An insight into the American commute — Which Cities Sleep in, and Which Get to Work Early

April 22, 2014 at 6:29 pm

My favorite numbers guy, Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight has poured over the census data and published an intriguing article that shows how the workforce in US cities begin its work day. I’ll share Nate’s findings through the graphs he published but I highly recommend that you read the full article over at his site . This insightful analysis will be definitely useful for transportation systems operators and managers.

Here are a few data nuggets from this analysis:

  • New Yorkers are pretty relaxed and get to catch a few more winks  than many in the country. The median worker in the New York metropolitan area begins her workday at 8:24 a.m. 
  • A quarter of the workforce in Atlantic City doesn’t begin its workday until 11:26 a.m. or after (understandably because the AC workforce is dependent on a recreational economy).
  • The metro area with the earliest workday is Hinesville, Ga. The median worker there arrives at work at 7:01 a.m.

Let’s first see the US metro areas that are slow to roll

Source: FiveThirtyEight.com

Now let’s look at the those cities with the earliest median arrival times to work

Source: FiveThirtyEight.com Click Image to learn more.

And finally the Median arrival time in your local time zone

Source: fivethirtyeight.com. Click the image to learn more

Interesting, isn’t it? Go over to Fivethirtyeight.com to soak up the brilliant write-up from Nate.

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Meet Johnnie “Spider” Footman: Celebrating the Life of New York City’s Oldest Cab Driver

December 21, 2013 at 11:06 pm

via NY Times

Awesome story of a man who spent an awful long time roaming the streets of New York City, driving a cab.. More here

Plugging a giant hole – Researchers Develop an Innovative Inflatable Plug to Stop Flooding of Tunnels

November 20, 2012 at 6:31 pm

via NY Times

After seeing the devastating impacts of torrents of water on New York City subways and highway tunnels during Hurricane sandy, one would be curious to know – how do you stop rushing waters from entering your highway and transit/subway tunnels? Researchers from my alma mater, West Virginia University, have been at it for a while and they have come up with this brilliant solution – an inflatable plug.

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FawTqHpjs_g&hd=1 ‘]

Learn more about it here.

[clip id=”LQUk_-FyD8j6MO7P-cKHiVuWISA9evGSoU5e” width=”1002″ height=”1389″ scale=”disabled”]

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Downtown From Behind On Bikes- Aussie Photog Artfully Captures The “Heartbeat of New York City”

November 21, 2010 at 5:03 pm

(Source: New York Times)

Click here for more details

ONE is wearing a couture gown, another just a pair of red underwear. One is lugging a huge bouquet of flowering rhododendrons on his shoulder, another a suckling pig. They are all riding bicycles in the middle of streets downtown, and they are all shown from behind, having passed by, headed toward some unknown destination — a party, a garden, a pig roast.

The photographs are by Bridget Fleming, 30, who moved to the Lower East Side from Australia in 2008. She is halfway through an ambitious project to capture downtown denizens riding on two wheels down each of the approximately 200 streets below 14th Street. She posts some of the photographs on a blog, Downtown From Behind, and hopes the project, which she describes as a glamorous ode to “the heartbeat of New York,” will culminate this spring with a gallery exhibition and Web site.

downtown_from_behind_blair

Image Courtesy: Downtown from Behind

Click here for more on this story and for the awesome interactive.

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Mullahs and Muscle Cars! Iconic vintage Detroit V-8s revving up a rare American cultural connection … in Iran!

November 12, 2010 at 4:03 pm

(Source: New York Times)

Image Courtesy: Ali Samandarian via New York Times

Today’s New York Times carried this nice article about a small but thriving group of classic car enthusiasts in Iran .

…The setting was a gathering of the Tehran Café Racers, but aside from a few minor details — Persian lettering on the license plates and on the cans of Coke sipped over lunch — it could have taken place at any number of racetracks in America. The loose-knit group, an affiliate of a club based in Florida, is part of Iran’s enthusiastic classic car culture. Vintage Detroit models play a big role in the activities, and driving events take precedence — the track session was the group’s first since its founding earlier this year.

