Show me what you got – GOOD wants you to create a Doodle about “A Day with a Bicycle”
For this month’s project, dubbed A Day with a Bicycle, GOOD is asking you to pick a day and avoid using any kind of carbon-burning vehicles (cars, buses, mopeds, etc.), and then draw a doodle that illustrates your experiences.
Amplify’d from www.good.is
the OBJECTIVE
Create a doodle that tells your story of a day with a bicycle.
the ASSIGNMENT
The doodle can be as broad or as specific as you wish. Did you go somewhere unexpected? Did you feel lost? Did you save money? Did the experience bring up any interesting thoughts or observations? A day with a bike can certainly mean different things to different people. We’ll leave that to you.
the REQUIREMENTS
Send us an e-mail at projects[at]goodinc[dot]com with your doodle and the subject line “September DOODLE.” It can be in any image format, but ideally it should be high enough resolution that it can be printed at 300 dpi. We prefer images that are taller versus wider (the above was a 6:8 ratio). There are numerous methods for creating visual notes whether through digital means (tablets, digital sketchpads, etc.) or tangible methods such as using a Moleskine. Regardless of your choice, please ensure the images are as clean as possible. Feel free to include a brief summary of your illustration. We’ll take submissions now through September 12th.
See this Amp at http://bit.ly/deBNu8
How to Choose the Right Alternative-Fuel Car for You – A “Good” decision-making process
(Source: Good Magazine)
Amidst the clutter of alternative vehicles that are already in the market and the ones just arriving in the market, how would one decide on the “right” vehicle? Our savvy folks at Good magazine have published an excellent resource that makes this decision-making process less-complicated and easy to navigate.
Whatever happened to hydrogen?
The idea is great: Take the most abundant element in the universe, turn it silently into electricity, and the only byproduct is a wisp of steam. To its fans, the hydrogen fuel cell is a transportation miracle that will cork our carbon output and curb our addiction to foreign oil. To its critics, it’s vaporware.
Are hybrid batteries toxic?
If the forecasts are right, electrons will replace hydrocarbons as the energy source in our cars. Then, of course, we’ll have to face the question of batteries. The batteries favored in hybrid cars—nickel-metal hydride—have an encouraging track record of lasting at least as long as the cars themselves. The lithium-ion batteries used in fully electric cars are similarly enduring. But how bad are they for the planet? Depends on what you do with them when they die.
The amazing Indian Air Car: Coming to America?
Perhaps you have heard that India’s largest automaker, Tata Motors, has created the world’s first commercial car that runs on air. The good news is that they’re bringing it here. A few fun facts:
It is powered by compressed air • Zero Pollution Motors will produce the American version • It’s priced at $17,800 • Reservations in the States will be taken midyear; delivery is early 2010 • ZPM estimates that its Air Car will run up to 1,000 miles per fill-up, and at speeds up to 96 mph • It’s up for the Automotive X Prize (see below), and is considered a front-runner • Made out of fiberglass instead of sheet metal, it’s expected to be safer and easier to repair than a traditional car and rust-proof • It seats six.
Who will build the best 100-mpg car?
After staging a high-profile competition for civilian spaceflight in 2004, the X Prize Foundation now has another $10 million on the table, this time for a 100-mpg car. And after the checkered flag flies and the winning team claims the Progressive Automotive X Prize, there is “no reason you should not be driving a car that gets over 100 miles per gallon,” according to the prize’s creator, Peter Diamandis.
Candid corn: Is ethanol worth it?
A parade of studies has tried to decipher the pros and cons of ethanol. Depending on a multitude of variables, some studies find it environmentally better than gasoline, some much worse. The implications aren’t light: The USDA says that nearly a third of all U.S. corn used this year will go into ethanol production. And globally, food prices have been ratcheted up as more corn is brewed into fuel.
Click here to read the entire article.
Convenience is King – You can take the train to work, but your office is still a mile away from the station. Might as well drive, right? How we can solve the last-mile problem?
(Source: Good Magazine)
A couple of months after the presidential election, and a couple of weeks after Barack Obama signed his stimulus bill, the giddiness among transport advocates was enough to induce a contact high: $8 billion for high-speed trains, and another $8.4 billion for mass transit! They were excited for good reason: For years, the country has starved for any attempt to develop green transit, and finally we had the money.
But what if most mass transit is doomed to fail? It isn’t the mere lack of trains and subways that keep people in their cars. It’s what urban planners call the first- and last-mile problem. You know it, intuitively. Let’s say you’d like to commute on public transit. But if you live in a suburb—and ever since 2000, over half of Americans do—it’s unlikely that you live close enough to a station to walk. The same problem arises once you get to your destination: You probably don’t work anywhere near the closest bus or train station. So even if public transit is available, commuters often stay in their cars because the alternative—the hassle of driving, then riding, then getting to your final destination—is inconvenient, if not totally impossible. “Denser areas don’t have these same problems,” says Susan Shaheen, who heads the Innovative Mobility Research group at the University of California, Berkeley. “The problem is really about land use in the United States.”
It sounds nearly impossible to fix: Our suburbs won’t soon disappear, even if some are withering in the present housing decline. But here’s the good news: For the first time in three decades, solving the last-mile problem seems just within reach, owing to vehicle fleets and ingenious ride-sharing schemes that lean on mobile computing, social networks, and smart urban planning. “To make public transit viable, you have it make it just as easy as getting in a car,” says Shaheen. “It can be done.”
The challenge, according to Dan Sturges, the founder of Intrago Mobility, which creates vehicle-sharing technology, is that “no one’s yet putting these innovations together as a system, and the public doesn’t understand the broader problem. But if implemented all together, the things being invented now will make owning a personal car into a joke.” The enemy is really the car’s unequaled convenience; commuters need multiple, equally easy choices before they’ll give up the steering wheel. Several such choices are in the works.
“Right-Size” Fleets
Zipcar—which is now being copied by Hertz and U-Haul—is a godsend for city dwellers who only occasionally need a car. But it can also be used to solve the last-mile problem, when linked with public transit. “We’re at the tip of the iceberg with those systems,” says Sturges. However, for many commutes, a car is overkill. What if the closest bus is just a mile and a half away? A “right-sized” vehicle, suited to your particular last-leg commuting need, is ideal. These might be anything from a Segway (dorky as it may be) to an electric bike or a high-powered electric golf cart. But the vehicles themselves aren’t the solution, since commutes can change every day (say you’re visiting a client one day, and eating lunch at your desk the next).
Click here to read the entire article.
Dummy, yes! Human, almost! – An awesome picture show!
(Source: Good Magazine)
Crash test dummies, or anthropomorphic test devices, are replications of human forms and weight distributions, used to study potential human damage in car crashes. We’re all familiar with images of them flying through windshields or being restrained by seat belts and airbags in slow motion. But when looked at through a different lens, the models take on a surreal, human quality. “Crash Tests,” by the French photographer Charles Negre, offers a look at a number of unsung—if inanimate—heroes, without whom we drivers and passengers would be a great deal worse off. Here is a sample (st one below is the dummy named, David) and click here for the complete picture show.
The one below is Roberto
