Green Options

The process of turning California’s Highway 101 into an electric roadway is beginning, and for a short period of time the charging stations that will be installed can be used for free. Beginning in October, Solarcity will be installing vehicle charging stations alogn Highway 101 between San Francisco and Los Angeles in order to reward those who have already made a move to adopt a cleaner lifestyle with clean technology in their vehicles.

Working at home sounds great, doesn’t it? With the average Los Angeles commute topping 30 minutes each way, think of what you could do with that extra time. And think of what the environment could do without all of those emissions.

A new report from the World Wildlife Fund indicates that non-manufacturing companies could cut their carbon footprint in half by allowing telework. With more and more companies looking to reduce their eco-impact, a shift towards telecommuting would be a big step forward.

But what about all of those meetings?

By now you are aware that there are many ways to prevent global warming, but I would like to focus on things that you can do to help stop global warming on your way to work. First, it is useful to know exactly how Americans are commuting to work to realize just how much improvement can be made to make commuting more energy-efficient and less of an environmental impact.

And as the human population continues to grow, it will become an increasingly desperate race to find more effective modes of transport.

Yesterday, I did something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time: pick up my son from school using a bike and trailer instead of a car. It was exhausting (the last block home was the hardest), but I’m hoping to keep it up (even if my son complains, “We could be home already” — even though he’s the one who lobbied to ride in the trailer in the first place!)

With a gas-guzzling Blazer on its last legs, the only thing that’s been holding me back till now was the lack of an alternative. Stroke of luck number one came a few weeks ago, when I passed a house with an 18-speed women’s bike in the front yard with a sign that said “Free: Please take.” So I did.

An extra twenty bucks a month might not get you whooping and hollering with joy, but would it inspire you to consider riding your bike to work more and driving less?

That’s what backers of the long-awaited Bicycle Commuter Act are hoping, as the measure that’s been kicking around for seven years was among the many added as a “sweetener” to the $700 billion financial system bailout bill passed by Congress last week. Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer has been pushing for the bike act for years, arguing that similar benefits have long been granted to car-driving commuters.

In yet another dispatch from the “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished” Department (see previous entries here and here), the Chicago Tribune reports this week that the growing popularity of biking around town is being welcomed with increased attention from law [...]

This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

Last week we sent an email to our action network asking how people were coping with high oil prices. The response on our sister blog, the Green Room, was enthusiastic — over 600 comments! Here are some of our favorites, organized by topic:

Strategies to Increase Gas Mileage

From Ann:

I’ve been driving 60 mph on the highway and have seen a dramatic improvement in my gas mileage. I’m getting 38-40 mpg in my Toyota Camry on the highway! Drive 60 when you go.

From Mike Frisch:

I have dropped my fuel use by 70-80%

1) I bicycle two days per week (25 mile round trip) - great exercise & fun.

2) I purchased an electric bike/scooter (Ego cycle 2 LX, cost $1700) and I use it two days per week - costs 10 cents to charge it - great fun.

3) On the days I have to use my car, I carpool, and I drive 60 mph or less to save fuel.

Editor’s Note: For others thinking of trying scooters, be sure to do it safely. Motorcycle and scooter accidents are on the rise due to inexperienced converts.

While high gas prices are not the most effective way to combat environmentally degrading driving patterns – unless you grow all your own food, chances are likely that high gas prices are going to translate into higher food costs – high gas prices are starting to encourage the sorts of commuter behaviours that environmentalists have been attempting to mainstream for years. But if gas prices start to decrease, are we going to witness a return to the behaviour that brought [...]

By now, we all know it’s cheaper — and more environmentally friendly — to walk or bike to places than to drive a car or SUV. But is the low-cost, low-impact way always feasible in the motor-happy, open-freeway-obsessed U.S. of A.? That’s what we’ll be exploring this week at EcoLocalizer in a feature we’re calling “Walk This Way.”

The question of whether to walk, bike or take public transportation is a no-brainer if you live in a city like New York, where driving can often be more of a pain than a pleasure. But what about the rest of the country? Not every community is large enough or dense enough to offer the auto alternatives the Big Apple does. And what about people who live in rural areas where everything is a half-hour’s drive away or more? Can we refashion our country’s way of getting around to be more European? Or are those of us in unwalkable communities doomed to either move elsewhere or live like so many billions do in the rest of the world, consigned to life in a radius of space measured in only a few miles?

This post is by Andy Darrell, vice president for Living Cities at Environmental Defense Fund.

The high cost of gas has pushed retail gas purchases down 2 to 3 percent. What are people doing instead? Taking public transportation!

The first quarter report from the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) found that use of public transportation is skyrocketing in tandem with gas prices. Last year 10.3 billion trips were taken on U.S. public transportation — the highest in 50 years. Ridership on streetcars, trolleys, commuter rails, subways, and buses are all up. Even Amtrak ridership is soaring.

This shift presents an historic opportunity.

It was hard to get us Americans out of our cars when gas was cheap, but now we’re trying public transportation in record numbers. And once people try it, odds are they’ll prefer it, which is great news for the environment.

Good public transportation is more pleasant than a private car (you can’t read while you’re driving), and far cheaper. A calculator on the APTA Web site shows how much you can save by leaving your car parked at home.

My first post on green walking provided some hopefully handy tips for you to go walkabout, to get out in nature and do some green walking. In the age where any travel that is not sustainable is terribly costly in many, many ways, it is more imperative than ever for each of us to become a peripatetic.

But here is the good news: Green walking is not just “nature walking” per se, not just walkabout. Green walking is also ideal for city travel…helping cut down on many kinds of pollution, smog that obscures the lovely natural views everywhere, travel expenses, resource consumption, and driver rage, just to name a few things.

In order to facilitate your transition from commuter to sustainable commuter, from walker to green walker, I offer here a few more tips on green walking in a city environment…on going urban walkabout.

1. Like walkabouts in nature, urban walkabouts should be as sensual as possible. Although some urban settings have been deliberately “greened up” with strategic flowerbeds, parks, and eco-friendly architecture, many cities are truly urban jungles–forests of concrete. But even here you can listen to the cooing of pigeons or find some green things struggling for life in the cracks of sidewalks. And there are often flower shops, produce stands, and pets to be encountered. So enjoy these instances of nature-here-and-now whenever you can. Of course, the sun is almost always shining–or if not, then rain is falling or wind is blowing–so you still can likely get some sensual stimulation on your urban walkabout if you pay attention.