How Do You Get From Here To There? A Look At Greener Transportation

Photo Credit: Flickr/KDavidClark

I took a long drive today, about 75 miles round trip in my car.  My assistant and I had a client to visit in a far away land and we had no choice but to get there the old fashioned way – driving.  This got me thinking about my current transportation habits, how far I have come in the last year to cut down on driving, and how much I can still improve my transportation footprint.

Last year at this time, my office was located in a suburb of Seattle where there are few options for public transportation.  I had tried to take the bus to work a few times but with the routes and transfers needed to get me from home to the office, an 8 mile trip took almost 2 hours!  While that might be greener than taking the car, it certainly isn’t convenient or an efficient use of my time.  So every day I drove to work, by myself, with immense guilt over the waste of it all.

Another reason why the bus wasn’t a good option is I often need to visit clients for my job.  I usually plan ahead for my client visits, but every once in a while an emergency arises and it is not good to have your car two hours away.

When our office moved downtown this year, both of those issues were solved for not just me, but everyone in my office.  In Seattle, Downtown is the place most busses end up.  So everyone now has a quick commute and we don’t have to worry about driving, or parking, or our carbon footprint.  We can just sit back and read or listen to music, or whatever.  Why is the bus considered such a green alternative? Well, the bus is going on its route regardless of how many people are riding it, so higher ridership makes for more efficient use of fuel.  But the big deal is if you count how many people are bus riders, that’s how many single occupant cars are not on the streets.  That is a huge carbon savings!

Now when I need to visit a client, emergency or otherwise, I use a service called Zipcar.  This is basically a short term car rental service.  Once you get established with a Zipcar account, you can reserve many different types of cars all over the city, either well in advance or immediately in case of an emergency.  Zipcar is easy to use and even though it is still driving, it usually less driving because your trips are focused.

I know everyone cannot ask their boss to move their worksite to a public transportation hub, but if you look at your individual situation, I am sure there are ways to green your commute.  Look at your public transportation options through your county website and see if there is a quick bus or train route to your place of employment or wherever you need to go regularly.

If you find yourself with poor options for greening your ride, try a ridesharing service.  The county I live in has a pretty good service where you can specify what days and times you are available for ridesharing, and whether you want to drive or ride.  Through this service I got connected with a student who was going to rowing classes at the lake near my office.  Her father was a baker and my payment for driving her to lessons was several loaves of fresh baked bread.  I loved it!  And she was delightful company.

If you must drive your car, make a quick plan before you depart so that you make all of the stops you need to in one trip.  And when you can, make stops for your co-workers or family so that they don’t have to make separate trips in their cars.  Talk to others about your concerns with driving too much.  Your conversations may reveal other solutions that you didn’t know about, or others may start considering their own driving habits.

But the bottom line is, we all need to get from here to there.  We should always consider the greenest alternative but if there isn’t a good one available, don’t rack yourself with guilt if you need to drive your car from time to time.  I believe I have cut my carbon footprint by at least half with the changes I have made but there is still way more for me to do before I could be completely car free.  What ways have you cut back on your car use?  Any great experiences with public transportation or ridesharing?  Leave a comment here or email me at Melissa@ecohomeconsults.com.