Walk Score

http://walkscore.com/

Ever wondered how walkable your area is? Have you been looking at an area to live, but couldn’t quite get a grasp on how many shops, libraries, parks, and schools could be reached by foot? Hit up the link above to get your Walk Score. You simply type in your address and the website spits out a number between 1 and 100. The higher the score, the less you would need to use a car, bike, or public transit for daily trips. It’s 100% perfect. Some smaller business don’t show up. My favorite place to get a sandwich or Italian goodies like amaretto cookies is Jimmy’s Italian Market, but alas, they get no props. (Seriously, if you are in the area and don’t mind meat, try their muffuletta. Ridiculously good.) It is still a great tool. I found some shops in my area that I didn’t even know existed.

By the way, my neighborhood scored a 58. Not near a 100, but pretty good for Dallas! Feel free to share your neighborhood’s score in the comments.

Save Dallas Water!

Local and National Earth Day Events

Earth Day 2008 is fast approaching. Some events that are happening locally are:

Dallas EarthFest, Friday, April 18th: “The premier Earth Day Celebration for Dallas’ Downtown Community”

Oak Cliff Earth Day Festival, Sunday, April 20th: “Promoting awareness of the environment and our place in it, and environmental conservation in our government, neighborhood, and ourselves.”

Earth Day at the Amon Carter Museum, Sunday, April 13th: “Be creative with recycled materials, listen to lively stories, and see how American artists have used their art to advocate for the earth.”

Tandy Hills Prairie Fest, Saturday, April 26: “An outdoor festival to celebrate our connection to the natural world through Music, Art, Dance, Environmental Stewardship & Wildflower Tours.”

To find Earth Day events in your area, you can visit the Earth Day networks search tool.

How are we celebrating? By giving away $1000 to the organization that has sent in the most phones between January 22nd and April 18th. To find out more, visit our Earth Day competition page here.

Smart’s in Dallas!

I had my first Smart car siting today! The land of the SUV has finally been infiltrated by tiny plastic cars! The strange thing about this though, is that the one I saw was a CDi with Ontario plates. Strange. I know their are more of them around, though. My wife has occasionally been seeing them on US-75 (central expressway to the locals) prior to today.

As far as I know, the CDi has not arrived in the states yet. (Hopefully someone will say otherwise in the comments.) This is unfortunate because a Smart car equipped with the CDi diesel engine can get up to 71 mpg. 71 MPG. Not a typo. The reason they are not in the U.S.? Emissions laws. That may seem backwards, but the most stringent emissions laws in the U.S. (those based on California’s) prohibit diesel cars because of the higher particulate levels in their exhaust. Newer “50 state legal” diesels are coming on-line in the near future because of new engine technology and new lower sulfur diesel, but it can’t come soon enough. High gas prices will be the major driver of demand for these cars, but America’s dependency on oil from weak states, the environmental cost from our insatiable demand for energy, and a myriad of other reasons highlight the need for these cars.

I look forward to when they arrive. For now, I am really happy to see people adopting tiny cars right here in DFW.