Source (TreeHugger)
That’s a Lot of Tailpipes
It wasn’t so long ago that we wrote about China’s 168 million motor vehicles (if you count everything), or about how taxes went up on big vehicles (though fuel is heavily subsidized, encouraging waste). Well, China’s not a country to stand still, even in this economy. The latest numbers for “private cars” are out and 2008 saw a 28% increase.
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(Source: TreeHugger)
The New N-700 Series Bullet Trains
While the U.S. is finally planning to spend some $8 billion to start thinking about high-speed rail services, Treehugger has noted that other countries are way ahead. Case in point: Japan is now extending its widely popular Shinkansen super-fast train network to the island of Kyushu, with new N700 Series trains from Hitachi and Kawasaki Heavy Industries. If you like fast trains, the N700 has a maximum speed of 300 km/h (185 mph). The video notes that these new trains are “ecology” and the N700 reduces power consumption by 19%.
Photo: Comparing the Shinkansen 500 and 700 series, from wikipedia Photo: N700 Shinkansen from The Mainichi
The TGV and the Eurostar also clock in at around the same speeds. Tilting of up to one degree allows trains to maintain 270 km/h even on 2,500 m radius curves that usually has a maximum speed of 255 km/h.
Another feature of the N700 is that it accelerates quicker than other Shinkansen trains, with an acceration rate of 2.6 km/h/s. This enables it to reach 270 km/h in only three minutes.
Click here to read the entire article and to see the video of the new N-700 series trains.
Named the 1/X (pronounced 1-x’th) after the fraction of its carbon footprint compared to other vehicles, the hybrid is greener than others not only because of it gas mileage: Compared to standard petroleum-based plastic, bioplastic allegedly produces up to 60 percent less carbon dioxide and uses about 30 percent less energy as well.
Click here to read the entire article.
(Source: New York Times)
In 1997, one of my proposals was greeted with the usual thunderous silence. I proposed creating the Piazza Broadway by banishing cars from the the Great White Way near Times Square. It wasn’t a strictly original idea — a similar scheme had been proposed in the 1970s — although I do believe I was the first to suggest decorating the plaza with a statue of a three-card monte dealer and a pedestrian bridge modeled on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, to be called the Ponte di Tre Monte.
Anyway, the idea went nowhere — until today. Mayor Bloomberg planned to announce that Broadway will become a pedestrian-only zone around Times Square and Herald Square, according to my colleagues William Neuman and Michael Barbaro. The experiment will start in May and could become permanent if if it works.
Will it work? I’m biased, of course, and I can’t claim I based that 1997 proposal on any rigorous analysis. But today there’s a new tool for examining the proposal: a spreadsheet called the Balanced Transportation Analyzer, or B.T.A.. Charles Komanoff, the economist who developed it, calls it the first transparent and publicly available tool to gauge the varying impacts of changing the transportation options in a city with a dense central core, like New York.
Click here to read the entire article.
(Source: MSNBC)
An overwhelming majority of Americans believe restoring existing roads and bridges and expanding transportation options should take precedence over building new roads, according to a survey sponsored by the National Association of Realtors® and Transportation for America.
The 2009 Growth and Transportation Surveydescribes what Americans think about how their communities are handling development and how the transportation needs of communities can best be met.
“Realtors® build communities and know how important an organized transportation structure is in supporting neighborhood growth,” said NAR President Charles McMillan, a broker with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Dallas-Fort Worth. “A well planned investment in transportation will help create more livable and vibrant communities.”
To accommodate future U.S. population growth, which is expected to increase by 100 million by 2050, Americans favor improving intercity rail and transit, walking and biking over building new highways. When asked what the federal government’s top priority should be for 2009 transportation funding, half of all respondents recommended maintaining and repairing roads and bridges, while nearly one third said “expanding and improving bus, rail, and other public transportation.” Only 16 percent said “expanding and improving roads, highways, freeways and bridges.”