“I was expecting a better turnout for the American car contingent,” Ramin Salehkhou, a 44-year-old American-educated lawyer who started the Tehran branch of the club, wrote in an e-mail. “But three of the guys, owners of a 1968 Dodge Charger, a 1970 Ford Mustang Mach 1 and a 1978 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, had to bail out.”

A rare high-performance Camaro belonging to Mr. Salehkhou is at the core of the Tehran group’s formation, and Detroit was well represented among the 30 cars at the track. American cars usually account for 30 to 40 percent of participants at club gatherings, he said.

….Last month, a classic-car rally in the ancient city of Isfahan attracted a variety of American vehicles, including Chevy sedans from the ’50s and ’60s as well as some Camaros and Pontiac Firebirds.

Click here to read the entire article

Transportgooru Musings: Post-revolutionary Iran would be the last place I’d expect to have a classic car culture, especially featuring some classic american icons like the Chevy Camero and Mustang. Hopefully this  comes to grow and capture the minds and hearts of more Iranians.  After all, love for cars has no boundary and national identity. Can the muscle cars of Detroit achieve what diplomacy and multi-party talks couldn’t achieve – winning the hearts and minds of Iranians and their rulers? Time will tell.

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Truckers’ ruckus over texting ban; While most of the country supports a texting ban, trucking industry wants exception

September 27, 2009 at 8:58 pm

(Source: New York Times)

Image Courtesy: American Van via Google Images

Crisscrossing the country, hundreds of thousands of long-haultruckers use computers in their cabs to get directions and stay in close contact with dispatchers, saving precious minutes that might otherwise be spent at the side of the road.

The trucking industry says these devices can be used safely, posing less of a distraction than BlackBerrys, iPhones and similar gadgets, and therefore should be exempted from legislation that would ban texting while driving.

“We think that’s overkill,” Clayton Boyce, spokesman for the American Trucking Associations, said of a federal bill that would force states to ban texting while driving if they want to keep receiving federal highway money.

The legislation will be discussed at a conference on distracted driving in Washington, starting Wednesday, organized by the Transportation Department.

The issues raised by truckers show the challenges facing advocates for tougher distracted-driving laws, given that so many Americans have grown accustomed to talking and texting behind the wheel.

The trucking industry has invested heavily in technology to wire vehicles. Satellite systems mounted on trucks let companies track drivers, send new orders, distribute companywide messages and transmit training exercises. Drivers can also use them to send and receive e-mail and browse the Internet.

After videotaping truckers behind the wheel, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that those who used on-board computers faced a 10 times greater risk of crashing, nearly crashing or wandering from their lane than truckers who did not use those devices.

That figure is lower than the 23 times greater risk when truckers texted, compared with drivers simply focused on the road, according to the same study. However, the Virginia researchers said that truckers tend to use on-board computers more often than they text.

The study found that truckers using on-board computers take their eyes off the road for an average of four seconds, enough time at highway speeds to cover roughly the length of a football field.

Richard J. Hanowski, director of the Center for Truck and Bus Safety at the Virginia institute, said videotape monitoring of 200 truckers driving about three million miles showed many of them using the devices, even bypassing messages on the screen warning them not to use the devices while driving.

In recent years, fatalities caused by large trucks have risen slowly, despite many safety advances like air bags and antilock brakes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In 2007, large trucks caused 4,808 deaths — or 12 percent of all driving-related fatalities — up from 4,777, or 11 percent, in 1997.

Beyond the dispatch computers, truckers said they relied heavily on an array of technologies to stay productive, entertained and connected on the road. Their cabs become like home offices, wired with CB radios, AM/FM and satellite radios, weather band radios, GPS devices, electrical outlets, laptops and even computer desks. And, of course, cellphones.

Click here to read the entire article.  Also, while you are on the NY Times page, don’t forget to try the awesome interactive graphic (which can be found embedded on the left hand panel of this NY Times article) to gauge  your distraction.  It does that by measuring how your reaction time is affected by external distractions in a nice little game.

