This stunning video from Victoria, Australia arrives just in time as the weather around the US starts to warm up and the motorcyclists are polishing up the iron ponies for some good times on the road. The Transport Accident Commission (TAC)’s public education campaign targets two of Victoria’s biggest issues in road safety — motorcycle safety and speed. The description of the video as shown on YouTube: The campaign, titled “Reconstruction”, features a slow motion replay of a crash involving a motorcyclist and a car. The ad graphically depicts the rider suffering a broken neck as a result of his speeding prior to the collision.
The video get’s the message across in an very effective way. If you haven’t yet, you may want to check out the other campaign videos made by the TAC on their awesome YouTube Channel (~19 million views and 4600 subscribers. Whew!!!). Brilliant use of public $$ to educate the public! Hope the US Department of Transportation puts out a similar campaign to educate the American motorcyclists. and prevent thousands of fatal accidents involving motorcyclists (statistics: 3615 people died in 2010 from motorcycle accidents on U.S. roads) .
After decades of tireless hardwork and 39 trips, a national icon – NASA’s Space Shuttle Discovery – made its final journey to its resting place in Washington, DC region today. The shuttle will be permanently retired at the Smithsonian Udvar Hazy Center near Dulles, VA. NASA coordinated with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to navigate through the restricted air space over Washington, D.C. I got a chance to see the shuttle fly-by as it floated majestically perched atop a NASA jet. It was a bitter sweet moment watching it fly-by for not just me but for the entire nation that grew up watching the marvelous machines soar into the space. Not only did the shuttles ferry supplies to the space station but along the way they inspired a generation of innovators and encouraged many of us to dream big.
Image Courtesy: Washington Post (Photo by Linda Davidson)
On this momentous occasion, the shuttle in one single fly-by also accomplished what usually takes a government billions of dollars and decades of hard work . It left people inspired at what is possible if we put our heads together and encouraged everyone to dream big. The pic. above, taken by Linda Davidson (courtesy of Washington Post) shows the excitement on the faces of a few from the next generation of dreamers. Look at the inspiration on the faces of these children as they react to the shuttle Discovery fly-by. Priceless!
Jacob French is not your average Star Wars fan. He dressed up as a storm trooper and walked across Australia from Perth to Sydney. He apparently lost 12 kilos in weight and wore out 7 pairs of shoes before completing his nine month journey pushing a little cart. Why was he walking 10hrs a day wearing a stromtrooper costume for 9 months in that stifling heat across flies-infested lands. Is he nuts? No, he did it to raise awareness for the Star Light Foundation. He raised $100,000, $50K more than he set out to raise. This is an awesome video showing him walking in full gear matched to a beautiful John Williams score.
The video from Reason.TV says it all. . For those who care to read, check the Reason Foundation’s blog post, which gives a good idea of what is wrong with DC’s WMATA and its escalator management..
And seen below a customer’s creative and preemptive response for the agency’s yet-to-begin-customer survey. After seeing the video above, don’t you think he and other riders like him are shelling $$ on this system are justified to deliver such a verdit (actually the video doesn’t even address the plethora of other problems beyond the elevators and escalators that is plaguing the system) I’m sure many rider in the DC metropolitan area feel the same way..
Google hits a home-run with this real-life demonstration of its autonomous vehicle by putting a vision-impaired person behind the driving wheel in the regular streets. Steve Mahan, the man behind the wheel, is legally blind (95% gone) and he goes about what most of us drivers do in a normal day – runs errands, stops by a drive-through window for a burrito, picks up his dry cleaning, etc – all this without touching the steering wheel. For people like him this self-driving car should feel like a god-sent and the level of autonomy it offers should be priceless.
Moral of the story is clear as a crystal: Never mess with folks on Brazilian roads. These are some crazy drivers who will go to any extent to prove a point..Scary stuff! Glad neither party did not have a lorry or a freight truck (for that matter a gun) else this could have turned into a nightmare for many involved. Interestingly, the driver of the car is a woman, a fact that I did not even realize until I started reading the comments below the video. Drivers of Brazil, spare the poor motorcyclists.
What an awesome stunt! Improv Everywhere converted a late night New York City subway car into an unauthorized sleeper car, complete with three beds (video). Pajamas, sleep masks, and earplugs were also provided as part of this unauthorized free service. The Improv Everywhere website says the project took place on the above-ground N train in Astoria, Queens around midnight on a Sunday evening. The Sleeper Car was produced by Improv Everywhere as part of the Guggenheim Museum exhibition stillspotting nyc.
Found this interesting graphic on Grist in an article titled “How high do gas prices have to get to trigger behavior change? “. So, do Americans really change their driving habits when the gas prices rise? According to the graph, the answer is an emphatic yes. The article quotes AAA saying, ” A AAA survey conducted at the beginning of the month found 84 percent of respondents saying they have changed their driving habits or lifestyle in some way in response to recent gas-price increases, and 87 percent would change driving habits further if prices remain this high for long. The most common change adopted so far is combining trips and errands, which 60 percent of respondents say they’ve done. And 16 percent say they’ve purchased or leased a more fuel-efficient vehicle.” Read the entire article here.
Note: If the gas prices continue to rise with the drum beats of war getting louder and louder by the day, we can expect to see many drivers ditching their cars and opt to taking transit to work and to other places. I hope the transit agencies do everything in their power to demonstrate the conveniences of riding a bus/train and entice these flocking masses to continue using transit as a primary option for getting around. Oh, the big question I have in mind – Are the American transit agencies equipped to handle this sudden spike in ridership? Many transit agencies are hobbled by poor funding patterns over the years and it will be hard to meet this new segment of ridership arrives to what is an already exploding demand. Let’s see what happens. (Oh, no matter what the scenario is, one can expect to see a decline in VMT numbers again).
