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EARTHFUTURE.COM by Guy Dauncey
It’s an August morning in 2015, and a litre of gasoline costs $15. Five years ago, on the day when the world’s geologists announced that the global oil supply had finally peaked, the price of a barrel of oil jumped from $60 to $70, and has been climbing ever since. The amount of oil available to the world will go on shrinking now until it’s all gone, while the global demand for oil is still growing. Or would be, if it didn’t cost
so much.
Our family holiday starts next week, and we’re planning a trip to Alberta to visit my cousins. “Have you booked our seats yet?” my wife calls out. The bio-ethanol coach is luxurious, with seats arranged around tables, internet hook-up, videos on demand, pop-up cultural and historical information that projects onto the windows if you want it, and camping under the stars at night after a shared campfire meal.
Even at a modest 40 mpg (7 litres/100km) for the hybrid SUV we used to have, the return trip to Calgary would have cost us $2,730, versus $1,300 for the bus for the four of us. Ten years ago, it would have cost $400 for fuel for the SUV (a regular, non-hybrid), and $500 for the bus.
When it became apparent that we couldn’t afford to run our SUV any more, we sold it for a hefty loss, and joined Vancouver’s Cooperative Auto Network instead. We’d seen their cars around town, and always been intrigued, but when you’ve got two kids and a mountain of stuff that attaches itself to family travel like cat-hair to a dark suit, the SUV always won out.
The Cooperative Auto Network has come a long way since it started in 1997. It now has 45,000 members in BC who share 1,400 vehicles, and is attracting 5,000 new members a year. Most of the cars are the small two-seaters that exploded onto the market when the price of gas took off. The best gas vehicles, such as the Volkswagen One Litre, do more than 300 mpg (less than 1 litre/100 km), so dollar for dollar, they cost the same per kilometre as a family van did 10 years ago. The price of gasoline is 15 times higher, but the cars are 15 times more efficient.
Most of the small urban run-arounds are electric, which works just fine, since there’s no problem recharging the battery. It’s neat to know that the car you’re driving is powered by the wind, tidal and microhydro energy that’s pouring into the grid every day, now that the province is fully behind these technologies.
For longer trips, we use one of the new line of hybrid fuel-electric four-seaters which run on ethanol from agricultural wastes. They average 100 mpg, or 5,000 km to the acre. With so many auto coop members, there are vehicles parked within a five to 10 minute walk of most homes in the city, and they’re almost always available, so once we got used to the idea, we took to it easily. Now that we pay for every trip by the kilometre and by the hour, however, we think before booking
a car.
As a result, we’re walking, cycling, and taking the bus far more than we used to. Since 2010, transit, SkyTrain and the SeaBus have been free, with an annual transit U-Pass being included in your city taxes, or rent. The frequency and reach of the bus system has been expanded, and all bus stops now have electronic indicators that show when the next bus is coming, as they’ve been doing in Europe for years.
The universities started it, with their U-Pass systems, which grew into complete transport clubs, providing free bus travel, bicycle parking and servicing, a guaranteed ride home in case of emergency, free airport shuttle rides, and a ride matching service, all for $20 or so a month. When the Cooperative Auto Network joined U-Pass, the vision began to unfold of a complete transport package, mixing car sharing with transit and bicycle support. One smart card gives access to everything.
So, when we leave for Calgary next week, we’ll take a hybrid bioethanol car-share vehicle to the bus station, and then enjoy a two-day bus trip through the Rockies. Then we’ll be able to enjoy the same bike/bus/car benefits with Calgary Car Share that we do in Vancouver, thanks to a Canada-wide Car Share agreement.
Travel without oil? It’s not only possible; it’s comfortable and convenient. The only slight drawback? We have to cart less stuff around with us, for which I say “Amen!”
Cooperative Auto Network: www.cooperativeauto.net
Volkswagen One Litre: www.volkswagen.co.uk/new_devs/one_litre
U-Pass: www.upass.ubc.ca
Guy Dauncey is an author and futurist who lives in Victoria.
His website is www.earthfuture.com.
He is also president of the new BC Sustainable Energy Association
www.bcsea.org Please see the website for further information.
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