Note:  Another New York Times article on this issue of driver distraction notes that the general public overwhelmingly supports the prohibition of text messagingwhile driving, the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll finds. Ninety percent of adults say sending a text message while driving should be illegal, and only 8 percent disagree.   More than 80 percent of every demographic group say sending text messages while driving should be illegal, but some are more adamant about such a prohibition than others. Parents, whether or not their children are adults, are more inclined to support a ban than people without children. Women are more in favor of outlawing the practice than men.  Click here to read more details on this interesting poll.

Have you been “Ave-d”? Guardian gushes about the sleek Spanish rail service! Americans left wondering if their Government will ever “get it”?

August 8, 2009 at 5:16 pm

(Source: The Guardian, UK)

Ana Portet has had an unusual commute to work. At 7.30am she popped down to Sants railway station in Barcelona. Three hours later she was in a meeting with colleagues from her brewery firm, 315 miles away in Madrid.

“I’ll be back in Barcelona by half past five,” she said as her early afternoon bullet train flew back along the new high-speed tracks at up to 210mph. “It’s so quick, sometimes you are there before you have even noticed.”

Portet is one of hundreds of thousands of travellers who have migrated from the world’s busiest air shuttle, linking Madrid and Barcelona, to what is now Spain’s most popular train, the high-speed AVE.

The AVE, an intercom announcement has just told us, will leave us in the centre of Barcelona in two hours and 32 minutes. With Madrid’s AVE station a short walk from the Prado museum, the journey is from one city centre to another. What is more, the high-speed train does this in punctual, hassle-free and elegant style.

High-speed trains pulled by aerodynamic engines with noses shaped like a duck-billed platypus are grounding aircraft across Spain. The year-old Barcelona-Madrid line has already taken 46% of the traffic – stealing most of it from fuel-guzzling, carbon-emitting aircraft. As the high-speed rail network spreads a web of tracks across Spain over the next decade, it threatens to relegate domestic air travel to a distant second place.

A high-speed network is not designed overnight. Spain’s AVE story started in the 1980s, when the socialist prime minister Felipe González commissioned a line between Madrid and his home city of Seville. The project was overshadowed by corruption scandals and greeted with a certain amount of scorn. Why was sleepy Seville getting the line and not busy Barcelona? Some saw it as an expensive white elephant and a monument to González’s ego.

The line, however, was a spectacular success. Remote Seville was suddenly two and a half hours from Madrid. Spaniards, used to shabby, lumbering trains that crawled across the countryside following unpredictable timetables, discovered their trains could be stylish and run on time.

Previously the choice on the Madrid-Seville run was between a hot, tiring six-hour coach journey or an aircraft. Seventeen years later, only one traveller out of 10 takes the plane to Seville. The rest go by a train that is 99% punctual. The Seville line proved that high-speed trains could be part of the answer, albeit an expensive part, to some of Spain’s most enduring problems.

By 2020 Spain will have Europe’s largest high-speed network, its 6,000 miles of track outgunning even France’s TGV system. By then 90% of the population will be within 30 miles of a station. New lines have already been opened to Segovia, Valladolid and Malaga in the last 18 months. New links will eventually connect France and Portugal.

The high-speed train network also helps Spain control carbon emissions, with passengers on the Madrid-Barcelona line cutting their own emissions by 83% on the trip.

Click here to read the entire article.

Transportgooru Musings:

Something unusual is happening with the mainstream media these days.  There seems to be a renewed interest in pushing the idea of having a high-speed rail network in to the minds of the American public .  We have seen two articles on CNN/Fortune have brought too fore how China is pushing ahead with its investment in building a sophisticated, world class HSR network.  This spurred a good bit of debate on many popular infrastructure & transportation forums such as the Infrastrucrist.  Another one appeared in LA Times, by business writer David Lazarus whose sentiments about the American transportation system was summarized as follows after experiencing the highly systematic & super-sleek Japanese network: “It’s hard to appreciate how truly pitiful our public transportation system is until you spend some time with a system that works.” Many of us know that feeling.  Then he gushes about the consistently reliable, affordable and convenient transit systems in Japan. “I rode just about every form of public transit imaginable — bullet trains, express trains, commuter trains, subways, street cars, monorails and buses.”  Again, our good friends at Infrastructurist followed-up with a nice debate.

