[EQAB-list] Streetlights on west Turnpike and other green-related matters

[Ellen Smith]

Three items:

1. I have a partial answer to questions about the streetlights on west
Turnpike. According to the city manager, the lights that are there now
are temporary and are under the control of TDOT. Jack Suggs was not in
the office on Tuesday, but I hope to learn more about plans and
opportunities for permanent lights after he returns.

(For what it's worth, for a variety of reasons mostly related to
construction, I am not frequently driving on the part of the west
turnpike where the new lights are most in evidence -- i.e., between
Louisiana and Montana. As a result, I had not paid much attention to the
lights, but I checked them out Monday evening.)

2. After talking Monday evening about the energy used (and CO2 released)
in the employee commute, it dawned on me that another way to reduce this
impact would be to make it easier for the people with short commutes to
walk or bike to work. Wouldn't it be nice if it were truly safe and
pleasant to (for example) bicycle from Jackson Square to the Civic
Center -- or between the Municipal Building and the City Service
Center? 

3. It occurs to me that one category of municipal government energy
consumption that probably isn't captured in the ICLEI software is the
energy consumed in out-of-town travel. It appears to me that this is
included if the travel occurs in a city vehicle using fuel from the city
gas pumps, but the model probably does not capture energy consumed in
air travel or the gas that the traveler buys on the road (for example,
in Nashville). I don't think it's critically important to capture these
numbers, but it's something to footnote and possibly pursue later on.

-- Ellen