Automotive

Useful items to help launch your college-bound kid into their new pad

by
Play Video

(BPT) – Sending your teen off to college? Or launching them into their first apartment? It’s a big step when your child has to face the realities of living on their own. It doesn’t matter if it’s a dorm or their first apartment – chances are, they need stuff.

While you’d love to shop for cute throw pillows or pictures for the wall, let’s face it – they’d probably prefer to choose their own decor.

There is something you can offer, however: experience. After years running a household, you know some things they don’t. Many necessary household items might not even be on their radar.

Here are some less-than-glamorous, but crucial, items your adult child needs:

1. First-aid kit

Your son or daughter may not think about adhesive bandages, antiseptic, thermometers and calamine lotion, but you’ve been a parent long enough to see plenty of scrapes, illnesses and bug bites.

You can purchase a pre-made first-aid kit or create your own, including items you know your child will need, like sunscreen, bug spray and over-the-counter pain medication.

2. Car safety kit

Whether your child has a long drive to get to their new digs or not, if they have a car, they need a safety kit for their trunk. There are kits you can purchase, but you should add items that might be missing: a standard first-aid kit (separate from the kit they’ll keep in their apartment or dorm room), bottled water and protein bars, blankets, flashlights and batteries, jumper cables and warning flares or triangles.

Be sure to include a portable tire inflator. According to the AAA, one in three new cars no longer includes a spare tire. It’s also possible your child may not know how to change a tire or may not want to. Tire inflators inject both repair sealant and air into your flat tire. They are sold in cans that are easy to pack in the trunk and widely available at stores and online. They are easy to use in case of a puncture or other minor issue, and you can drive on the tire for 3 days or 100 miles, until you can get the damaged tire replaced. Nearly all commercial tire inflators use Honeywell Solstice Propellant, a nonflammable propellant that helps seal larger punctures than alternative propellants. Honeywell Solstice Propellant also has ultra-low global warming potential. Even if your kid has a spare tire and jack in their car, a tire inflator offers a quicker, easier alternative, and can be a safer choice for handling a problem at the side of a busy road.

3. Basic tools and safety items

You can buy a tool kit that may include a screwdriver set, screws, a hammer and nails, etc., but you should add items you know you’ve needed. Think about essential and useful items like: duct tape, scissors, flashlights and batteries, matches and an extension cord or two.

You may also want to include extra light bulbs, smoke and/or carbon monoxide detectors (if the apartment doesn’t already have them) and other safety equipment like a small fire extinguisher. And who hasn’t needed a toilet plunger? That’s another item you don’t know you need – until you do.

4. Kitchen necessities

While your son or daughter may think of obvious items like flatware, plates and cups, they may not think of everything that’s useful when you’re cooking on your own. Even if they’re not great at cooking, they’ll need things like oven mitts, a trivet or two, a cutting board, a colander, plus salt and pepper shakers.

You may be focusing on the practical here, but at least some of these items may be more decorative and fun to shop for!

5. Cleaning supplies

While your child may groan when you offer them a bin or basket full of cleaning supplies, they’ll thank you when they decide to have friends over or their roommate starts complaining. Include your favorite products for tackling kitchen and bathroom messes.

If you get them a handy tote bin that holds everything neatly together, along with sponges and dusters, they won’t have any excuses when you drop by to see how they’re doing in their new place.

Worried your child won’t know how to use all these items? Do a quick search of online tutorials for items like fire extinguishers or plungers and text them the URLs. They’ll thank you later.

How investment in public transportation boosts the economy

by
Play Video

(BPT) – Cities large and small rely on public transportation to help workers get to their jobs. And the more efficient the commute, the higher their productivity. Not only do many employees choose where to live and work in relation to ease of transportation, but companies also assess a city’s public transportation system when deciding to expand or relocate.

Case in point: Atlanta’s public transportation system was an important factor for State Farm Insurance deciding to build new offices in the area. Online retail giant Amazon also sought cities with accessible public transit when determining its second headquarters.

When the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) analyzed the impact of public transportation investment, it found that $232 billion spent over 10 years would stimulate a 4-to-1 return of $928 billion in economic activity over the next 20 years.

How would public transit investment boost the economy?

Short-term benefits

Any local economy would benefit from a large-scale transportation project in terms of thousands of construction jobs, equipment manufacturing jobs, jobs associated with parts and materials suppliers, plus workers spending at nearby businesses during the construction period.

In addition, as APTA president and CEO Paul Skoutelas explained in his recent testimony before Congress, large-scale projects have a ripple effect beyond the project’s location.

For example, a project in California ‘may be receiving vehicles, parts or materials from suppliers in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia or Wisconsin,’ Skoutelas said.

The economic boost due to construction alone can last for months or years.

Long-term benefits

The growing number of workers in the U.S. needs an increasing capacity to get to work every day, and the less time spent on the commute, the more time is spent actually working.

Research findings in the 2014 APTA publication, ‘Economic Impact of Public Transportation Investment,’ describe the increased economic productivity due to investment in urban transportation, especially when those investments are maintained over many years, as estimated in a 20-year scenario: ‘The impact by the end of the 20-year period would represent a ratio of more than $3.7 billion per year of additional GDP per $1 billion invested annually. This includes $2 billion due to the productivity effect of cost savings in the economy and $1.7 billion supported by a pattern of public transportation investment spending.’

What does that mean in terms of jobs? The study estimates an investment of $1 billion in public transportation would result in approximately 50,731 jobs.

The cost of neglecting public transportation

The country’s aging infrastructure, plus the need for new transit options in growing urban areas, directly affects the local and national economy.

Dorval R. Carter Jr., president of Chicago Transit Authority, oversees a legacy rail system that’s over 100 years old, and faces the challenge of fixing or replacing aging infrastructure. ‘Parts of our rail system date back to the late 1800s,’ Carter observed.

Time lost to commuters when breakdowns or repairs occur adds up to lost productivity.

What is the cost of failing to invest in public transportation? According to ‘The Economic Cost of Failing to Modernize Public Transportation,’ a report by APTA, it costs the U.S. economy $340 billion in lost revenue over a six-year period. This translates to a loss of $180 billion in cumulative Gross National Product and $109 billion in household income.

An urgent national need

APTA is asking Congress to increase funding for public transportation to at least $232 billion, setting priorities for crucial repairs and upgrades, plus new public transit options.

And access to public transportation affects suburban and rural communities as well as cities.

‘In Iowa, public transit infrastructure is essential to both urban and rural communities,’ stated Elizabeth Presutti, general manager of Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority. ‘Transit is critical to employment and economic growth. We need the federal government to provide a reliable source of funding to meet the needs of the future.’

At a time when public transportation ridership is exceeding population growth, it seems more critical than ever to meet this need.