One thing about electric cars, their silence is golden. Motorists often clamored for old gas-powered vehicles to be silenced but it didn’t seem to work. With their engines, it may be hard back then. But with electric vehicles all that may change now.

Now while that issue may have been resolved. Do remember that not all people may necessarily be giving a thumbs up to this. As far as commuters are concerned, the blind rely on their hearing to cross the street. And with a quiet vehicle, mishaps may happen so what could be a resolution?

It seems that Nissan and Toyota has come up with a solution and it is not irritating to the ear. Rather, it is an artificial sound that blind people can hear whenever an electric vehicle is approaching. To some motorists it may be silly but I guess it won’t be if you talk about safety. No one in his right mind would want to be accountable for accidents, especially if blind people are concerned.

(Source) The Korea Herald

Tags: Accidents, commuters, electric cars, electric vehicle, electric vehicles, motorists, Nissan, silence, Toyota

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A lot of things have been said about the Chevy Volt. Among them include the high price but if there is one highlight that deserves notice, it would be the feature which includes its new electrical propulsion system.

Set to be released in 2011, GM is hot on the tails of quality control for the highly awaited Chevy Volt. The expected retail price is said to be around $39,000, quite pricey for this car that aims to provide renewable energy using advanced batteries. These Hybrid batteries are even more advanced in most electric cars we know today.

GM Volt was designed to move more than 75 percent of America’s daily commuters without a single drop of gas. This is an amazing revelation that a future electric automobile could meet most daily travel needs without foreign oil dependency. GM says that the United States is currently using 96 percent of dependent petroleum for cars and trucks and more than half of it is imported.

Chevy Volt will probably be the electric car which starts a new revolution, and the major players are General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and soon others will follow. The thought that someone could drive 15 miles to work, then 5 miles to the grocery store, then 5 miles to the post office, then 15 miles back to home on one single battery charge is remarkable.

(Source) News OXY

Tags: battery charge, chevy volt, commuters, electric automobile, electric car, electric cars, electrical propulsion, ford toyota, General Motors, gm volt, grocery store, new revolution, oil dependency, post office, propulsion system, quality control, remarkable source, Renewable energy, travel needs

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Riding to work alone would normally be better for people to turn to commuting rather than bringing their vehicle all by their lonesome. Some people use public transportation although carpooling has long been known to be a good way to get to work on a daily basis.

RideShare for its part has announced a RideShare Rewards program. The RideShare Rewards program is an incentive program for drive-alone commuters to try carpooling. Rideshare Rewards pays new carpoolers up to $100 in gas gift cards.

$100 is a lot and you can imagine how far that could go as far as vehicle fuel is concerned. New carpoolers register at 511.org by clicking on the “Rideshare” link. Throughout a 90-day period, participants submit online commute logs to earn up to $100 in Rideshare Rewards. Now that doesn’t seem so hard and looks like it will be a big boost for people wary of a down economy and rising prices.

(Source) PR Web

Tags: 511, carpoolers, carpooling, commuters, daily basis, gift cards, incentive program, participants, reward program, rewards program, rideshare, vehicle fuel

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In a move to perhaps help address the growing number of public commuters, Bangalore, BMTC has reportedly made a purchase order for 260 Volvo Buses in India. Bangalore, BMTC, already operates more than 300 Volvo buses in Bangalore and these buses have radically changed the view of what it is like to travel with city buses in India. For example, the buses are air-conditioned and feature low floors for fast and easy boarding and exiting.

“Surveys show that 60% of the passengers in these buses previously traveled in their own car or by motorcycle,” related Akash Passey, Managing Director of Volvo Buses in India. “For many Indian cities, the goal is to have more people use mass transit and, consequently, this requires new, modern buses.”

Volvo Buses has also received orders for 120 Volvo 9400 inter-city coaches to the State of Karnataka, in which Bangalore in the capital and to the State of Maharasthra, in which Mumbai is the capital. The orders are from customers already operating Volvo coaches and who have favorable experiences of them.

