This week is National “Stop on Red” Week, and the Federal Highway Administration has kicked off several activities that highlight how dangerous blowing through a red light can be.  The activities for the week include a special edition of the Campaign’s Safety Focus newsletter, written by 13 red light running victims, survivors and their families and friends.

It has also released a video that can make you think twice before speeding through  the yellow at an intersection.  The video is a collection of actual crashes captured by traffic cameras situated at these intersections.  In one scene, a motorcycle flies through an intersection slamming into a car. In another, a car t-bones a sport utility vehicle.

The Stop Red Light Running Program was created by the Federal Highway Administration in 1995 as a community-based safety program. This campaign raised awareness of the dangers of red light running and helped reduce fatalities in many of the participating communities. The program calls attention to the dangers of red light running each year in the Annual National Stop on Red Week, – a week dedicated to educating Americans about the dangers of running red lights.

Remember, the number of fatal crashes at traffic signals is rising faster nationwide than any other type of fatal crash.  In 2007 in the U.S., almost 900 people were killed and an estimated 153,000 were injured in crashes that involved red light running. Public costs exceed $14 billion per year, and more than half of the deaths in red light running crashes are other motorists and pedestrians.

Show your Support! Stop on Red!

Commuters Go Head to Head in Battle of the Bikes

Unlike natural selection, though, we have a choice over which species to become. But have I made the best choice, or are my wheels just stuck in a rut? I decided to find out by mocking up an average commute and holding a “tribal commuter race”, to see who could get from door to desk quickest.

The contestants: road-bike racer; fixed-gear rider, mountain biker, hybrid commuter and granny-bike dawdler.

As soon as they set off it was clear who was going to arrive first. Fixed-gear rider sprinted away at the head of a fast pack, with road-bike racer in close and streamlined pursuit. Not far behind was hybrid commuter – slowed slightly by his panniers and upright seating position, but keen to compete.

Separated by a widening gap was mountain biker, whose bouncy suspension and wide, knobbly tires were a significant disadvantage. Granny-bike dawdler, equipped with baguette-carrying wicker basket, brought up the rear – but didn’t seem to mind one bit.

The slower tribes made up some time when road-bike racer’s skinny, slick tyres succumbed to some gravel in a shortcut through a park. Palms bloodied and confidence shaken, he failed to recover his initial advantage. Fixed-gear rider seized this opportunity to extend the lead, hopping red lights as he went.

A few miles later and everyone crossed the finish line in varying states of disarray. Fixed-gear rider was first, but sweaty enough to star in a Lynx commercial; hybrid commuter next and only slightly less moist. Last place on the podium went to road-bike racer, who was in need of a shower and a trip to the office first aid box before starting his working day.

Just a handful of minutes behind came mountain biker, who may have won had the course involved any sudden descents through woodland, but on the day arrived late and panting. Mere moments later came a grinning granny-bike dawdler, pulling up at the finish line slowly, but as fresh as a daisy.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: TreeHugger, Guardian, UK; Image Courtesy: Guardian –  Cyclists wearing different outfits in London Photograph: Graham Turner/ Antonio Olmos/Guardian/ Observer)

(Source: Wired & You Tube)

Folks at Mission Motors are hard at work preparing for the upcoming TTxGP green motorcycle grand prix.  As they prepared their electric beauty, Mission One, for the D-Day they decided to take it out for a spin on the circuit and test its endurance and speed.   We are now thankful that the team decided to capture the events in a video and decided to share with us enthusiasts who are eagerly awaiting the products arrival in the market. The video provides some tantalizing glimpses of the bike’s mechanicals, and since Mission Motorsunveiled the bike in February, we know a little about what’s coming in the $69,000 street bike slated for production next year.

“We were able to test extensively at speed as well as for endurance,” company founder and CEO Forrest North told Wired.com. “The bike responded amazingly in both areas. We were extremely impressed that right off the factory floor the Mission One could be ridden to the limits with very few tweaks. We’re excited to begin testing at the Isle of Man next week and put the bike through its paces on the mountain course.”

It has a 3-phase AC induction motor and a liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery. Mission Motors claims the battery is good for 150 miles and recharges in just two hours at 240 volts. Lustworthy hardware includes Ohlins suspension at both ends, four-piston Brembo brakes and Marchesini forged wheels. The components put the Mission One on par with hardcore sportbikes like the Ducati 1198.

