My Riding Season
Reducing car usage with an electric scooter: this is how my riding season might look for 2011.
This riding season, I'll probably put about 1,500 km on my Motorino XPh scooter. I have an 8 km commute from home to my shop and the season started late this year - the first week of May, although mid-April is more typical. I'll need to use a car about once a week to move larger things that don't fit on a scooter.
While riding, I take notice of the changes in my neighbourhood and enjoy all the sights, sounds, and fragrances of the spring, summer, and fall days. I'll likely get rained on 3 or 4 times, but that is also a summer experience. The last ride of the season is just as enjoyable as the first. Sometime in October, I'll put the scooter away for the season, although I rode until mid-November last year - so mild and dry was the fall season.
My 5 to 6 months of scooter operation will consume perhaps $30 worth of electricity. I'll spend about 15minutes a week to check tire pressure, oil the pedal chain, check wheel nuts, and so-on. There will be no license fees, registration costs, or insurance payments. I should set aside $125 towards battery replacement, based on about $250 to put in new batteries after 2 seasons.
By the time the scooter is put away in the fall, my car will have traveled about 400 km instead of 2,000 km. I have the satisfaction of having bought 1/6th the amount of fossil fuel I would have needed without the scooter, and contributed significantly less carbon to the atmosphere. Given that 85% of a car's fuel simply generates heat, I added much less heat to our city environment.
Winnipeg supposedly has a short season for 2-wheel vehicles, but I have not found that to be true. Between mid-April and mid-October there are 27 weeks or six months. The 2010 riding season started a month early, so we had 7 months of riding last year. Are there days in the season when it would be unpleasant or even dangerous to be riding on two wheels? Yes, there are. But with some caution and some common sense, the riding season for 2 wheel vehicles is at least half the year.
Using an electric scooter for commuting is a small thing I can do to lessen my negative impact on the environment. All things considered, it can be a significant reduction of car usage, even in our city known for its long cold season. A side benefit is that the commute to work on an electric scooter is enjoyable.