October 27, 2017
Sustainability of car2go abandoning smart cars
Carsharing company car2go announced last week that it would be replacing all of its smart cars in Portland with Mercedes-Benz CLA sedans and GLA crossovers. For most of this year, the company has been operating a mixed fleet comprising the CLA, GLA, and smart fortwo, much as they have been doing in Seattle. The switch…
October 18, 2017
Transportation Lessons from a Summer in Suburbia
Over the summer I completed an internship in Washington D.C. working for Toyota North America. I learned a lot, not just about Toyota but also about using mobility services for suburban commuting. While looking for summer housing, I wanted to live close to work in the downtown area. I soon realized this was not going…
October 5, 2017
Limiting freeways to autonomous vehicles is a bad idea (today)
Can a good idea implemented too soon actually be a bad idea? I would say so, if the early implementation imposes costs in return for little benefit. About a year ago I posted about an under-developed proposal from Madrona Venture Group to restrict I-5 between Seattle and Vancouver to autonomous cars only. The Madrona team…
October 3, 2017
Gas anxiety and PHEV charging behavior
Combing an internal combustion engine and an electric powertrain, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) offer the potential to reduce gasoline consumption while retaining the ability to travel long distances with fast and convenient refueling. They are inherently less dependent on recharging infrastructures than battery electric vehicles (BEVs), which can only be powered by electricity. However,…
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