Drive Friendly

Campus commuters join the ranks
of the environmentally conscious who choose to
Drive Friendly

BY LINDSEY FIELDER
Rice News staff

Plenty of people help the environment every day. They recycle newspapers, monitor the electricity in their homes and even own water-conserving toilets.

Photo by Jeff Fitlow

Professor of Physics and Astronomy Pat Reiff holds a “55@55” sign lauding one of the reasons so many are attracted to hybrid cars: the outstanding gas mileage. (She gets 55 miles per gallon at 55 mph.) Among others in the Rice community who are driving the fuel-efficient, low-emission hybrids are, next to Reiff, Umbe Cantu, conference administrator for the Rice Space Institute; kneeling, Richard Wolf, professor emeritus of physics and astronomy; and Paul Harcombe, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.

A growing portion of the Rice community are taking concern for the environment one step further by driving hybrid cars.

As more automobile manufacturers are rolling out new hybrid models, these fuel-efficient, low-emission vehicles are popping up all over the roads, but it seems Rice employees have been up on the trend for a while now.

As a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, Paul Harcombe has always tried to do right by the environment — for many years, his family went without air-conditioning in their Houston home. When hybrids first came onto the scene about five years ago, he knew this would be the right thing environmentally for his family.

“We were aware they existed,” he said. “I’d seen them in magazines and news articles. So when it came time to buy a new car, we knew that’s the direction we wanted to go.”

Harcombe ended up purchasing his 2000 Honda Insight in Oregon. His wife, Nonie, the associate director of the Center for Education at Rice, had tried unsuccessfully to look at an Insight here in Houston. The salespeople wouldn’t take her on a test drive. While on sabbatical in Oregon, Paul stumbled upon a knowledgeable dealership and ended up buying the car there.

“We didn’t set out to buy the car in Oregon,” he said. “It just worked out that the shipping costs would be less than Texas’ sales tax, so it just made sense to buy it there.”

The hybrid system provides a blend of gasoline and electric power to the car. The gas engine is similar to the ones on most cars, only smaller. The electric motor is where the technology comes into play. It acts as a motor as well as a generator. It draws energy from the batteries to accelerate the car, but it also slows the car and uses that energy to charge the batteries.

The internal system constantly monitors several variables — speed, acceleration or deceleration — to use the correct combination for any driving situation. All this can be monitored at a glance on the dash display.

Richard Wolf, professor emeritus of physics and astronomy, owns a 2001 Toyota Prius. He said the dash display shows the current gas mileage in addition to the average gas mileage for the life of the car. “I like to watch the technology,” he said. “Not only have I reduced my contribution to global warming, but it is purely more interesting to drive [than a conventional gas-powered car].”

Professor of physics and astronomy Pat Reiff, who owns a 2002 Prius, said the technology also enticed her to buy a hybrid car. “The car uses electricity at low velocities, and the gas is only on at the car’s most efficient speeds,” she said. “The display shows at all times which the car is using at the moment.”

Reiff said after Wolf bought a hybrid, she was enticed to drive one too. “I wanted to make a statement to the manufacturers that people do want this type of technology,” she said. “People do care about the environment and it’s important to show them that.”

Reiff not only makes a statement on her feelings about the environment when she drives her hybrid, but she also lets everyone know how she feels about her car with a sign in the back window: “55 @ 55 — I love my hybrid!” She wants people to know her car can get 55 miles per gallon at 55 miles per hour.

Harcombe said in addition to the gas mileage, a positive aspect of owning a hybrid is the virtuous feeling he gets from the knowledge that his car is not putting a large amount of toxic chemicals into the air. “When we first got the hybrid, we were stopped about once a week by people wanting to know what kind of car it was,” he said. “By telling people about the car, we were also encouraging them to do something for the environment.”

Kristen Kulinowski, executive director of Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology and faculty fellow in chemistry, owns a 2002 Honda Civic hybrid. “We gave it a lot of thought, and with Houston’s pollution and air quality issues, we thought the hybrid would make a statement that it’s time to explore alternatives to the typical combustion engine that most cars use,” she said. “By driving [a hybrid], we’ve shown people that it’s a viable alternative. It’s a real car — it does everything a regular car does.”

Kulinowski said she had always driven a car with good fuel economy, but decided to show her dedication to the cause by going out and buying a hybrid. “Buying a hybrid was the kind of thing we could do to make a commitment to the environment without changing our lives very much,” she said. “People don’t want to have to make big changes in their lifestyle. I think the key to initiating widespread change is to make it more convenient to do something positive for the environment.”