Ask a Brokeass: We get around

On eco-friendly transport for the not-so-rich

Posted by Kate Sheppard at 4:13 PM on 16 Feb 2007

Dear Brokeass,

What I'm having the worst issue with is that most of the stuff we do has such a small impact. Recycle, reuse, on and on. I know the biggest place to make an impact is transportation, but the vehicle cost has me down. I'd love a hybrid car, but when you're strapped for cash and you need transportation to get to work/school, used hybrids in the $2,000 range just do not exist.

My small town public transit is a travishamockery [Brokeass note: I think this means "travesty/sham/mockery"] that we cannot utilize for one reason or another any way we look at it.

Aside from squirreling away funds for a car loan for $31,000, what else can you suggest? I already ride my bike in the summer season, but in Wisconsin (this winter being the exception), it gets too cold and icy for that option. Is there some company somewhere giving them away cheap that I'm unaware of? Or should I just take comfort knowing my 17-year-old Volvo gets better mileage than my neighbor's 4-year-old SUV?

Rex Schultrich

Dear Rex,

Wisconsin, eh? What I know about Wisconsin is ... cows. Could you ride one? Oh, wait, no. You'd have to put a catalytic converter on her. I guess methane isn't all that great, either. Oh, and they're slow. So, short of riding cows, what's a brokeass to do?

In the interest of being fair, I'll let you in on my biggest environmental secret. I spent four years driving an ancient Jeep Cherokee that I bought from some guy down the street for really cheap. I was nearing the 200,000-mile mark when I began to be haunted by the smell of gasoline fumes. I thought it was my conscience speaking to me, a kind of tell-tale heart pulsing beneath my proverbial floorboards. But then friends confirmed that the fumes were in fact real, and that my beater was slowly oozing gas out of its tank. My plan had been to drive the Cherokee (his name was Yoda) until I could afford a hybrid, maybe after I graduated from college and started making money. And now that I have realized the former but not the latter, the hybrid remains but a magical dream, and instead I put Yoda up for sale and moved to a city with public transit.

I wish I could say that public transit is the solution to all our woes, but in most parts of the U.S., it simply doesn't cut it. When and where you can, ride the bus (since in theory supporting public transit will improve it), carpool, bike, or walk. But when those options simply don't seem possible, there are some other ideas out there.

What about car-sharing? A leading option is Flexcar, though the closest one to Wisconsin is in Chicago. But Flexcar can cost you as low as $8 an hour, and if you join this month, they're offering a special one-year membership fee waiver. There are other business-y and grassroots car-sharing programs out there, and a quick web search yields a program called Community Car right there in Wisconsin -- though since I don't know what town you call home, I can't tell if it's anywhere near you.

Sharing your personal car (or other people's cars) is another good way to cut back on environmental impacts and costs. Programs like Ridester, eRideShare, and RideshareOnline are several options, and I've also tried Craigslist's rideshare, and I haven't been kidnapped or maimed so far. If strangers freak you out, try starting up your own carpool network with people you already know, or even find some friends who are willing to share a car.

You could also consider buying a diesel car and running it on biodiesel. Older diesel autos probably have a better chance of falling in your price range, and though biofuels have their own problems, it's a great option as we figure out how to go oil-free. Pretty much any old diesel engine can run on biodiesel, or can be souped up to run on straight veggie oil, but you can see lists of cars here and here.

Or what about a flex-fuel car? Since 1998 or so, some vehicle manufacturers have been creating cars that can run on E85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. Something like 4 million cars on the road in the United States right now are compatible with E85, and more automakers are making new flex-fuel vehicles every year. There's a decent chance that with some searching, you could find a used flex-fuel vehicle. You can even use flex-fuel to beef up the environmental stature of any gasoline-powered car, since most can run on 10-percent-ethanol/90-percent-gasoline blends. Right next door to the Badger State, Minnesota has even signed a law requiring that all gasoline sold there is of that balance.

