Another Northeast city (the first having been New York City) is getting in on the greening of their public transportation: Boston Mayor Thomas Menino has announced that 2015 the city’s entire taxi fleet would have to be converted to hybrid vehicles.
According to the mayor's office:
The new standards for hybrid vehicles will be phased in as current vehicles reach their mandatory retirement age of six years. As a result of this new plan, owners will be required to replace their taxis with hybrid vehicles. Hybrid taxis will reduce carbon emissions from the taxi fleet by 50% and will save taxi drivers $1,000 a month in fuel costs. It is anticipated that within two years more than 50% of the fleet will be hybrid. It is required that by 2015 100% of the fleet is hybrid.
The Boston Globe has reported somewhat negatively about this decision. They express concern about the cost of replacing the batteries in hybrid cars. It is also up for debate as to whether or not hybrids are large enough to hold people and their luggage if, for example, they are on the way to the airport.
As for the taxi drivers of Boston, it is reported they are quite livid about the 2015 set date for which they must go hybrid.
"I don’t think anyone is against the idea of hybrids. But the thing is to put them on so fast, to come up with $30,000 is very difficult for a lot of guys," said John Ford, owner of City Cab.
Taxi companies typically use Crown Victorias that cost roughly $6,000 to $7,500, while hybrids may cost between $26,000 and $30,000.
We'll have to see how this pans out, but I do think a lot of good points are being brought up here. I would love to have a more eco-friendly vehicle but I do not have the means and doubt I will by 2015 either.
This morning on the way into work I was listening to NPR and the segment was about how Sweden is making it mandatory for drivers to learn how to drive in a more eco-friendly way. I believe this is fantastic and should be incorporated in driver's education worldwide.
I found these tips extremely helpful because I'm not in the position to buy a more eco-friendly vehicle. All of the hybrid cars are so expensive and so I need to help the environment by using these techniques instead.
One of the tips I found most useful was to find a parking space at which you can pull out rather than have to back out on exit. When you back out of a parking space you end up pushing on the gas pedal twice; once to back up and the second time to pull forward. Common sense, I know, but I hadn't thought of it that way previously. Though I do tend to pull forward just because I have always felt it is easier.
Other tips included making sure you coast as much as possible if you see you'll be needing to brake down the road. You should drive in as high a gear as possible and try to avoid aggressive acceleration from a standing start.
Sweden has been making these efforts, and enforcing them strongly, because most of the people there drive gas guzzlers. Sweden is the home of Saab and Volvo makers. Swedish driving instructor Lars Rembjer has two words of advice for his pupils, the first in the world to have to prove they can be kind to the environment to get their licences: think ahead. "Eco-driving is the future because there are only winners. The environment benefits and your wallet benefits," he says.
For more information on how Sweden is trying to become a green role model, click here.
Sprig.com, has compiled a list of the top 10 "eco-hunks" who have been busy lending their time, money and talents to protecting the environment. These guys don't just look good -- they're busy doing good for the planet.
They haven't yet published the list but we happen to know who at least five of those guys will be:
- George Clooney. He has become a champion of sustainable energy and works to decrease U.S. dependence on oil-when he's not saving Darfur or acting as a UN Messenger of Peace, that is.
- Adrian Grenier. Grenier resides in an eco-home in Brooklyn, which he greened himself using recycled denim insulation and solar panels; Adrian's currently filming a show for Discovery's Planet Green called The Green Life.
- Edward Norton. He has successfully campaigned with Friends of the Highline to save and rebuild much-needed green space in New York City. Also, because of Norton's BP Solar Neighbors Program, every time a celebrity purchases a BP Solar Electric system, BP provides a similar system for a low-income family in South Central L.A.
- Kelly Slater. Slater donates his time to the Surfrider Foundation, a non-profit that helps fight coastal pollution, and has worked with the Carbon Fund to offset the carbon emissions he amasses while traveling with the pro tour in search of the perfect wave (and his next trophy).
- Adam Levine. For their 2007 world tour, the band teamed up with Global Cool, a charity organization that promotes sustainability and energy efficiency, in attempts to green as many aspects of their trek as possible -- including driving around in a biodiesel tour bus whenever possible.
You'll have to keep making sure to stop by Sprig.com for the rest of the list.
I knew that Soleil Moon Frye, age 31, was expecting another baby, but I did not know she'd be opening her own baby store; an eco-friendly one! She said it was very difficult for her to find one place that carried non-toxic and organic items for babies, so she wanted to create a place of her own.
She is four months pregnant with her second child, opened an eco-friendly children's boutique, The Little Seed, in LA on Monday, October 15th. The store will carry green products, including sustainable furniture from Kalon Studios, organic toys from Zid Zid and non-toxic crayons and paints from Stockmeyer.
The store was founded by Frye and two friends, Paige Tolmach and Beth Birkett.
On another fun note: Soleil's first daughter, Poet, is excited about having a new sibling and talks to her Mommy's belly all the time.
