Nano-enhanced materials are already beginning to improve the performance and cost-effectiveness of vehicles,
Totally lacking the vision for real transportation solutions, like transitioning to rail, our leaders offer
instead a box of band-aids for roads and bridges and an unwavering commitment to keeping 240 million cars
and trucks running on them. They would rather socialize an unlimited amount of private losses than wrestle an out-of-control financial system back onto solid ground.
Transportation It should be no surprise that transportation in the U s. ended its growth trajectory,
Vehicle miles traveled are still declining, with lower lows and lower highs showing up in the seasonal data.
US Bureau of Transportation Statistics For a more direct signal of how the average person is getting around,
as distinct from commercial miles traveled, we can look to personal transportation spending. However you want to measure that,
US Bureau of Transportation Statistics What that data doesn't tell us is whether people are simply traveling less for surely,
those who lost their jobs since 2005 are or whether they are increasingly opting for the most personal sort of transportation:
walking and biking. Consider the sales of new cars and trucks versus sales of new bicycles with 20 or larger wheels:
Source: US Bureau of Transportation Statistics and the National Bicycle Dealers Association Both fell sharply in the economic crash of 2008,
but bicycle sales held up considerably better, and actually exceeded vehicle sales in 2009. What the data still can't tell us are traveled the miles by bicycle or on foot,
and how much of that traffic constitutes an enduring shift away from fuel-burning transportation. Anecdotally, I have seen many more people in my own social circles biking more and driving less,
but that's hard to quantify and not necessarily statistically significant. There is also some data
albeit more suggestive than firmly indicative, showing that more people are moving out of the suburbs
and into city centers where they can do their daily rounds on foot or two wheels. If this is indeed a structural shift,
we should see bicycle sales hold firm around 11 million per year, if not rise above vehicle sales again as we move into the era of net oil supply decline circa 2014.
For a final point, data released this week by the automotive research firm R. L. Polk
& Co. showed that the average age of the US vehicle fleet has reached a record high 10.8 years.
Market pundits who are stuck still in a mental paradigm of Normal have used that data to make a bullish case for future vehicle sales,
since many people normally replace vehicles once they're more than 10 years old. But we're no longer in Normal.
Instead, I would argue that millions of people simply can't afford a new car payment anymore
but to try to keep their old cars running. I would argue that the 276 percent increase in Autozone's stock (AZO)
and that its straight-line growth since the beginning of 2010 indicates that we have entered a new era of older vehicles.
And rapidly-falling module prices helped a great deal. But it was also the result of solar installers developing creative financing offers that allow homeowners
This tiny little wind-powered oasis, the only gas station along a 100-mile stretch of old Route 66 in the Mojave desert of California, sits next to an active freight rail line.
The future of that rail line is bright, because it efficiently transports important mining products from various operations out there in the desert.
Word travels fast in Brownsville, a city of 175,000 people, and Peel s patients were worried that
aerospace, agriculture surge; computing leadsif you could measure 2010 in terms of brainpower, it was a banner year.
from aerospace to telecommunications, showing an increase from 2009. That's according to Thomson Reuters'2010 Innovation Report,
According to the report, aerospace showed the strongest surge in patent activity between 2009 and 2010, with an astounding 25 percent boost.
Aerospace: 32,622 patents in 2010; up 25%from 2009. Agrochemicals & Agriculture: 22,726 patents in 2010;
Aerospace The industry's year-over-year success was driven by a 108 percent increase in Space vehicle and Satellite Technologies,
it was powered alternatively vehicles that led the way, posting a 21 percent increase from 2009.
Top companies include Japan's Toyota, followed distantly by Nissan and Honda. In fact, GM was the only U s. company to crack the alternative top 10, at number seven.
Computers & Peripherals Despite a drop from 2009, computers remains the most innovative technology area in 2010.
Toyota led the pack by far in this category. Pharmaceuticals If you're wondering what Big Pharma is up to,
How sustainable is it to fly by airplane to Copenhagen, Denmark for the United nations conference on climate change?
According to Terrapass. com, a flight from Los angeles (LAX) to Copenhagen (CPH) making two stops is 11,213 miles
I m choosing a flight with two stops because as of yet, I still don t have enough funds to make the trip.
The absolute cheapest flight I ve been able to find is on LOT (Polish airlines) and has stops in Chicago and Warsaw,
Poland before reaching Copenhagen. Since I m determined to get to COP15, I m looking for the absolute cheapest way to get there.
