11 posts tagged “cars”

London does these great cycling tests. This is just part of a series.

Everybody needs to read this article in the most recent issue of The Walrus. Whether the numbers are perfectly accurate or not isn't relevant: the reality is that the end of the hydrocarbon is coming, and probably within my lifetime.

Critical points:

[Dave Hughes'] Talk is all kinds of policy-wonky. Your eyes could glaze over. You could even miss the two slides Dave always says are the only ones you must remember. The first is a single-line graph depicting "World Per Capita Annual Primary Energy Consumption by Fuel 1850-2007," which climbs by 761 percent over its 157-year timeline and flips from 82 percent renewable biomass (mostly wood) at the 1850 end to 89 percent non-renewables (almost entirely fossil fuels) at the 2007 end. The second critical slide has three line graphs in horizontal sequence, all tracking curves that begin in 1850, around the time humanity started drilling for oil in a serious way, and then spiking impossibly high at the right-hand, 2007 termini of their X axes. Global population today: 5.3 times global population in 1850. Per capita energy consumption today: 8.6 times that of 1850. Total energy consumption today: 45 times 1850's.

I personally think this makes the point rather well:

Even if you're convinced climate change is UN-sponsored hysteria or every last puff of greenhouse gas will soon be buried forever a mile underground or ducks look their best choking on tar sands tailings, Dave Hughes is saying your way of life is over. Not because of the clouds of smoke, you understand, but because we're running out of what makes them.

Emissions are the back end of the problem. They won't matter when there's suddenly nothing to emit. Of course our economy will collapse since the entire thing is based on hydrocarbon inputs.

The city of Vancouver today voted in favour of a trial to improve cycling on the Burrard Bridge. The bridge currently requires cyclists and pedestrians to share a narrow sidewalk, with only a curb to separate fast moving traffic. The speed limit is 50km/h, but traffic is moving much faster than that.

This is is a good move, and a forward thinking move. It's a recognition that bicycles play a vital role in transportation strategy, especially in the densely populated downtown areas.

I still want a pedestrian and bicycle only crossing of False Creek. This is a baby step in that direction.

Meanwhile the now Seattle Post Intelligencer, now an online only publication, highlights a study that should be so obvious as to be unnecessary, although the quantification of the amounts involved is welcome. For what it's worth, I spent CDN$18,035.98 on my car for the three calendar years 2006, 2007 and 2008, an average of $6012 a year That doesn't include a monthly payment, and I don't drive that much.

Ditching the car saves thousands, study says
SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

A typical Seattle resident could save more than $10,000 a year by cutting out a car, according to a new study.

The American Public Transportation Association's Transit Savings Report looked at the savings on gas, parking, maintenance, tires, insurance, registration, depreciation and finance charges if a household gave up a car and used transit.

Every once in a while when I refer to my car as the Swedish Rocket people ask me if I have a "Saab"http://www.saab.com/. Another reaction I get on rare occasions is that it sounds like a foreign exchange girlfriend.

The most common reaction, of course, is just one of confusion. I'm used to that though (and frankly, it's not only when talking about my car...)

Sweden is somewhat wisely deciding not to bail Saab out. This may result in a bankruptcy, but it does seems more rational than the American strategy of propping up businesses that have a failing history.

I do hope Volvo doesn't die. I like that new XC60.

Sweden Says No to Saving Saab, a National Icon
By SARAH LYALL, Published: March 22, 2009

TROLLHATTAN, Sweden -- Saab Automobile may be just another crisis-ridden car company in an industry full of them. But just as the fortunes of Flint, Mich., are permanently entangled with General Motors, so it is impossible to find anyone in this city in southwest Sweden who is not somehow connected to Saab.

Which makes it all the more wrenching that the Swedish government has responded to Saab's desperate financial situation by saying, essentially, tough luck. Or, as the enterprise minister, Maud Olofsson, put it recently, "The Swedish state is not prepared to own car factories."

Ten lanes. Sheesh.

There's an upside to this, if you want to look at it that way. Two lanes will be dedicated bus lanes. These aren't HOV lanes these are bus lanes. I'm not sure if there's going to be an HOV lane as well. There should be.

That's the upside. The current Port Mann bridge is too narrow to provided dedicated transit. It's three lanes each way. The new bridge at five lanes each way could actually be defined as adding HOV and Transit capacity only: three lanes for all traffice, one 24 hour HOV only lane and one bus lane only. The new bridge creates the ability to finally provide mass transit with dedicated road space to the Fraser Valley.

