May 7, 2018
What would it take to power all of Tacoma’s cars with electricity?
We aim at estimating the total annual energy consumption per household for light-duty vehicles in Tacoma, in the context of the City of Tacoma’s Livable City Year partnership with the UW. The most straightforward approach to estimate the consumption was found in taking the energy contained in the respective…
April 24, 2018
Is taking a seaplane from Seattle to Vancouver greener than driving?
This week Seattle’s Kenmore Air announced that they will be partnering with Vancouver’s Harbour Air to start a scheduled seaplane service directly between downtown Seattle and downtown Vancouver, BC. I was asked whether taking a seaplane for this trip would be more environmentally friendly than driving. As much as I love floatplanes, the answer is…
March 30, 2018
Tokyo as I walked
Recently, I was invited to visit the Laboratory for Cognitive System Science at University of Tsukuba and explore potential collaborations as a visiting PhD student. In the middle of February, I arrived in Tokyo and spend some time there before going to Tsukuba. During my stay in Tokyo, weather was mostly cold with clear sky and…
March 19, 2018
Are Uber’s autonomous vehicles safe?
This morning I learned of the tragic death of a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona last night, who was struck by an automated vehicle (AV) being tested by Uber. The obvious question this raises is whether AVs in general and Uber’s AVs in particular are more or less safe than conventional vehicles. The problem is that…
March 5, 2018
What would steel and aluminum tariffs mean for automobile costs, materials choice, and fuel economy?
Last week President Trump announced an intention to impose tariffs of 10% on imported aluminum and 25% on imported steel. Although this would drive up costs for automobile manufacturing in general, it could actually have the effect of reducing the cost premium of building more fuel efficient vehicles. The average domestic light-duty vehicle (LDV) was…
February 26, 2018
Does the Tesla Semi defy the laws of physics?
tl;dr – I find the numbers for Tesla’s Semi to be at least plausible, but I welcome comments on my assumptions. Tesla Motors’ Semi tractor-trailer concept has been met with both excitement and incredulity. Squarely in the latter camp is Daimler’s head of trucks, Martin Daum, who according to Bloomberg recently said that “If Tesla…
February 20, 2018
Call for Abstracts: Automated Vehicles Symposium 2018
Organizers of the 2018 Automated Vehicles Symposium (July 9-12 in San Francisco) are welcoming structured abstracts on topics related to the energy and emissions impacts of connected & automated vehicles (CAVs). Accepted speakers will be invited to present their work in a breakout session sponsored by the Transportation Research Board’s Standing Committee on Transportation Energy…
December 15, 2017
Are Private Free Float Systems the Death of Publicly Available Bike Share Data?
In my last blog post, I wrote about the new bike share systems that have taken over the city of Seattle. However, when writing this post, I left out one major detail, the data for the bike share companies is not publicly available like that of their predecessor. This issue has been brought back to…
December 11, 2017
Flying taxis and urban sprawl
We have made great progress when it comes to transportation technologies at the beginning of the 21st century. A lot of the things that were inconceivable in the past have become reality or close to reality recently, such as the high-speed rail (top speed 267mph), electric vehicle, autonomous vehicles, and Hyperloop (750mph). Just when we…
November 16, 2017
What is a PhD student and how does the proposed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act apply
I chose to pursue a Ph.D. in Transportation Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle for a few reasons: I want to teach. I found a passion for it as a tutor and teaching assistant during my undergrad and I want to learn how to educate the next generation(s) of engineers. I want to…
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