Transport – August 20

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Drive 55 campaign gaining speed
William M. Welch, USA TODAY
Though it lasted longer than disco and leisure suits, the national 55-miles-per-hour speed limit was another remnant of the 1970s that did not endure.

Yet with high fuel costs reviving memories of the energy crisis of that decade, proposals to bring back the “double nickel” or something like it are emerging, with backers saying federal speed limits could save fuel, money and perhaps lives.

“The faster you go, the more you waste,” says Tim Castleman, a Sacramento man who is promoting a Drive 55 campaign.

Until gasoline approached $4 a gallon, Castleman didn’t find a lot of support for reinstating the 55-mph limit that Congress abolished in 1995 after more than 20 years.
(17 August 2008)

Tall ship Belem delivers wine by sail and saves carbon
Doug, greenUPGRADER
The story of the barque Belem is filled with romance. Today it is being put to use as a working cargo ship to deliver sustainably produced wines from France. Built in 1896, and named for the Brazilian seaport at the mouth of the Amazon, the Belem originally shipped chocolate in its hold from Brazil to France. At 170ft its first shipment of wine from Languedoc France to Dublin this February carried 60,000 bottles of fine wine saving an estimated 140 grams of carbon per bottle. On each of the bottles is a stylized sticker reading “Carried by sailing ship, a better deal for the planet.”…
(17 August 2008)

The handmade commuter bike (text and audio)
Sean Cole, Marketplace (US public radio)
Can’t afford gas? Try a ‘commuter bike’

One up side of high gas prices is that many people are choosing alternate and more environmentally friendly means of transportation. bicycling is on that list. Sean Cole reports on a bicycle hand made for commuters.
(18 August 2008)