I don’t like clutter. I know advertising works (which explains the billions spent on it) the question is… Why would I subject myself to advertising and allow my house to be cluttered just to give someone else my money?
Four times a week we receive a community newspaper. Now the paper is mostly ads, advertisements, paid advertising and ads. There are relevant local articles, but it hardly seems worth the “filtering” to get to the content. Out of 40 printed pages, I’d guess 4 or less actually contain news. Now I don’t believe in mindlessly reading advertisements (and don’t know anyone who will admit to this), but I must admit my relationship to the printed newspapers that appear on my mailbox has been undergoing a transformation.
I was curious what the impact was on my time and on the environment to handle all the paper associated with the unsolicited flyers and community newspapers I receive. To try and estimate the impact on my city, I’m assuming everyone in town does exactly what I do, and I’m believing the newspaper’s circulation figures (averaged to 40,000 per paper) which I found on the Internet. You will see some high dollar figures here, and this is because the cost to consumers is generally left out of the equation and ignored… Retailers don’t incur that cost, it is the consumer’s problem, so why would anyone bother to track or estimate that cost… This is only a rough but fair estimate. Now I’d love to make this more accurate, so if you take issue with the numbers, do us all a favour and contribute some research. Here is the transformation in chronological order:
Handling Flyers and community newspapers (original version 1.0)
Initially we would bring the paper in, sort through the flyers “in case there was something good there”, and put the papers on the coffee table to be read. Then I would flip from front to back through the paper making sure I didn’t “miss anything. So including all the “handling time” bringing in the paper, reading through it. Picking it up off the floor after the small children decorated the room with it. Recycling it. I probably spent 30 minutes per paper and ended up skipping half of the papers completely. The time spent “reading the paper” was time I didn’t spend with my kids etc, so I’m going to think of that cost to me as $20/hour for my like many people earn. The 150 grams estimated weight of the paper is based on Canada Post’s “weight restriction” for mailing community newspapers (mine is probably larger) and 37 grams of flyers. So 150 grams 4 times a week is 0.6 Kg per week or 31.2 Kg per year.
My yearly time spent “handling” newspapers and flyers: 52 hours $1040
My papers and flyers sent to recycling: 31.2Kgs (68.8 lbs)
My city’s yearly time spent “handling” newspapers and flyers: 2,080,000 hours $41,600,000 (this is the cost of consumer’s time!)
My city’s papers and flyers sent to recycling: 1,248,000 Kgs (2,751,369 lbs)
Handling Flyers and community newspapers (updated version 2.0)
Then I recognized the time I was spending “tidying up” these papers all over our living space and I wanted to get the papers re-routed to recycling at the earliest point possible. What I would do is “intentionaly” sit down and skim the newspaper articles for 5 minutes, if there was relevant content I save the paper for my wife and tell her what is worth reading, if not, I recycle it and all of the flyers stuffed inside before the paper even makes it up the stairs to our living space. (Sorry advertisers, your advertising budget was not effectively spent). But this skimming is still an interesting activity to me, I’m not doing it because I am (at that moment) interested in reading the paper or learning something specific, I’m “reacting” to the newspaper being delivered to my door. I’m voluntarily spending at least 20 minutes per week filtering out advertisements…. Hmm, how is it that someone else is “making me” spend time reading their paper…. That wasn’t my idea. Hey I could have used that time for something I WANTED to do.
My yearly time spent “handling” newspapers and flyers: 17 hours $340 <reduced>
My papers and flyers sent to recycling: 31.2Kgs (68.8 lbs) <No change>
My city’s yearly time spent “handling” newspapers and flyers: 680,000 hours $13,600,000 <reduced>
My city’s papers and flyers sent to recycling: 1,248,000 Kgs (2,751,369 lbs) <No change>
Handling Flyers and community newspapers (New Era version 3.0)
So I noticed that when those friendly guys from the “Globe and Mail” would call, I would answer. “Not really interested, I use the Internet.” and they would simply drop it and let me go with no more “sales”… hmmm.. Maybe I could just use the Internet and replace my local community paper… So I testsed this. What I could find online (in several locations) had all the information with much less advertising. In many cases it offered more than the news (videos and such). I bravely asked my wife what she thought and when I learned that she really didn’t use those grocery store flyers I’d been saving for years, our course was set. We put a “No Flyers or Newspapers” sign on our mailbox and suddenly our house is neater, our recycling is lighter, and I’m facing much less temptation to purchase things I would not have otherwise purchased. I’m estimating that I only spend 15 minutes per month looking for local news and information. Only God knows the value of the “impulse purchases” I’m not making.
My yearly time spent not “handling” newspapers and flyers: 3 hours $60 (Internet time) <reduced>
My papers and flyers sent to recycling: 0 Kgs (0 lbs) <reduced>
My city’s residents potential yearly time spent not “handling” newspapers and flyers: 120,000 hours $2,400,000 <reduced>
My city’s could potentially save 1,248,000 Kgs (2,751,369 lbs) of paper from going to recycling (or worse) <Join Me! It’s free!>
Adding back “The Internet”
Sure there is time spent on the Internet to find local information, but I don’t think it is the same as putting a paper on your doorstep. I think that when someone is actually pursuing information, and not just having it “forced” on them, they are able to dig deeper and learn more. Sure I will likely look up some local events using the Internet, maybe 15 minutes per month when I NEED to know something specific. But that is one of the major points I’m making. Newspaper delivery was someone else’s idea that consumed my time and wasted paper.
