, the team also includes Ju and Eric Larson, a research engineer at the Princeton Environmental Institute. In addition, the work will involve collaboration with researchers at the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California-Davis.

Two alternative fuel sources that are the subject of much investigation in the aviation field -- coal and biomass -- present a major quandary to researchers attempting to develop low-emissions jet fuels. Coal, a relatively cheap and readily available source of energy, has an emissions profile at least as harmful as petroleum. Biofuel -- fuel made from plants -- presents an attractive alternative because the carbon dioxide emitted from burning biomaterials will be removed from the atmosphere by a new generation of plants during photosynthesis. The production of biomaterials, however, requires the intensive use of land, limiting the feasibility of widespread production of biofuels.

To take advantage of the positive characteristics of each of these sources, the Princeton researchers will center their efforts on the synthesis of jet fuels from a combination of coal and biomass. A key component of their solution is isolating and storing the carbon dioxide produced during the production of so-called synfuels. This technique, called carbon capture and sequestration, is a promising strategy being investigated intensively by Princeton's Carbon Mitigation Initiative, among other research programs.

An "especially attractive feature" of processing coal and biomass together to make synfuels is that it requires only half the amount of biomaterial as pure biofuel production, while still making fuels with near-zero greenhouse gas emissions, Williams said.

The ultimate success of the research efforts will depend on how well the synfuels compare with traditional fuel sources, in terms of fuel characteristics, costs and environmental and safety issues, the researchers said.

"There is no doubt that developing feasible alternatives to petroleum for the aviation industry will be a long and expensive process," Dryer said. "And success, in the form of an enduring solution, will be priceless."

The shortest distance between two points is always under construction.

Poem: "Autobiography of the Cab Driver Who Picked Me Up at a Phoenix Hotel to Catch a Four A.M. Flight and Began to Speak in (Almost) Rhyming Couplets" by Rebecca McClanahan, from Deep Light: New and Selected Poems, 1987–2007. © Iris Press, 2007.

I got two problems.
One, I never see the sun
and two, if I did,
I couldn't take it, never could.
Now, my sister? Out one day
and brown the next. That's the way
my father was. We never
took vacations but he used to steer
on Sundays with one arm
out the window. Get dark as a black man.
Something in his blood, I guess.
Once I bought me a mess
of tanning cream, but something
kept me from using it.
He's been dead a whole
year. They say there's not a soul
on the streets this hour,
but the souls are just now rousing.
Yes Ma'am, when I see daylight I slide
into my coffin and close the lid.
Cooler that way. They say if you can survive
a summer in this heat, you're a native.
My brother's child? She claims to be one,
but I tell her she's got Made in Japan
stamped all over her keister.
Hey lady, you still on Eastern
time? You can have it. Yesterday
the TV reporter in Cincinnati
was three feet in snow. I phoned
my old drinking buddy back home
to rub it in. Lied and said I was out
today without a shirt. Barefoot.
He said you can keep those hundred
degrees. I said you don't have to shovel
a heat wave. Young lady, you okay?
Looks like you're fading. The longest day
I ever lived was the night
I left for Vietnam. What a sight,
would you look at that? Damn
jackhammers at three a.m.
They sure like to play in the dirt here.
Yes Ma'am. It's the same everywhere.
The shortest distance between
two points is always under construction.

Try to get to Carmen at Portland Opera

Think you've seen Carmen before? Think again.

Jossie Pérez is a must see and hear: a beautiful, powerful voice; a provactive, dynamic performance. The remainder of the cast is excellent. The production is colorful. You won't regret spending 3+ hours. David Stabler of the Oregonian thought Jossie Pérez was "all Gypsy in looks and voice," but found the rest of the production "tepid"

Yesterday's matinée performance was sold out.

Remaining performances:

Sep 25, 2007
Tuesday 7:30 pm

Sep 27, 2007
Thursday 7:30 pm

Sep 29, 2007
Saturday 7:30 pm

Biography

Born in Puerto Rico, Jossie Perez moved to Florida at age 15. At 16 she sang in the chorus of the Orlando Opera. After studying at the New England Conser- vatory, she won the Regional and National Metropolitan Opera Auditions, and was accepted into the Met's Young Artist Program.

She made her Met debut in 2000, as Mercedes in "Carmen". She has sung 14 roles at the Met so far, including Ascanius in 'Les Troyens', Second Lady in 'Magic Flute', Cherubino in 'Nozze di Figaro', (all of which were broadcast), and Siebel in 'Faust'. Jossie also sang CARMEN, Dorabella in 'Cosi fan Tutte', Rosina in 'Barber of Seville', Donna Elvira in 'Don Giovanni', and Isabella in 'L'Italiana in Algieri' - in Boston, Bellingham Festival, Wolf Trap, Spoleto Festival, Lyric Opera of San Antonio, Belle-Isle in France, Tulsa Opera, Santiago in Chile, Opera Pacific, and Detroit Opera.

