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.

The Drive Smarter Challenge website offers some concrete help (get it?) with advice for creating a customized map for your route that identifies stops with inexpensive gas. The info page sends you to MapQuest’s Gas Prices, which samples prices around the country, finding, for instance, that Northfork W. Va. has gas for $1.99 a gallon (which is an interesting factoid but unhelpful if your relatives live in Missoula.

Drive Smarter also points you toward GasBuddy.com, which lists local gas prices for dozens of cities in the US and Canada and shows regional trends. (And yes, there’s a mobile phone app.)

Type in your city or destination at Gas Buddy.com and you can get a read-out of the “Lowest Regular Gas Prices in the Last 24 Hours.” Checking for Chicago that turned up gas prices ranging from $2.89 a gallon at a Shell and a Gas Depot on the Northwest side to $3.29 at a Citgo at DesPlaines and Taylor streets. The difference is probably not worth driving to a station outside of your neighborhood, for goodness sakes.

So what to do with this information?

It could conceivably help you decide whom in your clan to grace with your presence this holiday. Got relatives in Houston? It’s cheaper to drive there ($2.34 to $2.38 for a gallon of petrol) than to visit those fossil-fuel fancy pants in San Francisco ($2.87 to $3.49). Of course, once you get to the Bay Area you can at least take public transportation, something Houston is still working on.

Okay, so the price of gas probably won’t dictate where you go this holiday.

But it could be one thing on a list of ways you tighten up your energy profile.

Along with all the tips about how to make your car run more efficiently (inflate the tires, don’t idle, don’t drive like a jackrabbit), The Drive Smarter Challenge recommends that you incorporate public transportation, biking, walking or ride sharing in your travel plans.

Now there’s a smart driving plan: Don’t drive.

(The Drive Smarter Challenge campaign is hosted by the Alliance to Save Energy, but it has many other partners, from the American Petroleum Institute to the League of American Bicyclists.)

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

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

Sopo Bike Cooperative in Atlanta

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.

Atlanta’s Sopo Bicycle Cooperative opened four years ago when one of the founders needed a $40 bike tool  and felt there should be a bike co-op to allow folks to share tools and expertise.

“It’s just a bunch of people interested in cycling,” said Dianna Settles,  Sopo’s volunteer coordinator and a Georgia State University student.

Since most traditional bike stores in Atlanta are north of Ponce De Leon Street, there was a big need to teach people to do bike maintenance south of Ponce. Hence the name – SoPo. The East Atlanta area also has a fair share of lower income residents who need reliable transportation.

The shop runs a youth program during the summer, but it also draws seniors, recreational bikers and commuters.

“It’s a pretty diverse crowd of people and the way the economy is right now it makes more sense to ride a bike,” Settles said. Adding that maintenance on a bike is also cheaper than car maintenance.

Sugggested donations are $5 per part and $5 per hour for use of the tools. Everyone seems happy to comply. And no one is turned away if they don’t have the money. They barter with volunteer time, food and other creative swaps.

The cooperative operates under three mantras:

• Each one teach one
• Right tool for the right job
• Bicycles make the world a better place

One of the rules is “never take a tool out of someone’s hand. We will show someone or get another volunteer’s help. We have books and different manuals,” she said.

On a recent Thursday evening, bicyclists of all shapes and sizes spilled out into Sopo’s parking lot. Bike stands were set up to hold the bikes while making repairs and every spot was filled. The shop is open three nights a week and Saturday afternoon. It’s housed behind a record shop in an up-and-coming urban village of Atlanta.

Bartender Kate Crosby stopped by to work on her bike and met fellow cyclist Stacey Sayles.

Stacey Sayles helps Kate Crosby fix her bike

“This is my second time. I had a flat and need to know how to change a flat,” said Crosby, who works nearby. She drives a “big ole’ truck” and needed to use her antique touring bike for the exercise and to be a little greener.

Sayles calls himself a bike fanatic and relies on two wheels for nearly all his transportation needs. He moved from New Orleans to Atlanta six months ago and said New Orleans has a similar bike co-op.

Longtime volunteer Dana Scott enjoys helping people with their bikes.

“I like teaching people the bike mechanics so they can do it themselves,” said Scott, who uses his bike for commuting, recreation and shopping.

Settles, the volunteer coordinator, agreed.

“We’re all here to help the community, fix bikes and make friends,” Settles said.

To find a bike co-op in your city, check out the International Bicycle Fund website, which also offers tips for Pushing the Green Envelope whilst biking.

For more tips on keeping green while biking see the Intern

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

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.

The Minneapolis-based company hope the new model appeals to those wanting alternative-powered off-road vehicles, and will be marketing the RANGER EV as a no-compromises potential greener replacement for similar gas-powered ATVs, able to scout tough territory.

