Bad Drivers or Bad Design in Houston? Watch “Metro’s Greatest Hits” and Decide for Yourself
The video that we featured last week showed a rare collision between a train and a bus in Houston, TX. Much more common in Houston are collisions between automobiles and Houston’s new train. This blooper reel shows some apparen…Read the full story on TreeHugger
On Board Video Cam Shows a Rare Collision Between a Train and a Bus in Houston, TX
video via:khou.com
According to the The National Safety Council, riding public transportation is over 170 times safer than riding in a private car. But accidents do happen and mass transit isn’t immune. Read further for more about the recent collision between Houston’s new Metro Rail and a city bus on February 9th, 2010. …Read the full story on TreeHugger
The Country’s Transit Systems Face Off
Image credit: Good
NYCT, MBTA, WMATA, BART: Which is the biggest, best, public transit system in the country? Good presents a new infographic that puts them next to each other for a face off….Read the full story on TreeHugger
7 Short and Senseless Flights We’d Love to Ban
Image via Earth Island Institute.
Sometimes it’s better to drive. Whether that means you carpool, rent a car, or take public transportation the fact of the matter is that you’d blow more carbon emissions if you traveled by airplane. Not only do you have to use <a href="http://www.treehug…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Mold May Help Design Future Transportation Routes
The tendril network of a slime mold is a near match to Japan’s railway sytem. Photo via Science/AAAS
In 2000, Toshiyuki Nakagaki won a Nobel Prize for demonstrating the ‘problem solving’ ability of mold. His experiment tested a slime mold, Physarum polycephalum, usually found inside decaying logs, to see how effectively it could run a maze. It all revolves around the way the mold finds food, sending out thin tendrils in all directions like a web. When food is found, the tendril with the most efficient path to the source expands while all the others slowly disappear. Well, the mold wa…Read the full story on TreeHugger
US Public Transit Riders Save $9,200 a Year Compared to Drivers
Photo via Zimbio
It looks like public transportation is a better investment than we thought–the average American who takes public transit saves a staggering $9,240 a year. Which is, of course, a handsome chunk of change. The finding comes from a recent study by the American Public Transportation Association, which compiled the average costs of parking, gas, and tolls each year. They’ve come up with a comprehensive savings report that shows how much a rider saves in the 20 top cities for public transit…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Developing Cities from India to Colombia Leapfrog Ahead With Clean, Green Bus Rapid Transit Systems
Traditional modes of transportation meet high-tech ones in Ahmedabad, India, which just won an award for its bus rapid transit system. Photo by Emmanuel Dyan via Flickr.
Ahmedabad, India, leads the pack as cities in developing nations race ahead of their richer counterparts in adopting eco-friendly transit solutions, according to the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), which last week gave the western Indi…Read the full story on TreeHugger
All Aboard the Climate Express to Copenhagen (Slideshow)
photo: Matthew McDermott
Having previously written about the Climate Express prior to the start of its journey in Kyoto, Japan I was very excited when the UNEP invited me to join them for the final leg of the journey. We traveled from Brussels to Copenhagen powered entirely by renewable energy (additional renewably-generated electricity equal to that consumed by the journey) was purchased and f…Read the full story on TreeHugger
10 Things That Make a Great Green City (Slideshow)
Green space is essential to the health of a city and its people. Photo of Gülhane Park in Istanbul by Jennifer Hattam.
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With 180,000 people moving to the world’s cities every day, 75 percent of the global population is expected to be living urban lives by 2050. That concentration make…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Newcastle-upon-Tyne Named Greenest City in the U.K.
Newcastle-upon-Tyne has been named the greenest city in the U.K. in a sustainability audit conducted by Forum for the Future. Photo by Draco2008 via Flickr.com.
Shrouded in smoke and the center of ship building, Newcastle-upon-Tyne was once a major industrial center. But the city has been transformed into the greenest city in Britain in recent years, according to a sustainability audit, The Guardian reports. Newcastle wa…Read the full story on TreeHugger