But sheesh. 10 lanes, with a budget that's just growing and growing. I hope this goes well.

New 10-lane bridge to replace Port Mann
BY KELLY SINOSKI, VANCOUVER SUN, FEBRUARY 4, 2009

_METRO VANCOUVER--_The provincial government has scrapped its plan to twin the Port Mann Bridge in favour of building a new 10-lane crossing over the Fraser River, at a cost of $3.3 billion.

Premier Gordon Campbell said the new bridge, which will be built to accommodate rapid bus service, expanded cycling and pedestrian lanes and a possible light rail line, will ease congestion clogging the crossing and commuter delays by about one-third.

It was on "May 14, 2007 that Cerberus Capital bought Chrysler Corporation from Daimler."http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2007-05-14-chrysler-cerberus_N.htm That's about one and a half years ago: only a moment in the lifetime of an investment of that magnitude; a brief interlude in the lifetime of a corporation.

What's changed so dramatically in that scant 20 months that Cerberus capital wasn't prepared to deal with? A recession? Decreased demand for products? The latter, at least, was already happening when the purchase when through.

Apparently now American tax payers are being asked to bail them out of their deal. Hardly seems fair does it. If America does this, Canada will inevitably get on board, or risk losing all those jobs.

Chrysler adds its voice to calls for U.S. bailout
GREG KEENAN
November 13, 2008 at 7:59 PM EST

A government rescue package and alliances with competitors are essential if Chrysler LLC is to ride out the storm battering the auto industry, the company's chief executive officer said Thursday, shifting the focus of the Detroit crisis away from General Motors Corp. for at least part of the day.
...
Chrysler posted a video on its website late Thursday urging Americans to contact federal politicians and urge them to support assistance from the U.S. government for auto makers.

Having participated, if not led, the nationalization of the financial services industry, it's interesting to see what will happen with the automotive one.

"Democrats Seek Help for Automakers
_By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN and CARL HULSE+
Published: November 11, 2008
WASHINGTON -- Democratic Congressional leaders said Tuesday that they were ready to push emergency legislation to aid the imperiled auto industry when lawmakers return to Washington next week for the first time after the election, setting the stage for one last showdown with President Bush.

It's a tough choice, to be sure. The automotive industry is a massive part of North America's economic well being. It employs tens of thousands of people, with the associated multiplier effect of those dollars in local communities. It is the heart of many communities, and devastates them when hard times hit and plants close.

So what to do?

read more...

From VeloNews

The price of gas, which was running $11/gallon in Italy in September, even with a favorable Euro vs. dollar exchange rate, has produced a heightened interest in bicycle commuting.

11 Euros is CDN$16.63 according to the Bank of Canada. With 3.8 litres per gallon that translates to CDN$4.38 per litre. It might be time to stop complaining (though I wish we had Europe's rail system.)

Barak Obama just won November's election (as if the debates weren't pushing it in that direction already.)

Alaska Inquiry Concludes Palin Abused Powers
By SERGE F. KOVALESKI
Published: October 10, 2008
Gov. Sarah Palin abused the powers of her office by pressuring subordinates to get her former brother-in-law, a state trooper, fired, a investigation by the Alaska Legislature has concluded.

You know, I always said Chrysler would be the first to go. Not that it was a hard call: they're the smallest American car maker, after being dumped by Daimler. Either way...this is not a merger, this is a takeover. GM is large, Chrysler is small.

G.M. and Chrysler Explore Merger
By BILL VLASIC and ANDREW ROSS SORKIN
Published: October 10, 2008
DETROIT -- General Motors is in preliminary talks about a possible merger with Chrysler, a deal that could drastically remake the landscape of the auto industry by reducing the Big Three of Detroit automakers to the Big Two.

The talks between G.M. and Cerberus Capital Management, the private equity firm that owns Chrysler, began more than a month ago, and the negotiations are not certain to produce a deal. Two people close to the process said the chances of a merger were "50-50" as of Friday and would most likely still take weeks to work out.

What I love about this article:

Gas shortages reportedly critical in western N.C.
BY STEVE LYTTLE, The Charlotte Observer

Hundreds of cars lined streets this morning as motorists in the Charlotte metro region tried to cope with an ever-worsening gasoline shortage situation.
Some motorists waited up to five hours, and fights were reported as people accused other customers of cutting in line.

Some gas stations that opened this morning with what they thought were ample supplies ran out within a few hours.

Police were called out several times to break up fights among angry customers.

which is both surreal and entirely unsurprising, is not so much the article itself as it is these ads which appeared on the same web page.

Every single ad is for an SUV.