We are fortunate to live in abundance where one of our major issues is TOO MUCH STUFF! And to keep us buying more, Canadians are inundated with $19 Billion worth of advertising each year. If the old adage is true, “half of all marketing works great, if only we knew which half” why don’t advertisers spend more resources understanding which half works and spend the other half supporting community?
Another small but useful site is: http://www.iwilltry.org/w/index.php?title=Flyers_against_flyers_campaign which advocates convincing your neighbours to join you in giving up flyers. They had some great images you could print out and tape to your mailbox (download the originals from their site).
The Canadian national “Do Not Call List” operated by the government of Canada promises to reduce phone based solicitation. https://www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca/
The “Canadian Marketing Association has a “Do not Contact Service” designed to get your name on a list their members might check before sending out mailed advertisements. http://www.the-cma.org/?WCE=C=47|K=224217
A ?grassroots? attempt to produce a better “do not call list” http://www.ioptout.ca/ trys to overcome limitations with the “Do Not Call List” (charities are not restricted etc).
(Use the comments to evaluate the usefulness of these links).
Please comment to let me know what you think of all this. Do you have paper taming tricks? ways to find local information that work for you? Would you consider joining me with a simple “no flyers or newspapers” sign on your mailbox? Why or why not?
Things are designed for their beauty, their cost, their useability and sometimes just for fun. It is surprising how often we come across things that seem badly designed given the possibility for greatness in design.
At my work we have all struggled to use our very beautiful entry doors. They are polished and shiny with hidden hinges. They are completely symetrical, so that from either side of the door, the door appears the same. So we are all pushing and pulling when we should be pulling and pushing. I expect some designer won an award for the doors, but it wouldn’t be a useability award. Here they are:
My co-worker tackled the challenging doors with an office labeler and some discretely placed hints that have so far not been disturbed by the interior design police.
Sometimes the ingenious methods people come up with to deal with bad design are as enjoyable as good design would be. How many cents did it take to solve the design problem. 5?
In this next photo, can you spot the problem with the card swipe instructions here:
Thats right, the diagram adjacent to the cardswipe indicates that the magnetic strip needs to be on the left… BUT in the digital image on the right, the orange screen clearly displays the magnetic strip on the right. Left? or Right? Well I assumed the hardware was more closely tied to the diagram attached to it and believed the diagram. “wrong!” It was the digital image on the orange screen that got it right.
Now how many thousands of dollars go into deploying something like a gas pump, and how many people reviewed the design etc. before it got to me the customer. (And how many thousands of people a year have to re-swipe their card because of this bad design?)
I hope you enjoyed these as much as I did, I’ll post more as I find them, so be sure to check back.
We are in the last days going into the May 12th provincial election here in BC.
I thought I’d share some final thoughts…
Vote Here (flickr credit: myJon)
If you care about the environment, and have concerns about the unbalanced power held by corporations, especially in light of what appears to be the Liberal agenda to sell out public infrastructure / legacies to corporations, then you should definately watch the video here: http://www.callingfromthecoast.com
In the last election I Did not vote Liberal because they basically said “You don’t want the dishonest NDP do you?”, and I didn’t vote NDP because they basically said “We hate everything the Liberals stand for”, so I voted Green because they spoke of a triple bottom line of Economic, Ecological and social responsibility. It was the freshest thing I had heard in Canadian politics since the Reform party was formed.
This election, I think I must stop the Liberals who seem to want to sell everything they can to greedy corporations. BC-rail, BC-Hydro transmission, BC-Gas, BC-Tel… “What does it profit a man to gain the world and lose his soul?” There is more to life and government than money. Much more. Justice, compassion, vision, planning, responsibility, leadership, inovation. Money? come on some of the things being sold are irreplacible.
I’m not impressed with the green party this election, because our local candidate keeps mentioning the legalization of marajuana on par with other issues. Serious hit to your credibility guys. THAT green agenda is something entirely different than the one I’m concerned with.
This leaves me with the NDP. I don’t think their record is much worse than the Liberals, and when I look at the Millenium line and much of the provincial land reserves, the NDP deserve full credit.
The only thing I’m excited about this election is the STV, the “BC-STV” to be precise. After researching it, I’ve now blogged about BC-STV here, and here.
1. At the polling station you mark your choices 1,2,3,4…. instead of marking an X by only one candidate.
2. Your riding or electoral district is joined with others to contain more than one MLA. (same total number of MLAs)
3. Your vote goes to your first choice. If there is a surplus of votes for that candidate, or if that candidate is eliminated, then your second choice comes into play (and so on). Your vote goes farther. The BC Citizens Assembly on electoral reform explains this in detail in their website. Read their PDF “how the votes are counted”
BC-STV gives British Columbia the opportunity to have proportional representation in the legislature. It will likely weaken the “2 party pendulum effect” we have been seeing where policy swings far to the left and far to the right. This should lead to more moderate and stable government policy. This should reduce the party rhetoric because MLAs are going to have to work WITH each other.
By the way “The Corporation” is pretty much required viewing if you want to be informed about the world around you. Check out the copy at your local library.
Cheers friends, make me proud, vote for BC-STV and give that first video a watch.
Greg.
