Irvin Dawid discovered Planetizen when a classmate in an urban planning lab at San Jose State University shared it with him in 2003. When he left San Jose State that year, he took with him an interest in Planetizen, if not the master's degree in urban & regional planning.
As a long-time environmental activist, he formed the Sustainable Land Use committee for his local Sierra Club chapter and served six years on the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s Advisory Council from 2002-2008. He maintains his interest in air quality by representing Sierra Club California on the Clean Air Dialogue, a working group of the Calif. Environmental Dialog representing business, regulatory and public health/environmental interests.
Major interests include transportation funding, e.g., gas taxes, vehicle miles traveled (VMT) fees, road tolls and energy subsidies that lead to unlevel playing fields for more sustainable choices.
He hails from Queens (Bayside) and Long Island (Great Neck); received an AAS in Fisheries & Wildlife Technology from SUNY Cobleskill and a B.S. from what is now Excelsior College.
After residing for three years on California’s North Coast, he’s lived on the San Francisco Peninsula since 1983, including 24 years in Palo Alto. Home is now near downtown Burlingame, a short bike-ride to the Caltrain station.
He’s been car-free since driving his 1972 Dodge Tradesman maxi-van, his means to exit Long Island in 1979, to the junkyard in 1988.
Major forms of transportation: A 1991 'citybike' and monthly Caltrain pass, zone 2-2. "It's no LIRR, but it may be the most bike friendly train in America."
Irvin can be reached at [email protected]
High Cost of Maintenance Prompts Wyoming Legislators to Consider Tolling I-80
Over the objections of the oil and trucking industries, an interim committee voted to allow the Wyoming legislature to determine whether to toll all lanes on Interstate 80 due to a shortfall in the state transportation budget.
Washington State to Decide on Transition From Gas Tax to Road Usage Charge
Having completed a pilot program last year, the Washington State Transportation Commission will hear a report in October and vote in December on phasing out its 49.4 cents per gallon gas tax, fourth highest in the nation but not indexed to inflation.
Land Use the Subject of Latest IPCC Report
Not urban land use, but in the literal sense: land used to produce food, graze livestock, supply drinking water, grow trees, and sequester carbon. As the climate warms and the population grows, crop yields will decrease and land will be degraded.
Renewable Natural Gas Makes Inroads in California, Oregon, and Missouri
What is expected to be the nation's largest dairy biogas operation opened in the Central Valley. To the north, Gov. Kate Brown signed the nation's first bill to establish goals to add renewable gas to pipelines, and pigs in Missouri also made news.
California Takes Step Toward Replacing Gas with Electricity in Buildings
Two weeks after Berkeley became the nation's first city to outlaw natural gas lines in new buildings, the California Public Utilities Commission voted to update an old regulation to allow funding for 'fuel switching' from gas to electric appliances.