Step 1 - The Energy Audit

Natural Resources Canada finally got the renewed ecoENERGY Retrofit program up and running this month so now the clock is ticking. This time around we had to REGISTER FOR THE PROGRAM FIRST before even scheduling our energy audit. We were happy that Carson Dunlop, our chosen energy audit firm was able to fit us in very quickly so we had our audit done this week. Now we have to make a plan, get the work done, get a post-retrofit audit and get the paperwork in by MARCH 31, 2012! I don't normally curse, but WTF!?

Because there could be no exposed walls at the time of the first energy audit, we could not start removing plaster/drywall or really start any work, (which we hadn't), until now. That limitation makes for a very tight design/build schedule for those of us who had planned to do some major work. As it happens, we have decided to scale down our reno plans a little so we will be able to prioritize a couple of areas of the house and the energy efficiency upgrades.

Of course, if you are only looking to do energy efficiency upgrades like putting in a more efficient furnace or adding some attic insulation or air sealing your windows/doors, then you should have plenty of time. But I still wouldn't leave it to the last minute. I spoke to a few energy audit companies before we went with ours and they all said they have been getting a lot of calls and are already talking about how if you leave booking your post-retrofit audit too late they might not be able to fit you in before the deadline.

This could be Ontario homeowners last chance for many years (or ever!) to do energy efficiency upgrades to our homes and get some money back for them. If you are living on a very restricted income it is hard to put out the extra money required to do significant upgrades to insulation and heating/cooling systems in order to lower the cost of your homes' energy expenses, so take advantage of these grants now, if you can, because the price of energy is only going up.

There seems to be a lot of evidence that whether or not Tim Hudak and the Progressive Conservatives get elected and scrap any new investment in green energy technology the price of electricity and gas is going up. The Globe & Mail printed a story by Richard Blackwell earlier this month on July 6 with the title Impact of renewables on higher power costs minimal, report says which sums up up the article nicely. Just two days ago Kate Heartfield had a post on the Ottawa Citizen Blog, The price of electricity in Ontario, mentioning their editorial board's chat with Pierre Guimond, president of The Canadian Electricity Association in which he points out that we have a big costly problem facing us in the form of deteriorating infrastructure. As it turns out this is a Canada wide problem that is going to require $293.8 billion in investment between 2010 and 2030 according to The Conference Board of Canada's report Canada's Electricity Infrastructure: Building a Case for Investment released on April 7 of this year.

And considering the downward pressure on wages for so many people in this province, the only way we consumers can really save on energy costs is to reduce our energy use as much as reasonably possible.

So.......long weekend reading: the introductory pamphlets and booklets that come in NRCan's ecoENERGY package delivered by the energy auditor, including materials from Natural Resources Canada and Canada Mortgage and Housing.

You can also access the program through the ecoACTION website. Not sure why the government set up another website separate from the NRCan one, but there you go.

Challenge to Councillors to Get on a Bike

This is a comment that I wrote in response to Councillor Parker's memo: "Why I voted to kill Jarvis bike lanes: Parker" that was posted on Cycling Hub, but for whatever reason it wouldn't post. So here it is:

If you want a truly useable network of bike routes you can't take them away from Jarvis, Pharmacy and Birchmount.

Bike lanes are needed on just about all major roadways. If you are in a car it's no big deal to go an extra block or two to drive along a faster road but if you are under your own power, it is not going to happen just like somebody wouldn't walk over to Sherbourne to go along that street if there were no sidewalks on Jarvis. If this city is serious about getting people out of their cars to make getting around easier for everyone then you city councilors have to get serious about providing a lot more bike lanes on major routes.

Taking bike lanes off Jarvis is a step backwards. There are ways to make the traffic move more quickly without sacrificing the bike lanes (hint: one recommendation is in the staff report, Bikeway Network - 2011 Update, p.17). If you really thought cars were so important and wanted to add more room for car traffic you could take out the sidewalks and then you could add two extra car lanes! But people would think that's crazy. If we provide the bike lanes now and build a great network, more people will ride and will look back to this idea of taking out the bike lanes on Jarvis as just as crazy an idea.

Nobody really liked that center lane anyway. And even if it gives those cars back a few minutes extra in their commute that is going to disappear in no time as the number of cars on the roads increase. Also, I find particularly unconvincing Councilor Minan-Wong's argument that we now have a "congestion problem" on Jarvis. The staff report doesn't indicate anything of the sort. It says cars have been slowed down a little. Cars on residential streets drive even more slowly, it doesn't mean there are "congestion problems" on our side streets.

To quote @BikingToronto: "It's movement of PEOPLE that creates economic activity, NOT the movement of cars. :)" Then there is a link to the article, Across Europe, Irking Drivers Is Urban Policy.

Once most people get onto a bike even people who never thought they could ride in downtown, they love it. I know most of those councilors who voted against the bike lanes just can't see the use of them outside certain parts of the core and that is really unfortunate since the old cities of Etobicoke, Scarborough, etc all have wider streets than downtown and could be really fantastic neighbourhoods for riding in. I know, in the late 1990's I lived by The Queensway & Royal York and rode my bike down to my job at an architecture office at Queen & Sherbourne, sometimes along the lake, sometimes along Queen St. I was never happier or in better shape.

