Category Archives: Transportation

MIT Climate CoLab Contest

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What should we do about climate change?

Instead of waiting for policy makers to act, you can help figure out the answer at the Climate CoLab; previously discussed in Opening the [Copenhagen] talks. Working alone—or in teams of people from all over the world—you can create proposals for what to do about climate change. The winning proposals will be presented to key policy makers, including officials at the UN and the US Congress. And if your proposal is one of the top two, you’ll receive travel funding for a representative of your team to attend one of these briefings.

We especially encourage entries from teams of undergraduate and graduate students with an interest in climate and sustainability issues. As usual rules and restrictions apply.

The deadline for the contest is October 31, 2010.

Person-to-Person Car Sharing with RelayRides

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The RelayRides onboard computer

On Saturday we tried out a Boston-based car-sharing service called RelayRides. It’s much like the other locally-based car-share service Zipcar, except that all the cars are owned by regular people. When they’re not using them, they rent them out.

Jason and I are thinking of enrolling our car, since we rarely use it on weekends, but we wanted to try out the system from the other side first.

Like with Zipcar, a membership card locks and unlocks the door, but only during your scheduled time. An electronic device near the rearview mirror shows how long you have the car for and allows you to extend or shorten your reservation. It also houses the gas card. Gas is the owner’s responsibility (figured into the cost of the rental), but drivers are supposed to make sure they return it at least ¼ full.

When I signed up, I got a $25 credit on my account, to encourage me to use it. It’s such a new service that they’re also waiving any introductory fees, so it’s cost us nothing. If you’ve ever thought of using Zipcar, it’s worth trying out.

The whole thing’s remarkably easy, but there were a few hangups. The door unlocking mechanism was a little touchy; I had to hold the card against it longer than I thought necessary before it registered. And we did have a little bit of trouble finding the car. Unlike Zipcar, the only RelayRides sign around the car is in the bottom corner of the windshield, and the website showed a silver Honda Accord, when the car was blue. That wouldn’t have been so confusing, except a silver Honda Accord was actually parked nearby. Luckily, the owner of the car came out while I was calling the company and pointed out the correct car.

Despite that, though, the whole thing was so positive that it even convinced Jason that we should sign up, and he’s not always up for my cockamamie schemes. Once our car’s enrolled, I’ll let you know how it works from that side, too.

Green Business Transportation Workshop- 8/25

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Brad Winnett from MassRIDES discusses green alternatives while other panelists look on.

On Wednesday August 25th, the Cambridge Energy Alliance and the Sustainable Business Leader Program hosted a Green Transportation Workshop. Panelists discussed ways to make a key facet of business operations, employee transportation, “green.”

Stephanie Anderberg from Cambridge Community Development discussed how businesses can support alternative transportation with help from Pre-tax Commuter Benefits. Basically, these are ways in which businesses can pay for their employees’ green travel (e.g. shuttles, vanpools, biking, the T) before taxes are considered. These can be administered in several fairly easy ways, including giving vouchers or using a 3rd party administrator.

Jim Gascoigne from the Charles River TMA opened with a significant statistic: a staggering 67% of people in Cambridge – an environmentally forward-thinking city – get to work by driving in cars alone. Mr. Gascoigne went on to explain that while the Charles River TMA’s purpose is to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality, it’s also to help Cambridge citizens reach for more environmentally responsible solutions. Specific services Jim discussed were the public $1 per ride EZride shuttle, which goes to areas around Cambridge that the T does not reach, and an Emergency taxi Ride Home voucher for members.

Brad Winnett from MassRIDES spoke about how his state-wide organization works individually with businesses to incorporate customized combinations of transportation programs that suit their unique circumstances. These combos include ride-sharing, vanpools, biking, walking, the T, and tele-working.

Shane Jordan presented for Mass Bike, a state-wide bicycling advocacy group that supplies many services.  Mass Bike Provides three different kinds of 1-hour workshops – general biking, bike maintenance, and one for winter bike-riding. Shane mentioned that Mass Bike has a valet bike parking service, as well as a consulting service. Lastly, Mr. Jordan suggested that if an organization wanted to perform a biking event but didn’t have insurance, they could partner with Mass Bike to be covered under Mass Bike’s insurance.

Zipcar is a membership-based car-sharing service, and was represented on the Green Transportation panel by Matt Kurkowski.  Mr. Kurkowski discussed the various benefits of the multiple Zipcar programs and options. Zipcar was what helped one audience member (Janie Katz) transition from 30 years of driving her own car to a no-car diet; others discussed the convenience of the service when traveling for business or for emergencies. For businesses, the Zipcar program is significantly more cost-effective than it might be for the already-affordable personal accounts, making this a great business choice.

After this, Metro Pedal Power (unable to be represented at the event) was discussed thoroughly by the hosts as well as multiple panelists. This company is a local, bike-powered delivery service that provides regularly scheduled as well as on-call deliveries of up to 500 pounds, in all weather. This service makes sense for so many members of the community who may need to transport something only across town, but would otherwise have to ship via UPS or FedEx, whose warehouse check-in point might even be out of state. The service is cost-effective because of the lack of spending on gasoline, and you are reducing the carbon you emit by keeping fossil-fuel-burning vehicles off the road.

In addition, Janie Katz-Christy, the director of the Green Streets Initiative shared how businesses and employees can get involved in Walk/Ride Days. Walk/Ride Days are on the last Friday of each month, when people can use sustainable transportation and get rewarded by local businesses for doing so. Walk/Ride Days have had excellent results for all kinds of large and small businesses and the Fed DOT is now funding a project to spread Walk/Ride Days to 6 Boston-region communities.

