Troubled German Cyclists

A love sick 16-year-old girl was stopped by police in the north-eastern state of Mecklenburg Lower Pomerania after cycling more than 10 kilometres (six miles) on a motorway. The girl claimed to on her way to visit her boyfriend in hospital and she did not know that it was illegal to cycle on the motorway.

In a separate incident in Munich, police intervened when a 32-year-old was seen cycling around the city with her naked 18-month-old baby in the child seat in temperatures of just 11 degrees Celsius. The woman, a lawyer, told police officers the child had refused to let itself be dressed and that she was only respecting the child's wishes.

It's always advisable that you should follow the highway code in your country, always be sensible, use bike lights, a safety helmet and wear warm clothing especially as winter is upon us. I am such a hypocrite, but it's good advice, and I will learn to my consequence some day. (I don't wear a safety helmet as posted in previous posts).

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Picture: Bikes on an SUV

Picture: Bikes on an SUV

My friend has been out in California taking pictures, and so I thought I would show a few of the environmental looking ones here over the next few days. First up some bikes on an SUV.

Carrying items like bikes (roof racks, roof boxes) on your vehicle, decreases your aerodynamics, increases drag, and increases your fuel consumption, and CO2 emissions. Only carry them when absolutely necessary.

2008 Fleet Hero Awards

Tonight will see the London Transport Museum host the third annual Fleet Hero Awards, organised by the Energy Saving Trust in association with the Department for Transport, and in partnership with Fleet News, Guardian and The Observer.

The awards ceremony looks to recognise the achievements by organisations large and small in reducing their energy consumption and carbon emission in business travel, through a variety of categories;

• Best Large Fleet
  Addison Lee
  Amey
  Ocado
  
  
• Best Medium Fleet
  Centre Parcs
  James McNaughton Group
  London Borough of Islington
  
  
• Best Small Fleet
  Commercial Group
  Green Tomato Cars
  The Royal Parks
  
  
• Grey Fleet Champion
  Arval
  Inchcape Fleet Solutions
  VT Education and Skills
  
  
• Business Mileage Champion
  Addison Lee
  Environment Agency
  Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council
  
  
• Leadership Award
  Commercial Group
  Government Car & Despatch Agency
  Green Tomato Cars
  Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Trust
  
  
• Industry Supplier Award
  Arval
  BMW
  Masternaut Three X
  
  
• Smarter Driving Award
  Arval
  Gateshead Council
  Government Car & Despatch Agency
  
  
• Innovation Award
  Centre Parcs
  GreenRoad Technologies
  Modec

Previous winners include BSkyB, Saninsburys Online and London Borough of Islington.

There is a real message to all the glitz and glamour, whether you manage a fleet of over 500 vehicles, or have a small fleet of 10 or 20 cars or vans, the Energy Saving Trust can help turn your transport operations green.

With funding from the Department for Transport, the Energy Saving Trust provides public and private organisations of all sizes with free, expert and tailored advice to help reduce running costs, cut carbon emissions and enhance corporate social responsibility.

If your organisation has a fleet of 50 or more cars and vans under 3.5 tonnes you are eligible for a Green Fleet Review - an independent, environmental review of fleet operations providing a comprehensive report on the following:

• Fleet carbon footprint
• Vehicle allocation policy
• Fuel economy
• Mileage reimbursement policy
• Driver education
• Mileage reduction strategies
• Best practice grey fleet (business mileage in private vehicles) principles
• Latest health and safety and duty of care issues

Since 2004 over 300 organisations from every industry sector have benefited from this service.

In all cases decreasing environmental impact of your fleet equates directly to cost saving. Your potential savings depend upon your fleet size, the type and size of vehicles you operate and the number of miles travelled.

To find out how much you can potentially save, access the Energy Saving Trust's online Green Fleet calculator.

I'm still awaiting my invite to tonight's proceedings in the post, how could they possibly have failed to send me an invite. Tonight's event however is highlighting how business can and are willing to implement change to reduce their impact on the enviroment and save on costs concurrently. Every penny saved on fuel is a penny more in profit.


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In Search of Clean Power

In this, the last of his Big Ideas programmes, James May (of Top Gear fame) tries to find smarter, brighter and bolder ways of powering the planet for future generations. So James sets off on a global search to find people who share his dream. It takes him from Guildford, where he takes a solar powered car to its limit at night, to the US where he joins some aerospace engineers who are trying to build an 'elevator' into space.

In Holland, he meets the first Dutchman in space who has put away his rockets and has swapped them for kites as he tries to harvest the power of the jet-stream. And finally, in the deserts of New Mexico, James seeks out some modern-day alchemists, who offer the promise of allowing him to drive his car on petrol conjured out of thin air.

There will be a few familiar sites in this episode with the Marine Current Turbine in Strangford Lough and the Solar Tower in Saville, which have previously been mentioned in this blog.

You can catch this program on the BBC iPlayer for a few days yet.

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