AFM's Friendly Rides

Reducing our Gasoline Emissions
Annapolis Friends Meeting

Pagemaster: Bob Bruninga, PE
Meeting House and Lands Committee
lastname @ usna.edu
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November 13: Climate in the Pulpits: Speak out to protect Creation through Climate in the Pulpits! The weekend of November 11-13, caring congregations across Maryland will be raising up Creation care and climate change as part of their weekly services.

AFM is proposing our first Friendly Rides that day to support the movement. There will probably be multiple waves since we have a variety of activities that day. Take the challenge to self organize! Here is what is going on that day:

  • 08:00 Early Meeting
  • 09:15 Meeting for Learning
  • 12:00 Meeting for Worship
  • 12:30 Poetry

    Friendly Rides grew from our Green Team's initiative to see what we can do personally about Climate Change. After our meeting switched to Solar and Wind electricity, and switched from propane to heatpump powered by solar and wind electricity for our heat, the only ramaining big fossil fuel emissions was from our gasoline burned going to and from meeting on Sunday. This is one third of our total energy consumption and is certainly something to be considered. Of course, car-pooling is inconvenient, but if we eased into it as another monthly social experiment, we might find the focus to make it work conveniently.

    The name "Friendly Rides" came up in comparison to our meeting's "Friendly Eights" where groups of members share dinners together once a month to get to know each other better. Riding together in the same car is even more intimate! Carl Benson prepared a system of google maps driven from our address list and from that we developed the map below.

    Seven Ride Routes: Due to the local waterways and geography around Annapolis, there are seven rather well defined travel routes. To make it easier to share a ride, we made separate maps for each route and added the names in each area. Click on one of the routes below to see who else lives in your area and who might be convenient to share a ride.

    Crofton
    Herald Harbor
    Annapolis downtown
    South River
    Hillsmere
    Cape Saint Clair
    Severna Park
    DC, Baltimore and beyond

    WE CAN DO IT! The amazing thing is that it is CHEAPER to switch our energy systems to renewable solar, wind and electric than it is to continue with Fossil fuel. We have choices! Every year or so we face significant energy choices in our lives. If we approach these life milestones with a prepared mind, we can not only save costs over our lifetimes but also do the right thing and stop burning fuels with noxious emissions leading to climate change.

    Do not be discouraged or think it is impossible to get there from here. The slide at right show's one family's elimination of fossil fuels starting in the 2006 time frame when they realized the nearly 3000 gallons of fossil fuel they were using at ever increasing cost.

  • First, they bought hybrids for their next cars and reduced gas use in half
  • Next, they installed solar (for heating) - reduced fuel oil 200 gal
  • Next they switched remaining electricity to Wind via Groundswell
  • Next was Geothermal - eliminating the remaining 800 gal/year
  • Then they increased electric offset with additional solar in 2014
  • Next they bought an EV for one of the cars to reduce another 300 gal/yr
  • Finally in 2015, they reduced electric to near zero with final solar system

    At this point by 2015, all of this family's energy consumption has been moved to electric, and all electic is derived from 100% renewable solar or wind and is free for life. This includes even the electric lawn mower, electric tools, and even an electric boat. And the cost amortized over the next 10 years is cheaper than doing nothing and continuing to pay the utility bills and continuing to pollute our future.

    Ride Sharing is not Permanent! Remember, the only reason we need to carpool is because of the filthy emissions of our dinosaur gas buring century old transportation. This is obsolete.

    EV's are Here! Electric Transportation is here to stay. Already in 2016 we are 6 years into this revolution and there are now over thirty electric cars on the market from almost every manufacturer that can fulfill almost any car need. See the list at right or get the up-to-date one from EVADC the EV Associaiton of DC, one of the oldest EV car clubs in the country. Already our Meeting house supports EV charging as shown above and today, an EV is cleaner, better, faster, cheaper to buy, cheaper to operate and cheaper to maintain than a gas car. Yet, still the public clings to decades old Misinformation about EV's such as cost. Yet, the average EV price fell below the average gasoline car cost three years ago in 2013.. now, with 6 years of EV's on the market, and three years of them coming off lease, there is even a great selection of used EV's starting as low as $6k up to about $9k for a Leaf and $15k for a Chevy Volt..

    The Travisty of Not Knowing: Since the general public is not aware of this rapid transition to clean renewable Electric Vehicles, it is a travisty when someone makes another gas car purchse now in 2016 without having first at least looked at EV's. A Gas car placed on the road today, on average, will still be spewing its filthy emissions for another 18 years on average before it is finally scrapped. Since we know Climate Change is real, how long can we let this go on?

    ENERGY CHOICES:We must do what we can to educate consumers to at least consider an EV for their local transportation needs. See the link.

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    Bob Bruninga, PE
    lastname@usna.edu