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Mar 28, 2014 4:41 PM |
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Low Parking Costs May Encourage Automobile Use
PHILADELPHIA, March 24, 2014
The low cost of parking in many American cities may contribute to urban development that relies on automobile use and undercuts planners’ efforts to increase public transport, according to a new baseline study of comprehensive public parking costs led by the Drexel University School of Public Health. The article, “Public parking fees and fines: a survey of US cities,” is now published online ahead of print in the journal Public Works Management and Policy. It reports on downtown public parking costs after surveying public parking agencies in 107 U.S. cities.
“The role of policies in regulating the supply and cost of parking in inducing automobile use has been understudied,” said lead author Amy Auchincloss, PhD. “Indeed, the lack of systematic large scale data on parking costs has prevented researchers from even looking at this question.”
Along with Auchincloss, an assistant professor in the Drexel University School of Public Health, the study was co-authored by Alexa Namba, MPH, and Andrew Ricchezza, MS (who performed the research as master’s students at Drexel’s School of Public Health), Rachel Weinberger, PhD, who currently works at Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates, and Semra Aytur, PhD from the University of New Hampshire.
During the past 25 years, the number of miles Americans drive has grown three times faster than the U.S. population. The predominant form of development, low-density sprawl, has encouraged automobile use and has worsened the challenges of providing convenient and low-cost public transportation. In the U.S., relatively low user fees in the form of road pricing, tolls and gas prices have been cited as important reasons for increased automobile travel.
“The zoning regulations and price distortions that induce high automobile use have serious consequences for urban environments,” said Weinberger. “They degrade air quality, imperil safety and use a lot of land that could be used for parks, schools, stores and other things. By understanding the role of parking and how parking rules are enforced, policymakers are more likely to improve everyone’s mobility.”
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http://drexel.edu/now/news-media/rel...utomobile-Use/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0324133246.htm
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Toyota TS040 Hybrid Le Mans Racer Debuts
Published on March 28th, 2014 | by Christopher DeMorro
Faster, better, and more powerful, the Toyota TS040 Hybrid race car is ready to do battle with Audi and Porsche on the Circuit de la Sarthe for the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans. Making just shy of 1,000 horsepower with its small V8 and hybrid drivetrain, could this be the year Toyota unseats Audi’s domination of the world’s oldest endurance motor race?
The Toyota TS040 is all-around an improvement over the car it replaces, the TS030, which debuted back in 2012. The 3.7 liter V8 engine is rated at a whopping 513 horsepower, while electric motors fitted to both the front and rear axles provide an addition 473 horsepower, for a combined output of 986 horsepower. That’s a lotta powah, as Toyota has opted to stick with a naturally-aspirated V8 this year over competing designs, like the Porsche turbo four-banger and the championship-winning Audi turbodiesel V6.
Toyota can do this thanks to a change in rules that regulates the flow of fuel and use of energy, rather than power output, which was regulated in previous years. This is promoting a lot of diversity within the competitors, and Toyota is defnitely going down a different route. The TS040 uses supercapacitors instead of batteries or flywheels, allowing the hybrid race car to fully recharge after just a few second of braking, and discharge the stored energy in a snap.
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http://gas2.org/2014/03/28/toyota-ts...-racer-debuts/
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When will electric vehicles provide grid storage?
By Kristian Handberg on 28 March 2014
Close your eyes and picture yourself in a sleek new electric car – powered by clean electricity, emitting no pollution, silent and cheap to run. Parked in your garage, it stores energy from your solar PV system to provide mobility and power your home.
But is it going to happen?… And if so, how and when?
The vision of parked vehicles being used for grid storage has captivated people since EVs began (re)emerging as a viable transport option – wind and solar variability could be solved through intelligent application of an underutilized asset! Now with solar uptake booming in the U.S. and over 180,000 plug-in vehicles on the roads providing 4 GWh of potential storage capacity, the time has surely arrived to pull the pieces together?
The good news is that the technology is here or not far away. Advanced vehicle/grid control systems can protect the battery and manage energy flows in line with network needs. Interoperability across the various technology interfaces is advancing through the evolution and application of recognised standards. These developments will provide enhanced visibility and control for network and vehicle operators, allowing them to cooperate easily, conveniently and for shared benefits.
The story from here will reflect the realities of car use, the insights from Big Data, and the power of visual association.
Experience has shown that vehicle owners are largely, but not entirely, predictable – most use their car during the day and charge overnight. While charging tends to happen when it is cheapest, drivers manage charging in line with the primary use of the vehicle as transport. For energy service providers this translates to uncertainty – not a great foundation for business success. When viewed alongside the relatively small storage capacity of individual vehicles relative to stationary batteries, the focus for the foreseeable future will be on the alternative.
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http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/when...-storage-51220 |
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