What are the issues?
Increased congestion in Lincoln, pollution, road rage, health problems to name but a few. The increase in cars on our roads has resulted in the air quality in some areas of the city exceeding national air quality standards. 95% of poor air quality in Lincoln is directly attributed to motor vehicles.
The fossil fuels we are using to power our vehicles are running out and the pollution they cause is contributing to acid rain and climate change.
What can I do about this?
We need to greatly reduce our use of fossil fuels and we can do this by switching to alternative forms of transport and renewable vehicle fuels.
For short journeys (less than 2 miles) you could leave the car at home and walk, cycle or take public transport instead. Find out more about cycle routes in Lincoln. Information about Lincolnshire bus services, including timetables, is available from Interconnect.
For longer journeys the train might be more appropriate (National Rail) but if you cannot do without the car why not consider car-sharing?
Or how about an alternative enigine or fuel?
Smaller Engines
As a genral rule, smaller engines burn less fuel and produce less pollution. Also, they are cheaper to buy and cheaper to run. For cars, road tax has been linked to the engine capacity of the vehicle with engines up to 1.5 litres paying a lower rate. For newer cars it is more complicated with the tax linked to carbon dioxide emissions.
Hybrids
There are now several hybrid cars on the market, with the car being powered by an efficient petrol or diesel engine plus electricity. This greatly reduces the volume of fuel used and so also reduces pollution. Grants are available from the Powershift programme.
Electricity
There are purpose-built electric cars such as the G-wiz (from £7,599, 020-8574 3232; Goingreen), while giants such as Citroën have electric versions of their models, but these drive for only around 60 miles before they need a recharge.
LPG
Vehicles running on liquified petroleum gas produce less pollution. Grants are available to switch to this fuel from Powershift.
Biodiesel
This is converted vegetable oil or filtered chip fat. The unmodified diesel engine can happily run on the biodiesel blends (5%) available on a few forecourts and switch back to regular diesel if you cannot find the blend. With some very minor modifications diesel engines have been run on 100% biodiesel (but car manufacturers do not recommend this). Find a biodiesel fillingstation.
You could even make your own biodiesel - journey to forever.
Other Biofuels
Further modifications allow the diesel engine to be used as the inventor, Rudolph Diesel, intended - running on pure vegetable oil, as available in the shops. Car conversions can keep a second tank for regular diesel in case you out of vegetable oil. Converting a diesel VW Lupo, for example, costs around £1,350 - but this is soon saved on the fuel. To find out more visit the Folkecenter site.
Alternatively, don't modify your engine and instead add natural additives to used chip fat - see Bio-Power.
Biofuels for the petrol engine include bioethanol - where waste products or sugar are fermented to produce alcohol (ethanol). Bioethanol can also be blended with regular petrol to produce "gasohol", as used in countries such as Brazil and the USA for many years.
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