Alternative Transportation Week: Wrapping Up

You'd think that our first Alternative Transportation Week would last...about a week. But there's so much good stuff going on in this world, that would be irresponsible. So here's a grab bag of extra cool stuff:

Commuter Cars is importing the Tango, the closest thing I have seen yet to a vision I had of essentially a covered motorcycle. This one, though, is battery powered with a range up to 160 miles, a perfectly shaped commuter vehicle. It weighs just over a ton and a half, a third of which is battery.

The only thing I am unsure of about it is that CC advocates Tango's benefits in lane-splitting, or driving between two cars in tight traffic. As a Southern California driver it makes me extremely nervous when motorcyclists do this, yet it could be a major incentive to get people into much more efficient vehicles. It highlights the need for some kind of true "CommuterCar" lane to incent drivers to make the big switch.

Or even for something grander, like the network of slim, elevated tracks that would be required to make SkyWeb a reality. It doesn't look like much has happened lately with SkyWeb, or Taxi2000, whatever the companies name is behind this ultra-futuristic "personal rapid transit." But it's another idea that gets right to changing the infrastructure of ground travel. There's an old press release (2005) about installing SkyWeb on Microsoft's Redmond campus. A big, deep-pocketed company with a campus-like headquarters and a workforce of early techno-adopters seems like an ideal place to test the concept.

Here's another alternative fuel maker to put up there with BioWillie: Altra Biofuels, an LA-based developer of cellulosic ethanol fuel.

And here's a fantastic Bruno Giussani article in Business Week about the OSCar Project, or the Open Source Car Project. Based in Europe and "maintained" by Markus Mertz, OSCar is trying to do for automotive hardware what has been done for countless open source software projects, from Linux to Firefox: virtually assemble a group of talented and passionate minds to come up with a better design to "reinvent mobility." An awesome, if slow-evolving (the group wrote its first "manifesto" in 1999 and not even Mertz is able to be committed full-time to the effort) approach.

If you can't get behind any of these more advanced technologies or start-ups, at least seriously consider NuRide, one of several increasingly prominent ride-sharing concepts out there. This one offers rewards and incentives for ride sharing. And look at the passengers in the convertible- they look so happy!

Finally, and look for a full disclosure from me in the near future on anything I write about them, is Google's RechargeIT initiative. Google's philanthropic venture arm, Google.org, is funding development efforts for a hybrid plug-in car to the tune of $1M.

News and What They're Saying:

Futurist Jim Carroll on the Google Car
NY Times' Katie Hafner on Google.org and Dr. Larry Brilliant
Morning Paper on the Google Car
WorldChanging on NuRide
AutoBlog on OSCar's debut
Richforking on SkyWEb
Arlington Initiative to Reduce Emissions on NuRide
Great Green Gadgets on Commuter Cars and the Tango
SoCalTech.com on Altra's huge debt fundraising round