Vanity Sizing for SUV's?

America is growing fatter and the clothing industry is adapting to accommodate our growing girth while preserving our vanity. Vanity sizing or 'size inflation' refers to the phenomenon of ready-to-wear clothing in nominal sizing growing larger over time. So a size 6 from the 1950's might be a size 10 or 12 today. Some highlights from a recent study:

• Because smallest sizes are growing, clothing makers are inserting size '0', '00' and negative sizes to compensate.
• More expensive brands tended to be smaller than less expensive at the same size.
• Vanity sizing is designed to make buyers appear thin and feel better about themselves.
• Dress sizes from the Sears catalog,  a woman with a 32-bust would wear in 1937: size 14, 1967: size 8, 2011: size zero!
• The Esquire measured mens 36" waist pants at 37-41"

That leads me to the mobility question, when speed limits decrease does the industry sell faster looking cars?  As traffic congestion increases do we buy more SUV's?  Look around and count the number of big cars you see. Do black SUV's feed vanity more than white SUV's? Listen to the commentary at the KPCC Pat Morrison show.

SC Planning Commission Examines Bike/Ped Plan

San Clemente Pete Van Nuys, a resident and director of the Orange County Bicycle Coalition told the city Planning Commission on Tuesday night, "I have contacts and talk to people across the country. Let me assure you that no city that has taken steps to become more bicycle and pedestrian friendly regrets it. It does bring change. I think it will bring change (how to allocate road space) rather soon."

"San Clemente's (plan) is way ahead of every other Orange County city.", Fred Swegles, Thursday Sept 27, 2012, Orange County Register

Consulate General Netherlands Recognizes PEDal

The Consulate General of the Netherlands recognized the Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan for San Clemente authored by Brenda Miller. Here is an excerpt from their letter.

Dear  Brenda,
     
We enjoyed very much reading about your work with PEDal on a Bicycle and  Pedestrian Master Plan for San Clemente and hope that you had a successful presentation to the Planning Commission this week.            
     
For your information, the Dutch Cycling Embassy in partnership with the Netherlands Embassy in DC, has been active in supporting the US cities in the development of better biking facilities through a series of ThinkBike Workshops. These 2-Day workshops match Dutch cycling experts with city planners, engineers and advocates, who work together to develop solutions to key problem areas. The workshops have been held in Chicago, DC, Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh and Philidelphia. Next month ThinkBike comes to San Jose and Austin, and there are plans for a workshop in San Diego and Atlanta in Spring 2013. 

To learn more about the workshops, see our website (documentation of past ThinkBike projects or our ThinkBike page on Facebook (photos and links to press from our most recent projects).

We would love to hear more about your work in San Clemente and would be very happy if you could join us for the next workshop in San Jose next month or in San Diego next year.
      
All the best,            
     
Jennifer Katell
Senior Public Diplomacy, Press & Culture Officer

Find PEDal here;
Find ThinkBike Los Angeles here;
ThinkBike Facebook is here;
OC Register article on Leiden Netherlands here.

-LS

      

San Clemente goes Dutch

"We're already on the path," Miller said. "We're limited in the amount of road widening we can do. There's not enough space. ... We can achieve a more efficient movement overall by combining modes – automobiles, walking, bicycling and public transit. When any one of those dominates the network, we lose efficiency." Orange County Register News on-line.

Open Letter from Mark Goodley

context:  Bike Safety Meeting, Newport Beach, 17 September 2012

Good Morning;

As you know, following the fatalities of two cyclists this past week, there was an emergency Bicycle safety meeting Monday night. (The author was also injured in a collision with a motorist - ed.)

In front of a hurting, mourning, shocked, and angry crowd representing friends of the family's, co-workers, neighbors, and residents of Newport Beach,   our "Mayor" stood up, addressed the hundreds gathered, and then specifically  BLAMED "the budget" (which SHE signs and is responsible BTW)  for the deaths of the two women this past weekend...  Pouring gasoline on the fire with this cowardly act,  not only was grossly insensitive, it was callous and absolutely inexcusable behaviour.

Not yet 48 hours after the meeting...

