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Showing posts with label transportation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label transportation. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Roomier Prius V Hybrid (aka Mama Prius) Going on Sale in US Next Month

by
from http://www.treehugger.com

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Photo: Toyota

58% More Cargo Space, Starting at $26,400
After releasing more details on the 2012 Prius Plug-in, Toyota is now announcing that the Prius V (which I dubbed the 'Mama Prius') will go on sale in the United States at the end of October.

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Photo: Toyota

What's Different, What's the Same
The Prius V is built on the same drivetrain - and most of the same exterior - as the regular third generation Prius, but it offers 58% more cargo space, "resulting in more cargo space than 80% of all small SUVs", according to Toyota Division Group Vice President and General Manager Bob Carter.

The Prius V has 34.3 cubic feet of cargo space behind the rear seats.

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Photo: Toyota

Prius V Fuel Economy
The Prius v will deliver estimated EPA fuel economy ratings of 44 mpg city, 40 mpg highway and 42 mpg combined (5.35, 5.88 and 5.6 L/100km, respectively). This is significantly better than other vehicles that provide the same amount of interior space, though it is worse than the regular Prius which gets 50 MPG combined.

A plug-in version should come out at some point in the next couple of years, since Toyota has said that all Prius family members would be plug-in by 2014.

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Photo: Toyota

Pricing
According to Toyota, the Prius V will offer three configurations: "the value-driven Prius v Two, the mid-range Three, and the premium-level Five. The base MSRP for the Prius v are $26,400 for the Prius v Two model; $27,165 for the Prius v Three; and $29,990 for the Prius v Five. The Prius v will arrive at Toyota dealerships in late October."

See also: Toyota Unveils 2012 Prius Plug-in (87 MPGe, $32k)

Via Toyota, GCC

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

9 people you don’t want to end up next to on a plane

annoying airplane people 9 people you dont want to end up next to on a plane

It’s the middle of the summer. There’s a whole lot of traveling going on. You’ve either recently been on a plane, are currently on a plane, or will be on a plane in the near future. So, you’re more than familiar with the “seating lottery.” You know, those horrible few minutes when you’re sitting in your assigned seat praying you end up next to a Kate Upton look-alike who smells like a vanilla bean, when in reality, you’ll end up next to one of the following people on this list.

9 The Talker
Talker 135x95 9 people you dont want to end up next to on a plane

This one doesn’t look so bad. But from the minute they sit next you, they decide to tell you their entire life story. Which, no matter where you’re going, happens to last the entire flight and doesn’t contain a single bit of interesting information. Oh, thank you for that 90-minute anecdote about how you used to catch crawfish in the creek behind your house with your Pappy when you were a kid. I guess on the bright side, it beats having to sit through the in-flight showing of Arthur.

8 The Comatose
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This jerk also seems harmless when he first sits down. That is until he falls asleep within seconds and stays asleep throughout the duration of the flight. And now you’re trapped… in the window seat. Have to go to the bathroom? Too bad! Unless you feel like playing a game of leapfrog to get there. Hope you have some sort of fetish with complete strangers sleeping next to you with their mouths open and their heads resting on your shoulder. Otherwise, it’s going to be a miserable flight.

7 The Armrest Hog
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So you made it safely through the seating lottery. You have two people next to you who really don’t seem to be all that bad. For once, you’re going to have a pleasant flight. That’s when the Battle at Little Armrest begins. This person comes in all shapes and sizes, yet they all feel that their elbow is more deserving of armrest space than yours. Worst case scenario is ending up in a middle seat between two of these pricks and having to spend the flight feeling like you’re trapped in a flying coffin.

6 The Terrified Flyer
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Ready to relax? Too bad. You’ve got a seat next to the most nervous person on the plane. If the sweat dripping off her brow wasn’t a good enough indicator, the multiple pills she throws back as soon as she sits down should do the trick. She’s gripping the armrests with the kind of confidence that says, “This plane is going down for sure.” In fact, the only time she lets go is to cross herself right before takeoff. You better hope the in flight movie isn’t Castaway, otherwise you might have a nervous breakdown on your hands.

5 The Seat Kicker
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Alright, so technically this little bastard doesn’t sit next to you. But you’ll find yourself wishing he did since he has chosen the seat in front of him (yours) as a vertical trampoline. His mom is dead asleep, so you try to calm the kid down yourself, but a lack of discipline in his household has made him immune to these attempts. My suggestion? Close your eyes and just pretend you’re in one of those The Sharper Image shiatsu chairs. You know, if those things came with an ADHD setting.

