Infrastructure
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If you know the U.S. interstate highway system well enough, you can use it to tell basically where you are in the country.
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This company wants to make pothole fixes last longer
American Road Patch is a shingle-like patch over filled-in potholes that could make pothole fixes last much longer.
Sean Szymkowski -
Philadelphia ponders congestion fees to ease traffic
Congestion charges aren't a new idea, but they're new to the United States as a means of controlling traffic gridlock. New York City will become the first to implement the practice and the latest city to consider a congestion fee is Philadelphia, according to an April 3 report from local NBC News...
Sean Szymkowski -
First test run completed at 35 mph in Musk's LA Boring Company tunnel, turns cars into "rail-guided trains"
What started as a joke has turned into a real-life prototype. Elon Musk japed that he'd dig tunnels under Los Angeles to avoid traffic, and on Tuesday his Boring Company opened its first prototype tunnel in LA. The entrepreneur behind Tesla and SpaceX also provided more details on how the system...
Sean Szymkowski -
Future Jaguar-Land Rover vehicles will communicate with traffic lights
In the future, Jaguar-Land Rover vehicles could help motorists avoid pesky red lights. The automaker announced Wednesday that it's begun to trial its Green Light Optimal Speed Advisory (GLOSA) system. GLOSA communicates with connected traffic lights via vehicle-to-everything technology (V2X). Audi...
Sean Szymkowski -
China opens world's longest sea-crossing bridge
The world's longest sea-crossing bridge is now open to traffic. Chinese President Xi Jinping opened the marvel of infrastructure, officially called the Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai bridge, on Tuesday during a ceremony in the southern city of Zhuhai. CNN reported the bridge cost $20 billion to construct...
Sean Szymkowski -
The Boring Company (TBC) and its network of underground tunnels won't just ship pedestrians around from various stations; it may one day take cars and drivers straight into the system from their garages. The Mercury News reported Wednesday that the city of Hawthorne, California, gave The Boring Company and its founder Elon Musk the go-ahead to build an underground garage elevator. The Boring Company has acquired a local house to build the elevator that will eventually connect to the "loop," which the company calls its underground network of tunnels. The car will descend 45 feet below the...
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Waze now offering traffic data to US cities
Waze has helped many a motorist in recent years, but the app's data can now be used to help U.S. cities. The company announced on Tuesday that it is now leveraging its crowd-sourced traffic data to offer free alerts to all U.S. cities via its "Connected Citizens" program. Waze, which is owned by...
Sean Szymkowski -
Boring Company runs Tesla Model X in prototype tunnel
The Boring Company tunnels will fit a Tesla Model X electric car. That's the latest bit of news from Elon Musk's underground adventure. The company posted a short video (taken vertically...) of a Model X moving through a tunnel on what appears to be the "skates" that propel the car. It's important...
Sean Szymkowski -
The Boring Company tunnels given green light for line to Chicago's O'Hare airport
The Boring Company has plans to invade Chicago's O'Hare airport. The Chicago Infrastructure Trust (CIT) announced on Thursday that it has chosen The Boring Company to design, build, finance, operate, and maintain a high-speed rail line called the Chicago Express Loop from downtown to the O'Hare...
Sean Szymkowski -
Drones may one day fix potholes
Nothing ruins a spectacular piece of roadway more than cracks, bumps, and enormous potholes. These road imperfections can be more than just annoyances. They can also cost drivers and cities money in repairs for blown tires and ruined wheels. One day, drones could make the process of fixing roads...
Sean Szymkowski -
New Hyperloop test track under construction in France
The world's third Hyperloop test track is now under construction in France. Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) announced on Sunday that construction is underway for a kilometer-long (0.62-mile) test track near its research and development center. The California-based HTT is one of three...
Sean Szymkowski -
Some drivers in one specific part of New York City could have to pay new charges in a pay-to-drive plan that would charge them $11.52 to enter the busiest parts of Manhattan. Under the congestion-charge plan, according to The New York Times last Thursday, the "Fix NYC" task force working for New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed levying a charge on all vehicles that enter the island of Manhattan at any point south of 60th Street. Past congestion charge plans have failed in the state legislature, whose members historically had little sympathy for New York City and were susceptible to...
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Will roads be made out of plastic in the future?
The materials and processes used to build roadways haven't changed much in the past century, but a Dutch company has plans to potentially revolutionize the infrastructure and clean up a lot of plastic pollution. VolkerWessels, along with two other partners, proposes plastic roads made from recycled...
Sean Szymkowski -
Hyperloop One rebrands as Virgin Hyperloop One following sizable investment
The CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, may have initially proposed the idea of the Hyperloop, but the legendary entrepreneur only began work on his own Hyperloop system recently after offering the idea to the world a four years ago as an open-source project of sorts. In the meantime, a...
Sean Szymkowski -
Future Urban Mobility Relies On Real-Time Data Access
The requirements for travel within the urban environment comes under greater pressure with every passing year. We're already past the point at which more than 50 percent of the world's population live in cities rather than rurally, and it's only set to increase. The Future Urban Mobility (FM)...
Antony Ingram -
Google Buys 30 Leafs, Volts, and 250 Charging Stations: Video
Google built its reputation as a small, simple search engine, but there's nothing small about the company's investment in electric vehicles. Google has just placed an order for 30 Nissan Leafs and Chevrolet Volts, as well as 250 EV charging stations from Coulomb Technologies. Google will add the...
Richard Read -
Car In The Shop? Google Maps Tells You How Late The Bus Is: Video
The only thing more annoying than putting your car in the shop is waiting to catch the bus the next day. It's such a common frustration, it made up Everywoman Sandra Bullock's entire backstory in Speed. The worst part is that while some transit systems offer updates to commuters, indicating when...
Richard Read -
If you regularly use public transport, you should start writing to your local transit authority, because the Japanese have an idea that could make things a lot more pleasant! Passengers travelling on the Willer Express between the sprawling cities of Osaka and Tokyo in Japan get to enjoy a first class level of comfort in their own private cocoon. The bus only has twelve seats, but each of those is your own personal relaxation pod. Each seat has the ability to recline by 140 degrees should you wish to take a nap, and if you're wide awake you can make best use of your cocoon's own personal...
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Yes, People Will Take The Bus -- But Only With Help From Apps
Here's a question that we've heard a lot at High Gear Media: what does it take to get people to ditch their cars and take alternate transportation? Soaring gas prices make people travel less but don't really change their travel methods. Having an abundance of mass transit options doesn't have much...
Richard Read -
GM's Project Driveway fuel cell program rolls past 500,000 miles next week
With all that's going on in Washington lately, the slow economy and a general apathy or even hostility toward the automotive industry, it's nice to see a technological bright spot on the horizon. While it's not a ground-breaking or earth-shattering development, General Motors' fuel cell test fleet...
Ralph Hanson