I’ve been struggling with how to make a more substantial reduction to my carbon footprint. I am already working on ways to reduce the energy used in my home and I’ll G-LOG more about that later, but the other factor in my emissions, and the much larger factor, is in my automobile usage and emissions from gasoline.

I currently drive a 2002 MINI Cooper S and it’s a sweet, sweet ride. The MINI is clocking in at around 10L/100kms. Not absolutely terrible for a sporty vehicle but certainly not great. Obviously, one way of reducing my tranportation emissions is to opt for cleaner modes and probably the cleanest mode is walking. The fact is, I already live in a highly urbanized environment where walking is already factoring out all kinds of errands and trips that many people use their vehicles for like grocery shopping. But the reality, for me, is that I still drive my car for many destinations that are either too far to perambulate or where other stuff, or persons, need to be in the mix. Another possible alternative is public transit but, even though it’s improving here in Vancouver, it’s still doesn’t reach all of the key places that I need to reach nor in the timeframe that sometimes I need to reach them and, as such, cannot yet replace my car. At the end of the day, there are many times when I need a vehicle.

It’s pretty obvious from the image above and the title of this G-LOG what direction I am leaning to start mitigating the emissions from this particular factor. I’ve decided I want to get a scooter and try to stop driving my car. Using the Osmosus Footprint Worksheet I’ve calculated that I can save at minimum more than 20% of my emissions by changing much of my tranportation from my car to a scooter. You can see my overall score above.

It all comes down to some issues of practicality and some issues of choices and over the coming weeks and months I am going to chronicle here on my Green Space the details of my journey from car driver to scooter rider and the benefits and drawbacks of each.

I would welcome your comments and insight into your experiences in reducing vehicle emissions in your lives.

Next in the series: On The Road To A Scooter On The Road