Many of you know me from other places, so you remember that three years ago we converted a mini school bus to run on waste vegetable oil. That was a successful experience that we all enjoyed, but we (sniff) sold the van last winter. When we were driving the veggie van, I enjoyed watching the gas prices climb, feeling that the higher they went, the better an investment our van had been. But since it’s no longer with us, my husband and I are discussing strategies to limit our dependence on a vehicle.
Why? Well, obviously, gas prices are high, and in my opinion, they are going to continue steadily rising due to the limited nature of oil and the ever increasing demand from various countries that until now haven’t used much. We already employ most of the strategies I hear suggested for saving on transportation costs: we have only one vehicle, we drive it as little as we need to, my husband carpools or takes public transportation to work all but one day a week (when those options aren’t available), we carpool my son to high school, I do one food shopping trip a month, and bunch all my errands as much as possible. And we still are spending over $300 monthly on gas.
So what to do? I feel like it’s going to take something more drastic to make any difference, as the increasing costs of gas are outpacing whatever we may save by cutting back, so that we’re hardly managing to stay ahead of costs. I thought about buying another mini school bus to convert, and spoke to the manager of the company we purchased from before, but the costs are much higher now than they were.
My husband didn’t like that idea, anyway. He feels that we need to stop looking for cheaper ways to drive and instead, develop a different paradigm regarding getting where we need to go. Things like, not automatically assuming the only way to get anywhere is a car – walking, taking a bus, staying home more.
We spoke seriously as a family about the possibility of getting rid of our van, and as much as we liked that idea, it isn’t viable for us right now. We live in an area where some things are walking distance, but not most. The main things we need a vehicle for are: carpool for son, husband takes it to work one day a week, and shopping. We considered paying someone to take our son to school, renting a van once a month to do all the shopping, walking more as a family and taking public transportation when we wanted to take a trip – but the numbers just don’t work. If we paid someone to take our son to school (six trips/three roundtrip daily – current rate is $80 one way), that alone would cost almost as much as we spend in gas and insurance (we don’t have a car payment).
We’re looking into scooters as an option for my husband to use for his commute. He has a 40 mile drive, in one direction, and replacing his driving even one day with a scooter would be a big help. Scooters with motors under a certain size don’t require a special license or insurance, but they also aren’t allowed on roads that have speeds of over 45 mph. So driving on the highway would be out. My husband borrowed a scooter from a friend yesterday, to see how driving around feels, and is planning to take it to work tomorrow and see if the drive is manageable. It is very cool looking, and he so far enjoyed zipping around with it. For his commute, he mapped out a route that will take him along slower roads, so the drive will take much longer than usual. It might be fun for a while, but a two hour drive in the outdoors isn’t something that seems that it will work long term.
For short commutes of 10 miles or less, though, I think scooters are the way to go. They’re inexpensive to buy, very good on gas (about 70 – 100 mpg), and just right for when one person needs to get somewhere. I’ll let you know how it works out!
Avivah
