cars
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Northern Italian cities ban cars for the day
Posted by rick on 25 Feb 2007 | Tagged as: cars
Several cities in northern Italy banned automobile traffic today for anywhere from six to 12 hours. Not a bad idea, and great for joggers and cyclists. Doing this on a Sunday must be pretty easy to do, politically. It would be infinitely more interesting to see what would happen if they tried to do this on a weekday. The economic effect on a weekday would be harmful but what about declaring entire weekends, maybe once a month, to be car-free? Businesses may slow down at first, but people may find it liberating to take back the cities for pedestrians and decide to spend more time in the city.
FedEx adds four hybrid trucks to its Denver fleet
Posted by rick on 24 Feb 2007 | Tagged as: cars
FedEx has added four hybrid electric delivery trucks to its Denver fleet. That brings the total number of hybrid trucks in use by the shipper to 93. Hopefully FedEx is in this for the long haul and these 93 vehicles are not just for publicity. It would be nice to see FedEx come out with a medium-term plan to replace their standard delivery trucks with hybrids as they reach the end of their service lives. That kind of announcement would make good headlines and be an impetus for some healthy competition between UPS, DHL, and FedEx to be greener than each other. Considering that the shipping industry uses a heck of a lot of gas, these companies are in a position to make a real difference. For now, though, I’ll give FedEx the benefit of the doubt and assume there’s more to come.
Environmental zones in German cities
Posted by rick on 10 Feb 2007 | Tagged as: cars
This from the “things you may not have known” files. Beginning March 2007, German cities have the option to designate environmental areas (Umweltzonen) in which only cars with the appropriate sticker: green, yellow, or red can drive. Which sticker a car qualifies for is based on a two-digit code in its registration papers. Cities are not required to designate environmental zones but many are planning to do so. The city of Munich has decided to go ahead with plans for an environmental zone beginning October 31, 2007. In related news, the Munich police have announced they will be cutting down trees at the edges of the zone to make room for banks of highly sensitive cameras to check whether cars entering have the correct sticker. The camera banks will be powered by diesel generators, whose exhaust will be pointed away from the environmental zone.
European Union continues to excel in environmental protection and retains strong lead in bureaucratic prowess
Posted by rick on 08 Feb 2007 | Tagged as: cars
The European Commission has “proposed binding rules” requiring automakers to reduce the average carbon dioxide 
emissions across their models from a current maximum of 163 grams down to 130 grams per kilometer. For readers unfamiliar with the lawmaking process in the European Union, “proposing a binding rule” is step 22 in a 41-step process and falls right between “debating endlessly in 37 languages” and “packing up our things to drive to Strasbourg for no good reason“.
The original idea was to limit CO2 emissions to 120 grams per kilometer but a compromise had to be reached because of boisterous German opposition. You see, Germans are known for making luxury cars like the Mercedes S-Class or sportscars like the Porsche 911, both of which are concerned more with getting you somewhere really fast more than with doing so with a small ecological footprint, or tiretrack as it were. Making simply sufficient cars is someth
ing best left to the French or Italians, who are wussies anyway because they have speed limits on their autoroutes and autostradas. As much as it is enjoyable to make fun, it is understandable that the German auto industry fears for its dominant position if some of its models are no longer street-legal. Bavaria’s Minister for Economic Affairs showed off his silliness skills, though, in saying that he didn’t want Germans “reduced to a country of compact car drivers“.
If the proposed rule is eventually approved by member countries, I hope that all automakers (including the struggling US automakers who sell cars in Europe) will stop expending energy explaining how hard it will be and start working on ways to make it happen. I’m guessing that the Mercedes S500 (current CO2 emissions: 279 g/km) would be comfortable and fun to drive even if it had a clean diesel hybrid and didn’t go an unnecessarily fast 250 km/h (155 mph).
