Last week, the 2nd annual Alternative Car and Transportation Expo, presented by the City of Santa Monica, was at the Santa Monica Airport’s Barker Hanger. I hopped on my bike and rode over to have a look. I knew this was going to be better than last year’s show when I was greeted by a free bike valet service which has become standard practice in Santa Monica at big events, including our weekly Sunday farmer’s market.

Here are some highlights of my search for the perfect vehicle and some of the new toys, gadgets, products and organizations I found along the way:

Green Earth Waterless Car Wash – That’s right, we drought stricken folks in the west and Southeast have no more excuses for the layer of filth on our cars now that waterless car wash is available. I picked up a bottle for $20 and plan to give it a whirl this weekend once ash from the fires to the north and south of me stops raining from the sky. Take that you birds that keep defiling my windshield! At 7 – 10 washes a bottle, that’s a bargain, plus estimates say that an automatic car wash uses 20 to 45 gallons of water and a home car wash typically uses 80 to 140 gallons of water, so that’s a significant water saving. As they say on their website “There are approximately 240 million vehicles in the U.S. If even half of those cars used Green Earth Waterless Carwash, once a month for one year, we would save 28 billion gallons of water. This is the equivalent of 40,000 Olympic size pools or 560 million baths.” The formula is mostly organic coconut soap and other organic ingredients and can be used on the inside of the car, as well, though I think that if I can get my lazy ass to clean the outside of my car, asking me to detail the inside is a bit much. It also claims to be non-toxic, phosphate, paraben, fragrance and dye free. The founders of Lucky Earth Products, the parent company, are a very nice husband and wife team, Jeff and Lisa Peri. Their product had just been mentioned that morning in Daily Candy, a local daily e-mail blast about fashion and lifestyle, and when I congratulated them Lisa said “I should probably be back at the office filling orders, but I didn’t want to miss this!” Okay, so now I need to get the right car to wash.

California Fuel Cell Partnership – Cool, we got to see a miniature fuel cell engine power a miniature car. According to the website, here’s how it works; “A Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell is comprised of a plastic membrane coated with a catalyst on both sides and sandwiched between two electrode plates. Hydrogen (from a fuel tank) and oxygen (from the air) are fed through channels in the plates on opposite sides of the membrane. The hydrogen and oxygen atoms are attracted to each other, but only the proton part of the hydrogen atom can pass through the membrane to reach the oxygen. The electron has to take the long way around the membrane to reach the oxygen atom—creating an electric current in the process. The electron is eventually reunited with the proton and an oxygen atom to create water (H 2O).” The California Fuel Cell Partnership is a collaboration of 32 organizations that promote fuel cell vehicle commercialization, from automotive prototypes to infrastructure for hydrogen filling stations. California has 300 fuel cell cars and buses on the roads as part of demonstration programs in the state. Still, I heard again and again that these cars won’t be readily available for consumers for another 8 – 10 years. So, my quest for the perfect alternative fuel car led me to…

Southern California Gas Company – There, a very nice retired gas company worker talked to us about Liquefied Natural Gas Vehicles. Now, ignoring for a moment that environmentalists have been fighting efforts to build LNG terminals off the Southern California coast, I got very excited about the idea of having my very own pump at my house ($1400 for purchase and installation after rebates). They gave us maps of the existing LNG fueling stations and passed our test for being able to drive up the coast and back without running out of gas. The fuel is about 2/3 the current price of gasoline. Okay, we’ve got the fueling stations covered, now what about the car to put the fuel in? So he sent us over to…

American Honda Motors – There, we discovered that a Natural Gas Vehicle (NGV) Honda Civic is on the market and ready to go. Plus, the base sticker price of $24,590 becomes a lot more affordable when you take into account the $4000 federal and $3000 state tax credits. All that and it’s allowed in the carpool lane, too. At 113-hp, a 1.8 liter i-VTEC engine and 5-speed automatic transmission, this is not a bad little car. The EPA certifies it as “the cleanest internal combustion vehicle on earth”. It’s a shame that the LNG terminals themselves raise serious questions about safety and environmental impact. Is bicycle the only way to go? With my lungs hurting from all the particles in the air from the fires, I’m not so sure. Of course there were lots of plug in vehicles, but also some other new innovations…

Vectrix, Skeuter and IZIP EZgo – Electric motorcycles, scooters and bicycles galore. The bikes can go up to 25 miles an hour and when you are going up hill, they sense you struggling and will give you that little something extra. Go to the website to see pictures of smiling Daryl Hannah and Ed Begley on theirs. The little Solar Bug (http://www.freedrive-ev.com/info.html) was pretty cute, too, but I would be afraid of getting creamed by the SUVs and Hummers that the soccer moms in California still believe they need. Also, I’m phobic about motorcycles and kind of a purist about bicycles. Getting an electric boost feels like cheating. So I will probably stick to my 20 year old bike which means I better learn how to fix the darn thing. So I made my way to…

The BikeroWave – This is where they teach bikers how to DIY maintain their bikes and help with difficult repairs. Staffed by volunteer bicycle enthusiasts, equipment and expertise are available for $5 an hour with $100 membership. Not a bad deal and they promised they wouldn’t make fun of me for knowing basically nothing about bicycle maintenance. I once even road my daughter’s bike to the shop to get the seat raised where they showed me that it was a matter of flipping a lever in a certain direction, pulling up the seat and pushing the lever back down. Hey, this is complicated stuff!

California Air Resources Board - The site lets you look up all the available vehicle technologies and helps to make it a bit more digestible. Don’t you just love it when your government is actually helpful? I will be spending some serious time there next spring when my lease comes up. I’m looking forward to seeing the new Honda hybrid, but I remain open to suggestions!