Unpaved

6. What Drives Us

It’s April Fools’ Day, and I’m at the University of Denver to hear a debate between Boulder County Commissioner Elise Jones and Gov. John Hickenlooper. The topic is fracking—mainly its impact on groundwater, fugitive methane leaks and local governance.

Over the next forty minutes, the two rehash all-too familiar talking points…

Jones: “A study showed people within half a mile of fracking operations experience five times the exposure to air pollutants than allowed by the EPA.”

Hickenlooper: “There are thousands of wells in Colorado, and we can’t find any examples that hydraulic fracturing pushed anything into groundwater.”

Jones: “We need a future that moves beyond fossil fuels. Natural gas cannot be our destination.”

Hickenlooper: “How inexpensive natural gas is…it’s the best opportunity we have for a transition fuel towards a green economy.”

Personally, I’m all for NGVs if that means stricter fracking regulations and progress toward truly renewable fuel. Looking back into that crystal ball, I no longer see Mrs. Otter and her pink dress. What I get is this multi-lens view as if from a fly’s perspective. There’s a myriad of choices. And the big change we need is a behavioral one.

Colorado is in a transition. Glance through one side of the crystal ball, and you may see a fleet of carsharing NGVs. Glance through another angle, and you’ll see a string of fully electric Smart cars on a highway, preprogrammed with Google’s self-driving technology.

Whatever the future of personal transportation is, know that a lot of it will be utilized through our smartphones. Whether it’s quantifying the efficiency diagnostics of our car, reserving vehicles for a ride to the supermarket or correlating your drive with the nearest electric vehicle recharge stations, we can program ourselves to complete efficiency. Like Karen Worminghaus said, the sooner we think of cars as a “last resort,” the better.

Botttomline: Today’s car spends the majority of its life idle. “You’re sitting on a depreciating asset that you’re only using 1 percent of its life,” Ferrero says. He then told me to play a game as I drove home. “Count how many single drivers are on the highway.”

After I leave the fracking debate, I play Ferrero’s game and count single-occupant vehicles. In my 20-mile commute, it’s better if I give the number of multi-passenger cars. The total was: six. But among the many on I-25 was an OccasionalCar.