And though owning a hybrid seems out of the reach of most of us, the good news is that Toyota at least is planning to offer some low- to no-interest financing options on the Prius. Another bit of sunshine: Despite the overwhelming upfront costs, hybrids are probably cheaper in the long run.

In the meantime, the best policy if you're broke and absolutely need a car is to get the most fuel-efficient vehicle you can on your budget, keep it well-maintained, and use it as little as possible. And if you have to use it, share. Everyone likes people who share.

Concerned about the environment but don't have the economic means to buy your way to carbon neutrality? Need some ideas on how to be savvy about the earth and your dollar? Direct your questions, comments, and ideas to . And remember, as the old saying goes, it's better to be broke than to further the break-up of the Arctic ice shelf.

For story: Ask a Brokeass: We get around
23 Comments | Post a Comment

winter biking

it's not crazy: http://icebike.org/ . ok maybe it is, but in a good way. check out http://todd.cleverchimp.com/blog/?p=89 for a wisconsin example. disclosure: i make the assist.

by tfahrner at 4:48 PM on 16 Feb 2007

Cars for $2,000?

That's easy. Late model Hondas and Toyotas are cheap, reliable, and fuel-efficient. Throw some snow tires on there and you'll be good in all but the worst of weather.

by Icelander at 5:56 PM on 16 Feb 2007

A waste of mental energy

>> most of the stuff we do has such a small impact. Recycle, reuse, on and on. >>

This is what Big Oil wants you to do, become a guilt ridden consumer... spread the blame away from Big Oil

>>Over 700 million gallons of oil is estimated to be released into the environment per year.>>
http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/peril_oil_ ...

Note the word peril-oil-pollution
and this satellite estimated amount is thick oil, slick oil.... there is many magnitudes more oil existing on the oceans as a ubiquitous resident invisable micro layer of several molecules thick.

It is also known that an oil membrane reduces water evaporation... basic to the formation of clouds, rain, sun shields etc.

It is all on the public record so why the diversion to puny greenhouse gases?

The world knows but no one is talking, WHY ?
Because we can not do anything about it.

You can not do anything of use re Global Climate Change... except by not adding to the oil pollution on the oceans.

This oil pollution, the micro layer of oil on the oceans, is caused by Big Oil, it is Big Oil's responsibility... but hey you don't want to know that do you!

Go on, play out your guilt role, if it makes you feel better, ...it will absolve you so you won't be interested in the truth.

But you could GET MAD and scream.... and direct your anger and sense of betrayal to the cause of the Earth's woes, Big Oil.
(PS Gore et al are all greasy)

see http://omegafour.com/forum/

by Zarkov at 6:30 PM on 16 Feb 2007

cheap hybrids

Well, no new car is going to be cheap, but my 2001 Prius--purchased about a year ago from a retired auto mechanic who wanted an '06--only cost about half what the new ones were going for at the time.

It's not the perfect answer, but "be willing to drive a used car" is part of the answer to not being rich but needing a car. Especially given Toyota's reputation for durability.

by willa at 6:46 PM on 16 Feb 2007

Yoda!, where are you now?!

You might be in one of those monster dumpster locomotives on Tattooine by now!

Help us, Obee-Wan-Kenobee, you are our only hope!

Back when I was driving to work, for no very good purpose, I am afraid, I drove a Honda Civic. And it was much more reliable than I ever was. By some miracle -- or rather, by a repeated series of miracles, on countless occasions -- , the car and I escaped physical injury. (The mental injuries which are as it were burned into my brain are another matter. You try the Cross Bronx and the Major Deegan at rush hour!)

We sold it, and got a fair re-sale value. We were not trading, just selling; we have not bought another vehicle since then. Hopefully an environmentalist is using our good ol' Honda Civic (to which I never gave a name) well at this point. From the way I left it, there is no reason why it could not at once leap back into service.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 1:27 AM on 17 Feb 2007

Wimp!

When I lived in Wisconsin I saw people riding bikes through ice and snow all winter.

I know another guy who strapped on cross country skis and crossed the frozen lake to work every day. I bet you could get a pair for under $2000.

