Tom Friedman is talking out of both sides of his mouth. On the one hand, he says that America
should have been like Denmark and loaded taxes on to gas to discourage cars, subsidize transit and build a greener infrastructure on the backs of those who drive their cars with gas at $10 per gallon.
On the other hand, he is against any bailout of Detroit.
He shouts in the Times:
“We have to subsidize Detroit so that it will innovate? What business were you people in other than innovation?” If we give you another $25 billion, will you also do accounting?
Um, no Tom, they were in the business of giving people what they want. In an America with cheap gas, a real estate culture that encouraged homebuyers to "drive until you can afford it", and people spending more time in their cars than in their living rooms, who wouldn't want a little more space and a few cupholders (and now even fridges)?
...
Image credit: Wandsworth Conservative Party
Boris Johnson Promises Support to a Legal Challenge
The plan to build a third runway at Heathrow has certainly brought dramatic headlines. From protesters
breaching airport security to the UK Conservatives, usually known as the party of big business, announcing they’d
scrap the runway and build trains instead. Now we hear via The Guardian that Boris Johnson, the conservative mayor of London, has pledged an initial £15,000 (US$22,400) towards
a legal challenge should the government go ahead with its plans. More from The Guardian:
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Photo by Phil Romans
The magic elixirs of salt and brine are certainly nothing new, they have been used on our roadways for awhile now.
Salt is of course used during the winter in certain areas to clear off roads and provide more traction for drivers. Brine on the other hand is derived from gas and oil wells, and is often used to cut down on dust particulates by spreading on gravel/dirt roads.
Put the salt and brine together, and suddenly you have a mixture which is capable of melting snow with much more efficiency and with less salt, and the reason for this is simple....
Image courtesy of Motoring File
A specially designed rear spoiler could increase the fuel efficiency of minivans and
SUVs, according to a new study detailed in
Green Car Congress. The study reveals that such a spoiler could both reduce drag and nearly eliminate aerodynamic lift—effectively saving several miles per gallon worth of gas consumption. ...
Photo by
Hamed Saber
At least they could be, if a few high tech companies get their way when it comes to an idea they are working on that will enable vehicles to monitor the roads as they drive over them. These vehicle reports would then be relayed to the proper highway committees, road crews, police units, and ambulance drivers to let them know if there is a pothole that needs fixed, severe weather danger or accident to avoid, or even a pancaked squirrel that needs attention by the highway roadkill unit....
Detroit
appears to be on the road to receiving a bailout of its own, and this story is just another example of why
the Big Three are in so much trouble in the first place. According to the
New York Times, "HYBRID versions of the Chrysler Aspen and Dodge Durango seem likely to secure a spot in automotive history: the two vehicles fell under the executioner’s ax in the same month they went on sale." Here's the real head-scratching part: "The hybrid S.U.V.’s became available at dealerships in early October. But on Oct. 23, Chrysler announced that at the end of the year it would close the Delaware plant where they are built." It gets worse....
i
mage source: raisethehammer.org
We didn’t hear it in the debates. We didn’t hear it on the campaign trail. And we didn’t hear anything about mass transit outlined anywhere in the economic
bailout. It is difficult to recall anytime during the recent and ongoing economic struggle any mention of any economic stimulus for public transportation that would greatly lessen Americans' 2nd largest expense after housing....
Image from Airplane-Pictures.net
Date Set for Jatropha-Powered Test Flight
The announcement that
Air New Zealand had set an ambitious sustainable biofuels goal for 2013 created a lot of buzz back in September. But all too often such announcements amount to nothing. This time, however, the early signs are looking positive that this initiative may actually yield results. We’ve just heard via
Green Car Congress that Air New Zealand, in conjunction with Boeing and UOP, have just set a date for their first test-flight running on 50% biofuel produced from non-food sources. There’s more:
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Image source:
Flickr (with their never late carpool award)
One more free carpooling tool for helping you get around town without always having to worry about gas or driving, is
iCarpool. If you are organizing an event with your favorite greendrinks or meetup.com group, why not link to icarpool.com and encourage all of your attendees to try out the service. Businesses and organizations can also develop their own page on icarpool page setup specifically so that only employees can see others on the list and find groups near their commuting route....
Tesla Out, Fisker In
Tesla Motors recently
announced some layoffs and the closing of their Rochester Hills office near Detroit, and almost mirroring this exactly, Fisker Automotive has announce that it plans to open a 34,000 square feet engineering and development center in Pontiac, near Detroit, where up to 200 people will work on the companies
plug-in hybrid cars....
