Public Transit inflation outpaces Car Use Costs inflation. We're in a recession. Transit is highly subsidized, and there is no money for those subsidies, so fares are going up to try to close the budget gaps. Also related to being in a recession, there is less demand for gas, and less demand for cars, so the costs to buy, own, and operate a car ( Read more... )

The problem with basing funding for certain program on incentives or disincentives (as the case may be), is that eventually you become a victim of your own success. In SFGate today, there is an article, Recycling push puts Berkeley's budget in dumps, describing how the success of the city's recycling program caused a $4M budget shortfall. By ( Read more... )

http://www.autoblog.com/gallery/tommy-kaira-2010-toyota-prius/

and

http://www.autoblog.com/gallery/tommy-kaira-2010-honda-insight/

Click to view

So my car's interface to my iPod is, um, hideous at best. About all I can really do is set the thing to random and fast forward with the steering wheel buttons. It doesn't show the name of the song or the artist, just a how many tracks I've played or skipped since turning on the car. This makes for a fun game of "How the fuck did that get on my ( Read more... )

Clearing the path for hands-free automated driving.

I got the following message today from my employer ( Read more... )

So, if you following the link from a recent Slashdot article to the original source, FCC and DOT team-up, want high-tech cure for distracted driving, can you find the link in the text that points to an obscure government report that I wrote?

I always have to wonder about the lack of design and planning of the bay area freeways. The southern route over the San Mateo bridge is completely snarled having been quickly overwhelmed by the increased traffic. This is somewhat expected, but tonight it will be far worse. I'm always amazed at that someone decided to funnel down like 3 lanes of ( Read more... )

Apparently, the policies of San Francisco are reaching out into the suburbs of DC. According to the Washington Post, Arlington is changing building codes to reflect the notion of a "don't build parking and cars won't come" and "tax the hell out of parking" mentalities. Today, SFMTA is hearing argument for and considering variable parking meter ( Read more... )