I challenge all City of Toronto Councillors, but especially Councillors John Parker, Denzil Minan-Wong, Mark Grimes and David Shiner of the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee to buy/rent some suitable townie for men, get yourselves some nice panniers if you need to (Curbside Cycles has some really stylish ones or if you want to go high-end you can check out Laywine's in Yorkville) and ride those bikes every day, rain or shine to and from City Hall from now until July 12/13 when you have to make a decision in City Council:

Are you going to diddle around making a few ok bike routes that are useful for the people right along them and forget the rest of the City? Or are you going to push Toronto forward to be the great liveable city it could be and bring all the surrounding old cities into the plan?

You cannot know the potential or the challenges until you try being a bicycle commuter.

Progress on The Third Policeman - Bike Month Reading

This book I am currently reading for Bicycle Month is not about a bicycle per se but bicycles loom large in it as they do in a fair number of Irish books. This one was written around 1940 according to my In-House Literary Advisor.

I observed to my In-House Literary Advisor this morning, when he was kind enough to bring me a Sunday morning coffee in bed, that I think it brings you closer to the main character that you never know his name though you don't realize you don't know his name until about 30 pages in (if your copy is about 200 pages, like mine is) at which point something happens and you start flipping back through the first pages looking for a name.

I also said I thought it felt weird how I had no problem in one sense following the action but that my rational brain was confused because the events started to not make any sense...were absurd. My I.H.L.A. said, yes the book was subjective and everything was from the point of view of the one character so it wasn't like reading a book with an omniscient narrator where you might be given additional information that the main character doesn't know and therefore have a more complete understanding of what's going on.

He said he likes it better, because it provides a more authentic experience noting that in the early twentieth century the omniscient narrator fell out of favour in some literary circles "being too much like 'God'" and therefore "untenable" which I took to mean that if a writer is trying to create a work truly conveying an individual's human experience, it doesn't make any sense to have a reader be able to observe the fictitious world of the novel from above as though they were an all knowing creator.

But he said there was an explanation for the absurdity and the subjective approach in the end makes the story more entertaining and also more scary.

My I.H.L.A. thinks it's possible O'Brien (which is a pen name, by the way) had Dante's view of the world in mind summed up in this quote (and he pulled out John Ciardi's translation of The Divine Comedy):

"  For Dante, as for classical man, there was no real distinction between moral and physical law; between, say, the moral law against incest and the physical law of gravity. All of matter was a projection of God's will, and what we call physical law and what we call moral law derived equally from that will. When Oedipus, though unknowingly, transgressed moral law by killing his father and marrying his mother, a plague descended upon Thebes. It would not have occurred to the Greeks that to think of a flight of locusts as a consequence of what happened in the king's bedroom was to cross categories." ¹

I'm a slow reader and I haven't found a lot of time for leisure reading. So here I am just about 1/3 of the way through The Third Policeman by Flan O'Brien and just getting to the point where....(if you don't want to know anything at all about the book before reading it, stop here, though I wouldn't go as far as to call my coming revelations spoilers)....he is trying to report his gold watch stolen and the policeman keeps going on about bicycles.

"'Why should anybody steal a watch when they can steal a bicycle?'
  Hark to his cold inexorable logic.
  'Search me,' I said.
  'Who ever heard of a man riding a watch down the road or bringing a sack of turf up to his house on the crossbar of a watch?'
  'I did not say the thief wanted my watch to ride it,' I expostulated. 'Very likely he had a bicycle of his own and that is how he got away quietly in the middle of the night.'
  'Never in my puff did I hear of any man stealing anything but a bicycle when he was in his sane senses,' said the Sergeant,'-except pumps and clips and lamps and the like of that. Surely you are not going to tell me at my time of life that the world is changing?'
  'I am only saying that my watch was stolen,' I said crossly.
  'Very well,' the Sergeant said with finality, 'we will have to institute a search.'
  He smiled brightly at me. It was quite clear that he did not believe any part of my story, and that he thought I was in delicate mental health. He was humouring me as if I were a child.
  'Thank you,' I muttered." ²

It's funny that we don't find it frustrating that we can't get outside of our own minds on a daily basis to have a better understanding of our own story or the world around us and yet when we are reading a novel if the mind of the character whose view point we are following wanders off in ways that conflict with our own view of reality we can have trouble accepting and following it.

I have to say though that I have been completely drawn into this novel and am really liking it but feel a certain foreboding for what might be coming next after my discussions this morning with my I.H.L.A.

For more reading suggestions see Books to Read for Bike Month.

______________________________
1 John Ciardi, introduction to The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri, xv. Translated by John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003.
2 Flann O'Brien, The Third Policeman (Glasgow: Paladin, 1988), pp. 63-64.

Events for Bike Month & WCH 100th Anniversary & Architecture

I just posted some more upcoming events in the side bar. Most are bike events for Bike Month that I read about in an article in the June edition of the Village Post, Biking is the new driving, though I couldn't find the article in their online edition.

Personally, I'm really looking forward to the Bells on Bloor ride on June 18th.

