StreetFilms has posted this video showing off the bicycle infrastructure in Copenhagen, where 37% of all commute trips are made on bike.

Update somewhat related: The Senseable City Lab at MIT has unveiled their Copenhagen Wheel.

It transforms ordinary bicycles quickly into hybrid e-bikes that also function as mobile sensing units. The Copenhagen Wheel allows you to capture the energy dissipated while cycling and braking and save it for when you need a bit of a boost. It also maps pollution levels, traffic congestion, and road conditions in real-time.

Filed under: Copenhagen, cycling, transportation · 2 Comments

This was a good week for bicycling in San Francisco! We got our first new bike lane in 3 years, our first physically-separated bike lane, and our very first bike box! Streetfilms has a video covering the Bike Celebration Press Conference:

In other transportation news, several Muni routes will be discontinued tomorrow. Mission Local has made a farewell video to to the 26 Valencia, which is ending its 108-year run:

Filed under: cycling, muni, san francisco, transportation · 3 Comments

I was talking to Bobslobster about the crazy scheme that some people on Reddit came up with to buy some unemployed person a $600 Jet Blue All-You-Can-Jet pass and have them run wacky missions around the country for a month. Mister Lobster had no idea what I was talking about, because he doesn’t read the AskReddit portion of the site. The fact that this ridiculousness was organized in two days is stunning. For those who missed it, here is a recap:

• On August 17, Reddit user hiS_oWn posts this question, and offers to kick in $100 towards the ticket:
  

  Anyone else remember that JetBlue $600 for a month deal? What if we sponsor some unemployed redditor to travel around and do stuff for us, like courier packages, or do requests for us as compensation?

• Redditor mr-oblivious creates a subreddit where candidates can post their resumes for consideration to be the Reddit Traveler.
• Redditor mustardhamsters creates a KickStarter project to start to raise funds for the ticket.
• On August 18, Redditor Saydrah offers to screen the candidates for the Reddit Traveler position.
• On August 19, the KickStarter Project receives the required $680 in funds, about three hours after it was started.
• Saydrah starts a voting thread, where redditors are asked to select their top choice among six candidates that have been screened over the phone.
• Redditor arunan volunteers to tally the votes. The results are posted here. Redditors draynen and 77or88 are almost tied for the most votes.
• Saydrah asks for more donations, so that two travelers can be sent, instead of just one.
• An hour later, Foodproof donates $500, bringing the total to more than $1600.
• hiS_oWn posts the official update, announcing both draynen, a filmmaker from Seattle, and 77or88, a recent college grad from Ohio as winners of the Travel Challenge. Donors are invited to suggest “reddit missions” and redditors are invited to arrange hosting in the /r/reddittraveljetblue subreddit.
  

Filed under: reddit, transportation · 2 Comments

OneEighteen, a ship pilot in Houston, has posted this beautiful timelapse he took during a six-hour run through the Port of Houston:

More info about the timelapse. CC by-nc licensed. Part 2 below:
(more…)

Filed under: houston, ship, timelapse, transportation, video · 0 Comments

I’m sure all of you have seen the amazing Trip Down Market Street, shot on a cable car in 1905. And you’ve probably seen the same route shot in 1906 after the earthquake (skip to middle).

But have you seen this footage shot from a Barcelona street car in 1908?

via reddit

Filed under: transportation, video · 1 Comment

Timmmii and crew changed all the Bush St. signs to read OBAMA St. They got the *entire* street before the cops stopped them!

Satisfied Clients

Originally uploaded by Matthew Williams Design

This pic is awesome:

Filed under: obama, san francisco, transportation · 2 Comments

no explanation provided:
possibly, no explanation needed

Filed under: all talk, cartography, prison4life, transportation, why are we here? · 4 Comments

A different chimp this time. From Japan.

Via H.26FAIL.

Filed under: chimp, segway, transportation, video · 3 Comments

The eighties were a time when robots were praised for their transforming ability, instead of feared for there strange customs and weird accent.

Filed under: gobots, transformers, transportation, tronix · 0 Comments

This guy was made by Bandai in 1984. Bob remembered his name.. PSYCHO. Not to be confused with Cy-Kill. Bob can remember the names of *all* our old GoBots and Transformers…

Filed under: bandai, gobots, transportation, tronix · 0 Comments

And they are pissed!!!

Filed under: gobots, transformers, transportation, tronix, why are we here? · 0 Comments

Here is cool video from Nick of a human-powered railcar they are building for the Handcar Regatta:

Needs blinkies!

Filed under: railcar, transportation, video · 1 Comment

We saw this via reddit a few days ago and haven’t stopped laughing since.

At first, you see a highway, with lanes painted on it, and drivers are even attempting to stay in the lanes! Pretty tame for India you think.. no animals in the road, no randomly stopped vehicles, no one going the wrong way… and then….

Filed under: india, motorcycle, transportation, video · 3 Comments

Last year a small crew showed up at Vermont St. after the official races ended, and we had an absolute blast. This year, the official races were on Vermont St., and it was awesome:

(click play to start) (link to other sizes)

Filed under: byobw, san francisco, transportation · 0 Comments

SF has a public transit problem. Muni has great coverage, but travel times across the city are unbearably long. BART and CalTrain are OK for getting to the burbs, but what if you want to go to the beach? Taxis are only for the incredibly wealthy, and they won’t come to my neighborhood on weekend evenings.

That’s why I created the San Francisco Subway. Completely underground, the SF Subway never gets held up in traffic. I can get from my house to the gym in one stop, or to the datacenter in two. Dogs are allowed, and Fort Funston is only a 12 minute ride from Bernal. Instead of traveling at Muni speeds (5.3 mph!), the SF Subway reaches speeds of 75mph between stops!