Notes Polaris in a statement: “A common misconception of electric vehicles is the consumer has to give up performance or work-ability in exchange for economy. Polaris set out to prove this wrong by giving the RANGER EV a 500 lb. cargo box with 1,250 lb. towing and 1,000 lb. total payload to ensure the vehicle had a strong work ethic. The unit also features three modes; High for speed, Low for towing and hauling, and Max for maximum range.”

The Ranger, suitable also for tooling around planned communities and certain types of neighborhoods (where allowed) will retail for $10,699. It will be sold at Polaris dealerships nationwide. The company, one of the largest manufacturers of off-road vehicles in the world, makes Victory motorcycles and snowmobiles in addition to ATVs.

By Melissa Segrest
Green Right Now

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.

Now America is gaining speed and folding-bike sales are growing.

A folding bike can be pricey  (some models cost well above $2,000), but you can also find one for less than $300. Increasingly they can be brought aboard buses, subways and trains, folded so small they slip into carrying bags and cause no crowding complaints. The battle of squeezing a bike into elevators, apartments and offices becomes moot when your cycle can collapse to less than 3 feet in height. (Check with airlines before assuming you can fly your bike-in-a-bag as luggage.)

The collapsible cycle’s origins are debated — some say it was invented by an American in the 1890s, others credit the French military, according to The Folding Cyclist. The folding cycles were widely used by the military in Europe during both world wars.

In the 1980s, two brands of folding bikes were born — Andrew Ritchie’s Bromptons and Dr. David Hon’s Dahons. Today, both are still big wheels in the folding bike field. Dahon is the largest, and one source says the company sold 638,000 bikes from 2006 to 2007. Bromptons are very popular in the UK and Asia.

Issues to consider before buying: How long does it take to fold and unfold? How much does it weigh? What size are the wheels?

Look at performance, speed and stability, and make sure the bike fits you.

How and where you’ll use the bike is essential to your decision. Will you be on park paths during vacations, or traversing the mean streets of the big city getting to work? Will you ride long distances or lug your bike around as much as you ride it?

Folding bikes look a little odd, which is likely part of the appeal. Some of the colorful bikes – especially when folded — look more like works of industrial art than modes of transportation.

Many have elongated posts for seats and handlebars. The wheels can be very small (8- to 12-inch) but stability is sacrificed at that size. Most folding bikes have wheels in the 16- to 18-inch range (although some come as large as 26 inches). The small wheels can make the ride a bit rougher but the bikes are lighter and fold faster. The lightest weigh about 22 to 25 pounds. Most bikers prefer those with multiple gears rather than single-speed, and those with internal gears in the hub mean no more grease on your pants.

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.

eZeebike USA is banking that you, and this vision you have of getting there in eco-friendly style (but without any accompanying angina), will compel a visit to their new stores. The company, which has been designing and selling electric bikes since 2001 just announced a US expansion (they’re already all over Europe).

eZeebike describes itself as the builder of the “Rolls Royce” of electric bicycles, the “most powerful, efficient and comfortable on the market today” according to the press release. The expansion will install “flagship” stores across the US, starting this fall with two in California — in El Seguno in the Los Angeles area and Rancho Mirage near Palm Springs. The company currently has dealerships in six states, California, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon and New Hampshire.

The stores will be part of a dealer network that eschews “big box” stores in favor of a “high-qualty electric bicycle experience in an upscale lifestyle environment,” said eZeebike USA president and CEO Joel P. Gayner.

The eZeebikes start at around $2,000 (MSRP) and include beach bikes, high performance models, and even a foldable model for transferring in and out of car trunks. All have lithium olymer batteries and high-end components.

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.

Myers says the NmG meets the needs of the 80 percent of Americans who commute to and from work alone, and accommodates nearly half of Americans’ travel needs beyond work, which include errands and other day-to-day activities done solo as well.

Myers Motors was formed in 2004 by CEO Dana Myers, when he purchased the assets of a California-based motor company. Over the past few years, Myers has been collaborating with the University of Akron to further develop the battery technology and battery management system (BMS) used to power the vehicle. Myers Motors is enhancing its BMS to be more efficient and cheaper than systems used in other electric vehicles. Since working on the technology, the company has already doubled the travel range of the vehicle per charge, from 30 to 60 miles.

JumpStart Inc. is a Northeast Ohio venture development organization that accelerates the progress of high growth early-stage businesses. Myers said it plans on using JumpStart’s investment to build out its two-seat prototype vehicle and develop its intellectual property strategy.

JumpStart Venture Partner Mark Smith will be working with the company and is excited about its position in the market. “There is a race underway to create cost competitive all-electric vehicles and the Myers Motors team has an incredible head start,” said Smith. “Not only did they inherit a legacy of market knowledge and design from the predecessor company, they are already producing and selling vehicles. And the two-passenger vehicle (called NmG2) currently under development will provide Myers Motors with a significant competitive advantage in this quickly emerging market.”

