Go Green with Motorcycles, Part 1

There is a growing body of opinion that our greatest strike against Islamic extremists would not come from our military, but by freeing ourselves from Middle-Eastern petroleum, and one of the best steps we could take to start healing our environment would be to wean ourselves generally from petroleum.

First I have to admit that due to work-related reasons I have to drive a car from my home to downtown Minneapolis every day. I mitigate this somewhat by (a) driving a Toyota Prius and (b) hosting a carpool. On occasionally lucky days I manage to ride the bus in, a welcome relief. I also own a Harley motorcycle, which for many months of the year would be viable daily transportation, even in Minnesota, and which gets around 45 MPG. OK, OK, the bike is fun, but would it make a difference?

In Europe, motorcycles and especially scooters are refined and civilized urban transportation machines, see Kymco, Peugeot, and Piaggio just for example. Most European cities are alive with these cute little buzzers, and they’re not being ridden by the tattoo-and-black-leather set, either, but by ordinary people carrying briefcases. But do they actually make a difference?

New York City, which is drowning in cars and emissions, is really taking some steps to address the problem, including Mayor Bloomberg’s recent proposal to charge vehicles to enter Manhattan (referred to professionally as “congestion pricing”). Another step was to commission the respected traffic-management consulting firm of Sam Schwartz PLLC to examine the impact of changing the Manhattan vehicle mix to include motorcycles and scooters.

The study examined the Manhattan central business district, from 60th Street to Battery Park, substituting scooters for cars in varying increments and then simulating the traffic patterns and loading. Note that they did not factor in lane-splitting, space sharing, or any other two-wheel-specific maneuvers, they just treated each buzzer as a car, but one taking up much less space and getting much better mileage, so the results are conservative.

By shifting the daytime vehicle mix from 100% cars to 80% cars and 20% scooters, the results show:

• A reduction in CO2 emissions by over 26,000 tons (tons!) per year;
• The saving of 2.5 million gallons of gasoline per year;
• The saving of 4.6 million hours of delay time, or roughly 100 working (or playing) hours per person, and
• A total saving of $122 million per year in fuel and labor productivity.

This is of course not to mention that being on two wheels is much more fun than being trapped in a four-wheeled cage, so people would be arriving at work in a much better frame of mind than otherwise.

Could we really substitute scooters for 20% of cars in Manhattan? I think it would be realistic for much of the year. Experience shows that people will make changes in their behavior in response to financial incentives — if this substitution is a desirable result, just tariff cars until you get the right percentage, offer reduced-rate and buzzer-only parking, etc. The same approach holds true for any city.

So, going Green and lightening the load on our environment can be beneficial and enjoyable at the same time. Hopefully we’ll all come to realize this, and see that making some of these changes will generate positive economic benefits across the board, in contrast to the currently-entrenched view that any changes for energy efficiency will somehow harm business and bring on doom and despair.