More bike events are listed at:

Biking Toronto

and

City of Toronto - Bike Month

I also added the exhibit that's opening tonight at the Gladstone. Being She: The Culture of Women’s Health and Health Care Through the Lens of Wholeness,  is being presented by Gladstone Hotel and Women's College Hospital as one of the 100th anniversary celebration events of that institution. (Thanks to @gleanernews for that one.) Keep a watch out for more WCH events this year. That is one institution really worth celebrating. Funny to think there used not to be female doctors!

And courtesy of my regular e-mail from Canadian Architect with their events listings, I added a few events/exhibits that should be of interest, not just to architects. But don't believe their map that says most of these events happen at City Hall. In fact I don't think any of them do.

Books to Read for Bike Month

It's the weekend again and I feel like settling down with a good book and considering that it's the first weekend of Bicycle Month I thought I might pick something appropriate. I'm going to start with #1 but here are my other recommendations for books with at least one bicycle in an important role:

#1 - The Third Policeman by Flann O'brien
       (very funny Irish writer, book written in 1940
        but not published until after his death in 1967
        also available as an audio book on cd)

#2 - Molloy by Samuel Beckett
       (well...it's Beckett... if you haven't read anything by Beckett yet,
        I don't know how to explain it...)

#3 -  Bicycle: The History by David V. Herlihy
       (history with humour)

#4 - The Golden Age of Handbuilt Bicycles: Craftsmanship, Elegance, and Function
        by Jan Heine
       (published by Rizzoli...for beautiful pictures)

#5 - Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom
       (With a Few Flat Tires Along the Way) by Sue Macy
       (a bit of fun and politics with your bicycle)

#6 - Bicycle Diaries by David Byrne
       (yes of the Talking Heads)

#7 - Bicycle Travel Journal by Nigel Peake
      (travel log journal for cyclists to record their travels,
       incl. some drawings, blank pages, envelopes to store things,
       author trained as an architect, drawings have appeared in
       magazines such as Dwell, Blueprint & Building Magazine
       coming out in Sept.)

#8 - Bicycling Science by David Gordon Wilson
       (just what it sounds like, everything you need to know)

For pictures, descriptions and reviews of these great books please visit my shop (which at the moment only has these books! As a matter of fact the shop was created especially for these books, though it may grow over time to have other things. You never know.)
_________________________________________________________________

O.k. it's nice to have some R & R, but what about the renovation you say?

Now that the federal election is over and we've gotten through some condo business that needed to be taken care of (we also own a condo) I'm getting back to our own reno project (nearly) full-time now so expect some more news next week.

As a further aside, buying a condo is like buying into a business and moving into a town-inside-the-city with it's own town council (called THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS, oh yeah and I'm on that) large or small depending on the number of units, and don't let any real estate agent or developer tell you any different! No responsibility living....Pfff. That's a whole post on it's own....

Cleanest Renovation

Check out this house tour on Apartment Therapy... so clean for an in-progress renovation! Gives me hope. Our plan is to start small, one room at a time, probably with the second floor kitchen that is scheduled to be Mike's office. (If we can find somewhere else to put all the books he's got stored in there at the moment!)

10 + 1 Canadian women who made a difference + 2 International Women Powerhouses

Of all the newspapers, I thought that The Star had the best list and photogallery to share for International Women's Day.

10 Canadian women who made a difference

I would also like to add for architects, Esther Marjorie Hill who was the first woman to graduate from an architecture program in Canada and the first woman to become a registered architect in Canada.

Esther Marjorie Hill graduating from U of T Architecture Program (from her profile in Library and Archives Canada)

There is also Blanche Van Ginkel's entry in the Canadian Encylcopedia. Blanche Van Ginkel was herself one of the earliest women in North America to be appointed director of a school of architecture when she was hired in 1977 by University of Toronto, as described on the history page of U of T's Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design written up by Prof. Larry Richards.

Internationally (because of course it's International Women's Day!) there are two provocative women who I have been following and who have made immeasurable contributions to the lives of women and men in their countries....

Why go to the National Home Show?

A couple of weekends ago I went off to the National Home Show down at the Direct Energy Centre at Exhibition Place. It's a northern-North American style indoor market with stalls featuring everything from EcoLogoM spray foam insulation, like the Avenue Insulation Inc booth, to Milk Paint at the Homestead House Paint Co. booth, to pool tables and jacuzzis, sewing machines and pianos!

Pink Lomence Modern Crystal Piano at Grand Piano House Inc Booth

There were insurance companies, real estate agents, mortgage specialists, utility companies, arborists, plant nurseries, landscape architects, people selling garden furniture, kitchenware, in-floor heating systems, micro-fibre mops, sandals, solar panels and roofing made from recycled materials. I only had time to pop in for a couple of hours, which was not enough time to see everything but long enough to catch a mild case of the not-quite-spring renovation/re-decorating fever.

Neighbourhood Electric Vehicle Stories, Blogs and Websites - Archiving Post!

Here are all the Low Speed Vehicle/Neighbourhood Electric Vehicle links that I had in my sidebar. As of this post they are all still good and some of them very active with news. They are listed with the more active ones first down to the older stories. Keep in mind that the ZENN is no longer available. They ceased production this spring. At least the Nemo is still being manufactured in Quebec!

