tingilinde

electric flight

More on what is probably the best of breed of the electric aircraft companies - Beta Technologies

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Beta, which is privately held, has raised more than $800 million from investors like Fidelity, Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund and the private equity firm TPG Capital. The company employs about 600 people, mostly in Vermont, and recently finished building a factory in Burlington where it plans to mass produce its aircraft, which have yet to be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The first will be the CX300, a sleek, futuristic plane with a 50-foot wingspan, large curved windows and a rear propeller. That plane is designed to carry about 1,250 pounds of cargo and will be followed soon after by the A250, which shares about 80 percent of the CX300’s design and is outfitted with lift rotors to take off and land like a helicopter. Both aircraft, which Beta markets as the Alia, will eventually carry passengers, the company says.

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the most popular car colors in the us

                            Rank        2023 color and market share

                                1             White 26.2%  
                                3             Gray 19.2%                                    
                                4             Silver 11.7%                                     
                                5             Blue 9.7%                                        
                                6             Red 8.2%                                         
                                7             Green 1.0%                                     
                                8             Brown 0.8%                                    
                                9             Orange 0.6%                                   
                              10             Beige 0.4%                                     
                              11             Purple 0.2%                                    
                              12             Gold 0.2%  
                              13             Yellow 0.1% 

 

a fast motorcycle

Daredevils have always been around - a fast motorcyclist from the 30s. (the title should read 300 mph)

 

 

 

on the fifteen minute city

An idea that could work in places, but inertia and (in the US) strong opposition from the right get in the way

It's not a real solution - no single thing is - but widely used could make a good sized dent.  Many towns and cities would also be more livable. 

a tip of the hat to Sukie

 

tire emissions

Dangerous and an increasing problem with heavier vehicles (like most EVs)

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When contemplating the emissions from road vehicles, our first thought is often about the various gases coming out of the tailpipe. However, new research shows that we should be more concerned with the harmful particles that are shed from tires and brakes.

Scientists have a good understanding of engine emissions, which typically consist of unburnt fuel, oxides of carbon and nitrogen, and particulate matter related to combustion. However, new research shared by Yale Environment 360 indicates that there may be a whole host of toxic chemicals being shed from tires and brakes that have been largely ignored until now. Even worse, these emissions may be so significant that they actually exceed those from a typical car's exhaust output.

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urban planning

xkcd on the subject

 

 

20 mph

A new speed limit in built-up areas in Wales 

Something sensible that won't happen in the US.

 

a new ev acceleration record

0 to 100km/h in undere a second.. set by a group of students.

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By contrast, the student-built EV makes do with just 326 hp (240 kW), courtesy of four hub-mounted electric motors. But the car—named mythen—also only weighs 309 lbs (140 kg).

Driven by student Kate Maggetti, mythen reached 62 mph (100 km/h) from a standing start in a mere 0.956 seconds. The record-breaking run took place at an airbase in Duebendorf, Switzerland, but could almost have been held in a basketball court—it needed just 40.3 feet (12.3 m) to reach that speed.

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transportation improvements in paris

Not at the scale, but in the style of the Dutch and Danish revolutions.  Bicycles and mass transit improvements are making Paris more livable.  Except for a few cities, don't expect much of this in North America.  

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But most of all, she and her deputies have explicitly embraced the controversial idea that the automobile’s prominence in Paris is at the root of many of the city’s problems—its frequent smog days, lack of green space, vulnerability to heat waves, noisy streets, geographic inequities. And thus fewer cars will allow the city to become a cleaner, quieter, cooler, fairer place. Hidalgo puts Sempé’s whimsical bicycle cartoons on her greeting cards. She and her team are outspoken about cars in ways that, from the vantage point of a North American city, seem unadvisedly forthright. Speaking in a city meeting in April 2020, as Paris slumbered through its first COVID-19 lockdown, Hidalgo announced that the city would not be going back to the way it was before: “It is out of the question that we let ourselves get invaded by cars and pollution.”

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the big city where housing is affordable

Tokyo

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As housing prices have soared in major cities across the United States and throughout much of the developed world, it has become normal for people to move away from the places with the strongest economies and best jobs because those places are unaffordable. Prosperous cities increasingly operate like private clubs, auctioning off a limited number of homes to the highest bidders.

Tokyo is different.

In the past half century, by investing in transit and allowing development, the city has added more housing units than the total number of units in New York City. It has remained affordable by becoming the world’s largest city. It has become the world’s largest city by remaining affordable.

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