Living in a kibbutz has the makings for a good life. You have no need for money, have your breakfast served like clockwork in the morning, your clothes get washed by someone else, and your kids can play freely unsupervised. Another bonus of belonging to the community of a kibbutz – a socialist model developed in Israel –– is use of the kibbutz car fleet. You don’t own a car in a kibbutz, but sign one out, when you need it.

Taking the kibbutz cooperative model to the urban environment is Car2Go an Israeli company that uses the concept of car sharing (similar to Zipcar in New York and New Jersey) transporting it to Tel Aviv.

Colbert Was Right
In urban areas, cyclists need to watch out for cars. But in more rural places, there are other dangers. 57-year-old Jim Litz, a science teacher in Missoula, Montana, learned this when he t-boned a black bear while riding his bike to work. Read on for the details.

No, It's Not Always the Car's Fault
Trikkonceptz, a poster on the EcoModder forums, has a nice anecdote about driving behavior and fuel economy (as his forum-signature says: "The biggest FE mod you can make is to adjust the nut behind the wheel").

He works at a car dealership and is really into hypermiling (he modified the front end of his vehicle to make it more aerodynamic). Some one day a customer came in for the third time complaining that his Sport Trac truck was getting 6.9 MPG and that there must be something wrong with it (it's rated at 13 MPG city, 20 MPG highway for a 2WD)...

Cash From Quatar for Fisker
Fisker, the maker of the upcoming Karma plug-in hybrid sports sedan (all-electric range of 50 miles with gas engine kicking-in to charge batteries over that, similarly to the GM Volt), has announced it has closed a $65-million round of financing led by an affiliate of the Qatar Investment Authority, a state-owned, state-funded sovereign wealth fund. Apparently the QIA wants to "strengthen the country's economy by diversifying into new asset classes." In any case, this new hydrocarbon-money should help Fisker put electric cars on the road...

Recent Comment by JSDreyer : "@ Everyone who responded to my comment, I'd hardly say this is "new" technology. ..." [read]

All images from Advanced Transport Systems- the ULTra

Personal Rapid Transit, or Podcars, are controversial; Catherine G. Burke of USC's School of Policy, Planning and Development makes a spirited defence of them in the Los Angeles Times. She notes that oil and emissions are not the only problems with cars:

"In the near future, 70 million of us will enter retirement, and inevitably some of us will lose the ability to drive a car, whether from physical disability, poverty or denial of insurance. We will need something better than the auto -- and better is here, now."

Recent Comment by JSDreyer : "Good points, David. One thing I've noticed where I live is that as gasoline p..." [read]

The Sandwich Bike, designed by Pieter Janssen and Basten Leijh of Bleijh Concepts and Designs of Amsterdam, was such a hit at the Salone de Mobile in Milan that someone broke in and stole the prototype.

Swedes want their future trains to do a lot - go faster (at least up to 250 kilometers per hour, 50 Kph faster than the current X2000) using less energy; easily navigate stretches of bad tracks and sleety, snowy weather; be pretty and comfortable, AND cost less to operate. And oh yeah, they should do it by 2015.

Green Train breaks two Swedish speed records
To achieve those goals, the Swedish Railway Group is counting on a two-car electric-driven (Swedish electricity is mostly from hydro and nuclear) train type called Regina (Swedish designed from Canadian company Bombardier) retroffited with better bogies (wheel-carrying chassis) and noise-proofing to be faster, energy-efficient and comfy. One reason the country wants to get ahead in fast trains is because of the great (somewhat empty) distances between different population centers. Another is that the government realizes it needs to reduce the cost of fast, efficient train travel to compete with low-cost airlines. This summer the hyped-up Reginas got lots of testing, and last weekend broke two previous Swedish records (287 and 295 Kph) by travelling at 303 kilometers per hour. Poor Regina didn't get anywhere near the global record, however.

Recent Comment by JSDreyer : "How does Norway deal with ice and snow buildup on the tracks? It wouldn't take much to..." [read]

New Belgium Brewing, the creator of that beloved Amber Ale Fat Tire has launched a blog devoted to supporting and promoting the social movement it launched in 2005: Team Wonderbike. Apparently, boozing and biking go hand in hand (well not literally) for the Fort Collins brewmasters—and it’s a good thing they do.