Archive for the ‘Green Travel’ Category

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Car Clubs – My experience so far…

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

Car Clubs - Streetcar Experience

I’m not a big driving enthusiast – I ditched my little Polo almost 8 years ago in favour of pedal powered transport and since then I’ve managed to keep car hire down to a minimum.  Over the next few months though we have a few projects coming up which require transport to rural areas but rather than get into the whole hassle and expense of car ownership again, I’ve opted to join a car club instead and recently signed up with Streetcar.

In a perfect world I’d rather not be doing any driving and using a car is rarely seen as being green but there are some environmental benefits of a car club scheme as opposed to owing a car.  Car clubs means less cars on the roads – in London, one carclub car replaces up to 20 private cars.  They also free up parking spaces, reduce congestion and they’re more efficient as users tend not to use them for unnecessary journeys.

The scheme is aimed at light car users, so if you use a car for more than 2 or 3 days a week it will probably be too expensive. In my case I only intend to hire once or twice a month and for anyone who currently owns a car and uses it lightly, a carclub scheme could end up saving you lots of money.  When you take into account the depreciation of the vehicle, tax, MOT, servicing, repairs, parking and fuel you could be talking about over a hundred pound per week to run a car.

I opted for Streetcar as they had the best availability in my local area but there are several other companies operating across the UK including Whizzgo, City Car Club and Zipcar.  Check out Car Clubs for availability and prices in your area.

As for the Streetcar experience so far, it has been very straightforward and hassle free. The car was parked about 5 minutes from the flat so I was able to pick up and drop really easily.  This coming Sunday we need transport to a photo shoot in Potters Bar, North London.  The location is fairly remote and we have lots of luggage so normally this would involve organising taxis or hiring transport for the entire weekend.  With Streetcar however, I’m planning on hiring for just a few hours in the early evening so it will work out cheaper than taxis.  It also means I don’t need to hire a car from Friday or Satruday till Monday so no unnecessary or unplanned journeys will be on the cards and that makes complete sense to me!

Posted in Car Clubs, Green Travel | No Comments »

Shiply – The UK’s online transport marketplace…

Saturday, February 28th, 2009

Shiply

If you’ve ever spotted a piece of vintage furniture on Ebay but were put off bidding by the costs and logistics of transporting it across the country, there is now help at hand in the shape of new website Shiply.

In simple terms, how Shiply works is – if you have something that needs transporting like an Ebay item, you list it on the Shiply website and then receive bids from thousands of haulage companies who are already making similar trips across the UK or Europe (in effect working like a reverse auction).

The benefits of using Shiply are two-fold – you get the best price for the job and can make significant savings of up to 75% off your bill and its better for the environment too as you’re helping to make use of the 25% of all lorries which travel empty on British roads every day.

Clever and green – Shiply makes a lot of sense – we like it!

Posted in Eco Tips, Eco Websites, Energy Saving, Green Travel | No Comments »

Green your bike ride for summer…

Wednesday, May 21st, 2008

Green your cycle ride

According to the RAC road traffic produces 26% of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions yet over half of all car trips are currently less than five miles and 23% are less than two miles, distances which are easily covered on foot or by bicycle.

The benefits of cycling include the fact it’s pollution free, noise free and congestion free and as petrol prices, global warming and obesity figures continue to rise there’s never been more reason for us all to think about ditching the car in favour of the healthier, cheaper and more eco friendly option on two wheels.

Yesterdays Tip of the day from Friends of the Earth highlighted this for me when it stated how a half-mile commute by bike will burn eight calories a minute or 11kg of fat a year and for every five mile cycle journey, we save 1kg of CO2 (based on a 200 g/km car).

I know I go on about cycling a lot but that’s down to the fact I enjoy it so much and I believe if everyone tried it more often it could be a real solution to our transport problems. Since we started here on ECOutlet we’ve gradually been building up a nice little collection of cycling accessories. If you’ve not checked out the cycling section for a while take a peek at our newest additions just in time for summer including our first in-house product, some bicycle clips made from recycled inner tubes as well as the new Green Oil bicycle chain lubricant and two new versions of the Reelight battery-free bicycle lights.  There’s a little bit of everything for the eco conscious cyclist looking to green their ride!  We’re also always on the look-out for clever and useful bicycle gear both for ourselves and the shop so if you have any suggestions please feel free to drop us an email.

Posted in Cycling, ECOutlet Products, Eco Tips, Green Travel | No Comments »

A greener London….

