SM overview 1

This involves building our community to get people’s needs met while traveling as little as possible. This means living closer to where you work, shop and play. It means bringing the shopping, the work places and the recreation within distance of our homes. This concept is captured in the phrase “access through proximity”.

Creating access through proximity within a community is a process that is referred to as re-localization.

Overview of the Main Parts of the Sustainable Transport Puzzle

Reducing the Need for Travel
Bio Fuels

Electric Cars

Human Powered Transport (bicycles, pedestrians etc.)
Click on the following words to go to the general discussion of the following items.

Neighborhood Transport Vehicles
Mass Transit

These are fuels that can run your existing vehicles using biological resources. Biodiesel is working real well right now and it comes from natural oil. The vegetable oil is either from waste cooking oil, non food grade oils from crops or is a by product of crops grown for specific purposes such livestock feed.

Ethanol is another Biofuel that is being used to extend our gasoline supply as an additive that helps clean up engine emissions. It has the potential to be 85% of the fuel in a vehicle once the right source of the fuel has been developed.

It is possible to produce both methane and hydrogen gasses from biological sources. This is starting to happen in agricultural communities as that technology is being developed. These gasses can be used to run vehicles and that is under development as well. Right now the gasses being used are natural gas and hydrogen, both of which come from non-renewable sources. The work on these gasses will pave the way for better biogas use in the future.

Battery electric cars are a reality today and the technology is here to make them a fully viable alternative. These cars can operate effectively on all roads including the freeways. They have no tail pipe to spew out poisonous and green house gasses. They do not require any foreign oil to operate. They get the mileage equivalent to 135 miles per gallon. The batteries are up to 90% recyclable.

Once we get our electrical power generation cleaned up and using renewable energy sources then these are the cleanest possible high speed sustainable transportation known. Even with our existing electrical generation these vehicles are two to three times cleaner than gasoline vehicles.

People who drive them love them. People who do not drive them do not understand them and would benefit from changing their thinking. Managing the fuel on a battery electric is much like managing the charge on your cell phone. You leave home every morning with a full charge that is enough to get you through your day and you are good to go.

It is possible to use the following vehicles as a means of transport. This becomes increasingly useful when combined with mass transit.

Bicycles Skates Skate boards

Bicycles are probably the most powerful form of totally sustainable transport ever. They can be used as serious commuting vehicles over distances as far as from Silverlake to Westwood. They get virtually unlimited miles per gallon with the lowest possible environmental impact. In point of fact part of their impact is to keep the riders in top physical condition.

There are safety issues tied to bicycles. The worst safety issue is rider ignorance of safe riding practices. The second biggest issue is the behavior of automobile drivers toward bicyclist. Experienced bicyclist will tell you that the perceived danger is much less than the actual danger. The reality is that the road system is designed to accommodate the automobile and trucks. Redesigning the roads to accommodate bicycles as well would make them a safer a healthier mode of transport than the car, not to mention a far cleaner and more sustainable one.

Skates and skateboards do not have as much potential as the bicycle but have a place in the mix. They can be a good way to get to school, to soccer practice and to the bus and back. Fitting these in with walking, mobility scooters and faster methods of riding is a challenge.

Bicycles are a great way to beat the congestion problem.

We welcome input on each of these subject areas.
We are accumulating details that apply to developing these elements in Santa Monica.

Click on this link to see the specifics we have accumulated to this point.