Category Archives: Driving

by | September 23, 2013 · 12:29 pm

Learning Lessons From A Car-Free Existence In Austin

In our latest student-written story, a chemistry major at the University of Texas talks about his car-free conversion.

Andrew Hartford with his bike.

Andrew Hartford with his bike

By Andrew Hartford

Before I came to Austin, Texas for college, I lived in a car-dependent suburb of San Antonio. During my high school years there, I bought a car, submitting to societal pressure and parental advice.

According to my dad, buying the car was an investment.  “You can’t get a job without a car,” he told me.  At job interviews, one of the recurring questions I was asked was, “Do you have a car?” lending to the notion that a car symbolized personal reliability and competence.  I was under the false pretense that cars meant freedom and that somehow without one, I’d be less attractive as an employee.

I worked long hours at a fast food restaurant, only to realize I was putting my paycheck directly back into the very thing that was supposed to help me earn money.  I began to grow disdainful about this costly thing that society seemed to be obsessed with.  I felt as though my car was a complete drag on my life; not only having to pay for it but having to maintain it as well.

In addition, I felt guilty  that it polluted the air and used up precious fossil fuels that take thousands of years to form.  This did not feel like “freedom” to me.

The final straw for my car ownership was when I got into an accident the summer of 2010.   Continue reading →

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by | September 11, 2013 · 9:00 am

Can A College Grow If Students Need A Car To Get There?

By Micheline Maynard

Fire up, Chips!

Last winter, I was a Donald Reynolds Visiting Professor of Business Journalism at Central Michigan University. I loved working with my students (check out their work on our Reinventing Michigan blog), and I enjoyed life in Mount Pleasant.

What I didn’t really enjoy was my weekly commute, about 125 miles each way from Ann Arbor. If there had been Amtrak, I would have gladly taken it.

There also were limited local transportation options, meaning I had to drive everywhere once I got to school. If CMU had a bike sharing system, it would have been fun to try it out in order to get around. (I didn’t buy my bike until after classes ended.)

But short of chartering a plane, the only way to reach Mount Pleasant was to drive. It turns out that’s becoming a concern for CMU in trying to recruit students, too, according to CMLife, the student paper.

Writer Ryan Fitzmaurice says the lack of public transportation to the mid-Michigan school is hampering efforts to attract more kids  from out of state. Universities in Michigan charge roughly double the tuition to out-state students, and they’ve become a lucrative source of revenue as schools battle budget cuts.

“The biggest comment I get from parents from out-of-state students is this: We think Central Michigan is a great school and a great institution, but how am I going to get my child there without buying them a car?” Senior Associate Director of Admissions Kevin Williams told the paper. Continue reading →

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by | September 8, 2013 · 9:00 am

New York, New York, More Than Ever, A Big Transit Town

By Micheline Maynard

Fewer vehicles, more transit in New York City.

Depending on your view of New York City, it’s a walker’s paradise, a traffic nightmare, or a place where it pays to ride the subway.

Now, the city has come out with its annual Sustainable Streets Index report, and the results show The Big Apple is mirroring the rest of the country in the way it gets around.

Since 2003, citywide transit ridership has grown 9.5 percent, while citywide traffic has declined 3.9 percent. Subway and bus ridership is growing, while driving remains essentially flat.

The changes are most noticeable in the Manhattan central business district, which is the area below 60th Street (the southern border of Central Park). Over the past 10 years, transit use here is up 11.3 percent, while car traffic has declined 6.5 percent.

Meanwhile, there was a 4 percent increase in cycling during 2012, before Citi Bikes arrived on the scene. There has been a 58 percent increase in year-around cycling since 2008, and an 86 percent increase in people cycling during the winter. (As a side note: New York City gets snowstorms, but not the hammering that cities like Chicago and Boston are accustomed to getting.)

Continue reading →

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by | September 5, 2013 · 9:00 am

Watch San Francisco’s New Bridge Come To Life

By Micheline Maynard

When I was in California last fall, I headed for the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to continue my journey to Palo Alto. Traffic never moves very quickly, so I got lots of time to study the construction project next to me.

Now, that construction project has become a reality. The new eastern span of the Bay Bridge opened this week. It’s supposed to be earthquake proof, and it cost a bundle: $6.4 billion over nearly 12 years.

The wonderful video, from EarthCam, shows the bridge’s progress during the past five years. Thanks to our friends at Jalopnik for this cool discovery.

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by | August 29, 2013 · 11:03 am

Driving Is Dropping In Almost Every State: Is It Down In Yours?

By Micheline Maynard

The U.S. Public Interest Research Group has been among those tracking the change in American driving habits. On Thursday, the group issued a new study showing that driving has dropped in almost every state.

What’s more, driving hasn’t rebounded along with the economy. The federal government recently released statistics for the first half of 2013 showing that people are spending less time on the road, even though unemployment is dropping and things are picking up.

According to the USPIRG study, driving is down in 46 states plus the District of Columbia since the driving peaks of 2004 and 2005.

Ten states showed double digit declines in driving: Alaska, Delaware, Oregon, Georgia, Florida, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, D.C., Indiana and South Carolina.

Driving is up in just four states — Nevada, Louisiana, North Dakota and Alabama, according to USPIRG. One of the reason for the increase is that those states have experienced a flurry of economic activity, although in the case of Nevada and Louisiana, some of it was because of bad news. Continue reading →

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by | August 27, 2013 · 9:00 am

A Top Technology Journalist Looks At The New Transportation World

By Claudia Payne

New York Times journalist Steve Lohr

Rethinking how we get around is, among other things, a commitment to sharing. Sharing vehicles, sharing space and, most critically, sharing information.

