http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/146/metro/Electric_scooters_could_ch ange_many_lives+.shtml Boston Globe Online
Electric scooters could change many lives By David L. Chandler, Globe Staff, 5/26/2001 It doesn't look like a vehicle that could change the world. The unassuming electric scooter, produced by a company called Personal Electric Transport, resembles an ordinary motorscooter, except for the absence of a tailpipe. The sleek under-$1,000 scooter can cruise up to 35 miles on a charge without spewing out a single particle of exhaust. And this week, three of them have been driven through New England by riders from China and Micronesia hoping to demonstrate that nonpolluting vehicles like these can change our lives or at least the air we breathe. ''We want to demonstrate that renewable energy is definitely a workable solution to global warming,'' said Vanessa Konno, a college student from the Micronesian island of Chuuk who is on a team driving the scooters this week. The teams are competing in the 13th annual Tour de Sol race, an event that promotes the development of alternative vehicles to reduce pollution and decrease reliance on petroleum. The race started in Waterbury, Conn., and concludes at Boston's City Hall Plaza this morning. Although some are exotic-looking vehicles, most of the entries are cars, along with a few pickup trucks. Most Americans tend to think of big four-wheelers when they think of vehicles. But for much of the world, scooters are far more important as a way to get around and a far bigger cause of pollution. Worldwide, scooters outnumber cars, said Anthony Locricchio, chief executive of Hawaii-based Personal Electric Transport, which builds the scooters that the Micronesian and Chinese teams are driving. And the number of scooters could still grow. ''China has 700 million bicycle riders,'' Locricchio said. ''The big fear is that these people will abandon their bicycles for gas-powered scooters. ... If 10 percent or more of bicycle riders in China convert to gas scooters, the rest of the world's work to combat global warming goes down the tubes.'' Over the past week, the caravan of electric, hybrid, fuel-cell, and alternative-fuel vehicles has wound its way through highway traffic before stopping in Pittsfield; Albany, N.Y.; Greenfield; and Worcester. The drivers come from all over the country and a few foreign nations, and many are teams of college students who designed and built their own unorthodox vehicles to demonstrate what might be possible. But perhaps none was as unlikely as the joint team from tiny Micronesia and giant China. The global-warming issue is a pressing one for Micronesia, because projections suggest that global warming could raise sea level enough to wipe out their protective atolls and fragile coastal ecosystems in the coming decades. (The burning of fossil fuels, in large part by vehicles, is a major source of the carbon dioxide emissions that scientists overwhelmingly say is responsible for global warming.) For its part, China reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by 17 percent between 1997 and 1999, largely because of concern over air pollution. Micronesia, which produces virtually no emissions, is hoping to contribute to the solution by establishing an assembly plant for electric scooters and similar zero-emission vehicles, taking advantage of a central location for distribution to nations throughout Asia. Because of China's first-ever participation in the Tour de Sol, there has been widespread interest and media coverage of the event there, perhaps more so than in New England, home base of the event's organizers, the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association in Greenfield. He Ya-Fei, a minister from China's embassy in Washington, will be at City Hall Plaza in Boston today, where the race will finish beginning at about 11:30., as will US Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta. Afterward, there will be a Green Transportation Festival and musical performances until 4 p.m. David Chandler can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Please do NOT send "unsubscribe" messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
