Headline News
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Have you ever opened your mail and found a traffic ticket sticking you with a not-so-small fine?...Join the outrage coming from hundreds of communities using red-light and speed cameras, which, to many an angry driver, seem to be lurking everywhere. Automated photo enforcement has gained wide support among local officials as a proven method of reducing collisions and enforcing traffic laws, freeing officers to respond to more serious crimes...Join the outrage coming from hundreds of communities using red-light and speed cameras, which, to many an angry driver, seem to be lurking everywhere. Automated photo enforcement has gained wide support among local officials as a proven method of reducing collisions and enforcing traffic laws, freeing officers to respond to more serious crimes.
NPR -
As California’s attempt to curb climate-changing greenhouse gases ramps up, critical pieces of the landmark law remain uncertain, including the impact of the all-important auctions of hundreds of millions of so-called “emission allowances” that will serve as the spur for utilities, refiners and others to comply. Over the next eight years, the quarterly auctions by some estimates are projected to raise between $8 billion and $41 billion, with the money going to everything from helping balancing the state budget to promoting the virtues of clean energy to giving breaks to millions of residential and commercial electricity customers.
Capitol Weekly -
American drivers are about to become a lot more distracted. As safety officials fret about drivers taking their eyes off the road to play with smartphones, automakers from Detroit to Japan are rolling out vehicles that are becoming virtual iPads on wheels. Next-generation vehicles, safety experts warn, could make multitasking motorists even more of a hazard on the nation's roads and freeways....Motorists can press steering wheel buttons to buy movie tickets and give voice updates for theirFacebook pages. Daimler AG, the German manufacturer of Mercedes-Benz and other vehicles, is working on technology that will enable drivers to read information on the windshield by waving their hand. Ford is offering consumers a car system that converts smartphones into routers, giving passengers Internet access while barrelling down the road.
Mercury News -
This year is BART’s 40th birthday. While some people swear that 40 is the new 30, when it comes to subway systems, 40 is just plain over-the-hill. About two-thirds of BART cars have been running the rails since the system opened, in 1972....It’s time for new trains. But building them won’t be cheap: BART estimates it will cost more than three billion dollars to replace all 775 cars. Right now, three companies are in the running to build the new fleet. One is in France, one is in South Korea, and third is in Canada.
KALW public radio -
Will there be a time in our lives when cars don’t crash? When a Mustang can warn a BMW that it’s changing lanes – or when we can just sit back and relax and our cars will drive themselves? Auto technology experts say “yes." And they say that some of those advances may happen quicker than you might think....On Tuesday, Consumer Reports announced that it now supports vehicle-to-vehicle communication technology – systems that essentially let cars talk to each other, helping avoid accidents in the process.
CNN -
The BBC quotes Transportation Secretary J.P. Schiavi as saying the commuter train hit a barrier at the end of the platform at the Once station in the western part of the city. Schiavi says the train hit the barrier at about 12 mph, destroying the front of the engine and crunching the carriages behind it.
USA Today -
The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department has introduced a free shuttle ride for the public to use at the city's Golden Gate Park on weekends and holidays. The shuttle will be free to all residents and visitors with stops at Golden Gate Park destinations, including McLaren Lodge, the National AIDS Memorial Grove, the Koret Children's Quarter Playground, the Conservatory of Flowers, the de Young Museum, the California Academy of Sciences, Stow Lake, the bison paddock and the park's two windmills and paths to Ocean Beach on its western edge.
Bay Citizen -
Car owners are keeping their vehicles for nearly six years, a survey finds. The factors include the recession, better quality, longer warranties and autos' decline as status symbols....In the past, people sold their cars well before they reached 100,000 miles, which was about the mileage at which drivers thought the vehicles would be worn out....The trend isn't expected to reverse, even if the economy takes off and people feel secure enough financially to buy new vehicles.
LA Times -
Fine atmospheric particles — smaller than one-thirtieth of the diameter of a human hair — were identified more than 20 years ago as the most lethal of the widely dispersed air pollutants in the United States. Linked to both heart and lung disease, they kill an estimated 50,000 Americans each year. But more recently, scientists have been puzzled to learn that a subset of these particles, called secondary organic aerosols, has a greater total mass, and is thus more dangerous, than previously understood....“If the authors’ analysis is correct, the public is now facing a false sense of security in knowing whether the air they breathe is indeed safe,” said Bill Becker, of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies.
New York Times -
State rail officials are defending as reasonable their estimates that passengers will take at least 29 million trips a year on high-speed trains between San Francisco and Los Angeles by 2040. In car-loving California, state High-Speed Rail Authority board members say, it will take only a small share of the millions of trips now being made by car and airplane to switch to trains to make the project profitable.
Fresno Bee