Jossie Perez sang Idamante opposite Placido Domingo in 'Idomeneo' in Washington, DC. She also appeared in 'Lucrezia Borgia' in Oviedo, Spain, and in 'Parsifal' at the Salzburg Festival. She has sung concerts in Carnegie Hall, and Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, and in Tokyo. She sang Mozart performances in Madison, Wisconsin, and Washington, DC, and Granada, Spain, and Recitals in Miami and Orlando, Florida. In Barcelona she sang the leading role of Sesto in 'Clemenza di Tito'.

In July she sang CARMEN in Tokyo, with Seiji Ozawa conducting.The Portland Opera will see her Carmen in September. On Oct. 31 in Dominican Republic it's a concert with Placido Domingo conducting. In Spain in 2008 she sings Charlotte in 'Werther' in Seville in March, and Cherubino at Teatre Liceu in Barcelona in November. Then in 2010 she sings Carmen in Barcelona.

A British Bill of Rights?

Constitutional reform

A bill of rights and more powers for MPs

Tania Branigan, political correspondent
Saturday June 30, 2007 The Guardian

Gordon Brown will unveil proposals for sweeping constitutional reforms to increase the authority of parliament next week, after a lengthy discussion at a special cabinet meeting yesterday. Voters will be able to have their say on changes, such as increasing parliament's authority and publishing a bill of rights, the justice minister, Jack Straw, said.

Mr. Brown will lay out his plans to transfer powers away from No 10 in a statement to the Commons on Monday. The proposals took up much of yesterday's 1¾-hour cabinet meeting, with every minister contributing. Changes are likely to include drastic trimming of the royal prerogative, used by the prime minister with the purely formal agreement of the Queen.

To hear comedian Andy Borowitz's take on this, click here.

Good-bye, good bye, goodbye, hyphen

Oxford dictionary changes its hue

LONDON: The latest edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary has donned a new colour. SOED's editor Angus Stevenson explains the greening of his dictionary as a sign of the times.

"Suddenly people have become much more concerned about climate change," he says. "It's trendy to be green, and that has made the vocabulary of green issues much more widespread."

But its bid to omit the hyphen has invited a storm of criticism from appalled purists, seeking to launch a last-ditch defence of the hyphen, Stevenson is defensive but doughty.

"We only reflect what people in general are reading. We have been tracking this for some time and we've been finding the hyphen is used less and less. It will probably upset a few people but the point I would make is that we are only reflecting widespread everyday use. We are not saying it should be dropped completely."

So, good-bye, good bye, goodbye, hyphen.

Bada bing, wordsmiths ditch the hyphen

By Emma Pomfret
WHETHER you're bootylicious or a muppet is strictly open to debate. But the use of such terms has become a phenomenon that lexicographers at the New Oxford Dictionary of English have been meticulously tracking for many years.

Published yesterday, the second edition of The Oxford Dictionary of English is considered to be the foremost single-volume authority on the English language.

Almost 3,000 words have entered the dictionary. Apostrophes are moving and shaking and the hyphen may well have had its day.

For example, e-mails have become emails and we are now online not on-line. A central part of the work undertaken by Oxford Dictionaries is to monitor all varieties of English from that used in formal, business, or scientific contexts to slang and informal usage.

Those that have passed the test include cyberslacker, fatoush, blamestorming, SARS, cantopop, bupkis, noughties, muggle, and robata. And familiar words we've used for years are changing.

You can guilt someone, or version something, while groom has taken on a more sinister meaning. The research also confirms that the Americanisation of English continues, with terms such as nerd, geek, bad hair day, and 24/7 as common here as they are in the US.

The world of television has given us bada bing courtesy of the US TV show The Sopranos, lovely jubbly from Only Fools and Horses, reality TV, and muppet meaning an incompetent or foolish person. Entertainment is now full of bootylicious, popstrels, and turntablists, who are da bomb, meaning the best. In science and technology, the fast-moving field of genetics has given us some colourful new terms: it's a world of pathogenicity islands, shotgun cloning and terminator genes.

Meanwhile, the web has become a place of hacktivists, shovelware and people who egosurf.

So, if you want to know what will happen if you have a 'Brazilian' at your local beauty salon, who the original 'Foo Fighters' were, what the 'Duckworth Lewis' method is, whether it is 'web site' or 'website', a copy of the Oxford Dictionary of English is a 'must-have'.

Hyphens-Perish-In-New-Oxford-Dictionary

Ra-ma-ra-ma- -Ding-dong-, England-- (IP)-- 16,000 - hyphens -have -disappeared -from -the -Oxford -English-dictionary- and- London- Yard- is- on- the -look -out -for - the- maniac -who -stole -them. He- said- it- will-be- difficult- to-manage- all- of -those -hyphens.

Chief -Inspector -Povenmire -Finootch -says -a -sure -fire-way- to-find -the -hyphen -stealing -culprit -is -to simply- look- for- someone- using- an-excessive -number-of-hyphens- on- the- innernet- (sic) -as -he -so -cleverly -puts-it.

Inspector- Finootch- says- that- there- is- a- very- large-cash- reward- out- for- information- leading- to- the-arrest- and- conviction- of- the- -hyphen -thief. He- went- as- far- as- to- say- that- if- the- thief- would-turn- himself- in- that- the- thief- himself- could- cash-in- on- the- reward- which- he- says- is- in- the- six-figures - category.