Uber, a start-up based in San Francisco, lets you summon a luxury sedan with a tap on your phone. Now it is trying to appeal to the less affluent by adding less luxurious cars, reports the NY Times.
Uber, which has raised $43 million from investors since 2011, is one of several start-ups, including Cabulous and Taxi Magic, that are trying to profit by connecting drivers and passengers more efficiently.
Uber’s convenience comes with a cost, notes The Times. People are paying not just for the service, but also the gas used by the big sedans.
That’s why they’re using hybrid vehicles like the Prius.
Of course, carsharing companies like Zipcar and Car2Go offer a cheaper alternative since you pick them up.
In November 2011 the world’s first all-electric carsharing network was launched in San Diego, California, with a fleet of 300 Smart EDs.
General Motors has demoed the last few years a Mobility Concept Vehicle called EN-V (“Envie”).
The electic, two passenger pod-like car is capable of hands-free, autonomous operation. The EN-V can detect and avoid obstacles – including other vehicles – park themselves and come to you when called by phone.
Google’s driverless car was issued the first license by the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles in May 2012. The license was issued to a Toyota Prius modified with Google’s experimental driver-less technology.
Sebastian Thrun helped build Google’s driverless car.
Congress officially passed a new, two-year transportation bill on June 29th. The final $127 billion package angered fiscal conservatives and liberal environmentalists alike, reports the NY Times.
The transportation legislation extends federal highway, rail and transit programs for 27 months, authorizing $120 billion in spending, financed by the existing 18.4 cents-a-gallon gasoline tax and the 24.4 cents-a-gallon diesel tax, as well as about $19 billion in transfers from the Treasury, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense.
The America Bikes coalition — representing the nation’s leading bicycling and walking groups — and the Safe Routes to School National Partnership opposed the new transportation bill, which would nationally cut funding for biking and walking projects by 60 to 70 percent.
The City of Portland is working on a bike-sharing/rental system with card-activated rental bikes in kiosks downtown. Based on the six major bike sharing systems in the U.S. and Canada — Denver, Montreal, Toronto, Washington D.C., Minneapolis and Boston — you’re likely to be paying about $5 a day or about $75 a year, plus another $1.50 for each ride that lasts between 30 and 60 minutes.
Today, NPR’s All Things Considered begins the NPR Cities Project: an extensive series of reports and digital components exploring the built environment in what’s becoming known as “the urban century.” More than half the world now lives in urban areas.
Neighborland.com is a social media tool for sharing ideas to make your neighborhood better. You can find your neighborhood and post your idea. The posts all start with “I want,” and you fill in the rest.
Perhaps self-driving electric streetcars and light rail lines will enable faster, cheaper, cleaner transportation. Self-driving vehicles might deliver you to the transit stop.
