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Jim | 1 Oct 2005 01:47
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Re: Go Ahead and Drive Less, if You Can

Well I have news for Mister Professor from U of Mich; I have moved a
dozen times and changed jobs several times and change from gasoline to
propane to a bicycle (and switched from animals to fruit & vegetables)...
Jim
I took care of my wheel as one would look after a Rolls Royce.  If it
needed repairs I always brought it to the same shop on Myrtle Avenue
run by a negro named Ed Perry.  He handled the bike with kid gloves,
you might say.  He would always see to it that neither front nor back
wheel wobbled.  Often he would do a job for me without pay, because,
as he put it, he never saw a man so in love with his bike as I was. 
~Henry Miller, My Bike and Other Friends

--- In CarFree@..., De Clarke <de <at> u...> wrote:
> 
> 	I thought this quote from the economics professor at 
> 	the University of Michigan was especially indicative of 
> 	the status quo mindset: "People can't change where they 
> 	live. They can't change where they work, and there 
> 	aren't any clear substitutes to gas. You can't run your 
> 	car on much else. It's not like switching from oranges 
> 	to grapefruits." 
> 
> errr, ummmm, isn't the US the country where people change jobs
> on average once every 2.5 years?  and move house every 3-5
> years?  seems like people are making these changes all the
> time, at least younger people...
> 
> de
> 
>
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Jim | 1 Oct 2005 04:04
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Re: Go Ahead and Drive Less, if You Can

Don't know if this has been posted here or not..

Doug Pleskac and Janel Pleskac-Brown have peculiar eating habits. 

 
They pick restaurants to eat in by the quality of the grease.

Sludgy won't do, so that rules out many fast-food joints, they say.
Usually Asian, Cajun and regular mom-and-pop places have just the
right kind of fuel they need for their stomachs and vehicle.

The California couple drove from San Francisco to Lake Zurich this
week to visit Janel's parents in a "green" diesel-engine school bus
converted to run on vegetable oil, stopping at restaurants along the
way to ask for used grease.

"The places that generally have better grease have better food, so we
eat there," Doug Pleskac said.

This is the couple's first cross-country trip with the bus, painted
green to emphasize the environment-friendly message. It's an
experiment of sorts as well as a grass-roots effort to spread the word
about alternative fuel to whomever listens. The couple is casually
teaching people about veggie fuel wherever they stop.

Reaction from people ranges from surprise to curiosity.

"It's amazing, is what it is," said Bruce Brown of Lake Zurich,
Janel's father. "When they first told me about it, I was a little
skeptical. You wonder why more people don't do this."
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Steven Schoeffler | 1 Oct 2005 06:20

Re: Go Ahead and Drive Less, if You Can

What happens to the used vegetable oil if it doesn't go into vehicles?

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim" <jdsears669@...>

> The California couple drove from San Francisco to Lake Zurich this
> week to visit Janel's parents in a "green" diesel-engine school bus
> converted to run on vegetable oil, stopping at restaurants along the
> way to ask for used grease.

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SHYRLEY WILLIAMS | 1 Oct 2005 11:36

RE: Go Ahead and Drive Less, if You Can


--- "Scherer, Christopher"
<christopher_scherer@...> wrote:

> 
> Chris
> Currently childless (but looking for a kid, if
> anybody has one they want
> to give up) in Princeton Junction, NJ and
> considering a move to some
> place with 'better' nature, like Montana. 
>   

Where do I send them?

Shyrley (who has 4, one a bit broken but still cute)

I was gonna take over the world but I got distracted by something shiny

	
	
		
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Lorenzo L. Love | 1 Oct 2005 21:41

Re: Go Ahead and Drive Less, if You Can

Steven Schoeffler wrote:
> What happens to the used vegetable oil if it doesn't go into vehicles?

That's the fallacy of the free fuel idea. Almost all used commercial 
deep fryer vegetable oil is already recycled into soap, cosmetics, 
lubricants, pet food and many other things. Divert that oil into fuel, 
new vegetable oil must be produced to use for those purposes. That means 
more land put into agriculture, more soil erosion, more aquifer 
depletion, more desertification, more pesticides and chemical 
fertilizers in the environment. The modern agriculture industry is as 
unsustainable as the petroleum industry. Biofuels can help the fuel 
shortage problem in a small way but it can't solve it.

Lorenzo L. Love
http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove

"They're making people every day, but they ain't makin' any more dirt."
            Will Rogers

> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Jim" <jdsears669@...>
> 
>>The California couple drove from San Francisco to Lake Zurich this
>>week to visit Janel's parents in a "green" diesel-engine school bus
>>converted to run on vegetable oil, stopping at restaurants along the
>>way to ask for used grease.

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David A de Gruyl | 1 Oct 2005 19:35

I'm new here, too

Hi all,

I actually joined the group about a week ago, and I have enjoyed some of 
the discussions so far. I gather that introductions are recommended.

About us: My wife and I decided last july (2004) to simplfy our lives by 
getting rid of a car, so we are "Car Light".  I work about sixteen miles 
from home and will generally ride the bicycle into work.  My wife gets a 
car allowance from work, and her job requires a certain amount of car 
usage.  When she is not using the car, she uses the nearby train and her 
folding bicycle to get to work.  This is most of the time.