Even if I have to fly LOT Airlines. Terrapass is a great website which allows you to calculate your carbon footprint and purchase carbon offsets,
mathematically making a trip carbon neutral. While I can t calculate my carbon footprint for the short cab ride to the airport (less than 10 miles),
I did make some rough calculations to see what happened when I moved from my luxury apartment to the yoga pod
In terms of car usage I recently went car-lite and outfitted my bicycle with a rear rack
and paneers (bags that clip onto the bike s rear rack) and now use my bike almost exclusively for local errands within a 5-mile radius. Terrapass says a flight emitting approximately 6,
000 lbs. of carbon dioxide can be offset for $35. 70. I can afford $35. 70 to balance my greenhouse gas emissions.
My flight to Copenhagen will be green. But will it be sustainable?(Is it even achievable?
me pay for my trip to Copenhagen. You know the old adage, If everyone gives a dollar...
but about $1, 700 away, with taxes, fees and ground transport while in Copenhagen. That doesn't even count accommodation,
the sustainability of the trip is moot. So why is it so important that I get to Copenhagen?
Electric cars can save the economy and strengthen national security. Yet we re producing more polluting cars now than ever
and deforestation continues at unprecedented rates. I m focused on Copenhagen because there is information there that needs to be brought back to the people.
One big factor in my quest for Copenhagen is that my personal greenhouse emissions traveling there will be offset
which operates Hong kong s subway system, announced the proposal of a new train station in an area called Kennedy Town.
The construction would result in the demolition of a few old walls made of stone. Local residents and politicians decried the plan,
the company had conceded to move the subway exit to another location so as not to interfere with the so-called stone-wall trees.
Poor processing, transportation or storage result in rice being spilled or spoiled before getting to consumers.
and apple trees do grow from random seeds scattered on compost heaps on the side of the road.
It will sort of work like a garbage truck where it takes the trash from your house and transports it to a landfill.
But in this case, the mobile unit would turn the biomass into liquid biofuel before transporting it back to the main processing facility.
Rogers Marvel Architects & Peter Walker and Partners Distinguishing feature: A pavilion that overlooks the lake and gardens.
where tourists will pause before continuing on their cultural journey, where children will discover the joys of newly discovered lake-edge activities,
Imagine a plane on a search and rescue mission, finding its way perfectly over unchartered terrain and back home.
to build a putative pilot that can make decisions about what it senses rather than just carry out preprogrammed task,
More natural navigation on Smartplanet: Save a bird: Turn off a light
To cut fire risk, San francisco airport hires 400 goatsshrubs and small trees around airports could become fire hazards for nearby homes
and should be removed every spring. San francisco International airport (SFO) has an additional problem: they can t use humans
or machines for the job because two vulnerable critters live there. AP reports. Populations of the endangered San francisco garter snake and the threatened California red-legged frog have made airport land their home.
That's why for the last five years, SFO has hired a herd from Goats R Us to clear brush in a remote corner of the airport.
After traveling 30 miles from their home in Orinda, California, Mr. Fuzzy, Cookie, Mable, Alice, and nearly 400 other goats spent two weeks in June cutting away a 20-foot firebreak on the west side of the airport.
We're pleased with our organic process for weed abatement airport spokesman Doug Yakel said. The airport paid $14, 900 for the service this year.
Chicago's O'hare International airport (ORD) has requested bids for goats to clear brush in an out of the way area of a 7, 000-acre property.
They're expecting them sometime this summer. Goats R Us has about 4, 000 active goats on their payroll.
These employees can also be found working away on the side of California freeways, at state parks, under long-distance electric lines,
and anywhere else with overgrown vegetation. When they become too old to work these goats are sold not for meat!
Rather, they get to retire at the farm and visit schools and senior centers. AP via Businessweek Images:
Tomorrow's truck loses weight, but at what environmental cost? Ford'S f-150 pickup truck is the best-selling vehicle in the United states it has been for 32 years.
The automaker sold 760,000 F-150s last year, far outpacing the top car in retail sales, the Toyota camry,
of which just under 408,500 units rolled off lots. So when Ford revealed at the Detroit Auto Show in January that it would make the body of future F-150 models mostly from aluminum rather than steel starting in 2015,
the news spread quickly across the automotive supply chain. The move to aluminum is all about fuel efficiency.
the new F-150 truck will drop 700 pounds by replacing steel with aluminum in its body panels.
With the most efficient option, the 2. 7-liter Ecoboost engine with start-stop technology, Ford estimates the truck could get close to 30 miles per gallon (mpg.