British Columbians have a unique opportunity to improve the quality of our electoral system on May 12th when our province holds its next provincial election. Under the slogan “Power up the vote”, the BC Citizen’s Assembly is advocating the “Single Transferable Vote” this may be the single most significant opportunity to improve how we vote. Their website tries to anticipate and answer questions about the STV.
The Citizen’s Assembly was charged with making a recommendation directly to the citizens of BC, to improve our voting system. through a process detailed on their website, the BC Citizen’s Assembly determined that the BC-STV system would bring us the most advantages.
Current system
In British Columbia currently there is the system of “first past the pole” the candidate with the most votes wins. Truly it is the simplest system, but upon comparison with other options it is clearly far from perfect. Consider a hypothetical situation with the current system where in a riding there were 4 candidates each receiving 24%, 24%, 25% and 27% of the vote. It is clear that the candidate with 27% of the vote is the winner. However, it is also clear that 73% of the votes were “wasted” / “unrepresented in government” and that the majority of voters preferred someone other than the winner. Here is how the BC Citizen’s Assembly put it…
British Columbians believe that it isn’t fair that a party can form government without having the most votes, or that our province could be left without an official opposition – even if we voted for one. We don’t think its fair that a party can govern as if it had majority support when it doesn’t, or that a majority of votes do not elect anybody, or that some regions may have no representation in government at all.
Regardless of how we vote, British Columbians think elections should be about fair results, greater choice, effective local representation and accountable government.
Basically you only get to vote once, but your vote is more powerful. If you picked a losing candidate, your vote keeps on working to better represent your vote. Check out the 4.5 minute video below. It is brilliant.
Why is there another referendum after the one held in 2005?
In the referendum in May 2005, STV received 57.7% of the total vote and a clear majority in 77 of 79 electoral districts. Although it far exceeded the first bar of receiving majority support in at least 48 constituencies, it narrowly missed the second unprecedented 60% province wide threshold. Clearly this created a problem because only 42.3% supported retaining the current system. Given the results it was entirely appropriate that the people of BC be further more opportunity to explore STV. The question will be put to all the voters in BC in a second referendum, held on May 12, 2009, in conjunction with the next provincial election. If the voters clearly endorse the Citizens’ Assembly’s recommendation, the government has promised it will introduce legislation so that the new electoral system could be in place for the following provincial election in May 2013. http://www.bc-stv.ca/
Vote for the BC-STV
From what I’ve learned in my research, the BC-STV is an improvement that would give British Columbian voters better representation by popular vote. It seems like a brilliant idea, let me encourage you to;
1. Vote for the BC -STV on May 19th 12th. [Updated, Thanks!]
2. Explain the BC-STV to at least 3 other eligible voters so they can be informed.
Happy Voting! Oh, and check out these related videos on Proportional Representation featuring John Cleese and one of the Royal Canadian Air Farce: https://stv.ca/humour
Greg.
I love the freeway. I get on it, I drive as far as I want and I get off. It isn’t like some of the other roads we have around here. You know the ones where you stop every block or two because there is a single car pulling out of some mini-mall. In fact there are some pretty hillarious roads around here. One of them is the “Langley Bypass”. Historically most of the vehicle traffic going through Langley travelled on Fraser Highway, which was 1 lane in each direction with businesses down both sides of the street (the typical downtown for a small town). People on Fraser Highway were stopping at stored, looking for parking, backing out of parking spots and basically making this road a very poor choice for anything other than shopping. A plan was designed to bypass langley (appropriate name). As a provincial highway it connected Fraser Highway to itself, bypassing the city as well as connecting to glover road 200th street, the route to the ferries. With 2 lanes in either direction, it moved traffic quite well. At first. Then the township decided to allow zoning all along the bypass for shopping. 3 starbucks, countless restaurants, RV dealerships, audio video stores, and of course we will need some traffic lights to let the shoppers in and out. So rather than this area being a “bypass” to allow through traffic to flow efficiently, it became a traffic magnet attracting more vehicles, and disrupting the flow of the traffic.
What happened? The planners forgot what they were doing. They forgot the purpose of the road. To “bypass” Langley.
Often there will be a visionary who will present a great idea like a “bypass road” if it remains true to its vision it works well. BUT somebody always wants to make plans work for their own interests. The land owners won’t make as much money selling farmland as they would selling land with potential for “retail development”… so they lobby government to change the zoning. If the city / municipality doesn’t have a zoning plan (or doesn’t stick to the plan) “good luck”. If we could stay “on vision” we would have roads that performed their designed function well, instead of doing a mediocre job of many contradictory functions.
Freeways work so very well because they are “limited access” (You can only get on or off at certain points), because they have no “at level” intersections (meaning the traffic can carry on at speed despite the presence of other roads crossing), and they are built to a very consistent standard (meaning the road is predictable in signage and design). Can you imagine if Freeways started having pedestrian crosswalks installed? or if a business was forced to have their driveway onto the freeway? It’s the wrong road for those purposes.
We need to classify our roads, and we need to build them to meet their function, and protect them from those who would dilute their function.
From my limited experience I’m familiear with the following types of roads;
Residential
Collectors
Non-Commercial Arterial
Commercial Arterial
Limited Access
Highways
Service
You look for a Residential street when you are ready to buy your first house and you are ready to settle down and have children, you want to avoid a “busy street”. You are essentially choosing to avoid living on a “collector” or “arterial” road. A road fit for the purpose of living on.
