With yesterdays news of the impending bankruptcy of Vectrix there’s a question over why the talk about Green Technology and Green Jobs isn’t translating into support for the existing electric vehicle industry in the U.S. By contrast there are two announcements from Taiwan and Italy that they are giving subsidies…
Vectrix was the first company to deliver a “high performance, zero emission, electric motorcycle” in commercial quantities. The VX-1 is in the shape of a maxi-scooter, driven by an electric drive train, could go at near highway speeds, and (for an EV) has a long range. For the most part…
Today is a “Spare the Air” day in Silicon Valley so it seems like a good day to look at the environmental consequences of different car choices. One of the reasons to choose green transportation is potential environmental improvements. Spare the Air days are issued by the Bay Area Air…
The U.S. Postal Service has a lot of vehicles on the road every day through mud and sleet and all that. Their vehicle fleet is one of the largest on the planet. They’ve long had efforts to study alternative fuel vehicles and recently announced a one-for-one replacement of 6,500 vehicles…
A fear over expanding use of electric vehicles is whether the increased electric demand would swamp the electric grid. The electric grid is those high power transmission lines criss-crossing the country. The claim is the electric grid wasn’t designed well and might not handle the extra load from electric cars.…
The compelling offer presented by The Car (you know, a box, four wheels, an engine, with pollution pouring out the back) is freedom to go wherever you want, whenever you want. The problem is the result we are living with isn’t exactly the beautiful vision of freedom. Is it freedom…
Wal-Mart, Best Buy and REI have either already or will soon enter the electric bicycle market (as noted in an earlier Green Transportation article). In the U.S. electric bicycles are little known but in other countries (notably Europe and China) they are more popular and widely known. In the U.S.…
There are many people using recreational off-road vehicles as their means to enjoy the great outdoors. They can be riding at an organized dirt track, around their farm, or at parks or other places. These vehicles usually are not “street legal” and don’t fall under the same requirements. Noise is…
There was excitement last year when news of an officially electrified Mini from BMW. But now that the vehicles are in owners hands some problems have cropped up. Some may be the matter of small flubs on BMW’s part but one is a an accusation by Plug In America that…
Have you ever wondered what happens to the ground underneath parking lots and streets? Traditional pavement is impervious to rain water, instead the rain water runs off into the sewer systems where it is efficiently channeled into the nearest stream or river. If the pavement wasn’t there the rain water…
Alaska Governor Palin has announced her resignation in a surprise move which leaves many questions. During the announcement statement she stated an objective to continue pursuing her objectives which includes “Energy Independence”. The phrase obviously hearkens back to certain slogans of last years Presidential election race and since she didn’t…
A recent Scientific American article, San Jose’s Electric Car Revolution, was disappointing because it only covered the work of Coulomb Technologies. While they’re doing wonderful things, Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay area has so much more electric vehicle activity happening than just Coulomb Technologies and Tesla Motors (the…
Bicycling is one of the greenest forms of transportation you could imagine. Bicycles require minimal materials to build, require minimal space during use and other times, require minimum energy during use, and give riders exercise improving their health. Yet bicyclists often have friction with car drivers and there is a…
In the U.S. electric bicycles, scooters and motorcycles have been the in the realm of fanatic aficionado’s for a long time. They’ve been available either by building your own or purchase through one of the few dealers. However they won’t make much effect on greening transportation until they’re widely available…
Ideally a program like the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) really would cause a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, improve energy security, reduce oil dependence costs, and increase energy sustainability. The program’s key is to incentivize replacement of inefficient cars with more efficient transportation choices. An earlier article (The Cash…
