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Transit on Demand (Have Cell Will Travel) (video)
Peak Moment
What if you could make a call at any time on your cell phone and have a vehicle come to you within minutes, take you to your local destination, and cost about as much as a bus ride? Allen Hancock’s notion of demand-responsive transit fills the gap between the private automobile and public transit.
Rather than fixed routes and schedules, smaller vehicles guided by intelligent software with gps (geographic positioning system), circulate to where riders are and want to go. Flexible, efficient, low-cost, it uses existing vehicles and roads. Where’s the town that will implement this exciting pilot project?
(9 February 2009)
Car scrappage scheme will pour good money after bad
George Monbiot, Guardian
Given that state money for subsidising business is limited, you would expect governments to choose very carefully in deciding which industries to support. You might, for example, imagine that those they propped up would be the ones that a) had a high chance of supporting sustained employment and b) met other government objectives.
Instead, in the US, Europe and the UK, they are pouring billions into the motor industry.
Anyone not blinded by particular financial interests can see that the British motor industry was going nowhere fast long before the recession, and will get there even faster now that consumers are cutting their costs, however much government support the industry receives. Motor manufacturing has been in decline in this country for about 40 years, and there are no signs that the future offers anything better.
Indeed, the prospect of peak oil – which the International Energy Agency now predicts will strike around 2020 – and the levels of congestion on this country’s roads ensure that there is very little space, economic or physical, for the industry to grow into, even if could somehow buck the general manufacturing trend. Tipping money into car-making, in other words, is like running a bath when the plug’s out: you pour it in at one end and it pours out at the other.
(6 February 2009)
New York City Wins Sustainable Transport Award
New York City became the first U.S. city to win the 2009 Sustainable Transport Award, as part of the Transportation Research Board Annual Conference held in Washington, D.C. this month. Other finalists, including Beijing, Milan, Istanbul and Mexico City received honorable mention.
The annual award honors a city that uses innovative transportation strategies to enhance the sustainability and livability of its communities, while also reducing greenhouse gas and air pollution emissions.
This past year, New York City demonstrated significant transport reforms, as a continuation of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s PlaNYC 2030, a long-term vision to improve the city’s land use, air and water quality, energy infrastructure and transportation systems. The city received accolades for transforming 49 acres of road space, traffic lanes and parking spaces into 255 kilometers of protected on-street bike lanes, as well as pedestrian areas and public plazas. Other notable accomplishments included planting 98,000 trees, implementing a select bus service and introducing car-free Sundays, similar to what can be seen in cities like Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Bogota.
(27 January 2009)
And see here for a video on the Oil Drum that shows what has been happening in New York. Good stuff! KS
