By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

The Alliance to Save Energy is promoting its Drive Smarter Challenge in anticipation of Americans being on the move for the holidays. The challenge offers tips to bolster your mileage and other ways to trim transportation costs, some more effective (rent a hybrid) than others (use the right oil for a 2 percent improvement in mileage).

But even though these travel tips are wildly divergent – take a train, drive during off-peak hours – they should get most families thinking about conserving in these still-tough economic times.

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By Chris Reinolds
Green Right Now

Isn’t it great when you can save green and go green at the same time?

For serious and recreational bicyclists, bike cooperatives across the country are meeting that need. They offer tools to fix your bike, volunteers to teach you how and the support to keep riding. Cooperatives are located in nearly every major city and supported by volunteers, grants and donations.

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Green Right Now Reports

You can debate whether certain off-road vehicle incursions into wild areas are eco-friendly, but you can’t really argue with Polaris’s decision to make a greener All-Terrain Vehicle.

The new RANGER EV, a side-by-side that operates on a battery pack, trumps gas-fueled ATVs when it comes to cleaning up emissions.

And, Polaris reports in a news release, the vehicle has the longest range of any electric midsize vehicle (50 miles), which at top speed (25 mph) would provide two hours of riding time between charges.

It is also cheaper to operate, costing an estimated 3 cents per mile to run compared to 9 cents per mile for a comparable gas vehicle, according to Polaris.

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You’re cool and environmentally conscious. You eat organic and live green, right down to your trendy hemp shoes. You probably even drive a Prius and subscribe to Mother Jones.

But if you live in a city of much size, to be deeply green you must pimp your ride with a folding bike.

Europeans have been making and riding folding bikes for years. Asia, long a bicycle-dominant part of the world, has found folding bikes ideal for their cities’ crowded streets.

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From Green Right Now Reports:

You like bikes. You like exercise. You’ve even considered commuting on two wheels or at least wheeling down to the corner grocery.

But you’re worried that the power source – that’s you – is unreliable. The answer: an electric bike. You can pedal it, but it can power itself too, saving you from winding up too winded to get home from the Walgreens.

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From Green Right Now Reports

Myers Motors LLC, the Ohio company that makes a unique one-person electric vehicle, is getting a $250,000 investment from JumpStart Ventures.

The company, based in Tallmadge, Ohio, builds the NmG (”No more Gas”), which is classified as a motorcycle according to the Department of Transportation because of its three wheels. The all-electric vehicle, which sells for $29,995, goes 60 miles on one charge and is recharged using the same alternating current (AC) available in household outlets. The NmG can be used on highways, where it reaches speeds of up to 75 miles per hour.

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By Melissa Segrest
Green Right Now

Paul Dorn knows that getting Americans to ride a bike to work instead of driving a car is quite the uphill battle. Even on a good day, he says, only a tiny percentage of the nation’s commuters use pedal power to get to their jobs.

He remains undeterred.

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By Richard Hart
KGO

SANTA CLARA, CA — You have probably considered a hybrid car. Why not a hybrid bicycle or scooter? The market for electric two-wheel transportation is growing faster than the one for cars and trucks.

“The thing that’s really changed electric bikes and scooters is the battery technology,” says Doug Schwartz, “the fact that you can now get a lithium-ion battery that’s small, it’s lightweight.”

> Watch Now

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By Clint Williams
Green Right Now

People going green are turning to gasoline-electric hybrid automobiles like the Toyota Prius, Honda Insight or any number of hybrids offered by General Motors for transportation. But folks really serious about saving gasoline and money will want to consider the latest alternatives to gasoline – electric hybrids – sweat-electric hybrids.

The latest generation of electric-hybrid bicycles is arriving at a bike shop near you. Major bicycle makers Giant and Schwinn (who can forget the Stingray?) have recently introduced cutting-edge hybrid bikes that seamlessly harness battery power and pedal power, making biking to work easy as the breeze in your hair.

The new offerings from the bike big boys promise to nudge so-called e-bikes from the eddy of the eccentric into the mainstream. E-Bike sales in the US are projected to hit 220,000 units in 2009, up 83 percent from 2007 sales, according to the Electric Bikes Worldwide Report, 2008 Update. In Europe, sales this year are expected to hit 750,000 – three times 2007 sales.

“We’re seeing huge growth,” says Pantea Mavaddat, marketing director of Currie Technologies, maker of the Izip line of hybrid bikes.

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By Barbara Kessler

Biking. It’s not just for hearty commuters and weekend racers anymore. With the energy pinch on, people are finding more uses for two- or three-wheeling, whether it’s puttering to school or the grocery. Even businesses are finding ways that bikes can solve problems.

Take City Harvest in New York City. The food rescue agency collects leftovers and unwanted produce from farmer’s markets, restaurants and groceries, and delivers it to various agencies and soup kitchens serving the poor and displaced.

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