The last mentioned service was that of the downtown-Boston-based Urban Adventours, who offer bike tours throughout the city. This is a great way to get people introduced to the concept of biking as an alternative transportation, as well. For organizations who need bikes to get started, this is one of the bike rental providers in Boston.

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This workshop was full of organizations who, as a combination, can comprehensively make our community more fossil-fuel independent than ever. I strongly urge you to take advantage of some or all of the services detailed here- and tell your friends!

As always- you may comment here, or email me personally at jgorden@cambridgeenergyalliance.org if you have further questions.

Burning breakfasts for bus fuel

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Biofuels by Peter Hoey for the Sierra Club

Although the specifics may have since changed, this chart from Bio Hope, Bio Hype in the September 2007 issue of the Sierra Club’s magazine provides a nice overview of the major biofuel options.

What about moving Beyond the Corn Field: Balancing Fuel, Food and Biodiversity? After all, if there’s one thing that thing that our reliance on fossilized sunlight has taught us, it’s that that there should be room for every fuel that makes ecological (and economic) sense. Indeed, there are a number of exotic fuel feedstocks you are probably not yet familiar with. Indeed, on Earth Day the Navy tested a bio-blend jet fuel made from 50% German sesame seed oil. What of the much touted cellulosic ethanol? An alternative to the use of sugary food crops, or the relatively low-yield plant-based oils. In February University of Wisconsin researchers published a paper with details about a mechanism for efficiently converting an intermediate product that may be derived from sugar or cellulose into a high-grade liquid fuel.

Despite these and other advancements, more evidence is coming to light that biofuels are not without ecological costs including biodiversity as linked above, and soil degradation. In the end, it will be a balancing act, with conservation and efficiency offering the highest yield.

While not specifically about biofuels, the agri-business exposé King Corn is being shown at the Main Library next Tuesday evening; it has its detractors though.

Kempton vs. Sequoia

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Redwood by Michael Nichols Although the expanded fleet of trucks that might eventually be passing through California’s coastal redwood in Garberville should be less polluting due to the administration’s recent move to regulate fuel efficiency of the traditionally exempt trucking fleet, they now face another threat besides vehicular NOX.

CalTrans—the state’s department of transportation—has filed notice that it intends to expand US-101 which currently narrows before passing through the old growth forest of Richardson Grove State Park; view larger map. Besides the destruction of individual trees, the widened road would promote the use of this comparatively lazy country road over the I-5 corridor of the central valley.

Local universities undertake research into results of climate change

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Last month the EPA awarded funds to MIT, Harvard and UMass Amherst among others to study the consequences of climate change. Harvard will be working with UMass Amherst to study allergies and asthma. Separately it will be researching the health impacts of pollution from forest fires. MIT will be modeling transit policy’s effects on air pollution and the resulting impacts on human health. Full news release

Tobacco powered trucks?

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On their face, biofuels seem like a pretty good idea: carbon dioxide and sunlight in, carbon dioxide and energy out. Certainly some hobbyists manage to recover waste grease for use in diesel engines, but commercially the field has been dominated by the fermentation of sugars from food crops into ethanol. Unfortunately, due to the large petro-chemical inputs often employed it is unclear whether the result is a net gain. In addition, much attention has been given to the competing interests of fuel vs. food (vs. land conservation).

There is hope that research into the production of cellulosic ethanol, or alcohol from plant fibers, could soon tip the balance decidedly in favor of biofuels. One could use agricultural waste or fast-growing special cover crops however, this material should arguably be composted back into the fields… But what if you could make use of existing knowledge and agricultural land; instead of converting forest into sugarcane fields, or farming prairie? Perhaps even provide a competing market for an otherwise dubious product? This may be possible if research into genetically modified tobacco proves to be fruitful. These plants do not contain pesticide-producing or herbicide-resistance genes. Instead, scientists are working on ways to make the leaves of the plant express existing genes and produce more oil for use in fuel production.

CNG mail trucks and buses

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Technology Review 2009-Nov./Dec. The cover story of the current issue of MIT’s Technology Review, “Natural Gas Changes the Energy Map,” discusses the recent, (un)fortunate discovery of extremely large natural gas deposits in U.S.

The issue also includes a “briefing” on the various intersections of transportation and energy, and that explains this post’s title: CNG mail trucks and buses, the two major inroads of methane into transit.

Greening Government

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us_flag_green On Monday, as another step in leading by example, the Obama administration initiated a government-wide suggestion box for ideas to green the executive branch. For two weeks federal employees will have the opportunity to submit and vote on ideas which will then be referred to committee.

The existing suggestions are available for perusal on GreenGov at right, below the video. They include (many copies) of the usual suspects, like occupation sensors for lights or double-sided printing, as well as gems such as:

Replace grass lawns that require mowing with wild flowers that do not. This will save on pollution from lawn mowers. —Kris, Bethesda

Good idea. That should also cut down on run-off and water used for irrigation, as well as providing useful habitat for wildlife Kris.

There are also disappointing revelations like:

Many employees have mini refrigerators to keep their lunch cold. Each one uses around $30 per year worth of electricity. We could encourage people to share and eliminate the extra ones by charging a fee of $20 per year for a refrigerator permit. —Carl, NIH

Why aren’t there communal (high-efficiency) fridges in the first place? They’re a standard fixture in most offices…