.
Buses can recharge at every stop
Como Park will have 3 or 4 circulating shuttle buses next year to help solve the traffic and parking problem at the Como Park Zoo and Conservatory. They will allow free and easy parking by the State Fair grounds and within 7 minutes, will drop you off at the front door.
Como Shuttles should use ultracapacitors
Ultracapacitor buses have low maintenance cost, low operation cost, zero tailpipe emission, and can reach a zero carbon footprint if powered by renewable energy sources.
The estimated savings in energy costs over the 12 year life of the bus (at current electric and oil prices) is $200,000.
Why ultracapacitors are perfect for short bus loops
Ultracapacitors will only power a bus for 5-10 blocks, then need about 3 minutes to recharge. Only two recharge stations would be needed, one at the parking lot and one a the conservatory drop off. The bus recharges while passengers load and unload. Capacitors do not wear out like batteries. A capacitor bus is 40 per cent cheaper to build than a battery powered bus. Because the buses can use regenerative braking, they use 40 percent less electricity than an electric trolley using over head wires.
Source: Next Stop: Ultracapacitor Buses;Technology Review
Sinautec Automobile Technologies, L.L.C.
Tags : Honda Unveils Robo-Unicycle
Last week Japan's Honda Motor Company unveiled a new invention, the U3-X personal mobility device, pictured in the short video here. As one might expect from the folks who brought you ASIMO, a humanoid robot that can even recognize faces, the U3-X looks a lot like something you might see in a futeristic Sci-fi movie.
Instead of pedaling, this battery operated unicycle moves in whichever direction you lean, sort of like a Segway Personal Transporter (and in my opinion, just as awkward). To me it looks like it might be a little precarious, but Honda claims that the U3-X is easy to use. They hope that this invention will be useful to commuters and the elderly. They claim that it's small size, light weight (less than 22 pounds), and easy-to-use design make it an ideal transportation device for people who live in crowded cities.
Sound like fun? Well, unfortunately the invention is still so new that you can't even buy one. For now you're stuck with a regular old unicycle.
You can read more about the U3-X and see a longer video on National Geographic News.
$40,000 car to revolutionize American commute
in Energy Transformations, Scientific Enterprise, Motion, and Human Organism
This jump is brought to you by: Joy.
Courtesy tbonzzz_6Get your bells out, everybody, and ring them! The Chevy Volt is here! (In a year.)
GM released new details today about its new gas and electric hybrid car, the Chevy Volt. Using a plug-in battery (as opposed to current, unmodified hybrid cars, which recharge only via the gas engine), GM claims that the Volt should be able to achieve approximately 320 miles to the gallon during city driving. Estimates haven’t been completed for combined city and highway driving, by officials are confident that fuel economy will remain in the triple digits.
The car should have a range of about 40 miles, using its battery alone, at which point the gas engine would kick in. Nearly 80% of Americans, however, commute less than 40 miles each day, so most of the expended energy could come from the electrical grid (the car will plug into a standard outlet), instead of from gasoline.
GM’s chief executive calls the Volt a “game changer.”
Finally, a game-changing American car. Not like those sissy Prius drivers, making smug environmental statements by purchasing impractically expensive vehicles. Sure, the Volt will be entering the game about 9 years late, but it does so with the confidence that every environmentally conscious working-class American with $40,000 to drop on a sweet new car will… wait, what?
What about the rest of GM’s 2010 lineup? They’re cutting more than half of their 30+ mpg cars? But a few Volts on the road should bring that fleet average up, right?
And GM is pushing for environmental responsibility in other areas, at least, right? Oh, they’re pulling out of a partnership that collects toxic mercury from their old scrapped cars?
Well, it was a nice thought. And it’s comforting to hear someone say something like “game changer” now and again.
Also in honor in of Bike / Walk to Work Week, this fun video asks the question: which is faster, a gasoline-powered motorcycle, or a yogurt-powered bicycle?
What powers your commute?
Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'...
Courtesy nebarnixThis week is National Bike-Walk to Work Week!
That means that in cities across the country people are being encouraged to take at least one trip to work or school on foot or by bicycle. Why? Pick your favorite reason! Mine include: biking and walking save me money, biking and walking are more fun than sitting in traffic, and biking and walking let me see things in my neighborhood up close. If you live in the Twin Cities you can even get free breakfast tomorrow at select locations in honor of Twin Cities Bike Walk to Work Day.
There's no doubt that biking and walking are good for your body, but are biking and walking more energy efficient than driving a car? Sure, you don't need to stop to fill up at a gas station, but something has to power your commute. According to most statistics, bicycles are the most efficient means of transportation in terms of calories, but I also came across this article about one UK environmentalist who claims that walking is worse for the planet than driving, since modern food production is so energy intensive - especially if, like me, you sometimes power your commute with coffee and bacon.
What do you think? What's the most energy efficient way to travel? How do you like to travel to school or work?
Tata Nano: solution or pollution?
Just like Ford's Model-T, Tata motor's Nano will make owning an automobile possible for several hundred million families. Use this link to Wired Magazine to learn more about India's 50-MPG Tata Nano.
Test driving the Tata Nano
Huge demand the $2000 Tata Nano
Demand for the Tata Nano is so high the company is using a lottery system to select the first 100,000 lucky owners.
At the moment, the Nano will be offered only overseas, but the company insists a version could be headed to North America in three years. Wired
Will the Tata Nano lead to $5 gas?
If hundreds of millions of poor families can now afford to drive a car, won't that demand raise the price of gas? Millions of new automobile users will surely emit additional carbon dioxide into the world's atmosphere.
The Nano supposedly emits 30 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer, well below the 160 g/km average of Europe's cars and far less than the 130 g/km standard the European Union will adopt in 2012. Wired (click link to learn more)
What impact will the Nano car have?
St. Paul Metro Transit runs a program called Bike2Benefits. If you register, and keep track of your bike commute using their calendar, you'll not only see your mileage and your carbon emissions savings add up, but you'll also receive a Twin Cities bike map and be eligible for the year-end drawing. But hurry: you need at least 1 bike commute in each of 8 consecutive weeks before the end of the calendar year, and the temperature outside is dropping. (You can document rides retroactively, though.)
1908 Model T Ford
Courtesy Rmhermen It was 100 years ago--on October 1, 1908, to be exact--that Ford Motor built the very first of the iconic gasoline-powered automobiles to be sold. Ford developed a design and a method of manufacture that steadily reduced the cost of the Model T.
Source cnet news.
Trains are efficient
Courtesy Sean Lamb When it comes to moving tons of freight, freight trains are very efficient (barges or ships might be even better). Someone asked FactCheck.org
"Can a freight train really move a ton of freight 436 miles on a gallon of fuel?" (click link to read)
The facts
Seven major railroad companies reported the following for 2007:
- 1,770,545,245,000 ton-miles of freight were moved
- 4,062,025,082 gallons of diesel fuel were consumed
- That works out to be almost 436 ton-miles per gallon (435.88)
Trains today 85% more efficient than in 1980
The Association of American Railroads is boasting an 85.5 percent improvement in fuel efficiency for their trains since 1980.
“In fact, if just 10 percent of the freight currently moving by truck went instead by rail, the nation could save one billion gallons of fuel per year."
This information probably sounds like an advertisement for the railroad industry. I did use the Association of American Railroads website as a source.
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