Transition Chesterfield

During the last few weeks, I have been looking at sustainable transport in an attempt to come up with something which allows me to be more mobile and independent beyond walking, cycling, and using public transport.  I don't, however, want to greatly increase my environmental impact. I thought other people might be interested in the trail I followed and might want to add their own discoveries.
 
 

• Cycling
  For local cycling info/support and more there’s The Chesterfield Cycle Campaign
• Recumbent bikes
  For something a bit different The super sporty Innesenti recumbent bike looks brilliant (but could set you back £8k)! 

• Electric bikes
  There are many electric bike options.  I looked at converting a Brompton folding bike to electric assist.  You can add on a Sparticle Conversion Kit, with a hub mounted electric motor in the front wheel and a lithium battery – from £550.00 (inc. 15% VAT) from The Electric Transport Shop.

  I also looked at the Dutch Batavus Electric Bikes which I thought looked interesting. 
  Charles Brown has been happy with his Kalkoff Agattu from Derby Cycles which he has said allows him to keep up 20mph on main roads.

• Electric Scooters
  There are now many electric scooters – some restricted to 30mph, others that go up to 65mph. For the latter you will need a CBT licence, for the slower ones it depends what licence you already have as to whether or not you need a CBT. Click here for details.
  I was particularly interested in the Elecscoot 4 which travels at up to 60mph and keeps going for up to 100miles. 

Elecscoot 4
 I test rode one of these and found myself going up hill at 40mph thinking ‘this is rather good!’ At £4495 the price is of course high, but then if you run it on a 100% renewable energy tariff such as the one available from Ecotricity, which I have, there is the satisfaction of carbon emission free transportation (after the initial construction of the machine and transportation to the UK from China.)
I was impressed by the people I spoke to from Elecscoot who seemed very genuine and offered a 2 year warranty. They claimed to have a stock of spare parts for their scooters. They have just improved the scooter with better running gear which is UK designed and manufactured.
The Vectrix is another electric scooter which seems very good, but a bit more expensive at £6000, but I heard a rumour that they may have gone bust. The Electric Transport Shop did list the Vectrix for sale a while ago
For a review see LondonBikers.com 
Other sellers of electric scooters
http://www.ukecoscooters.co.uk
http://www.zippe.co.uk
http://ecitywheels.com/GB/Electricycles/Electro.html
http://www.evstores.co.uk/electric_bikes
http://www.newride.org.uk/scooters.php - comprehensive list of scooter manufacturers

• Electric motorbikes
  Perfectly possible – you could even create your own as someone has - http://www.duccutters.com/evahakansson-ElectroCat.tpl
  Or buy one:
  See list at http://www.newride.org.uk/scooters.php

• Electric cars
  There are a range of battery powered cars – some available now, some coming in the next year or so. 10 battery-powered cars are listed on The Guardian website and give a really good cross section of the current options  

  The Mitsubishi i-MiEV looks good. It ‘will charge to 80% full in 20 minutes. Range: 100 miles. Top speed: 87 mph.  For sale in the UK later this year. 
  http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jan/20/greentech-travelandtransport 

  The Electric Car Corporation have produced an electric car based on the Citroen C1. 

• Renewable energy
  There are a few renewable energy providers, but I went with Ecotricity because they reportedly spend the most on new infrastructure for renewable energy generation 

• Possible future grants for electric cars
  If the price of the cars seem high, then the fact that there may be a £5000 grant from the government to help with the cost could help in the near future according to The Guardian

  Or available grants might be less if you look at the article on The Sun website - £2000 grant
  

• Conversion of car to electric
  If you want your current car to run on electricity rather than petrol or diesel you could consider a conversion.  To give a rough idea of price, a customer supplied Smart car can be converted into an electric vehicle for £10,764.  See www.everything-ev.com

• Hydrogen cars
  Hydrogen cars are a reality
  http://www.thegreencarwebsite.co.uk

• Compressed air cars
  Compressed air is a successful form of car propulsion.

  Interesting article and related articles at
  http://www.gizmag.com

• Veg oil as a fuel
  There are a number of people running courses on how to use vegetable oil as fuel such as LILI – Low Impact Living Initiative.

  There are people who offer conversion kits to run your car on 100% veg oil (they will also fit them). I bought a kit from http://www.dieselveg.com for the Wheelbarrow Organics van, but I ended up selling the van and sending the kit back, so can’t comment except to say I know someone who fitted one and the last I heard it was working fine.

• Biodiesel in regular diesel cars
  The following talks about the compatibility of using biodiesel in regular diesel engines:
  http://www.biodieselfillingstations.co.uk/approvals.htm

• Biodiesel outlets http://www.biodieselfillingstations.co.uk/outlets.htm  

• Other website of interest for sustainable transport solutions http://www.greentransportsolutions.co.uk
  http://www.greencarsite.co.uk

• Insurance for an electric vehicle
  http://www.pluginsure.co.uk/

  The NFU – National Farmers Union quoted me £258.45 third party fire and theft / £344.68 fully comp. on an Elecscoot 4 electric scooter with no previous no claims bonus for scooter/motorbike insurance (no claims not transferable from car/van insurance)

• Chesterfield at the cutting edge of sustainable transport??
  According to an article in The Guardian about a £250 million strategy spelling out a revolution in Britain's road transport network based on ultra-low carbon vehicles, “The government's strategy proposes £20m to foster a core of cities and regions interested in developing an infrastructure to charge electric vehicles.”

  "It may well be that one of the ways forward is for a city to offer itself as a model for demonstration…” - Hoon

  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/16/green-cars-transport-incentives-emissions

  Could Chesterfield be a demonstration town for electric vehicles?

 
 
       Compiled by Andy Holdaway, Oct. 2009