This Saturday, 22 September 2007, is not only the Spring Equinox (down here anyway) it is World Carfree Day! From the World Carfree Network information page:
Every September 22, people from around the world get together in the streets, intersections, and neighbourhood blocks to remind the world that we don’t have to accept our car-dominated society.
2007 should be no different.
But we do not want just one day of celebration and then a return to “normal” life. When people get out of their cars, they should stay out of their cars. It is up to us, it is up to our cities, and our governments to help create permanent change to benefit pedestrians, cyclists, and other people who do not drive cars.
Let World Carfree Day be a showcase for just how our cities might look like, feel like, and sound like without cars…365 days a year.
As the climate heats up, World Carfree Day is the perfect time to take the heat off the planet, and put it on city planners and politicians to give priority to cycling, walking and public transport, instead of to the automobile.
I only found this out today from a poster on the train as I was coming home this afternoon. I bet it’s old news to everyone else! It’s going to be tricky because I’d planned to do a lot on Saturday, but I think I can manage it.
If you’re in Wellington on Saturday Metlink will have these special offers available:
Bus and harbour ferry - child travels free
A child travels free on Saturday 22 September on the following services when accompanied by a fare paying adult: Go Wellington (formerly Stagecoach Wellington), Cityline Hutt Valley, Mana Coach Services, Newlands Coach Service and the East by West harbour ferry.
Train - two extra people can travel on a Group Rover ticket for the day
On Saturday 22 September up to six people can travel on a Tranz Metro $20 Group Rover ticket instead of four people, so an extra two people can travel for free for one day. A Goup Rover ticket allows travel anywhere between Paraparaumu, Upper Hutt, Johnsonville and Wellington.
BTW don’t miss Live Earth this weekend. It did lift my heart a little to see the saturation advertising on C4 this evening - both for the event itself and for lots of little carbon reducing actions like switching off the lights and recycling your paper.
On the other hand, I haven’t seen a single one of these little ads exhorting people to stop driving so bloody much!
I actually have some numbers already. Not too sure about them, but they’re a start.
Using the Energywise fuel economy guide and the numbers I gave Nikki (see the comments on the First Things First post), I worked out that my car’s fuel economy is a staggeringly awful 17.1 litres per 100 km.
I really hope I’ve stuffed up my estimates of both how much petrol I put in it and how far I drive it because using that fuel economy number to calculate how much petrol we used last year gives a really high number of litres used last year.
Remember the rule:
Average American usage is 1892.705892 (let’s say we round up to 1900) Litres PER PERSON, PER YEAR. So this would be 7600 litres for my family of four. A 90 percent reduction would be 190 litres PER PERSON, PER YEAR or a total of 760 litres of petrol for the next 52 weeks.
So where are we right now?
Using an odometer reading taken tonight and my WOF records I worked out that over the last year we drove 9249.6 km which sounds about right to cover the about town trips and two family holidays which involved a lot of driving. That doesn’t sound too bad, right?
Well when I use the figure of 17.1 litres per 100 km to figure out how much petrol was used, look what happens:
9249.6 km divided by 100 then multiplied by 17.1 gives me 15816.816 litres of petrol.
Which simply can’t be right. Not when the average American usage is 7600 litres. Please someone tell me where I stuffed it up. I must have stuffed it up. There is a reason I did a degree in Classical Studies and not Mathematics you know ;>
So now, while I’m reeling from that little revelation I guess all I can do now is start keeping a detailed driving log and try and figure out more accurately what my car’s fuel economy is.
Oh, and of course try not to use more than 14.6 litres of petrol per week for the next year!
By the way, Nikki has already posted her audit in all the categories already!
1. Gasoline.Average American usage is 500 gallons PER PERSON, PER YEAR. A 90 percent reduction would be 50 gallons PER PERSON, PER YEAR.
* No reduction in emissions for ethanol or biodiesel.
* Public transportation and Waste Veggie Oil Fuel are deemed to get 100 mpg, and should be calculated accordingly.
(Quoted from the rules for the Riot for Austerity 90% Emissions Reduction Project)
1 Gallon = 3.785411784 Litres so 500 gallons = 1892.705892 Litres.
100 mpg = 160.934 4 kilometres per 3.785411784 Litres
But what is the average New Zealand usage? How many litres do we (personally) use at the moment? Is it better or worse than the average? How many kilometres does my car get out of a litre of petrol? Why are we still averaging the same kilometres a week despite several weeks of Car-Free Tuesdays?
