Smart planning and smart savings ($9400!)

Here are two sweet articles which have crossed our desk.

First, you all might want to drive the HOURCAR more since, according to the American Public Transit Association, you're saving money versus owning a car. A lot of money. I mean, we knew that you'd save, but $9407 a year? Wow. Yeah, if you drive a long distance and pay $200 a month for parking, it will cost.

$9407 is a lot of money. It's a pretty sweet vacation. Or three. It's $180 a week, twenty-six bucks a day. According to APTA, you could drive the HOURCAR three or four times a day and still come out ahead. That's a pretty damn good deal.

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Second, from the Times comes a story about car-free suburbs in Germany. We like good development, and we like car-free.

Street parking, driveways and home garages are generally forbidden in this experimental new district on the outskirts of Freiburg, near the French and Swiss borders. Vauban’s streets are completely “car-free” — except the main thoroughfare, where the tram to downtown Freiburg runs, and a few streets on one edge of the community. Car ownership is allowed, but there are only two places to park — large garages at the edge of the development, where a car owner buys a space, for $40,000, along with a home.

That's pretty cool. If you make car ownership difficult and expensive, people will turn to cleaner, greener options.

As a result, 70 percent of Vauban’s families do not own cars, and 57 percent sold a car to move here.

Hey, this is about the same proportions as the HOURCAR membership base.

“When I had a car I was always tense. I’m much happier this way,” said Heidrun Walter, a media trainer and mother of two, as she walked verdant streets where the swish of bicycles and the chatter of wandering children drown out the occasional distant motor.

Now, if only we could have Minneapolis sound the same way (you know, other than the Greenway).

Vauban, home to 5,500 residents within a rectangular square mile, may be the most advanced experiment in low-car suburban life.

And, maybe, we can get there. Minneapolis's population density is 6,700 and Saint Paul's is 5,400. Not the highest around (66,000 in Manhattan) but not bad.

For trips to stores like Ikea or the ski slopes, families buy cars together or use communal cars rented out by Vauban’s car-sharing club.

And, yes, they do have car sharing (of course!).

Wave of the future, folks, wave of the future!

That's not Green we can believe in

Perhaps you read Failblog and noticed a "Going Green Fail" they posted. Well, it's below:



Oh, that is so wrong on so many levels I won't even start. Eco Smart makes energy saving products like tankless water heaters which actually do save energy. But to plaster their name on a Hummer? Poor form, guys, poor form.

Of course, someone presciently pointed out that (877) 47 GO GREEN truncates to (877) 474-OGRE. So if you want a water heater, just dial the Hummer-driving ogres as Eco-Smart.

Who else doesn't own a car?

Two top Obama administration officials, it turns out. In today's New York Times, we find out that Ezekiel Emanuel and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu don't own cars (although Chu is now forced to be driven around by a security detail, and he "doesn't feel good about it.")

No word on if they are car sharers, but when our leaders eschew car ownership, perhaps times are a-changin'.



By the way, the Magazine this week is themed as the Green Issue, and it's a pretty good read.

And, yes, Emanuel is the brother of Chief of Staff, Rahm. Their other brother, Ari, the basis for Ari Gold on the teevee show Entourage, graduated from Macalester College, which is, of course, an HOURCAR Hub.

Driving hybrid

There's an interesting story on NPR this morning (perhaps you heard it? It seems a lot of our cars are tuned to NPR.) about how driving style matters—a lot—when you are driving a plug-in hybrid.

"Oh-oh. You see that heavy foot right there? You just got the gas motor to come on at 20 miles an hour," she says.

That's a total no-no if you want to get the most miles per gallon. You want to rely on the battery and keep the gas motor off. At 20 mph, there's no reason for it to kick in — unless you have a heavy foot, which, apparently, I do.

"There's no need to just kind of punch it. It'll go," Fahenstock says. "You're really not going to get to your destination any sooner. Why do you need to accelerate so quickly?"

