alternative car expo

this past weekend was the first annual alt car expo presented by the city of santa monica. two jam-packed days of seminars, panels, and discussions on alternative fuel technologies, urban planning, mass transit, cycling, and more! tomas and i got there sunday afternoon and unfortunately missed the seminars, but we got to catch up with some of the exhibitors and familiar faces of the alternative transportation world.

flexcar, who i am familiar with from up north, was representing their car-sharing service that they have been expanding here in el lay. flexcar offers a very affordable and convenient solution for those who only need a car a few hours a week or so. you pay a yearly membership fee and are then charged by the hour for using a vehicle (around $9-12) and they cover gas, insurance, road-side assistance, and maintenance! car shares are a more sustainable alternative to having your own vehicle, and about 30% of their vehicles are hybrids (which usually cost a fortune to rent!). i know that one flexcar is parked on 5th ave. at rose in venice and others can be located around el lay.

new to me was the euro taxi of santa monica...a taxi service currently running 4 cars all sourced with biodiesel. the father and son running the booth were so sweet and excited about their business. i'll definitely give them a call next time i am going out on the town. you can reach euro taxi at 310.828.4200.

i also got to meet some of the guys behind carless in l.a. who are documenting katie rogers and her adventures in giving up her car for 80 days. i was carless in el lay for months when i got back from indonesia, and i really loved the freedom that it gave me. i made good use of the big blue bus system and my bicycle but i did not leave the west side often. i survived my experience...and it looks like katie will as well. hoorah.

with a wide selection of electric, hydrogen, natural gas, biodiesel, ethanol and other high mpg cars, the expo did a great job of showcasing many alternatives to the standard gas guzzler. in line with the permaculture principle of diversity, it is essential for many technologies to be explored because the only way to create a resilient system that will get us through difficulties is to utilize many elements. otherwise, like the current mono-fuel system, we are setting ourselves up for failure.

something smells different in silverlake

anyone exploring silverlake, will likely notice something different lurking 'round these parts....my streets are lined with mercedes benz's and there is a peculiar smell in the air! (it smells pretty damn good actually... like french fries) it only takes a step out of my door to sniff to the source: lovecraft biofuels, another one of my fabulous green neighbors. lovecraft specializes in mercedes benz, but can convert any diesel vehicle to run on 100% veggie oil (new or waste), biodiesel, or regular diesel in any combination. since dr. diesel himself designed the diesel engine to run on straight peanut oil for the 1900 world's fair (um, walk in: big oil), lovecraft is really taking the diesel engine back to it's roots here in the driver's paradise (or hell depending on how you look at it) el lay. now, there's an urban greening project which gets a big thumbs up. check out treehugger tv's awesome interview with lovecraft's owner, brian lovecraft.

there are a lot of environmental pluses for getting behind the biodiesel revolution with big-name environmentalists like willie nelson (who has his own brand of biodiesel) and darryl hannah. biodiesel is a much cleaner fuel, it's non-toxic and biodegradable, and the source crops can be grown right here in the u.s. reducing our need for foreign oil. there are a lot of financial pluses to biodiesel as well. many biodiesel users match up with restaurants to collect their waste vegetable oil. the restaurants are stoked because they no longer have to pay a buck a gallon to have the oil hauled away; and the drivers are stoked because they get clean burning fuel for free. sounds like a win-win to me!

i am making the commitment to switch over within the next 6 months from my honda civic (which gets an above average gas mileage) to one of lovecraft's lean mean biofueled machines...i just can't decide which one to claim...they're all so pretty :)


this is a great article from city beat on the el lay biofuel scene as well as information on homebrewing.

get converted at lovecraft biofuels, 4000 sunset blvd. el lay, ca