Several posts ago I wrote about the obvious environmental impact of driving to church and suggested walking if at all possible, both as a spiritual discipline and a practice of environmental stewardship. Now I'd like to explore the issue of churches using vans or buses.
Oddly enough, it seems that I have often been at a church during a time when it was considering the purchase of a van/bus. Usually churches choose to acquire these vehicles so that different groups (youth, choir, etc.) can take trips. Some churches use buses to pick up members of the congregation that can/should no longer drive and bring them to services. Obviously both of these purposes are unimpeachable. I suppose the only question is whether or not the use of a van/bus actually pollutes less than using carpooling to achieve the same goals.
The virtue of a van/bus is that it holds more people than a car. So even though most of these vehicles get lousy gas mileage, they can conceivably do the work it would take twenty cars to do. It's obviously hard to compare emissions without knowing the condition of the cars, but generally speaking, the more cars taken off the road, the better.
I suppose the "X" factor might be the size and type of van/bus. Are we talking about a fifteen passenger van (which lately have been less popular due to safety concerns) or a much larger bus? The larger the bus, the more cars are off the road. However, most larger buses also run on diesel which, from the resources I have found, pollutes worse than regular gasoline (I welcome any information to the contrary; I simply could not find much comparison).
So, here are a few suggestions (mostly common sense) about vans/buses.
1. If one must be purchased, get one with very strict emission standards.
2. Keep it well maintained.
3. Regular gas seems better than diesel (I think).
4. Make sure the van/bus is always close to full of people - it's pretty wasteful if it's only for two or three people. Carpooling can be arranged for a small number of people.
Does your church have a van/bus? If so, do you think it's adequately used and kept green? How bout sharing between churches?
2 comments:
I'm going up to the Honda dealership this morning to look at the Honda Ruckus, a scooter that I've become obsessed with since somebody at the Div School started parking one under the magnolia tree. Words cannot describe the awesome.
Are you still riding your scooter? Do you have any scooter-related advice for someone who is thinking about purchasing one?
Great questions Andrew. Maybe we can go look for you a scooter when I'm in Durham next week.
I thought about the Ruckus, but it kinda looked like something out of Terminator 2 or some post-apocalyptic war zone movie. But, I just checked and it has a 49cc engine - which is what "Peppy" (my honda metropolitan) has.
I have loved my scooter. I ride it everywhere I can. Interestingly it has made me think about getting something bigger someday. I mean, 40 mph seems pretty fast until a line of cars gets behind you. But if I lived in a city where the speed limit was 30 or 35, no problem.
But the name of the game is gas mileage, and it has been awesome. I've been 715 miles on it, and it's only used 6 gallons of gas (so that's over 100 mpg).
My car actually gets very good gas mileage, but still only goes about 330 miles on a tank - which right now costs about $40. So I have to spend over $80 to make my car go the distance peppy can go on about $20. Sixty bucks isn't a big deal to you or me, but we both know what it can do in a place like Peru - especially on a monthly basis.
My only advice is to get someone to show you how to do the maintenance on it, cause I'm about to have the oil changed on it, and I know I'm going to be made fun of at the motorcycle place.
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