Entries tagged “Cars”

Kungsgatan, Stockholm on Dagen H

How do you switch the driving side of the road for an entire nation? Let’s just say it’s quite a process — a process so involved it gets its own logo and name:

Dagen H (H day), today mostly referred to as Högertrafikomläggningen (“The right-hand traffic diversion”), was the day, 3 September 1967, on which traffic in Sweden switched from driving on the left-hand side of the road to the right. The H stands for Högertrafik, the Swedish word for “right-hand traffic”.

(Link via @michael_nielsen)

After perusing Wikipedia’s “List of U.S. cities with most households without a car,” Jarrett Walker, a public transit consultant, attempts to reach some conclusions about why certain cities make the list. Surprisingly (at least to me), a city’s presence on the list is not purely a product of available public transportation (though it is an obvious factor).

If I then look across the whole list and try to identify factors that seem to explain, in different mixtures, each city’s presence on the list, it seems there are three: age, poverty, and dominant universities (i.e. universities that are large relative to the size of the city).

The top three carless cities (by percentage) are right in my neighborhood:

1. New York, NY (55.7% of households are carless)
2. Newark, NJ (44.17%)
3. Jersey City, NJ (40.67%)

Of the top 30, only San Francisco (28.56%) is west of the Mississippi.

(via Bobulate)

The Tesla Model S is not the first electric car on the market, but with seating for five and ample cargo space, it may be the most realistic candidate to replace your current gas guzzler. It doesn’t hurt that a quick 45 minute charge (from any power outlet) gets you a range of 300 miles and a top speed of 120mph.

With a price tag set at just under 50k (after a federal tax credit), the Model S could definitely steal more than a few BMW 5 series or Audi A6 customers.

(via Surfstation)

It wasn’t long ago that I was writing about a Zipcar iPhone app that allows customers to use their iPhones as a car key fob. Now, you can have that functionality in your own car.

The Viper SmartStart is a car security system with its own iPhone app. For 500 bucks, you can have a system that makes it possible to lock and unlock the doors, start the car remotely, open the trunk or hit the panic button — all from your iPhone.

Very cool.

(via @ugmonk)

Zipcar is a service that offers many city dwellers a real alternative to owning their own car. Cars are parked at various locations throughout a city so there’s likely one near where you live or work. You can reserve a car for a few hours - or a few days through their web site. During your reservation window, you use your personal key card to access the vehicle and drive off (no counter paperwork necessary).

When our old Suburban died last year, we looked into using Zipcar instead of buying a replacement car. It wasn’t an easy decision, but there were a number of reasons why Zipcar wasn’t perfect for us. Ultimately, we decided to purchase a new car.

With Zipcar’s recent iphone app release, I’ve been wondering if we didn’t make the wrong choice. The app lets you locate cars and make reservations right from the phone. When you have a car, you can use the phone as a key fob which activates the horn and locks and unlocks the doors. It’s a fun app that provides real added value to the rental experience. It’s these kind of apps that are making the iPhone platform a space companies can’t afford to miss out on.

Update: A new system from Viper makes it possible to add similar functionality to your own car.