Center for Transportation Research News

Green Car Reports reports that several new plug-in cars are expected to come onto the US market soon. The article examines concerns about the increased electrical demands of these cars in concentrated areas where “early adopters” will be likely to live.
The answer, in short, is: No. The current power grids in the U.S. are more [...]

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The Federal Highway Administration posted its October Transportation and Climate Change Newsletter. It contains the latest news in this area of policy and study.

U.S. DOE and U.S. EPA announce the 2010 Fuel Economy Guide for model year 2010 vehicles.
World Resources Institute issues provisional GHG emissions reporting standard for public sector
EESI publishes State Actions on Climate Change: A Focus [...]

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Austin’s new car sharing program, Car2Go, starts today. It is the first of its kind in the nation. During a six-month pilot program, city employees will have access to 200 Smart cars, which will be pre-positioned at parking spots around town. Austin city officials say it will offer a convenient, environmentally-friendly alternative to [...]

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Texans may soon be paying more at the pump. To help generate money for new roads in Texas, some lawmakers are pushing for the first gas tax increase since 1991.

“We are in the critical position in this state where we are growing and will need more roads. But we have no money to build them [...]

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September 30, 2009 - Michael Ramage, former executive vice president of ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company, and James Sweeney, professor of economics at Stanford University, discuss the conclusions of the National Academy of Sciences report entitled America’s Energy Future with a focus on the sections dealing with liquid transportation fuels.
Stanford University
http://www.stanford.edu
ExxonMobil Energy Resources [...]

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Following the successful launch of the new mobility concept car2go in Europe (in the City of Ulm, Germany), car2go and the City of Austin, Texas will launch the first North American pilot program for car2go on November 17th. car2go is a new, sustainable mobility concept from Daimler which redefines individual transportation in congested areas. [...]

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Stolen and vandalized rental bikes challenge a system designed to reduce congestion in France.
Vélib’, Paris’s bicycle rental system, inspired a new urban ethos for the era of climate change.
Renters of Vélib’ bicycles in Paris say it can be a challenge to find functioning ones among those that have been vandalized. In Paris 80 percent of [...]

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National Geographic has posted an informative article on the history and evolution of “daylight savings time” in the U.S.
The Dawn of Daylight Saving Time
The U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., sets what is known as standard time in the country through its maintenance of atomic clocks. But the observatory has nothing to do with [...]

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Safety experts have convinced some hybrid car manufacturers that silence may not be golden, when it comes to pedestrian traffic.
lug-in hybrid and electric cars, it turns out, not only reduce air pollution, they cut noise pollution as well with their whisper-quiet motors. But that has created a different problem. They aren’t noisy enough.
So safety [...]

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Image of Trans-Texas Corridor, TxDOT

In January, TxDOT scaled down the Trans-Texas Corridor project and dropped its name.  Now transportation officials announce that the project is officially terminated.
The Trans-Texas Corridor was originally pitched as an innovative way to pay for congestion improvements and reduce truck and train gridlock in metro areas. But opponents seized on several [...]

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