I thought it would be good to start a topic on sustainable transportation ideas and discussion.

Here's a start:

French revolution: Rentable bikes every 900 feet "http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0706/p01s06-woeu.html"

Beginning July 15, Parisians can get one with the swipe of a card – and the first half-hour is free.

<b>Two Clues for the Clueless</b>
"http://www.kunstler.com/mags_diary22.html"

Kite-powered ship sets sail for greener future "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml? xml=/earth/2008/01/20/eakite120.xml"

Very cool! I hope it works.

Walkable Communities Inc.

"http://www.walkablecommunities.org/"

Complete Streets

"http://www.completestreets.org/"

A few years ago, we had a whole lot of snow, and nobody here is
equipped to take care of it right away, so people were walking to the
store. It was great - the sidewalks were full of people, and everybody
was friendly.

Unfortunately, the store is gone now.

The Next Car Debate: Total Miles Driven "http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120190455899936509.html"

From 1977 to 2001, the number of miles driven every year by Americans rose by 151% -- about five times faster than the growth in population, according to data compiled for a 2006 report to the U.S. Department of Transportation written by Stephen Polzin, a transportation researcher at the University of South Florida in Tampa.

The reasons for the big growth in miles traveled are pretty obvious if you don't live in the center of a big city endowed with functioning public transport. To make space for ever larger suburban homes, housing developers pushed further and further from city centers and shopping areas. New neighborhoods often had street layouts cluttered with cul de sacs that forced people to drive farther to get to main roads or stores. Local zoning laws -- reflecting the preferences of residents -- tended to separate commercial and residential uses, and single family from multi-family dwellings. Meanwhile, the bulk of the money spent on transportation infrastructure was directed to building more and bigger highways. We could have subsidized bullet trains and more light rail systems, but we didn't.

Sprawl is a problem. So is gentrification of inner cities. As former
housing projects are "developed," poor people are forced by rental
prices to move further and further away from jobs and services.

{7}
Absolutely right on.

My Other Car is a Bright Green City "http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/007800.html"

Transportation Planning Warms Up to Climate Change "http://www.intransitionmag.org/Winter_2008/climatechangemain.html"

A furious, though still fledgling, effort has commenced to help America’s drivers curtail their trips, burn less fuel and, ultimately, emit less CO2. It involves a marriage of transportation planning, land use planning, engineering and public policy to implement everything from smart growth to congestion pricing to increased use of mass transit. And if that wasn’t complicated enough, it will involve every level of government, from town hall to the United Nations.

A two-wheel solution to a more livable city "http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080307.re- boddy-0307/BNStory/RealEstate/"

For all the techno talk about magnetic levitation trains or personal rocket packs, the urban transport system of the future turns out to be bicycles. Sprockets and chains, seats and handlebars, this 19th century technology may be the best weapon we have for the long campaign to make livable cities in the 21st century. Bicycles take a fraction of the space and materials of cars or buses, are powered by the excesses of our calorie-rich diets, and have the huge advantage for those who ride them of extending both quality and length of life.

If the arguments for increasing urban bicycle use are this powerful, why are so many cities having such a hard time setting aside guaranteed bike routes and lanes — making them the transport mode of choice, for work and leisure?

Filled with Mao-era images of clouds of cyclists on every street, on my first visit to Beijing in 2004 I was astonished to learn that bicycles had been recently banned from many of the Chinese capital's most important streets. Rapidly-growing rates of car ownership had pushed the gas-guzzlers onto every broad avenue, to crawl along at a grid-locked snail's pace, with bicyclists pushed to side streets, or worse, onto smoke-belching buses. As part of the green-washed run-up to this summer's Olympics, Beijing authorities are belatedly getting more bicycle-friendly, but the damage was done.

Powerful stuff...

I'll be using some of the above info in a letter I'm preparing to
city officials here in Mesa, AZ. Riding my bike again in a city where
motorist will not give you the right of way has me furious! And
having bike lanes that don't connect or just end...
Anyway, Thanks for the info!

But what I came to this topic for was to check out any electric car
info and share what I have found. If there is another topic or forum
I should check out, please direct traffic...

I wanted to get viewpoints on battery exchange programs such as "Shai
Agassi's Audacious Plan to Put Electric Cars on the Road".
http://www.wired.com/cars/futuretransport/magazine/16-09/ff_agassi

I could go on and on about what I have learned after watching "Who
killed the Electric Car" last year, but I'll run outa gas...

I started this topic to discuss all transportation alternatives. I'd love for us to share info we find about transportation issues.

wren

Can you think of any initiative that would save more energy than to
not to spend any more federal funds on interstates and to invest in
high speed rail instead of additional lanes for cars to sit and idle in?

We definitely need to invest in rail over roads and highways. But
high speed rail should be last priority.

We need to invest first into regular speed rail, light rail,
trolleys, subways and the like ... gradually building out to a
regional network ... then inter-regional networks etc.

Eventually we should do high speed rail, but right now that would
pre-empt more the creation of more valuable local and regional
networks.

Ford Fiesta ECOnetic 65-75 mpg...WILL NOT BE SOLD IN USA

"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w4QGMPyRi0"

wren, re 16, right you are in your priorities.

Rail we DON'T need:

In late-stage talks, Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pressed for $8 billion to construct high-speed rail lines, quadrupling the amount in the bill that passed the Senate on Tuesday.

Reid's office issued a statement noting that a proposed Los Angeles- to-Las Vegas rail might get a big chunk of the money.

"http://www.thetakeaway.org/stories/2009/feb/12/who-loves-high-speed- rail-8-billion-question/"

$8 billion taken from taxpayers throughout the nation to funnel gamblers from LA into the Las Vegas casinos ... and Las Vegas just happens to be the home state of the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of NEVADA. Coincidence, coincidences.

Besides the fact that we DON'T need high speed rail at this juncture, we need more regular rail, we sure as hell don't need high speed rail to Las Vegas of all places.

This is PORK on speed.

Actually, except for the fact that you pointed out that there is a
competing private venture, I would be all for this.  A reasonably high
volume rail between two large cities with reasonable terrain concerns
and limited right of way issues.

We need to promote mass transit, but not in competition with private
ventures.