Some years ago I was amazed how much fuel a Canadian patrol frigate (ship) burned on a regular basis while sailing. I was so amazed that I pursued a thesis on the life cycle assessment of biofuels wanting to find out different options instead of extreme fossil fuel consumption.

Unexpectedly, as is often with research, my thesis found that as long as we continue to use fossil fuel and continue to streamline and perfect the processes used to produce fossil fuels, producing anything other than fossil fuel or fossil fuel based products would be more fossil fuel intensive (more greenhouse gas intensive) and less what we want. Check out my thesis in the pdf below:

Products like biodegradable dog poop bags, cotton clothing, recycled gold from computer parts made into engagement rings, algal biofuel, bamboo toothbrushes etc. would all be more fossil fuel intensive to produce than their counterparts (e.g. plastic bags and plastic toothbrushes) because they aren't made with fossil fuel as part of their makeup (like polyester is made with plastic, which are made from fossil fuels) and the processes used to make them hasn't been optimized.

Answer: Sailing continuously, up to 300 tonnes of fossil fuel a week.
​Let's pick the high side for our quick comparison purposes to put this number (300) into perspective.

This 300 tonnes of fossil fuel burned by a Canadian patrol frigate in a week includes transportation and power generation that supports all amenities used to sustain human life on the ship (e.g. lighting, heating, cooling, fresh water and sewage treatment etc.). However, the majority of this 300 tonnes of fuel is used for transportation. Maybe 5% is used for everything else. So that's about 285 tonnes a week used for transportation.

​But there are 210 people on the ship (sailors). So for comparison purposes, how much fuel does 210 people normally use to move around on a weekly basis? (assuming that all these people use personal vehicles). 

Let's say each person travels 50km total per weekday to and from work 5 days a week. Some people travel more and some might travel less or work from home. The math (see below at end for math) says 3.5 tonnes per week total. Divide 285 tonnes (ship fossil fuel use in a week) with 3.5 tonnes and you get about 80 percent.

​Therefore, a ship with its complement of people is about 80% transportation-wise more fuel intensive than your average group of Canadian people not on a ship. This makes sense considering ship engines are moving 4770 tonnes of ship through the water at speeds of 22 to 56km/hr (equivalent to 12-30 knots).

Since I've also lived in a few places in the last 15 years, I've had someone ask me, "is it less fuel intensive per capita to fly 210 people in a plane across the country as opposed to having these same people drive the same distance individually?" So many factors to consider! My first question is "are the drivers allowed to drive electric?" ;) 

​I say, before I tackle this question, there's nothing like a hot latte, soft jazz and a toasty fireplace after being outside playing in the snow with family. I'm not flying or driving anywhere this Christmas!

​Happy almost Christmas Everyone!
Fingers crossed for a white one!

210ppl x 50km/day x 5 days/week = 52,500km/ week
Average consumption of a Canadian vehicle is 8.9L/100km
Therefore 8.9L/100km x 52,500km/week = 4,673L/week
4,673 L/week / 1,000L/m3 = 4.67 m3/week
4.67m3/week x 750kg/m3 = 3,504.8kg/week = 3.5tonnes

Assuming density of fuel is 750kg/m3 and 1 tonne is 1000kg

I love to cycle. My partner, Mike, likes to race and go out for a casual cycle with friends. I like to race too. I also like to cycle for transportation, including commuting. I cycled to and from work everyday all year round when I lived in Victoria, British Columbia. Now that I’m living in Barrie Ontario, I don’t cycle to and from work. There are a few reasons why I’ve stopped cycling for transportation, but one of the main reasons is fear of the road.

Fear of the road manifests itself in many ways.
Imagine this...
You're on a bike early in the morning when the sun is not quite up yet. Your phone said rain, but it seems to be holding off. You are approaching an intersection and stop at the red light. You see there is no longer a bike lane on the other side of the intersection. You think, "I'm going to have to get up to speed and then shoulder check to make sure there is no vehicle behind me that might try to squeeze by me". You know shoulder checking changes your center of gravity when you're cycling and makes your bike move towards your gaze. You're always having to be mindful when shoulder checking to not let your bike drift too far from the side of the road. You really hope it doesn't start to rain. Then you have to worry about traction a bit more; more emotional load is not what you need! The freeze and thaw seasonal temperatures looks like it's damaged the road ahead. Can't swerve out around grates or holes too much or you might get hit by a car that expects you to stay right up against the curb. Hitting a bump the wrong way might give you a flat; doesn't happen often, but always a possibility...

These challenges and uncertainty manifest in a level of fearfulness and stressfulness that I don’t believe anyone wants at the start of their day, myself included. As we move towards a more cycle friendly culture in Barrie, here are some tips to consider so we can all (cyclists and motorists alike) foster safer and less stressful cycling for transportation for everyone. 

