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Oslo rolls out biomethane-powered busses
The city of Oslo is getting down and dirty with a new scheme for its public transportation. Adding "minor modifications" to 80 of the city's public busses will allow them to run on biomethane fuel produced from raw sewage. The buses are apparently much quieter, and are more eco-friendly than biogas, with zero net carbon emissions. The leader of the project, Ole Jakob Johansen, also says that the city should save about €.40 per liter on fueling the busses. The trial is part of Oslo's plan to be carbon-neutral by 2050, and they hope to soon have the entire fleet of 400 rolling clean. Waste not, want not, huh? [Via Inhabitat]
San Fran buses to get cameras for ratting on bus lane parking offenders
Sure, everybody's done it at one point or another, but San Francisco is trying to put the kibosh on traffic-chocking illegal bus lane parking with new cameras the city will be mounting on public transport buses -- Big Brother style. The cameras are mounted behind the windshield and bus drivers can use them to automatically photograph offenders. During the trial phase, parking baddies will get off with a warning, but in a month San Fran will start issuing $100 tickets. Better get that shopping done soon! [Via AutoblogGreen]
Camera-equipped buses could automatically ticket San Franciscans
Not long after hearing about England's newfangled auto-ticketing system comes word that San Franciscans could soon be facing something similar. If signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger, "forward-facing digital video cameras would be installed on city buses," which would then be used to automatically ticket the owners of vehicles that are caught "blocking buses." The cameras would presumably be used to photograph vehicles that are in bus-only lanes, and interestingly enough, the proposed law also authorizes Municipal Transportation Agency "employees to access sensitive personal data" from the DMV for ticketing purposes.
Drive-by internet buses bring internet to cheap skate rural types
Sure, we're all about sneakernet, but this is the first time we've seen "busnet" employed to such effect. In rural India, internet infrastructure is too expensive to make it out to remote villagers, so the United Villages project is bringing the internet to them on four wheels. Apparently, Indian interests in the internets are relatively limited at present: "They want to know the cricket scores, they want to see the new Aishwarya Rai photos, and they want to hear a sample of the latest Bollywood tunes." That's according to Amir Hassan, founder of UV. So the bus loads itself up with such data, and drives out into the country, spreading the info via WiFi. If someone does want a more unique tidbit of info, they can order it for a few extra rupees, and receive it the next time the bus heads their way. There's even a form of e-commerce -- the bus carries an electronic catalog, and orders are delivered by the bus the next time it's out. Sound's pretty hip-cool, but we suppose we'll stick with our WiFi / EV-DO / HSDPA / telepathic internet connection we've got going for the time being.[Via Slashdot]
Japanese train company to debut dual-use bus and rail vehicle
JR Hokkaido, a Japanese rail firm, is poised to fully launch its dual-mode bus and rail vehicle. The bus-train has both rubber and steel tires, allowing it to switch between regular roads and railroad tracks with ease. The company debuted a test model nearly three years ago, and a set up a test line in the Shizuoka Prefecture city of Fuji late last month -- but JR Hokkaido will be conducting commercial tests on the Semmo Line near Shiretoko in April 2007. This crazy dual-use machine is meant to be a way to replace train cars that run on local lines where ridership is down to under 500 people per day (that's 30 percent of JR's lines). While you probably won't be able to get your hands on one unless you're a running a Japanese rail company, these new hybrids will cost ¥20 million ($170,735) apiece, which apparently is about one-seventh the cost of a traditional diesel-powered train car. At such bargain basement prices, Japanese rail riders might be seeing these pretty soon -- that is, unless the hovercraft-train-bus triple-threat comes to market first.[Via Engadget Chinese]