Friday, February 15th, 2008

Greener London

It’s been a busy week of announcements for London’s Mayor, Ken Livingstone, with two major new schemes planned to help combat the city’s carbon emissions. On Monday we heard of plans to introduce a bicycle hire scheme similar to the popular Parisian Velo scheme. Forming part of a £500 million investment in cycling over the next 10 years the scheme will see 6000 bicycles available for hire across the city.

On Tuesday came the announcement that from October 27th gas-guzzling 4×4s and sports cars will be charged a whooping £25 a day to drive in Central London whilst cars with the lowest CO2 emissions will be able to travel freely.

Definitely two big steps in the right direction but with an election coming up on May 1st what do the other candidates have in mind for the environment should they get the job of Lord Mayor. Yesterday all four candidates outlined their environmental agendas should they win the public vote:

  • Sian Berry – Green Party
  • Free insulation in every home
  • Cut the price of public transport
  • Triple the cycling budget and boost walking
  • Boost local and micro generation, boost self-sufficiency
  • Close City Airport
  • Reject the Thames Gateway motorway bridge
  • Boris Johnston – Conservative Party
  • Boost recycling and clamp down on fly tipping
  • Clean up fuel used in buses, encourage hybrids
  • Stop the engulfing of green spaces by buildings
  • Encourage people, including government to turn off lights
  • Insulate buildings
  • Boost wind, solar and combined heat and power
  • Ken Livingstone – Labour Party
  • Move to make bus fleet hybrid by 2012
  • retrofit all public buildings to cut carbon
  • Gear every policy to cut carbon emissions
  • Encourage people to change to low carbon lifestyles
  • Radically improve London’s air quality
  • Expand low emissions zone to more vehicles
  • Brian Paddick – Liberal Democrats
  • Develop local High Streets so people shop locally
  • Drop lowest emission car conjestion charge exemption
  • Move people closer to their jobs to cut commuting
  • Alter the low emissions zone to help small firms survive
  • Build a tram network to replace buses
  • Put £10 conjestion charge on all of Greater London

Alll four candidates said they would fight a third runway and sixth terminal at Heathrow airport and get rid of bottled water from City Hall because of it’s carbon footprint.

Posted in Cycling, Green Travel | No Comments »

More reasons to cycle….

Tuesday, January 8th, 2008

Cycle Lane

If one of your new years resolutions was to cycle more in 2008 then the following info might just be of interest. First up for anyone in the market for a new bike, the governments Cycle to Work Scheme is where employers can offer staff the option of buying a bike out of their pre-tax income thereby discounting the retail cost by up to 50%!

Under the scheme the employer technically buys the bike and reclaims the VAT. The VAT-free price is then deducted from the gross salary in 12 or more installments. Higher rate tax payers save 41% in tax and NI contributions whilst basic rate tax payers save 33%. These schemes are normally run via local bike shops where you can also add helmets and locks under the same terms. Most employers seem unaware of this tax break, so spread the message at work and make sure your boss knows all about it.

Another bike tax perk I recently cam across in a copy of the Financial Times is a little known 20p per mile allowance for work related travel on your bike. You can’t claim for commuting but if say you use your bike to travel to meetings then your employer can pay you up to 20p per mile tax-free.  If your employer pays you nothing or less than 20p per mile you can claim a deduction from taxable income to reduce your tax bill..Hooray!  So say you cycle 20 miles a week to meetings you could claim £160 of mileage allowance thus saving up to £64 in tax.  The two schemes above however do not work concurrently so you can only claim the 20p allowance if you fully own the bike yourself.

The strangest perk of all though is that as a cyclist you can also claim for ‘cyclists breakfasts’ as a no-cost tax free benefit! The only small catch though…you’re only allowed 6 breakfasts a year!

Posted in Carbon Footprint, Cycling, Eco Tips, Eco Websites, Green Travel | No Comments »

Cycling in the dark….

Monday, October 15th, 2007

Eco Bike Lights

In less than two weeks time, British summertime officially draws to a close with the clocks going back one hour and darker evenings upon us.

When we formed ECOutlet last year, I was very keen to include a cycling section in the shop for two reasons, the first being to help try and promote cycling as a sustainable mode of transport and secondly because we had found some great eco friendly cycle light options which were all battery-free so better for the environment and as with so many eco products cheaper in the long run.

