It’s Saturday night, you’re looking good, painting the town red with your posse in your vehicle of choice. A rather inviting group of the opposite sex pulls up next to you at the stoplight. They motion for you to roll down your window, and when you do, it hits you — right now you are taking part in the destruction of the environment!
That’s right. Everyone who drives a gasoline-powered vehicle is doing his or her part against this world that God has so graciously provided for us.
But the good news is that there is a lot of time and money being spent in the development of alternatives to the high-priced, resource-consuming, environment-unfriendly vehicles that the vast majority of us drive today.
Some of these alternatives you may be aware of — some you may be meeting for the first time. So just sit back, relax, and allow me to break down a few of the options that are currently being kicked around.
Batting leadoff, we have the option that most of you are likely familiar with: the “hybrid” vehicles that can be seen on the road today. The two vehicles currently available are the Honda Insight ($18,000 M.S.R.P) and the Toyota Prius (~$20,000 M.S.R.P).
Says Karim Nice, author of an in-depth article on hybrid vehicles, “Any vehicle that combines two or more sources of power that can directly or indirectly provide propulsion power is a hybrid.”
Basically, these cars have a gasoline-powered engine and an electric motor, both of which can power the car at any point during travel.
Ultimately, the two goals behind the development of these cars are to reduce tailpipe emissions and to improve the mileage of the cars.
The latter of the two is responsible for those snazzy body styles, which significantly reduce the drag coefficient of the cars, not to mention the appeal.
Next up we have Fuel Cell Vehicles.
These are vehicles powered by fuel cells, which produce electricity by reformulating a fuel using a chemical reaction. Considerations for this fuel include methanol, ethanol or a special gasoline.
According to the Associated Press, “The fuel cell is considered a green technology because the only direct byproducts of the process are heat and water.”
Even so, the vehicles are not “zero emission” because pollutants are released during the fuel reformulating process.
Why don’t we just have these fuel cells “reformulate” our garbage like they do in the movies? Don’t tell me that technology exhibited on the Silver Screen won’t directly translate to our everyday lives!
Assuming they can agree on the fuel of choice, experts estimate that the fuel cell cars will hit the streets sometime between 2003 and 2005. The vehicles will first be made available in California, the nation’s largest auto market. It was not speculated how much these vehicles will cost.
Last, but not least, we have a contraption called the Monomobile.
Though its name may suggest communicable disease, the Monomobile is simply bare bones, point A to point B transportation. It is a small electric car that has the capability of connecting to a suspended rail for long distance and mass transit trips. When not on the rail, it can also travel to local destinations.
It’s very efficient, very cheap and very unexciting.
In comparison to the vehicles we have now, the Monomobile (~$10,000 M.S.R.P) would be far more efficient, in terms of the operation cost.
According to ARD, Inc., “[T]he average mileage of the Monomobile for rail and ground travel is 225 miles on $1.28 of electricity.”
One interesting aspect of this transportation is that, once on the rail, the cars can be mass transported in excess of 100 miles per hour, leaving both hands free while we read the newspaper and/or pick our nose!
I can’t envision those people who have worked so hard to attain their status symbol(s), be it a new Benz or a restored ’64.5 Mustang being too willing to just hand it over for some butt-ugly electric box just because someone tells them it will save them money.
So you’ve heard a couple of the alternatives. Now what can, or should, we do?
First, we can continue with the status quo, which essentially boils down to us carelessly destroying everything from the Earth’s crust up to, and including the ozone layer.
Or we could jump on one of these new technologies, an action that will undoubtedly require a worldwide paradigm shift to support the greater good.
Even better, we could stop driving altogether and just walk (or run) everywhere. Aside from the occasional methane release, I would guess that humans would be classified under the “zero-emission” means of transportation.
Of course this may jeopardize the notoriety that the United States has of being the “most obese country,” which would be a shame to see all that hard work put to waste.
Personally, I wholeheartedly support a minor to major change in the way we transport ourselves. Whatever we can do to halt the destructive process, let’s do it. But, I don’t want to sit around on my rosy white waiting for action.
I don’t care what solution is picked; let’s just get this ball rolling! You want us to drive electric vehicles? Great. Or are hybrid vehicles the solution? Grand. Or perhaps some other radical technology waiting in the wings? Wonderful.
Let’s just agree on something, concentrate our efforts and make sure our great-grandchildren don’t have to live in plastic bubbles … unless they want to.
Michael Pameditis is a computer science
engineering senior. Reach him at mike.pameditis@asu.edu.
