Europe’s Smart Highway Will Shepherd Cars From Rotterdam to Vienna – IEEE Spectrum 2014-12-31 By far the most ambitious smart-road project is to begin next year in Europe. It’s called the Cooperative ITS Corridor, and on day one it’s supposed to shepherd cars from Rotterdam through Munich, Frankfurt, and on to Vienna without a single interruption in the initial, basic service: warning drivers of upcoming roadwork and other obstacles. And because the ...

Google Seeks Partners for Self-Driving Car – WSJ 2014-12-31 Google is seeking auto industry partners in its efforts to produce a fully autonomous car, according to project director Chris Urmson. … He says Google’s plan involves two stages. First, the creation of a fleet of more advanced “beta one” prototype Google cars that will be three generations more advanced than its current model. Google ...

Los Angeles major Eric Garcetti’s plans for a smarter LA 2014-12-23 Nov 2013, L.A. Tech Summit "L.A. city government has a monopoly," he said, "but it has really crappy products." Plan to become ‘L.A.’s first “tech mayor”‘: Bring technology into City Hall. The goal is to improve the “product” — basic city services — by applying metrics, making them public, and holding managers accountable. Boost L.A.’s nascent tech sector. For ...

The Biggest Transportation Breakthroughs of 2014 – CityLab 2014-12-23 A ton of stuff has happened this year! NYC, Vision Zero: includes a speed limit reduction to 25mph, already implemented. SF has similar initiatives. Helsinki’s mobility-on-demand (MoD) system! California planned to replace a car-friendly engineering metric known as “level of service” with a transit-friendly alternative that focuses on vehicle miles traveled. That’s a lot of jargon, but the ...

F1 Tech Is About to Make Buses Way More Efficient | Autopia | WIRED 2014-08-08 The GKN Hybrid Power Gyrodrive is an electric flywheel that captures energy as the car brakes, then uses it to drive an electric motor that boosts power and cuts fuel consumption. Gyrodrive-equipped buses saw a whopping 20 percent bump in fuel efficiency, more than enough to convince GKN and Go-Ahead to install the system on 500 ...

Warming Threatens Roads, Ports and Planes, Report Says | Climate Central 2014-08-05 climate change could mean “sun kinks” could warp train tracks in the heat, airplanes will be more expensive to fly, highway surfaces could soften in heat waves, roadways and bridges could be washed away in rising seas and storm surges, and storms in the open ocean could increase the cost and risks associated with shipping. Dense ...

The Number One Thing We Could Do to Improve City Life, According to Geoffrey West, M. Sanjayan, Jennifer Pahlka, and More – CityLab 2014-08-04 At this year’s Aspen Ideas Festival, we asked a group of journalists, professors, and non-profit leaders to predict the future of livable, walkable cities. "If I could have one wish for people who live in cities," says Conservational International’s M. Sanjayan, "it’s that we find ways to connect back to nature, to remind that ...