I received this (please see attachment) in the mail... The City Manager's annual report.  It seems that our city had a net surplus of $ 7,800,000.. That's 7.8 MILLION DOLLARS AND net surplus; and a net surplus for  the YEAR BEFORE of $ 11,900,000.  (ALMOST TWELVE MILLION DOLLARS SURPLUS).

I'm SURE that the families and friends of the two killed cyclists will be VERY please to know that our Mayor does not feel their lives were worthy of her consideration, even though the cities coffers are over flowing.  Imagine for a moment if it were your wife, parent, or child that was killed.  How would you feel?

But yet, our Mayor HID behind her OWN budget.

I suppose she is blinded by swimming in all the green bills, but to cowardly blame a budget, that she is responsible for, and THEN be found out a liar to boot, is frankly too much to take.  There is NO BUDGET ISSUE! THAT WAS A LIE!

Clearly this Mayor has no intention of attempting to safeguard  the citizens that elected her.  She says and votes for one agenda, in the public's eye,
then behind the scenes, does EXACTLY the OPPOSITE to hinder and stall what she has publicly voiced support for.

Her administration has been as anemic and impotent towards safeguarding cyclists as the previous...

Any cyclists  that have felt some loyalty or "niceness" towards her in the past,  might want to carefully look in the mirror, today, and reconsider their position.

See you at the next City Council meeting.

Regards,

mark d. goodley

-- 

Brief Highlights Bike Safety Meeting

Newport Beach Public Library
1000 Avocado
Newport Beach, CA

Next Meeting: 1 October 2012, 4:30pm


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Meeting Highlights

• Moment of Silence for Katherine Campion M.D.  and Sarah Leaf, both women cyclists killed Friday and Saturday in collisions with motorists
• Bicycle/Pedestrian infrastructure projects compete for funding with all other Capital Infrastructure projects planned by Newport Public Works
• Priority projects are completed first
• Mayor Gardner: Newport Beach has no extra money to hire staff or fund bike infrastructure projects
• Lack of progress implementing bicycle safety measures is due ineffective city policy and a failure to act
• Design criteria for measuring mobility effectiveness is called the Level of Service (LOS)
• LOS is defined as measure of moving vehicles not moving people, that shortcoming is the reason our mobility system is a congested failure
• Sharrows planned for PCH in October will be studied further and a report issued in 6 months
• Citizen response: If Newport Beach does not implement Sharrows on PCH in 30 days, a legal action will be taken against Newport Beach.

For the record:
Fiscal Year Newport city budget 2010-2011 shows an $11.9M surplus,
the 2011-2012 budget shows a $7.8M surplus, from City Budget and Pensions, Dave Kiff, City Manager, September 2012.

Sarah Leaf

Katherine Campion-Ritz M.D.

Somber Bike Safety Meeting

The Bike Safety meeting in Newport  Beach concluded with a better understanding of the perilous nature of our community streets.  An emotional meeting with roughly 150 attendees, NB Police and city officials observed a moment of silence for victims of two accidents involving cyclists and one hit-and-run driver. See the story and photos of Sarah Leaf and Katherine A. Campion M.D. at bikeNewportBeach.  UPDATE: Hit-and-Run suspect arrested, read the NBPD report here.   -LS

Two Women Cyclists Killed in 24 Hours

Two women cyclists have been killed in Newport Beach in a single 24-hour period this weekend. The latest, a hit and run on Newport Coast Drive.

Little good can come from such a loss of life, but maybe we can squeeze a drop of Call-to-Action from our elected officials. So city government this is for you:

PAINT THE PCH SHARROWS !!!!!!

Join cyclists, pedestrians and city officials at this Special Meeting of the Newport Beach Citizens Bicycle Safety Committee at 4:30pm Monday September 17th in the Friends Room at the Central Library on Avocado. Have your concerns heard.


Map to Special Meeting

Laguna Streets

A $1.1M Grant for Bikes/Pedestrians goes to.....

SAN CLEMENTE!  A $1.18M  OCTA grant for building bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure was awarded the city of San Clemente. Meanwhile Laguna Beach received no grant funding because city Staff never bothered to apply, they still can't find a pen.  
    San Clemente Times story here.

Children's Shirt at Nordstrom