MetaFilter posts tagged with transport

London Transport Museum

netbros — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 07:01:39 -0800

The Future Generator at the London Transport Museum is a forecasting look at the effect of transport on climate change in London. But you can get a sense of history as well. The museum's collection originated in the 1920s, when the London General Omnibus Company decided to preserve two Victorian horse buses and an early motorbus for future generations. They moved to the present location in 1980. Londoners can take a trip back in time on the Metropolitan line and enjoy a special day out in Metro-land as two historic electric trains run special excursions on Sunday 14 September 2008. You can browse the museum online or visit the physical location at Covent Garden Piazza. Explore the collection of over 16,000 photographs. Search via location, themes or dates over a century of photographs. London Transport Museum has more than 80 road and rail vehicles in its collection representing public transport in the city and its suburban and country areas over the last two centuries. The 20 vehicles on display at Covent Garden are all featured here.

A Better Place

destrius — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:33:34 -0800

Shai Agassi's Audacious Plan to Put Electric Cars on the Road. Now it's Agassi's turn. He starts off uncharacteristically nervous, stammering a bit. He's got something different, he says. A new approach. He believes it just might be possible to get the entire world off oil. For good. Point by point, gaining speed as he goes, he shares for the first time in public the ideas that will change his future—and possibly the world's. Shai Agassi plans to remake the automotive world with a new business model. Taking a cue from the way the mobile phone industry works, he wants to make electric cars cheap and even free, and then charge consumers for the electricity used, analogous to airtime charges. Batteries will be decoupled from the car and owned by his company and not the consumer. All this attempts to solve the problem of electric cars taking too long to recharge and not being able to travel longer distances. With a large-scale infrastructure of charging stations, drivers can charge their vehicle just about anywhere, and when they need extra juice they can drive up to a battery changing station to get a fully charged battery in minimal time. Software will also be a big component of the system, carefully managing the car's use of electricity to make sure it gets replaced before it runs out. So far he has two countries willing to beta-test for him, a lot of capital, a single car, but not much else to show for it.

Immediate prospects for the electric car

rongorongo — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 08:43:59 -0800

Two takes on the immediate future of the electric car: we are either "Going Nowhere Fast" (if you ask a petrolhead from Top Gear magazine) or we are witnessing "The End of the Petrolhead" (if you ask The Economist). A bestiary of current and planned models includes TeslaMotors (now in production), Fisker Automotive (who are being sued by Teslamotors), the GM Volt (due 2010), The Lighting Car Company, the plug in Prius, the GWiz (now slightly less squishy apparently), the Corbin Sparrow, a few (vapory?) models from Zap! and the wondrous Sinclair C5.

Screw it!

phrontist — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:00:15 -0800

In soviet russia... screw drives you! (via)

Ice Road Truckers of Canada

rongorongo — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 15:57:09 -0800

For about two months each year Nuna Logistics operates the Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road in Canada's Northern territories. The road is nearly 600km long and is predominantly constructed over frozen lakes. At this time of year the Ice Road Truckers take on the cold and the risks inherent with carrying loads of up to 40 tons over it (home page for a History Channel series about the drivers with some interesting video). The road one of several worldwide - it has some travel news. Also previously.

YES on Sound Transit, NO to RTID

kliuless — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 17:15:17 -0800

Proposition 1 - Sound Transit & RTID: Dan Savage is for it ("I want 50 miles of light rail so bad, I don’t give a shit if they pave 180 miles with baby mice," sorta), while the Sierra Club is against ("It wants to support the Sound Transit/light rail portion of the ballot issue, but not the Regional Transportation Improvement District part, which seeks more money to expand and repair roads and highways"). On November 6, voters in Washington's King, Pierce and Snohomish counties will decide.

Bike Hacks

brain_drain — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 12:32:42 -0800

Bike Hacks! Bored with your generic two-wheeler? Check out this collection of funky bicycle modifications. My favorite is the grocery cart.

London Transport Posters

jack_mo — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 02:35:28 -0800

The London Transport Museum's Poster Collection is now online. 5,000 posters and 700 original poster artworks, ranging from No need to ask a p'liceman!, the 1908 poster introducing the new underground map, to a stunning image by Man Ray, via Hans Unger's simple, beautiful Country Churches: How To Get There.

Not The Grey Variety

chuckdarwin — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 03:23:25 -0800

100 of the World's Worst Invasive Alien Species

The future of mass transit

MrMerlot — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 11:20:17 -0800

Is it a taxi? Is it a train? Actually it is a bit of both. Technically speaking it is a personal rapid transport system, a new hybrid form of transport that some have already taken to calling the podcar. Similar systems have been proposed before and failed to make it into development, despite some less-personal versions built in the 1970s in the US. But with the current desire for low-carbon transit as keen as ever, has the time finally arrived for this kind of low-emission people mover?