It's All About Incentives, Baby
It's no big mystery: If you have a flat rate for water, people will waste more of it than if they pay in function of how much they use. The same thing also certainly applies to cars. If people paid less insurance if they drove less, that would be an incentive to put fewer miles on their vehicles, thus using less fuel and polluting less. This would also reduce road congestion and accidents.
One company that has understood this is MileMeter from Texas. Read on for more details....
From Hybrid to Heavy
During the campaign he
sang the praises of hybrids and
rallied against SUVs, and switched his ride to
a mix of the two.
But now it looks like the next President will be rolling in a much dirtier limousine. The Founding Fathers could have never imagined it: as the
New York Times reported last week, rumored Obama-mobile is a brand new souped-up limo that looks like the typical (and
soon-to-be retired) Cadillac DTS but is actually based on GM's line of
heavy-duty 2500 trucks.
For obvious security reasons, we may never know much about this car, including how much mileage it gets, or if it has any
awesome feedback monitors. But a non-souped up 2500 series truck gets an MPG in the single digits, and emits a whopping 16 tons of CO2 per year, earning it
the worst possible climate change rating from the EPA. And this truck-limo hybrid will be so much heavier -- with 5-in.-thick glass, cell-phone-jamming equipment, and blast-proof ceramics -- that, as
TruckTrend notes, "it probably guzzles more gas in a week than most people use in a month."
It may not rescue GM. And maybe it won't speed up the transition from oil. It may sound silly in the context of
the collective. But can the Obamamobile be a hybrid? I say yes, it can....
We recently showed Paul Villinski's
Emergency Response Studio that was a wood shop on wheels; Here is an interesting version from 1938 of a woodworking shop that would tour California schools. From
Modern Mechanix...
Photo credits: Marisa Harris.
Aerosmith may have thought having sex in an elevator was something to sing about, but what about sex in a green vehicle? Today's quest for low emissions and high efficiency has brought us yet another obstacle to overcome: How to have sex in a small green vehicles, such as the
Smart Fortwo, Chevy Aveo, or
Mini Cooper. These more-efficient vehicles are great, sure, but how can a couple fit so much, er, love into a cool-yet-
compact vehicles? Generally narrow in the cockpit with an obtrusive shifter in the center and low ceiling height, it's clear these machines were not designed for this type of adventure.
So what's a horny 'Hugger to do? Read on for our illustrated guide to doin' it well in a small car....
Photo credited to
Thingermeijig
The well crafted
Piaggio three-wheel scooter has gone where
few scooters have gone before... totally green!
Whether you deem yours male or female, it won't fall down every time a sexy woman or man walks by (hence the photo), thanks to it three wheel stability http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tech-transport/mgm-102b-hybrid-wheels.html. The MP3 scooter from Piaggio has had mixed reviews on its (three-wheel) form, however pretty solid reviews on its function (unmatched traction, stability and braking).
Thanks to its stringent engineering, the three wheeled Piaggio is capable of leaning to one side at a full 40 degree angle during cornering at practically any speed, which translates into making riding this scooter not only more fun, but also more safe. The Piaggio MP3 is easy to handle, quick, fun to drive, and now it has gone ultra green with its newly introduced plug-in hybrid model....
An Ironic Situation
Public transit, which in the face of record gas prices
has been looking increasingly attractive (although
fuel costs have recently declined), is now being challenged by the economic downturn as certain revenue streams dry up. For example, the
Metropolitan Transit Authority "faces a $1.2 billion budget deficit in 2009 — $300 million more than it had projected in July — that will very likely require new fare and toll increases or service reductions." This deficit comes in spite of the fact that
ridership is up across the country. In the case of the M.T.A., which servces New York City and surrounding areas, "the deficit was caused. . .by the collapse of revenues from real estate and corporate taxes." The irony here is that while
high gas prices encouraged more people to consider public transit, and the
economic downturn only strengthened the need to save money, many transit authorities will be forced to raise fares and decrease services....
Electric Motorcycles: Cool and Green
There's nothing wrong with "cool", and we have to admit that few vehicles are cooler than motorcycles (at least in theory - not all of us would ride one). You're basically sitting on an engine with wheels. Can't get much simpler than that. They're not always practical, but the people who love their bikes really
love them.
But cool is not enough. The vast majority of motorcycles are still running on fossil fuels, and that's a problem. As battery technology improves, we're starting to see more electric motorcycles: Some are commercially available, many are DIY custom jobs. Today we look at some of the coolest ones....
Making Pedestrian Life Easier
Our friends at StreetFilms have a short & sweet video about diagonal crosswalks (aka pedestrian scrambles, or Barnes dances) in Los Angeles. These make life easier for pedestrians by allowing them to get across an intersection diagonally without having to cross twice, and they improve safety because you don't have cars trying to turn while people are crossing.
Read on for the video and more details....
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