Transport – Aug 27

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In India, One Cheap Car Could Go a Long Way
Emily Wax, Washington Post
… An Indian automaker is set to roll out the world’s cheapest car early next year in what is being called a revolution by those in the industry and a nightmare by environmentalists and urban planners worried about India’s already harrowing traffic and overly congested roads, not to mention lack of parking.

The manufacturer, Tata Motors, has provided few details about its new, four-door vehicle other than its sticker price: about $2,500 — 100,000 rupees, also called 1 lakh, in Indian currency. Dubbed the “1-lakh car,” it will cost half as much as the lowest-priced cars on India’s roads today.

“Owning a car will become like owning a TV or air conditioner. It’s not a dream. But it is a necessity,” said Azad Pathan, who owns the largest Tata dealership in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala, a state in southern India. “This will be huge. There’s been a boom. Now, many Indians are on huge credit sprees. But the real question is: Are the roads ready?”

The cheapest car in the world is being released during a time of good fortune for many Indians. While two-thirds of the country’s population still struggles on $1 a day, millions of people here have emerged from grinding poverty into the lower middle class. The Asian subcontinent’s largely service-based economy has been growing 8 to 9 percent a year, and World Bank studies estimate that India’s middle class will expand from 50 million people today to more than 500 million by 2025.

… How those extra cars would affect the roads here is an open question. Traffic in India is already a mind-boggling, exhausting experience. In Mumbai, the country’s financial capital, a 40-mile drive can easily take longer than three hours. The roads often seem like a circular parking lot, where savvy vendors take advantage of the captive audience, hawking cold drinks, magazines and books to ease the pain.
(25 August 2007)

Get On A Bike
Sharon Astyk, Casaubon’s Book
Will you all forgive me for the indelicacy of pointing out that the first time I got back on a bike after a while, I noticed that, umm, my butt is no longer as umm, refined, as it once was, and that skinny little bike seats are a literal pain in the tuchus? Will you promise not to laugh too hard at the fact that sometimes I *walk* my bike up the giant hill that I live on (I was once way too cool to ever walk a bike)? And when I say that bike shorts will never come near these thighs, may I hear an “Amen.”?

All of which is not an argument for staying off your bike. What I am saying is that if I can do it, most of you can too. You do not have to be in shape (biking is actually easier on your body that walking), or look cool in spandex, and they make bike seats and are comfy for those of us who have, ummm…back. In fact, there’s a bike for everyone, even the imperfect.

Now why should you get a bike? Well, first of all, it is without question the most fun way to travel. There’s something about speeding along on a bike that immediately returns you to childhood. Now I don’t recommend you return so far that you, like my husband, try riding down a street no-hands, with your eyes closed (hit a parked car) or like me, tried popping a really big curb (knocked out two teeth, needed complicated dental surgery). The great thing about being a grownup on a bike is that (probably) you aren’t an idiot anymore. It is a taste of childhood without the necessity of doing regular stupid things ;-).

It is also the most efficient way to travel, bar none. A human being on a bike uses their energy more efficiently than a walker, a driver, someone on a train. It is good for your health, good for the environment, and a good bike is infinitely cheaper than a car. Most people’s cars will set them back 3K this year in taxes, maintenence and repairs, not to mention the gas, which is more. I’ve bought good bikes for $20, and got them in good road condition for another $20, but optimally, you might want to pay a bit more. Even if you buy a really nice bike, you are way ahead.

Now if you haven’t been on a bike in 5 years, 10 years, 30 years, you will remember how to ride, but it isn’t quite like getting back to being a teenager. As I say, a comfy seat is good, and you might want a bit more stability than you did as a kid.
(27 August 2007)

How Walkable is Your Neighborhood?
Glenn, The Oil Drum: NYC
Typically, when people think about how sustainable a neighborhood is, they probably think of neighborhoods with lots of organic stores, solar paneled roofs, small hybrid cars and a strong recycling/composting culture. And all of those ideas have their place, but I would argue that the most important is how walkable/bikable a neighborhood is. From Streetsblog, we discover a new website, Walkscore gives us a chance to calculate this aspect of different neighborhoods. While this is admittedly a crude measure and has some fairly obvious flaws, it is in many ways a good rough measure of how walkable a given location is compared to others.

Just pure density does not a walkable neighborhood make. It requires a healthy mix of residential, retail, services and office space. It means basically being able to accomplish pretty much any of your necessary daily trips by foot and not requiring an automobile.

For instance Amory Lovins’ Rocky Mountain Institute gets a fairly low score since pretty much anyone that works there or wants to get lunch off campus HAS to drive there. However, most of Manhattan gets a 90+
(26 August 2007)

Virgin Blue finds fuel costs add drag
Anthony Marx, Courier Mail
VIRGIN Blue has nearly doubled its net profit, but fuel costs remain a challenge and expenses will rise as it starts services to the US next year.

…Chief executive officer Brett Godfrey said it was a “strong result” despite a 9.3 per cent lift in operating costs to $1.84 billion. Fuel costs shot up 7.9 per cent to $489 million, $38 million up on the previous year.

He said fuel would remain an issue.
(22 August 2007)
Contributor Stuart McCarthy writes:

Further, partly to accommodate Virgin’s expansion, Brisbane Airport Corporation is making a A$1 billion bet that oil will remain at US$50 until 2030 (www.newparallelrunway.com.au/content/standard1.asp?name=Need_and_Background)!