Transportation

See also Energy page

Also Global Warming

Mass Transit

California High Speed Rail video 2007. Audio update and interactive map 11/09. video image gallery

Automobiles

Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile Took Over America and How We Can Take It Back by Jane Holtz Kay

2 Billion Cars: An American Love Affair World Affairs Council video 2009

The 400 MPG Future Aspen Institute 2009 video panel discussion.

Robin Chase founded Zipcar, the world’s biggest car-sharing business. That was one of her smaller ideas. Here she travels much farther, contemplating road-pricing schemes that will shake up our driving habits and a mesh network vast as the Interstate. TEDtalk video.

"Free Parking Isn't Free". ""...These 9' by 18' rectangles of urban real estate have a vast impact on North American communities. They affect the economy, land use patterns, the design of cities and even individual lifestyles...Urban economist Donald Shoup argues that parking requirements are one of the costliest hidden subsidies in US cities today. Shoup, who teaches urban planning at UCLA and authored the recent book, The High Cost of Free Parking, is one of the leaders in the flight to reclaim cities for people, not parking. "

Electric Cars

Forget about the hybrid auto -- Shai Agassi says it's electric cars or bust if we want to impact emissions. His company, Better Place, has a radical plan to take entire countries oil-free by 2020. TEDtalk video.

Human Powered

Electric Bikes

Earth Policy Institute overview/stats/status Link

The Commonwealth Club's panel of experts discuss how San Francisco can integrate bike policy into urban planning and become a cohesive, harmonious city for people on foot, bike and other non-car forms of transportation. video

Bicycle Highways and other cool innovative ideas.

Walkscore.com tells you how walkable a neighborhood is.

Bicycles burn calories, not carbon, so they're considered among the cleanest forms of transportation. But most bikes are made of aluminum and steel which leave a large carbon footprint since the materials are mined and processed. Now a group of young men have come up with a clean, renewable replacement: bikes made of bamboo. Living on Earth's Jessica Ilyse Smith went to the Bamboo Bike Studio in Brooklyn, New York and has our story. (6:00) audio and text 3/10. French company website

Out There Ideas

Flying car TEDtalk video