Collector roads have more traffic and bring folks in from residential areas to the higher speed roads that actually go someplace.
Non-commercial Arterial roads are urban roads that act as the main routes for carrying traffic through a city. Their focus is on the efficient flow of traffic through a city. If you want to go somewhere quickly get on a non-commercial arterial road.
Commercial arterial roads provide easy access to businesses, with mini malls, mom and pop shops, big box stores and any number of opportunities to stop your car and spend your money. The flow of traffic is less efficient because of the abundant access to businesses. If you want to buy something get on a commercial arterial road.
Limited access roads such as free-ways, seriously limit where traffic can get on or off, which makes for very efficient travel on these roads. This is why the freeway moves so well, there is little turbulence from new traffic entering, and in this case, no interference to the flow of traffic caused by traffic lights. I remember a number of years ago, the embarassment that was expressed in North Vancouver, that they had the only traffic light on the transcanada highway. (It isn’t true, there are traffic lights along the highway in towns like Golden BC or Revelstoke BC, but perhaps North Van was the last in a developed urban area.
Highways allow for travelling further, without significant business or residential access, but they often do allow more access to collector roads.
Service roads provide a unique function with highways. Where highways come into town (like in Rocky Mountain House AB) “service roads” are employed to provide access to businesses such that the function of the highway isn’t impaired by the business access. Its a smart idea.
Understanding why Business Frontage is only of benefit sometimes
When a motorist wants to get from point A to point B in a timely manner, Business frontage or access on the streets the motorist drives on, has no advantage for the motorist or the business owner. For the business owner, he is NOT a potential customer. For the motorist, the buesiness access just slows things down by congesting traffic and introducing more traffic lights where he needs to wait on his trip. So a word of wisdom to the cities and municipalities that consider introducing commercial development on non-commercial arterial roads. Don’t. The old fashioned idea that business frontage is good for property value and taxes does not hold on these roads. It is a compromise of the road’s primary purpose which is to move traffic efficiently. That thinking only holds when you are considering a commercial arterial road. In Abbotsford, there is an commercial arterial road called “South Fraser Way” which has shopping malls and auto centres, and strip malls, and car dealerships, and it is a place where people go to buy things. Maclure is a non-commercial arterial road in Abbotsford which stretches almost the entire length of the city, with almost no commercial at all. It is limited access (every 1/2 mile or so, rather than every block) and it is 2 lanes with a median. It is the most efficient road in Abbotsford for travelling across town and a testament to the prior city leaders who had the vision for a road with no drive-ways.
The different types of roads above look different. residential and collector are likely to have sidewalks, arterial might, but limited access, highways and service are unlikely to have sidewalks. Speed limits are different too. A commercial arterial road should have lower speed limits than a non-commercial arterial road that is limited access.
I see anomolies. Perhaps someone is working on our behalf to keep things simple, but in our cities, a standard speed limit of 50 Km/h applies unless it is otherwise posted. South Fraser way is a major 2-3 laned commercial road with a speed limit of 50, and my small dead end residential road full of young families with children has no posted limit meaning that it’s limit is also 50. This does not make sense. Perhaps there should be a sliding scale based on road classification;
Residential 40 KM/H
Collector 50 KM/H
Non-Commercial Arterial 60 KM/H
Limited Access 70-100 KM/H
Now I’ll introduce you to a radical idea of which I am quite an advocate… Ready? Roads are for driving on. They exist only to move people from place to place. They are not for parking or any other purpose. They are to provide space for people to move from one location to the next. With the context of this truly revolutionary idea the next points will fall into line.
The idea of allowing car parking on roads is silly. Regardless of what has happened in the past, why do we need to build roads 4 lanes wide just because somebody decided to leave their car “out” on the street? We see car parking on some commercial. arterial and collector roads as well as residential. The idea that people view this as a right rather than a privilege, that people don’t consider whether they have space to park a car before they buy one is bizarre. Since the roads are built with your tax dollars, and you are forced to go work to earn that money I think this should be a point that is dear to you. In progressive countries like Japan, you need to prove that you have room to park your vehicle before you are allowed to purchase one. (Smart)
In Canada we have very wide lanes. Our lanes are much wider than our vehicles. Most vehicles will have an extra 1-2 meters of space beside them in their lane. Its hard to estimate exact distances while driving on the freeway, and no I’m not walking out there with a tape measure. We also (at least in the lower mainland of BC) have this annoying habit of making roads wide enough for 2 lanes and then not putting lane markings on them. So where you could safely have people passing each other allowing for a smoother flow of traffic, you have this ambiguity.
Or there might be times where you want to restrict people from passing to make a safer stretch of road, or where you could have a bike lane that is then swept clean where bikes would be safe to travel with less interference from cars. Often there is just a single lane and then there are 2 lanes, with no sign or warning. the dotted lines come out of nowhere, making the road and the traffic on the road unpredictable and therefore less safe. Plus if you need to increase the capacity of a road, a can of paint is a pretty cheap way to improve your road’s carrying capacity.
So this post feels like a plane circling in the air looking for a place to land, and I think it will have to be a work in progress. It holds some examples of the need for design, but isn’t really a comprehensive treatment… yet.