I drew the map in Gliffy, so let me know if you want to add a stop or a line, and I’ll send you the edit link.

Filed under: cartography, map, san francisco, subway, transportation · 4 Comments

Here is a map of the places the TR crew went in 2007! Let me know which cities I missed!

Filed under: cartography, excursions, map, subway, transportation · 7 Comments

In a bid to bring the Bay Area up-to-date with last century’s technology, Muni, Bart, and CalTrain will start accepting TransLink in the spring. The TransLink readers have already been installed on Muni lines for testing, and interestingly, they are installed on all doors, not just in the front. This should help loading times for crowded buses. Here is a pic of a TransLink reader in the back of the 9 San Bruno:

I’m glad I don’t have to commute on CalTrain anymore, but CalTrain riders will probably appreciate TransLink the most. CalTrain currently uses ancient technology to timestamp 10-ride tickets, similar to old-school time cards found in 1950’s office buildings. The timestamp machines are frequently broken, and the CalTrain conductors are assholes. Hopefully with TransLink, caltrain riders will never have to talk to a conductor again.

Filed under: bart, bay area, CalTrain, muni, san francisco, TransLink, transportation · 2 Comments

Zero to 85 mpg in 4.6 seconds with no carbon emissions!?? The Z-Line is even awesomer than the Alameda-Weehawken Burrito Tunnel and even the Golden Gate Tunnel, which has a donut court with NINE different donut vendors.

The Z-Line is one of the Wish You Were Here! Postcards From Our Awesome Future posters, designed for the Art on Market Street Project by Steve Lambert and Packard Jennings.

Also, since this is one of those Eyebeam projects, a lot of the art from these posters is up on openclipart.org. Check out the F-line:

via LaughingSquid

Filed under: public art, transportation · 0 Comments

Tomorrow!…Sunday!…at 1!

(more info here)

Filed under: bay area, transportation, upcoming · 0 Comments

This actually happened last weekend but I unfortunately missed it. My friend Jesse and some friends of his decided that Austin needed an ice cream festival, so they put one together! Here’s a video of the making of the ice cream truck (he’s the one driving it)…and a linkie to the website.

Ice cream is my all-time-favorite-food-group and drug of choice (all my attempts to OD on it have failed miserably though) so I wish we had an ice cream festival here too!

Filed under: neat, transportation · 5 Comments

So, what happens when you stick a bunch of Star Wars stamps on a beach ball, write an address crossword-style, and drop in it the mail? Unbelievably, the post office will deliver it.

Sometime I’ll have to tell you about the Presidio post office, which is something straight out of Office Space. Their vending machine still only has 39 cent stamps, even though the first class rate went up to 41 cents three months ago. Who knows how many people walk in, buy “first class” stamps, and then have their mail returned for insufficent postage… The guy who works there is a dead ringer for Milton, and whenever I mention the vending machine, he tells me “we’ve had disscussions about putting in 41 cent stamps”. Um…. what?

Filed under: transportation · 1 Comment

We showed up at the 7th Annual BYO Big Wheel Race on Lombard St, just in time to see the cops shutting down the race, but we still managed to have a blast! Since we couldn’t race big wheels, Dodger, Clara, and Herve decided to race jellybeans instead. Red won, of course, but then he got squished by a SUV. We got some silly video of the jellybean race (see below).

With the cops around and the jellybeans smashed, we decided to take the races to Vermont Street, the real crookedest street in the world. Some guy with a megaphone announced that Vermont St was too dangerous, but we still got enough people to show up to Potrero Hill to have our own Renegade BYOBW races! The Vermont Street neighbors were really cool about us taking over their quiet hill, and our event was a total success. Check out some more pics, and some videos of us rocketing down Vermont St. on Big Wheels!

Filed under: byobw, san francisco, toys, transportation, video · 3 Comments

Chicken John and friends are working on a coffee-ground powered pickup truck!

Right now the truck runs off hydrogen gas (Wood Gas) produced by gassifying wood pellets, but when Chicken John gets $5000 for a pelletizer, it will run off coffee grounds. Check out the pics!

We also shot a couple videos of us driving from Dolores Park to Ritual. After we get started on gas, Chicken shuts off the fuel pump and we start running on wood. The second video has a few details of how the engine works..

Filed under: coffee, san francisco, transportation, tronix, video · 1 Comment

We know that domain squatters are scummy, but I never knew they were this scummy. The squatters who picked up http://goldengatetunnel.com/ are specifically blocking the Wayback Machine. Their robots.txt file not only prevents any new crawls, but since the Wayback Machine applies robots.txt retroactively, we can’t even see the previoiusly-archived (pre-squatter) web site :(
[nocode]
User-agent: ia_archiver
Disallow: /
User-agent: *
Disallow:
[/nocode]

Anyway, Dodger pointed me to this awesome bumper sticker.. Those who know, go below!

Filed under: archive, san francisco, transportation · 1 Comment

I’ve been spending many hours criss-crossing the city on public transit lately, and I’ve decided I don’t like those MUNI buses shrinkwrapped in gigantic ad banners. They’re like billboards on wheels, except even larger, and somehow even more lame.

We’re doomed to live with both billboard and advertising-wrapped buses, right? Well, maybe not.

What if San Francisco banned billboards, like some other communities do? The cost of putting giant ads on the side of a bus would go up, and MUNI would get more money, and maybe they would use the extra money to make their service suck less. And we would have no billboards, expect the ones on wheels. What do you think?

Note that in real life, I don’t think banning stuff is a good idea, even if the stuff is lame, like billboards. I also don’t think MUNI would actually use the extra money to help me get around the city any faster.

Filed under: all talk, muni, san francisco, transportation · 1 Comment