Posts Tagged ‘cars’

The Morning Dig: The Trials of Getting a Driver’s License

Monday, August 9th, 2010

4151207_a45e633560• Writer Frank Bruni has a great essay about his attempt at obtaining a driver’s license in his 40s, after his earlier one expired in 2006. (NYT)

• Photographer Lucas Jackson took a cool series of photos showing couples embracing in the New York City subway; a slideshow is at this link. (Reuters)

• London is worrying about security for its hosting of the 2012 Olympics. (AP)

• Russian teenagers run their own cute little train service in their country. (AFP-TV)

• An article reviews a new book about the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. (NYT)

• The prices of NYC taxi medallions are increasing in value enough to rival the stock market. (Bloomberg)

• Several political candidates have made an issue out of traffic cameras that snap photos of cars and lead to tickets for the drivers. (NYT)

Image: Flickr

The Morning Dig: Total Recall (Sorry Toyota) and Detroit Renewal

Monday, February 8th, 2010

• Check out the new PBS special, “Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City” tonight at 8 pm ET, for a fascinating discussion of how to save Detroit by reviving its now almost-nonexistent public transportation system.

• Behold the Power of LaHood! The Transpo Secretary caused a firestorm when he issued a statement suggesting that consumers stop driving Toyota vehicles until they had been repaired altogether — a remark that also caused Toyota’s stock to plunge 5%. (Oz)

• La Hood has also come out against the increasing numbers of gadgets and gizmos that are popping up on new car dashboards. (Wired)

• Alas, football season is over. But transportation plans are already underway for the 2011 Super Bowl, according to the North Texas Super Bowl Host Committee. And yes, commuter rail will play a heavy part. (DallasNews)

• So Las Vegas (And Nevada in general) missed out bigtime on high speed rail. What should they do now? (LVSun)

• And do densely urban cities necessarily equal more sustainable cities? Let’s hope so, for high-speed rail’s sake. (CUNYSustainable)

The Daily Dig: It’s a Honda Dealership! It’s a Yoga Studio! Edition

Monday, December 28th, 2009

couples-yoga• What to do with all those big gleaming spaces that once housed (now-closed) car dealerships? Many are being repurposed as restaurants, schools, day care centers, and even yoga studios. (AP)

• Meanwhile, are the complexities of modern car models stumping independent mechanics, and even pushing them to the point of obsolescence? (AP)

• Over in Russia, many analysts believe that the recession has ended (yeah, they say the same thing over here). What’s up for the country in 2010? Infrastructure spending, on areas like electricity and transportation (which the Russians apparently call an “embarrassment industry” — we’ll refrain from judgment). (Moscow Times)

• The California water crisis is about to go from “minor crisis” to “major crisis,” with recent droughts leaving water levels at half of what they need to be to sustain the state’s usage. (60 Minutes)

• U.S. News & World Reports lists “Civil Engineer” as one of the 50 best careers of 2010, with the following plug: “With a vast array of jobs, your duties might entail traffic concerns on residential streets, wetlands management, or huge construction projects like skyscrapers or stadiums. Jobs tend to be stable, since infrastructure isn’t optional…” We heartily agree.  (USN)

• And finally, for Maryland residents, here are your top 10 transportation stories of the decade. (Baltimore Sun)

The Daily Dig: Big Fat Sewage Dump Edition

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

314036511_d488dbcec4More than a third of U.S. sewer systems are beyond their capacity and are dumping waste into rivers and lakes — but only a fraction of these violations draw fines from regulators. Meanwhile, as many as 20 million people get sick each year from unsafe drinking water. (NYTimes)

  • Green businesses are migrating to the Rust Belt, where the remnants of what used to be automotive and industrial manufacturing can be re-purposed to build components for solar products, hybrid cars, and wind farms. (LATimes)
  • By 2016, 25% of new cars will have an automotive data system, like OnStar or Ford’s SYNC. Eventually, you’ll be able to control heating and AC from your phone, and your car will book itself for repairs. (Economist)
  • Here’s a rundown of New York’s 20 biggest residential real estate deals of the last decade. Not all of them fetched what their owners might have wanted, but when you’re talking about $40 million and $50 million properties, who’s counting? (Curbed)
  • Airplanes, believe it or not, do not fly themselves. This is a huge misconception constantly perpetuated by media outlets and even, sometimes, by aviation experts and pilots. “Baby-sitting a flying computer” is how one reader put it, to the great dismay of the writer. (Ask the Pilot)

Pic via Flickr/Stuck in Customs