But stepping back and looking at the move to aluminum not just in the F-150 but also across the luxury car segment,
In a 2010 lifecycle assessment analyzing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with using high-strength steel and aluminum for lightweighting vehicles,
researchers at University of Michigan found that for a car using 23 percent aluminum for lightweighting,
it would take four to 10 years of travel before the wheel to tank greenhouse savings met
This all assumes that the aluminum used in this vehicle is mined from ore rather than recycled.
Gregory Keoleian, a coauthor of the 2010 University of Michigan research and the director of the school's Center for Sustainable Systems, notes that his research focused on a baseline car that gets 33 mpg.
taking weight off the less efficient Ford f-150 will result in a greater reduction in energy,
compared to the vehicle we modeled, he says. Another lifecycle assessment to be published at a Society of Automotive engineers meeting in April suggests that aluminum-intensive vehicle design has a greater potential to reduce emissions
and overall energy consumption compared to vehicles designed largely on lightweight steel. That assessment applies credit for wrought aluminum that is recycled, rather than primary production aluminum,
which is all that will be available until suppliers can bring more recycled aluminum on board. Realistically
say, beverage cans) available for recycling is still very low, given the relatively small number of vehicles that use it today.
This type of metal is used also in aerospace, but planes have very long life cycles. The aluminum industry is likely gearing up for growth based both on the trend toward more aluminum in cars generally,
but certainly because of Ford's move, specifically. Looking just at the F-150's first full year on the market,
even if we assume no major growth in any other sheet or plate application, demand from the 2015 F-150 will amount to an extra 415 million pounds of aluminum,
predicts John Mothersole, senior principal analyst at IHS Automotive. A Ford spokesperson told me it's too soon to talk specifics with regard to the lifecycle energy picture
or recycling infrastructure for the aluminum-rich F-150 models, but noted that the company will have a lot to say about this later this year.
and stricter fuel-efficiency requirements are forcing automotive industry suppliers to constantly innovate to make ever lighter high-strength steel to address automakers'lightweighting goals.
Any competition is good for automakers it provides alternatives, it's good for suppliers, it forces us to be our best,
what impact Ford's move will have on the steel industry, he was a bit less diplomatic. We're just really nervous about it,
I feel Ford has thrown down the gauntlet. Still, like Kavanagh, Krupitzer sees the uptick in automotive aluminum applications keeping the steel industry innovative,
So why would Ford invest so heavily in what seems like an incremental improvement? Because the boost in mpg performance, combined with F-150's huge sales volume will improve Ford's fleetwide average fuel efficiency,
Gott says. Increasing fuel efficiency is vitally important for reducing the overall transportation sector's overall greenhouse gas emissions.
But it accounts for only the wheel to tank part of a vehicle's energy footprint.
If federal policies accounted for each vehicle's lifecycle emissions from mining ore to recycling auto components automakers would have many more trade-offs to consider.
That's something the steel industry with its relatively lower energy footprint compared to aluminum composites, carbon fiber and other cutting-edge automobile materials would welcome.
Unfortunately, federal policy only regulates the driving cycle, not the full cycle. We'd like to see the full lifecycle being considered,
and those who said such homes will still remain a marketing mirage. Some 51%agreed with the statement that by 2020
most of their comments suggest that many still see the well-connected home of the future as a marketing mirage.
A few years back, BMW and Mercedes benz had to turn off some of the onboard electronics on their high-end cars
The Internet of things and the subsequent world of smart systems, from smart cars and smart highways to smarter cities and smart homes is mostly overblown,
Imagine also the court cases of people hit by autonomous vehicles, for example. Another study participants, venture capitalist Richard Titus, echoed this sentiment,
yacht navigation and historical property restoration before he discovered a passion for heirloom grains in the 1990s.
You have to come up with something along the trip. That's challenging but also the fun part.
When the Finn missed his flight connection he asked Baltzley to choose the products they would use.
the taxi driver who talked enthusiastically and endlessly about food but did not eat pork.
who decided to team up after a family funeral called Barber away for part of the trip.
including thermal stability specification tests conducted under some conditions where conventional jet fuels would fail,
If you think about a city that's smart about public transportation, they have the ability to take millions of cars off the road.
Here are some other factors, that the report cites, which influence CO2 emissions in urban areas: A city s geographic situation influencing the amount of energy required for heating, cooling and lighting;
However, because of high population density and a vast public transportation network, it's able to keep its annual CO2 emissions per capital down to 7. 1 tonnes.
trains carry pollen into heavily populated areas, and there may be fewer pesticides in urban areas. In other words, Colony Collapse Disorder is not the only thing affecting bees.