I was fortunate to be able to take a bus to work, but I do have stories to tell my grandkids of tramping through 12 inches of snow on my way to the bus stop.

You can get heated gloves now, though you need a battery to heat them.

by KathyF at 4:00 AM on 17 Feb 2007

Rex: better stay away from the flex-fuel vehicles

I'm rather surprised to be reading advice from Grist, of all places, recommending the purchase of a flex-fuel vehicle -- i.e., a vehicle capable of running on gasoline blends containing up to 85% ethanol.

If you buy a new one, you would be contributing to the "dual-fuel loophole" that enables automobile manufacturers to evade fines for not meeting their corporate average fuel-economy (CAFE) standards. And if you buy a used one, chances are it's a gas guzzler.

Most of the FFVs produced so far have been SUVs and muscle pick-up trucks. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 3/4 of the 744,000 FFVs "made available" (i.e., sold) in 2005 (the latest year for which such figures are available) were gas-guzzling light trucks, SUVs, or "medium-duty vehicles". That has been the pattern since they were first introduced in the 1990s, and remains true today.

Say you would manage to find E85 and keep your vehicle tanked up all year 'round on the fuel. Would you be happy knowing that you could be costing the federal government $500 a year in lost taxes to subsidize the ethanol that went into your E85, not to mention state-level subsidies for that same ethanol, and yet further subsidies from various levels of government to install the pumps that dispense it?

Yes, I can hear Brokeass saying, "But he would be using a cleaner fuel!" Nope, not much, if at all, especially on a life-cycle basis (and especially if the plant at which it was made used coal).

Meanwhile, all that corn grown to produce the ethanol would be requiring fertilizers and pesticides, and the facilities to ferment and distill it lots of energy.

Better try one of Brokeass's other suggestions first.

These are only my personal opinions.

by Ron Steenblik at 7:02 AM on 17 Feb 2007

Yikes

Kate has not kept current on many of our long debates here on the blog? They are hard to understand and most likely boring to the non-technically oriented I guess.

It says a lot about out ability to convince the public though. Right around nill. Hehehey.

For the Volvo owner, keep your Volvo, rideshare to work, shop once a week, ride your bike when you can (with modern insulated underwear and studded bike tires you can ride all winter, except when it's below zero, an increasingly infrequent occurence).

Save up 7000 dollars for an electric conversion kit for your Volvo and then buy a backup generator too. If you are a do-it-yourselfer or know one you can exploit.

You'll eventually have a serial plugin hybrid!

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

by amazingdrx at 7:39 AM on 17 Feb 2007

Good Old Toyotas

For about the past 17 years, I've owned Toyotas.
Each of them gets (got) in the range of 28 - 32 miles a gallon. My first one got "retired" when parked and it was hit by a drunk driver - totalled the car (I'd just gotten out less than a minute earlier. It had 187,000 miles on it.
My next one is sitting in my driveway, waiting for its next owner (280,000 miles on it, VERY little maintenance - NEVER stranded me anywhere!) It's a Celica needing a little body work - I expect to sell it for about $1000. My current one is another Celica (yr-2000) which currently has 140,000 mi bought used.

I live in Lacey, WA, and it's incredibly hard for me to get 12 miles away to Olympia and back by bus without spending about 2 hours doing so. It's almost impossible to get a taxi out here, also. I have a bum foot, so walking and biking are out of the question right now. The state of reliable pubic transportation in this "Evergreen" state is abysmal.

by Nottslanding at 7:58 AM on 17 Feb 2007

Thurston County compromises

Nottslanding: I also live in Thurston County and am pretty disappointed with the mass transit. Thanks to Tim Eyeman we no longer get bus service in the part of the county that I could afford to buy a house.

I've been driving used Toyotas and Hondas. My current ride, a 1991 Civic, gets up to 37 mpg around town. That's not too bad compared with many of the new gas-powered "economy" cars. I bought the Civic two years ago for $2,200 with 100,000 miles, so could plausibly drive this for quite some time.

