Photo by cindy47452.

The National Transportation Policy Project of the Bipartisan Policy Center today released its final recommendations calling for comprehensive reform of the U.S. surface transportation bill, which expires at the end of September.

The recommendations were gathered over two years from a group of transport experts, transit users and political leaders. Basically, their report claims our transportation policy has lost its way and needs a sense of direction. The current system is strained to capacity and growing increasingly congested. We need a major overhaul. More specifically, “U.S. transportation policy needs to be more performance-driven, more directly linked to a set of clearly articulated goals, and more accountable for results.”

(The full report, titled, “Performance Driven: A New Vision for U.S. Transportation Policy,” is available for download here.)
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Sarah Kuck from WorldChanging interviews EMBARQ Director Nancy Kete for a feature story about the future of American transportation systems:

• What does transportation look like now in most U.S. cities? And where can we go from here?
• What do you think the future of high-speed rail should look like in the United States?
• What advice would you give the Obama administration?
• What do people commonly misunderstand about how transportation works in the United States?
• Would that knowledge of the real costs of driving make people more willing to support public transportation measures?
• Do you have a vision for what intermodal transportation will look like in the future?

To read the full interview, click here.

Steve Price won the Livable Streets Contest for his vision of a “complete street” in Portsmouth, Virginia.

Last week, GOOD announced the winners of its Livable Streets Contest.

It was a simple assignment: “Take a photo of a street or intersection you know and hate, and then use Photoshop or any other image editing techniques at your disposal to make the changes you’d like to see implemented.”

The winning submission was from Steve Price of Portsmouth, Virginia.

Contest judges Aaron Naparstek from Streetsblog and designer Carly Clark said Price’s “holistic approach is just what what’s needed in a barren urban environment like this. He’s thinking about new infill development, light rail, bike lanes, and outdoor space for pedestrians and putting it all together to create an entirely new neighborhood. Portsmouth should go and make this happen right now!”

Click here to learn more about the contest and see the other winning entries.

EMBARQ presents a slideshow about the concept of “Mobility Management (MM)” in San Sebastian, Spain.

View the entire slideshow here.

Mobility Management

At the core of Mobility Management are “soft” measures like information and communication, organising services and coordinating activities of different partners. “Soft” measures most often enhance the effectiveness of “hard” measures within urban transport (e.g., new tram lines, new roads and new bike lanes). Mobility Management measures (in comparison to “hard” measures) do not necessarily require large financial investments and may have a high benefit-cost ratio.

-From the European Platform on Mobility Management

EMBARQ is hiring two summer interns to blog for TheCityFix.com. See details below.

TheCityFix DC Internship

EMBARQ is looking for an full-time, 12-week intern to write for a new version of its flagship blog, TheCityFix.com, which will be focusing on sustainable transportation in the Washington, DC Metro Area.

For more info on responsibilities, compensation and how to apply, click here:
http://www.embarq.org/en/thecityfix-dc-internship

TheCityFix Latin America Internship

EMBARQ is looking for an full-time, 12-week intern to write Spanish and English language posts for a new version of its flagship blog, TheCityFix.com, which will be focusing on sustainable transportation in cities in Latin America.

For more info on responsibilities, compensation and how to apply, click here:
http://www.embarq.org/en/thecityfix-latin-america-intern

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?

Image via FastCompany.com.

Ever thought your public bus could feel like a “lounge or living room room on wheels,” with an electric motor, low-floor entryways, a glass roof, reconstituted-leather upholstery and recycled-wood floors?

From Fast Company:

High-Design Public Bus? Maybe in London
Tim McKeough
June 2009

Commuters using London’s public-transit system probably never dream of being picked up in an Aston Martin, but it may not be long before that happens. The storied automaker has teamed with architecture superfirm Foster + Partners to give the famed double-decker Routemaster bus a makeover.

Read more here.

A pedestrian waits at 14th and U St. NW, Washington, D.C. Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Two stories you need to know about sustainable transportation in the United States this week:

Vehicle Emission Rules to Tighten
Washington Post
May 19, 2009

The Obama administration today plans to propose tough standards for tailpipe emissions from new automobiles, establishing the first nationwide regulation for greenhouse gases.

It will also raise fuel efficiency targets to 35.5 miles per gallon for new passenger vehicles and light trucks by 2016, four years earlier than required under the 2007 energy bill, sources close to the administration said.

Congressional Climate Bill Includes ‘Complete Streets’ But Not CLEAN TEA
Streetsblog
May 18, 2009

Henry Waxman (D-CA), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has just struck a deal on his long-awaited climate change bill — and though the agreement makes a number of concessions to polluters, it also takes a step forward towards popularizing the cause of “complete streets”.

The House climate bill requires every state and metropolitan area with more than 200,000 residents to devise plans for reducing transportation-related carbon emissions. The bill directs states and localities to draft plans that “consider transportation and land use strategies” that encourage transit use, walking and bike riding, as well as equal access by all users.

Students from Appalachian State University figured out how to make working bicycles out of recycled plastic bottles. Image from 2one2Design.com.

A friend of mine from high school was part of the winning team that took home the grand prize for the first annual Juicy Ideas Competition, sponsored by Google, for his and his teammates’ innovative and environmentally responsible bicycle design.

Squeezing Ideas out of a Throw-Away Item
Google Student Blog
March 2, 2009

How would you define innovation? Environmentalism? Or entrepreneurship? The Juicy Ideas Competition asked college students to demonstrate all three. Attracting nearly 900 college students from roughly 30 schools, The Juicy Ideas Competition asked students to create an innovative product out of a “throw-away” item. They were then asked to post a video that illustrated these three factors and post it to YouTube.

Videos poured in from all over the country - we saw everything from blankets made out of plastic bags to coffee tables made out of Gatorade bottles. But none of the ideas stood out as much as the four students from Appalachian State University in North Carolina. Spencer Price, Ryan Klinger, Andrew Drake, and Justin Henry created a working bicycle out of used water bottles to win the Juicy Ideas grand prize trip to the Google Headquarters in Mountain View.

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This summer, residents in Chicago and the surrounding region will be asked to plan for their own future, thanks to a collaboration between the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning and a real-life version of SimCity, known as MetroQuest.

From the University of British Columbia Public Affairs:

How do you want your city to look in 100 years? A technology created at the University of British Columbia [based on models developed by the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES)] is giving communities around the globe a peek at how today’s decisions can rewrite tomorrow’s cities. Like a Web 2.0 crystal ball, the software dramatically illustrates the future impacts of city planning proposals, helping to steer stakeholders away from pitfalls such as urban sprawl, gridlock and decay.

Inspired by the game SimCity, which allows players to imagine different scenarios for fictional cities, the tool is called MetroQuest, a computer software that allows various stakeholders in the urban planning process to simulate the consequences of different policy choices 40 years into the future. For example, how will expanding mass transit affect commute times? If regional policies favor car drivers, how will that impact local air quality?
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