Flywheels to capture brake energy

Interesting idea. I've often wondered if there was some simple kinetic way of storing brake energy, rather than electric. I had been thinking more along the lines of a spring or similar, but it looks like Volvo is considering ways of accomplishing this with a flywheel.

From here:

Is your commute killing your marriage?

I suppose it's intuitive, but a recent Swedish study shows that longer commutes correlate to higher divorce rates.
If you think about it, it's not hard to think of reasons why this might be true: guilt of being away from each other, compromises in career, increased stress, etc.
It's just interesting to see a study that highlights this.

I often joke that my commute kills a little bit of my soul each time. Perhaps it's also killing my marriage...

From here.

Humor: Google Car's downfall

I've posted my love for the Google Car before...

Without further commentary:

From here.

Dodge doesn't like robot drivers

... although, as pointed out many times before, I DO like robot drivers.

Yeah, yeah. I know that just the other week, I enthusiastically posted another Dodge commercial that I liked. However, the difference is recreational driving vs. utility driving (i.e. commuting). When it comes to utility driving for the daily commute, put a robot in the driving seat any day.

Drive greener and save money

Part of the frustration of vehicle-based commuting is the costs: cost of the vehicle, cost of maintenance, cost of insurance, and of course, the cost of fuel. Minimizing fuel usage is of benefit financially, environmentally, and socially (costs of maintaining peace in increasingly-hostile foreign areas).

Well, our friends at Eco Driving USA have a series of excellent tips that help minimize fuel consumption. While some of these are well-known to me, others I hadn't thought about (for example, I drove around for a couple of weeks with 100 lbs of gardening lime in the trunk).

Read on at Eco Driving USA.

Time to brush up on my trike-riding skills

I'd theoretically consider cycling to work from my home. 

However, there are a number of things that make me reluctant to do so:

• hills
• a longer commute than I feel comfortable cycling with
• rain

The Drymer trike seems to address these. It's a recumbent-style bike so there's better use of leg power, it has a battery to help with those long distances and pesky hills, and it has a canopy to keep you relatively dry despite the rain.
It's not available yet, but I can definately see myself considering one of these if it was...

Want to dispose of your car? Why not donate it?

Presenting a guest blog post by our friend Daniel Frank, of GiveACar in the UK

--

If you’ve ever been stuck in traffic surrounded by huge numbers of cars, then you will have hoped for a reduction in the number of cars on the road. However, even if we persuade people to cycle, take public transport or car share, then we still have to solve the problem of car disposal for the cars we get out of circulation. If you’ve determined that you no longer need your car, or if your car is no longer roadworthy, the problem is your car is too a large object just to leave in the garage or on the driveway. Selling the car privately can be a complex affair, and may incur income tax penalties. So what options are there?

Well, one option to consider is that of car donation. Car donation takes several forms; for example, in the US a car might be passed on to those in need who couldn’t otherwise afford one, or used by the charity itself. Alternatively, and somewhat more popularly, in Canada and the UK, cars are often sold for scrap or at a car salvage auction and the money given to the donor’s choice of charity. 

In addition, both the US and Canada give the donors a tax receipt for donating their cars to approved charities. So if you want to dispose of your old car, you can even get some money back from it, while helping a great cause. 

Having said all this, you do need to be careful and avoid scams. In the US you should check that the charity is eligible to receive donations and talk to them to ensure how much is gained through your car donation. In the UK, you can check for programs approved by the Fundraising Standards Board like Giveacar, which specifically targets scrap cars.

Helpful links for reputable places taking car donations for charity in your country:

UK: www.giveacar.co.uk

USA: http://www.cardonors.com/WP/car-donation-directory/

Canada: http://www.kidney.ca/Page.aspx?pid=419

Jane Austen meets a 5.7-liter HEMI V8

Another milestone on the road to the availability of the efficient Cleeves Cycle engine

I've mentioned the opposed-piston opposed=cylinder engines before, from Eco Motors. Pinnacle Motors seems to be playing in this arena as well (although with a less impressive-looking engine). If Pinnacle is to believed, their design will yield 30-50% efficiency.
Well, recently they made the exciting announcement that they're making progress in commercialization (that's manufacturer-speak for "getting this bad boy into the Frustrated Commuter's car").

From their press release:

"The company is in the process of commercializing its technology through a joint development and licensing agreement with an Asian vehicle OEM. Production is slated to commence in Q1 2013. Further developments, including plans for expansion into the global automotive market, will be revealed later this year."

I'm not entirely sure what it means to get a" licensing agreement with an Asian vehicle OEM" -- If it's a dramatically different engine than the standards found in the suite of engines that a given manufacturer uses in their shipping cars, then isn't the bigger challenge going to be getting one of the recognizable labels (Kia, Honda, Ford, whatever) to commit to this new engine? Or am I naieve to think that the car manufacturers are the ones driving/demanding engine breakthroughs?

Weaving through traffic? You suck.

To: the jerk 3 miles ahead of me who was weaving through traffic 15 minutes ago

Message: You totally suck.

