Posts Tagged ‘technology’
Holes in the Long Tailpipe
Every time I hear someone argue that electrical vehicles (EVs) have no benefit because they only shift the point of pollution from the vehicle to the powerplant, I want to mock that person using the same voice that Eddie Murphy used in Beverly Hills Cop to say, “I’m not falling for the banana in the [...]
Lightweight Mass Transit
A look at how important the weight of our vehicles is to the performance of our transportation networks. From compact cars to space ships, technology to reduce the weight of vehicles offers impressive safety and performance benefits. By neoHOUSTON’s newest contributing author, Dean Hall.
Cable-Propelled Challenge
I got some very insightful feedback on my CPT post from Steven Dale, who runs the Gondola Project – the site that was the source of the flurry of conversations about Gondolas that has been echoing through the Houston blogosphere. But more on that in a minute… Steven also proposed an interesting idea – a [...]
The Mini Triangle
Today we’re going to wrap up our look at a hypothetical Texas-High Speed Rail system. We’ve already looked at the how a privately operated high-speed system could start as a regional rail service in the major cities, now we’re going to see how these regional lines can interconnect and form a more complete system.
The Routes
The question of where to route a high-speed train in Texas is probably the most widely discussed aspect of the subject. There have been a number of proposals, from the fairly straightforward Texas TGV to the outright asinine Trans-Texas Corridor, and the low cost “Texas T-Bone” plan. In an attempt to combine the best elements of the “Triangle” and the “T-Bone” into a single system, I’ve come up with an alternate plan.
The Trains
When considering a high-speed rail system one of the most important questions is, “What kind of train should we use?” There are a number of technologies in existence around the world that a high-speed rail system could be built with, and each of them has certain advantages and certain drawbacks. First, there are conventional steel-wheel trains. [...]
Introduction
Today I’m starting a series on high-speed rail. This first post contains my opening thoughts, and some of the background assumptions that inform the rest of what I’m going to write about.
The Human Brain versus a Computer
This article, “Computers versus Brains,” from the New York Times, is a really entertaining read. I enjoyed it and I hope you will too. The article gives a keen illustration of the innate differences between biological and natural systems and artificial and mechanical ones – a difference that good urbanists should be keenly aware of [...]
Community Broadband Battle in Wilson, NC
While we’re on the subject of internet and phone providers, this article from dailytech.com is a great example of government lobbying at its best. Basically, the city of Wilson, North Carolina is offering extremely fast high speed internet to residents at a fraction of the cost of its competitors Time Warner and Embarq. Instead of [...]
Newswire: April 16, 2009
Wikipedia Word of the Day
Hypermiling – a method of increasing your car’s gas mileage by making skillful changes in the way you drive, allowing you to save gas and thereby have an easier time withstanding the rising oil and gas prices. -hypermiling.com