Tag Archives: airport

Tesla Road Trip

John Broder with the New York Times took the Tesla Model S for a road trip along the East Coast. It was a bit of a rocky trip.

This is a technology that is just emerging and going through a lot of development. It isn’t going to just magically replace combustion based automotive transportation. It is going to require rethinking and possibly re-engineering how we travel by car. To a degree, we have to take some of these initial growing pains in stride.

The flipside is that I expect more from a car that starts at $61,000. If this was a car priced to sell to the masses I’d be a bit more lenient.

Power storage (ie. batteries) is the limiting technology here. Until there is a significant breakthrough in battery technology it is going to be hard to replace the energy density of fossil fuels.

Sir Stirling Moss

I’d never heard of Sir Stirling Moss… I’m not a follower of racing, let alone British racing. But this documentary, guided by Patrick Steward (yes, Captain Picard), is amazing. The sheer joy on Patrick Stewart’s face in the last 5 minutes is so tangible.

Yellow Light Timing

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It looks like some local governments are setting the yellow light timing too short in order to increase the incidence of red light violations (and in turn increase the number of tickets).

A couple thoughts:

  1. The State of New Jersey seems to have their act together with regards to ensuring yellow light timings are based on speed and safety for motorists. Though, in my opinion, it should be the state DOT setting the guidelines, not the legislature.
  2. It doesn’t surprise me that Chicago has picked the lowest recommended timing
  3. Motorist safety is the core of the issue here. If private companies were operating these intersections and doing this the uproar would be tremendous. Not to mention they’d have their pants sued off

Electric Car of the Year

Or rather, Motor Trend’s Car Of the Year 2013 happens to be electric. Actually watching their video and reading the material makes a compelling case for the Tesla Model S.


Photo courtesy of Tesla Motors.

Tesla remarks that they didn’t just want to build the best electric car but rather the best car that just happens to be electric. Thats a great goal. But the $58,570 base price tag makes it a premium sedan that is unobtainable for many. I’d like to see an electric car maker with a goal inspired by Henry Ford; not the best car or best electric car but an electric car anyone can afford to own.

In any case, very exciting to see progress in the electric car market. The Model S looks like a fun ride.

Unintended Consequences: CAFE Standards

Well, it appears that CAFE Standards are going to be effective enough to reduce the tax revenue from the gas tax. The CBO is reporting that over the next 10 years revenue from the gas tax will be reduced by $57 billion.

This makes sense and actually indicates the CAFE Standards are having the desired effect… increasing fuel efficiency and thereby reducing consumption for gas vehicles.

What’s disappointing is the that CBO proposes solutions that really just address the symptom. This from autobloggreen:

The CBO suggests three ways to deal with the shortfalls: do nothing (i.e., keep on transferring money from the general fund), spend less on highways and mass transit or raise the gas tax (or other taxes and direct them to the Fund).

The problem is that under this system not only are the true costs of the infrastructure hidden from the end user, but many hybrid and electric vehicles will be getting a “free ride”. Hybrid and electric vehicle use, and therefore wear and tear, of the infrastructure occurs without those operators sharing the cost of the infrastructure.

Simple solution… usage tax. Pay per mile (or your unit of measure of choice).

More at The Detroit News.

Federal Ban on Handheld Cell Phone Use in Cars

The Infrastructurist has a post about Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood’s efforts to ban cell phone use while driving.

Beyond these basic guidelines, the bill directs the Department of Transportation to conduct a thorough study of distracted driving and, within two years, to recommend a standard of minimum penalties for the offense. States that refused to comply with this standard in a timely manner would have a portion of their highway funding withheld (McCarthy suggests 25 percent) — a penalty modeled on current federal blood-alcohol content standards.

Typical Federal government here.

Do we really need a thorough (ie. expensive) study of distracted driving? C’mon! We’ve all been stuck behind the guy on the cell phone who isn’t paying attention to traffic… and many of us have probably even been that guy. Also, rather than an outright ban, they are going to set a standard of minimum penalties and then extort the States into adhering.

Spend more money than necessary to study a problem, develop a set of penalties, and in the end pass along all cost of enforcement to the individual states.