Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk discusses autonomous driving and how it will be available in cars in only a few years. He is confident that Tesla has the best collection of experts and would be the first company to launch a vehicle with significant ‘auto pilot” capabilities. As far as proliferation goes, Mr. Musk says we may be about 10 years away from widespread adoption of autonomous vehicle technology. Do you agree? Listen to his interview with Bloomberg Television.
If you ever hear someone say that bicyclists get a “free ride”, share this infograph below that explains why people on bikes not only pay more than their share of road costs, but save everyone money whenever they ride.
A simple infograph that explains the nexus between bicycles and their economic value to the communities.. While you are checking out the infograph below, you might also read up on this Momentum Mag piece from April 2013: How Bicycles Bring Business
Check out this awesome video from Streetfilms.. This compilation of changes in New York City’s transportation infrastructure documented over a period of time clearly shows that streets and public spaces designed for people, and not for cars, inspire folks to come out and enjoy the facilities, there by making the community as a whole more vibrant and lively..
I can only imagine the economic vitality this has added to the businesses in the neighborhoods as more people stepped away from their cars and instead walked/biked to the businesses. Thanks to the bold vision (and the subsequent execution) set forth by the outgoing City Transportation Commission, Janette Sadik-Khan and her boss, Mayor Bloomberg, the city has now become a model to emulate when it comes to implementing sustainable transportation solutions.
America’s energy security gets a boost from the White House. President Obama proposed the creation of Energy Security Trust during his visit to the Argonne National Research Lab to talk about American energy security. The Energy Security Trust, a$2 Billion investment over 10 years, uses revenue generated by oil and gas development on federal lands to support new research and technology that will shift our cars and trucks off of oil for good. Below is an infographic that outlines how this works:
Energy Security Trust Infographic via Whitehouse.gov
So how does it work? The Energy Security Trust will invest in research that will make future technologies cheaper and better – it will fund the advances that will allow us to run cars and trucks on electricity or homegrown fuels, and on the technology that will enable us to drive from coast-to-coast without a drop of oil.
Over 10 years, the Energy Security Trust will provide $2 billion for critical, cutting-edge research focused on developing cost-effective transportation alternatives.The funding will be provided by revenues from federal oil and gas development, and will not add any additional costs to the federal budget. The investments will support research into a range of technologies – things like advanced vehicles that run on electricity, homegrown biofuels, and domestically produced natural gas. It will also help fund a small number of real-world experiments that try different transportation techniques in cities and towns around the country using advanced vehicles at scale.
If it is worth something, President Obama has indicated his desire to use the executive powers to curb climate change impacts should Congress fail to act. According to Bloomberg, the president is also thinking of using a Nixon-era law, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), signed into law by President Richard Nixon in 1970, to instruct all federal agencies to consider the impact of climate change when approving “major projects, from pipelines to highways.” Of course, this can have some serious implications for large scale projects and some constituencies in the business sector are already freaking out over this mandate.
While we are busy discussing this issue, I’d like to share with you an address by President Obama from March 2011 in which he outlined his goals for reducing American energy dependence, heavily emphasizing new technology and alternative sources in addition to “safe and responsible” offshore drilling. A lot of what he outline in his blue print for change is already starting to take effect and I can only say that we are poised for a big change in the way we power our vehicles and industries. Fossil fuels are definitely beginning to see a slow demise (but it will be decades before they are completely phased out in the transportation sector).
The U.S. spending on transportation (and infrastructure in general) has flatlined (or some argue that it has declined considerably) over the decades while other countries around the globe, especially in Asia, have ramped up their investment in large-scale infrastructure projects such as building highways and railroads. So, how does it look when we match our spending versus the other nations. This chart from Wall Street Journal shows show you how badly we are behind in this race to stay competitive. Recommend reading the related article on WSJ that shows how funding for infrastructure projects may be coming from new sources as ‘wealth advisers are steering clients into infrastructure deals. Let’s not forget that we have already a crazy amount of things to fix and on top of that we have to spend on projects that can cater to the growing need for transportation as the population explodes. But do we really have the money to fix the broke and embark on starting new projects? With a dwindling highway trust fund account and a political gridlock in Washington, even the basic of needs for keeping the country economically superior seems to be a bigger challenge than ever.
Cool stuff.. You can be assured that state & city transportation officials around the globe (at least in the US) will be clamoring to test this new self-healing asphalt on their highways and city streets.
Just as the nation watches nervously about the impacts of sequestration (while the political blame game rages unabated), the satirists at The Onion have profiled one of the biggest critics of this manufactured crisis – U.S. Department of Transportation’s Secretary Ray LaHood – and how he is dealing with the sequestration. Quite a funny one.
It should be maddening for any tax payer in the country to see how the public dollars are spent wastefully on projects that are not really benefiting the community. Today’s Washington Post story on one such wasteful spending measure shows how badly the lawmakers manage the money, despite the pressure to not do so from the administrations (incl. current and the previous administration ). It explores an obscure federal program established by Congress in 2000 allows tiny airports to draw $150,000 in federal funds every year. The article uses Oklahoma’s Lake Murray State Park Airport as a case study. This issue of wasteful spending takes added importance as the public are nervously watching what’s going to happen with the looming sequestration (scheduled to kick in on March 1) as the country is embroiled in a tough political battle to avoid further slide. Brilliant reporting.
88 shown airports, as reported, have no paying customers and no planes are based there. (check the interactive map that shows the airports and the number of flights each one received)
The airports receive $150,000/year, as the result of a grant program established 13 years ago ~2000, which the post appropriately calls Congress’s golden age of pork)
The looming sequester crisis would not touch the airport program. FAA allotted Lake Murray about $1,500 for each of its takeoffs and landings.
In this particular case Lake Murray State Park Airport there is no control tower, no runway lights and also staff to monitor it. So what makes people visit? Mostly for using the rest room facilities and occasionally for golf.
According to local TV affiliate KOKH Fox 25, the Oklahoma Department of Tourism has tried to shut down Lake Murray State Park Airport for years, but Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission (OAC) officials say closing the airport would cost Oklahoma taxpayers $184,000. Under FAA guidelines, the airport must stay open for 20 years after the OAC spends money on an improvement project.
Despite pressures from all corners, the program has remained strikingly difficult for anyone. If it is any surprise, even
Pres. Bush opposed continuing the program but the Tea Party dominated congress decided to continue with it.