In fact, since moving to our little city about a year and a half ago we 
have had a great improvement in our standard of living because of the 
proximity of the train as well as ease of walking an cycling to various 
stores, restaurants and such.  

About me: I am an engineer, and I travel a significant amount, 
worldwide.  When I am in the office, I ride my bike year round.  In the 
winter I have been known to take the train both ways, with the bike on 
board.  The rest of the year I ride the whole way to work, and may 
decide to take the train home.  The train station is two blocks from our 
home, and four miles from my office.  The bimodal commute is really 
pleasant.

Generally I will use the car about two days per week.  This varies, 
where some weeks I ride in every day, and other weeks it is only one 
day.  I would like to bike in every day, but sometimes it is easier to 
find excuses.  Especially if there is a car available.
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Lauren Cooper (DancesWithCars | 2 Oct 2005 00:53
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Your reflective bike sign

Rachel, I think several on this list are interested in how you made your
custom reflective bike sign using reflective vinyl:  "The sign covers the
back of my milk crate and is all reflective."

Please do tell us more in detail.  I've long been thinking about making and
giving away such signs with the slogan that got us our best results in our
1999 Cyclist-Rights campaign:  "You'd Feel BETTER On A Bike!"(sm) 

Thank you for your thought and consideration.  And thank you for bicycling!
DancesWithCars         www.CycleMedia.org

"Everyone on the road is dancing by a set of rules.  Those who don't bump into others.  When You Squeeze Over,
You Signal Those Behind To Squeeze Past.  It's Far Safer Having Cars Wait Behind You!  So please dance at
least a door-width from car doors, curbs & hazards, by politely merging into the flow of traffic.  A simple
slow-signal will appease drivers waiting behind you.  Move sideways just as car drivers change lanes:
signal, look behind & negotiate w/drivers for space; then merge (not swerve) in with them.  Use a "halt!"
hand-signal at drivers who are about to cross your path.  And please call-out "thank-you" after any
successful dance with a driver.  It helps the next cyclist! "
	Dancing-With-Cars: The Art and Fun of Advanced Traffic-Bicycling

		
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Simon Baddeley | 2 Oct 2005 01:19
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Re: Go Ahead and Drive Less, if You Can

University of Michigan economics professor: "People
can't change where they live. They can't change where they work, and
there aren't any clear substitutes to gas. You can't run your car on
much else. It's not like switching from oranges to grapefruits.

My response: The following is extracted from my post to urbancyclist-uk a
few years ago - a piece called "Watch the Churn"

Many, even if they accept the need for change, will argue that people will
not alter their transport habits in under a generation, or that our economy
is so bound to cars that lessening their use will blight whole cities; see
letters and editorials in the press saying motorists and businesses will
desert in droves if urban congestion charging is introduced without
alternative methods of getting around. I accept that settlement patterns for
residence and work have permanence and in many cases change very gradually
-- with the exception of the way global corporations can chase the cheapest
labour and respond to government incentives to establish often highly
temporary businesses when tempted by local economic regeneration subsidies.

I am impressed, nonetheless, with observations made by Prof Phil Goodwin in
his 1997 lecture on Transport ['Solving Congestion', Inaugural Lecture for
the Professorship of Transport Policy, University College London, October
1997] about the "apparent stability" of populations. He said that this "is
composed, we now know, of volatile, unstable, changing undercurrents, what
the pollsters call 'churn'. Every year anything up to a third of people
change their jobs, up to one in seven move house. At each of these life
events there may be a reason to reconsider travel patterns and choices... As
a result, broadly speaking, a process of adaptation to a new policy starts
on day one, takes between five and ten years before it is near enough to
completion to get lost in other and longer term processes."
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purple_bovine | 2 Oct 2005 07:06
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Re: Folding bikes?

--- In CarFree@..., todd fahrner <fahrner <at> p...> wrote:
> purple_bovine <purple_bovine <at> > writes:
> 
> > What kind of folding bikes does the populace recommend/ride/love/hate?
> 
> Get a Brompton folder with the front touring pannier. Brompton
owners have 
> been accused of constituting a cult. This is because they're so
freaking 
> awesome. Go ahead, Google around, or ask me why.

I've been looking at websites and drooling in the general direction of
the Brompton - as a mechanical engineer, I am rather impressed with
the folding mechanism - but how are the 16" wheels?  Is this thing
comfortable to ride?  Alas, there are no dealers in TX, so I can't try
it out...

LM

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G. Allen Morris III | 2 Oct 2005 08:01

Re: Re: Folding bikes?

On Sun, Oct 02, 2005 at 05:06:03AM -0000, purple_bovine wrote:
> --- In CarFree@..., todd fahrner <fahrner <at> p...> wrote:
> 
> I've been looking at websites and drooling in the general direction of
> the Brompton - as a mechanical engineer, I am rather impressed with
> the folding mechanism - but how are the 16" wheels?  Is this thing
> comfortable to ride?  Alas, there are no dealers in TX, so I can't try
> it out...

I have seen them used in Europe. I know they work well folded. Also they
do have a (very simple) suppention, and I know that you want that with
16 inch wheels;

http://www.atob.org.uk/Buyers'_Guide.html#Brompton

It could be a good excuse to vacation in England.

Allen

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Gmane