From: the hundreds of drivers who are behind you who are now stuck in stop-and-go traffic, all due to the fact that you erroneously thought that you could shave another 30 seconds off your commute.

PS: You totally suck.

Via: Car Insurance Guide 
and Autoblog.com

You are not stuck in traffic. You are traffic.

Great image, courtesy of Bike Friendly North Shore via Treehugger.

Off-topic: new take on the glass-bottom boat

My friends at Translogic point to a neat project to build a boat with a sub-marine pilot compartment (I'd argue against the use of the word "submarine" to describe the EGO, since the boat itself does not go under the water)

I've been fascinated by the sea all my life, and have enjoyed a "submarine" ride (actually, a deep-keeled boat with sub-waterline windows) on a trip to Catalina Island. I've also thoroughly enjoyed numerous snorkeling expeditions on Hawaii, and "do it yourself" snorkeling at the Kapoho Tidepools. If I ever found myself at a resort that had the EGOs available, I'd definitely jump at the chance. There's something truly magical about the world under the waves.

The real interesting thing about the EGO is that it's super-easy to pilot (a plus for the noob boating crowd at a resort) and is pilot-able from under the water.

I only hope that there are good "bumpers" on those pontoons...

Next week is Telework Week

I came across Telework Exchange today, which is hosting Telework Week on Feb 14 - 18, 2011.
I wasn't familiar with the site, but it boasts an impressive collection of links to resources, articles, papers, etc. I don't have time right now to review all of the site content (which is considerable), but skimming it, I see that it's geared primarily to a US and Federal Government audience, which is interesting an interesting focus. Nevertheless, it has resources that would be helpful for non-US and business audiences as well.


In my job, I already telecommute several times a week, enjoying a variety of benefits:

• flexibility (working around kids' doctors appointments)
• multitasking (when on certain boring conference calls that require only a portion of my attention, I've been known to run a load of laundry while waiting for a relevant topic for me to come up).
• fewer interruptions (when going into the office, the "dropin chats" totally kill my day and my productivity).
• clothes savings (Yes, when I work from home, I've been known to slum it in a 12-year old T-shirt that I got at some tradeshow. Helps stretch the clothes budget a bit further.)
• no wasted time commuting
• no wasted fuel commuting
• no wear and tear on my car commuting.
• no time spent trying to find parking (the parking around my office building really sucks, and easily adds another 15 minutes to a given day).
• I get sick less (not going into the office to breath the germ-y air really helps keep me from getting all the bugs that are going around).

My employer reaps benefits from me, in that:

• I tend to work a portion of what would have been my commute time. So if I'm required to work 8 hours, and my commute is 2 hours (1 hour each way), if I telecommute, I'll work from home for 9 hours. Not required by the company, but I feel it's a reward to the company for being willing to let me work from home.
• when I interact with other employees (though Skype screen sharing, for example), our interactions are higher quality than if I was actually in the office with that employee sitting beside me.
• I don't look for another job. Frankly, my job hasn't been amazing lately, so anything they can do to keep me happy will keep my expertise in the company. If they took telecommuting away from me, I'm certain I'd leave in short order.

There are drawbacks to telecommuting, to be sure, both for the employee and the employer. I'll be reviewing this website more closely in the coming days to see what solutions I can find to this.

Moron works hard to pay zero attention to his commute

Distractions in the car are dangerous.

Here in my neck of the woods, using any handheld electronic device while driving will get you a hefty fine and likely affect your insurance rates the following year through the "points" system they use. For example, phones must have a handsfree and have a one-touch dialer, and texting/email is totally illegal.
I admit that I don't always adhere 100% to these rules, although I try. When I can't/don't, I adhere to reasonable (I think) personal standards; for example, I never text when the car is moving more than 20 km/h. It's just too dangerous to do otherwise.

The following video shows a bright young spark who's a) flying down the road at highway speeds b) reading a paper book c) using an e-reader, and d) talking on the phone.
Brilliant.

What the video doesn't show is that he actually has his laptop open on the passenger seat as well. ;)

Late for work, late for posting

Hi folks,

I feel I should apologize for my tardiness in posting lately. Things have been very busy this past number of months, with a death in the family, the Christmas holidays and all the chaos that goes along with that. 

And then, in an event that seemed entirely too apropos, given my hatred of traffic, our lives were further complicated by a traffic incident.

Mrs. Frustrated was running errands when she was rear-ended by some guy who tried to avoid damage by going around her, but he still clipped the back 3/4 of the vehicle. So, the insurance company says it's a write-off, which means that I have to go vehicle shopping. Sigh.

At least Mrs. Frustrated seems fine (we think)... so that's good news.

For posting, I will try to do the best that I can, and I thank you for your patience.

Lurch

SARTRE in the wild (literally)

We reported earlier about the EU SARTRE project hitting its one-year anniversary.

Now, our friends at Translogic share a video of a recent road trial on some wilderness-looking highway (albeit, with a single car in the train, and at low speed). Nevertheless, it's not in a lab, and looks promising for the future.
I continue to watch this with great interest!