Hate to wait: Heathrow pods experienced first hand
Reporting on-location, our London correspondent recently filed a report on the electric pods at Heathrow airport, shuttling passengers from the business car park to Terminal 5 (see also our previous stories on the pods, Pods from the car park at Heathrow Airport, and Heathrow airport pods are now in motion). Some of the key features […]
Electric Vehicle charging in Europe
A report released by Pike Research (now stored in web archives) into the deployment of Electric Vehicle charging infrastructure across Europe has forecasted that by 2020 there will be more than 2.9 million plug-in electric vehicles on Europe’s roadways, and the region will have more than 4.1 million electric vehicle charging stations installed. The EV […]
Ford develops Traffic Jam Assist technology
Ford has announced that it is developing “Traffic Jam Assist”, an intelligent driving feature that employs technology from the already-available active Park Assist, Adaptive Cruise Control, Lane-Keeping Aid and the PowerShift transmission to enable a vehicle to automatically keep pace with other vehicles on the road, using radar and on-board camera technology. It also provides […]
UK pilots electric-only car share scheme
A car sharing group in the UK will be the first in the country to exclusively use electric vehicles. The scheme, run by Sustainable Venture Development, will be piloted in north Oxfordshire. According to BBC.co.uk, the cars will have dedicated bays on the street, beside which there will be specific fast-charging infrastructure installed, ensuring that […]
Pre-booking parking at airports
We came across an interesting article which explores the pre-booked parking phenomenon and why it is commonplace in the UK – accounting for around 20% of airport parking – but almost non-existent around the rest of the world. The article’s author, Chris Wortley, asserts that the practice came about from two factors: high prices at […]
Pay by phone may now become a reality
The NSW government has recently changed legislation for on-street parking, paving the way for the introduction of ‘phone parking’. After registering their details with a third party operator, drivers would then either use a smartphone application or call a toll-free number to send their car registration details to the system, advising of their arrival in […]
Shrinkable cars are all the rage
Following last week’s post about MIT’s ‘folding’ Hiriko City Car, scientists have unveiled a similar 2.1m ‘pod’ car that can shrink to fit into tight parking spaces. The car’s length can be reduced by 50 centimetres by the driver for those tight parking spots, and like the Hiriko, it also features wheels that can turn […]
How are electric vehicle sales performing?
Figures released this week from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries said that only 49 electric cars were sold in Australia last year, in a market that topped 1 million total vehicles for the first time. According to the SMH, the number of electric vehicles sold declined by 9.9 per cent on 2010. Whilst politicians […]
Fast electric car charging technology
Whilst it may be 10 years away from commercial production, technology has been developed in Japan that may solve one of the biggest challenges facing electric cars: long charging times. While current electric car models can take up to eight hours to be fully charged, the SMH reports that this new technology can replenish a car’s battery […]
Technology enabling greater vehicle utilisation
We have posted in the past a number of articles about car sharing, with companies such as GoGet operating in Australia and Zipcar in the US. Robin Chase, the founder Zipcar, talked at TED in 2007 about a range of other technology-enabled ways of reducing car usage, the first being technology to enable ‘ridesharing’ – […]
The future of the LA meter plan?
Following from our previous post, the LA Times Cartoonist Ted Rall has provided his projection of what the future of the dynamic pricing system could have in store. The full cartoon is published below, or you can view on the LA Times site here. Thank you to Donald Shoup for sending this to us this […]
Canberra electric vehicle charging network rolls out
The construction of Australia’s first full service electric vehicle charging network is underway in Canberra, which is currently operating on a limited scale but due to offer a full service from the second quarter of next year. According to the Australian Financial Review, the nation’s capital has been targeted because the city’s households have a […]
Sydney car park to install solar panels on rooftop
Willoughby Council has announced plans to install the biggest council-owned solar farm on the rooftop of Chatswood’s Albert Avenue car park. The project, which will see 140 solar panels installed on the rooftop of the car park, is the first part of a three-year plan to build a 300-kilowatt energy system that will provide power […]
Electric vehicles face challenges despite infrastructure roll out
A report released by the Boston Consulting Group questions the ‘dominance’ of the electric vehicle era, arguing that internal combustion engines will continue to improve enough to cut CO2 emissions and enable automakers to hit their 2020 emission targets. Whilst they acknowledge that automakers will need to improve across a number of areas, including vehicle […]
TED: Bill Ford discusses a future beyond traffic gridlock
We came across a TED Talk this week by Bill Ford, great-grandson of Henry Ford, who has spent over 30 years working for the Ford Motor Company. He recently delivered a speech at TED which discussed both his concerns about the impact of cars on the environment, as well as what, for him, is a […]
Melbourne CBD to install electric car charging stations
Melbourne City Council is currently in the process of voting on a plan to install charging stations for electric cars in 12 on-street parking spaces in Melbourne’s city centre. The program is being introduced by the Department of Transport, with Melbourne’s Lord Mayor Robert Doyle claiming that it is important to assist motorists with faith […]
The importance of the Car Parking Professional
The International Parking Institute (IPI) debuted a two-minute animated video called Parking Matters at the annual Conference and Expo held in Pittsburgh, USA, last week. The video is aimed at promoting the parking profession by connecting with new audiences unfamiliar with the industry. It’s a great overview of the contribution made by the large number […]
Interesting trends revealed by Parking Industry Survey
Also released at the IPI Conference were the results of the 2011 “Emerging Trends in Parking” survey of its members to examine the evolution of the car parking industry. The survey revealed that while parking professionals are finding increased pressure to boost parking revenue, significant trends centre on demand for sustainable parking solutions and advances […]
Solar panels built into roads
Produced by a Dutch research firm, the Solaroad comprises solar panels being installed directly onto roads and cycle lanes, using the extra space for the production of energy. The idea is that a centimetre thick layer of crystalline silicon solar cells is laid on top of the concrete road surface, in turn covered by a […]
Green power and electric vehicle charging stations
Whilst we have commented on the benefits of electric vehicles on the Wayfinding Forum for some time, recent studies are muddying the waters as to the effectiveness of the technology. Car maker Audi has examined the energy output of the entire chain of powering the vehicles – from power station to the car’s emissions – […]
Honk For iPhone
The parking app business is booming at the moment, with the release of another great parking application for iPhones, called ‘Honk’. It includes a range of features to help with the management of the parking process – from a timer which can be set when parking, with minute by minute updates of remaining time on […]
Electric motorcycles the future of road transport?
With rising petrol prices and the release of plug-in electric and hybrid cars, the auto industry (as well as this blog!) have given the electric car revolution significant attention over the past two years. However, with all of the attention on the electric cars, a smaller adaption of the technology may have been overlooked – […]
Shopping centres in the US debate charging station legislation
In the US, the International Council of Shopping Centres (ICSC) is debating measures before the New Jersey Assembly that would require developers to provide electric vehicle charging stations at new shopping centres. According to the news article on the ICSC website: This legislation passed the Appropriations Committee this month and now goes to the full […]
Electric storm on the way
An opinion piece published in the Sydney Morning Herald’s ‘Drive’ section (written by Top Gear’s former ‘Stig’) explores and reports on test drives carried out on electric vehicles and sports cars. The article contains interesting comments on the technology and supporting infrastructure of the electric car, but we were mostly struck by the apparently inevitable […]