Here’s a rather scathing PSA from Plane Stupid. (Note, if you get squeamish at the thought of seeing polar bear deaths depicted in a fairly gruesome—and slightly absurd—manner, or if you yourself are a polar bear, you might think twice about watching.)

Wow. Granted, each flight doesn’t literally kill a polar bear. This isn’t some sick inversion of the ringing bells that beget angel wings from It’s a Wonderful Life. But it does hammer home the increasingly…

Here’s a rather scathing PSA from Plane Stupid. (Note, if you get squeamish at the thought of seeing polar bear deaths depicted in a fairly gruesome—and slightly absurd—manner, or if you yourself are a polar bear, you might think twice about watching.)

Wow. Granted, each flight doesn’t literally kill a polar bear. This isn’t some sick inversion of the ringing bells that beget angel wings from It’s a Wonderful Life. But it does hammer home the increasingly…

I often carry with me through airport security more than 3 ounces of toothpaste, in the hopes that I can helpfully explain to a TSA agent that toothpaste is not a gel, aerosol, or liquid, but is—by definition—a paste. Sadly, they have yet to try to take my toothpaste.

Luckily for me and all travelers, the TSA knows how complicated deciding what fits into the ever-nebulous “gel, aerosol, and liquid” category, especially with holiday specific items,…

Apparently very little. A Times reporter took one out for a test drive past its 40 mile battery range. What happens is that the gas-powered generator kicks in—silently—giving more battery power to the car. Its not as if you suddenly switch to a gas-powered engine; you’re still using electric power, just not stored electric power. Indeed, even while the generator is on, accelerating is silent, as you’re just putting more battery power into the engine, not…

Did you read that great article in The New York Times Magazine called “The Case for Working With Your Hands”? Well, if you want to put Matt Crawford’s advice into practice and make some money fixing real, tangible problems, check out this comprehensive guide to setting up and operating your own bike repair service from The Oil Drum. Bonus: This job can’t be outsourced.

Did you read that great article in The New York Times Magazine called “The Case for Working With Your Hands”? Well, if you want to put Matt Crawford’s advice into practice and make some money fixing real, tangible problems, check out this comprehensive guide to setting up and operating your own bike repair service from The Oil Drum. Bonus: This job can’t be outsourced.

The average American is both overweight and spends more than 100 hours per year commuting, that vast majority of those hours being spent in a car. Are those numbers correlated? Could we help reduce our societal weight gain by encouraging more commutes by bike or foot? Our latest Transparency is a look at the number of active commutes in several countries, as compared to those countries obesity rates.

A collaboration between GOOD and Lamosca.

Today on Twitter we asked our followers how long their morning commutes were, and your means of transportation. We collected some of our favorite responses below. We ask a question to our Twitter faithful once a day, so if you’re not yet following @GOOD, make sure to sign up and participate in the conversation.

In their ongoing series devoted to moving cargo around by bike, TreeHugger focuses today’s entry to the workhorse of the genre: extended frame bikes. Here’s a glimpse:

In our endeavours to take a snapshot of the world of Bicycle Cargo we have to date looked at the Racks And Bags used for bicycle cargo as well as the Bike Trailer. Now in Chapter Three, we take a gander at over 20 Extended Frame Bikes, as used for the…

As if motorcycles weren’t impressive enough already, now they’re starting to shed the terribly un-hip (by modern standards) internal combustion engines that have traditionally powered them in favor of something more environmentally friendly. In their place you will find sleek, noiseless electric motors that offer the same or better performance than their gasoline-powered counterparts.

The newest entry in the field is the Mavizen TTX02, a race bike which will be available next year. As we reported…

I often carry with me through airport security more than 3 ounces of toothpaste, in the hopes that I can helpfully explain to a TSA agent that toothpaste is not a gel, aerosol, or liquid, but is—by definition—a paste. Sadly, they have yet to try to take my toothpaste.

Luckily for me and all travelers, the TSA knows how complicated deciding what fits into the ever-nebulous “gel, aerosol, and liquid” category, especially with holiday specific items,…

Apparently very little. A Times reporter took one out for a test drive past its 40 mile battery range. What happens is that the gas-powered generator kicks in—silently—giving more battery power to the car. Its not as if you suddenly switch to a gas-powered engine; you’re still using electric power, just not stored electric power. Indeed, even while the generator is on, accelerating is silent, as you’re just putting more battery power into the engine, not…

Did you read that great article in The New York Times Magazine called “The Case for Working With Your Hands”? Well, if you want to put Matt Crawford’s advice into practice and make some money fixing real, tangible problems, check out this comprehensive guide to setting up and operating your own bike repair service from The Oil Drum. Bonus: This job can’t be outsourced.

Did you read that great article in The New York Times Magazine called “The Case for Working With Your Hands”? Well, if you want to put Matt Crawford’s advice into practice and make some money fixing real, tangible problems, check out this comprehensive guide to setting up and operating your own bike repair service from The Oil Drum. Bonus: This job can’t be outsourced.

