For this seminar’s Macaulay Event of “Community Voices,” I attended the fourth lecture about Transportation and Energy Conservation. I was very impressed by both lectures as both speakers were very engaging and gave very clear and interesting presentations. Both were concerned with improving New York City: The primary goals were to make it a happier environment for its residents and visitors, to make it a greener city with more concern for the impact on the natural environment, and to transform New York into one of the leading cities in efficiency and environmental awareness.

Wiley Norvell, a representative of the company called “Transportation Alternatives”, gave the first lecture. This company is dedicated to reducing automobile transport and increasing transportation via more public buses, more biking routes, and more walking pathways. This goal hopes to reduce the pollution and energy waste given off from excessive car use, to reduce traffic and travel times within the city, and to encourage healthier and more enjoyable routes for pedestrians and bikers.  Wiley explained that New York is designed around car transportation, and that in order to make the city safer for its pedestrians many of its streets must be redesigned around pedestrian satisfaction. The primary goal being pursued by this company at the moment is to increase the bike lanes in the city. This would cause many more residents to travel to work and school via bikes as they will no longer have to bike among the dangerous heavy traffic of cars. This is also very economical as it will decrease peoples expenses on gas, the city’s expenses on accidents, and on the long run will lessen the pollution of the environment and all the consequences that come with it. Another goal that Wiley spoke about was increasing the amount of pedestrian space, which is seen so often in European cities and yet rarely in New York. More areas will be blocked off from traffic and instead transformed into pedestrian walkways such as the new pedestrian street in Times Square. The third and last plan spoken about in the presentation is creating separate bus and bike lanes on Third Avenue, which is supposed to take effect by October 2010. This will reduce the car lanes but will significantly decrease travel times via the m15 busses, which are the only route of public transportation available along the Eastern avenues.

The second presentation was given by a representative of the Solar One Company and focused on the Renewable Energy Payment Project. This company is concerned with reducing the use of highly polluting energy sources and replacing them with more efficient, cheaper, and more renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power.  The representative spoke about New York’s high wind capacity and that this should be the primary renewable energy source NYC should focus on using. A main problem, however, in using this type of energy source, is that it is very expensive to begin installing. Despite these preliminary costs, however, on the long run using this energy source will be cheaper both for residents and for the health of the environment. In order to begin this change, SolarOne has created a plan to create financial incentives for people to invest in these projects called Renwable Energy Payments. This plan is based on a system where NYC residents will invest in this new technology, and will be paid back with interest after a few years of the installation. Renewable Energy Payments have proven to be very successful and economical in other areas around the world and the United States where they have been implemented.

Both representatives who presented at the event often referred to New York, and other cities in the United States, as falling behind in the race towards greener energy use and urban planning. They thus both stressed the importance of their initiatives to keep up with the rest of the leading cities in technological and energy use advances, as well as investing in environmentally friendly urban planning. I was glad to see that there is so much effort going on in our city concerned with the long-term health of our environment and in working to improve the future of our cities and benefits of its residents.