The Interstate Traveler Company looks like a pipe dream which is fetchingly interesting. The idea is to have a levitated public transit system. It envisions maglev train cars which are on elevated tracks. It envisions a connected solar energy system, electrical storage, etc, to make a fully self-sustaining system where there would be enough solar energy available to drive the cars in the system.
The SMART Car is coming to the U.S. ... of course, it's already been imported (legally) to the U.S. That effort was run by ZAP a company more famous for electric vehicles of all sizes (ZAP meaning Zero Air Pollution) who imported cars they commercially bought in Germany and had an American company revamp the cars to meet DOT compliance. The new plan is for Daimler Chrysler to import the cars themselves.
Cummins, a big truck maker in the U.S.A., has announced their trucks produced since 2002 are compatible with burning biodiesel B20 fuel. This is good news for improving adoption of this fuel alternative. Good news because truck owners can adopt the fuel with less concern. The article says Cummins was able to take this stance due to standardization improvements by the biodiesel makers, so I suppose that means Cummins feels there is less risk from getting bad fuel.
Paris Embraces Plan to Become City of Bikes and 20,000 Rental Bikes to be Unleashed in Paris cover a plan by the City of Paris to establish a widespread bicycle rental system. This is also being done in Lyon as well as Brussels, Vienna and the Spanish cities of Cordoba and Girona.
Cars gone wild is a CNN news report about a change in traffic laws in Holland. The architect of the change is quoted in the report saying "Chaos is an order we don't understand yet, and order is a chaos where we put in the order later on". What they've done is to undo most of the traffic laws, take away most of the traffic lights, flatten the street curbs, and institute a pair of simple rules.
The 100-mpg car is coming: Discusses how to get a plugin hybrid car.
The plug-in hybrid cars have a battery pack large enough to drive the car in electric-only mode for a significant distance. Some hybrid designs can drive in an electric-only mode, while some hybrid designs cannot do so.
Video: New Anti-Guzzler Greenpeace Ad: Discusses a video advertisement produced by Greenpeace that attempts to get across an anti-gas-guzzler idea. The ad ends with the question "What does your car say about you".
Who killed the Electric Car? Well, that's actually a very complex story as the blame is not assignable to one person or organization. This question is the title of a recent movie which examines the answers from several angles.
I have recently begun riding a motorcycle ... and while the helmet can be uncomfortable, especially on hot days, it's a big contribution to safety. So here is an article about the repeal of Florida's helmet requirement that has me rather consternated.
Report faults repeal of motorcycle helmet law
It's said that six years ago Gov. Jeb Bush repealed the helmet requirement. And since then the deaths from motorcycle accidents have risen precipitously. From 22 in both 1998 and 1999 to 250 in 2004.
The real cost of a bag of salad: You pay 99p. Africa pays 50 litres of fresh water goes into the real cost of cheap groceries shipped from halfway around the world. More and more every product, from groceries on upward, is shipped around a global free market. The high lord muckety mucks who make all the decisions seem to think free trade is the solution to all economic problems. But what of other problems it creates?
