Transportation
See also Energy page, Air pollution, and Land Use
Also Global Warming.
Contents
News/Reports
Tesla’s $35,000 Electric Car Is Finally Here 2/19.
Luxembourg / Country becomes first to make all public transport free 12/18.
World's First Mass-Market 3D-Printed Electric Car Costs Less Than $10K The world's first mass-produced 3D-printed electric vehicle could hit the roads by 2019 3/18.
The Latest Scary Evidence That Humans Have Created a New Geological Era: Roads 11/17.
Going From Pump to Plug: How Much Money Can Electric Vehicles Save Drivers? 12/17
Websites/General Resources
Green vehicles at GreenMuze includes personal mass transit.
Bus tracking in realtime at UCSC.
Treehugger, orientation interview with Chris Tackett. transportation and energy.
How I Survived Breaking Up with My Car from Yes Magazine.
Solar roads goesviral (video). 5/14 see Solar page.
Interactive/Infographics/Maps
Transportation cost calculator
Transit vs obesity infographic from Transparency.
Videos
(selected from this page)
Revenge of the Electric Car is a sequel to Who Killed the Electric Car?. ***
Levi Tillemann book, The Great Race: The Global Quest for the Car of the Future (video discussion). 40 min talk) 2/15. **
Solar roads goesviral (video). 5/14 see Solar page.
TEDtalk videosSuperconductivity could lead to Mag Lev train breakthrough? TEDtalk video.
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. Update.
2 Billion Cars: An American Love Affair World Affairs Council video 2009.
Electric Car Dreams 2009 PBS video.
Mass Transit
Hype(r)loop, Elon Musk mass transit concept PBS video. 5/16.
This floating magnetic pod is the public transit of the future (we hope) 6/14.
The secret weapon in the fight against tedium–trees.
Gov Jerry Brown inaugurated for an unprecedented 4th term, pledges major efforts to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels (while on the same day, the new GOP majority Congress doubles down on the XL Keystone pipeline which US #1 climate expert James Hanson says spells "Game Over" for the planet, with no reset button, despite the metaphor). Brown broke ground on CA bullet train. Brown was first governor in mid-70's, which is why CA uses half the electricity per person despite having a strong economy. His dad was also governor, and built our water canal system, probably also our roads, and oh yeah, the UC system. 1/15.
California High Speed Rail video 2007. Audio update and interactive map 11/09. video image gallery. Panel discussion 7.12 audio. CA high speed rail 2/14 update (audio interview, 2nd 1/2).
Tesla's Elon Musk Unveils Hyperloop 8/13.
San Jose State Univ. design for Superway 5/14.
Could a bullet train take you from the U.S. to China to Europe? 5/14.
Electric driverless pods 3/14.
Superconductivity could lead to Mag Lev train breakthrough? TEDtalk video.
Trains in US includes infographic map.
Public transportation takes a huge chunk out of that congestion in dense cities. 1/13.
Amtrak's ridership is up and subsidies from the government are down. Yet many in Congress and Presidential hopeful, Mitt Romney, are calling to end federal funding for the national train system. (text and audio) 9/12.
Making Transit Fun! How to Entice Motorists from Their Cars (and onto their feet, a bike, or bus) By Darrin Nordahl ch.1 sample (download) from Island Press (Go Slugs!).
US Population density relative to world in terms of rail.
Trains vs Cars in Federal funding (graph).
Without a Car in LA short video on a slideshow in Orion Magazine.
Panel discussion videoJune 25 2010 Within the next two decades, the Census Bureau estimates that the U.S. population will increase by as many as 50 million people, including at least a 25-percent increase in California’s population alone. This population growth, combined with a growing backlog of overdue maintenance work on roads and transit systems, creates a need for significantly expanded transportation revenues. However, the current political climate is generally unfavorable to tax increases. Given these political realities, what new or expanded revenue sources could be generated for transportation? In particular, what options will be politically feasible in the short and medium term? Our panel of transportation experts, representing viewpoints from the national and state level, will discuss possible revenue options and their likely reception from the public and legislators.
Automobiles
(See also Electric Vehicles below and Hydrogen)
The upper house of Germany’s parliament, passed a resolution on Monday that calls for the elimination of vehicles powered by gasoline and diesel engines by 2030. 10/16 Germany has led because of the Green Party inspired by Ecotopia. 7 countries follow see also here, California maybe China 2017.
Open street initiatives temporarily close networks of streets to motor vehicles, allowing people to walk, bike, skate, dance, and hang out. 6/16.
