Gasoline

In the Riot for Austerity/90% reduction list "rules", there are 7 categories; Gasoline, Electricity, Heating and Cooking Energy, Garbage, Water, Consumer Goods, and Food. My (our) goal is to make as much of a reduction in all 7 areas as possible. So the plan here is to, at least for now, list what steps we are taking and what our goals are for each category. For the sake of my sanity and the sanity of anyone who actually reads this, I'm going to break this up by category, get a baseline down for where we are now and where we'd like to be and then go from there with regular updates.

Today, Gasoline.

Obviously, the major source of gasoline use for us is the car. While technically we (read: Katie) own 3 cars, only one is currently being driven. The other two are kind of hanging around and are technically/legally undrivable (long story), though this will change as soon as tomorrow. The car that is staying is a 2000 Chevy Malibu, purchased used a few months ago. According to this site http://www.terrapass.com/, the Malibu puts out about .75 lbs of CO2/mi, slightly lower than average (1.09 lbs/gallon), but still, yuck, though better than some. Syracuse is not the most pedestrian/non-driver friendly city, so we do a lot of driving. How much? Well, I briefly considered driving around as normal for a week or two and then figuring it out from there, but we both decided to just jump in and start trying to cut back. More on that in a bit. Driving that we were doing on a regular basis was the approximatly 3 mi commute to and from Katie's office 5 days a week, shopping trips to and from the farmer's market and and grocery/pet supply places, plus the occasional (once per month or so) to Rochester to see my family or to visit Katie's family. There was also the semi-regular short trips to my "off-site" clients, though we were able to combine those with other necessary trips about 90% of the time. All in all, we estimated anywhere between 7200 and 10,000 mi per year, bringing the carbon emissions of the car alone to 5400-7500 lbs. Granted that's our household figure, but throw in the added weight of local bus trips, the occassional Greyhound, the occasional ride in Katie's father's Chevy Avalanche, Katie's bus/train rides down to NYC for follow-up Dr.s appointments, the very occasional drive to Boston, and my plane ride to Boston from Detroit (not to metion the drive to Detroit from Rochester) and those pounds really add up. I'm going to say, pretty much pulling this out of my butt here, but lets say 12000 mi per year, since thats the national average. So in order to comply with the 90% rule, we would need to bring that figure down to 1200 mi/year. According to the 90% rules, average usage in gallons per person is 500 gal/year, so we have to get down to 50/person or 100 gal for the household. Eek.

So what are we doing? First, we are tracking miles/month and gallons of gas/month on a handy-dandy notebook in the car. We missed the first few days of July, so the figures won't mean much until the end of August, but time to get in the habit. Every month, the numbers go into another, higher-tech handy-dandy spreadsheet on the computer. This will include any miles on trains, planes, buses, etc. (though I'm not sure what etc would be...scooters? motorcycles?). The figures I have come up with for non-car transportation methods, after about 2 hours of google searching and some kilometer to mile translation, are as follows;

• buses: .41 lbs/mi
• trains: .24 lbs/mi
• planes: .64 lbs/mi
• SUV/trucks: 1.47 lbs/mi

The next step is the drive as little as possible. Easier said than done around here, but we're making good progress so far. We got my bike fixed (new tires/tubes, a tune-up), Katie got her mother's bike from their house. And we are using them. Instead of driving the 6+ miles roundtrip to one of my regular client's homes, I rode there almost every trip last week (3 trips a day). Plus, as there are two grocery stores on the way, we got some shopping out of the way as well. Katie commuted by bike to work several days last week and will continue to do so. We also bked to the grocery store for a big chunk of our dry/bulk purchases this week, though we are going to have to drive out to the larger Wegmans to get the rest since the one closest to us doesn't have everything we need. As we both get in better shape and get more used to riding in traffic, we will be going farther and more often by bike. I am trying to get a luggage rack fro the back of my bike, though I'm trying not to buy it new, which is proving difficult. But when I get it, we will be able to make bigger shopping trips via bike, like regional market runs, without having to worry about squashed produce from being in the backpack. Winter may be interesting, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

When we do have to drive, we are combining trips as much as possible and going the most time/gas efficient routes as we can. Plus, better driving practices make a difference. No sudden accelerations, staying at a consistent speed, avoiding stop and go traffic as much as possible, avoiding a/c use as much as possible, checking tire pressure, etc. All these little things add up to better gas mileage.

For non-car transportation and longer non-local car trips, we are weighing our options carefully. Do we need to go to Rochester/New Berlin/Boston/wherever? Can we go another time and combine purposes (ie, go on a weekend where more people will be around, more family event are happening, etc)? If we need to make a trip, what is the best way to get there? I am planning a trip down to Boston next month, because I need to see my mom (yeah, I'm 25, but I need my mommy) and my dog on a semi-regular basis. Driving is not an option, as I don't have a license and Katie needs the car for emergencies anyway. So, do I a)take a bus, which is more reliable in its schedules or b) take a train, which has a smaller carbon footprint, but takes longer and is never on time and has a much less convienent schedule? Still debating that one. Katie is currently in NYC for a follow-up with her surgeon, but she took the train down and is riding back with her father, who would have been driving back anyway, so it is a combined trip. We have at least one more big car trip this month (we already went up to Rochester once for my cousin's baby's 1st birthday) and that is a trip to our cat vet outside Ithaca, but that also is non-negotiable, as we have special vet needs for our cats that only he can supply. But August should be a more average month, especially if we keep up with the biking.

Goals for the next 3 months:

• To stay under 70 gallons per month, including non-car driving/riding (not including biking, obviously)
• to bike as much as possible for work and shopping trips
• to track gas/mileage