The two solar-powered plug-in hybrid HOURCARs are of a similar (if not the same) design, and how you drive them definitely makes a big difference. If you take them out on the freeway at 75 mph, drive with jackrabbit starts, or are a complete leadfoot, your mileage will likely be subpar. If you drive them gently, accelerate slowly, and do your best to not engage the gas engine (especially at speeds below 42 mph—when the gas engine spins up no matter), you'll do better.

And, of course, every Prius in the HOURCAR fleet has a nifty screen which lets you know how efficiently you drive. (Consensus is that if these were mandated in every car in the country, fuel consumption would decline appreciably.) Next time you're out in a car, reset the mileage, and when you are done, if you have driven well, send us a picture of the screen with the great milage and we'll post it here. I'd say we'd give the best mileage a free t-shirt but … all of our members already get t-shirts!

Cars you will not see in the HOURCAR fleet

We read, as I'm sure many of you did, about the Tata Nano in the New York Times. It's a small car, gets decent mileage (although emissions are not great, to reach the $2000 price tag things like a catalytic converter are more expendable), and lacks amenities like power steering and airbags and wheels larger than "dinner plates." We weren't chomping at the bit to grab one but were further deterred when one of our staff made the following comparison to another cutesily-named car, the Cozy Coupe II:



Uncanny.

Give 'em 3!

It's warm(er)! Which means that a lot more folks are going to grab their bikes and hit the trails, and the roads.

We know that HOURCAR members are, on the whole, walkers and bikers, so I'm sure that people are good about yielding right of way at crosswalks, marked and unmarked, but did you know that there are also legal requirements for passing bicycles?

Yup, according to Minnesota state law, three feet is necessary:

(3) the operator of a motor vehicle overtaking a bicycle or individual proceeding in the same direction on the roadway shall leave a safe distance, but in no case less than three feet clearance, when passing the bicycle or individual and shall maintain clearance until safely past the overtaken bicycle or individual.

That's not to say that there isn't a whole bit of statute regarding the operation of a bicycle, most of which is common sense (staying to the right, using lights at night). Only a bit is arcane, like not attaching yourself to a streetcar (ha, like we have those anymore). And cyclists do have to obey traffic laws, including stop signs (even if this is honored in the breach by some), although there's no law against passing four light-cycles of traffic on Lyndale at rush hour, and no law against chuckling when you bike over I-94 when it is a parking lot in both directions. There is some talk in the house last session about letting cyclists run lights and stop signs (when safe), but it doesn't seem to have gone anywhere.

So oil your chain, adjust your brake lines (or in my case replace your cogs, chain and casette) and get ready to ride, and if you're driving, especially in an HOURCAR, make sure to give bicyclists three feet of room. We appreciate it.

Some safe cycling links:

* State statute
* Info from MNDot
* Info from the Twin Cities Bicycling Club

Keep an ear out

It's getting to be that time of year again. The sun is out later, the snow is melting (at least it is melting more quickly) and when you go out for more than five minutes you can still feel your fingers and toes. Soon, more and more of us will hit the streets, on bikes without studded tires and shoes which stay dry for more than a block.

It's great to see spring springing, and I more than anyone am excited about biking in to HOURCAR HQ every day, but it's time to remember that not only are we more likely to be distracted when driving by a phone or an iPod (phones in the car are legal, headphones are not, for what it's worth), but that it applies to walking too.

NPR had a piece a couple weeks ago about this. It turns out that we use more than one of our senses when walking or cycling. Having earbuds in blocks out a lot of other sound, like the bus approaching or the light rail train coming down the tracks or the hybrid HOURCAR coasting to a stop for a pedestrian (I'll assume). So go out, and enjoy the fresh air, and bring your music. It's probably fine if you are walking around Isles, but think twice about blasting your tunes if you are crossing a lot of busy streets.

(Am I a hypocrite? Well, yes, a couple days back I listened to my iPod walking from the 63 bus up to our office. There was only one main street, but I'll think twice going forward.)