Today was the “most exciting” carpool moment in commuting I’ve had in the last 6 years. Following a flatbed semi with a double trailer I noticed a pilot truck down the bank in the center of the freeway with the driver standing in the bed of his truck. Just then the truck in front of me locked up his brakes, producing clouds of smoke while his trailers tried to stop with the cab. Fortunately reactions kicked in and the other drivers and I were able to get stopped without incident. As the adrenaline worked its way out of my system I thought again that there must be some ways to make our roads safer by controlling how trucks and cars share the road.
The truck ahead of me was driving in the fast lane, and had been for 7 miles…
(flickr credit: C.P.Storm)
The good and bad of Professional truck drivers
I have a love-hate relationship with the commercial truck drivers on the road while I commute.
For the good, they are generally better drivers than the people in the cars. Professional drivers often don’t get the consideration they deserve (which would make their jobs easier and less stressful). Because of their experience, training and the weight of their trucks, they tend to be patient and less impulsive. They perform very well in traffic and goodness knows many of these drivers are being watched with the “1-800 watch my driving” stickers and GPS logging. Sitting higher in traffic they often have better perspective than other drivers. Truck drivers are often proactive in traffic, using their rigs to smooth out traffic, turning potentially dangerous stop and go traffic into steady traffic (which queueing theory leads us to understand should improve the overall throughput of the highway). Often they can administer a unique kind of justice with the massive size of their trucks, returning the shoulders to their intended purpose from the “impromptu kamakaze right hand passing lanes”. The professionalism is necessary because of the greater responsibility truck drivers have to keep their heavy vehicles and heavier loads from squishing families in mini-vans.
Normally “truckers” are great, but there are certainly a percentage of truckers whose impatience, indifference to human life, or incompetence regularly puts the lives of other drivers at risk. One day a truck travelled all the way from 176st in Surrey to Mt lehman in Abbotsford in the fast lane, which is a distance of 35 Km, then got out of the fast lane to exit the freeway. I’ve seen poorly adjusted brakes for empty or full trailers result in an impaired ability to stop in time. I’ve seen trucks blowing tires and not even noticing (or deciding that stopping isn’t their best option) despite the obvious risk of flying steel belt radials on the freeway.
I’m interested in what strategies could be employed to make our roads safer within the bounds of our current transportation infrastructure.
Recording devices to help drivers obey traffic laws
I recall seeing on a trip to Europe that commercial buses and trucks at that time had a recording device (some use paper disks) which tracks the driver’s speed, stops, breaks, sleep and other items relevant to safe vehicle operation. In any participating country, police can ask to see the record (paper disk), and can fine the driver for any infraction in the last 3 days, regardless of which country the driver was in when they committed the offence. It is remarkable to observer how obediently the trucks and buses follow the posted speed limit and other regulations. An environment is created where the rules apply whether there is a police officer in attendance or not, and as the driver of our tour bus explained, the fines imposed by automated systems like red light cameras, follow the license plate and then the driver themselves.
Most trucks I see on the freeway are driving close to the posted speed limits, others (like the dump truck with trailer that passed us doing about 140KM/H) need to be fined out of business and off the road for the safety and reputation of the other “good” drivers. No I didn’t get the license because it was covered in mud.
Treating Trucks Differently
First of all; Trucks ARE different. Trucks are;
slower to accelerate or climb a hill. In rush hour traffic, trucks appear to be the rocks in the stream with the cars being the water flowing around them.
more intimidating if they choose to use their size and weight to “force” a lane change where it really shouldn’t take place.
generally travelling farther than other traffic
more likely to throw rocks up at car windshields than other vehicles. (I suspect tire tread and weight is a factor)
prone to kick up far more spray (reducing visibility) on wet roads, in rain storms and in loose dry snow
big and reduce visibility by blocking the view of vehicles travelling behind them.
heavier, harder to stop and much more deadly if they
driven by drivers who typicaly have more training and experience than the rest of us.
I’ve observed three really useful strategies for “treating trucks differently”;
The first strategy I’ve see involves encouraging trucks to use some roads and cars to use others. Many cities have signs indicating “truck routes” and other signs indicating that only trucks making local deliveries are allowed on certain streets. In industrial areas, where corners are wider to allow for the special turning needs of the trucks, cars are the minority. Because cars and trucks typically don’t mix, many of the issues that emerge when they mix are avoided.
The second strategy I observed in Washington, Oregon & California, where they have a lower speed limit for trucks. The trucks are in the right hand lane (except to pass) abiding by a speed limit which is adequate, but 5-10 miles/hour slower than the cars. There is something predictable about trucks being on the right while other traffic flows past on the left. This ensures excellent visibility for the cars because the trucks are not impeding their vision.
The third strategy I observed was in Germany on statutory holidays like “Fathers Day” when law requires that all transport trucks be off of the roads. “It is because so many more people are travelling for the holidays was the explanation offered by our bus driver”. Every road side pullout or rest-stop was full of trucks, pennants draped across the front windows, drivers discussing European Football and catching up on sleep.
(flickr credit: austrini)
Perhaps those strategies have their place in British Columbia in the Lower Mainland. I think that our current highways require trucks and cars to use the same roads to go to the same places, so separate routes may not currently be feasible. While a lower speed limit for trucks might help trucks behave more predictably, I know all too well what happens when one driver gets stuck climbing a hill… everyone tries to pass, and here there are only two lanes so the problem snowballs and both lanes slow right down. It won’t be a complete solution to our problem. I think however that the third solution might have merit if it were applied to rush-hour.
