Fairfax Climate Action Committee
  • Financial Incentives for Change
  • Fairfax Climate Action Plan — Townwide Zero Emissions by 2030
  • What Can You Do for the Biggest Impact?
    • Get 100% renewable energy easily — go Deep Green! >
      • EASY—Go here to sign up (in minutes)
      • Support Fairfax's Deep Green Champions
    • Drive Electric
    • Replace Disposable Batteries with Rechargeables
    • Ductless Heat Pump
  • Fairfax - What's Your Footprint?
    • electricity
    • waste
    • water
  • What's Already Happening
    • Fairfax Climate Emergency Resolution
    • 2020 Fairfax Resident Climate Survey Results
    • Fairfax Climate Action: ScoreCard
    • 2020-2021 Workplan
    • Climate Safe California Resolution
  • Event Calendar (by Green Change)
  • Blog
  • About
    • About Us
    • Mission Statement
    • Committee Members
    • 2020-2021 Workplan
    • Join our Mailing List
  • Contact

Whats a VMT and why does it matter?

7/23/2021

2 Comments

 
Picture
The diagram above is from the recently completed Greenhouse Gas Inventory for the Town of Fairfax. 

On the left, you will see an axis labelled VMT, or Vehicle Miles Traveled. This means the total miles driven by all of us in all of our vehicles. This is measured in those blue bars. If you study this graph, you will see that, since 2005, our total miles driven as a group of people has basically stayed the same. Public transportation, biking, carpooling, changes in gas prices, nothing has budged this number. 

Then, on this same graph, you will see that orange-ish line that kind of slopes slightly downhill from left to right. That line is the emissions we create from those miles driven. 

If you are mathematically inclined, you might wonder why our emissions are going down even while our miles traveled are staying the same. The reason, of course, is that we are slowly shifting away from polluting cars to various kinds of Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEVs). This is a good thing. I have written several times about the fact that Technology is on our side in our challenge to reduce our emissions, and this graph shows clearly how that is already happening. 

The big problem is, we need to speed up the orange line; we need it to start going down faster. 

If you went back a couple of blogs, you will see the graph that summarizes our many years of GHG inventories. That graph shows that our biggest source of emissions is from transportation - the very graph you see on this blog. 

So, we have two things, basically, we can do to push that orange line down faster. 

First, we can reduce our VMTs. The fewer miles we travel, by definition, the fewer emissions we will have. It is hard for me to see, frankly, how we can reduce the VMTs. That is, I just bought a hydrogen fuel cell car, but I am driving the same amount of miles because I work in the city. 

There is the option for trying to find ways to support people working more from home, and it may be that the coronavirus experience changes our work patterns, and maybe we will see a reduction in VMTs from that; it will be interesting to see (the data really seems to lag; we only now have our 2019 inventory). 

The bigger opportunity is to shift to things that are not counted as VMTs, like E-bikes. That is, when we travel by an ebike instead of an automobile, it no longer shows up as a VMT, even though we are still doing the same amount of travel. I think E-bikes are a great new way to drive down our VMTs. HERE is an interesting article showing that E-bikes are probably one of the best ways for us to reduce our carbon footprint fast. Personally, I am trying to re-wire my brain. I am trying to make my E-bike my default transportation option. Then, only if its not feasible for some reason to use the E-bike, I go to the ZEV. In doing this, I am driving down my personal VMTs. 

In addition to driving down our VMTs, the next thing we can do is to shift over to cars that are zero-emission. 

I know that many people worry about this. Today, we do not have enough chargers around. Many electric cars do not have enough range. Many electric cars now available are expensive. 

The good news is, technology is on our side. Prices are coming down. Performance is going up. And, the government is providing extensive incentives to help people move in this direction. 

Transportation is our biggest challenge. 

As much as we can, let's find ways to get onto ebikes (and, when you do this, BE SAFE!) and reduce our VMTs.

And, when your car needs to be replaced, buy a ZEV. 

Marin is currently has the second highest rate of ZEV adoption in the country. Let's get Fairfax to number 1! 

And, one last thing. I know that many people face many obstacles in getting to this new, better future. We are not ignorant of these changes, and we want to learn more. If you find this transition hard, let us know why, and let's work together to find ways to get past the obstacles in our path. At the CAC, we want to understand the difficulties, and to work with all of our neighbors to build a better future for our kids. 

Together, we can do this. 
2 Comments
Neil McKechnie
7/23/2021 01:21:58 pm

Hey Walt! A friend of mine commutes from his home in Fairfax to his job in San Francisco almost daily. Last time I asked him about it he said he had logged over 30,000 miles on that ebike. Rain, cold, dark didn't matter he almost never used a car for his commute. Not saying I could or would have done it but it is inspiring!

Reply
Annika Osborn link
7/28/2021 11:38:36 am

Great article, Walt. Agreed, walking, biking, carpooling, e-biking are the best and if you need a car, please make your next one electric. Non-profit Drive Clean Bay Area is here to help you make the transition to driving electric. We offer web resources, EV 101/102 webinars, host EV car show, and run EV Discount Campaigns twice a year. Look for an EV Discount Campaign this fall and find out more about driving electric: www.drivecleanbayarea.org.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

      Sign up for our Blog and keep current
      ​on all things climate in Fairfax!

      By having the below box checked you are letting us know you're okay with receiving notices of community events, our blog posts that keep you up to date with the latest global warming news, and steps you can contribute to our town getting to zero emissions by 2030. Yay!
    Submit

    Archives

    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019

    RSS Feed

Contact Us

2021 Climate Action Committee

    Feel free to contact us by providing your email. We'll get back to you within 24 hours.

Submit