Now we have this Guardian article, that gushes about the glorious Spanish high-speed rail network.  I am sure this would stir another round of renewed interest in the minds of us transportation nerds, especially among those who keenly the TransportGooru and Infrastructurist columns on this topic. But do these discussions go beyond the comments section of these portals.  I wonder if the Government is even taking note of these anxiety-laden cries that advocate the need for a comparable HSR.  As the President and his administration staff reiterate his commitment to keep American workforce competitive in every field, pushing huge loads of money for all sorts of industries (Automobile manufacturing, battery research etc.) , everyone in the Government seems to forget that competitiveness should also extend beyond roads and vehicles.  The vast American bureaucracy is slowly pushing ahead with limited funding ($8Billion) and a massive goal (a HSR-network in pockets of nation with targeted connectivity), while other nations like China and Spain are blazing ahead with massive investments in a rail network.  Unless we as a nation get serious about investing in alternative transportation options such as rail, we will continue to remain dependent on our expensive oil addiction.

With the Government pushing new thinking such as transit-oriented development, it is probably not too far in the future before urban living becomes “cool” again and the minor discomforts of not having the plush sub-urban life with white picket fences and acre-wide manicured lawns might fade away.   The Government facilitated the emergence of the sprawl and the suburban lifestyle with its policy and funding push for interstates.  Back in the past were days when railroading was the best alternative for longer distances.  Ford and other American automakers created a new way of life with the commercialization of automobile technology, which has now blossomed into a thriving industry.  Can the Government enable a similar push for building high speed rail networks around the country?

Before we even get there, let’s first ask: Is there a need for it?   Yes, clearly there is a need for it, at least for distances shorter than 400 miles and there is also a desire for it among folks.  But the only thing that is lack is the Governmental backing. The paltry $8B will not be enough but it is definitely a good start.  It is not always a bad thing to emulate successful strategies, irrespective of where it emulates from.  American ingenuity stems from this ability to take ideas irrespective of their origin and tweak to make them suitable for the American landscape.  We did this for years by simply importing foreign talent (from nuclear scientists to PhD students) propelled new ideas and thinking to create a huge economy that was atop the world for decades. Why not do the same for building a rail network?

We have the need, we have the people who can get it done. All we need is the willingness to invest and the determination to get it done. As demonstrated in the past, Americans can accomplish great things (from building the interstate system to the invention of the atomic bomb), when the Government stood firm and pushed ahead to finish these mega-projects.  Some of these projects not only became a rallying point for nation building (during and after WWII) but they also spawned new economies and industries, spurring job growth and economic development in communities.

For argument sakes, for the time being we can remain content that our nation has a sophisticated air transportation network, with even the tiniest of the towns boasting an airport.  In reality, many of our airports are overwhelmed and strained by heavy operational delays and operate with sub-par efficiency, at times also posing a risk to passenger safety.  But at the end of the day, we are still going to be an oil-dependent economy, ply our cars and planes with imported for the near future.  Of course, there is a lot more to it than just saying and writing it on these websites and newspapers.  But that’s where the Government comes in to figure it all out and to make it happen.  That’s what the American tax-payers pay for every year before April 15th – to fund and keep a massive bureaucracy working for the to safeguard the interests of its citizens and not budge for the disgruntled political masses.

For what it matters, we are blessed with a dedicated team of professionals who are a part of this massive bureacracy and the USDOT employs thousands of people under its railroad-ing arm, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).  The agency should be given special powers (agreed that we are not Communist China and it may all have to be worked out within a Democratic framework) to expedite the approval process for the pending HSR proposals.  It should also be taken into account that allied industres such as steel manufacturing be reviatlized with incentives for making steel locally.  This would be a really good way to resuscitate the long-shuttered steel mills of our nation.  Hire a new workforce to build these raillines (as a data nugget, consider what China had been able to do in keeping its workforce busy.  The CRCC now employ 110,000 workers on a single line connecting Beijing and Shanghai.  If you are running short of professional capacity to build and manage all this new work, employ the new grads coming out of our universities (FYI,  the CNN article on Chinese HSR plans offer this data:  Last year China Railway Construction Co., the nation’s largest railroad builder, hired 14,000 new university graduates — civil and electrical engineers mostly — from the class of 2008. This year, says Liang Yi, the vice CEO of the CRCC subsidiary working on the Beijing-to-Shanghai high-speed line, the company may hire up to 20,000 new university grads to cope with the company’s intensifying workload. But with the private sector cutting way back on hiring — and university students desperate for work — taking on that many new engineers and managers hasn’t been too difficult) and put them to work on this project of national importance.   If we managed to somehow put aside all our  political in-fighting and come together to accomplish this in the next 20 years, our future generations may have a better shot at being competitive.  We may even see a renewed interest in our nations private-sector players to invest and operate these new railroads (many foreign and local infrastructure firms are now buying rights to build and operate our nation’s ports and toll-roads).  Who knows! Someday in the future we may have a sophisticated system if we “get it right”).

