Transportation Action Planning

Mon, 2007-11-12 18:33 — Sidroney

This blog will be concerned primarily about Transportation issues in all aspects of our lives. Please make blog entries under this entry to relay ideas and new things you run across. I will be assimulating this information so it becomes a resource for our community.

Please assemble your thoughts under the following guidelines:

Issues and/or Concerns.
Possible Solutions.
Benefits to the Community.

Transportation

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Sidroney
April 18th, 2008

Transportation Aspects originally posted 11/12/07

As I think about the transportation aspects of a sudden "oil emergency" it is clear to me that since the peninsula is virtually totally dependent on gas and diesel powered vehicles, mitigating those transportation problems will be very difficult. We have, for all practical purposes, very limited public transportation. The buses serve a very small clientele compared to rest of us using our personal vehicles, but are still a very small, but important resource. The practical question is: how do I get from A to B without affordable fuel for my vehicle? Personally, I live at the end of the road up Palo Alto and Marshall, and then up Tall tree Way. What are my choices for getting down to the store, assuming the store has food to sell? Ann and I have thought about this, and if we can't use a vehicle, we could: 1) ride our bicycles all the way there and back, but the road is steep, gravelly, and would be a heck of a trip. It would take a couple of hours probably, to get down to QFC and back. 2) We could buy a motorized tricycle from Roy the Tricycle Guy 460-8020 for $2000 (you've seen him around town) and get 120 mpg at 35mph, but who has $2000?, and it still takes some gas. It only seats one, so one of us stays home. 3) We could buy a used motor scooter at Port Angeles Power Equipment for around $1000, but this also seats one and takes gas. 4) We could buy an electric vehicle for $14,000...nah. 5) Form some kind of transportation cooperative with our neighbors, pooling gas money and making a large food run once a week.
The problem with all of this is that it leaves us virtually stranded up here almost all of the time. Do we sell our house and rent in Sequim? Not if the economy is taking a hit. We're screwed! Thanks for listening. Joe and Ann Raab

rshannon
April 18th, 2008

Re: Transportation Aspects originally posted 11/12/07

Although the route from our country home to town is shorter and flatter, we have similar concerns.

No doubt, we will look to early rural and frontier experience for efficient distribution models. One might be food trucks filled with common perishable foods that would make stops at rural crossroads or other convenient places on schedule -- like a lunch wagon. The community supported agriculture (CSA) programs, through which you subscribe to receive periodic bags of vegetables, etc., are a natural for this kind of extended distribution. Development of rural neighborhood community gardens is another possibility, especially in mountainous areas where arable land may be scarce. By obtaining perishables closer to home, rural residents could make do with less frequent trips to town for more specialized and/or non-perishable goods.

Nevertheless, it's certainly possible -- some would say likely -- that the premium valuation many people now put on quiet, private, country living may diminish, while town and city housing increase in relative value, precisely because of distribution problems, whether for food, utilities, or other commercial and public services.

Ron

On Fri, Apr 18, 2008 at 1:27 PM, Sidroney <olylast@> wrote:

As I think about the transportation aspects of a sudden "oil emergency" it is clear to me that since the peninsula is virtually totally dependent on gas and diesel powered vehicles, mitigating those transportation problems will be very difficult. We have, for all practical purposes, very limited public transportation....

Sidroney
April 18th, 2008

Plug-in hybrid electric

Just got this link on electric cars. Wanted to add it to the Blog.
Thanks,
Sherry

Trinity Exposed
http://videos.sacbee.com/vmix_hosted_apps/p/media?id=1830388
Professor Andrew Frank, UC Davis' father of the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle says we're finally ready to drive green.

Sidroney
November 12th, 2007

Transportation Options

You have good points. I think electric vehicles will eventually be the best option or even horses and buggies. I have a DVD and manual to convert vehicles to electric. I plan to get a small pickup, S10 or Ranger or something similar, and make the conversion. Here is an interesting video of some options
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFYpNrbyKCA
If a few people in the area had electric vehicles, they could possibly be delivery people to outlying areas.
Road rule changes might also allow golf carts to be used locally for quicker solutions. Seems they could be classified as farm equipment which are legal on the road. Sid Maroney

Shelby Tay
March 17th, 2008

re: Electric vehicle conversion

Hi Sid,
Just got an email from a person interested in converting a car to electric - what was the name of the DVD and manual that you have?

Thanks!
shelby

ps Just an fyi, you can embed videos on relocalize.net. Just paste the code provided for the video, and make sure you select under "input format", FULL HTML when you submit the post.

For example for this video you would paste the code:

Here's the video you posted a link to:

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