(Source: TreeHugger)

Image: New York Subway Map by Zero Per Zero

We like talking about promoting public transit here on Treehugger and at Planet Green, noting that cities and countries that get it right can create a very positive image that in turn steers more people towards leaving their car at home. So, I was happy to see Zero Per Zero, a Seoul-based design team, re-thinking railmaps and subway maps. Using bright colours and a big dose of humour, Kim Ji-Kwan and Jin Sol from Hongik University are now in Tokyo to display their work.

The maps come in a small folder with stickers for marking favorite spots, restaurants, appointments, hotel locations, and major attractions. When traveling, the folder can also be used to jot down notes and to hold transit passes, tickets, and more. Made of paper.

Click here to read the entire article, which has a couple of more cool pictures.

(Source: MCADCAFE)

The EDISON effort (Electric Vehicles in a Distributed and Integrated Market using Sustainable Energy and Open Networks) consists of IBM, Denmark’s largest energy company DONG Energy, the regional energy company of Oestkraft, Technical University of Denmark, Siemens, Eurisco and the Danish Energy Association. Due to the environmental benefits of the electric vehicle technologies, the research will be partly funded by the Danish government.

Market introduction and investment plans in Denmark will result in upwards of 10% of the country’s vehicles being all electric or hybrid electric during the coming years. In order to minimize CO2-emissions linked to electrified transport, global attention on vehicles and infrastructure that will maximize the use of renewable energy for mobility has increased. To achieve this on a large scale, electric vehicles require smart technologies to control charging and billing and to ensure the stability of the overall energy system.

“Denmark, the host of the 2009 United Nations Climate Change conference and the most energy efficient country in the EU, further underscores its ambitions here with the Edison project announcement,” said Guido Bartels, General Manager of IBM’s Global Energy & Utilities industry. “There is already broad consensus that both wind energy and electric vehicles have enormous potential for a sustainable energy future — bringing the two together promises to be a winning combination.”

(Source: Bloomberg)

Tim O’Toole, who ran the London Underground for six years and oversaw the railway’s multibillion- pound upgrade, plans to step down.

O’Toole, 54, a lawyer from Pittsburgh and former chief executive ofConsolidated Rail Corp., will leave Transport for London in April and return to the U.S., the agency said in an e- mailed statement today. A successor hasn’t been picked.

O’Toole supervised the largest investment since World War II in the 146-year-old railway, the aftermath of terrorist attacks on city trains in 2005 and the collapse of the railway’s biggest contractor, Metronet. The railway, which struggled to keep pace with increasing demand, has improved performance since 2005.

“After six years in London it is time to go home,” O’Toole said in the statement. “I am particularly proud that London Underground employees have achieved record operating results and all-time high levels of customer satisfaction in this past year.”

(Source: Backgrounder, Council on Foreign Relations) 

 

Author:	Robert McMahon, Deputy Editor

Introduction : 

Transportation experts view the call for dramatic federal government action in response to the economic crisis as an opportunity to overhaul the U.S. system of highways, bridges, railways, and mass transit. A series of sobering report cards from the American Society of Civil Engineers documents the inadequacy of this system. President Barack Obama took office pledging to act; his February 2009 stimulus package provides nearly $50 billion for transportation infrastructure. But many experts look beyond the stimulus and call for shifts in longer-term policy that will fundamentally alter the approach to planning and funding infrastructure and bolster U.S. competitiveness, quality of life, and security. In the past, the United States has revamped its transportationinfrastructure to build canals, transcontinental railways, and a federal highway system, in each case helping usher in periods of economic growth.

A State of Disrepair

(Source: Brookings Institution)

(Source: NPR)

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says high-speed rail could be a signature issue for Obama. “I do think this is the transformational issue for this administration when it comes to transportation,” LaHood said. “I think President Obama would like to be known as the high-speed rail president, and I think he can be.”

LaHood has sent Obama a memo outlining a half-dozen rail corridors across the country that could be in line to get some of the high-speed rail mon,ey.

The state that may be furthest along in planning is California, where voters approved a $9 billion bond issue last fall for high speed trains. Quentin Kopp, a former judge who is chairman of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, expects a lot of the federal money to wind up in the California system, which would link the state’s largest cities.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: Forbes.com)

California’s HOT expressways are on the rise but need our government’s financial support.

(Source: MIT Technology Review)

The chair of the California Air Resources Board has some advice for the new administration.

In 2006, the state of California passed landmark legislation aimed at limiting green-house gas emissions. Under the Bush administration, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rejected the state’s request to regulate vehicular emissions. Earlier this month, the Obama administration announced it would reconsider this ruling–most likely in order to reverse it.

Mary D. Nichols, chairman of the California Air Resources Board, will be responsible for implementing the state’s climate change legislation. In a speech at the Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative annual Energy Symposium yesterday, Nichols had some advice for a new presidential administration with the will to act on climate change: follow California’s lead on energy efficiency because it’s been an economic boon for the state. Nichols mentioned a report by Next 10 that claims cutting energy usage over the past 30 years has created 1.5 million jobs in California. (Still, in a state characterized by suburban sprawl, carbon dioxide emissions are quite high, at 11 tons per capita per year.)