I’m not going to get into bike safety details such as making sure you get a bike that fits you or what to carry on your bike or wearing a helmet. There are tons of references for these considerations; I’ve also put a little list down at the bottom for quick reference. My tips below will focus on confidence while cycling and ways cyclists and drivers can shift culture to a more cycling friendly culture in Barrie. 
I'm also assuming adequate bike lanes will be available at a minimum! (See less than adequate proposed cycling infrastructure for Barrie)

If you’re unsure, always assume that the driver of a nearby car hasn’t seen you. Waive your hand around until the driver has seen you and then move into the lane. Once you have moved, take up the lane. Stay in the left portion of the lane until you have finished your turn or finished crossing a narrow bridge etc. Being right in front of the driver (left side of the lane) lets them see you better and conveys to them that you are using the lane. If you ride a motorcycle, you know what I mean. I would also suggest learning hand signals and practicing them all the time so they become a habit.

Map out your bike route for predictable routes you plan to take where there are bike lanes. Barrie is horrible for bike lanes (see Google maps screenshot photo below of the Barrie area cycling lanes - or lack there of).  

​Try taking deep breaths through your nose while you cycle. The only way I can relax and breath is if I am completely in the moment and aware of everything going on around me. Listening to music while cycling is a death wish. I can anticipate so much and react quickly when I can see and hear what’s going on around me and I'm focused.

​Take your time when it’s raining. Take it easy on yourself. If you are too stressed and you fall, you are more likely to injure yourself than if you were more relaxed.

​My suggestion is to keep your cycling commute manageable; commute 30 minutes max one way and maybe 45 minutes once you get a hang of it or if your life commitments permits. If you have a longer commute to work, try biking for shorter trips to the local store or the park on occasion and drive or take public transit for long trips.

Vouch for covered bike racks, showers and lockers at work. If it’s raining outside or super hot, you’ll want a quick shower. Try and streamline your wardrobe so you can leave shoes, deodorant, shower sandals etc. at work. Quick dry towels are your friend. Physically active people are more productive and collaborative.

​Provide cyclists with direction when you see them. Waive your hand and acknowledge you’ve seen a cyclist. This makes everyone feel good.

If you do need to squeeze by a cyclist because oncoming traffic is too heavy, do so at 20km/hr or less and maintain 1m distance between your vehicle and the cyclist. Try not to look at the cyclist because your vehicle will move towards what you look at. Anticipate the space needed before you pass, line yourself up and look straight ahead while passing.

​If there’s the opportunity to move into the oncoming lane to pass a cyclist, please do so! Don’t feel like you have to stay in your lane. Cyclists will appreciate you giving them more than 1m breathing room and you won’t have to worry about hitting them. 

Take deep breaths through your nose. This helps you relax. 

​Vouch for bike racks, showers and lockers at work. Bikes should be racked and not locked to fences or railings. You might be a runner or walker and not a cyclist and might appreciate a quick shower on occasion for your own circumstances. Everyone will be less stinky and healthier.

​Try riding a bike to and from the local park on the road (with a helmet on during the day); you’ll naturally be more understanding of cyclists in the future when you’re driving.

As of November 12, 2021 I was hopeful about the City of Barrie's plan for bike lanes (see below map and legend):

For those like me who weren’t up on the legend terminology, see links for references for buffered bike lanes, cycle tracks and in-boulevard pathways.

The same City of Barrie site has a different proposal now which is not nearly as suitable as cyclists cannot map out a connecting route (see map and legend below):

We truly need the cycling infrastructure as a starting point to foster a more inclusive cycling culture in Barrie. Then, we need to make the choice every day to support less stressful, safer transportation.

​What do you think is needed to help make Barrie cycling friendly?

​Bike tips:
1. Get a bike that fits you so you’ll be comfortable riding it. 
2. Always have a spare tube with you (if your bike needs tubes), small tire levers (x2) and an Allen key set. At the very least, have a tube patch, small pump and/or CO2 canister for quick repairs of your tube. Your tube can be changed out later at home. 
3. Front and back lights! Red light at the back and a white light on your front handlebars. USB chargeable works well for me; I would charge every month or so depending on the weather.
4. Always wear a helmet! Always. I sometimes want to feel the wind in my hair when I’m riding like Meg Ryan, but that can get you killed, so refrain. 
5. Dress for the weather. You’ll want a few different outfits to suit outdoor conditions. There are super light and easy to pack jackets to support small changes in temperature between beginning and end of day. I’d recommend not just looking at cycling jackets because prices can reflect niche markets where niche is not always necessary. You can find a good compact jacket at a more reasonable price without the added cost of a “cycling” jacket. 
6. Get an economical commuter bike with room to store items on it. I learned this lesson the hard way. Getting an expensive bike means you don’t want to leave it anywhere, which defeats the purpose of having a bike for transportation. 
7. Check your tires every time you get on to make sure they are at the right pressure. Once you get in the habit of checking your tire pressure, you’ll find it easy and not time consuming to do 10-15 pumps per tire every couple days. 
8. Change your tires (outside tread) when they no longer have the traction necessary to keep you from slipping (once every 2-3 years pending how much you ride).

