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E-transport plan for Denmark

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A move to establish an electric car community cooperative has been mooted for Denmark. Local resident John Croft says four electric cars could easily meet the total transport needs of 12 families. And equipping each family with a folding electric bicycle would give access to a vehicle wherever it was parked with transport and health benefits for those shorter trips.

Mr Croft says WA is in the slow lane regarding improvements in transport which is Australia’s second largest source of greenhouse gas pollution. The sector has experienced the largest percentage growth, 62.9 per cent, since 1990.

Australia consistently ranks at the back of the pack in tackling its transport greenhouse emissions with Australia’s cars more polluting than those in comparable nations.

This problem is acute in Denmark where everyone is car dependent and there is little public transport. National travel surveys show an average of fewer than 18 trips a car every week.

Since the average car trip lasts about 20 minutes, the typical car only moves six hours in the week; for the remaining 162 hours it is stationary.

Of the 168 hours in a week, the typical car is parked 96.5 per cent of the time. Even in a rural community like Denmark, the average car is stationary more than 85 per cent of the time.

Seventy-five per cent of all registered vehicles in WA are private cars and, as the average passenger vehicle travels 12,607km a year, that is 34.5km a day.

Evidence shows that more than 50 per cent of all these journeys are less than 5km from home. The impact of transport on climate change could be vastly improved by making car-sharing and other metered access to shared cars an alternative solution.

Shifting the costs of transport in this way from fixed to variable costs would save users up to $12,000 a year, especially as fuel costs rise and EVCs can use renewable solar or wind power.

Anyone interested in taking part in an electric car community co-operative can telephone John Croft on 0423 495121 or email jdcroft@yahoo.com.

Denmark Bulletin 10 November 2022

This article appeared in the Denmark Bulletin, 10 November 2022.

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