“Our battery system is the next step toward realizing the dream of electric vehicles: inexpensive travel that avoids the geo-political and environmental ravages inherent in America’s dependence upon oil for its transportation needs,” said CEO Myers.

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.

Given that this is national Bike to Work Week, it’s an apt time to pick Dorn’s brain on the subject. Between co-authoring a book (The Bike to Work Guide: What You Need to Know to Save Gas, Go Green, Get Fit) his bike commuting advice Web site and his commuting tips blog, he is well-versed in the subject.

“I’m fairly typical of most Americans in the sense that the day I got my driver’s license, the bike went into the garage. I didn’t really touch it again until my mid-30s, when I was living in San Francisco, and didn’t have a car,” he said. His frustrating mass transit commute took 90 minutes. So he hopped on a bike, cut the commuting time in half, felt healthier, stopped paying bus fare and just generally started having more fun.

He’s still doing it at age 48, (now living in Sacramento and working at The University of California at Davis) and hasn’t owned a car since 1992.

Of course, starting out in San Francisco helped. It’s a generally bike-friendly city, and Dorn (pictured at left) found  a supportive cycling community to tell him about equipment, routes to avoid traffic and other advice. He started the website in 1997 as a class exercise. “People started finding it and at the time there weren’t a lot of online resources on the subject,” he said. So he offered guidance in bikes and equipment, dealing with bad weather and traffic and now has a loyal following.

“I’m just trying to provide inspiration and information for people who might be traveling by bike.”

Bike to Work Week is the brainchild of the League of American Bicyclists (which traces its roots to 1880). The organization offers support, advocacy, resources, education and information to their 300,000 affiliated cyclists. It’s all about creating a more bicycle-friendly America.

To that end, they have a project guide for cyclists interested in organizing events and support for Bike to Work Week as well as Bike Month (which is now). Part of the guide includes suggestions for overcoming excuses not to ride your bike to work (if you say you’re too out of shape, they say ride at an easy pace, and try it on a weekend; if you say it will take too long, they respond that car commuters travel an average 10 mph, and you’ll eventually go faster on the bike; it’s too far, you say – then combine riding and mass transit to shorten your commute).

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

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.

An e-bike isn’t an electric scooter. You still have to pedal to get somewhere. But the electric motor makes pedaling much easier; making uphill rides less daunting and flat roads effortless.

“It changes your psyche,” says Brown Loper, co-owner of an Atlanta-area bike shop and sole owner of a Giant Twist e-bike.

Loper’s commute to work is just a mile and a half, but it’s nearly all up hill.

“So, even me, on my other bike, I get to work and I’m puffing and feel like I need to take a shower,” Loper says.

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. Since it opened as the first food rescue organization (in 1982), City Harvest has grown and grown, and today it operates 17 refrigerated trucks that collect food all over the city.

Make that 17 trucks sitting and idling in a whole lot of traffic, particularly the portion of the fleet that serves Midtown Manhattan, a free world mecca of idling and traffic congestion. Meanwhile, many of City Harvest’s donor vendors, who give their leftover sandwiches, donuts and salads at the end of the day would sometimes have to wait for those trucks to get to their store by closing time. It could be touch-and-go.

City Harvest, searching for a way to get to the food faster and more efficiently began eyeing bikes. They’re used to courier documents and small packages all over NYC. Maybe they could address the efficiency issue and also reduce their carbon footprint by increasing their foot power?

The group found a way when they contracted with Revolution Rickshaws, which fitted three three-wheel bikes with cargo compartments that could carry up to 500 pounds of food, said Jennifer McLean, vice president of operations for City Harvest.

Instead of big trucks slogging away, “the biker is able to jet over there and not get stuck in traffic,” Ms. McLean said. “It’s constant pedal and pick up and pedal and pick up.”

Of course, the group had to hire fit drivers for the new cargo bikes (they had to pass physicals), and the bike food pickups are restricted to more than 20 but less than 50 pounds. But once three bikes were on the road, City Harvest was able to reassign some trucks to routes in the boroughs, making that end of the operation more efficient as well.

So far everyone’s happy with the new arrangement, which has cut waiting times, gas costs, carbon emissions and traffic frustrations, Ms. McLean said. The newly hired bikers, all former bicycle couriers, have been muttering a bit about the adjustment to the three-wheel machines, she said, but they’re generally in a great mood at the end of the day because they get thumbs up all day long from those who see they’re on a mission.

Now if only the need for that mission weren’t so great. The group expects to distribute about 23 million pounds of food this year, turning it quickly to poverty agencies so that the leftovers are used within a day or two.

Spiraling food and fuel prices are putting higher demand on those serving the poor, and bringing new clients, some of whom are looking for their first ever free meal or a grocery bag of food.

“We’re seeing people emailing us,” Ms. McLean recounted, (they’re saying) ‘I have a college degree, I have a wife and kids, I need food’.”

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media