By Morgan Wilson
Two million. That’s the expected growth of the Bay Area’s population in twenty years. With an expected total population of nine-and-a-half million, expanding roads and building more housing isn’t enough to accommodate such a large number. We need to focus on the certain service that has proved very significant in the growth and movement of big cities. We need to focus on transit.
I’ve recently attended the YouChoose/Plan Bay Area workshop for Alameda County in Berkeley. It centered on the predicted growth of the Bay Area, and focused on the transportation and community fixes needed to accommodate this growth. It was a forum designed not only to educate about the options, but also to gather community input.
Here’s my feedback: when we’re planning cleaner, greener, and better sustaining communities of the future, public transportation should definitely be prioritized.
One key way to do this is to expand transit services to rather underserved areas, especially those that are in the far outskirts of the main metropolis. New citizens with housing in further areas wouldn’t have to drive as much to get to work or school in the major cities.
In turn, the reduction in driving eases pollution. According to the Greenbelt Alliance, the Bay Area’s advocate for open space for fifty years, the Bay Area needs to reduce its emissions by fifteen percent by 2035. The use of alternative transportation, as well as cleaner transit, will greatly help achieve this goal. It’ll also reduce the demand for oil.
As a result, cities will become more pedestrian and bicycle friendly. More transit allows people to walk to the train station, bus stop, or ferry terminal nearest them. The cut-down on cars allows more room for bikers to travel to their destinations. There would also be more room, and cleaner air, to take a walk or bike ride for leisure and relaxation.
Denise Tejada on gadgets and gear.
A “pimped” out car must have the following: candy paint, custom interior, sound system, tinted windows, chrome grill, and most important of all: rims. There is a new style that seems to be taking over, Motionlites better known as LED lights. The lights are mounted on a six-inch retractable arm that is placed in the wheel. With a simple press of a button, the arm extends, and the light blast your rims with seven different hues of illumination. To get this fancy accessory you need $500.
PALO ALTO-- With a $465 million loan package coming down the pipeline from the U.S. Department Of Energy, Tesla Motors is getting ready to step up their game from a limited production run of electric roadsters for rich silicon valley types and eco-conscious Hollywood celebs to something more robust.
How much more robust?
On the order of 1,600 new jobs in the Bay Area. Tesla can add "recession fighting" alongside "swift, silent, and sexy" to the Tesla roadster's list of fine qualities.
This week Oakland leaders announced that the city is fed up with unpaid parking tickets, and will now be enforcing the new Smart Boot. Normally, a car with five or more unpaid parking tickets would get a traditional yellow boot that would immobilize the car, forcing the driver to pay their tickets or forget their car. Unfortunately, getting the boot off your tire would require paying the bill, going to the police station, going to the DMV, and going to get your car from the tow yard. This is a process that could take hours and maybe even days. And don’t forget the extra $260 for storage and towing fees.
The new Smart Boot, allows the driver to call a 24 hour a day, 7day a week hotline to pay their bill over the phone. Then the operator gives the driver a code; the driver punches the number in, and off comes the boot. This way Oakland can get their money and drivers can get on their way easily. However if you don’t make the call within 24 hours, the car will still be towed. And if you don’t turn the smart boot into one of two locations, there is a fine of $25 per day. Overall this system seems like it will be more effective if you have the money to pay off your tickets within 24hours. If you don't have the money, the new system won't make much of a difference. The new Smart Boot is better for the driver and for Oakland. The driver saves time and some money— the service fee is less than a tow, and there's less of a transportation hassle to try to get your car back. Oakland estimates that the city will be able to make $800,000 a year.
There are lots rappers that we can listen to on the radio in this generation. Let’s be real though, some artists are very ignorant. Gucci Mane, Oj Da Juice Man, Plies, Rick Ross, Lil’ Wayne, and many others can be put in this category. What makes a rapper ignorant is the stuff they say that is just not acceptable. Some of the things that they rap about are getting money illegally, having different females every night, killing people, and a lot of negative stuff that shouldn’t be promoted and showed to young people. Don’t get me wrong, most artists have good rhyming patterns, good flow, and good songs, but most show crime as a positive thing. Rappers claim to rap about there life style and how they make money, but hearing the same thing can get boring. There are rappers who never lived the life they claim to have lived in their lyrics. The rapper Rick Ross rap about drug trafficking and killing people, but he has never lived this life. He was a security guard in a prison; this is far from being a drug dealer. Read more...
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Have you ever passed a car dealership and saw a car you wanted to take a ride in? Car dealerships don’t mind letting a person take a little test drive before actually purchasing the car. But a Massachusetts man by the name of Aleh Kot allegedly took it a little too far: once around the block became a 1,000 miles.
Kot refused to turn around and return to the dealership, driving over 1,000 miles, with the salesman along for the ride for the first leg of the journey. When the car slowed at the tollbooth near the Massachusetts state line, the Honda car salesman was able to get out. The following day a Wisconsin State Patrol pulled over 32 year old Aleh Kot and authorities arrested him. Kot was arrested for speeding, reckless driving and kidnapping in Wisconsin.
Kot is now expected to return to Massachusetts where he will be faced with kidnapping, larceny of a motor vehicle and unarmed robbery.
(via SF Gate)
Conventional wisdom has come around to the consensus that driving while doing just about anything with a mobile phone is a BAD IDEA. In California this even led to the passage of a law banning teen drivers from using a cell phone- even with a hand's free kit.
Now two new studies on the driving habits of teens were announced today by the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and State Farm insurance, suggesting that in families where parents set clear rules about how mobile phones can be used in cars the chance of disaster is greatly lowered:
The studies are based on the nationally-representative National Young Driver Survey of more than 5,500 teenagers. The first study shows that teens who said their parents set clear rules, paid attention to where they were going and whom they were with, and did so in a supportive way were:
* half as likely to crash
* twice as likely to wear seat belts
* 71 percent less likely to drive while intoxicated
* 30 percent less likely to use a cell phone while driving
A link to everybody's favorite ultra-graphic anti-texting PSA, and info on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Distracted Driving Summit after the jump.
The film industry has a case of sequelitis, with the most anticipated sequel being the next installment in the Twilight series: New Moon.
For action film fans, the countdown timer to camping out in line is on for Iron Man 2. Unfortunately for fans Terrence Howard will not be returning due to some contract shenanigans, encased in the War Machine suit will be Don Chealde. Sequels coming to the big screen on the down low are I am Legend 2 with Will Smith and the animated Cars is returning to the big screen in summer 2011.
Below the jump you'll find our list of weekly updated list of coming attractions...
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Now that the Senate has approved an extra $2 billion for the Cash For Clunkers program, it seems like a good time to add my voice of dissent to the fray.
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