A new year

The turn of the new year always seems to be a time in which we reflect on the past year (what we've accomplished, what we wanted to accomplish and didn't, how the events of the year have changed us, etc) and look towards the coming year with plans and resolutions.

Sitting here, I think back over the past year, especially the period since last June. A lot has happened since Maurie and I started this blog. We managed to leave the car parked quite a lot. We relied upon public or human powered transportation most of the summer. I lost my job. I started my own business. We moved to Seattle. Our updates to the blog slowed down considerably.

Looking forward to the rest of 2009, as it relates to this blog, I have lots of ideas. I want to write more about transportation issues in our new home town. I've never been much for making resolutions. In high school I started joking that my New Year's resolution is to stop making them. I don't know, I guess I see New Year's resolutions as these pie in the sky ideas that we come up with during the reverie of the changing of the year and the desire to begin anew. I rarely hear of a resolution being approached in a manner that bears results. There's little planning, no measurable milestones set to guage progress towards fulfilling the resolution, and consequently little to hold one's feet to the fire for sticking to it.

So, no, there is no resolution coming from me with respect to gettinaround. However, as I look at the coming year and all that I need to do for my business, for my home and family, for my health, and for this blog, I have a goal: REGULAR updates to the blog, throughout the year! I hope to be able to put up at least one post each week dealing with transportation issues. I will even attempt to keep things balanced out a bit and not terribly heavy on bicycling (although, let's be honest, it is great exercise, much faster than walking, and fun to boot!)

There's no shortage of things to write about for the blog. We are supposed to be moving forward with a replacement for the Alaskan Way viaduct, as well as a new 520 floating bridge; Seattle now has a bicycling master plan; Cascade Bicycle Club and the Bicycle Alliance of Washington have all sorts of advocacy programs and events throughout the year; the ZipCar car sharing program is huge in Seattle; there are plans for more streetcars; light rail will start service in King County, with expansion linking downtown to Capitol Hill and the University District. I'm sure there will be even more, and these are just Seattle-area things.