Gas 2.0 |
| Study Suggests Cycling Faster than Driving in Cities Posted: 03 Dec 2010 03:41 PM PST
The new data comes from Lyons, France, a city that has no designated bike lanes but a huge bike-sharing program. Some 16,000 journeys a day are made via the bike sharing program, with 4,000 bikes at over 350 stations across the city. Lyons has had a problem with traffic congestion as its narrow roads were designed centuries before the invention of the car. The data collected from the bike sharing program was analyzed by Pablo Jensen at the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon. What he found was that during regular driving hours, cars and bikers in Lyons both averaged in the area of 10 km/h. During rush hour though, bikers are able to get around at 15 km/h (in a hurry to get home from work no doubt) while the car's average speed plummeted in congestion. Other interesting tidbits from the data suggest that peak biking speeds occur around 7:45 and 8:45 am, as people rush to get to work. Since there are no designated biking lanes though the bikers get around the city any way they can, including cutting through bus lanes and down alleys. I'd be interested to see how this compares to other cities like New York and San Francisco. Might be enough to convince some people to ditch the car and buy a bike. Maybe even me! Source: MIT Technology Review Chris DeMorro is a writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to Hemis. You can follow his slow descent into madness at Sublime Burnout.       |
| Deficit Committee Wants 15 Cent Gas Take Hike Posted: 03 Dec 2010 10:55 AM PST
A higher gas tax is not something new, though it proposing a hike in prices at the pump has been kin to political suicide, especially since the gas crunch that helped launch us into this recession. The last time the gas tax was raised was back in 1993, when it went up from 14.1 cents to 18.4 cents, where it still sits today. For nearly twenty years, we've had the same gas tax, never adjusted for inflation. That just won't fly. Now, I know the conservatives who took over Congress are all about lower taxes and less spending. Cutting spending won't work alone though. A gas tax really is the fairest way to charge people for their use of public roadways, at least until electric cars or other alt-fuel vehicles start hitting the road en masse. Higher gas taxes might also convince more people to get fuel efficient or electric cars. Believe it or not though, this wouldn’t be even close to the highest hike in gas taxes (as a percentage). Between 1932 and 1959, the gas tax per gallon was just 1 cent, though it was raised to a whooping 4 cents in ’59. Noticing a pattern? It takes between 20 and 30 years for the government to raise gas taxes. Slow pokes. The thing with the gas tax though is that it has to be very, very gradual. Gas prices have been going up in my area by as much as 10 cents a gallon over night, and I'm already seeing many premium fuels priced around $3.50. Add another 15 cents to that and you are approaching that dread $4 a gallon mark. Our economy is still quite precarious, and as much as I am for raising the gas tax, I'm not sure this is the right time. But just hearing the idea bandied about from a bipartisan committee is, to me, progress. What do you guys think would be a reasonable raise in gas taxes? Source: Green Car Advisor Chris DeMorro is a writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to Hemis. You can follow his slow descent into madness at Sublime Burnout.     |
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