Alternative Power

The garbage truck lurching through a parking lot on Cal State Northridge’s Ventura County campus the other day seemed out of place.

It was one of the only gas vehicles in sight.

The campus’ alternative-fuel vehicles--which run on compressed natural gas (CNG), electricity and even human power--filled up the rest of the small lot.

Using a combination of local grants and university money, officials are fulfilling their goal of establishing a “green campus.”

To achieve this, officials have discouraged cars on campus with hefty parking fees and by offering a convenient shuttle bus. And, as the second semester begins, they have been largely successful in their bid to phase out standard gasoline cars, increase CNG vehicles and gradually switch their police fleet from cars to bicycles.

Sgt. Steve Johnston of the university police department is among the campus’ many alternative commuters. He lives in Oxnard, rides his bike seven miles to a bus stop and then takes the bus the rest of the way to work. In charge of policing and traffic on the 1,700-person campus, Johnston’s pride and joy are the two electric-powered bicycles used by his patrol officers.

The motorized bicycles serve the same purpose as patrol cars. They are equipped with a mini-siren, flashing lights and a zipper pouch to store such essentials as a bike pump, granola bar and first aid kit.

The bright blue Fuji bicycles, which cost about $2,000 each, have a large “Police” logo across the frame.

The bikes also have battery-powered motors that are activated with the push of a button. The bicycles can travel up to 16 mph.

“Let’s say you get an emergency call and when you get there you have to give CPR,” Johnston said. “It’s not going to work if you’re all huffing and puffing from pedaling so fast.”

Officer Tim Dransart, a former deputy with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, said he finds it quicker to hop on a bicycle than to drive a car on campus. “I can cut through courtyards and not go on the normal streets that a car would have to take,” he said.

Dransart acknowledged that the campus is not exactly a hot bed of crime. But he said being on a bike might actually prevent crime, because officers are more accessible to students.

“Students approach me, talk to me in a way they wouldn’t if I were in an imposing police unit,” he said. “If someone is loitering and they don’t look right, a student might just come up and let me know to take a look.”

Dani Espinosa, a liberal studies student from Santa Clarita, said bike patrols make her feel safer on campus. “On bikes they are closer to me and they don’t have to get out of the car,” she said. “And besides, every little bit helps the environment.”

Johnston said the main market for electric bicycles are police stations and resorts, which provide them for sightseeing.

The large battery, which adds about 20 pounds to the bike, is supposed to carry the rider about 20 miles before needing a recharge. Dransart said the motor usually needs a recharge by the end of the day.

Johnston said he hopes that most of the department, which will soon grow from eight to 11 officers, will eventually rely on electric bicycles. “We need to have one canine unit and a car for backup support, but we will become primarily a bicycle department,” he said.

A plan is also in the works for the campus to provide bicycles to help students get around campus. The bicycles would be left at several locations around the campus for students and faculty members to ride before leaving them for the next person.

The bikes would be acquired from the lost and found of local police departments.

In another smog-cutting measure, the campus has obtained five compressed natural gas vehicles, one electric car and eight electric carts used by maintenance personnel.

The vehicles that run on compressed natural gas burn cleaner, produce less smog and are cheaper to maintain than standard gas vehicles, said Mike Middleton, the university’s auto mechanic and inspector.

“Regular gas reacts with sunlight and creates photochemical smog--that greenish cloud you get in the sky sometimes,” Middleton said. “The CNG is a nonreactive pollutant, which means it still goes into the air; it just doesn’t create the smog.”

Some of the electric carts, which are similar to golf carts, have solar panels affixed to the roof to recharge their motors while they are sitting in the sun all day.

In addition to purchasing vehicles that don’t pollute, the university operates a shuttle bus between Oxnard and Camarillo that transports 450 students a day, triple the ridership that was expected when the bus started.

If the campus becomes the full-fledged Cal State Channel Islands University in September 2002, as planned, Middleton hopes to have every vehicle using alternative fuel or electric batteries. There are currently four pool cars, six maintenance vehicles and four police cars that run on gasoline.

“The technology is advancing so much that it’s very exciting to see where it leads,” he said. “One of the reasons I accepted the job was that I knew they would have alternate-fuel vehicles and I wanted the challenge of learning something new.”

Middleton said the administration’s four natural gas vehicles, which go about 200 miles between fill-ups, cost between $23,000 and $31,000 each, of which a transportation grant paid about a third.

He said the cars mostly stay on the campus and the tanks are filled up about twice a month. Although there is no fueling station on the campus, there are two natural gas stations in Oxnard.

“Eventually, I foresee us having a fueling station here,” Middleton said. “Right now, we only have a few vehicles, but what happens when we have 30 of them? It won’t be efficient to go all the way to Oxnard.”