(Source: Washington State DOT)
The Columbia River Crossing is the recipient of a National Association of Environmental Professionals 2009 Environmental Excellence Award in the category of NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) Excellence.
CRC was selected for this award because the project “demonstrates a novel method to assess the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions and through the environmental review process identify a less overall impacting alternative for a complex transportation project,” according to the letter received from the organization’s president, Jim Melton.
The award honors the project’s approach to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change evaluation in the May 2008 Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).
The National Association of Environmental Professionals has about 1,750 members nationwide. The organization’s mission is to be the interdisciplinary organization dedicated to developing the highest standards of ethics and proficiency in the environmental professions. Members are public and private sector professionals who promote excellence in decision-making in light of the environmental, social, and economic impacts of those decisions.
Click here to read the entire article.
(Source: Planetizen)
This announcement was posted by: Rail~Volution
Rail~Volution 2009: Boston October 30-November 1, 2009
Rail~Volution is a conference for passionate practitioners – people from all perspectives who believe in the role of land use and transit as equal partners in the quest for greater livability and greater communities. The success of the conference depends on the quality and diversity of presentations. Rail~Volution solicits your story-sharing expertise, experience, success and challenges.
THEME: This country is being reshaped by the economic crisis, suburban foreclosures, volatile gas prices, and concern about the carbon footprint of development—creating enormous momentum for change. The new administration is committed to change, and Congress is deliberating the bill that sets transportation policy and funding for the next six years. Livable communities near transit are more economically and environmentally sustainable and we need more of them now. Let’s rise to the challenge. The window of opportunity is opening wide.
Help us enliven the discussion! Give us your ideas now!
http://www.railvolution.com/CallForProposals_2009.asp
For more information contact:
Mary Simon
Rail~Volution
1120 SW 5th Avenue Suite 800
Portland, Oregon 97204
USA
Phone: 503-823-6870
Email: mary.simon@pdxtrans.org
Web: www.railvolution.com
photo: Richard via flickr
Indian Railways has already been running some of its trains on biodiesel. NowCalcutta Tramways Corporation has announced that it will be running its buses partly on biodiesel: A memorandum of understanding with Emami Biotech was signed last week for the supply of 250 kiloliters per month of biodiesel.
Click here to read th entire article.
(Source: ClimateWire via NYTimes)
LaHood told a group of state transportation officials that while he has already taken part in a number of meetings to discuss climate change legislation with Obama, DOT would likely take a back seat in the climate debate.
“We’ve really taken all of our cues from Carol Browner,” he said, referring to the White House coordinator for energy and climate issues.
LaHood said Browner and U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson would most likely do the heavy lifting when it comes to meeting Obama’s climate goals. DOT is “in the room, we’re at the table, but we probably have less of a role than perhaps some of these other agencies do,” he said at the Washington forum.
DOT instead will focus on finalizing new corporate average fuel economy, or CAFE, standards for the auto industry.
LaHood said his agency was working to finish the rulemaking for model year 2011 by this April’s deadline. “We’re going to move that out the door,” he said. “We’re going with what the president asked us to do with respect to CAFE standards.”
Under the proposed rulemaking issued by DOT last year, carmakers would have to raise their fuel economy by 25 percent by 2015. The proposal would push automakers more than halfway to the minimum goal set by Congress of an average of 35 mpg by 2020.
Click here to read the entire article.
(Source: TreeHugger)
photo: Morris K Udall Foundation via flickr
Add another twist to the discussion of reasons to take objections to biofuels: Saudi scholar, Sheikh Mohamed al-Najimi has expressed his opinion that under Islamic law the use of ethanol could be considered a sin, as it is a form of alcohol:
Sheikh Mohamed, who’s a member of the Islamic Fiqh Academy, stressed that this opinion was his own, was not a fatwa, and urged Islamic leaders to study the issue. Furthermore, the ban should extend beyond predominantly Muslim countries, to include Saudi and Muslim youth studying abroad who may ride in vehicles powered by biofuels.
Click here to read the entire article.
