Residents in Taiwan snarled in traffic.

The latest edition of Business Week includes an article about car companies using ultra-efficient business models to produce super cheap cars that are affordable to the masses in the developing world. Lead by Tata Motors, an Indian company which announced a plan to build a $2,500 car by next year, other car companies including Toyata, Fiat, GM, and Chrystler are set to follow suite and build their own low-cost cars.

But in a glaring omission, the article never mentions how cheaper cars will effect the quality of life in burgeoning cities throughout the developing world. Already in places like Bangkok, Shanghai, Mexico City, and Delhi - to name a few - personal automobiles are a force to be reckoned with as they clog the streets and foul the air. It doesn’t take an economist to figure out that cheaper cars mean more cars. And more cars on the road mean more traffic and less clean air.

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On March 26, Lee Schipper, Director of Research at EMBARQ, waded into the cacophonous debate over biofuels during a presentation at the World Bank.

Biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel are often touted as a panacea for a host of environmental and energy-related problems. This hot topic has even become a centerpiece of high level geopolitics, as evidenced by President Bush’s recent trip to Brazil, where ethanol was a principle area of discussion. Brazil is currently one of the world’s leading ethanol producers, and during Bush’s visit the two countries agreed to collaborate on improving the technologies and markets for this alternative fuel. Read the rest of this entry »

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The buzz surrounding biofuels grew even louder this week during President Bush’s high profile visit to Brazil. Bush met with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Sao Paolo, where the two leaders signed a new green fuels agreement designed to increase the viability of biofuels as an alternative to oil.

Complete coverage of the event was carried in many publications, including an article in the Los Angeles Times.

The US-Brazil agreement contains three main areas of collaboration between the world’s two largest ethanol producers: developing new and better biofuels technologies; fostering ethanol production in smaller oil-dependent countries in the Western hemisphere; and establishing standards that promote an international market for biofuels.
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In a talk that appealed to computer geeks, policy wonks and transport engineers alike, Prof. Toni Lindau, EMBARQ’s CTS-Brasil Director, discussed his new “Microscopic Bus Rapid Transit Simulator.”

Prof. Lindau presented his innovative software tool at EMBARQ’s “Transforming Transportation” event, held as part of the TRB’s annual meeting in Washington, DC. Lindau described how the Windows-based program allows transportation planners to simulate various Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) alternatives within Latin American cities. Specifically, the software helps evaluate BRT routes and traffic flows, detect and correct potential problems, and train system designers, managers, and operators. Because the software simulates conditions before any actual construction has begun, it saves valuable time and money at each point along a project timeline.

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