Blogs & Ecology

Photo Credit: Tochichi

Toyota, who is famous for its groundbreaking introduction of the Prius, is currently rumored to be hot on the trail of another first... a solar powered car. This headline was splattered all over the Web last Thursday. The vehicle will feature roof mounted solar cells that will have the ability to collect enough electricity to power a small portion of the vehicle. The future goal will be to have these vehicles completely powered through the solar energy they collect, but this was admitted to be a few years down the line....

Photo Credit: Dan Bush, McFall

It has been a rocky year for many in 2008. With an ailing economy, viral job loss, busted mortgages, roller coaster oil prices and stock markets, and a grim forecast , it is easy to neglect the good news. But the good news is the same as the bad news, depending on how you look at it or phrase it:

Read further for 7 bad AND good news events of 2008...

Image credit: Car Talk Holiday Card

NPR's Motoring Gurus Get Political

Photo credit: moohaha @ Flickr

The persistent snow and other bad weather that has blanketed the northern U.S. and much of Canada has ground several cities to a halt and made many everyday activities all but impossible for folks from Seattle to Boston and Toronto to Portland. But just because you're snowed in doesn't mean you have to start burning your furniture for heat or trapping neighborhood squirrels (if you can find any) for food.

the Foster/Aston Martin bus

London has a new Mayor who has started filling some of his campaign promises. One of the main items on the list was the pledge to bring back the iconic and much-missed double decker bus.

The design for the new bus was the subject of a competition with 700 entries. The remit was to create a new design for a bus that would be environmentally friendly, accessible and hearken back to the much-loved Routemaster (as it was called). The old bus had two levels and one could jump on and off at will. Two winners shared the prize: one version by Foster + Partners and Aston Martin and another by Capoco.

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Book Cover: McGraw-Hill

Electric vehicles are a hot topic right now, but the problem is there really isn't much to choose from other than a handful of hybrids and NEV's. What if we were to tell you that for the price of a new bottom of the barrel, no thrills or frills subcompact, you could turn just about any vehicle into an EV?

Photo Caption: "Swedish for speed bump"
Credit to Goodnight London

The Old Speed Bumps
We hate them. Okay, well hate is a pretty strong word, but not strong enough for some of us. Perhaps despise, or even loath is more appropriate to express some our true feelings. But that is exactly the purpose of a speed bump. To create a rather annoying situation which is only made better by driving at reasonable speeds.

Smart Speed Bump

Photos from Today's Zaman (left) and BELBİM (right).

Photo credit to Tim Patterson

What a ride it has been folks... The price of gas in the U.S. was teetering on the $4 mark just a short few months ago, and here some states stand today with $1.90... $1.70... $1.60... dare we say soon to be $1.50. We are making history right now with gas prices having plummeted over half its original value in just the last six months. You'd think folks would be happy, which many of them are, but gas is not quite selling like hotcakes, even at these outrageous prices.

Once again, in America, gasoline is cheaper than bottled water. Is this good or bad?

Let's start with the bad (5 reasons):

1) Thousands of more Americans will perish in car crashes. There is a direct, undisputed correlation between the price of gas and the number of deaths in car accidents each year. This last year, when record breaking gas prices greatly reduced nonessential driving while increasing more conservative driving habits, thousands of lives were saved. In fact, it was the first significant reduction in driving fatalities in decades. ...

Photo Credit to Ducktail964

Performance modifying your green vehicle just might have been one of those things that made the C + C Music Factory exclaim, “hmmm” back in 1991.

The global Make Cars Green campaign is an ambitious 10-point plan to steer drivers towards more environmentally-friendly habits, including checking tyre pressure regularly and reduce loads. The campaign builds on the principles by the FIA Make Cars Green declaration, together with Bridgestone, and outlines how policy makers, industry and consumers can all play a constructive role in the future. But with the current economic downturn, isn't it too little too late? Many of the concepts are ob...