Last night I watched “The Amazing Mrs. Prichard,” a British television series about a grocery store manager who become prime minister of the UK  because of that longing many of us have for our leaders to use common-sense governance.

As one might expect, much of the drama comes from home-grown logic colliding headlong with the complexities of how things work in the developed world.

In this episode, Mrs. Prichard is frustrated that a G-8 Summit (eight leaders of the world’s economic powers) has come up with nothing concrete to deal with global warming. So after insulting the U.S. president, she proposes her own stab at the problem: On every Wednesday, no one in Britian drives.

I’ve actually seen this happen in a developed country. On Yom Kippur in Israel, 5.5 million citizens Read the rest of this entry »

We love to complain about traffic congestion, or I wouldn’t have written today’s story about the Texas Transportation Institute’s latest study showing the Bay Area with more time and fuel wasted than anyplace in the U.S. except the seething autopolis down south.

One thing that often comes up in discussions about how to deal with the problem is telecommuting.

It’s like riding a bicycle to work. It would be really helpful if a significant number of people did it, but they don’t anywhere except where people can’t afford cars, trucks and SUVs.

Well, telecommuting isn’t exactly like that. It doesn’t make you Read the rest of this entry »