Everything Else

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Two weeks ago I bought a new, undriven, '05 Honda Metropolitan II motor scooter, which is identical to the Honda Metropolitan, except it has a governor on the throttle that keeps it at or below 25 MPH, making it legally a moped in Indiana and therefore not requiring either a license plate or a motorcycle endorsement on my drivers license.

The nearest town for shopping, banking, dining, library etc. is about 5 - 6 miles away, and I found that I'm constantly driving into town in the car for one item or another. I thought I might save on some fuel and have a bit of fun at the same time by buying a scooter for those trips and so far I'm really enjoying it.

I am finding the Metropolitan II a bit small and underpowered for my 6' 4" frame. Once I'm in town the top speed is more than enough but I find that 25 MPH top speed is a bit slow on the 3 miles of rural road I must traverse to get to town. Also, I would like to use a scooter to get to the next town over, which is a bit beyond the safe capability of a moped. This has me thinking that next spring I will buy a larger, more powerful motor scooter and go through the requisite training in order to get my motorcycle license. This year I'll ride the heck out of the Metropolitan II and see how much I actually use it and if I still have the two wheel bug by Fall.

I'm thinking of upgrading to either a Honda Helix or a Vespa Granturismo. Each has their strengths and weaknesses. The big plus for Honda is they have several dealers close to me, which makes service easy. Vespa does not have dealers any closer that Chicago or Joliet and that is a bit far. I am told that Vespa's are pretty easy to self-service but I still worry about that. On the other hand, the Vespa has the retro good looks I like in a scooter, whereas, if you dipped the Helix in white paint you would expect to find a Star Wars Imperial Storm Trooper riding it. heh. Both of those will get me all over the county by the country roads and they even have enough speed for some highway traveling if need be. I've also read many rider reviews by tall people that are happy with either one. What I'm going to have to do is really think about how important having a local dealer network will be.

More about my reasons rationalizations for buying a scooter on the next post.

Illinois is working on getting trains running from Rockford to Chicago. Here in NW Indiana we can't even get a train to go to Valporaiso or Lowell. Illinios has a plan, Indiana does not.

I have contended for some time that Google has so much influence on the Web that it is altering it both with Adwords and with the Google search engine index. Some of this falls under unintended consequences and some of it is very much by design for Google's material gain. Google complains about SEO's gaming the search engines in a bid for higher rankings but I contend that while SEO's are gaming Google Google is gaming (read exploiting) the entire Web and that IMO this is not a positive thing for the Web.

Here are two excellent blog posts that support my point: How Google Killed Affiliate Marketing by Aaron Wall, and In Links We Trust - How Google Reshaped the Web by Digital Ghost. These are well worth the read.

Sources: V7N Search Marketing Blog and Threadwatch respectively.

In Northwest Indiana most of our rustbelt brownfields are located up near Lake Michigan. Some of that land will eventually be reclaimed for residential or entertainment uses, but a lot of that land will never be used for decades. Why can't some of that land be used for wind farming?

1. You have a ready market for power close by with Indiana and Chicago.

2. Nipsco, our local power company gets all their power from coal and I'm sure they could use some non-polluting generating capacity.

3. You have land that is lying vacant and which nobody really wants to build upon.

4. You have a source of wind with Lake Michigan.

If we can put wind turbines around the edges of farmers fields and pay them a lease fee, I would think we could also put wind turbines on a bunch of vacant unused industrial land for a decade or two until somebody figures out how to detoxify that land and reclaim it for other uses.

I'm trying to see the downside here and I can't. Maybe somebody should tell NIPSCO?

Christopher Hedges has a good post: Northwest Indiana Transit Brain Storming.

My hat is off to Christopher for coming up with some innovative ideas. I particularly like his idea for a people mover or monorail running down Broadway in Lake County, I would not mind seeing the same sort of thing running from the South Shore in Chesterton to Valparaiso. (I read in the paper that Valparaiso is looking at scheduled bus service between that city and the South Shore which would be a great idea to start.) Christopher's article points out the need for public transportation not only to get to Chicago but also to get from point to point within Northwest Indiana. Not only is this part of making the Region more livable but it also lets our workforce commute to jobs from one town to another within Northwest Indiana. I think that might attract more businesses to locate here and not in Chicago. We need that badly.

This is the kind of discussion our state and local political leaders should have been having for a long time. No one highway, like the Illiana is going to solve NW Indiana's traffic problems. It needs a well thought out and comprehensive plan, involving the local governments, the regional transportation authority, Indiana and Federal governments all working together. It might mean some highways need to be built, but they must be part of an overall coordinated effort at the transportation problems of the whole region and a combination of transportation methods: bike trails, busses, light rail, inter-urban rail, roads, highways and even just sidewalks that actually go somewhere and link up with each other (are you listening Merrillville?).

I suspect dedicated right of ways could be acquired in the old north county cities fairly cheaply. Indeed there are some old rail road right of ways that are still mostly intact and still not too badly encroached upon or being used for bike trails. Parts of the old Nickel Plate RR ROW come to mind in Gary. These could be used for light rail or a people mover branch line.

Northwest Indiana, in the 1910's had a very extensive traction (streetcar or light rail) network for both passengers and freight. The Gary Traction system once linked to Hammond in the West, the square in Crown Point to the south in Lake County, to Chesterton in the East and from Chesterton south to Valparaiso. (The line may have gone even further east to connect with Michigan City but I'm not sure of my facts on that part.) The rise of the automobile and the subsequent paving of roads led to it's decline, which is a shame because now the glut of automobiles and traffic gridlock have us wishing we had a working traction system today.

Additional Reference: Post Illiana: We still need to talk about (mass) transportation.

UPDATE: I found this Chesterton Tribune article about electric street car trains in Chesterton and Valparaiso 100 years ago.