Air Travel’s Hassles Drive Riders to Amtrak’s Acela. A decade ago, Delta and US Airways shuttles were the preferred mode of travel between the cities. But high fares, slow and frequent flight delays — along with Amtrak’s high-speed Acela trains, online ticketing and workstation amenities — have eaten away at the airlines’ share of passengers. Between New York and Washington, Amtrak said, 75 percent of travelers go by train, a huge share that has been building steadily since the Acela was introduced in 2000 and airport security was tightened after 2001.
Before that, Amtrak had just over a third of the business between New York and Washington. In the same period, Amtrak said, its market share between New York and Boston grew to 54 percent from 20 percent. Nationally, Amtrak ridership is at a record 30 million people; the Northeast accounts for more than a third of that and is virtually the only portion of Amtrak’s system that makes money. But success is taking a toll. Most days, trains in the Northeast are full. “It’s easier. ORDER. Kenguru, the first drive-from-wheelchair EV, enters production. The Kenguru drive-from-wheelchair electric car Image Gallery (14 images) Though its undoubtedly true to say that mobility vehicles designed for wheelchair access exist, like AM General's MV-1 these generally relegate the wheelchair user to backseat passenger. Vehicles that do allow a wheelchair behind the controls are expensive made-to-order conversions of people carriers and mini-buses.
The Kenguru is about as far from a people carrier as it's possible to get, being a small nimble electric vehicle, but one designed specifically for quick, easy access by, and driving from, a wheelchair. View all The Kenguru has only a single door to the rear of the vehicle for direct wheelchair access. Power from the batteries is delivered to two 2-kW motors located on the rear axle. Initially developed by Hungarian company Kenguru Services, the Kenguru has design is at least six years old. Source: Kenguru About the Author Post a CommentRelated Articles For multiple addresses, separate each with a comma.
First manned flight of FanWing aircraft planned for next year. The FanWing company has announced that it plans to debut a piloted version of its rotary fan-powered aircraft next year Image Gallery (11 images) With a traditional airplane, a propellor or jet engine pulls it forward, and lift is created as air subsequently flows over the wings. FanWing aircraft are a little different. They have a powered horizontal rotary fan along the leading edge of their single wing, which serves to pull air over it, creating lift without the need for speed. View all First of all, why would anyone want to build an airplane this way? According to the company, due to the fact that little in the way of speed is required to achieve lift, FanWings can take off and land on very short runways.
The piloted aircraft is planned to have a rotor measuring 32 feet (10 meters) long by 30 inches (75 cm) wide, with a total body span (including its twin tails) of 46 feet (14 meters). Source: FanWing via Dvice About the Author Post a CommentRelated Articles. Nanotech versus the pirates: Zyvex Marine unveils the LRV-17. Zyvex Marine's latest nanotech-enabled lightweight boat, the LRV-17 Image Gallery (5 images) The purveyors of fine nanotech-enabled lightweight boats at Zyvex Technologies have been in touch to tell Gizmag about their latest creation, the LRV-17, developed to combat piracy off the coast of Africa. At 17.35 m (57 ft), the LRV-17 is a slightly bigger boat than Zyvex's unmanned Piranha USV, but unlike its piscine predecessor the LRV-17 can support of a crew of six for up to five days.
Thanks to its weight, Zyvex claims its 1500 nautical mile (2778 km) range can outdistance other boats of its size by a factor of three - hence LRV, which stands for long-range vessel. View all Like the Piranha, the LRV-17 is made from "carbon fiber nanocomposites," Arovex and Epovex, which are crucial in keeping the boat's weight down to 17,900 pounds (8100 kg). Source: Zyvex Marine About the Author Post a CommentRelated Articles Just enter your friends and your email address into the form below. Gocycle. Ultra-efficient 4,000 mph vacuum-tube trains – why aren't they being built? In the 1800s, when pneumatic tubes shot telegrams and small items all around buildings and sometimes small cities, the future of mass transit seemed clear: we'd be firing people around through these sealed tubes at high speeds. And it turns out we've got the technology to do that today – mag-lev rail lines remove all rolling friction from the energy equation for a train, and accelerating them through a vacuum tunnel can eliminate wind resistance to the point where it's theoretically possible to reach blistering speeds over 4,000 mph (6,437 km/h) using a fraction of the energy an airliner uses – and recapturing a lot of that energy upon deceleration.
