Originally posted by Noah Kazis at TheCityFix DC.

World Streets shares this very funny French ad for a car-sharing company.

The translation of their slogan is “It’s almost your car.” In another ad, the same man is eating a messy sandwich in the car and dripping on himself when someone knocks on the door.

How off message can these be? Read the rest of this entry »

Open source technology: Software companies do it. Why not carmakers? Photo via Riversimple.

What if you could revolutionize the way cars are designed and built by opening the process up to input from the entire community?

That’s exactly what Riversimple is trying to do. The UK-based car company will license its energy-efficient automobile designs (available under Creative Commons non-commercial license) to the 40 Fires Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that will invite engineers, designers, lawyers and other car business experts to comment on high-level design matters, for example, the use of hub motors.

On its wiki, where most of the discussion will happen, 40 Fires writes, “all we really care about is that the license works to ensure that the cars can be built in hundreds of different variations around the world, by local companies and entrepreneurs as well as big multinationals if they like, and that no one company (whether Ford or Riversimple) can dominate the market and keep the ideas to itself.”
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Metro ridership is up. Bus ridership is down. What gives? Photo by Teo.

The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) released their ridership numbers for the first quarter on Monday, and there’s some very interesting news for D.C. and for the nation.

Let’s start at the national level. Total transit ridership is down 1.2% from the first quarter of 2008. That sounds like bad news, except by comparison with the 1.7% decrease in vehicle miles traveled. In other words, it appears the recession has caused people to drive less more than it has negatively affected the use of public transit. APTA further points out that this is true even despite lower gas prices than a year ago, a factor that would ordinarily shift commuters back into their cars.

Read more at The City Fix DC…

Zero Pollution Motors wants to revolutionize the auto industry with a vehicle that runs on compressed air. Photo via Pneumatic Addict.

From the Associated Press:

Zero Pollution Motors is trying to bring a car to U.S. roads by early 2011 that’s powered by a combination of compressed air and a small conventional engine.

ZPM Chief Executive Shiva Vencat said the ultimate goal is a price tag between $18,000 and $20,000, fuel economy equivalent to 100 miles per gallon and a tailpipe that emits nothing but air at low enough speeds….

As Vencat spells it out, the “air cars” plug into a wall outlet, allowing an on-board compressor to pressurize the car’s air tank to 4,500 pounds per square inch. It takes about four hours to get the tank to full pressure, then the air is then released gradually to power the car’s pistons.

Many of the specifications of ZPM’s car are still speculative, but Vencat expects it to go about 20 miles on compressed air alone, and hundreds more after the engine kicks in, with a top speed of 96 mph.

The ZPM website says its mission is “to bring zero pollution motoring at any speed, for any distance, to the largest number of motorists possible and, in doing so, significantly improve the quality of the air we breathe and reduce our collective carbon footprint.”

But AP reporter Dan Strumpf highlights some limitations of the new technology:

• “compressing air is notoriously energy intensive”
• air compressors are much less efficient compared to other alternative-fuel powertrains, like hybrid-electric cars
• “U.S. safety regulations could be another obstacle given the air car’s tiny size and light weight”

What do you think? Is the “air car” a legitimate solution? Or just more hot air from the auto industry?

According to Lee Schipper, “a battery supplying the 40-mile range of the GM Volt is said to cost $20,000.” Photo by EuroTraveler.

Lee Schipper, senior fellow at EMBARQ and senior research engineer at the Precourt Energy Efficiency Center of Stanford University, makes the case for more fuel-efficient gasoline cars in the short-term, even though electric cars are more valuable and use less resources.

The main problem with battery electric vehicles, Schipper points out, is a matter of cost.
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The coolest thing about Zipcar’s new FastFleet service isn’t the technology–it’s the buzz. Photo by dominiccampbell.

In response to yesterday’s post about Zipcar’s launch of FastFleet, a municipal fleet management service, Clayton Lane, the chief operating officer of EMBARQ and co-founder of PhillyCarShare, shares his opinion about what’s new and why we should care.

The Story is the Story
By Clayton Lane
Chief Operating Officer
EMBARQ - The World Resources Institute Center for Sustainable Transport

This is a great PR “win” for sustainable transportation. But the real innovation here isn’t the cool technical solution, which is very “2004.” It’s the buzz. Zipcar and D.C. are recycling a truly sustainable solution and making a big fuss about it. For that, they deserve our compliments.
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Zipcar launches pilot program to lease fleet management technology to D.C. government vehicles. Photo by katmere.

The latest car-sharing model to hit the streets could save millions of taxpayer dollars, reduce pollution, and make it easier to beat the morning commute.

The one-of-a-kind service is called FastFleet, a new fleet management system designed specifically for the municipal and federal sector. And it’s run by Zipcar, the largest car-sharing company in the world.
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Illustration by via GOOD Magazine.

GOOD magazine published its jam-packed, 112-page “Transportation Issue,” devoted to a “drastic rethinking of how we move around, how we design our cities, and how we power our vehicles.”

The articles cover a lot of ground, discussing the problems and solutions of congestion pricing; comparing choices that will make commuting to work more convenient (a dilemma that’s referred to as the “last-mile problem”); and also, reviewing a range of transport projects, like bus rapid transit in Bogota, carpooling in San Francisco, and bicycle rental in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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Is this the car of the future? For more photos, check out this photo gallery by Autoblog. (Image via Gather.com)

Last week, General Motors and Segway unveiled the much-hyped Project P.U.M.A, which stands for “Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility,” an electric two-wheeler prototype vehicle that is supposed to transform the way city-dwellers move around. The 300-pound, lithium-battery-powered, pod-shaped vehicle can go up to 35 miles per hour in a 35-mile range with a 35 cent charge.

The New York Post says it is “a vision of how to combat difficult future urban planning and development as urbanization increases and green technologies becomes more important.” (See a video of PUMA in action, riding around New York City, here.)
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Chinese car designer Tang Hua unveiled this peculiar electric concept car, named “Detroit Fish,” at the North American International Auto Show in 2008. Photo by GmanViz.

Step aside, Japan. Don’t even try, Detroit. China has plans to corner the electric car market.

From the New York Times:

TIANJIN, China — Chinese leaders have adopted a plan aimed at turning the country into one of the leading producers of hybrid and all-electric vehicles within three years, and making it the world leader in electric cars and buses after that.

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