4 The Short-Shorts/Open-Toed Shoe Guy
ShortShorts 135x95 9 people you dont want to end up next to on a plane

You can pretend to focus on that issue of Sky Mall all you want. The Hawaiian print shirt this guy is sporting will grab your attention from the moment he steps on the plane. If that doesn’t do the trick, the obnoxious flip-flopping of his sandals will. When he sits next to you, you’ll notice a pair of the filthiest feet on the planet connected to a pair of hairy legs that single-handedly serve as proof that we are related to primates. The worst part of all is that he has a pair of short shorts on that would make Richard Simmons squeamish. Hope you enjoy climbing over that to get to the bathroom.

3 The Ridiculously Fat Guy
FatGuy 135x95 9 people you dont want to end up next to on a plane

You see this guy coming all the way from the front of the plane. He can barely make his way down the aisle. He’s clipping elbows left and right with his belly and extra arm fat. You begin to rock back and forth in your seat praying he doesn’t cram into the seat directly next to you for the next five hours. But, alas… you get to spend the rest of the flight feeling like a toothpick at the bottom of a bag of marshmallows.

2 The Woman with the Crying Baby
CryingBaby 135x95 9 people you dont want to end up next to on a plane

She seems harmless enough. That baby is passed out comfortably on her shoulder. She sits down next to you and all is well. The minute the plane takes off, however, is when the little brat starts bawling its eyes out. The kid sounds like a goat being choked underwater. Good luck getting some shuteye. The crying continues until the minute the plane pulls into the terminal when the kid ultimately passes out again. You would’ve had a more peaceful flight sitting next to Rosemary’s baby.

1 The Sick F*ck
Sick 135x95 9 people you dont want to end up next to on a plane

This person is way too easy to spot. She’s the one that looks like she should be in an emergency room, not on an airplane. There’s more snot dripping down her nose then a kindergarten boy’s. Her eyes are puffy and resemble Steve Buscemi’s. This is the worst possible person to sit next to because you’re taking this experience off the plane with you. There is no way you’re going to spend an entire flight next to her and not catch whatever it is that she has. Better take a look around and see if there’s an open seat next to a fat guy in short-shorts who is passed out with his mouth open due to his overuse of Xanax, while his wife talks your ear off and hogs the armrest instead of controlling their kid who is kicking your seat from behind you. You’ll hate human beings afterwards, but at least you’ll have your health.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Fun With Subway Commuting: Riders Zip Down Playground Slide to Enter Dutch Metro Station

by

from http://www.treehugger.com/

overvecht metro station playground slide utrecht netherlands photo

Screenshot from NOS Nieuws video.

Let's face it: Even on the nicest, newest subway or bus system, commuting is typically a bit of a grind. One metro station in the Netherlands, though, has sought to liven up the experience -- by installing a slide that riders can zip down instead of taking the stairs. Sounds silly? It is. But it also looks awfully fun.

The slide -- officially called a "transfer accelerator" -- is part of an overall renovation of the aging Overvecht Station in Utrecht, and the brainchild of the local design firm HIK Ontwerpers. According to the U.K. commuter paper Metro:

The designers explained the slide is a gift to the rail commuters and hope it will create a playful urban area that could generate positive energy in a disadvantaged neighborhood.



Video: NOS Nieuws.

It's not the first whimsical addition HIK Ontwerpers has made to Overvecht Station: Previous projects included an installation of poetry written out in lights and a fully equipped outdoor kitchen with seating area that people were encouraged to use for picnics and other social gatherings.

Dutch blogger Simon de Wilde, who has posted an image gallery and a video of the slide, gives it a thumbs up: "The slide is in use for a few days now and so far I think it is a great success. It makes people smile."

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Bike Hanger: Vertically Rotating, Multi-Level Bike Parking By Manifesto Architecture

by Kimberley Mok
from: http://www.treehugger.com/

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Images: The vertically-hung, space-saving Bike Hanger by Manifesto Architecture

It's a scenario familiar in many cities: ugly, unwieldy and badly-designed bike racks, with the worst of it being that there's never enough bike parking to go around (meaning messy clumps of bikes in public spaces, for example). And with space in urban areas usually at a premium, it makes sense to stack things vertically. The intriguing Bike Hanger from New York-based Manifesto Architecture does the vertical trick, but takes things a step further by hanging off the side of buildings in those underused, residual spaces between them.