A suggested solution for improving rush hour traffic on the #1 highway in the lower-mainland is to create a time when cars can move without having trucks on the road.
In the past 40 years zero lanes have been added to widen the freeway. Our capacity to move traffic has not grown with the population and the traffic. Peak load on the freeway (6-8AM and 3-5PM) occurs because people must arrive at work within a limited time-frame. The absense of truly viable transit or any form of commuter rail in the South Fraser corridor means commuters are in cars. We must reduce the number of vehicles travelling on the freeway during rush “hour”. The transport of many non-perishable goods in many cases is date sensitive and not time sensitive. Did the lumber arrive at 7PM or 3PM? It is still usable lumber. So truck traffic in many cases could be loading and unloading “at the dock” during rush hour, and then hitting the road as the commuters come off of those roads. If we were to regulate that commercial trucks could not be on the road during those hours, suddenly the “truck/car” dynamics would be gone and the roads would be largely homogenous and less full. Clearly there is more definition work to be identified. Where do the in-coming trucks “wait” if they arrive from outside the lower mainland? Chilliwack from the East or South Surrey from the USA? What trucks if any are exempt. are the 3ton cube trucks fine, but 18wheelers are out?
This may not be the idea that solves the interaction of commuters and heavy trucks during rush hour in the lower mainland of BC, but we need to do something… maybe several things to make life more reasonable for car and truck alike, in the interests of safety and efficiency.
Thanks for listening. I’m interested to hear your ideas.
Don’t have a trust fund full of cash sitting around to send you to the finest universities? Don’t have 4 years of your life to throw at a degree? Want be educated by top schools and experts in the field without the typical investment of time and money? I’ve discovered 3 options to get you started on Free Higher Education.
(flickr credit: Peter Shanks)
1. MITOpenCourseware
Several years ago,MIT introduced Open Courseware, which was the sharing of some MIT courses so that anyone with an Internet connection could have access to lectures exams and videos. Scanned in notes plus lectures allowed anyone to recieve an MIT education (minus the credentials and the long lineups to get into courses you want.) I studied a little bit of queueing theory out of my own interest in the efficiency of traffic flow. Now I wasn’t pursuing this learning seriously, so I was just “browsing” so to speak. If someone was disciplined enough to study and do the reading and assignment they could really benefit from MITOpenCourseware
2. Personal MBA
This last year I learned about “Personal MBA” and began pursuing this myself. Over at http://personalmba.com/, in a nutshell the claim is; “Business schools don’t have a monopoly on worldly wisdom. If you’re serious about learning advanced business principles, the Personal MBA can help you master business without the baggage of b-school. ” Surveyed MBA program graduates sometimes share that the greatest benefit of the MBA came from the reading list and interacting with “some of the finest minds in business” through the reading list. Check out their “Manifesto” here: http://personalmba.com/manifesto/ For those of you eager to cut to the chase, here is the link to the reading list.
3. AcademicEarth
And even more recently I have discovered http://academicearth.org/ There you can watch videos of lectures from the following universities;
Berkeley
Harvard
MIT
Princeton
Stanford
Yale
on the following subjects; Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Computer, Science, Economics, Engineering, English, Entrepreneurship, History, Law, Mathematics, Medicine, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Religion
I’ve always found it sobering that I will not live long enough to learn everything that I would like to learn, or read everything that I would like to read. These options offer the same challenge in that there are many good things you could pursue and learn, so you must choose well and ignore the rest. I love that these three options truly level the playing field in terms of learning. You may not get a degree from these options, but you can certainly use these tools for accessible quality education.
Having seen my fair share of “bad passwords” and understanding that for many IT departments password resets can account for 20-30% of all calls, it seems there is the need for a post on this topic that might help people choose good passwords they can remember.
(flickr credit: ferran.pons)
There are two very different perspectives
From the IT side of things, generally the focus seems to be on security, so this results in policies that;
make users change their password every 30-60 days
require more complex combinations of; UPPERCASE letters, lowercase letters, numbers and symbols.
lock out your account if you get your password wrong a few times in a row (ever left caps lock on?)
On the user side of things, generally the focus is on the utility of being able to log in so that you can get your work done. This focus leads towards;
Folks who have forgotten their passwords using others’ accounts so they can get their work done.
Passwords on post-it notes by their monitors
Users re-using passwords between systems to reduce the number of passwords they need to remember
People picking “easy” passwords to help remember them.
So it is easy to see how either side could view the other with disbelief. The IT group shaking their head at people choosing poor passwords and showing disregard for security. The users shaking their head at an IT group that appears to care more about complicating passwords than helping them perform their daily tasks. It doesn’t have to be contentious, there is hope. More and more, users are becoming educated about the importance of good security practices, and security professionals are realizing that the best security is the kind that works for users rather than against them.
What makes a password good?
Put simply, anything you can do to make your password difficult to figure out is good. So if your password is really long, and composed of many types of characters, it becomes very difficult to “guess”. If your password is short, a real word found in the dictionary, or something an attacker would know about you, then you make it easier for someone to guess your password. But having a “good” password is only part of the challenge. The best password in the world does you little good if you can’t remember it. Locking out all the would-be hackers is only part of the equation, making sure the account is accessible by the right person is the other.