I love trains. I had a train set when I was a kid. I remember calling VIA rail when I was 15 years old asking if we were allowed to sit on top of the box car for our next train ride; they said no for safety reasons, but I could tell they were smiling on the other end of the phone.

​When I lived in Ontario the first time, I’d take the VIA train back and forth to Kingston from Toronto during school breaks. Since those years, I’ve been on a couple VIA trains between Toronto and Montreal with 3-4 hour delays, which I assumed were anomalies or just what to expect when travelling by rail. My VIA rail experience in the prairies in 2018 however, really opened my eyes to current long distance train travel in Canada, especially in the prairies.

You may not know but Greyhound cut their bus services to Western Canada in 2018 due to lack of ridership. I had just moved to Wainwright Alberta in October for a job as Environmental coordinator and used a rental car from the airport in Edmonton to get to Wainwright. I needed to return the rental to Edmonton as I didn’t realize when I booked the car that there is only one car rental in Wainwright and the car I had rented wasn’t from that rental company! Therefore, I figured I’d drive to Edmonton on a Saturday, drop off the rental car, bus to the VIA rail terminal and take the train back to Wainwright.
​Easy peasy right?

​I arrived at the VIA rail station in Edmonton for a 2PM train to Wainwright. The trip was supposed to be 4 hours and cover 206kms. At 2PM VIA rail let us know that the train would be “delayed a bit” due to electronic issues. At 4PM we were told the train would arrive soon and we were told something similar until 7PM when the train arrived at the station. I remembered the stories one of my old friends in university told me about trains in India when she was living there; she had said two things were always certain about train travel, 1) you never knew when you were going to leave and 2) you never knew when you were going to get there!

We boarded and left the station around 8PM (2 hours after we were supposed to arrive in Wainwright). Now, I’d potentially be arriving in Wainwright at midnight. I felt frustrated, but I had a book to read and Sunday morning to sleep in a bit before cooking and getting ready for work on Monday. 

The train pulled out of the station and rumbled along for 5 minutes, stopped, and started to reverse back into the station! I flagged down a VIA rail representative and asked what the issue was. They said there was another train coming the other direction so we needed to move back and let the other train pass. 

Twenty minutes later we resumed leaving the station only to stop 45 minutes later, reverse and stop again. I turned and started a conversation with my neighbor. They said to me “Oh, yes, this is quite normal. Passenger trains do not have priority on cross country lines in the prairies. Freight, oil and gas take precedence". Anytime a passenger train encounters a freight train, the passenger gets out of the way and waits before moving on. 

I also found that in my case, when my passenger train was sitting and waiting, VIA turned off the heat. I was freezing! October isn’t one of the coldest months in the prairies, but it is sure not one of the warmest! VIA gave me a blanket as I had only brought a light jacket, not expecting to be sleeping in a train overnight. The time was 11PM and we weren’t even half way. I tried to get some sleep, but I was too cold to sleep so I asked for another blanket and tried to get comfortable.

I arrived in Wainwright at 8AM Sunday morning (14 hours after the predicted arrival time). I couldn’t wait to get out of the train. The 20 minute walk to my place from the train station was a relief; I was finally on solid ground. The walk got some of the kinks out of my back. 

At home I started asking myself questions. If I had known before I bought the train ticket that it would take 18 hours to travel 206km, I would have found another way. Had I known at 2PM the train would be arriving in Wainwright at 8AM the next morning, the predictability likely would have been soothing. In other circumstances, I would love a 206km 18 hour train ride if I wasn’t expecting to be somewhere and have a follow-on schedule. So was my inflexibility and expectations really why I had a bad taste in my mouth? Likely, but I think what ultimately made me feel disappointed was that passengers, who were taking public transportation, a more sustainable form of transportation, were given a backseat to commodities. 

​In addition to closing its operations in Western Canada, Greyhound bus services officially ended in Ontario and Quebec as of May 2021 again due to lack of ridership and subsidized competition (e.g VIA rail). VIA rail, in it’s 2018 ridership summary press release, has admitted that even with schedule modifications, it’s Vancouver to Toronto passenger rail line (the one I took between Edmonton and Wainwright) continues to experience significant delays due to prioritizing freight. Now with COVID health measures discouraging unnecessary travel, communal transport ridership and therefore train ridership has decreased. Hopefully only in the short term.