Toyota has announced that it will allow its competitors to use any and all of its 5,680 patents for hydrogen fuel cell cars, a move the company hopes will jump-start the widespread commercial production of cars powered by zero-emission hydrogen gas. 1/15
Can Google Keep Its Self-Driving Car From Re-Igniting More Suburban Sprawl? 5/14.
Hydrogen car update CA. Hydrogen refueling stations to hit Bay Area by end of 2015. Toyota is in. New cars coming out(PBS News video) 5/14
Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City. "Rise of Automobiles and American City Planning" : Peter Norton, history of technology professor at the University of Virginia, talked about “America’s love affair." (video talk). See Land Use.
XL1 CAR Designed by Volkswagen gets 282 miles per gallon and has switchblade doors—think, five times the gas efficiency of a Prius with the doors of a Lamborghini.261 MPG Volkswagen XL1 diesel plug-in hybrid to be produced in limited quantities 11/13.
Car sharing reflects cultural shift (and generational) 4/13.
Ridesharing in cars.
How I Survived Breaking Up with My Car from Yes Magazine.
City planner Jeff Speck has found the panacea for our ailing cities, something that could make even Detroit come to life again: walking. His new book, Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time. video. He was co-author of Suburban Nation 2000. TEDtalkHow do we solve the problem of the suburbs? Urbanist Jeff Speck shows how we can free ourselves from dependence on the car -- which he calls "a gas-belching, time-wasting, life-threatening prosthetic device" 10/13.
Google Maps-inspired film portrays cities as oil-addicted monsters
Toll Unsettles Los Angeles Motorists Used to ‘Free’ in Freeways 11/12
True Cost of Cars 5/30 $142 billion in obesity-related health care costs and lost wages due to illness. As much as $80 billion in health care costs and premature death caused by air pollution from traffic. A whopping $180 billion from traffic crashes - lost wages, health care costs, property damage, travel delay, legal costs, pain and suffering. These are some of the hidden costs of a car-centric society. The American Public Health Association, in a recent report, argues that these costs have been ignored for too long as decision-makers hash out transportation policies. Instead, transportation projects usually focus on construction costs, acquiring rights of way, expected revenues (such as tolls), and operation and maintenance. More
Health Effects of cars cites Richard Jackson, who acknowledged that his assertions were based more on intuition than research, but he pushed ahead, following up with a book-length treatment called Urban Sprawl and Public Health: Designing, Planning, and Building for Healthy Communities,
Car of the Future Nova PBS 4/11 (video)
Mark Hertsgaard has an excellent overview in Earth Odyssey, Ch 3 The Irresistable Automobile."
Lives Per Gallon: The True Cost of Our Oil Addiction by Terry Tamminen (CA EPA head under Gov. Schw.) Link audio interview. "We all thought we knew the costs of oil addiction—power to terrorists and tyrants, and global climate change. But Tamminens book demonstrates that we dont know the half of it. Gasoline is a deadly carcinogen like tobacco. The health, environmental, and climatic impact of our oil dependency, he shows, is catastrophic. And the economic cost of subsidizing the oil industry is bankrupting. But Tamminen does more than point to the problems. He lays out step-by-step solutions to ending our oil addiction." 2006
Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile Took Over America and How We Can Take It Back by Jane Holtz Kay. video talk.
In The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways writer Earl Swift looks at the history and people behind the world's largest public works project -- the U.S. interstate superhighway system. Audio interview includes Mumford.
2 Billion Cars: An American Love Affair World Affairs Council video 2009.
Several Mojo articles on cars, including carpooling. 7/11.
More Roads = More Traffic text and audio. 7/11 LOE.org
Vijay Vaitheeswaran's “ZOOM: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future” , was named a Book of the Year by The Financial Times. His first book, “Power to the People,” said to be “by far the most helpful, entertaining, up-to-date and accessible treatment of the energy-economy-environment problematique available.”
Roads don't have to be the enemy of sustainability, argue James Sipes and Matthew Sipes, in their new book, Creating Green Roadways: Integrating Cultural, Natural, and Visual Resources into Transportation. The facts are: America is dependent on cars and 30% of our roads and 25% of our bridges are decaying. We must find a practical way to create environmentally friendly, cost-effective, safe roadways that serve all types of transportation. This father/son author team combines their talents as a landscape architect/environmental planner and civil engineer to demonstrate how transportation infrastructure can improve quality of life for generations to come.
Electric Vehicles
(see also Solar page)
EVs 101: Your Guide to Electric Vehicles 1/19.