The TTxGP will be a great place to prove the bike’s sporting cred. The inaugural event follows the Isle of Man TT, one of the most storied races in all of motorcycling. The 37.5-mile course may well be the ultimate test of a motorcycle’s handling, and running that hard for that long will show what’s possible – or what isn’t – with battery range.

(Source: AP via Yahoo)

General Motors Corp., just days after the bankrupt carmaker sold its Hummer brand, said Friday that it has reached a deal to unload Saturn to racing legend and auto dealer Roger Penske.

 General Motors Corp. has a tentative deal to sell its Saturn brand to former race car driver and dealership group owner Roger Penske, both companies said Friday.

Penske has signed a memorandum of understanding that would give his dealership chain, Penske Automotive Group, Saturn’s 350 dealerships, the companies said. Penske said that he expects to offer all the dealers new franchise agreements and will retain all 13,000 Saturn employees for the immediate term.

“I would expect that the model that we’re putting together, the distribution model, will be profitable day one,” Penske said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We’ll have less costs. We’ll not be in the manufacturing side.”

Neither Penske nor GM would say how much Penske is paying for the brand. Penske said he expects the deal to close in the third quarter.

Penske Automotive Group also distributes Daimler AG’s Smart subcompacts in the U.S., but Smart has its own dealership network and Saturn dealers will continue to exclusively distribute Saturn vehicles, Penske said.

Initially, GM will continue to produce on a contract basis the Saturn Aura sedan as well as the Vue and Outlook SUVs, the companies said. But Penske said he is in talks with manufacturers around the world about building Saturn cars in the future.

GM Chairman Roger Smith first unveiled the Saturn brand in November 1983, describing it as a revolutionary new way to build and sell small cars in America. But the project was slow to develop and the brand did not officially launch until 1990. It featured the iconic tag-line “a different kind of car company.”

GM’s hope was that Saturn would attract younger buyers with smaller, hipper cars to better compete with Japanese imports. It built a new plant in Spring Hill, Tenn., devoted to Saturn production. The factory had more flexible work rules than traditional GM plants for the employees who built the cars.

Image Courtesy: Penske Automotive Group

Despite a cult-like following that drew thousands to annual reunions in Spring Hill, the brand never made money for GM. The factory stopped making Saturns in 2007 and currently builds only the Chevrolet Traverse.

As GM focused more on high-profit pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles, Saturn began to languish in the late 1990s. Then in 2006, car buyers began to find Saturn’s new models more appealing. But after a good year in 2007, sales dropped 22 percent last year as the U.S. car market withered.

Penske Automotive also distributes Daimler AG’s Smart subcompacts in the U.S., but Smart has its own dealership network and Saturn dealers will continue to exclusively distribute Saturn vehicles, Penske said.

Carl F. Galeana, who owns two Saturn dealerships north of Detroit, said Friday he was thrilled that Penske would be the Saturn buyer.

“Roger Penske is an icon in the business world,” Galeana said. “I’ve worked with him personally. Nobody works harder than Roger Penske.”

Galeana said the fact that Penske is interested in Saturn means the brand has value.

“It allows Saturn to get back to its original roots, which is to be an independent car company,” he said.

Shares of Penske Automotive rose 52 cents, or 3.6 percent, to $15.13 in midday trading on news of the sale. The stock has enjoyed a brisk rally this year, more than tripling from an annual low of $4.82 in March.

During a press briefing earlier this week, GM Chief Executive Frederick Henderson said Saab has attracted three bidders, but he declined to reveal names.  The renowned Hummer brand was sold to a Chinese heavy machinery company a couple of days ago and this transaction will conclude upon clearance from three different Chinese government agencies .

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: Wired)

As the world watched the Spelling Bee competition, I was reading up on the eye candy parked above.  Upon reading, I went searching the dictionary to find the meaning for the word insane, which is listed as follows: In·sane [in-seyn ] – adj. [Latin: insanus] – Not sane, mentally ill or deranged; demented; mad.  But British automaker, Ariel, is trying to change this meaning by doing something that’s much more crazy.  With the wisdom achieved during the development Atom 300, of one of the fastest cars on Earth, which is already achieving sub 3 second times to 60mph and sub 7 second times to 100mph, the folks at Ariel went to work on  the Ariel 500. 

The limited-edition Ariel Atom 500 is  a 500-kilo (1,100-lbs) smartlooking “bomb”, sporting a 500-horsepower 3.0-liter V8 engine capable of hurling the occupants down the highway at an astoninshing speed (0 to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds).  Simon Saunders, Director of Ariel,  has this much to say about the Atom 500: “For a few customers the Atom 500 will be the ultimate expression of lightweight performance and represents the outer limits of what is achievable in a road registered car. ”   It is reported that only 25 copies of this vehicle will be offered in the United States at a date and price to be determined.