Despite my disappointing experience on VIA between Edmonton and Wainwright, I believe in train travel as a safe, relaxing, reliable and sustainable form of public transportation. I look forward to my next trip on a train where I can feel the rhythm of the train clacking over the tracks as I look out at the scenery without having to navigate vehicle traffic. I will, however, think twice about getting on a train anywhere in the prairies unless I have unlimited time and a very warm blanket. :) 

On a jog this morning I saw a Tesla parked on the side of the road. The temperature outside was 3 degrees and the car wasn’t hooked up to charge. My first thought was, “it’s nice knowing that you can charge your vehicle from home if you need to”. 

I’ve been debating getting an electric vehicle (EV) for several years now. I’m the kind of person that believes in reducing my carbon footprint. I’ve offset my car’s GHG emissions by contributing to organizations like Carbon Footprint Ltd. I’m also the kind of person that likes to maintain what I use until it falls apart, so I like to be fully committed before I jump into something new. There is also affordability to consider. Electric vehicles are getting more affordable now (see Table 1 below). Federal government incentives of up to $5,000 for EVs that cost under $60,000 and tax right off options for vehicles that support businesses. 

So what’s really preventing me from getting an EV? I feel the main reason why I have not opted for purchasing an EV is overall unpredictability and reluctance to change. 

EV battery power is especially concerning for those of us who live in colder climates because battery power determines how far a vehicle can travel on a charge and batteries don’t like cold temperatures. So what does this unpredictability look like? ​

​Extreme weather (below -10 degrees celsius) will reduce my vehicle’s battery range by between 30% and 50%. Table 1 below presents some basic numbers. Starting to dive with a close to full charge and preconditioning my vehicle, the closer to the 30% I’ll be (and the more range I’ll have). ​

​Preconditioning in the winter is an EV feature that uses charging to 1) charge, 2) preheat the vehicle’s cabin and 3) preheat the vehicle's battery and drive train before driving. Preconditioning gets the car components to optimal temperatures to drive, but extreme outside conditions during driving will still reduce my vehicle’s battery range. 

EVs have the equivalent of a gas gauge that provides range predictions based on environmental conditions and my driving habits. Now, there are no EVs with a 400-500km range (like my current Toyota Matrix), so to increase my range in the winter a heat pump is important. 

​Along with other ways to save battery power while driving, EVs with a heat pump improve driving range in the winter. Certain EVs models of Nissan, Hyundai, Kia and now Tesla (model Y) have heat pumps. The heat pump heats the car cabin when the car is on so your battery doesn’t have to. Heating the cabin might not seem like much, but having this heat pump to take care of my toes can increase my EV’s range by 30%. See Table 1 for some numbers. 

​The heat pump system in Tesla model Y is super fancy (and more heat efficient) and adds an extra liquid cooled condenser loop and a 8 way octo-valve. This set up distributes refrigerant and glycol between different heat exchangers in the vehicle to better distribute the heat generated by various pieces of equipment to those pieces of equipment that need it when they need it (watch the videos here for details). The model Y is a tad too expensive for me but the technology will spread fast and I’ll likely see something similar in future less expensive EVs.

Maybe an EV’s battery performance is really not that unpredictable.

I always want to say I’m open to new ways of doing things, but having to wait to charge my car is not always something I can easily make time for. Do I need to build my life around charging my car?

​ChargeHub indicates that up to 80% of EV charging is done at home because charging at home is less expensive and more convenient. Off peak time weekdays is 8.5c/kwh as opposed to 17.6c/kwh on peak in Ontario and I can charge when I’m sleeping. 

​If I need to charge during the day, I can stop at one of 81% of public chargers; Eighty one percent of public chargers (that are level 2 and level 3) are level 2 chargers with plugs that will charge all North American EVs.

​Distribution of level 2 charging stations depends on your location, however. ChargeHub has a great tool to find local public charging stations. In Barrie, for example, there aren’t charging stations within a 5-10 minute walk. Keeping winter conditions in mind, my vehicle battery will have to last me until I get home, unless I want a long walk.

​In a pinch at a friend’s house or with family, I can charge at any 120V outlet. I just need to make sure I remember to always have my car plugged in because charging this way will take 20-24 hours to full charge.

Maybe relying on an EV doesn’t really force me to change too much.

Overall, battery power is relatively predictable and for me, knowing that I can charge my vehicle from home if I need to, offsets my gas station accessibility worries. 

But, if I’m serious about moving forward with an electric vehicle, accessibility to charging stations is something that I would promote socially and politically. I’d support leaders that promote government incentives for installing public charging stations, changing the building code for residential housing etc.).