Ultra-fast, high efficiency ground transport is technologically within reach – so why isn't anybody building it? The next frontier of speed Vacuum tube-based transport has a lot of things going for it. Speed, for one. The vacuum-tube revolutionaries The case for the negative. Drayson sets EV record at Goodwood. The Lola-Drayson B12/69EV has set a speed record for electric cars, at the Goodwood Festival of Speed (Photo: Noel McKeegan/Gizmag) Image Gallery (3 images) This past January, the Lola-Drayson B12/69EV was unveiled to the public. Created by Drayson Racing Technologies and the Lola Cars group, it promised to be the fastest electric-powered racing car in the world. Well, it looks like it’s on its way to fulfilling that promise, as it set a speed record this week at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Powered by its 850-horsepower electric drivetrain, the LeMans racer competed against conventional race cars last Sunday, in a series of timed runs of Goodwood’s hillclimb course. Sunday also marked the first time that the car has raced in a public venue. “The car was just stellar today,” said Lord Drayson, Managing Partner at Drayson Racing Technologies. The Goodwood Festival of Speed is an annual high-performance motoring event that takes place at the Goodwood Estate, in West Sussex, England. California Proves Big Things Are Still Possible. Hyundai prepares for the apocalypse with Zombie Survival Machine. Survive the apocalypse with Hyundai Hyundai is getting in on the incessant zombie trend with an actual concept car designed to mow down the fearsome hordes of undead brain suckers. It's called the Zombie Survival Machine, and it looks exactly like what it sounds like. Hyundai has partnered with Robert Kirkman, creator of the famed comic book and graphic novel The Walking Dead, in building the concept for Comic-Con.
"I don't know a lot about cars, but I do know a lot about the zombie apocalypse and what I would like to have to survive," Kirkman explains in the video below. "I think that I'll be able to come up with something that looks cool, but may not be very practical or effective, because I'm not good with physics and things like that. " Helping keep the car as practical and effective as a zombie-survival mobile can ever be are Hyundai and Design Craft Fabrication. Below you can see the first in a four-part series on the Zombie Survival Machine's development.
Source: Hyundai. Czech engineers set to build six-prop Flying Bike. From the Jetsons to Back To The Future, hopping onto or into a personal flying vehicle has been on the engineering "To Do" list for a good many years. We've seen a number of noteworthy attempts at defying gravity and taking to the skies here at Gizmag (many of which are featured in this roundup from 2010) and now another possible addition to that growing collection has landed on our desk. Known simply as the Flying Bike (or FBike), this collaborative effort from a bunch of Czech companies and enthusiasts is still very much in the early stages of development, but the proposal is to fit a number of electrically-driven propellers to the custom frame of a two-wheeler that will allow the pilot to rise above the traffic for as long as the batteries hold out.
View all The FBike project began in the autumn of 2011 with a proposal to create an e-bike, but enthusiasts from Czech companies Technodat, Evektor and Duratec set their sights on loftier designs instead. Source: FBike. New SplinterBike Quantum all-wooden bike launched in time for London 2012 Festival. Around about this time last year, we featured an all-wooden bike named SplinterBike that went on to be viewed by over 320,000 visitors to the Power of Making exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. A second version was used to set a new speed record for 100 percent wooden bikes in August 2011 and now the creator of both, Michael Thompson, has built a special SplinterBike Quantum (SBQ) edition for the 2012 London Olympics. A few design changes have been made to allow a variety of visitors to the Adain Avion event at the London 2012 Festival to mount up and ride an all-wooden bike for themselves, including adjustable seat height and a different gearing setup.
View all Launched earlier today, the SBQ is said to have been created in response to the staggering amount of public interest shown in the previous two models, and at the request of Adain Avion London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. The SBQ is made up of 88 individual components which took 40 hours on a CNC machine to produce. FlyNano achieves first test flight - Images. The FlyNano prototype, at Finland's Lake Hepari Image Gallery (2 images) Last April, we told you about the FlyNano – a single-occupant petrol/electric microlight amphibious aircraft being developed by a Finnish aeronautical firm of the same name. At the time, some readers expressed skepticism, rightly pointing out that there was no video of the plane actually flying. That changed this week, however, as the company posted a video of one of the prototype’s first test flights. The flight in the video reportedly took place this Monday at 8:09pm, at Finland’s Lake Hepari.