The only question that comes to mind is what is the purpose of a passenger seat in this vehicle? No way in hell can the driver or the passenger have a conversation traveling at such a neck-breaking speed.   So, I am convinced the sole purpose of having this passenger seat is to pass the eligibility criteria for a “street car”.   A quick check on Google for the 0-60mph speed table shows that a standard Formula One car would clock that at 2.8secs, which is definitely slower than the Atom 500 fitted with a passenger seat.   If that passenger seat is removed, the reduction in weight might make the vehicle even lighter, contributing to a further increment in speed.   Now, imagine showing up at work in one of these!

(Source: Tree Hugger & NOLA)

It wasn’t so long ago that we wrote about the Power of One (Xof1) Solar Car breaking a world distance record, and that’s the kind of story we like to write about. But via our friends at Autobloggreen, we learn that someone broke into the solar car’s support vehicle and stole an estimated $10,000 of stuff (including passports). What’s even sadder is that in the video below, you can hear Marcelo da Luz explain how he gave up his job, mortgaged his house, maxed his credit card, etc, to get this project off the ground.

Marcelo da Luz gave up his job, girlfriend and nearly a half-million dollars to build a solar-powered car and drive it all over the Americas, a trek that brought him and several international volunteers, following in a van, to New Orleans early Sunday evening.

But an hour after he parked on a busy, well-lighted French Quarter street, someone broke into the van and stole passports, laptops, credit cards, cash, a digital camera and a portable hard drive.

Despite the estimated $10,000 loss, da Luz seemed in high spirits the next morning, describing the break-in as a “dent” in his ecological barnstorming tour. He insisted that he was still enjoying his first visit to the Crescent City. After discovering the theft, da Luz and an assistant from the Netherlands trotted to a nearby tavern to “drown their sorrows.”

Despite his setback in New Orleans, da Luz plans to continue east to the Atlantic coast of Florida.

“I don’t hope anything bad happens to whoever did this or anything, ” he said. “I just hope their lives turn out better so they don’t need to do this to anyone else.”  

Spoke like a true gentleman, Mr. da Luz!

(Source:  Autoblog)

You read it right! It is one thousand four hundred and forty five miles from a single tank of gas!   Analyzed from any angle, these numbers are amazing, especially from a Ford vehicle, a brand that is not well associated with thrift fuel consumption in the past.   Though the goal was to clear 1000 miles, the hyper-milers knocked that number and added 445 miles more , beating their own estimates to set a new world record.

 For the high-mileage odyssey, the Fusion hybrid was pushed to an average of 81.5 mpg. Even considering that hypermiling techniques were employed to reach these numbers, we’re quite impressed, as the event took place on city streets and public freeways, not on a closed course. Better still, the entire 69-hour event raised $8,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. You can read the details of how the driving teams managed the 80 mpg in the official press release – and no, they didn’t find a thousand-mile downhill road.

PRESS RELEASE:

(Source: Wall Street Journal)

Efficient Drivers Cut Emissions, but Stir Up Hot Air

Cruising around this desert metropolis in her four-door pickup truck, Morgan Dresser doesn’t look like an environmental trendsetter.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: AutoBlogGreen, CNNMoney)

Dodge Circuit, a two-seat roadster, could be Chrysler’s first step into electric cars, provided the company survives.

A battery-powered 268-horsepower two-seat sports car is in line to become Chrysler LLC’s first electric car, provided the carmaker lives to see another day.   

To survive, help is needed from Italy’s Fiat but, as negotiations with the Italian automaker bog down and the two week deadline to hammer out a partnership approaches, the company’s future – as well as its aspirations for an electric hot rod – are increasingly in doubt.

Chrysler’s first electric car, set to be introduced late next year around the same time as General Motors’ Chevrolet Volt, will be a sports car with a zero-to-60 time of under five seconds and a top speed of 120 miles hour.

“To be able to meet a 2010 timeline, you have to be pretty far along in development, and right now we are,” said Lou Rhodes, head of Chrysler’s electric car program, in a recent CNNMoney.com interview.

The Circuit is similar to the Tesla Roadster, a $109,000 sports car produced by a small California company. Pricing for the Circuit has not been announced but will likely undercut the Tesla.