I’m really going to focus on this for a while. Mostly because that last point is really bugging me. Despite my personal efforts to not use the car, as far as I can tell we ‘re still driving about the same distance.
So the next step is to answer those tough questions. And if you happen to stumble across any useful stats re the average NZ petrol usage, let me know!
By the way, this is a new, local site about global warming which has a very handy page about other stuff you can do to reduce your personal emissions as well as what you can do after you’ve sorted yourself out.
I just wanted to add to my previous post that I’m impressed that Patrick Quinton (the Car Free World guy) has children! Most of the blogs I’ve read where someone is taking personal action for the environment they seem to either have no children or children who are not old enough to argue.
I have children who are old enough to argue and it’s been a pain in the bum recently. It starts as soon as I suggest an outing:
#1 son: “Can we drive to Te Papa?”
me: ” No, we’ll walk down and get the train. It’ll be fun!”
#2 son: “No walk! no walk!”
#1 son: “But my legs huuuuuuuurt”
me: “But you don’t even have to walk, I’m going to be pushing you in the pram!”
#2 son: “Car! Please mama! Caaaaaaar!”
#1 son: “I don’t like taking the train anymore.”
#2 son: “No go on train, no go on train!”
(and so on, and so on…)
I don’t know why they’ve started arguing with me because once we’re out the door they usually enjoy themselves. #1 son magically recovers the use of his legs as soon as we’re on our way and runs down the hill to the crossing by the school with his brother running after him. And #2 son usually remembers that he loves trains by the time get down to the platform.
Walking up and down the bloody Wellington hills carrying the bag containing three changes of clothing for each person, the lunches and the library books, plus wrangling the pram on and off buses and trains is enough of an achievement I feel. I think I deserve a medal for wrangling the kids as well!
dream of a car free world.
Or, you could read this blog.
I have another Car-Free Tuesday under my belt and I’m feeling pretty pleased with myself. Not only did I not use the car yesterday, but I didn’t strangle my elder son as he contrived to make every step an argument.
We did lots yesterday: library, cafe, Capital E playground, Te Papa’s base isolators, Waitangi Park, Te Papa proper, cafe, walk along waterfront and home on the train. I think we actually did too much, but we made it home without too much shouting and we seem to be ok today.
I’m also feeling pretty pleased that the Car-Free Tuesday rule is working the way I hoped. The more we walk, the more we can walk. In fact, last week was largely a car-free week! After Tuesday, Wednesday was an at-home day (also known in my family as a pyjama day), Thursday we walked to the supermarket and Friday we walked to and from Playcentre. Of course, then on Friday night we drove to get takeaways for dinner…
And the garden? Don’t ask.
No, really. Don’t.
This is my third Car-Free Tuesday. I’m trying to decide if they are a good idea.
The first Tuesday was great. I had always wondered if I had it in me to walk the children to the library in the adjacent suburb and it turns out that I do! Usually it takes 5 minutes to drive down a fairly punishing hill (also known as the Incline of Doom) and along a road which is flat by Wellington standards. Our entire excursion, including walk to and from, library visit, cafe visit and playground visit took about 6 hours. It was a struggle dragging the children and their many, many library books back up the hill at the end of the outing but I actually felt really pleased that we did it. We’d talked more, thought more and noticed more on our walk than we would have if we’d driven and as a bonus we didn’t get back home until late afternoon which was fantastic because not only did the children have less DVD time, they had an early bed time too. Hooray!
It took two days to recover from the second Tuesday. A friend came by with her little boy and we went for a bush walk and picnic which involved about the same amount of walking as the previous week but also an awful lot of stairs. Stairs which a tired two year old needed to be carried up at the end of the walk. Happily for the planet this had the flow-on effect of making Wednesday car-free aswell because I was too stuffed to leave the house.
Today the struggle of dragging two spirited and strong-willed children up the Incline of Doom after four hours of solid sand-pit time at our Playcentre almost undid me. During the battle with my children (my two year-old son who didn’t want to walk, but didn’t want to ride in the pram either and my four year-old son who swung wildly between running away from us out of sight and lying on the ground refusing to move) I started thinking about the usefulness of a self-imposed rule such as ‘Car-Free Tuesdays’. When I decided to do this I hoped it would save a couple of car trips thus reducing our carbon footprint and stretching out the petrol money a little further. Do I really need a rule though? Couldn’t I just not drive the car so often?
My thinking hasn’t got very far because I’m stuffed. I might stay home tomorrow.