We save on the costs of transportation, we save on a healthier diet, and we also educate
In Boston, the rooftop of the Sea Port hotel houses hundreds of thousands of bees (pollinating hundreds of local gardens throughout the city.
and went so far as to stylistically match their bee boxes to the inside of the hotel.
Å By placing hives on the roof spaces of cafes, restaurants, hotels and individual gardens in and around Melbourne,
--which are being leased from Transport for London--for the last 18 months, according to BBC. And now they are turning the idea over to investors.
is comprised of off-the-shelf roadway sensors linked to software that tracks the speed and volume of vehicles oe either cars or bikes oe moving over the sensors.
But with Ullrich's iteration, a local cycling organization could track existing throughways for bike traffic,
as a means of designing user-friendly bike lanes and better understanding vehicular traffic flow. A bike-sharing company might use it,
too, offered Ullrich, to figure out where to site their bike racks based on existing bike traffic patterns.
You could deploy a bunch of these around a city and gather than data in one day
instead of someone standing around with a clicker, manually counting each bike they see. One of the most innovative ideas on display was the P-Planter,
and walk by the plants every day would be encouraged to act as stewards for the plants and ensure they remain healthy.
Lockheed martin debuts maple seed-inspired dronemaple seeds. Most people admire them for being pretty and delicate
This week, Lockheed martin is debuting an unmanned military drone that could be useful for information-gathering based on these silent, strong, one-winged, helicopter-like flyers.
A foot long, the SAMARAI (after samara, the name for maple seeds) also has one wing
and flies with a cyclic lift motion like a helicopter. It has two moving parts
It will be one of many new unmanned vehicles on display this week at the convention of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International in Washington
maple seeds fly by creating a vortex over the leading edge of the wing. Reducing the pressure above the wing's surface like this creates a mini sideways tornado
and the low pressure pulls the wing up, giving it twice the lift it would normally have.
Because of this action, when maple seeds swirl to the ground, they go much more slowly
Troops could also use them to get ground-level images from airplanes in addition to the aerial images typically used now.
They improve upon drones currently used by the military in that they can hover in place like helicopters
The parking lots in Oakland are not that different to where he grew up in Kenya, a country home to deserts and arid land.
World s cheapest light bulb Innovative bike tire can inflate itself Finally, a urinal for girls Invention uses sunlight to produce clean water New irrigation system helps farmers conserve water
Watch robots climb trees, helicopter in and sniff bugsrobots do the darndest things. For your pre-long-weekend amusement,
Second is a rolling robot that can helicopter in at a moment's notice. Yes, the idea of transformers is not new,
but a roller/chopper hybrid is. The robot s researchers, Alex Kossett and IEEE Fellow Nikolaos Papanikolopoulos of the University of Minnesota's Center for Distributed Robotics, are working on an upgraded version in
and figure out on its own how to get to its destination. In this video, watch the little guy roll into view on two wheels
These companies, Cyber-Rain and ET Water, have released both recently cloud services that provide guidance about
Weighing what trash is worth at Mexico city'Bartering Market'MEXICO CITY oe Sunday morning brings swarms of people to Chapultepec Park to walk, run, bike or just meander among the trees and the vendors of snacks
I found on the side of the road on my walk over. The plastic was the wrong type
It takes a significant energy surplus to support things like higher education, entertainment, personal vehicles, a middle class with health care, outsized amounts of credit,
because we have night hawks flying overhead. They're a key species that makes sounds at night in Midwestern urban areas.
The store is also reportedly not required to share any of its revenue with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority
unlike almost every other retailer in the Terminal. So why such great deals for the tech giant?
or broken during transport. Bodenheimer notes: What looked like a good thing ended up in having a catastrophic end result.
What's more, it has been able to make that claim for the past three years across an enormous variety of business interests from hotel chains to agribusiness.
It runs a hotel chain that encompasses 100 hotels in 80 locations--including the largest LEED Platinum certified hotel property, the ITC Hotel Royal Gardenia.
the online deals site, is better known for its travel and beauty discounts than its grocery deals.
happening both in places that are prime spot for tourist developments such as Florida or Thailand, and where the need for cash GDP is driving the aquaculture shrimp industry.
contact lenses, Â parking spaces, Â phones, Â clothes, trash, stores. The list could go on. So it's not surprising that they're now on honeybees to help solve a major problem.
For example, the production and transport involved in a cup of coffee impacts myriad species, from invertebrates to birds to fish.
and the current biodiversity crisis. The IYB has been the driver of many biodiversity-centric events including meetings, conferences, film screenings, panels, international policy discussions and instruments around the world.