Treehugger stories. Several countries and companies have pledged to phase out internal combustion in relatively short time frame.
Buses Are the Electric Vehicle Everyone Should Be Talking About. Here's Why 12/18 see California.
World's First Mass-Market 3D-Printed Electric Car Costs Less Than $10K The world's first mass-produced 3D-printed electric vehicle could hit the roads by 2019
Chinese City to Become World's First to Switch Entire Bus Fleet to Electric 12/17 see China.
Going From Pump to Plug: How Much Money Can Electric Vehicles Save Drivers? 12/17.
Electric Car Sales Surge 63% Globally big in China 11/17.
EasyJet Plans to Fly Electric Planes Within 10 Years 9/17.
Saul Griffith (video) does high altitude wind, inflatable cars and hydrofoils (see eco-heroes). ****
'World's Fastest Folding Electric Scooter' Revolutionizes Commuting 6/17 The so-called "first and last mile" problem is one of the biggest hurdles with public transportation. How do you encourage more people to take Earth-friendlier commutes when their homes are miles away from the train or bus station? One solution, as this Estonian electric scooter company proposes, is to simply take your commute with you—literally. Tallinn-based Stigo has developed a compact e-scooter that folds to the size of a rolling suitcase in about two seconds.
Tesla Flips Switch on Gigafactory to Accelerate World's Transition to Renewable Energy :Elon Musk's Tesla and Panasonic have officially kicked off the mass production of lithium-ion battery cells at the massive Gigafactory outside Sparks, Nevada. 1/17.
9 Reasons Why California's Electric Buses and Trucks Can Help the Environment and Poor Communities 10/16.
Driving Cars Powered by Organic Solar Cells Might Be Closer Than You Think see Solar.
Solar Road Will Provide Power to 5 Million People see Category:Solar. 1/16.
Electric skateboard one of the entrepreneur prize winners. 6/15.
Paul Stith is a UCSC graduate. Electric Vehicles "EV" | Energy Storage | V2G | V2X | Smart Grid San Francisco Bay Area Renewables & Environment.
Is This The E-Bike That Finally Gets Commuters Out Of Cars? 5/15 see Human Power below.
Elon Musk: Tesla Battery Will ‘Fundamentally Change the Way the World Uses Energy’ 5/15.
Solar Impulse Attempts Historic Flight Across the Pacific 6/15.Solar powered plane can fly in the dark.
Levi Tillemann book, The Great Race: The Global Quest for the Car of the Future (video discussion). 40 min talk) 2/15.
Ford Motor Co. will soon unveil a sun-powered vehicle. The C-MAX Solar Energi Concept is a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle with solar panels on the roof that allow the car to recharge itself. The vehicle’s total range is 620 miles, and it can travel 21 miles using only electric power from the sun. “By tapping renewable solar energy with a rooftop solar panel system, C-MAX Solar Energi Concept is not dependent on the traditional electric grid for its battery power" 3/15.
Will Apple Challenge Tesla in the Electric Car Market? 2/15
10 Must-See Electric Cars at this Year’s International Auto Show. Tillemann covers the drive to build the car of the future in his book, "The Great Race: The Global Quest for the Car of the Future." 1/15.
Chip Yates: SuperHacks, World Records and Risk 200 mph motorcyle and airplane. ***
Dean Kamen is best known for trying to solve the last mile problem and thus revolutionize transportation with the electric Segway, which began as a wheelchair to make people whole. SlingShot is intimate and inspirational portrait of Segway inventor, Dean Kamen, and his 15-year quest to solve the world’s safe. *** water crisis. Also founder of First robotics competition.
Tesla founder Elon Musk text transcript (TEDtalk) has made huge contributions as a designer and entrepreneur because he imagined what was inevitable and caught the wave to that early: Tesla electric cars, private sector spaceflight and solar energy. extensive bio interview 1/13 The Future of Energy and Transport (video bio) Oxford 2012. Bio-picTesla Unveils 90-Second Battery Swap Technology 8/13. Tesla electric car turns a profit, wins award. 1st car co to pay back federal loan, outlawed in North Carolina (which also outlawed sea level rise).5/13 ***
Tesla's Elon Musk Unveils Hyperloop 8/13. update infographic.**
RMI Hypercar carbon fibre.
Solar bike enclosed, carries cargo too.
Electric driverless pods 3/14.
In Silicon Valley hub, new homes must be wired for electric cars By John Upton at Grist.