In an ideal world I'd prefer to drive a hybrid, but I'd rather save up the money and try to find a house in town. Basic choice: Do you pay up front in higher mortgage costs, or spread the cost over years with higher transportation costs?

From an ecological standpoint the answer is obvious, but life has a way of being more complex than that.

by Steven T at 8:27 AM on 17 Feb 2007

Notts

I like Toyota's too. I'm driving my 86 Corrola (free because it had bad brakes and a gas leak)now, as the 92 Honda Accord station wagon I just bought (for $750)has a gas line leak.

Learn to fix gas lines with rubber gas hose and hose clamps and fix brakes and the world of cheap motoring opens up before you.

The gas leaks would cost at least 500 bucks for a repair shop to fix. It costs me around 20 bucks. A brake job? Even more costly!

That electric conversion is the really hot setup though. Get a nice late model used Honda or Toyota with a bad engine for a 1000 bucks then recycle the engine and install the conversion. No more gas leaks to fix either.

Along with a nice diesel generator that you can run on biodiesel you make yourself from used cooking oil. Now that's happy, cheap motoring.

The electric motor and batteries will run fine long after the car rusts out. So obtain another cheap used car, transplant the conversion parts and generator into it. That way your 7000 dollar investment keeps on saving 1000s of dollars worth of gas for decades.

And you can buy regular diesel when you go on long trips where your supply of biodiesel runs out.

When you get pulled over for driving too slow (yes, it happened to me!) tell the cop a deer, dog, or armadillo darted out in front of you.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

by amazingdrx at 8:32 AM on 17 Feb 2007

DRx makes another good point

It says a lot about out ability to convince the public though. Right around nill. Hehehey.

How do you counter a massive flex fuel marketing campaign? 99% of our politicians support this debacle. Oh well, at least people are thinking about the issues for once.

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

by biodiversivist at 9:02 AM on 17 Feb 2007

bicycling and public transit

You can also go to bikewinter.org for advice and inspiration on winter biking in the Chicago area.

People like to blame their local governments for lack of public transportation, particularly in rural and suburban areas, but the real reason for lack in these areas probably has much more to do with land use patterns than government willingness to provide transit services. There is a certain density necessary for good public transit: for bus service every 30 minutes to be feasible, a density of at least 6 units per acre is needed. When you choose to live somewhere, you are also choosing what kind of transportation will be feasible for you. If you want good public transportation, pick a place to live that's dense enough to support that service.

The first question to resolve should be regarding where you live, not what you drive. If you choose to live in a low density suburban or rural area, do it with the understanding that you are limiting your transportation options.

by jnelblack at 6:42 PM on 17 Feb 2007

brokeass, hybrid wannabe

Dear rex,
for many years (15 adult years) I walked, biked and used public transport. Now with the kids semi-grown (but not yet in college) and both husband & myself with decent jobs we have landed into the hybrid class. Our previous car was the cheapest available saturn (standard)and it got 35-40 mpg. We now have a toyoto prius. during the summer we averaged 49-50mpg. not too bad -except that I recall there were cars with 70mpg ability ready to hit the market any time in my student days(this was early 70s)- we're still waiting. Now it's winter, with 0-20 degrees weather and guess what - that wonderful prius is only getting 35mpg. So if where you're at it's coldand mileage is what you're after the hybrid isn't all that it is cracked up to be. Just buy what you can afford, use a bike or feet as much as possible and conserve where ever possible. (if everybody were to buy their food locally & organically it would reduce the nation's fuel needs by 20%!) Oh and another thing - just remember the ripple effect. Even a butterfly's wings could be catalyst to the start of a tremendous storm. Change always starts with us. If we change ourselves and remain true to our principles who knows what great person will be inspired by our example. Bt you know that I'm sure! Peace & Joy.

by Eveline at 10:16 PM on 17 Feb 2007

Winter biking, $$$

Rex,

I'm guessing you live in Point or LaCrosse or somewhere like that? Anyway, in a town that has public transportation, if you want to use it, you arrange your life around it. I used to live in Madison (sans car), and that's what I did.