Sharing may seem natural if you are a digital native. But, it’s less so if you are among the generations that came of age when a personal office was a declaration of success, and an automobile a declaration of independence.

If sharing is intrinsic to rethinking the way we get around, how are the masters of the information world taking part?

For insight, we turned to a master of information-age journalism: Steve Lohr, the senior technology reporter at The New York Times and a long-time colleague of mine and Micki Maynard’s. He was part of the 2013 team that won the Pulitzer Prize for its look into Apple’s business practices.

As a reporter whose job it is to cast a skeptical eye on the frenzied start-up scene, Steve has always invoked a test of scalability: Does a project have what it takes to grow efficiently and exponentially?

We asked him how the tech world is viewing the new world of transportation. He told us:

“My technologically astute friends who spend a lot of time in cars are big fans of Waze, a crowd-sharing traffic and navigation app.

In case you haven’t heard of Waze, it is what is known as a social mapping service. The basic idea is that users voluntarily allow the GPS data from their smartphones to be gathered and shared, but stripped of personally identifying information. The result is a smartphone application that shows local traffic, congestion and suggests alternative routes. The Waze tagline is: “Outsmarting traffic, together.” Continue reading →

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by | August 26, 2013 · 2:02 pm

Elon Musk Dreams Of Building Teslas Everywhere

By Micheline Maynard

The Tesla Model S, image via Motor Trend.

Tesla Motors has become the darling of investors, and the buzz of the technology world. Everyone seems fascinated by the Model S, the $70,000 electric sedan that recently got the highest ratings ever from the federal government.

Teslas are built in Fremont, Calif., at the same factory that General Motors and Toyota once used for a joint venture. Before that, Fremont was a GM plant.

Fremont is capable of producing 500,000 cars a year, and Elon Musk, the billionaire who started Tesla, has vowed he’s going to fill the place up with electric sedans and a crossover vehicle that’s due next year.

But he also has bigger plans.

As I outline in Forbes, Musk is starting to look at factory locations in Europe, Asia and elsewhere in the United States. He told Bloomberg TV that he’s going to need more capacity when Tesla introduces a small luxury car later this decade.

That brings up some questions: how big can Tesla become? And what will that mean to the rest of the auto industry?

Read the story and let us know what you think about Tesla. Has it caused you to rethink the way you get around? We’d love to hear from any Model S owners in our audience.

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by | August 22, 2013 · 3:10 pm

We Mistakenly Think The Roads Are Safer. Why?

By Micheline Maynard

The American Automobile Association has a new survey that makes us scratch our heads. It says Americans perceive less of a threat from drunk driving, road rage and texting while driving, even though traffic fatalities have gone up.

AAA’s survey measures attitudes over the past four years. Some of the findings:

  • People  who consider drowsy driving a very
    serious threat declined from 71 percent in 2009 to 46 percent in 2012.
  • Those who believe that texting or emailing
    while driving is a very serious threat declined from 87 percent in 2009
    to 81 percent in 2012.
  • People admitting to texting while driving jumped to 26 percent, from 21 percent.

You can read my story about the survey at Forbes.com. Do you feel safer on the roads these days?

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by | · 9:00 am

My Transportation Diary: Parking And Walking In Ohio

By Micheline Maynard

Even though a lot of us own cars, we’ve made a resolution to walk more. Brian Goodman, of Circleville, Ohio, has put that resolution into action. Here’s his Transportation Diary, which involves parking and walking.

Brian's lonely car.

Brian’s lonely car.

Says Brian,

“Until recently, I was commuting 40 miles each way, which took an hour in the morning, and sometimes up to two hours to get home in the evenings. Living in a small town, there are only a couple employers large enough to need the type of work I do so commuting or moving were the only options.

I finally got a job at one of the local employers, I started two weeks ago. I took a pay cut and gave up some very nice benefits in the process. Even after only two weeks I’m sure this was the right move.

Now, my weekly commute consists of driving my old commuter car on Monday morning, and leaving it sit at work all week in case I need quick transportation. Monday evening, I walk the mile and a half home from work. The rest of the week I walk, except Friday afternoon when I bring my car home. Continue reading →

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by | August 21, 2013 · 9:00 am

My Transportation Diary: A Detailed Commute In Queens

By Micheline Maynard

Some people grow up driving, and find they change their ways once they move to the big city. Jason Reese, the director of strategic media at ArkNet Media in Garden City, New York, is one of them.

Here’s his contribution to My Transportation Diary. Check out his great photos and be sure to read all the way through for his detailed account.

Jason writes, “I am originally from rural eastern Tennessee, where the only way to reliably get anywhere is by car. Two years ago, I moved to Nassau County, Long Island to pursue graduate school. The town of Hempstead and its surrounding suburbs fall just outside of the borough of Queens and as such the NYC subway system.

The only reliable public transit option for local travel is the N.I.C.E. bus system, which is generally not so nice. As such, I kept my car for regular commutes to work and school, but often took the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) for trips into Manhattan.

Last week, I moved to Forest Hills in Queens, where I have a plethora of transit options available. Three blocks from my apartment are the E/F/M/R subway lines and a LIRR stop for Forest Hills, as well as several MTA bus connections. I still have my car, but to park in the garage around the block would be $300/month.

Parking around my apartment is metered 25 cents per 15 min from 9am-7pm and is very competitive outside those times, so I park free in a residential area about five blocks away.  Continue reading →

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