According to ArchDaily, Bike Hanger was designed and shortlisted for the 2010 Seoul Cycle Design Competition, which called for ideas to improve the city's bike-friendliness and infrastructure.

The idea is to keep pedestrian flow of traffic free from bike interference, and public spaces free of unsightly globs of locked bikes that look like cycling disasters. Each rack unit can hold anywhere from 20 to 36 bicycles, and the units themselves can be agglomerated, creating rows of neatly stacked public bike racks.

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The canopy and frame would use recycled plastic, stainless steel and carbon frame. The hanger's rotation mechanism would be powered by good old-fashioned elbow grease, by pedalling a stationary bike hooked up into the hanger system, thus keeping energy and maintenance costs low.

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On top of that, Bike Hangers could be designed as urban landmarks in their own right, creating another means of wayfinding for city dwellers.

One question that comes to mind is how a system like this could be protected from vandalism and theft -- after all, we've seen how public bike programs like Paris' Velib have been dealt a blow by irresponsible use. And what about long-term parking? But overall, the Bike Hanger's space-saving virtues, sensible structural format which allows for easy visual identification of each person's bike and its use of recycled materials makes it a pretty clever proposal for solving the bike parking dilemma.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Dutch Superbus Becomes A Reality [VIDEO]

by Michael Zak






About 4.5 years ago, Autoblog Green reported on a "Stretch Batmobile" concept being developed by the Dutch that was intended to one day be used for public transportation. Now, that concept has been realized.

The Superbus is completely electric, seats 23 people and rides in a dedicated lane to get its passengers where they need to go. Oh, and it goes 155 MPH. Designed by Dutchman Wubbo Ockels, a former astronaut and professor of aerospace sustainable engineering and technology, the realized Superbus was presented to a group of Dutch teenagers. Check it out in action in the video below.



Once again we have to ask: Where is our American version of this?



Click the image below to watch the video:


[Source: Radio Netherlands Worldwide]

Friday, November 12, 2010

VW Unveils its Electric Car: Test Driving the Golf Blue E-Motion

by Brian Merchant


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Photos: Brian Merchant

You probably haven't heard much about Volkswagen's forays into the electric car realm -- frankly, until recently, there hasn't been much to talk about. But that's finally changing, as the world's second largest carmaker just unveiled its Golf Blue E-motion electric car. Slated for a 2014 release, the e-motion will essentially be an electrified version of the popular Golf ("the most successful car Europe has ever seen"). VW invited TreeHugger out to its HQ in Wolfsburg, Germany to take an early model of the Golf E-motion for a spin:

Until earlier this year, Volkswagen's electric strategy was vague, always seeming far off on the horizon. But earlier this year, it announced that it planned to roll out a hybrid Jetta in 2012, an electric version of its Up in Europe in 2013, and the electric Golf in the US by 2014. By 2018, VW is aiming to have electric cars comprise 3-5% of its fleet.

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The electric Golf will appear generally similar to the standard model that crowds European roadways everywhere (According to my unofficial calculations, about 83% of all cars in Europe are Golfs). The car we drove, in fact, was built with a standard Golf body. Essentially, the aim is to create an electric Golf that looks and feels like the version that the (non-US) world knows and welcomes. And I throw in that caveat because the Golf isn't terribly popular in the United States; it's far less present in the states than cousin Jetta.

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As with just about all electric cars, the e-Golf is loaded with torque. It's full of pep, and quick off the line. It handled reasonably well, and was genuinely fun to drive, though it was prone to seize up a bit with too much acceleration. Braking is also a work in progress, as the current brakes displayed too much of that all-too-familiar stickiness that often plagues regenerative systems.

However, that stickiness comes with an upside in this case -- by shifting between D and D3 (and in between) the driver can choose how active the regenerative brakes are, and decide how much kinetic energy will be recovered. In D3, the brakes are extremely sensitive, but you'll send the maximum amount of energy back to the battery. It's a cool innovation (and a technology that's hopefully explored further in the future), and the most revolutionary feature of the electric Golf.

