Join Bruce Piasecki at the Robert H. Smith School of Business for a discussion of his new book

The Green Business Roundtable, in partnership with the Robert H. Smith School of Business, is pleased to announce a book discussion with Bruce Piasecki, author of World, Inc.. He will be discussing his brand new book, Doing More With Less, the New Way to Wealth.


Date: Monday, March 5

Time: 5:00 PM

Location: Robert H. Smith School of Business
  Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center
  1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
  Washington, DC 20004
  Concourse Level - Room C3

This event is free. Please RSVP to smithevent@mail.com


BRUCE PIASECKI is President and founder of AHC Group, Inc. , a management consulting firm. For more than thirty years, AHC Group has focused on the critical areas of corporate governance consulting, energy, and environmental strategy, product innovation, and sustainability strategy. Whether working with Toyota, Shaw Industries, Suncor Energy, or FMC, Bruce and his team show companies how to compete on price, quality, and social needs. Piasecki has evolved from a niche expert on environmental issues for Fortune 500 corporations to a mainstream advocate for sustainable strategies for everyone.

Benjamin Franklin knew instinctively what so many of us have forgotten: Frugality and industriousness are the ways to wealth. After the last set of business scandals and financial busts, many powerful interests, from governments to multinational corporations, are exploring how to do more with less.
Doing More with Less dives into our primal competitive instinct, which embraces frugality as a crucial competitive edge.

A financial solution to the Bethesda tunnel

East end of tunnel (silverspringtrails.org)

Recently Montgomery County has estimated that the additional costs to the Purple Line of building the bike/ped trail through the Bethesda tunnel could add as much as $40 million to the project.  Using financing mechanisms to capture savings could ameliorate part or all of these costs and improve the project and the community at the same time.
 (Update: the Washington Post reported on February 25 that the MTA has rejected proposals to put the trail in the tunnel.)

In order to fully appreciate this proposal, we have to accept a couple of assumptions that I believe are true:
1) It is cheaper to build the Purple Line and the trail if there are no buildings and/or building supports in the way during construction
2) It is cheaper to build commercial buildings when there is not an operating transit line below them.
3) Conclusion (to accept for the sake of argument) - It would be less expensive for the Purple Line project AND the building developers to design and build everything at the same time.

Arlington County removing dangerous bollards from trails

Arlington County has been removing some of the dangerous bollards and collars that riders have identified on the bollard map, which is here:

View Arlington Bollards in a larger map

Last week I noted that the two bollards on the connector from N. Van Buren St. to the Custis/W&OD, just east of Lee Highway and west of the East Falls Church Metro station, have been removed and new pavement has been smoothly added.  I updated the Bollard map to show this change.  Please check out my previous post on why bollards are mostly unnecessary.

If you have noted other bollards or collars (or other similar hazards) on Arlington's trails, please add them to the map.  Please also note any bollards that have now been removed, as I did.

Kudos to Arlington for using the information provided through this public forum to improve cycling for all of us.
===============================
Steve Offutt is a member of the Arlington Bicycle Advisory Committee