Green Choice or Green Wash?
Does riding an electric scooter make a real difference for the environment?
Since environmental concerns have once again grabbed the public's attention, it seems that everything is touted as 'green' - we are constantly being offered enviromentally friendly choices. But a closer look often reveals that the green labelling is just a sales tactic - it's green wash, not a green choice. For instance, we are being asked to see the new General Motors as a friend of the environment. Is that the same General Motors that had the strategy of buying urban electric trolley bus sytems and shutting them down as a way to promote their diesel buses? Was it not General Motors that reluctantly produced a few electric cars to comply with California's clean air legislation and then conspired to reverse the law, gathering up and destroying its electric car fleet in the process?
The First 'R' is Reduce
The first step in planning an enviromentally friendly strategy for your transportation needs is to try to reduce the amount of travelling you need to do. Can you eliminate some of those trips or put several tasks together in one trip?
Reducing Car Usage by Adding an Electric Scooter
Read the text on My Riding Season for details as to how a scooter reduces car usage between April and October.
Small Gasoline Engine Emissions
A popular strategy to reduce fuel needs is to switch from a car to a gas engine- powered scooter or small motorcycle. Indeed, these smaller vehicles use much less fuel, so the economic reasoning is correct. But from an environmental point of view, the small engine can be producing as much harmful emissions as the car it replaced. To date, small internal combustion engines are exempt from emissions standards and testing, but it is generally agreed that they are producing very dirty exhaust. The environment does not benefit from this substitution of a smaller engine replacing a larger one, as counterintuitive as that may seem.
An Electric Scooter as an Environmental Choice
As noted, reducing your transportation needs is the first step in making environmentally friendly travel choices. Walking to your destination is great for your health and has the least impact on your surroundings. If a bicycle meets your needs, that is also a great choice for both health and the environment. For trips longer than you want to walk, or if arriving at your destination in biking attire and a bit sweaty is not appropriate, maybe an electric scooter is a good choice. If you use public transport, that can be a very good choice enviromentally, especially if the vehicles are electric (trolley buses, Light Rapid Transit, etc.). And finally, if you absolutely need a car, we are all looking forward to the day when a fully electric car is affordable and easily available. Using an electric car as part of a car share program may be the best answer for those occasions when you need a car to meet your transportation needs.
Further Reading and Viewing about Environmental Travel Choices
The Zero Carbon Car - Building the Car the Auto Industry Can't Get Right, written by Bill Kemp, published by Aztext Press, 2007. Kemp is a Canadian environmentalist and electrical engineer with wide-ranging interests in building technologies, energy use, and transportation. He cites a good deal of research into our driving habits and needs, and then lays out the requirements for a zero-carbon car. He documents his path to building and driving the car and shares plans for software controls, small scale bio-fuel production, and battery maintenance. It's not often that someone translates theory into action, but Kemp figures out what kind of a car would be truly zero-carbon and then builds one. His reasoning and experiences make this book a great choice for those wanting to understand and participate in the electric vehicle revolution.
Who Killed the Electric Car?, (DVD, Sony Pictures Classics, 2006, 93 minutes) tells the story of electric vehicle development in California circa 2000, the overturning of sections of the Clean Air Act, and the personalities and industry players involved. Director Chris Paine frames the story as a murder mystery and manages to trace the behind-the-scenes events with some very interesting film footage, interviews, and research. It is a masterpiece of documentary film making because of the way it holds the viewer's interest while telling what is essentially a business story. Paine asks questions and sheds a light onto the kind of decisions being made by the automobile industry in these challenging times. This is thought-provoking stuff for environmentalists and anyone else interested in the future of electic vehicles.
Complete Builder's Guide for "Cheetah": A Fast and Nimble Electric Motorbike. This soft cover large format book is an excellent resource for understanding the basic technology behind an electric bike or scooter. Of course, it is foremost a guide to building your own electric 2 wheel vehicle, if you want to go down that path. But it is filled with information on motors, batteries, controllers, and all the other hardware for electric bikes as well as safe driving instruction and the environmental benefits of electric vehicles. 2005, John Bidwell, author. To obtain a copy: http://www.electric-bikes.com/motor/cycles.html#Cheetah You can also check out "El Chopper" and "Bidwell Bike Pusher"; both are at http://www.rqriley.com.