It takes a special leader , who can stand tall amidst all the challenges and marshall his troops to get the mission accomplished and our President sure has shown glimpses of such qualities.  But as we all know, mere glimpses are not enough.  Unless our leadership shows some serious commitment and interest, the possibilities of an average American riding an Ave-like or Shinkansen-like or a TGV-like system will remain elusive.  Will the real leader stand up and deliver?

US transport boss explores Spain’s high-speed rail system

May 30, 2009 at 11:00 am

(Source: AP, NY Times, The Infrastructurist, The Atlantic)

The U.S. transportation secretary says Spain’s bullet train system is a model to follow as America plans how it will spend its stimulus package. Ray LaHood says the $8 billion allocated for high-speed railways in the United States will improve the country’s infrastructure, spur economic growth and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As part of his visit to Spain, he took a ride on the AVE from Madrid to Zaragosa and then hung around in a railway control center with the transport minister for a while. On Saturday he met with Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the guy who’s has really been the force behind Spain’s recent investment.

When President Obama announced in April his $13 billion plan to propel the United States into the age of high-speed rail, he tipped his hat to the trains that zip between the cities of the Old Continent at up to 217 miles an hour.  Spain opened its first Alta Velocidad Española, or AVE, high-speed train route in 1992, between Madrid and Seville. The network has grown to nearly 2,000 kilometers and stretches from Malaga on the south coast to Barcelona, which is north and east.

Spain, an enthusiastic latecomer to high-speed rail, on Friday will complete a six-day tour of European transit systems that it presented to the American transportation secretary, Ray H. LaHood. Officials say the Spanish experience could hold lessons in what works and what does not.

Supporters say the AVE has begun to transform the country, binding remote and sometimes restive regions to Madrid and leading traditionally homebound Spaniards to move around for work or leisure.

“Spaniards have rediscovered the train,” said Iñaki Barrón de Angoiti, director of high-speed rail at the International Union of Railways in Paris. “The AVE has changed the way people live, the way they do business. Spaniards don’t move around a lot, but the AVE is even changing that.”

Such is the train’s allure that politicians of different stripes have made extravagant promises to lace the country with a sprawling network. Under a plan devised by Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain will have 10,000 kilometers (more than 6,200 miles) of high-speed track by 2020.

In a backhanded tribute, the train is perceived as such an effective tool of political cohesion that the Basque militant group ETA has effectively declared war on a project that would link the Basque region to Madrid.

As has happened elsewhere, the high-speed train is stealing passengers from the airlines: The 2.5-hour route between Madrid and Seville handles about 89 percent of railway and air traffic between the cities, according to Renfe, the state railway operator. In its first year, the Madrid-Barcelona route lured nearly half the five million passengers who would normally fly between the cities, Renfe said.

Supporters say such statistics bolster the train’s green credentials: The International Union of Railways says a high-speed train can carry eight times as many passengers as an airplane over a given distance, using the same amount of energy and emitting a quarter of the carbon dioxide for each passenger.

Here in Lleida, a town of 125,000 in northeastern Spain surrounded by plains that produce half of the country’s apples and pears, the inauguration of a high-speed route to Madrid in 2003 cut the journey to the capital to two hours from five and a half, and the extension of the line to Barcelona last year halved that trip to one hour.

