Green Technology 112 years in the making so far

The first fleet of commercial electric vehicles was built for the New York City taxi company in 1897.

On a recent trip to Whistler, I had a chance to pick up the August 26th edition of the Pique newsmagazine, which encompassed an article by a man named Andrew Mitchell about electric cars.

I found it interesting to read that you can get a kit to transform your gas guzzler into an electric vehicle for about eight thousand dollars, ($8,000) from Canadian Electric Vehicles Ltd.

The article also said that you can get the details of one man’s rebuilt online. That man used eleven twelve (11-12) volt led acid batteries, each weighing around twenty five (25) Kg. or about fifty six (56) pounds. With these batteries the Firefly had a range of about thirty five (35) kilometers on one charge.

Later in the same article, I was surprised to read that U.B.C. students have fitted a classic Volkswagen Beetle with Lithium batteries that they claim ran the vehicle for five hundred (500) kilometers between charges! I am looking forward to seeing how it does on its cross country trip, which they started on Aug. 21 and which you can of course, follow online. The vehicle however can only get up to ninety five (95) kilometers a hr. easily and “its” still very much a work in progress.

Written by Bill Taylor’s daughter Tanya Gervais

TED Talks

I'm sure you all check out TED anyway, but I wanted to highlight the talk by Lisa Margonelli on the political chemistry of oil. I'll let the video speak for itself, but I found her comments on how we react to disasters like the BP Gulf of Mexico and Exxon Valdez oil spills insightful.

As human, we are great with dealing with the symptoms of problems and not their roots. With oil spills we are quick to impose moratoriums on drilling, but we don't actually deal with the root of the issue which is the need to reduce our oil use. Margonelli has a chart in the video that shows how moratoriums in North America have basically outsourced oil spills to other countries.

Another insight that Margonelli has is that oil spills really bring home the fact that we are big part of the oil problem, but most of us feel hopeless to affect change. She suggested that instead of knee-jerk moratoriums, governments change laws and really work on providing people alternative transportation options and work on reducing oil use. One of the example that she used for the US was to introduce a carbon tax much like we have in BC, but call it something like "Tax for a Stronger America" with a warning about the effects of oil usages on your gas receipt. Another interest idea was to use distance based insurance to incentivize shorter commuting. Anyway, it's a great video and you should check it out.

News Update

Let's start our news journey off today with the Hamilton Spectator which has a story titled, "Light rail beats buses hands down: planners."

Urban planners and economists say buses can't compete with trains when it comes to economic renewal.

Laying down a rail track is proof a city is progressive and takes growth seriously. Advocates say more people with a choice about how to travel will get on trains.

He says Ottawa's Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system has been a great success from a transit perspective, but it hasn't led to economic development.

The City of Hamilton has been pushing for light rail instead of bus rapid transit in their community.

In Ottawa, the city has received environmental assessment approval on their plan to transform the community from bus central to light rail central. According to the Ottawa Citizen:

It’s full steam ahead for Ottawa’s LRT, says Mayor Larry O’Brien, following the McGuinty government’s acceptance of the environmental assessment on the multi-billlion dollar transit project.

“Environmental assessment approval is a major milestone for this critical project,” Mayor Larry O’Brien said Tuesday.

Finally News 1130 has a story on TransLink's seven new rail cars for the West Coast Express:

The unveiling has some people south of the Fraser feeling a little left out. South Fraser On Trax is a non-partisan group of locals who really want light rail transit for the south Fraser area.

Nathan Pachall works with the group and says "I think everyone here is just eagerly waiting. I think the hardest thing of course is that Translink is broke, so until that gets sorted out we know there is going be spending for half the transit improvements out in the south Fraser."

Have a great weekend!

High Street - Abbotsford

A new development has been announced on the north side of the Mt. Lehman Interchange in Abbotsford. The development, ironically called High Street, is a new lifestyle power centre complete with Wal-Mart. Before we get into what's wrong with the development, I want to start with what's good about it.

What is really great about this development is that the parking is not the primary feature of it. The site's coverage is mostly retail buildings on the top floor with the parking on the ground level. More and more people are looking for the "Main Street" feeling and that feeling is what this development is trying to provide. The unfortunate thing about this development is that the parking is on the ground level, so the retail part of this development is not integrated into the surrounding community. A pedestrian on the street is going to see a big parking lot. If the parking was sub-surface, this development would be a great example of how to build urban power centres.

The other major issue with this development is that it is 100% relying on the freeway for traffic and therefore breaks the golden rule of designing for the pedestrian, cyclist, and transit. This is not the developers fault as the area surrounding the power centre is full of single-family houses. If nothing else happens in this area, we will have the perfect example of 1960's single use and segregated zoning.

What I find odd about this whole areas is that the Abbotsford's Mount Lehman Interchange Area plan goals for the section High Street is in are to "ensure a high-quality gateway development and a pedestrian-friendly urban environment by discouraging large surface parking areas and low-density developments throughout the Sub-Area [and to] Support mixed use Residential above Commercial development in the western parts of the Sub-Area."

 High Street is in Section C

I am unsure how the City plans to meet these goals with this development.