Revenge of the Electric Car - the sequel

Who Killed The Electric Car - official website

AutoblogGreen - automotive - series of blogs following the ZENN from the beginning

Vancouver Electric Vehicle Association

Green Car Congress - "Group Petitions for New US Vehicle Category: Medium Speed Electric Vehicles"

Houston Electric Cars - Proposed New Laws in Texas to Encourage Use of NEVs

UPS buys its first EV fleet (ZAP)

Peninsula Daily News: "Jefferson County Electrifies Travel With No-Gasoline Car" (ZENN)

Aaron Landry - "ZENN Test Drive" - Minneapolis, Minnesota

ZENN Microcar wins Michelin Challenge Bibendum gold medal in the Urban Vehicle category (2006)

Newsweek Special Report: "In the Slow Lane" (ZENN)

Runesmith's Canadian Content - Milton, Ontario

Silver Donald on Sunday - Halifax, Nova Scotia

A Year Since My Last Post

The last year has been a sad one for those of us who loved the ZENN low speed electric vehicle. ZENN Motor Company announced last fall they were ceasing production and this spring they did just that. ZENN has been positioning themselves to supply other vehicle manufacturers with drivetrains incorporating ultra-capacitors made by EEStor Inc, but there has not been much news from EEStor lately either. In any case, they are continuing to work on bringing zero emission transportation solutions to the market so hopefully we will hear from them soon.

For more see:

"ZENN abandons electric car plant" in the Montreal Gazette from December 8, 2010

"The End of ZENN" in the Globe and Mail from December 9, 2010

For the next while I'm going to focus on the green renovation of an old downtown home in the moderately cold climate that is Toronto. The posts will be mostly shorter than they have been, but today will be my transition day!

Ontario Killing the ZENN While Quebec and the USA Create Tax Incentives

It has been nearly two years since Premier Dalton McGuinty said he was going to see to it that "outdated legislation" wouldn't stop Ontario from "doing what's right for the environment". (Toronto Star article on Wheels.ca) And now, just in time for Earth Day on Wednesday April 22, the Province of Ontario looks set to reveal it's new regulations for a pilot project that will ... what? Regulate the ZENN and other Low-Speed Electric Vehicles out of the market place before they even get into the market place! The CBC News article says Ontario wants to require LSVs also called Neighbourhood Electric Vehicles to add more safety features beyond what Transport Canada requires for this class of vehicle.

At the same time the Federal Government in the United States is offering a $1250 rebate on these vehicles. Right now south of the border you can get a ZENN for under $10000 USD until the end of June. In Quebec the ZENN is eligible for a $4000 CDN refundable tax credit as part of a provincial program to encourage people to buy or lease highly fuel-efficient vehicles.

Ontario is struggling with the fact that these are lighter vehicles than regular cars. In a crash with a larger, heavier vehicle they don't hold up as well. But LSVs/NEVs have a regulated top speed of 40km/hr and are meant for roads with a maximum speed limit of 50km/hr in neighbourhood communities and urban environments and therefore they are quite rightly not required to have the same safety features as a regular passenger car.

The National Research Council (NRC) report, Safe Integration of
Electric Low Speed Vehicles on Ontario’s Roads in Mixed Traffic that the Ontario Ministry of Transportation will undoubtedly cite to justify their extra safety requirements does not in effect offer any serious evidence of grave safety risks. It is full of imaginings and things that "may" happen. There are suggestions of difficulties that "may" arise. It is a report of hypothetical situations many of which are not supported by very strong logic or justified by any examples. To suggest that the manufacturers add on all kinds of extra safety features and increase the cost of the vehicle based on the suppositions of this report is untenable.

The report also does not look at the health benefits of wide spread use of this type of zero-emission vehicle and compare them with the safety risks. Interestingly enough the Ontario Newsroom website had an announcement a couple of days ago that the McGuinty government has approved a pilot program to allow 100 commercial trucks to pull two full-sized trailers claiming "Longer Trucks Will Benefit Economy, Environment and Road Safety". The article mentions that "Studies show that LCVs were involved in 60 per cent fewer collisions than single trailer trucks." It doesn't mention what kind of damage the double trailer trucks cause when they do get in an accident.

For more on the struggles that LSVs/NEVs have had in Ontario and the safety debate click here.

This weekend I plan to write a postcard to the Minister of Transportation, the Honourable Jim Bradley, and Premier Dalton McGuinty. My basic message will be that Ontario needs to focus on urban planning and transportation safety regulations that create healthy cities. We must stop designing for stressed-out SUV drivers suffering from road rage and stop encouraging what has become a kind of arms race in the automobile industry. The ZENN and NEMO and other NEVs are a real gift that their Canadian designers have developed for city living. They're quiet and they create no air pollution from their tailpipes. They are all-weather vehicles and the best in their class. Ontario must allow them on the road as they are and give them the support they need to improve as they surely will. We need these vehicles now.

I hope enough others will do the same over the next week to convince the government that they must support this new industry in Ontario. If anyone else is interested the contact information is below. You can call them if you prefer, but if you send a letter/e-mail/fax and provide a full return address, you will likely get a reply.