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Driving the electric Golf looked and felt something like this:

The Golf gets around 150 kilometers (93 miles) on a charge, and uses a battery consisting of 180 lithium ion cells (holding a charge of 26.5 kWh). As for the rest of the stats, they look something like this:

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An interface on the dash intuitively relays how much charge is left, and in the test drive model, all other features remained intact. A VW engineer explained how the instruments work, and outlined how to drive the electric Golf:

The no-frills experience of driving the e-Golf likely stemmed from the early version of the concept, yes, but also certainly from VW's approach to the electric car. Driving the Golf felt a lot like driving a comfortable, utilitarian sedan that you'd driven a million times before. VW isn't trying to create the most exciting, eyeball-grabbing EV on the market -- it's simply providing consumers with a solid, reliable option for its customers demanding electrification.

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Complaints aside, it was already a pleasure to drive the Golf, though it was certainly less polished than, say, the Volt, which provided a thoroughly smooth ride. Which makes sense -- the e-Golf has 3 or 4 years to go before its scheduled for production, and the VW engineer said they're still ironing out many of the kinks, the braking among them. But it's a very promising start, and come 2014, folks interested in electric cars can expect another highly practical (and likely reasonably priced) option to be on the market.

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Friday, November 5, 2010

5 Awesome Vehicles for the Extremely Wealthy (And Insane)

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In movies, video games and comic books, the rich supervillain always has a giant floating, flying or rolling lair armed with lasers, equipped with an insane amount of protection and cluttered with gadgets and escape pods. Ridiculous, right? After all, who would actually build expensive vehicles just to sell to the supervillain demographic?

Well, ask whoever built ...

#5.
The 550-Foot Laser Yacht

Russians are well-known for producing huge things, mainly drinks, bombs and Ivan Drago. But one Russian in particular is known for his huge-ass boats. His name is Roman Abramovich, and he owns "Eclipse," the largest private yacht in the world, which, oh by the way, is something a James Bond villain would consider "too over-the-top."


It's the building in the middle.

It's almost as long as two football fields (557 feet) and has a German-built missile defense system. It also has radar and armored windows and -- this our favorite part -- camera-destroying lasers.

The lasers are a new innovation in the field of high-end craziness. According to The Times, the system works by automatically detecting the electronic light sensor inside any nearby camera and firing a high-intensity beam of light at it, destroying its ability to take pictures.


This image exists only because he hasn't built any lasers into his own body ... yet.

OK, but what if somehow (possibly through decades of ninja training), camera-toting, missile-holding paparazzi pirates managed to get inside the yacht?

Well, in that case, Abramoavich can simply walk into the goddamned built-in mini-submarine he keeps just for these occasions. It'll drop 160 feet into the water, protecting him and his 29-year-old wife from any harm.


Whatever you're thinking, he's like "I know!"

Exactly what kind of disaster could you not survive in this thing? Alien invasion? Meteor? Nuclear war? This guy would be sitting on the deck of his floating palace, watching it and munching caviar. Forget about a zombie apocalypse -- he wouldn't even notice it until somebody told him.

True, it's probably not much use in a world where none of that really happens, but you can't have it all. Plus, the whole thing only cost him $1.2 billion (with a B).


Whoever said "money can't buy happiness" is a fucking liar.

#4.
Luxury Tanks

Lots of companies pimp out SUVs and turn them into armored cars ... but if your needs are less "stay protected" and more "destroy the Autobots" (and you're willing to spend over $150,000 on a vehicle), there are other options available for you.

For example, the custom-built Armor Horse Vault XXL is literally an armored limousine. While the inside does look like a limo (complete with leather seats, LCD screens and a bar) ...


This is only the lobby.

... its exterior is closer to a tank:

The Armor Horse is capable of comfortably seating 25 people ... and if they ever get bored, they can simply pull out the emergency gun ports and start shooting pedestrians. This is a real thing, by the way. The Armor Horse isn't just defensive (it's covered in bulletproof panels); it's also an offensive weapon that can be used to wreak havoc and destruction across its path. It comes with two escape hatches that double as skylights, in case you want to mount a death ray on top of it or something.

So it can stop bullets, but we know what you're thinking: What if my enemies are equipped with rocket launchers? A sensible question, and one we ask ourselves every morning. Fortunately, there are other vehicles on the market to cater to our needs:

Even the name of that beast inspires fear: The Dartz Kombat T98 SUV has steel-plated doors and three-inch-thick windows, making it essentially indestructible. At $200,000, it's very practical for all those millionaires who like spending time in war zones.


This is what happens when a tank and a Hummer make love under the moonlight.

