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The Snowboarders and the TDI
Whenever possible, we walk our kids to school in the morning. Of course, it’s not always easy when you have an urban, technology-linked active family of four. Life is busy. But this morning, was different. It was one of those West Coast photo-op moments. A blue sky and distinct green/white horizontal demarcation line on the north shore mountains was hanging over the city. Brilliant.
On the return trip from dropping the kids off, I spotted a silver Jetta TDI Wagon Clean Diesel, probably an 05 or 06. It was parked on the street ahead of me, and in front of the TDI a guy was loading a snowboard into the bed of a very large king cab pick-up truck. The super size kind. It was a diesel too. My immediate thought was, “why drive to the snowboard park in that monster when vehicles like the TDI are readily available?” (truck = 20 L/100km, TDI = 5 L/100). And then four other guys came out of the driveway with boards and gear and tossed them into the bed.
I stopped and we had a chat. I was curious. They thought it was pretty cool that a green guy from VW had stopped to talk diesel. The guys work together and travel 5 or 6 times a week to and from a job site in the Jetta TDI (the drive time can be more than an hour) – which was owned by the guy I first spotted loading the board into the pick-up. On the weekend (or perfect days like today) when they go to the mountain (which is 10 minutes away), they use the truck, which is owned by the guy whose house it was parked in front of!
These guys were clued in. They read about the issues online. They were very aware about the cost of fuel and the corresponding emissions. To these guys, emissions meant a warming climate, which in turn meant a shorter winter season with less snow in the future. Not a good thing for a group of keen riders.
This brief stop with the snowboarders was a breath of fresh air. They use a smart form of transportation for the bulk (95%) of their driving – the 50 mpg Jetta TDI Clean Diesel. When they need to tow, haul or move large objects, or a group of friends with snowboards and gear, they use an appropriate vehicle for the task.
For a brief moment this morning I couldn’t help but think that maybe more of us should start behaving like the snowboarders with the TDI.
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