Ministry of Transportation
Corporate Correspondence Unit
3rd Floor, Ferguson Block
77 Wellesley Street West
Toronto, Ontario M7A 1Z8

Alternately you can send the Minister an electronic message directly through his website here.

Here is the contact information for the Premier.

For maximum impact send a copy to your Ontario MPP I suggest clicking in "Current MPPs" then scrolling the list of their names/ridings and clicking on the name of your representative. This is much faster than using the "MPP Addresses and contact information" link which is harder to wade through.


Source: Regulations will keep low-speed electric vehicles off Ontario roads CBC News April 15,2009

Earth Hour 2009, Vote Earth with the WWF!

Earth Hour is coming around again. In a few weeks, on Saturday March 28 at 8:30pm local time around the world people will be turning off their lights to show their support for action on climate change. It started in Sydney, Australia in 2007 and is now a global event.

Earth Hour won't make any significant impact on lowering CO2 emissions. It's a demonstration of how many people around the world are aware of the threat of rapid climate change and are taking action in their day-to-day lives to slow it down. Slowing down global warming is such a huge goal that it's easy to feel like one person's actions just don't make a difference. Maybe you're thinking about turning down the thermostat 2 degrees in the winter, spending $5000 to upgrade your home's insulation or $40,000 to install geothermal heating. It's easy to think: Why am I bothering? Is it really going to save me any money? Am I really going to be able to protect Richmond, B.C. or the Vancouver Airport by stopping the rise of sea levels*? I seem to be the only one on my block doing anything! Earth Hour makes it very clear that there are many individuals taking action all across the globe, the numbers are growing and the cumulative effect of all these actions is quantifiable and visible even when it is as simple an action as turning off your lights.

In Canada go to WWF-Canada Earth Hour to sign up so you can be counted. Last year Canada led the world according to the WWF with almost half the population participating!

If you are anywhere else in the world go to Earth Hour Global to sign up.

The Earth Hour Global page has a great map showing all the countries in the world currently scheduled to hold events for Earth Hour. But don't worry even if your country or city/town isn't listed you can still sign up. You could also call your mayor's office and tell them you'd like your city or town to participate. WWF also has suggestions for organizing your own event!

I signed up and I'd love to know if you did, so feel free to come back and say so in the comments section below.


*"Richmond, airport threatened by the sea" by Ken Meaney, Phil Couvrette and Kelly Sinoski, Canwest News Service; Vancouver Sun
Published: Tuesday, September 02, 2008

More from the National Home Show: The Most Lovely Water Filter and Silky Organic Bed Sheets

This porcelain water dispenser from the Montreal based company Aquaovo is just the thing that I've been waiting and hoping for, a real eye-catcher that could help bring tap-water back into fashion in this country. It can be used simply as a water/lemonade/ice tea/anything-you-like dispenser for home or office use. You can see in the top photo there is even a little magnet that roles along the outside of the dispenser that shows the height of the water inside by following its mate, a little magnetic ball floating on the water inside the container.

If you're a real purist you can add the filtration component which they describe as imitating a natural filtration process only this one is very specifically designed to remove a variety of impurities and pollutants, both organic and chemical. For more details on the various components of the filter and how they all work flip to page 8 in this brochure from their website. They even recycle the used cartridges. You can sign up for their automatic filter replacement program where you send back the used cartridge in the stamped packaging that it arrived in and receive a rebate on the next cartridge you receive.

A piece like this at home or at the office gives water a place of honour and respect. It treats water as something precious. Maybe it'll inspire us to develop a healthier relationship with the water that comes out of our taps from our local watersheds.

Removable refrigeration and automatic filling devices that are designed to go with the whole system will be available soon.

[See the World Water Council: Water Crisis for more on water management and international crises
and Environment Canada: Water Use for more on water management issues in Canada]

The other exhibit that I thought I'd mention in this post is the one I found on Natura beds and bedding. These are the softest and silkiest cotton sheets I've ever felt. There are people that propose that there might be health benefits from using natural or organic bedding, and there may be, but the main benefits of buying and using organic bedding are the same as buying organic fabrics generally. They include supporting cotton or wool producers that don't use pesticides and herbicides that pollute ground water. They even come in an organic cotton bag, no plastic wrap.

And for baby! You can get organic latex crib mattresses and all natural bedding that hasn't been treated with toxic chemical dyes.

Natura is based in Cambridge, Ontario, but they sell through retailers throughout North America. If you want to have a look at their products you can find the closest dealer through their website.

My Favourite Exhibit at National Home Show: Office In A Can

I've heard of a lot of things coming in a can, but this work space at the National Home Show takes the prize for best canned item yet. BSq Landscape Design converted this reclaimed shipping container to be their "mobile, off-grid professional design office". Yes, it's equipped with solar panels. If you want to know more about what they can do with containers check out the Container Architecture page on their website.


The National Home Show is on until this Sunday February 29 so there's still time to have a peak. If you can't make it they will also be at Canada Blooms March 18-22 at the Toronto Convention Centre. While you're there you can pick out some organic perennials or whatever you like for the green roof on your container!

