The Oil Drum: Europe

One place that many of the alternative transportation advocates around the world look to is Bogota, Colombia where a revolution in transportation has occurred over the last ten years. In the face of major complaints of traffic congestion Former Mayor of Bogota, Enrique Penalosa made a critical decision to not widen roads, build more highways or otherwise facilitate automobiles. Instead, the local government implemented a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system and opened a number of bicycle routes. They also started a system of Car-Free Sundays and Holidays to allow local residents to take back their streets and publis spaces from automobiles to enjoy for recreation.

The Streetfilms above shows how Ciclovia works and what the locals think about it and how it adds to their life.

NYC is in the process of a dramatic transformation of its streets to promote alternative modes of transportation to the automobile – walking, biking and mass transit. To the outside observer, this might seem like a natural evolution of streetscapes or merely based on the personal viewpoints of a few influential people. But in reality, this transformation, still in its infancy, is the result of a long and dedicated advocacy campaign by groups like Transportation Alternatives, Time's Up and the dedicated bloggers and vloggers on Streetsblog and Streetfilms that is finally seeing its advocacy work pay-off. Big time.

It has long been the dream of alternative transportation advocates to not only increase the number of on-street bike lanes for cyclists, but to make them safe enough for anyone to use them – children, elderly or just a casual commuting cyclist. Basically to make them safe and comforting to anyone that doesn’t want to deal with automobiles buzzing them. The ideal to many cycling advocates is the separated bike lane because it not only provides a safer ride, but also prevents automobiles from blocking them by double parking in them.

And New York is getting its first taste of on-street separated bike lanes on a small stretch of a Ninth Avenue leading into midtown.

As an outgrowth of the fabulous Streetsblog, which challenges people to rethink the auto-centric street design, Streetfilms takes the experience to another level.

For some decades now it has been cheaper and more effective to put transportation underground in cities than trying to drive through roads through them.  Putting the tunnels a bit deeper does not change the tunneling operation itself that much, but puts the tunnel into more stable rock.  The idea of Planetran was sustained for a long time by the thought of putting the corridor up the East coast from Boston to Washington.  Having the train operate at high speed, and from down-town locations, and in a weather-independent location where security could be better ensured has some advantages.  

Evacuating the air removes the air resistance that makes normal transportation more expensive at higher speeds (energy wise).  Thus it is possible to develop a technical solution that will significantly change and reduce the need for oil.  

And to those who say that this is still fiction, I am indebted to Greko, who points out that it will first become a reality in Switzerland While the idea is still developing, it is known as the Swissmetro, and has many features of the Planetran that I described.