Transport

For the last ten years, Michelin North America has challenged designers from around the world to create innovative vehicle concepts. The company put those concepts before some judges, and then displayed a chosen few at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS). The 2011 "Plus 10: The Best is Yet to Come" challenge was to come up with a vehicle that could be enjoyed by people local to the designers in 2021. From the record number of entries received, Michelin's judges chose 34 works to go on display. Let's take a quick look at some of them ... Read More

Daimler's car2go car sharing service kicked off in Ulm, Germany in October 2008 before expanding to Austin, Texas in 2010. Earlier this month, Hamburg, Germany, became the first city with more than a million inhabitants to see the introduction of the car2go service, but the second won't be far behind with a launch set for Amsterdam before the end of the year. One point of difference for the Amsterdam fleet is that the 300 strong fleet will consist purely of electric drive smart fortwo vehicles. Read More

The European Commission has released a white paper detailing ambitious plans to transform Europe's transport infrastructure by 2050. The roadmap for a Single European Transport Area includes forty initiatives for road, rail and air travel that aim to increase mobility, reduce reliance on oil imports, cut emissions by 60% and combat congestion by halving the use of "conventionally fueled" cars in urban transport by 2030 with a view to phasing them out in cities by 2050. Read More

As the Missing Persons song goes, “nobody walks in LA.” But with the release of the 2010 Los Angeles Bicycle Plan, the city hopes to make it easier to ride there. As part of the city’s commitment to transform LA from an auto-centric metropolis to a city with a multi-modal transportation system, the City of Los Angeles has released the draft 2010 Los Angeles Bicycle Plan, which designates 1680 miles (2700 km) of bikeway facilities and proposes three new bicycle networks that will crisscross the city. Read More

Like many other regions of the world, Brazil has a transport congestion problem. Once seen as a city issue, traffic jams have spread to smaller and smaller towns. The designers of the OU concept propose a possible solution where existing roadways have rails installed and drivers of specially kitted-out vehicles can join road trains to flow through otherwise congested areas at a constant pace. The electric OU vehicle's wheels would operate in either an open configuration – for normal driving – or closed, for rail travel. Read More

Got a problem with the various gear and brake cables winding their way around your bike frame? If you're riding a standard pedal-powered bike, the answer is probably 'no.' But if you're one of the increasing numbers of people getting around town on an electric bike than your answer may be different, with faulty wiring one of the most common sources of failures found in such vehicles. While some hide their electrical wiring away inside the frame, many e-bikes have wires running down the outside. Like so many of today's electrical devices, the new Shadow Ebike does away with this unsightly mess and potential point of weakness using wireless technology. Read More

Eberspächer is best known for its OEM work with vehicle manufacturers in the field of exhausts and heaters, but the company's new Euroengel compressor refrigerated range directly targets end users. The portable lightweight refrigerated boxes can reportedly be temporarily fitted to almost any commercial vehicle, and are transferable between vehicles. A 12 or 24-volt socket (cigarette lighter) is sufficient for all boxes and when stationary, they can be plugged into any mains electricity supply system in the world, from 110 to 240 volts. The cost-effectiveness in comparison to a refrigerated vehicle conversion is impressive, as purchased or leased vehicles can be retrofitted to become refrigerated vehicles, then sold or returned in original condition. Read More

Pneumatic Futurama-style transport systems were proposed as far back as the late 1800’s following the invention of pneumatic tubes for carrying mail around buildings. Swiss company Acabion sees such vacuum tube-based mass transport systems becoming a reality by 2100 and has conceived a vehicle capable of traveling at speeds of almost 12,500 mph (20,000 km/h) on such a platform. The company envisages a global network that would let users circle the globe in less than two hours and make transcontinental journeys possible in less than the time it currently takes to get across town. Read More

No left turn. That is the simple concept behind the Superstreet traffic design which promises significantly faster travel times, plus a drastic reduction in auto-collisions and injuries. These superstreets are ground level streets – not raised freeways or highways – that allow for greater volume of thru-traffic by re-routing traffic from side streets that would normally be trying to get across the main road. While the idea has been around in urban transport modeling textbooks for over 20 years, researchers from the North Carolina State University have been the first to test the concept in the real world and the results are promising. Read More