Today on Twitter we asked our followers how long their morning commutes were, and your means of transportation. We collected some of our favorite responses below. We ask a question to our Twitter faithful once a day, so if you’re not yet following @GOOD, make sure to sign up and participate in the conversation.

In their ongoing series devoted to moving cargo around by bike, TreeHugger focuses today’s entry to the workhorse of the genre: extended frame bikes. Here’s a glimpse:

In our endeavours to take a snapshot of the world of Bicycle Cargo we have to date looked at the Racks And Bags used for bicycle cargo as well as the Bike Trailer. Now in Chapter Three, we take a gander at over 20 Extended Frame Bikes, as used for the…

As if motorcycles weren’t impressive enough already, now they’re starting to shed the terribly un-hip (by modern standards) internal combustion engines that have traditionally powered them in favor of something more environmentally friendly. In their place you will find sleek, noiseless electric motors that offer the same or better performance than their gasoline-powered counterparts.

The newest entry in the field is the Mavizen TTX02, a race bike which will be available next year. As we reported…

Check out this amazing recreation of the highways as a subway map. While there are no geographic features, it sure makes it easier to envision any number of trips and routes around the country. Click here for a larger size.

Via Coudal.

Check out this amazing recreation of the highways as a subway map. While there are no geographic features, it sure makes it easier to envision any number of trips and routes around the country. Click here for a larger size.

Via Coudal.

And here’s another fun chart: According to the most recent data from the New York City Department of Transportation, biking in the city skyrocketed again this year. The colored bars represent the number of bikes counted at different commuter points over the course of a single day.

Our friends at Streetsblog provide an explanation:

The new counts bolster the evidence linking safer bikeways to increased cycling. New York’s bike network expanded significantly in the past 12 months, including…

The average American is both overweight and spends more than 100 hours per year commuting, that vast majority of those hours being spent in a car. Are those numbers correlated? Could we help reduce our societal weight gain by encouraging more commutes by bike or foot? Our latest Transparency is a look at the number of active commutes in several countries, as compared to those countries obesity rates.

A collaboration between GOOD and Lamosca.

Back on the Train Gang

By Michael Dukakis. Dukakis is a former governor of Massachusetts and served on Amtrak’s board of directors. He thinks we need to use Detroit factories to manufacture trains.

After years of delay, during which both Europe and Asia enjoyed the benefits of modern trains that run at speeds of 200 miles per hour and beyond, President Obama, Vice President Biden, and Congress have made an $8-billion down payment on what can and…

In July, America’s “Cash for Clunkers” program became a front-page news story. Championed by environmental groups, progressive think tanks, and the auto industry, the program, which gave consumers up to $4,500 when they exchanged an old gas guzzler for a new, fuel-efficient car, proved to be so popular that it exhausted its initial $1 billion in less than a week (it was later extended). In the process, it got 250,000 of our nation’s most polluting…

Leading the Charge

A fleet of electric vehicles may seem like a remote reality right now, but if the corporate world is betting right, it is closer than we think. Besides the various car companies now falling over themselves to get electric cars into the market, other major American corporations are starting to get ready for a world in which people need to fill up their ride with a plug and not a pump.

Best Buy is starting its…

We Want to Ride Our Bicycles…

Bikes have been around for about a century and a half, and they’re still awesome.

Because we dig the calluses on the palms of our hands. Because we actually kind of like when our legs feel like Jell-O. Because we crave the brisk wind on our cheeks. Because we recall with fondness fastening Topps cards to chain stays. Because today we actually prefer the non-motor bike anyway. Because it’s the paragon…

Tesla

As evidenced by the flashy concept renderings all over the internet, every established car company out there, from Ford to Rolls-Royce, has a plug-in vehicle “in development.” But the $109,000 Tesla Roadster is still the only highway-capable plug-in you can actually buy, fully assembled, in America. In July, Tesla accomplished something else car manufacturers should be jealous of: It turned a profit of $1 million.

The road’s been bumpy, though. There have been the nasty legal disputes…

The Hottest Thing on Wheels (or Rails)

As the new transportation secretary, Ray LaHood has been tasked with remaking our transportation infrastructure into one that focuses more on sustainability than widening highways. It’s a tall order but, so far, we’re impressed with his approach.

1. For supporting high-speed rail.
When Obama squeezed $8 billion for high-speed rail into the recent stimulus package, LaHood got on board fast. His grant program for rail projects already has nearly 300 applications. They’re…

Blockade Parade

How closing streets can actually reduce traffic

As the city of Vancouver prepared to convert a car lane on the busy Burrard Bridge into a bike path last summer, some imagined impending anarchy. At the time, one cabbie, Jatinder Nijjar, predicted, “It is going to be chaos.” In fact, the trial—and the traffic—has run smoothly so far.

Nijjar might have had different expectations had he read “The Price of Anarchy in Transportation Networks,” a paper published in…

In rural Africa, women spend 26% of their time fetching water, often walking for miles with heavy buckets balanced on their heads. That’s time that could be spent going to school, working outside the home, or teaching their children. The Hippo Water Roller eases the burden by allowing women to transport five times as much water with much less physical effort. In our latest LOOK video, we examine the impact of the rollers on…