San Francisco And Los Angeles Account For 35 Percent Of Nation's Electric Vehicle Sales, Data Finds 9/13
This doohickey turns your normal bike into an electric bike
America passed a milestone, according to electric-vehicle advocacy group Plug-In America. That’s when the 100,000th EV was sold in the U.S., the group estimates.
Electric vehicles could stabilize grid, make money as batteries 5/13.
Van Jones solar outlook gives overview, includes $5 billion ARPA-e battery initiative.
Commonwealth Club panel audio 8/12.
Revenge of the Electric Car is a sequel to Who Killed the Electric Car?.
Joby Energy is a local company looking for people to create high altitude wind. images and video. Its founder is also working on an electric flying car. Its CEO is a College 8 Fellow. More.
Electric Hwy 3/12
Electric car infrastucture: Every president since Nixon has promised to make America energy independent. None has come close to that, or to moving the nation away from fossil fuels. The program's guest is Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), who is working with Republican Senator Lamar Alexander on a proposal to fund a handful of American cities to build out infrastructure for electric cars. Rather than a government mandate, Merkley's proposal would be a voluntary competition among cities to compete for federal dollars to advance electric vehicles. Audio broadcast KQED 8 pm 1/25/12 link and video excerpt
Congressional testimony video slideshow 3/11
Arcimoto practical and fun three-wheeled electric vehicle with motorcycle drivetrain.
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. "
Solar powered wheelchair (video)
Future of the Electric Car from Rocky Mountain Institute.
Lightweighting video from Rocky Mountain Institute.
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. Update.
Electric Car Dreams Now PBS video.
Nice overview of recent history, including local.
Rocky Mountain Institute has lots of good info on solar in general and EV's in particular on its blog.
Electric Bikes
ELF stands for Electric, Light and Fun. And as Living on Earth's Helen Palmer reports, the ELF is a new invention, a solar and human powered covered tricycle that might just help create a commuting revolution, and combat climate change as well. (audio and images) 1/13.
Saul Griffith's, (quite simply one of the most creative and versatile green designers around) Onya cycles, excellent cargo trike with excellent steering.
Human Powered
Sites
Stories
Camper You Pull With Your Bike Turns the World Into Your Backyard
Is This The E-Bike That Finally Gets Commuters Out Of Cars? 5/15.
In Roads Were Not Built for Cars, Carlton Reid reveals the pivotal—and largely unrecognized—role that bicyclists played in the development of modern roadways. Shattering the stigma of bothersome bicyclists, he will discuss how cars and bicyclists historically have worked together and why understanding this history is key to navigating the future of shared roads and determining necessary policy and infrastructure decisions.
Rob Forbes (aesthetic studies from Porter 1974). PUBLIC urban bike design company; every bike he sells is a consumer good and a purchase for the public good. see Social Entrepreneur.
Solar Bike 4/15 see also Solar bike, enclosed, carries cargo too. see Solar
Human powered vehicles (audio). In 2013, AeroVelo won the Sikorsky Prize, a $250,000 award for building a human-powered helicopter that can stay in the air at least 60 seconds and reach an altitude of 3 meters — about 10 feet. How big a feat of engineering was this? The prize had gone unclaimed for 33 years...Part bike, part kayak, it was invented by Randy Ridings, an outdoor enthusiast in Carthage, Missouri, to address a very specific problem. “If you take a kayak to a river and you get in the river and you go down the river, then you have no way to get back home,” Ridings says. Then he discovered the Quadyak was useful around town, too. “I ride with a bike club here in Carthage, and go pick up my groceries at Walmart with it as well," Ridings says.
Move Over Food Trucks, Food Bikes Are Taking to the Streets 2/15
"Future Cycles" at NAIAS 2015is exploration of better ways for transportation, the project uses a hybrid alternative, human-powered vehicles, in two different machines. Their "zepplin" is powered by two riders along with a 750w electric rear motor and is capable of achieving a speed of 25 mph. "With its three wheels and sleek shell, it is reminiscent of Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion Car." (Amelia Earhart wanted one).
UCSC named a 'silver bicycle-friendly' university.
Top Sustainable Solution: Pedal-Powered Recycling 10/14.
black box protection 10/14.
Bike blimp, submarines etc. Sub design competition see Design Challenges
This little green laser could save bicyclists’ lives 2/14
Truly rad skateboarders vs posers TEDtalk video.
Denmark Is the Happiest Country on Earth! You'll Never Guess Why.
University of Maryland students are flying high after unofficially shattering the world record for longest human-powered helicopter flight. 6/12 (video). Human powered helicopter. Toronto U wins Sikorsky Prize 7/13.
