Santa Clara CA just approved a “road diet” on a section of Tasman Blvd that’s extremely over-built for current traffic needs (6 lanes of road, where 4 lanes would suffice). The plan would create a bicycle lane going each direction, but some on the City Council objected because of a huge…
Is Silicon Valley’s mass transit system underfunded because the population density is too low, or because rich people don’t take mass transit? Last week I posted a couple items about the Google Buses – generally speaking, the privately operated bus systems run by several Tech Companies in the SF Bay…
The San Francisco Bay Area has a transportation problem/crisis on its hands. Every day some corridors turn into miles of gridlock, while the region is saddled with a pathetically fragmented mass transit system. The other day I wrote about how Google (and other Tech companies) are building privately owned mass…
Here in Silicon Valley a growing phenomena is “The Google Bus” which is actually practiced by many of the Tech Companies here, not just Google. The simple implementation is a shuttle bus operated by the company that drives employees between the mass transit station and the campus. But the new…
The greenest way of getting around may be walking, or riding a bicycle. Taking mass transit is generally very green because a bus or train can carry more people per square mile than can individually driven cars, the vehicles are reused by multiple passengers, better fuel efficiency per passenger mile,…
Elon Musk may be a smart guy, but that doesn’t mean he can’t do dumb-ass things. Over on InsideEV’s it’s reported that Musk said that “getting rockets into space is easier than navigating the I-405 freeway” and is calling for a widening of the highway. The LA Times quotes him…
Electric cars are a major focus of what I write about, but are not the be-all-end-all of solutions for the full range of transportation problems our society is facing. Electric cars offer a great solution for noise pollution, air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and peak oil, but they do not…
What’s billed as a revolution in urban traffic is being unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show by Rinspeed between March 7 through 17th, 2013. The company has developed the microMAX, an ingenious commuter vehicle which merges personal and public transportation in very clever fashion. It is not just a transportation…
Yesterday was Labor Day in the U.S. (yes, I know, other parts of the world celebrate Laborers on a different day of the year) and as a result many businesses were closed. That’s all well and good, because Laborers deserve recognition. Laborers are the people who make the machines of…
Caltrain is the rail service running between San Jose and San Francisco Tonight I am on my way to San Francisco for a meeting. Always when taking a trip I spend awhile analyzing ahead of time what’s the greenest way to get there. Can I avoid burning oil? Can I…