When we last reported on the aircraft, deliveries were expected to start around July of last year. Additionally, FlyNano has stated that thanks to advances in batteries and electric motors, the carbon fiber-bodied aircraft will now be primarily electric – originally, both combustion and electric models were planned. The video can be viewed below. Source: FlyNano via CAFE Foundation About the Author Post a CommentRelated Articles. BMW unveils i Pedelec bicycle concept. BMW has further strengthened its commitment to an electric mobility future by announcing the opening of its first i Store on July 25.
To celebrate the event, the German auto giant has developed a new folding pedal-electric bike called the i Pedelec. Like the Voltitude, the new bike can be rolled along when folded to make getting on and off trains or buses, or in and out of elevators, a little less troublesome, and benefits from a geared electric hub motor, high performance batteries and disc braking at the front and rear. BMW also says that two folded i Pedelec bikes can be comfortably squeezed into the trunk space of its forthcoming i3 EV, and that their batteries can be charged while in there. View all Situated next door to its BMW and MINI Stores on Park Lane in London, UK the new i Store showroom is described as a dedicated customer-oriented access point for its future range of electric vehicles and associated support solutions.
Source: BMW via BMW Blog. The Siberian Tiger: A camper that snarls on the outside and purrs on the inside. The felidae family is perhaps the most multi-personalitied family in the entire animal kingdom. It spans everything from huge, predatory beasts that would sooner tear you apart limb by limb, sinew by sinew than look at you, to tiny, amicable (although somewhat aloof and self-serving) pets that wander gracefully around home and yard. We think that might be why Tiger Adventure Vehicles chose its name. As its latest vehicle the Siberian Tiger shows, Tiger's line of campers has two distinct, equally strong personalities: hardened and fearsome on the outside but gentle and welcoming on the inside. View all The Siberian tiger is the largest cat in the world, so Tiger Adventures chose to use the name for its largest, most expensive Tiger camper model. Like its namesake, the camper is deceivingly beautiful and graceful from certain angles, but it won't hesitate to lunge and claw when necessary.
Source: Tiger Adventure Vehicles. Greased Lightning: The 3.4 kW Gnarboard Trail Rider electric skateboard. The recent availability of high capability electric motors is currently in the process of revolutionizing every aspect of personal transport, but something we weren't expecting was the resurgence of the electric skateboard.
View all In a short time, electric skateboards have gone from being docile and anemic to having enough power to do burn-outs and wheelies. In April we looked at all the available 1-, 2-, 3- and 4-wheel transportation appliances on the market, but envisaged nothing quite like the newly announced US$6100 Gnarboard 4WD Trail Rider. While the 39 kg (86 pounds) Trail Rider doesn't really fit the weight criteria for a transportation appliance, if used in conjunction with a larger vehicle it would certainly fit the bill for last mile transport. With 3.4 kW at its disposal, it makes short work of its 39 kg weight, it is certainly capable of performing very rapid urban transit for a range of 25 kilometers (16 miles).
The Trail Rider's forte is brutal acceleration. One-of-a-kind pedal-powered "super sea kayak" can be yours for $84,000. Canadian adventurer Greg Kolodziejzyk is certainly no slouch ... among other things, he has set the 24-hour endurance records for riding human-powered vehicles on both land and water. In 2010, he announced his plan to pedal an offshore-capable custom-built boat from British Columbia to Hawaii. After a series of open-water trials, however, he decided against the 3,000-mile (4,828-km) endeavor. The boat, called WiTHiN, is nonetheless quite the feat of engineering – and it’s now up for sale, should you have the cash. View all WiTHiN looks rather like a large enclosed sea kayak, and is propelled by a leg-powered drive unit. That unit consists of a set of pedals located inside the cockpit, that spin an external two-bladed propeller via a shaft drive.
At 80 rpm, Kolodziejzyk has taken it up to a speed of 3.7 knots. Steering is maintained by a hand lever beside the recumbent pilot’s seat. Greg Kolodziejzyk, within WiTHiN WiTHiN can be seen in action in the video below. Source: Adventures of Greg. Autonomous road train project completes first public road test. The automobile has been with us for well over a century and while road laws, traffic management and automotive technology in general have constantly evolved during that time, the act of driving remains essentially the same - it's all up to the person behind the wheel. That's what makes the SARTRE (Safe Road Trains for the Environment) project so significant - it represents the beginning of a new era where the organized chaos of individual drivers can be blunted by an autonomous "follow-the-leader" approach that has clear benefits for road safety, congestion and vehicle fuel consumption ... not to mention being a bonus for those of us who would rather read the paper than concentrate in the road ahead.
