Since the most searched for terms at Local-Yokels.com are “Spruce Grove Post Office”, “Saskatchewan Ave” or search terms related to the location of the new post office, combined with the concern we have lately for the environment I thought I would examine what impact the move to the new location might have to residents of Spruce Grove. What I came up with was a big surprise not to mention disturbing.

Since this is now a destination that you have to drive too I thought I would try and estimate how much CO2 the extra mileage would spew into the atmosphere and how much it costs us collectively.

Here is the summary of my conclusions:

Collectively we travel an extra 351,936 km per year.
Burn an extra 48,144 litres of fuel each year, costing residents an extra $42,367.12 in fuel cost.
Not only that but we are putting and extra 110,731 extra KG’s of CO2 into our atmosphere all just because of the location of the new Post Office.

Below are the details on how I arrived at all this.

First I needed to figure just how many trips residents make to the post office. Well this is an estimate but my guess is that my estimate is actually low. My estimate started with finding out that there are 940 post office boxes at the new location. That is the only basis of this estimate. I have left out the trips that are made to deliver or pick up parcels and mail by those of us who do not have a post office box. I also am leaving out the trips made by the 80 some Canada Post employees. I have purposely omitted those factors to make this estimate as conservative as possible. Since I estimate that my wife & I visit our Super Box about 2X’s per week I am making the assumption that people who have PO boxes would do the same, give or take. This would mean that residents of Spruce Grove collectively make 1880 trips to the new post office each week.

Next I needed to know what the added distance to the new location. That was easy. Since the new post office is located south of the tracks 1.8 KM from the corner of Hwy 16A and Golden Spike Road a round trip to the post office would add an extra 3.6 KM to the trip compared to its old location or a another location within the City Centre.

I then needed to find out what the average vehicle’s km/litre is. I found number this out at New Scientist’s Web Site. Since 2006, the average vehicle gets 7.31 km/litre of gas.

I also wanted to know how much CO2 one litre of gas emits. This was more difficult as when I Googled this topic I received conflicting estimates. The lowest I could find was 2.3 Kg of CO2 per litre. The highest estimate was over 11 Kg of CO2. So for this estimate I will use the lower value. Both of these seemed on the high side to me so I also used a kg CO2 per mile calculation and I arrived at 65,604.6 KG a year. Either way it’s a lot. Links to estimates: Techmind and Real Numbers

I also wanted to calculate the actual cost so I went to the AMA Website to find the average cost per Km operating cost. Which turns out to be .1505 Cents per Km. this number does not include insurance fees or the cost of the vehicle only operating cost fuel, tires and maintenance.

At this point I would just like to state that if my assumptions, logic or sources are in error I invite corrections.

So next I did the math.

940 Mail Boxes x 2 trips per week x 52 Weeks per year = 97,760 trips per year

97,760 trips per year x 3.6 Extra Km for each trip = 351,936 Km travelled extra each year

351,936 Km / 7.31 (km per litre) = 48,144 extra litres per year

351,936 Km x .1505 Cents per km = $52,966.37 total cost including tires and maintenance

48,144 extra litres x .88 cents per litre = $42,367.12 in fuel costs

48,144 extra litres x 2.3 (kg of CO2per litre) = 110,731 kg’s of CO2

or Or if you try kg CO2 per mile 65,604 kg per year.

Wow!

Collectively we travel an extra 351,936 km per year. Burn an extra 48,144 litres of fuel each year, costing residents an extra $42,367.12 in fuel cost. Not only that but we are putting and extra 110,731 extra KG’s of CO2 into our atmosphere all just because of the location of the new Post Office.

This really makes one realize just how important City Planning is. It makes me wonder how much thought and consideration the Spruce Grove’s City Administration and Planning Department has given to environmental impact and city development.

The good news is that Mayor Houston has announced the Mayors Task Force on the Environment earlier this week. I give him my full support on this initiative. I hope this positive step will be able to act as a concrete guide for our City Planners to follow in the future, including the Gateway Town Centre.