#3.
The Speedboat Batman Wishes He Had

Sure, if you want to host parties while you're conquering the world, the floating luxury yacht back at #5 is probably your best bet. But maybe you want the yacht equivalent of a sports car instead -- something that can go speeding off into the horizon when a secret agent comes after you on his Jet Ski.

That's where the MY Ady Gil comes in. This is, in scientific terms, the awesomest fucking speedboat ever made. Seriously, look at it:


That is not a model. It exists.

Wikipedia tells us that it is fully submersible; it can travel up to 57 mph using two 540-horsepower engines, plus it has a large enough fuel tank to cover three-and-a-half thousand miles in a single go. And it can do all that with eight guys sleeping on the bunk beds inside.

Fortunately, the craft hasn't fallen into the hands of the Lex Luthors of the world. Its last owners were part of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, also known as the Whale Wars people -- the guys who go around fighting Japanese whalers. Yes, this was used by actual, real-life vigilantes.

And yes, they built speakers into the boat, which they used to blast music at the whalers. We're talking in past tense because, unfortunately, the boat sank in January 2010 after being rammed by a Japanese whaling boat. You can take solace in the fact that it died a hero's death. Or at least it died while annoying whalers while filming a reality show.


Never forget.

It will be back: A donor has already offered $1 million for the construction of the Ady Gil 2, so they need only $1.5 million more to afford a new one.



#2.
The Bullet 580 Airship

Ah, the zeppelin. The vehicle of the supervillain. We've seen at least one Bond villain tooling around in one...


Christopher Walken, no less.

... as well as the villain in Pixar's Up ...

... and The Rocketeer. Damn, how did zeppelins get such a bad reputation?


Ah, right.

This brings us to the Bullet 580. It's a 23-story-high airship and, while you might think that in real life it'd be hard to get much supervillaining done in a vehicle that can be brought down by a bird with a particularly sharp beak, that's just because you don't know the details.

The Bullet 580 is made of a new type of Kevlar, which is 10 times stronger than steel when it comes to impact resistance. You can shoot a cannonball at the thing and it wouldn't leave a dent. But that's just the beginning.

The designer of the airship states that, "The craft can fulfill ... battlefield surveillance, missile defense warning, electronic countermeasures, weapons platforms," plus it can carry up to 2,000 pounds of equipment (or 12 armed henchmen). More than enough time to scare the shit out of your enemies and possibly conquer a small country.


Or one of the weaker states.

Also, it's shaped like an actual bullet.

So what we have here, basically, is a giant bullet speeding through the air at 80 mph, covered in an oversized bulletproof vest -- the perfect headquarters for a bullet-themed Batman villain.


"Behold my new invention! A bullet-shooting lasergun!"

The makers claim it's made for tasks like homeland security and disaster relief -- but they're also renting them out to anybody with enough cash who likes to spend that cash on crazy things (it's $300,000 a month, but we'd like to see them try to catch you to collect the second month).

#1.
Full-Sized Luxury Submarines

Imagine you could live in the middle of the sea. No, we're not talking about a floating house -- that would be silly. We're talking about a giant underwater mansion that is capable of crossing the Atlantic, the Phoenix 1000.

This is actually a submarine, but it's considerably bigger than most of its kind: 213 feet long, with a total interior living area of 5,000 square feet. That's like twice the size of the average American house.


Plus they have twice as many books.

The Phoenix has four decks, including ample saloons and observation spots, but what takes it into paranoid supervillain territory is its freakish endurance. It can sink 2,000 feet below the water and has an oxygen supply to last for up to 40 days. You can literally survive another Great Flood in this thing.

And if you get bored being inside all day or you need to go dump some bodies where no one could ever possibly find them, you can go for a ride in the smaller submarine that's attached to this thing. And by smaller submarine we mean a regular freakin' submarine.

The only downside to the Phoenix 1000 is that if the builders (U.S. Submarines) have built one, they aren't letting anyone take pictures of it. Whether it's because the only buyers so far are the types who value their privacy (say, flamboyant arms dealers with an eye on world domination via flooding the world's major cities) or because nobody has forked over the $78 million price tag is anybody's guess. All we know is that if we bought one of these things, you can bet we'd freakin' let you know about it.


The best parties happen in international waters.



Read more: http://www.cracked.com/article_18818_5-awesome-vehicles-extremely-wealthy-and-insane_p2.html#ixzz14QJDpEi2