Transport – August 14

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Many more articles are available through the Energy Bulletin homepage

High-tech hitchhiking
Phil Hart, The Oil Drum: Australia / New Zealand
Have you ever stood at the bus stop watching hundreds of cars go by and wondered just how many of those cars are headed to the same place you want to go? Wouldn’t it be great if you could just stick out your thumb and get a quick ride rather than waiting 10 minutes for the old bus?

Imagine if, instead of congested lanes of large cars with one person on board, we had a stream of traffic picking up and setting down passengers to help them get to their destination – a truly ‘rapid transit’ service in action on every street.

Can you picture this future where every car is instead a mini-bus? Or are you turned off instantly by the modern day stigma associated with ‘hitchhiking’?
(13 August 2008)

General Motors VP says Australia must end oil dependence
Paul Gover, Herald Sun
Australia must move quickly to end its dependence on imported oil for transport to capitalise on the country’s massive bank of alternative energy sources.

LPG should be the first step, followed by everything from compressed natural gas to hydrogen and even solar power for plug-in electric cars, according to the energy expert at the world’s largest carmaker.

“If I did have that magic wand in Australia I would definitely focus on energy diversity,” Larry Burns, the vice-president for planning at General Motors, said in Melbourne yesterday.

“I would ask myself ‘Do I need to be importing any petroleum at all into this country?’.

Why would you want to not import petroleum, with all the money that flows out of your economy? Why wouldn’t you want to control your own destiny.”

Burns is responsible for long-term research and planning at GM, a role which seems him deeply involved in future transport choices and a world beyond petroleum.
(12 August 2008)

Sweden rolling out 183 MPH high-speed green train
Ariel Schwartz, CleanTechnica.com
Maybe you’ve heard about the proposed high-speed train in California. Well, Sweden is beating the West Coast to the punch with their Green Train.

The Green Train, or Gröna Tåget, will cut energy use on rail lines by 30 percent through lowered operational costs and journey times. Top speeds reached 183 MPH on a test run.

Best of all, the Green Train can operate on the current rail infrastructure. That means there’s no need to lay down new tracks.
(12 August 2008)