Computer rendering courtesy of BSq Landscape Design

If you want more on design with containers, last week Lloyd Alter, also from Toronto, wrote about the Green Container Housing Demo in Thailand on Treehugger.

Do We All Need To Take A Field Trip to Antarctica?

Trip to Antarctica January 2009, Photographer: Michael Reichmann

I've decided that now is the time to expand this blog. Here's why.

This past weekend in Cape Town South Africa the Huffington Post reported on a get-together of a couple dozen influential people taking a field trip to Antarctica. According to the article there were delays because of bad weather during which Lord Nicholas Stern, the eminent British economist, updated the group on just how bad the outlook is for the world economy and political stability if we don't immediately address the causes of climate change. Yes, it looks like we are putting CO2 into the atmosphere even faster since 2000 than we were in the 1990s according to a report by the Carnegie Institution for Science (February 14 article in the Huffington Post). Not only that but the same institution was reported by the CBC in January as saying some of the damage done is already irreversible for a few thousand years. As the travellers in South Africa waited, Lord Stern warned of millions of people being displaced and "extended world war" over increasingly limited resources. Frightening indeed, but Stern is still optimistic that we can avoid the worst of these if we act now.

A recent World Watch Institute report stated: "Global greenhouse gas emissions need to peak before 2020 and decrease drastically until 2050..." and "More CO2 will have to be absorbed than emitted in the second half of this century."
(January 14, 2009 BBC article "World 'needs radical cuts' on CO2")

Part of me just had to laugh. Do they really think this is possible? For Westerners it's easy to come up with reasons not to try. It's going to cost a bit of money up front even if it does pay us back in the long run. People are happy with their lives right now and don't want to change.

But the way I see it, if it needs to be done, then we just have to do it.

My partner and I lead a relatively low carbon existence already, living downtown without a car and eating our share of organic and locally grown food, but we could certainly do more. So I'm expanding this blog to figure out what else we can do to improve things. Being an urbanite with a background in architecture I'm going to look at city living, good design, green design, art and communities. A few field trips to see what's going on in other places and what other people are doing would be fun too. As for going to Antarctica, here's a video clip from last night's Daily Planet of some Canadian students landing on this great continent for the first time and here's a link with information on an upcoming exhibit of photographs at the Luminous Landscape Gallery in Toronto in March.

Let me know what you think.

Referenced articles on what the biggest research organizations have been saying in the last 2 months:

"World 'needs radical cuts' on CO2" by Tanya Syed BBC News January 14, 2009

"Some climate damage irreversible: report" from the Associated Press CBC January 27, 2009

"Global Warming Increasing Faster Than Predicted" by Randolph E. Schmid Huffington Post February 14, 2009

"Lord Nicholas Stern Paints Dire Climate Change Scenario: Mass Migrations, Extended World War" by Charles J Hanley Huffington Post February 21, 2009

Electric Vehicles at the Canadian International Autoshow in Toronto

So what does the Canadian International Autoshow have this year for someone who wants to go out and buy an all electric vehicle right now? Here I mostly restrict myself to products that are market ready and available for purchase in Canada. Some are market ready and we should be able to buy them but can't because provincial or territorial regulations don't allow them yet.

If you live anywhere other than New Brunswick or the Northwest Territories regulations allow you to drive one of these:

Electric Scooter by ElectroWheels**

I love this one! As soon as I have a shed to park it in I'm going to run out and buy one. Even though it looks like a scooter, it's classified as an electric bicycle (notice the pedals down at the side) which means everyone riding one has to wear a helmet regardless of age, but you don't need a licence or insurance. You just need to be over the age of 14. They have a regulated top speed of 32km/hr and this is plenty fast enough for the average person on a bicycle!* There are a few brands of electric bicycles, scooters, tricycles and limited speed motorcycles on the market and you should be able to easily find dealers in your local yellow pages. But if you're in Toronto and can still make it down to the Autoshow, ElectroWheels is offering a discount from regular in store retail prices if you buy at the show. ElectroWheels bikes/scooters are assembled in Canada from imported parts from China and they configure a variety of models. I'd say this qualifies as a made in Canada product considering the extent to which vehicle manufacture is almost never done in entirely one country anymore .**

If you live in Alberta in addition to being able to buy and ride electric bicycles and scooters you can also get one of these babies:

Vectrix 100% Electric, Zero Emissions Motorcycle

This Vectrix electric motorcycle has a top speed of 100km/hr and is currently only available in Calgary at All Season Motor Sports. It's classified as a motorcycle by Transport Canada so you can ride it anywhere you can ride a regular motorcycle. They are looking for more dealers to carry them so they could be available in other provinces soon. Here's the Transport Canada ecoTECHNOLOGY page on the Vectrix. For more on Vectrix check out autobloggreen.

If, on the other hand, you live in Quebec or British Columbia you could buy and drive an enclosed, all-season low speed electric vehicle for tooling around town like this:

ZENN Made in Canada neighbourhood electric vehicle

The ZENN (as well as the NEMO, not featured at the show) is manufactured just outside Montreal in Quebec. These are Low Speed Electric Vehicles/Neighbourhood Electric Vehicles with a regulated top speed of 40km/hr.* On display in the GTA in Motion exhibit are the ZENN and Electrovaya vehicles, including the MAYA which is supposed to be launched this summer. For more on the MAYA see this article on auto123.com. For some inexplicable reason the GTA in Motion display is not with the Transport Canada ecoTECHNOLOGY display and National Resources Canada's most fuel efficient cars display in front window of the North Building, but instead as you come from the North Building into the South it's tucked away in behind the first escalators.