This doohickey turns your normal bike into an electric bike
Polite bike activists mind their p’s and q’s while practicing civil disobedience
Amphibious bike and a cool co-op.
Studies show that bike commuting is one of the best ways to stay healthy 4/13.
Beautiful art book of a bike trip around the world
Bike powered electricity(video). how to.
ELF stands for Electric, Light and Fun. And as Living on Earth's Helen Palmer reports, the ELF is a new invention, a solar and human powered covered tricycle that might just help create a commuting revolution, and combat climate change as well.
Bike-sharing program peer to peer. 12/12
App allows people to monitor air (Griswold UCSD).audio.
City planner Jeff Speck has found the panacea for our ailing cities, something that could make even Detroit come to life again: walking. His new book, Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time. video. He was co-author of Suburban Nation 2000.
Chicago goes for bikes bigtime. 12/12.
Biking after Hurricane Sandy, UPDATE and Boston Bike share program goes high tech. (text and audio) 11/12.
Boost your bike uses a flywheel.
Google maps has safe bike routes (maybe). 7.12
Making a cardboard bike (video).
Half-bike, half-car Velomobile goes 80 miles on 6 cents of electricity 4/12
Biking Pedals Into the 21st Century 6.12
Virtuous cycle: 10 lessons from the world’s great biking cities 2/12
Dyson Prize winners includes regenerative powered bike.
Human powered snowplows, also bikebus
American designer Eric Stoddard’s solution to the problem of urban congestion is a sustainable three-wheeled, electric-assist HPV TrikE.
Electric Bikes and three trends that favor them.
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. People for Bikes and Google Maps give you bike directions.
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. video.
Walkscore.com tells you how walkable a neighborhood is.
DIY Bike truck Another design from Instructables.
Bike helmet vending machine supports bikesharing.
Spectacular wooden bikes made from salvaged urban trees.
Local resources:
The UCSC Bike Co-op, also known as the Santa Cruz Campus Bike Center, is a not-for-profit, full-service, cooperatively run bike shop. We are located at the heart of the UCSC campus, in the Redwood building at the Baytree Bookstore plaza. We offer all of the services that any bike shop would, but we also give customers the ability to become a part of our buisness.
Bicycle Bill at the Hub at 224 Walnut Ave., Santa Cruz, or call 425.0665. Tool cooperative.
== Out There Ideas == (see New and Cool)
Solar Road Will Provide Power to 5 Million People see Category:Solar. 1/16. Solar roads goes viral (video). 5/14 see Solar page. ****
World's First Boat Powered by 100% Renewables to Circle Globe 9/16.
Bike Washing Machine Gives Whole New Meaning to ‘Spin Cycle’ or class.
NASA WANTS TO GET RID OF THAT FLYING POLLUTION FACTORY YOU TOOK IN FLORIDA 6/15.
Solar-Powered Airplane Prepares for Groundbreaking Around-the-World Flight Solar powered plane can fly in the dark. Takeoff! 5/13. 7/13 update. 6/15.
This floating magnetic pod is the public transit of the future (we hope) 6/14.
Can Google Keep Its Self-Driving Car From Re-Igniting More Suburban Sprawl? 5/14.
Chip Yates: SuperHacks, World Records and Risk 200 mph motorcyle and airplane.
Dean Kamen is best known for trying to solve the last mile problem and thus revolutionize transportation with the electric Segway, which began as a wheelchair to make people whole. SlingShot is intimate and inspirational portrait of Segway inventor, Dean Kamen, and his 15-year quest to solve the world’s safe water crisis. Also founder of First robotics competition.
No roads? There’s a drone for that Andreas Raptopoulos TEDtalk.
Electric driverless pods 3/14.
Tesla's Elon Musk Unveils Hyperloop 8/13. update infographic
Amphibious bike and a cool co-op.
Inhabitat example flying bike and electric trike circles the world.
Joby Energy is a local company looking for people to create high altitude wind. images and video. Its founder is also working on an electric flying car. Its CEO is a College 8 Fellow who grew up in Santa Cruz. More. He went to school at UCD with Moller: Flying car TEDtalk video. Update.
Saul Griffith (video) does high altitude wind, inflatable cars and hydrofoils (see ecoheroes).
UCSC's Matt Riese, philosophy alum made a hovercraft in the shape of a Delorean. He showed it at Maker Faire.
Solar powered plane can fly in the dark.
Flying bike and jet-powered bike make your fixie look lame
Electric helicopter promotional.
Algae powered planes and airships.
Hover bike (video). Hover cycle w/ gyro.