They are drivers of important humanitarian crises. So biodiversity can influence culture? Beyond those impacts of biodiversity loss on the functioning of ecosystems, human cultures around the world have been,
The monkeys will wearing radiation-measuring collars as they go deep into forests oe an area that has only been studied from the air via helicopters
Will a rail transport renaissance lower greenhouse gases? J. B. Hunt Transport Services, one of the nation s largest transportation companies, recently partnered with Washington Gas Energy Services (WGES),
the Chesapeake bay Foundation and Sterling Planet on a new initiative to reduce greenhouse gases and improve air and water quality in the Chesapeake bay region.
Initially, a major source of carbon offsets will be created those by J. B. Hunt through their shift from trucking to rail transportation.
the challenges of transporting by rail and the benefits of getting trucks off the road.
In a recent speech about the Cleansteps partnership, you said that J. B. Hunt started sustainable transportation practices more than 20 years ago.
The railroads were looking for a way to grow their business. They had been in decline,
and one of them had a consulting firm that talked about piggybacking where they d take the shipping container and put that on a flatcar.
Mr. Hunt, the founder of the company--he was a truck driver and had basically an eighth grade education.
He was having trouble finding enough truck drivers and realized the trains could pull 200 of his loads.
He struck a handshake deal with the Atchison Topeka and Santa fe Rail (ATSF. Mr. Hunt said we need to make this transparent to our customers;
they shouldn t see a difference between going on a truck the whole way and intermodal. Last year, the J. B. Hunt organization celebrated 20 years with the ATSF.
That s one of the interesting things about transportation. The source is almost 100 percent oil.
But typically--behind driver wage--fuel is second highest expense. The fuel efficiency of the railroad--it s metal on metal:
metal wheel and metal rail. There s virtually no friction, so it s a great way to reduce driver wage and fuel.
Every time you burn diesel fuel you re generating greenhouse emissions. So just by managing our resources wisely,
So what do these trains run on? Most of them also burn diesel fuel. In different applications, some will use all electric engines.
But for the most part the trains that runs across the country are using diesel. How much are you saving by using rail?
We d likely pick it up in A j. B. truck, load it into a container,
The Norfolk southern takes it to Chicago, then our rail partner in the west, the BNSF (Burlington northern santa fe) takes it,
say, out to Stockton, California. Then A j. B. Hunt driver will go to the rail yard and pick up the container.
Huge cranes put it back on A j. B. Hunt chassis. Then our driver hooks up to that
and takes it to the Wal-mart distribution center. So that might be a 3, 000 mile shipment,
The railroad did the majority of the 3, 000 miles of hauling. Typically the carbon emissions are cut in half by doing that.
But if the truck does more, the carbon reduction is less. If the train does more,
the reduction can be more. What are some of the logistical challenges with shipping by rail?
Typically, trucking can be faster than the train. On that same shipment, you could be part of a driving team
So this truck could run 60 miles an hour, 24 hours a day and we could get there in three to four days.
A train would take five to six days, so customers have to be willing to wait a little longer.
And there s always been the perception that the service isn t equal to that of trucking.
A truck will on average, arrive as promised 96 percent of the time. With rail, it s less than that.
We ve worked hard to get the transit time and level of service as close to the truck as possible.
So there are some products that can t be shipped by train because of the extra time. Let s say ipods they re small, they re very expensive,
The strawberries that come out of the farm fields in California wouldn t be something we d typically ship because of the lack of refrigeration on the trains,
when things are shipped by train? Yes, it s slightly less. Most rates are per mile,
so the rate per mile will be slightly less than the rate for trucking. And for our industry it s standard to have a fuel surcharge,
and it s about half for the train. So they save on the line haul rate and the surcharge.
but it gets trucks off the road. Has there been pressure from cities to reduce the number of trucks in terms of traffic and accidents?
Not so much. Of course congestion is what we all deal with on the highway. Getting trucks off the road has a small positive benefit to society.
Truck transportation gets safer and safer every year, but by not being on the highway, you ve eliminated the chance of an accident.
Also, when we put those 200 loads on the train, there s not chance we ll have a fuel spill.
So that s a social benefit and an environmental benefit. What are the conversations you re having with customers about carbon footprints?
. I would say freight transportation is 8 to 9 percent of U s. greenhouse gas emissions.
Their next question is how do I transport to my customers, and they come to us
Your car runs on gasoline. There s no easy way to change that, but you can buy the J. B. Hunt carbon offsets
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