Of course if you absolutely must have a highway capable, all-purpose electric vehicle there is only one way to get it right now and that is to convert a regular or hybrid car. If you want to do it yourself one group to talk to would be the EV Society of Canada. The Electric Vehicle Society of Canada has a small booth beside the GTA in Motion display.

And no, even if you did have US$109,000 to spend on the base model of the Tesla, it is not currently available for purchase in Canada, only in the U.S. and Europe.

There are rumours around the show of manufacturers coming out with affordable ($40,000-$50,000) all-purpose electric vehicles. Even under the best of circumstances none would be available in less than 18 months to 2 years. And given the bureaucracy that could be involved in getting these vehicles approved for the Canadian market it could easily be longer. The vehicle that's furthest along is this one:

Mitsubishi iMiEV

This car is scheduled to go into production and be on the Japanese market this year, but there has been no announcement about the timeline for launching it in North America.

If you want to see it this is the last weekend for the Autoshow in Toronto. It goes until 10pm tonight Saturday February 21 or tomorrow Sunday February 22 from 10:30am to 6pm.

Here are a few Toronto Star articles on Wheels.ca with some of the highlights:

Alternative-power cars debuting in Toronto: Alternative fuel cars mix performance, efficiency

"The future of the car takes shape: GTA in Motion exhibit explains how electricity will play a vital role in the car of tomorrow"

*edit February 22: Added information on regulated vehicle speeds.
**edit February 22: Removed the "Made in Canada" description. Will follow up to see if this was just a misunderstanding with the sales representative at the show. A company spokesperson confirmed that they are assembled in Canada from parts manufactured in China but did not say where the designs originate.

Ontario in Fourth Place in Race to get Low Speed Electric Vehicles on Public Roads

O.k. so maybe this race is more like competitions where a bunch of excited kids line their frogs up around the outside of a circle and then whoop and holler and cheer them on excitedly while the frogs alternately do nothing, jump around in random directions and occasionally jump backwards. But then it is so thrilling when one of them finally jumps into the centre circle and a winner is declared!

If you're an LSV/NEV enthusiast like me and have been following the progress over the last year and a half that provincial governments across this country have been making in putting in place regulations to allow them on public roads then you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. If not here is a somewhat rough snap shot of how the race is looking so far.

British Columbia started off by taking the lead being the first province to allow LSVs on public roads, but they are only allowed on roads with a max speed limit of 40km/hr. However municipalities can pass by-laws that allow them on roads up to 50km/hr. Oak Bay was the first to pass such a by-law and then Vancouver. Then the Manitoba Legislature passed its Kyoto bill that enables the government to make regulations allowing LSVs on public roads, but they're still working on the details. The specific regulations and when they would take effect have not been announced yet. Just days after Manitoba's announcement Quebec issued a press release that showed it leaping past the other two. It said they were beginning a 3 year pilot project and as of July 17, 2008 two makes of LSVs, the ZENN and the NEMO would be allowed on all public roads with a max speed limit of 50km/hr, though they included a clause that allows municipalities to opt out if they so desire. They also indicated that the pilot project was to fine tune the regulation of LSVs and they had no intention of taking them off the road after 3 years.

So now Ontario is finally showing some life and jumping into the fray, somewhat reluctantly it seems, and will allow the Zenn and other Low Speed Electric Vehicles/Neighbourhood Electric Vehicles on public roads. Tyler Hamilton passed along this news in his blog in early December. Check it out if you want more details.

The Ministry of Transportation indicates in their press release that they will introduce LSV regulations sometime this winter. I hope we'll hear something soon.

These regulations will most likely be based on recommendations made in the National Research Council report "Safe Integration of Electric Low Speed Vehicles on Ontario's Roads in Mixed Traffic". This is the report that Ontario commissioned earlier last year to give them a more thorough understanding of the technology and the history of these vehicles in the marketplace. The executive summary at the beginning of the report contains an impressively long list of the possible "risks" associated with allowing LSVs onto public roads. By their own admission many of these "risks" are hypothetical and not based on evidence from real world experience. From what I can see many are also based on questionable assumptions. I'll go through some of them in follow-up posts. If you want here's an old post on the safety debate.

Today, even though the government might slap a few paranoid restrictions on their use, I'm happy that Ontarians will finally be able to buy and drive neighbourhood electric vehicles! Yipee!

Transport Canada Trots Out Crash Test Video of LSVs

Well Transport Canada really seems to have it out for Low Speed Electric Vehicles. Last December 2007 they spooked the provinces by adding a comment in their regulations saying LSVs "Are designed for use primarily on streets and roads where access and the use of other classes of vehicles are controlled by law or agreement." According to the law it is not Transport Canada's role to decide where vehicles are allowed to be used. Provinces and territories regulate vehicle licensing and where they can be driven. So sticking this comment into the straight forward description of the vehicles characteristics and safety features is just simply inappropriate interference with provincial and territorial decision making. Also by phrasing it the way they do they make it sound like it is not their opinion they are expressing but that they are explaining the intentions of the designers and manufacturers of these vehicles which is completely untrue.

