Jesus Died for Your Car

Actual license plate proposal.

Reduced Demand = Oil Surplus in Europe

Rotterdam, Europe’s largest port, may be running out of space to store crude as global oil demand posts its first back-to-back annual drop in a quarter-century.

The harbor is Europe’s largest refinery center and a trading hub for refined products such as gasoline and diesel. Some ships have been diverted or are waiting outside the port until space is available, said Jeroen Kortsmit, manager for commercial affairs at Royal Dirkzwager.

“A lot of tanks are fully loaded,” Kortsmit said by phone from Rotterdam April 27. He joined the company, which provides shipping information to terminal operators around the port, 24 years ago and said he has never seen storage this full before.

- Bloomberg

All Mayors Should Try This

Berkeley's mayor goes carfree.



No doubt he'll become one of many who knows that AC Transit (Berkeley's bus system) needs some major improvements.

Green Transportation - Now the Law of the Land

This finding is a game-changer.

U.S. EPA said today that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare, a move that is expected ultimately to trigger broad regulation of those heat-trapping industrial emissions. EPA released the 133-page proposed "endangerment" finding in response to a 2007 Supreme Court decision that ordered the agency to reconsider whether greenhouse gases are pollutants subject to regulation under the Clean Air Act.

New York Times

U.S. National High-Speed Rail Plan Announced

President Obama today unveiled his plan for a nationwide system of high-speed rail lines, naming 10 potential corridors that are eligible for stimulus cash and signaling that more federal funding will follow. "There are those who say high-speed rail is a fantasy -- but its success around the world says otherwise," Obama said. "Building a new system of high-speed rail in America will be faster, cheaper and easier than building more freeways or adding to an already overburdened aviation system, and everybody stands to benefit."

US DOT High Speed Rail Strategic Plan 2009 (3MB)

C-SPAN coverage here.

Teabaggers in MI Demand No More "Socialism"

Lansing, MI (4/15/09)

They are sick and tired of their tax dollars being used to prop us this economy. They demand an end to Obama's "socialism."

We agree completely.

General Motors should go bankrupt immediately.

All funding for the Interstate Highway System should be cut.

And no more unemployment "welfare checks" for Michigan.

WSJ: US Gas Guzzling Years Over?

Demand for all petroleum-based transportation fuels -- gasoline, diesel and jet fuel -- fell 7.1% last year, according to the EIA. This is the steepest one-year decline since at least 1950, as far back as the federal government has reliable data.

Many industry observers have become convinced the drop in consumption won't reverse even when economic growth resumes. In December, the EIA said gasoline consumption by U.S. drivers had peaked, in part because of growing consumer interest in fuel efficiency.

Wall Street Journal

US DOT data on declining VMT (vehicle miles travelled)

Portland

Surcharge for Passenger Drop Off

Passengers who arrive at airports via rail have always paid a surcharge for, well, being awesome, for not clogging up curb sides, for not parking in eyesores, etc. Just think of the subway to JFK airport - normally $2 per ride in Queens, it costs $7.00 to the airport. Or BART to SFO, the price spikes for the airport but dips again to Millbrae, a station further along the line. You probably know countless other examples.



Now one airport finally has the sense of fairness to charge drivers to drop off at the airport, too.

Share the Intersection

GOOD Magazine did a take on what a more "livable" street in Manhattan would look like. Unfortunately it isn't carfree, but it's worth checking out.

My favorite recommendation is the traffic light with LPI, "leading pedestrian interval," tip #7 on GOOD's graphic. My least favorite recommendation is #8, the bollard. Sidewalks in Amsterdam are an example of how bollards can be overused and obstruct pedestrians. What do you think?


(Thanks, Erica C. Barnett from The Stranger's Slog Blog for the link.)

Centraal Station Antwerpen, Belgium

GM and Segway Jump the Shark

Surely, the end is near for GM.



Project PUMA (for Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility) probably won’t have a commercially available product until 2012. No cost estimates were available yesterday for the vehicle, which can drive 35 miles before having to recharge its batteries.

Best part... Segway and GM are looking for partners - cities or universities - to test the PUMA on designated bike lanes.

Seeing these things, one is reminded of the hoverchair for the inactive fat humans who live on the escape satellite in Wall E after they have trashed planet Earth.



One can only hope that with inventions like this, two of the most detested companies in the world will soon go down together.

FYI, a vehicle that can move two people around a city with ease has already been invented, and it costs 1/100th of whatever the eventual price of the PUMA will be.

View that invention, here.

Streetsblog SF has more details.

Obama Is Jealous

...of European trains. He asks, "Why can't we have high speed rail?"



(April 3 Town Hall in Strasbourg)

The Car Bubble

"You keep doing what you're doing, and you just keep assuming that growth is going to go on forever. And then at some point it just drops out from under you," said Alan Pisarski, a transportation expert and author of "Commuting in America." He compared the years of overproduction to putting a Burger King on every street corner. "The world just can't use that many hamburgers," he said.

Washington Post

Living Carfree

Eve Pearlman and her family are doing just fine without owning a car.

Living the Good (Carfree) Life in the Heartland

Steve Goetzelman and Cody Gieselman said they decided to open their own shop called 30th Century Bicycle after several years of volunteering at the Iowa City Bike Library, which fixes and rents used bikes.

"The idea for the shop comes from the way we live our lives car free," Gieselman said.

Press-Citizen