Car Culture
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California Poised to Allow Personal Vehicle Sharing Services
Car sharing is a growth industry, as pioneer City CarShare
would tell you, and it has beneficial environmental and economic impacts. Studies of car sharing services like Zipcar and City
CarShare show that for every car that is shared, up to 15 private
vehicles are taken off the road.
Owning and operating a personal car is the second-highest family
expense behind owning a house, and the highest expense for people who rent.
April 28, 2010
GM Unveils New “Envy” and “Pride” Models, “Lust” and “Sloth” to Come
I've railed on General Motors and Segway in the past for the myriad impracticalities of their tandem Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility (P.U.M.A.) prototype. Now they're at it again, making headlines today by unveiling the first three models in their new Electric Networked Vehicle (EN-V, pronounced "envy") line, including the Jiao, which is Chinese for "Pride."
March 25, 2010
Cyclists Be Warned, the New Acura Is Coming to Town
It always makes my skin crawl when I see a car commercial shot in a city with a sporty sedan hurtling down the street, promising ersatz liberation through reckless driving. But the conversation Joe Eskenazi at SF Weekly had with an Acura PR representative today is hilarious. Or terrifying, you decide:
March 17, 2010
How Infrastructure Shapes the Way We Move
This infrastructure makes only one choice possible. (Photo: prefers salt marsh via Flickr) Thanks to a few of the posts on the Streetsblog Network over the last 24 hours, we’re thinking about free will, morality and infrastructure. Jarrett Walker of Human Transit linked to a post from our newest network member, Michael D at Psystenance, … Continued
March 16, 2010
Could a New Kind of Fuel Tax Help Break the Senate Climate Deadlock?
Even before the Senate environment panel pushed through a GOP protest to approve
its climate change bill, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Joe Lieberman
(I-CT), and John Kerry (D-MA) were working behind the scenes on a
so-called "tripartisan" plan that can win enough votes in Congress' upper chamber to make nationwide emissions cuts a reality.
March 1, 2010
Hummer Going the Way of the Dodo
The days are numbered for the military vehicle that carmakers turned into the bane of pedestrians, cyclists and planet Earth. GM has announced plans to wind down Hummer production after a deal to sell the brand to a Chinese manufacturer fell apart. According to the Times, the Chinese government wanted no part of Hummer because it is "trying to put a new emphasis on limiting China’s dependence on imported oil and protecting the environment."
February 25, 2010
Obama Adviser: If EPA is Blocked on Emissions, Forget About CAFE Deal
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Lisa Jackson extended an olive branch
this week to lawmakers who are pushing to block her from regulating
carbon emissions in the absence of a congressional climate bill, but
Jackson's promise to delay action until next year appears to have made no headway with Republicans and coal-state Democrats.
February 23, 2010
U.S. DOT Offers Sample Distracted Driving Bill — With a Potential Loophole
The Obama administration today offered a one-page sample proposal to
crack down on texting behind the wheel, aimed at helping guide states
through the process of crafting their own distracted driving
legislation.
February 22, 2010
How Can Transit Backers Sway Conservatives? Oberstar Joins the Debate
In the years before partisan warfare became the norm in Washington,
transportation tended to unite both ends of the ideological spectrum.
Can rationality return to infrastructure policy debates that have
become subsumed by culture clashes between cyclists and drivers,
urbanists and suburbanites -- and, of course, Democrats and Republicans?
February 2, 2010