In their latest jab at LSVs this week they posted a video of a series of crash tests of Low Speed Electric Vehicles on their website followed by very patronizing comments about how unsafe these vehicles are to drive on roads in mixed traffic. [This link was updated on Feb 10, 2009 because Transport Canada has moved and revised the page. Their revised page addresses some of the concerns I raised in my letter - see below - but still maintains an unprofessionally biased tone against the industry and a patronizing attitude towards consumers. Also I have found out that these are old crash test videos and in many cases do not depict current models.]

By comparison here is a story of an actual real world accident in a ZENN.

Here is an excerpt of the letter I sent to the Honourable John Baird, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities via his website:

"I was quite angered by Transport Canada's portrayal of LSVs as unsafe compared to regular cars for urban driving through the posting of the dramatic crash test video on your website and the accompanying comments. They are not providing balanced and complete information on the health and safety evaluation of this vehicle type compared to other vehicles.

All cars are unsafe to a degree and everyone takes risks in driving. I would like to see you post the results of all vehicle crash tests on your website and for proper comparison they should be crash tests of those vehicles at their maximum speeds. And if those speeds aren't regulated then they should be the legal speed limit as well as the actual attainable speed of the vehicle. And then people can start to get a look at what is allowed in our society as an acceptable risk for people to take with themselves and their children for sake of individual travel.

The big picture, which is not discussed on this new page, is that even though these vehicles do not offer as much protection in a crash as a regular high speed car, real world experience shows that they get into fewer and less serious accidents and are therefore safer to drive. Also there is no comparison of how they rate, in the real world, with other vehicles that are allowed on our roads such as motorcycles or motor scooters.

I hope you will look into this extraordinary attack on LSVs that continues from Transport Canada and investigate to see if there may be some person(s) in the department who for some personal reason/bias is trying to undermine the growth of this increasingly popular industry. Because otherwise, given all the available information, I truly cannot understand why this special attention is being given to discourage the use of LSVs as opposed to other considerably more dangerous vehicle types.

Can they honestly think that parents would rather have their teenager driving around on a motorcycle than in a LSV? Our society is changing it's attitudes towards what we want in our vehicles. People want healthy cities and safer vehicles and LSVs are one vehicle type that can provide both of these.

As a Canadian I am proud that Canada is a leader in the electric car industry and I am embarrassed by Transport Canada's behaviour toward them.

I hope you will request that Transport Canada work with this industry to help it grow and improve its products over time and be respectful of the great achievements they have produced as a new industry. "

They are after all the only affordable choice for a plug-in electric vehicle now in production. All Canadians should have the choice to buy and drive them on community roads.

For more details on the safety debate around LSVs see the post: "ZENN Running the Bureaucratic Gauntlet in Ontario"

Canadian Progress For Market Ready Neighbourhood Electric Vehicles, Fall 2008

BRITISH COLUMBIA

On September 30 Vancouver passed a motion to legalize the use of Low-Speed Electric Vehicles (which they also call Zero Emissions Neighbourhood Electric Vehicles) on roads with a maximum speed limit of 50km/hr. The only other limitation is that LSVs have to drive in the right hand lane except when they need to make a left turn. A problem still to be resolved is that Vancouver's bridges and some of the main city roads have a speed limit of 60km/hr. City staff are now working out the details and are considering the possibility of lowering some speed limits.

Zero Emissions Neighourhood Electric Vehicles are sold in passenger and light duty truck versions and have a regulated top speed of 40km/hr.

In the U.S.A this translates to 25 miles/hr with the exception of some states that allow them a maximum speed of 35 miles/hr.

Here is the link to the article in the Vancouver Sun "Small Electric Cars Get Big City Boost" by Brian Morton.

Here is the link to the September 30 Vancouver City Council meeting minutes. Look to page 7 for the motion on Low-Speed Vehicles.


QUEBEC

On October 4 the ZENN Motor Company had a big party to officially launch its retail sales operation at its assembly plant in St. Jerome, Quebec. Future Quebec customers and fans and supporters from outside Quebec were able to take the cars for a drive and celebrate a new start for the electric car industry in their province.

For some good pics and details on this event check out the article The ZENN Now Available in Canada! on the Canadian Automotive Network's website.

Also available in Quebec is the NEMO.

Can You Drive a ZENN or any NEV in B.C.? Ask Your City Councilor!

It turns out British Columbia isn't the Neighbourhood Electric Vehicle paradise that we thought it was. At least not yet. The province has created regulations to allow NEVs on public roads but only roads with a 40km/hr speed limit. They can only be driven on roads within cities or municipalities with a 50km/hr speed limit if the city or municipality passes a bylaw allowing them.

And municipalities in B.C., starting with Oak Bay have begun to pass just such bylaws.

Check out VernonBlog for a good rundown on B.C. and Neighbourhood Electric Vehicles.

If other provinces follow this model we might all need to be calling our city councilors!