The reception from the US media for the Secretary’s interest in rail has been surprisingly positive.  Voicing its support for the deployment of a high-speed network, the Atlantic notes that many of the nation’s important metropolitan corridors manage to have unbearably congested highways and airports. In the few places where intercity rail has the capacity and speed to be competitive with alternatives, Amtrak has no problem filling its trains. Rail construction obviously has high upfront capital costs, but they’re likely to prove worth it in the long run, particularly given that trains can run on electric power, which will grow steadily greener and become increasingly attractive in a world of rising oil prices (check).

And of course, airline service has not only become miserable and unreliable as the system has become overburdened and unprofitable, but it’s also pretty dirty, in terms of carbon emissions. The standard approximation has planes emitting as much per mile as cars, but of course planes travel much longer distances and at higher altitudes, where emissions have a more significant effect.

Word is, the president really wants to leave office with a high-speed rail network as part of his legacy. Sounds good to me.

It is natural to think if a country like Spain, whose political system is often gridlocked and often confronted by the militant ETA in the Basque region, canembark and accomplish such an ambitious national project, why can’t the same be accomplished in the United States?  A columnist at the Infrastructrist has rightly captured this thought: The conversation about all this in Spain seems very lucid in contrast to our own,  where the political system is so debilitatingly gridlocked that we can think in the smallest terms. Keep in mind that this a $150 billion project for a country with an economy one-tenth the size of ours. So if we were doing things on the Spanish scale, we’d be devoting more than a trillion dollars to passenger rail. Imagine what that debate would sound like in Congress and on talk radio. Rightly said!

Tokyo Motor Show losing its Lustre; More automakers pull out citing cost of attendance amidst falling sales and industry downturn

May 24, 2009 at 8:47 pm

(Source: Wheels Blog – NY Times & Autoblog)

Asia’s premier auto exhibition, the Tokyo Motor Show, held every other fall at the sprawling Makuhari Messe convention center, is still scheduled to take place Oct. 23-Nov. 4, but the cast of characters shrinks almost daily.  The exhibition has suffered in recent years with sales declines in the Japanese domestic market. Now, automakers around the world are experiencing sales and production slowdowns and are canceling plans for many new models.

Image Courtesy: Tokyo Motor Show

The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association confirmed in a news release that in addition to the Japanese automakers, only three foreign companies remain committed to the show. At least 22 other major manufacturers have pulled out, including the Detroit Three, all the German automakers, the French, the Swedes and even the Chinese. As of Thursday, Porsche and Maserati are the latest two brands to pull out of the biennial Tokyo Motor Show. That brings the tally to 22 foreign brands sitting out the Japanese showcase, leaving Hyundai, Ferrari, and Lotus to duel for import honors.   As with the other brands that have decided to pass on this year’s show, Porsche and Maserati cited the cost of attendance.
And even though Japan‘s 14 domestic makers are expected to show in force, the country’s four largest truck makers have said they won’t be coming. At least one report has said there will be half as many cars this year as there were two years ago.  Said a show spokesman, “It is unprecedented to see such a large number of carmakers not coming to the motor show. It’s disappointing.”

In fact, the display area for the 2009 show will be less than half of what it was in 2007, the last time the show was held. That show, in turn, was substantially smaller than the one in 2005. This year, the show is also being shortened by four days. Canceling the show entirely, J.A.M.A. said, would complicate its ability to revive it in future years.

Scoopful of GM and Chrysler News – May 12, 2009

May 12, 2009 at 7:03 pm

REPORT: GAZ confirms interest in OpelGM is said to prefer a single bidder, in the guise of Fiat, while Germany was recently said to prefer Magna’s proposal because of promises to keep production in Germany. If, however, GAZ’s real desire is to increase its Russian production abilities, if it were to take a larger stake in Opel than Magna, there will undoubtedly be conflicts to reso…

GM, LifestyleSinger, songwriter and actress Sarah Spiegel, who apparently worked as a national spokesperson for General Motors last summer, has taken the time amidst all the doom and gloom surrounding America’s largest automaker to write and record what could best be described as either a very short song or an oddly long jingle for Chevy’s upcom…

 

