Blog
HOURCAR members' earth day tips
Last week, on Earth Day, we asked you for ideas and tips for living a more sustainable life (other than HOURCAR, of course you are all helping the earth there). In addition to various biking and walking ideas, there were so many that we need to split them in to categories!
At home
- Drying clothes on a clothesline [editor’s note: sun-dried clothes feel great!]
- Turning off lights
- Taking shorter showers
- Subscribing to e-statements instead of paper [this is default for HOURCAR statements]
- Working in common spaces where lights are already on
Eat & Drink
- Carry reusable grocery bags
- Growing your own food
- Planting herbs, which (according to one member) you can even do in a city apartment!
- Using a refillable water bottle, and eschewing bottled water
- Re-use food containers, and fill them with bulk food
- Eat locally, join a CSA and shop at a coop
- Make food from scratch
Out and about
- Sharing books with friends and colleagues
- Buying second-hand clothing
- Live locally and travel less
- Traveling by train instead of by plane over long distances
Thanks for all the suggestions! If you have others, feel free to leave them in the comments section below. You can also check out the Neighborhood Energy Connection for energy-smart ideas, and come see us at the Living Green Expo this weekend at the Fairgrounds in Saint Paul (Bus #3 or #84).
HOURCAR comes to Hamline
HOURCAR’s newest car is at Hamline University. Thanks to the support from Hamline a new Honda Insight Hybrid is now available to both Hamline students, faculty and staff as well as the rest of the community on the whole. The car is parked at the corner of Hewitt Avenue and Simpson Street (you can find it on our locations page or on Google Maps). We’re excited to bring HOURCAR in to the Hamline-Midway and Hamline University!
New car, and daily rates
We’ve added a new car, at 28th and Lyndale. (You can always check out our locations page for information on where we are.) And with this new car filling in a gap in our service area, we’ve decided to apply daily rates to it. This means that eight vehicles in our fleet (#2 at the TPT ramp in Saint Paul, #4 in Elliot Park in Minneapolis, #7 in Saint Anthony park, #11 in the Loring-Hyatt Ramp in Minneapolis, #15 at Macalester College, #16 in the North Loop, #19 at 28th and Lyndale and #22 in Bryn Mawr) have daily rates.
How do daily rates work? Well, if you reserve one of these vehicles, our system will automatically charge you for the daily rate or the hourly rate, whichever is less. So reserve what you need, and you’ll pay whatever is cheapest. All other cars, of course, will continue to be charged by the hour (we do this to keep availability high as daily rates are designed to be for short, infrequent trips and are limited to three days maximum).
Thanks for sharing!
Google Maps bicycle maps—how well does it work?
But, how well do these directions work? Well, I’ve now spent some time mapping out various bicycle directions, and the answer is “not perfect but pretty darned well.” They have a blog post about their methodology, which explains how an algorithm tries to help you avoid heavily-trafficked streets and steep hills and such. (Some of us like steep hills, of course.) And it does a decent job of it. But it’s in beta so there are a few things which need minor fixing.
For instance, let’s say I want to go from our office to Uptown. Since I’m lazy, I type in “55104” (our zip) and figure I can drag the marker to my start and end points. The Googles give back:
“We could not calculate directions between 55104 and 55404.”
Whoops. They think that 55104 is centered on I-94, and you can’t bike on I-94, so, no dice. Okay, I’ll type in the addresses. Here we go (no embedding yet). That’s just what I would have done.
Except, if I’m not in a hurry, sometimes I’ll trade busy Selby and Marshall for the wooded expanses of Summit. So I drag the marker and, well, it’s not perfect. It still takes me down Summit and then on to the Greenway, but I usually take a left off of Cretin on to Mississippi River Boulevard, which is totally legal and which it won’t let me do. Harumph. That seems to be a bad point in their data.
The second issue is that the route calculator assumes that I am going to obey all bike laws, and won’t ever turn myself in to a pedestrian to navigate a short section of one way street or no left turn. I usually take a left from Mississippi River Blvd. on to the Lake Street bridge, which is not allowed for cars, but which I can do as a bicyclist, either by crossing there (it’s sort of an unmarked crosswalk) or biking on the sidewalk across the bridge or, uh, darting across the street and on to the westbound traffic side.
And then there’s a little loop-the-loop to get on to West River Drive from Lake Street.
Still, it’s fun to map your routes and see what they suggest and what you’ve done before. You might be surprised how easy it is to get from point A to point B on a bicycle! And as far as the time estimates—I’m not sure what they’re using but in a pinch I can budget 27 minutes (or so) from Selby and Dale to Uptown. (More if I can catch a draft.) At rush hour, it’s quite a bit faster than driving!
2010 Priuses Returned to Service After Toyota Recall
After reports last week of a brake malfunction in some 2010 Toyota Priuses, HOURCAR pulled the two newest cars in its fleet out of service. Safety is our first priority, so we quarantined the cars as soon as it became clear there was a problem and before Toyota issued its recall of the cars this week. The repairs dictated by Toyota’s recall have been performed, so both cars are now back in service at HOURCAR’s newest hub on the Saint Paul campus of the University of St. Thomas.
2010 Prius update
As you may have heard, there are concerns about the safety of the braking systems on the 2010 Prius. While we have not had any first hand reports, we are pulling the 2010s from service (we only have two cars, at the new Saint Thomas hubs). Until these concerns are addressed, we will have a 2009 Prius—which does not have these issues—at the Selby hub at Saint Thomas (car #25). We apologize for any inconvenience, but your safety is always our top priority.
2010 Prius safety
After recent news reports that Toyota has been directed by the Japanese government to test the brakes in the 2010 Prius, we wanted to let you know that HOURCAR is following the story closely.
All but two of our Priuses are 2005-2009 models, which are unaffected by this report, but we are carefully monitoring information related to Toyota’s testing of the 2010 Prius’ brakes. (HOURCAR’s only 2010 Priuses are #24 and #25.) As more information becomes available we will determine if additional action is necessary. As always, HOURCAR members can be confident that we are performing all necessary maintenance and safety upgrades. Our members’ safety is HOURCAR’s first priority. We appreciate our members’ diligence in letting us know when they feel that an HOURCAR needs our attention.
HOURCAR Unaffected by Toyota Recall
Toyota announced yesterday that it would temporarily suspend the manufacture and sale of 8 models of its cars. This decision does not include any of the vehicle models in HOURCAR’s fleet, but we are following the story and will take any necessary steps to ensure the safety of our fleet.
In the past, we’ve commented on Toyota’s recall of floor mats.
See us in the Strib
HOURCAR was recently written up in the Star Tribune. The article profiled a member who uses HOURCAR a couple times a month and otherwise lives without a car. This is the case for the majority of our members; many others have one car for two people and use us as an occasional second vehicle.
And, yes, we’re well on our way to 1000 members. Join us today and be part of the movement!
New North Loop Location
HOURCAR has a new location for the #16 car in the North Loop. Thanks to Franklin Bank, we have a parking spot in their lot. It’s at the corner of Washington and Sixth, so we hope it’s a bit closer to some of the activity in the area. It’s closer to the new Northstar Commuter Rail station, too, which opens in November!
