Weaning Ourselves From Our Cars
Like most people in Cascadia, I have considered what I can do to decrease use of costly fossil fuels. The costs both to the environment and to our pocketbooks have become a considerable burden. It really is time to do something about the issue.
A recent article in the Bellingham Herald tells the stories of three people who have done various things to wean themselves from the use of fossil-fuel burning automobiles. There are a number of great ideas here for reducing auto dependence, as well as some inspiration for those who wish to change their habits somewhat.
The first point to be made is that we are not going to be able to simplify the issue to a “one solution fits all” scenario. The automobile is a very useful invention, and cars will be with us for a long time. The key is to not overuse this device when other solutions exist. One important key to the solution will be to make the alternatives as easy to use and as integrated into our culture as possible.
The article starts out with the story of a man who has exclusively used his bicycle for personal transportation for a number of years. This is, of course, one option for freeing ourselves from fossil fuel use. At this point, most people will say that it would be too large a lifestyle change to ditch the car and use only a bicycle. I agree with that assessment. You will note that the man in the story has a pickup truck and a motorcycle available to him if the need arises. He also drives a car as part of his job. But before you say that he has failed because he sometimes uses gasoline, remember the he point is not to deny ones self the benefits of gasoline, only to reduce its use as much as possible. In that respect, he is a success.
Many people would not be able to take this route for practical reasons or for reasons of lacking the needed physical fitness to ride a bicycle. For some people, though, this mode of transportation is just the ticket. We need to find the solutions that fit our needs.
A second man has been successful in curbing auto use by using public transportation as much as possible. A combination of a bicycle for short trips, transit use to get to work, and easy-to-use trains and buses to get to neighboring towns for jobs has allowed him to rather easily reduce his transportation costs and his personal stress on the environment. One key to this ease: He acknowledges that there will be times when a car will get him to Seattle or Vancouver from his Bellingham home much more efficiently than another mode of transportation. For these occasions, the nearby car rental agency can provide him what he needs at a fraction of the cost of car ownership. This self-employed man estimates that he can take an additional two or three weeks of time off every year from his financial savings.
Again, one of the keys to success is not abstinence from auto use, simply using the other cleaner and less expensive alternatives when available.
A third example in the story is a family who lives in a relatively rural area, requiring the family to make a 50-mile round trip every day to drop their child off at school daily and then get to work. This family owns an electric car, which substitutes electricity for fossil fuels. One drawback of their vehicle is that it has a range of only 40 miles on one charge, requiring the owner to recharge the vehicle at his workplace. He has arranged to pay a local business the cost of plugging in his car on a daily basis to recharge it downtown, a truly minimal charge compared to other fuels. After figuring the cost of electricity used for recharging the electric car, the driver in this story is paying the business owner about 60 cents per day to offset the cost of electricity. He figures that the company is making a small profit on this.
This particular story highlights one of the issues facing transportation alternatives: That some infrastructure will be required to accommodate new technology such as electric cars. One hope for the future would be solar panels for recharging the on-board batteries. In the meantime, one solution would be as simple as setting aside a few spaces in a parking lot, installing a wall outlet in front of several of the spaces, and charging an extra dollar per day to park in front of one of them. The investment required to implement this would be measured in hundreds of dollars, not thousands or millions. For the business people who offer this service, it would pay for itself relatively quickly. All it would take is a bit of coordination of where the service is required and a couple of willing parties.
We will never truly be free of all automobile use. That should not necessarily be the goal. But the savings available to us from reducing automobile use, both from the financial and the environmental standpoint, is certainly a worthy goal. We all have an opportunity to change and reap some of this savings. It might only be a matter of thinking through your situation.
Leave a Reply