Now I live in rural MN (pop. < 10k), and I bike. Even through this past month or so, when we had about a week when the high temps were a single, negative, digit. I bundle up and live close to work. I have a tank of a bike (she has a rack and two baskets), so I can haul all kinds of things.

Bottom lines: If you ditch the car, you arrange your life so that you can do without. Cars cost several thousand bucks to maintain per year.

by mihan at 8:30 AM on 18 Feb 2007

Doh

Guess we all forgot bio-d's electric hybrid bike. It would do great in winter with studded tires.

And it has plenty of cargo space for shopping. It is also much cheaper than a hybrid car and saves a LOT more energy.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

by amazingdrx at 8:54 AM on 18 Feb 2007

Hybrid cars and bikes

Well, I am lucky enough to drive a Toyota Prius (hybrid). It certainly wasn't cheap but compares with a good family saloon.

One thing to consider with the Mark one Prius is no-one knows how long the battery will last, and when it goes - gaasp! Also, I used to drive a Volvo and a lot of the energy of car ownership is in the construction and destruction. A Volvo is built to last twenty years against ten for most cars, so a used Volvo (recycling) converted to LPG or running on biodisel might be a good choice for the environmentally-conscious.

My name's Clive and this is my first posting to this site. Thanks.

http://ecoxiety.blogspot.com - the lighter side of environmental disaster

by ecoxiety at 11:01 AM on 18 Feb 2007
[ Parent ]

Ditto on Volvos

They are definitely built to last. And are good for cold-weather climates.

These are only my personal opinions.

by Ron Steenblik at 11:11 AM on 18 Feb 2007
[ Parent ]

Conserve your own personal energy

We all have a "foot print". But how many depends on how far you travel, metaphorically speaking. So conserve your own energy and get going on finding more solutions.

It's the needle of the compass that requires so little energy to use but the mountains you navigate that cost so much time.

I leave you with another question, since that seems to be the best way to communicate something:

Where are we going? And how long will it take us?

Child of activists. Environmentalist turned economist, now passive revolutionary communalist. Always looking for a good conversation and a skinny dip.

by Hal at 9:09 PM on 18 Feb 2007

Hybrid's a hype!

Well, that's really overstating it, but I am struck by the wisdom of many who commented on this post. Example:

"Late model Hondas and Toyotas are cheap, reliable, and fuel-efficient. Throw some snow tires on there and you'll be good in all but the worst of weather."

Others made similar comments, I noticed. My feeling is - it is so typically American to spend a huge amount of money on a brand-new hybrid to supposedly help solve the problem of emissions and wasted energy, when you could buy a used Honda or Toyota that gets great mileage and conserve fuel that way. Buying used means all the energy that's expended in creating a new car is saved, too.

by Janis Mara at 10:32 AM on 19 Feb 2007

Remember pollution

Cars contribute up to 25% to some types of air pollution (benzene, for example). Short trips are the worst, due to starting, stopping, traffic, and pedestrians who insist on doing the crossword in the middle of the intersections. Perhaps you could get involved in trying to better public transportation by conducting surveys, researching funding, etc. Nothing works better than a little muscle and a tight fist. Oh, and try delivering cookies to the transportation office.. Betty Crocker was an activist at heart, I'm sure.

by Caroline D at 7:06 PM on 19 Feb 2007

Carfree tips

The Carfree Ann Arbor blog includes lots of good tips on getting around in small wintry midwestern cities without a car. For winter biking, try the DIY fenders, studded tires, and heated mittens.

by Murph at 8:41 AM on 21 Feb 2007

Volvos

Well they last until they suddenly start costing for parts. Some people seem to run them for ever. But I feel a lot more self-righteous now I drive a Prius!! There are a lot of Volvos where I live in London. The old tanks!

http://ecoxiety.blogspot.com - the lighter side of environmental disaster

by ecoxiety at 1:14 PM on 22 Feb 2007
[ Parent ]

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