One of our suppliers, Pedalite have put together a promo video for the pedal lights which is a neat little way of showing how well they work in the dark. More details on how they operate can be found on the Pedalite page but have a look at the video over on the top right to see them in animated action. Our latest additions to the cycling range are from Trevor Baylis, the wind-up micro bike lights which provide 90 minutes of light for just 1 minute of winding. Our other main product, the magentically-powered Reelight Bike Lights are also excellent for night-time visibility on your bike once winter kicks in.

In the UK we recycle just 4% of household batteries, that’s less than 1000 tonnes out of an average 20,000 to 30,000 tonnes of general purpose battery waste generated every year. This winter be safe and be green by choosing the battery-free option.

Posted in Cycling, ECOutlet Products, Energy Saving, Green Travel | No Comments »

Freewheel Festival Pics….

Wednesday, September 26th, 2007

Freewheeling in the City

38,000 cyclists took to the streets of London on Sunday for the Freewheel event…cycling amongst the crowds it felt like the numbers were bigger but it was undoubtedly a success with a great atmosphere along the route…Here’s a few pics we took

Freewheels at Downing Street

The Mall - Buckingham Palace

Posted in Cycling, Green Events, Green Travel | No Comments »

London Freewheel Festival…

Tuesday, September 18th, 2007

ECOutlet at Freewheel

I’m quiet excited about the Freewheel Festival, the day we give cars and buses the heave-ho on the streets of London and hand it over completely to cyclists. A 9-mile cycle route has been set aside for the day stretching from Southwark Cathedral at London Bridge and ending up in St. James Park for an afternoon of entertainment and stalls. The route travels along the Thames passing by all the familiar landmarks including the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace.

Cycling is really starting to take off down here in London. In the past 12 months it is reported that numbers are up by a massive 82% and an event like this will hopefully show more people how much fun it can be getting around on two wheels. With more and more people now cycling then the pressure is also on for further investment in the cities network of cycle lanes.

The streets on route this Sunday go completely traffic-free from 11am to 4pm and the organisers have also arranged six meeting points across London for anyone interested in cycling into the centre in a marshalled group, a great idea for families planning on taking the kids along. Expect some pics on here next week and for anyone planning on attending you can now jazz up your bike a little for the event with these reflective Friends of the Earth bicycle stickers new to the shop today.

Posted in Cycling, Green Events, Green Travel | No Comments »

Solar Shuttles

Monday, August 13th, 2007

Solar Boat

The Serpentine’s Solar Shuttle in London’s Hyde Park might not be very fast but that’s what makes it so pleasant, ten minutes of chilling out and watching the world go by in silence is my idea of a nice boat trip. The shuttle which is the largest solar boat in the UK cruises the serpentine at a gentle 5 mph and with two completely silent engines it’s all very very relaxing.

The 48-foot long shuttle can carry up to 42 passengers and has 27 solar panels on the roof which provide all the energy required to keep the boat in service and compared to a diesel engine boat of the same size save around 2.5 tons of CO2 per year.

Solarlab, the company who designed the Solar Shuttle also designed the world’s largest solar ship which has been ferrying 120 passengers at a time across Hamburg’s harbour for the last five years. They also have a number of projects in the pipeline including a proposal for a 255 passenger shuttle for the Thames. The pics on their website look very futuristic and great though the Serpentines shuttle is, it would be amazing to see a more practical use of this technology in action on London’s waterways in the near future.

Posted in Eco Websites, Green Events, Green Travel | No Comments »

Tour de London…

Sunday, July 15th, 2007

Bikes

Trying to squeeze in all the sites on a trip to London can be pretty exhausting on the feet and a challenge for even the most organised tourist. Over in Paris this weekend they are in the process of rolling out 10,000 hire bicycles across the city in a bid to get more tourists and residents to tour the streets on two wheels.

London might be lagging behind but one company The London Bicycle Hire Company has been providing visitors to the capital with a unique way of exploring the streets of London for a number of years now.

Based at Gabriels Wharf on the Southbank, midway between the Millenium Wheel and Tate Modern, they offer bicycles for hire by the hour or on a daily or weekly basis. The company also organise a number of guided tours taking in all the sites of London from the East End markets to Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park in the west. Prices work out cheaper than taking a guided bus tour and with an A-Z in tow, cycling is a much easier and enjoyable way to discover all of London’s hidden jems and secret villages.

Posted in Cycling, Eco Tips, Eco Websites, Green Travel | No Comments »

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