The green way home

The last time David C. Robie filled up the tank of the Ford Aerostar sitting in his Weymouth driveway was in June, when a gallon of gasoline cost about $1.80. The tank is still half full.

That's because Robie is way ahead of the game when it comes to gas conservation. For years he has relied on alternative transport -- an electric scooter and an electric truck -- to get around town to shop or visit friends.

Robie says that people have sometimes dismissed him as an ''energy nerd" or a ''nut," but he's not sounding so crazy now that gas prices have skyrocketed.

Judeth Van Hamm and her partner Michael Connelly of Hull are also ahead of the curve. They ride electric-motor-assisted bikes with trailers attached. And Jim Shipsky of Cohasset uses a traditional bike that he says will travel more miles -- 4,000 -- than his car this year.

They all say the current high gas prices make it an ideal time for consumers to think about the transportation choices they make.

There's plenty of room for the ranks of alternative-energy commuters to grow. According to the 2000 Census, only 0.52 percent of Massachusetts workers 16 and older-- that's 15,980 people -- used a bicycle to get to work. And of the 113 communities listed on the bike commuter ranking, only 11 were south of Boston towns. Hull was number 90 on the list, with eight residents out of the 5,590 sampled saying they commute by pedal power.

But things may be looking up for bike advocates, said Dorie Clark, executive director of the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition. Over the summer, interest in courses on how to ride bikes safely in traffic increased, she said.

''There are a lot of people interested in the idea of getting healthier and taking care of the environment. But, it's easier to drive. Gas prices provide a good incentive for people to bike now, as opposed to at a distant point in the future," said Clark.

''Now" is the operative word, said Van Hamm. ''We've got to change from a fossil fuel economy to a renewable economy now. I'm just delighted the cost of gas is going to make the world think about it," said Van Hamm, who began riding a bike after her car died in 2002. When she's not riding her electric-assisted bike, she and Connelly have begun to do more walking.

Robie, who wore a baseball cap full of buttons promoting clean fuel for a recent interview in his yard, practices what he preaches.

He will be exhibiting his electric scooter this weekend as part of the AltWheels Alternative Transportation Festival at the Larz Anderson Museum of Transportation in Brookline.

His Ford pickup runs off 20 golf cart batteries arranged beneath the hood and in the bed. Robie, 67, restored and modified the truck after finding it five years ago in New Hampshire, where it had been sitting for 15 years. It can travel 50 miles on a three-hour charge. He usually drives it 35 miles per hour, but it can go 65, Robie said. ''She's a pretty smart machine," he said, patting its side.

His yard is scattered with pieces of his vision of the perfect fuel future. Robie has a snow blower and lawn tractor that run on batteries. He has rescued and restored eight discarded electric tractors. His yellow one was made by General Electric in 1975, after a previous energy crisis.

He paid $600 for his teal motor scooter, and adapted it to run off batteries recharged by the four solar panels set up on his porch. With four hours of charging, the scooter can travel for almost an hour, going about 25 miles per hour. Robie, who takes secondary roads, said he doesn't need to go any faster than that.

''These things are a godsend to the commuter, but people don't know about them," said Robie, who retired 10 years ago from his job as head of the electronics department at an industrial robotics company, ROV Technologies Inc., in Vermont.

He got into energy conservation in the 1970s after being struck by the wind's ability to propel a sailboat -- ''power for nothing," he says. In 1971, he built a windmill in his yard to power his stereo; the system still provides the music for his workshop.

All of it stems from an unshakable, fact-based philosophy: ''The supplies of fuel are nonreplenishable. There is only so much fuel underground. When it's gone, it's gone," Robie said.

''We never should have put our dependence on one source of transportation when there are so many choices," he said. ''My advice to people who have a long commute is move closer or get a job closer to home."

Drawing from 1990 and 2000 Census figures, a 2004 study by a nonpartisan public policy think tank, the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth, put eight area towns among the state's top 20 with the longest average commutes. The information came out of random surveys of households with members who work outside the home. The one-way commutes in those eight communities -- Plympton, Hull, Duxbury, Scituate, Marshfield, Halifax, Pembroke, and Carver -- ranged from 35.74 to 41.47 minutes.

Shipsky, an architect and builder who works from his home in Cohasset, began to ditch his car for alternative wheels around 1992, after attending conferences for environmentalists. He has a pickup truck but uses it only for hauling supplies, he says. Shipsky uses his bike for everything else year-round -- including a recent trek from Cohasset to Trader Joe's in Hanover for groceries, which he carried home in a backpack, and a trip to the Lowe's home improvement store in Weymouth to pick up plumbing supplies.

''I love riding my bike, it keeps me fit and healthy. It's close to flying. It makes me feel like a kid again," Shipsky wrote in an e-mail.

On almost any day, he runs into a reminder of how wasteful motorists can be, and what a long way consumers have to go in adjusting their lifestyles. ''I live near a state park and I often see people driving their dogs in SUVs to the park to take the dog for a walk for a nature experience. They destroy the atmosphere of the nature experience by driving," he said.

Shipsky recalled an example of wasteful behavior he noticed while conducting a traffic survey in Cohasset Village. ''Someone drove an SUV to a convenience store for a pack of Marlboros, stopped at the cleaners, and then got in the car to drive a third of a block to go to the bank," he said. ''That's just inappropriate behavior. And higher gas prices will gradually get people to start realizing that's inappropriate behavior."

The AltWheels Alternative Transportation Festival, on Saturday and Sunday at the Larz Anderson Museum in Brookline, will showcase alternative vehicles such as hybrids, vegetableoil-powered engines, bikes, and Segway scooters. For more information, visit its website, www.altwheels.org.