As demonstrated by a platoon of Volvos driving automatically along a public motorway outside Barcelona recently, this reality may be closer than you think. "We covered 200 kilometres in one day and tried out gaps [between vehicles] from five to 15 meters. Source: Volvo, SARTRE. CSR project aims to create a high-speed, carbon-neutral steam-powered locomotive. Renault reinterprets the Alpine A110 to commemorate its 50th Birthday. MINI updates its John Cooper Works options. Orphiro electric motorcycle set for September launch.
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VW E-Bugster Cabriolet a glimpse of the future. Audi buys Ducati ... time to celebrate. Brammo Empulse R specs released. Smart ebike with 4-level electric boost and regenerative braking. Hornet velomobile comes with power boost included. Fisker Seeks Federal Loans to Build a Car in Delaware. Ducati Panigale 1199: Naked for your viewing pleasure.
Video: Specialized Turbo, The 'world's Fastest' Electric Bike. World's largest paper airplane flies over desert. Specialized Turbo claims title of world's fastest e-bike. New York to Beijing in two hours without leaving the ground? Home - EH Line Elektro in Höchstform. Man Successfully Flies With Custom-Built Bird Wings. Citroen's 1955 DS set for reprise with DS6. Velocity e-bike features weight-reducing removable power system. Futuristic biplane design eliminates sonic boom. Record-breaking supersonic UAV jet in the works. Hong Kong Airlines: A new player on the London-Hong Kong route. The world's fastest ever (open top) roadster - 1200 bhp and 255 mph. Peugeot's elegant DL122 - the bicycle with a laptop compartment.
Carrier Operations 1953-54. F9F Panther. The Morgan Plus E electric sports car - classic on the outside, absolute high tech on the inside. Aerostats in 1912: A Look in Scientific American 's Archives [Slide Show] Raise It or Raze It?: How Will the Stranded Italian Cruise Ship Be Salvaged? Seattle E-Bike - affordable, electric assist bicycles. Solowheel: self-balancing last mile transport for the upstanding commuter. Pictures of Vauxhall/Opel RAD e pedelec emerge. ASV hulls would dramatically improve ship efficiency by riding on a cushion of air.
One-of-a-kind inflatable snowboard from Signal Snowboards. Infiniti's Emerg-e range-extended electric sports car breaks cover. The Emcycle: a 3-wheel, tilting, fully-enclosed 500 W pedelec weighing just 80 lb (36 kg) Products: Segway i2 Commuter. Mia's plug-in electric delivery van puts driver front and center. Defender bike light resists theft and water, looks dangerous. France's bold drink driving legislation - every car to carry a breathalyzer. Channel Islands Surfboards by Al Merrick. "Board of Awesomeness" evolves into mind-controlled "Board of Imagination" Citroen's DS4 Racing Concept. The ZBoard hands-free motorized skateboard. Lyonheart K - a modern take on the Jaguar E-Type. E+ Electric Beach Cruiser 750 Watt : E+ Electric Bikes, Pedal for Exercise, Motor for Fun. F8F Bearcat Aerobatics The Horsemen. Grumman F8F Bearcat Flight Demonstration - MONSTER Pratt & Whitney Radial Engine Sound !
Mini goes commercial (again) with the Clubvan. Rinspeed Dock+Go provides bolt-on solutions for small electric cars. Peugeot 208 GTi - the return of the supermini. Magnic Light claims new form of no-contact bicycle dynamo lighting. How hard can it be to pass a Chinese driver's test? Very. Charlize Theron Hired To Ride Struggling Cleveland Light Rail System Monday Through Friday. BOXX electric scooter looks sort of like a rideable suitcase. New bike-scooter design inspired by consultation with Bordeaux citizens. ABICI•• New research indicates motorcycle commuting reduces traffic congestion and emissions. Gibbs unveils two new "Amphitrucks"
Ghost Rider Vs. Bugatti Veyron on Motorway @ 400 Km/h !!! HIDDEN TAPE !!! Ghost Rider BusaTurbo. World's most famous traffic outlaw giving away his 499-horsepower turbo motorcycle. Dramatic "Safety Sphere" concept provides all-round protection for motorcyclists. How to Break a Masterlock U-Lock bicycle lock. Novara bikes for road, mountain and commuting, plus cycling clothing, gear and expert advice at REI.
Stolen Bikes – How to Catch a Bike Thief | Biking.