(flickr credit: guspim)
10 Strategies for choosing a secure password you can remember
So here are some strategies for picking a strong memorable password. Read through them all, and pick 1 or 2 that will work for you.
1. Plan ahead
Have a strategy for picking passwords that you can use across many systems. That way when you go to a new system that asks you to pick a password, you can appyly your strategy rather than having to wrack your brain for a new password.
2. Take your time
Taking 60 seconds to think about a great password you will remember, rather than typing the first thing that pops into your brain will pay dividends. Apply your strategy pick something you will be happy with.
The next 3 get you to try not thinking in terms of a pass-word.
3. Think in terms of a pass-phrase.
It could be a line from a song, a poem, a story, anything, but of course you will modify it by adding punctuation, truncating the sentence or swapping in a word you like better like;
“The dish ran away with the poon”
“I’m dreaming of a white Xmas”
“AllIwantforChristmasismy2frontteeth!”
“Thyme4Golf!”
“4getaboutit!”
“NowwhatwasmypasswordCharlie?”
4. Think in terms of a pattern.
A very popular pattern is to apply a prefix, a root, and a suffix to your passwords. here is my version of “the pattern”
The prefix modifies the root, so you might want to relate it to what it is your are logging into. If you logged into a system for email, you might use “email” or “Email” or “e-mail” or “E-mail” as a prefix.
A good choice for the root is a non-dictionary / non-name word like “selebrait (yes exactly, it isn’t in a dictionary)
The suffix is something you add to your pattern to add the required “non-letter” characters so that your password is “complex” enough. Lets choose “$4”.
For email your password might be “emailselebrait$4”; for AOL it might be “aolselebrait$4”, for gmail it might be “gmailselebrait$4” etc…
5. Think in terms of a simple puzzle.
Where am I, who am I, what kind of login is this could yield unique results. for every login while requiring only a little bit of mental gymnastics. For a gmail login it might be “gmailGregWebmail”
6. Anticipate being asked to change your password.
So if you have picked out a fabulously strong password that you can remember well, don’t let the “prompt to change your password” cause you stress, build a “counter” into your password which you can simply increment. It might look like;
which is a reasonably complex password you could remember and which would allow you to “survive” the password change without having to think of a new password. Note, lots of password systems won’t let you simply tack on a number (too easy). So I recommend you resort to one of two ninja password moves I’ve come to appreciate. The first is to us a numeric increment, but not on the end;
Or you could use something other than number to increment. If you held down “SHIFT” while pressing the numbers 1-9 you would see “!@#$%^&*(“, so using our Sally example again it might look like this;
Or you could substitute letters for numbers along the lines of A=1 B=2 OR Q=1 W=2 E=3 (look at your keyboard to understand why I’m choosing those letters.
7. Use your muscle memory.
What do the following 4 passwords have in common?
ajskdlf;
quwieorp
zmx,c.v/
17283940
OK, that last one should have given it away. The fingers type the same sequence in a different row of the keyboard. by mixing up the rows and columns on your keyboard you could easily come up with dozens of “muscle memory passwords” that feel the same to your fingers but would leave a potential hacker scratchign his head. NOTE: Left to right rows of keys like “qwerty” and “asdfg” are REALLY bad passwords.
8. Test your password strength.
Not sure if you picked something strong enough? You could always try typing it into the Microsoft password checker; http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/password/checker.mspx Don’t worry, if you are a bit paranoid like me you won’t like the idea of typing your password into a webpage. Microsoft assures you; The password is checked and validated on your computer, but is not sent over the Internet.
9. (Guys only) Write all your passwords down on paper in your wallet.
We are talking about the wallet that never leaves your front pocket. If you lose your wallet, treat your passwords like your credit cards and get them all changed. (Ladies, nothing personal here but the purse left slung over a chair in your office is nowhere near as safe as the wallet located in a guys pocket.) Guys, if you don’t trust the people living in your house this might be a poor choice.
10. Use password safe software
Password safe software can hold all of your passwords. These tools use a master password to encrypt all of your passwords. If it fell into the wrong hands it is useless to the bad guys, but in your hands, it can help you not only remember passwords, but also usernames, URLs for logging in and other details you record with the entry in a searchable “password database”. I recommend KeePass which I’ve discussed previously.
Hopefully these 10 strategies for choosing a secure password you can remember will lower your password stress, raise the strength of your passwords, and save you some time chatting with the nice guys at your company’s IT support desk.
I discovered a very useful set of articles from Manfred Mann over at 43folders titled “Inbox Zero”. I happened to be in the middle of wrestling with my email inbox at work which had at that time between 400 and 500 emails sitting unsorted in various states. Some read, some ignored until later, some replied to, some unopened. I knew something was broken, but I just couldn’t find the secret to getting on top of my inbox.
I had heard stories of people (mostly rumours and legends) who had zero emails in their inboxes. Having immediately speculated that these folks must not be very busy, I was surprised to learn that in several cases they were just as busy as I was. Now my inbox situation wasn’t for lack of trying, I just kept getting “stuck”. I would start into my inbox to clear things up and then I’d come to an email that required some thought or a detailed response, and by the time I’d dealt with that email, I’d be onto other work and out of “cleanup mode”. Manfred gave me real insight into deleting emails rapidly, mostly it was “how” he spoke of email. From references to “email bankruptcy” (deleting all your emails and sending your entire contact list a simple message stating that if they were expecting anything from you, they should let you know) to his sage advice that “The first and most workmanlike filter in your email processing scheme must involve very quickly deciding whether a given message can be deleted or archived immediately upon receipt.”
