TRAVERSE CITY Canola oil was a star of the picnic.
This Canadian hybrid of the rapeseed plant shows promise as a biofuel, generating some buzz at the Alternative Transportation Picnic. Sponsored by the Traverse Bay Watershed Greens, Monday evening's gathering at Sunset Park in Traverse City drew 30 attendees to the fourth annual event.
Paul Grayson of American Industrial Magic has three fields of the high-yield hybrid canola growing on 2.3 acres of his property near Traverse City. He is eager for his first harvest of pods, which spring from the plant's bright yellow flowers, and crush them to make oil.
"You can get 200-300 gallons an acre, it's a highly profitable crop compared to corn," Grayson noted. "There's two guys in town crushing canola oil and it will run straight in a diesel engine but in others it can cause carbon build up."
In the picnic's eclectic tradition, Grayson also brought Wendy Darling, a deuce-and-a-half ton cargo truck that volunteers with American Industrial Magic are reinventing as an automatic guided vehicle.
Despite uneasy bedfellows among Greens members and a Department of Defense pursuit Grayson and the volunteers are creating the robot-control truck for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Urban Challenge there was common environmental ground.
"I like any fuel that doesn't have any toxic elements because as a person that deals in engine conversion from one form to another I'm bathing in it," said Grayson pragmatically.
Given skyrocketing fuel costs, a future featuring canola-based biofuels as well as driverless vehicles make sense to Grayson.
"I believe that a vehicle that can drive itself can safe 20 percent of fuel in this country," he added.
Susan Odgers believes that the continued interest in the annual picnic, which brings both new faces and ideas every year as well as regular attendees, reflects increasing transportation challenges. A heartening note to her is the surge in both cyclists and BATA riders.
"I can't believe the increase in riders, it's all ages, all backgrounds everybody's so happy they're hardly paying anything to get around," said Odgers, a regular BATA rider who also, with her husband Tom Mair, owns a hybrid vehicle. "And there are more bikes on the bus, sometimes there's no more room on the racks so they put them in the aisles."
Sebastian Wentworth, 11, and his generation will be impacted by decisions made today about transportation, fuel and alternative energy. Going into sixth grade at Traverse City West Middle School next month, Wentworth attended the picnic with his mother, Amber. The family, which already carpools when possible, recycles, watches water use, and drives as efficiently as possible, was ready to learn more about and get involved.
"Right now, I think we can go either way, we can go down the bad path or the path that makes a difference," said Sebastian Wentworth, logging his third year at the Alternative Transportation Picnic. "I think the picnic is a really good way for people to get together and express our voices and look at the choices we have."
Truda and Bill Fagan of Traverse City have already made one choice they are very happy with: buying a hybrid Ford Escape. While their all wheel drive model does not get the same mileage as a front wheel one, they are pleased with the average of 31-32 miles per gallon.
"Really, it was for environmental motivations but now we're really glad we did it," noted Bill Fagan about the added bonus of saving money at the gas pump.
For more information on the Traverse Bay Watershed Greens, see their Web site at www.traversegreens.org.
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