tingilinde

a concept car for city driving

It's too big for a much of what a dedicated city/town car needs to be, but some of the ideas are interesting.  Given the limited top speed, most people (at least Americans) would suffer from use-case anxiety.

A tip of the hat to Horace.

solving range anxiety

Greg notes the Lexus solution

The RZ 450e's 18 inch model offers 220 mile range. Perhaps still on the lower end, but there is one last interesting service offering that might help anyone interested in the vehicle who isn't sure if the range capabilities will fit their lifestyle. Under the Lexus warranty, any owner of the RZ 450e having to take a long distance trip will be provided 30 days of complimentary rentals over 3 years that can be driven anywhere within the United States and Canada.

Expect alliances between e-car makers and rental companies.  Probably more expensive for the consumer, but peace of mind has a price tag.

 

tesla

You probably don't want one - particularly one that promises self-driving.

a tip of the hat to Bjarne

separately I've read that although maintenanc costs are is supposedly lower on EV than ICV, it's actually higher for Teslas.

 

 

super long haul flights

Quantas will be offering 20 hour flights in a few years.  The notion doesn't strike me as fun.

Airline PR here.

 

 

 

how the netherlands did it

Another piece on how the Netherlands became a bicycling country, 

snip

...

In the 1980s a few Dutch cities began to experiment with new ways to get people out of cars and onto bikes again. For example The Hague and Tilberg built a few bike lanes and painted them bright red. But biking rates didn’t go up after they built these bikes lanes.

City planners learned that it wasn’t enough to just build a few dedicated bike lanes. No, they needed an entire network of bike lanes throughout the city.

Around the same time, Delft began running their own experiments. Rather than build a few bike lanes, they spent the equivalent of about 12 million dollars building a city-wide biking network. Bicycle use went up by 6% of driving went down by 3%. It was considered an early success.

...

 

more on the 15 minute city

It's bizarre that the notion has been politicized..  David Levinson offers some comments.

snip

...

Part of the problems is that we should be talking about 15-Minute Neighbourhoods and not 15-Minute Cities, because (a) that’s what we mean, and (b), the only reason to live in larger metropolitan areas is to can interact between neighbourhoods — otherwise, everyone should live in a small town and save on real estate costs.

This article (in news.com.au, i.e. Murdoch papers) discusses the controversy but conflates 15-minute city with “Smart Cities”, which I had really hoped we had buried. The adjective “Smart” before anything (smart roads, smart cars, smart cities) is a red flag. This article by Oliver Deed argues the 15-minute city is about improving lives, not controlling them.

So what is a `15-Minute Neighbourhood’? It’s one where all your daily needs (food, doctor, library, schools, etc.) can be met within a 15-minute walk from your home. This does not necessarily include your workplace, although it may.

The conspiracists have replaced “can” with “must”, changing opportunity into a constraint. Charitably, they have difficulty reading. Uncharitably, they choose to misinterpret and mislead.

...

 

 

and that could be a problem

Trains too wide for tunnels.

 

the shipping forecast

Recently the BBC's shipping forecast has been recommended as an acoustic backdrop for going to sleep.  The keep a list of recent broadcasts.  Here's the printed version, but it's lacking the presence of the spoken word.

And the history is rich. Here's where I first learned about it a few years ago.. 

 

 

amsterdam's continuing evolution

a crossover point

EVs are getting less expensive faster than expected.

I wonder what would have happened if EV tax credits had a $25k sticker price limit.  Would we see the rapid development of cars with smaller batteries good for the type of driving most people do?