In Processing your inbox Manfred highlights 5 possibilities for every email in your inbox.
delete it
archive it
defer it for later response
generate an action from it
respond to it immediately (if it—literally—will take less than 2 minutes or is so Earth-shattering that it just can’t wait)”
You may recognize the pattern from Getting Things Done the organizing strategy developed by David Allen. If you practice GTD, you will find that Manfred supplements the system with some of the necessary energy and perspective for following through on processing.
If you are going to check out any of Manfred’s Inbox Zero content, be sure to watch the video.
If you’ve been reading this blog for any time at all you will know I’m comitted to continually improving myself, and how I do my work.
For the last year or so, I’ve been watching with interest as the ideas from David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) have been bouncing around some of my favourite lifehacking websites. The term lifehacking refers to finding and using productivity techniques and tools to cut through information overload and organize information, work and time.
It seems that while the concept is simple, it does require a significant adjustment to implement, so there is lots of room for tool techniques and coaching to help people pick up GTD. David Allen himself says that it can take people up to 2 years to master GTD. So why would anyone want to “re-learn” how to manage their life? Why are there 1000s and 1000s of people out their building tools, developing techniques and publishing their experiences in the hopes of helping others “do” GTD successfully?
The benefits are immediate is the simplest answer I can devise. First let me back up and give you a brief introduction or high level summary of GTD. The basic premise is that people these days are juggling many things in their heads like todo lists, promised work, schedules and more. Juggling in the literal sense is only sustainable for a short period of time, so why would we expect juggling in the metaphoric sense to be any different. Simply put, people DON’T multitask, we task-switch. We focus on this, then we stop, and we focus on that, then we stop and we focus on this other thing. We are good at switching, but our brains are wired to focus, and our minds become their most powerful and creative when they are clear and free of clutter. So the idea is to take all that clutter out of your brain and organize it into a system you can trust. In addition to clutter in our brains, there are 2 other conditions which can contribute to a feeling of being overwhelmed. Not having a clear perspective of our workload, and not being in control of the items we are responsible for. GTD promises to address all 3 by freeing our minds, providing a more realistic perspective or our committments, and by creating a patern of behaviour for controlling our own work. It breaks down roughly into the following:
Collection: All of your inputs. Emails, Lettermail, Faxes, Voicemails, Ideas you get out of head and write down, action items written on meeting minutes, business cards, all of the STUFF. And it all goes in your inbox. Once critical success factor is to have as few inboxes as you can live with. For me, my voicemail is entered into email or my paper inbox (by jotting down a note). Ideas are written down and tossed in the inbox. This is where I started realizing immediate benefits. Because all that stuff was out of my head, I immediately started to feel less hectic.
Processing: Simply put, you go through your inboxes. From top to bottom, one item at a time, never putting an item back in without addressing it.
Your first question is; “Is this item actionable?” or “Can I take an action related to this item?” If the answer is “no”, then either it is
Trash (throw it out)
Reference material (file it in an alphabetically order file drawer) Note: filing should take less than 1 minute, and it should be “out of sight” so you aren’t distracted by your files.
Ideas you can’t act on right now which require more development go into your “someday/maybe” file
If it is actionable, ask
Can it be completed right now in only 1 step? If so, do it.
If it is more than one step to complete then it is a project. (move it to your project list)
If it is a single step or project (more than 2 minutes) Either defer it or delegate it.
Defering means coming back to it later. If it happens at a particular time, put it in your calendar, otherwise, use your “bring forward” file, or your “next actions” list to hold the task which must happen.
Delegating means you are waiting for someone else to do some work (this doesn’t have to be a person who reports to you, it could be anyone of whom you ask a question. The work moves to the “waiting for” list.
Organization: Lists hold tasks and include: “Projects”, “Someday maybe”, “Waiting For”, “Next Actions”,
Files hold information and and ideas and include: ”Bring Forward”, “project support materials”, “A-Z reference”
Review: This takes place at a minimum Daily as well as Weekly.
Daily, there is an opportunity to consult your “Calendar”, “Bring forward”, “Next Actions”, “Waiting For”.
Weekly, there is an opportunity to look at; “Meeting Minutes”, “Projects” and do a “Mindsweep” to capture any thoughts to free your mind.
Less frequently you can stop to think longer term with a more strategic focus.
Do: Work is done intuitively according to;
Context (where you are)
Time available
Energy available
Priority
Sound like a lot to get a handle on? I thought so too, so I’m relying on pictures. The best GTD Flowchart I could find was an adaptation onFlickr.
So I think I’ve mastered Collecting.
This week was a phenomenal breakthrough for me in terms of processing where I took an unusually large 2″ thick stack of papers and reduced it to 5 papers (almost zero) in about 2 hours. The key for me was understanding that many of my “papers” were triggers for projects (defined here as multistep work). As I collected my papers into folders for the projects, and made use of a handy stack of folders, the inbox slowly melted away. I think GTD holds lots ofpromise because it does have fairly simple answers for most of the questions you will face in trying to organize your information overloaded life.
Quality In Life - Living Smarter... 