brian rodney's Library tagged transportation →  View Popular

Technological progress is usually considered a given. Think of the titters when you see Michael Douglas in Wall Street walking on the beach with a bricklike mobile phone. Then, it was thrilling, almost illicit—Gekko can call Bud Fox from the beach. Now, the average 12-year-old has a far superior phone: smaller, camera-equipped, location-aware, filled with games and a library of music, and so on. We've seen vast improvements in just a few decades, which means the gulf between now and, say, the 1920s seems almost unimaginable.

There is at least one technology in America, however, that is worse now than it was in the early 20th century: the train.

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The Society’s Bookshop is open between 8.30am and 5.30pm Monday to Friday and 9.00am to 4.00pm on Saturday (closed on public holidays). The shop stocks books, magazines, video and audio tapes from Australia and overseas. These are sold at competitive prices, and financial members receive 10% discount on most books offered. A reliable mail order service (Visa, Mastercard and Bankcard welcomed) is also provided.

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Although it may come as a surprise, research shows a larger carbon footprint doesn't lead to happiness. While the United States ranks near the top of both per capita and aggregate carbon emissions, it's not in the top 10 when it comes to happiness. In fact, many nations ranked happier than the U.S. also tread much more lightly on the planet. Read on to find out where the U.S.'s carbon emissions come from and which countries are doing it right.

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Living in Japan, I got to appreciate the public transportation, especially the trains. As noted here previously, over 70% of rail services are electrified, and since the Shinkansen started operating in 1964, this country has enjoyed fast, reliable trains that pollute a lot less than if everyone was driving their own car. JR East even has its own hydroelectric power supply, and this city just wouldn't be the same without it.

The Yamanote line (left photo) loop was completed in 1925 and now carries an average of 3.55 million passengers a day, which translates to a patronage figure of 1.3 billion passengers a year. Amazing.

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On my night time flight back to SF from Amsterdam, I noticed that the lights from cities were making the clouds glow. Really spectacular and ethereal - it was really seeing the impact of urban environments from a different perspective. Each glow or squiggle represents one town or city!

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Really fast train transit started in Japan October 1, 1964 with the 0 "bullet train" Shinkansen between Tokyo and Osaka. Built with domestic technology and a small (but important) US$80 million loan from the World Bank, the country's engineers at Hitachi and Kawasaki went on to construct the world's best super express railway network, with domestic technology and innovative solutions. Below the fold, we introduce the five fastest trains currently up and running:

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Portuguese craftsman Carlos Alberto handbuilt this sublime wooden Vespa. I think the classic Vespa is one of the most beautiful designs in history, and this is a truly worthy remake.

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Making its first appearance at the 2008 NEC Bike Show in the UK , the TTX01... can do 0-60 in 3.5 seconds and reach a top speed of 125 mph. The price tag when a limited number are available for purchase by the end of 2009: £20,000 ($30,000).

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StreetFilms has produced an excellent short video on Vélib, the great bike-sharing program in Paris that inspired so many others around the world. Almost 1,500 bike stations are spread all over the city, with over 20,000 bicycles and 3 million subscribers

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In Mexico City, Tehran, Kolkata, Bangkok, Shanghai, and hundreds of other cities, the air is no longer safe to breathe. Respiratory illnesses are rampant. In the United States, the number of hours commuters spend sitting frustrated in traffic-congested st

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The electric company Cam (a branch of Spanish Endesa) has just launched the Indian electric car REVA in Santiago de Chile.

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Generally designed for one person and small cargo capacity, electric bike range, speed, and cost are moderate. For most of us, the majority of our trips are less than 10 miles - within the range of most e-bikes. Clean, quiet, and efficient LEVs offer the

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Ben Nelson's DIY electric motorcycle. It's really a cool bike, especially if you consider that it gets equivalent of 321 miles per gallon and only cost about $2k total. Ben has made two videos about it, the first one (above) talks about how he turned the

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Over the past 3 years, we've written about many electric cars here on TreeHugger. We think it's time to look in the rearview mirror, so here's an overview. If you see anything you like, just follow the links to see the original articles.

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a new Texas study looked at the cost of building and maintaining roads, and determined that for roads without tolls, the gas tax would have to be $ 2.22 per gallon, almost ten times what it is now in the States.

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This is Unreal!!! On the highways of New Delhi,...

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This video is a good example of just how crowded it gets on Japanese trains.

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Range is 15 miles (25.5 kilometers), and top speed is around 40 mph (70 kph).

One of the benefits is noise: "It is dead quiet compared to a regular motorcycle. [...] I can actually hear birds singing. There is zero vibration from the engine."

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New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma has announced a $12.5 billion Government-funded metro rail line for growth areas in north-west Sydney.

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