GM: First-gen Volts won’t communicate with grid, future versions will
…According to GM‘s Britta Gross, future versions of the Chevy Volt are expected to have this capability.There are a few possibilities presented by Gross that GM could use to allow the Volt to communicate with utility companies, including its own OnStar technology and, in the future, embedded chips using the Zigbee protocol that could wirelessly c…
2010 Opel Astra: Cruze, Volt Get A German Brother [New Cars]
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GM recalls Camaro, Traverse, SUVs/pickups for various issues
GM, GMCGeneral Motors and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have announced a suite of recalls for the Chevrolet Camaro, Traverse and various body-on-frame SUVs and pickups (Cadillac’s Escalade, Chevrolet’s Avalanche, Colorado, Suburban and Tahoe, along with GMC’s Canyon and Yukon). The Camaro recall has been discussed before, bu…
Electric Entertainment: Sarah Spiegel records Chevy Volt Jingle
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Tom Hanks Writes a Letter to the New Yorker About his Electric Car
…had a GM EV1 and “watched the emission-free car be wrested from my garage, towed away, and busted up into pieces of metal, glass, and rubber smaller than razor blades.” Well, that’s not the case. Hanks had, and still has, a Toyota RAV4 EV. More details below….
Last drive, indeed. I hope this car finds … [From Comments]
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GM Shares Drop To Lowest Level Since Great Depression [Carpocalypse]
GM shares trading at a 76-year low. Basically, the lowest level since the last Depression.
Fight for Hydrogen Funding
Hydrogen fuel-cell development was delivered a blow when Energy Secretary Steven Chu recently cut government funds to support it.
Will GM consider moving its headquarters out of Detroit? [w/POLL]
GM, Earnings/FinancialsYesterday’s media question-and-answer session with General Motors’ CEO Fritz Henderson didn’t reveal much in the way of actual news, but at least one question raised a few eyebrows: “Is GM considering moving its corporate headquarters?”While that’s an unlikely scenario, Henderson stopped short of denying the possibility, s…
GM May Consider Move From Detroit, Leave City Motor-Less [Carpocalypse]
GM CEO Fritz Henderson acknowledged Monday the automaker’s open to moving from its RenCen world headquarters along the Detroit River to save millions in taxes. Can Detroit still be called the “Motor City” without automakers? The automaker is under pressure to cut costs by June 1st or face bankruptcy. To that end, GM‘s being courted by Warren May…
Pontiac G8 GXP: Last Drive, Part One [Jalopnik Reviews]
…company like GM could overcome their considerable shortcomings and come out with a reasonably priced world-beating sports sedan like the Pontiac G8 GXP. Whatever their recent successes, the company has history of taking careful aim at a performance target and hitting themselves squarely in the foot, so some skepticism is only natural. Yet there’…
Hey, Chevy Volt — Why So Angry?
GM is hanging its corporate future on the Chevy Volt. That’s a great honor for a vehicle. So why does the eco-friendly would-be savior car look so incredibly pissed off? When the Volt’s fiercely peeved appearance was noted by commenter over at Jalopnik a few days ago, a fellow commenter pointed …
Leaked GM document shows automaker plans to sell China-built cars to U.S. consumers
GM, UAW/UnionsA planning document given to lawmakers by General Motors reportedly shows that the Detroit-based automaker plans to ship 17,335 autos from China for sale in the U.S. in 2011. If GM succeeds in importing vehicles to the U.S. from China, it could be the first automaker to do so.The document doesn’t show which vehicle would be brought…
Six Top GM Executives Liquidate Stock Holdings [Carpocalypse]
…Six GM executives, including outgoing product czar “Maximum” Bob Lutz, disclosed Monday they sold almost $315,000 in stock and liquidated their remaining direct holdings in the automaker ahead of a probable stock-value-rendered-worthless bankruptcy. The five other executives, including Lutz’s successor, Thomas Stephens, GM North America Presiden…
REPORT: Execs including Bob Lutz, Troy Clarke dump GM stock