(Source) Press

Tags: buses volvo, city buses, commuters, india bangalore, indian cities, inter city coaches, maharasthra, mass transit, Motorcycle, own car, state of karnataka, volvo buses

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For motorists in Louisville, this new traffic service is bound to be a great addition to help motorists in avoiding traffic jams and find better routes when they are on the road. A free mobile traffic video service is now available to the Louisville-area commuters, helping them plan the most efficient route to their office, home or leisure destinations.

The 11 Mobile Traffic Tracker, provided by WHAS11 in partnership with 3rd Dimension, Inc., New York City, provides drivers with access to live video streams from 62 strategically located TRIMARC traffic cameras on the region’s three main highway corridors — I-71, I-64 and I-65 — as well as the Watterson Expressway. The service will assist the more than 1.2 million residents of Jefferson County (including Metro Louisville) and the surrounding eight counties.

“Traffic information today helps motorists to make intelligent decisions and keeps our expressway system running at peak efficiency,” said Tim Emington, TRIMARC operations manager. “TRIMARC welcomes the opportunity to cooperate with companies such as 3rd Dimension. This service will be an excellent addition to the ways we share traffic information with the motoring public.”

(Source) Press

Tags: commuters, expressway system, highway corridors, motoring public, public source, traffic cameras, traffic information, traffic service, video service, video streams, watterson expressway, whas11

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The future of transportation is electric but so is making modern taxi cabs independent. We have seen this in futuristic movies and while we feel that they are pointless, it looks like the United Arab Emirates will be the first to put fantasy into reality.

When the system’s fully built, planners say the podcars will be able to deliver riders within 100 meters of any location in the city. The whole network of tracks for the cars will be two stories beneath street level.

These new electric podcars seem to be the new breed of transportation solutions. Featuring compact, driver-less podcars, a network of these compact electric taxis will provide clean and quiet transportation to the city’s residents, as well as commuters. The first PRT cars are set to begin running later this year.

(Source) Treehugger

Tags: commuters, compact driver, new breed, prt cars, taxi cab, taxis, united arab emirates

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Double Decker buses are known to be a thing of the past. However, it looks like they will be making a return but with an eco-friendly twist. The Royal Red Routemaster which was replaced with bendy buses in 2005 to accommodate more commuters, may be seen once again come 2011.

With a new mayor in office, plans of unveiling a new bus design that will bring back the hop-on, hop-off model are in the works. The only difference this time around is that they will be powered by solar panels built into a glass roof and an energy efficient engine and interior-heating system.

Costing is the only issue being addressed at the moment. And if all goes well, we may see the return of these symbolic hop-on, hop off buses which are bound to make commuting easier.

(Source) Newsweek

Tags: bendy buses, bus design, commuters, double decker buses, hop on hop off buses, routemaster, solar panels

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The vast array of miniature vehicles which we can all trace towards enhanced motorcycles converted towards practical motoring solutions has been around and Auto Moto seems to be following the same concept using 3-wheel dynamics. At a glance, it looks like the standards tricycles or trishaws that conventional commuters use. However, take a little closer and you will find that the Auto Moto concept walks along the boundaries of an actual car and motorcycles today.

While we may be looking at economical means of transportation, the Auto Moto is a fabricated work of putting together logical modes of transportation via compact vehicles. Obviously being sacrificed would be the space accommodations of the conventional vehicles but car concepts made for two seems to be the practical trend for motoring today.

The Auto Moto is expected to be introduced in the market by April 2009. This vehicle is expected to draw much attention, especially consumers looking at alternative modes of transportation expected to save them on fuel cost and conventional mobility.

Via Cnet Asia

Tags: alternative modes of transportation, auto moto, car concepts, commuters, conventional vehicles, fuel cost, miniature vehicles, motorcycles, tricycles, trishaws

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