GM, Earnings/FinancialsAs General Motors teeters on the brink of bankruptcy, several major executives have just taken advantage of an opportunity to sell their stock shares just after the company’s quarterly earnings report came out in May. Among them, Bob Lutz, Troy Clarke, Thomas Stephens and several others decided that it was better to cash o…
Henderson: Buyer for Opel picked by end of month
GM, Opel, FIATThe Opel brand may be churning out some solid-looking products of late, but the European brand isn’t long for theGM world. That isn’t news, but the fact that a buyer will be chosen before the end of May is. GM CEO Fritz Henderson promised the quick turnaround of Opel during a Monday news conference, saying “several bidders” are in…
VIDEO: Elon Musk misrepresents Chevy Volt performance, Tesla getting few new orders for Roadster
GM, Tesla MotorsVIDEO: Elon Musk misrepresents Chevy Volt performance, Tesla getting few new orders for Roadster originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Mon, 11 May 2009 20:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds
Buying GM Stock Is NOT Like Gambling At A Casino [Carpocalypse]
…distinction between GM stock and casino gambling is at a casino, if the player loses, the dealer still wins. Nobody wins with GMstock.
REPORT: Homologation of Fiat products for U.S. to take 18 months
Chrysler, LLC., FIATAccording to Automotive News, twenty Fiat engineers have visited Chrysler headquarters to begin merging the companies’ product planning departments. The current Fiat cars that will soon go on sale as Chrysler models, though, will still need some 18 months in order to be homologated according to U.S. federal regulations. Inclu…
Obama Knows… How Much Chrysler Should Spend On Advertising [Carpocalypse]
…Force cut Chrysler‘s planned bankruptcy marketing budget, $134 million for nine weeks of advertisements, in half. Apparently the Obama Administration’s like Bo Jackson from those old Nike “Bo knows” commercials. The overwhelmingly desperate state the automakers are in, essentially living on the dole, has put them into a position where they’re su…
GE to Open Sodium-Metal Halide Battery Plant in New York
…with Chrysler for plug-in vehicles under a DOE-funded project. (Earlier post.) Of the dual-battery concept, Glen Merfeld, lab manager for the Chemical Energy Systems Lab at GE Global Research wrote: Lithium-ion batteries, which are most often discussed for passenger cars, deliver a lot of power for acceleration but are less optimized in prov…
GM May Consider Move From Detroit, Leave City Motor-Less [Carpocalypse]
…home to Chrysler, GM was the lone holdout still located within the boundaries of the city of Detroit. Without GM, do we still call Detroit the “Motor City?” Yes, it’s still the “Motor City” but the fact that GM’s even looking to leave the city is just another example of how this once-proud industrial icon-of-a-city has gone from heroic “Arsenal …
AEV J8 MILSPEC: Offroading Jeep’s Forbidden Fruit [Jalopnik Reviews]
Chrysler doesn’t offer it to US civilian buyers. American Expedition Vehicles saw this opportunity and contracted with Chrysler to obtain up to 120 vehicle kits a year, which they assemble and sell as a rolling chassis to rabid Wrangler fans who will supply their own motivation, installed at an approved dealer. We just had to know what it could …
REPORT: Obama administration slashes Chrysler ad budget by 50%
Chrysler, LLC.Chrysler is nearly two weeks into its bankruptcy, and the Auburn Hills, Michigan-based automaker is already getting an idea of just how engaged the Obama administration plans to be in the process. Chrysler planned to spend $134 million dollars on advertising during its supposed nine weeks of bankruptcy, but the Auto Task Force has …
Driving the Dodge Circuit, now with video
…time with Chrysler‘s EV while getting the run-through on the Circuit’s technology from John Myers, the EV’s project lead and ENVI employee. The bumpy roads weren’t quite long and straight enough for our liking, but we did get the chance to learn a bit more aboutChrysler‘s EV strategy and why the automaker thinks its ENVI battery program is bett…
Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky could live on… with different parents
…would ape Chrysler‘s plan for the Dodge Viper’s production facilities, allowing another automaker to take control and continue building the niche model.The Delaware plant also produces the Opel GT, a rebadged variant of the U.S. market Solstice and Sky, for GM’s German arm, and it’s obvious that as the General rushes to restructure before its Ju…