Parking is a hot topic! And drivers have to deal with it.

Though an application helps drivers in New York and Boston finding a place to leave the car: that’s PrimoSpot wich has developed a database collecting pictures of thousands of parking signs. All the information is visible on an interactive map and the application delivers information on parking places, locations and even bike racks. PrimoSpot allows users to update information and the company is also planning to implement push reminders for users when parking time is about to expire.

Bryan Choi, sick of driving around his northern Manhattan neighborhood, Inwood, for finding a place to park his car has developed the iPhone Spotswitch application.

Spotswitch is a help network for parking. With its iPhone App and integrated website it locates fellow members leaving their parking spots. It will soon be available for other devices as well.

ParkingAroundMe is a free service that lets fellow drivers tell each other about available street parking through text messaging or Twitter. It started in Park Slope Brooklyn (focused on the area around New York Methodist Hospital) and plans to cover the rest of NYC very soon.

Parking is a problem for institutions as well as drivers. Congestion is oftend caused by parking inefficiencies. A study released in June by Transportation Alternatives, a public transit advocacy group, reported that 28 percent to 45 percent of traffic on some streets in New York City is generated by people circling the blocks (via New York Times). Solving the problem could have positive effects on transportation and the economy and environment.

Last fall in San Francisco 6.000 parking places where glued with a plastic wireless sensor. Drivers are alerted on empty parking places and can also pay for parking by cellphones.

Have you heard of any other interesting solution?

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The compressed air car, for instance, appeared several years ago and has been presented as a possible revolution in personal mobility but, as of yet, it has not turned out into reality and, on the contrary, many doubts persist on some technical aspects and on its energy efficiency.

Recently, a study published on the last number of the “Environmental Research Letters” states that the compressed air car beside having an extremely low energy efficiency, requires electric power to compress air and, therefore, its carbon footprint appears to be bigger than conventional fossil fuel cars.

However, last year the MDI, company that produces compressed air cars, introduced the concept named AirPod, whose production license has been purchased by the Indian giant Tata Motors and has announced its launch on the market by 2009.

Will we see soon a small “bubble” emitting air from its exhaust pipe or will there be another delay? Reality or chimera? What do you think?

Other articles you might enjoy!

News on AirPod
Compressed air cars

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According to experts, the selling price of electric cars is going to fall as soon as they are concretely sold by car dealers. In addition a purely commercial incentive to electric cars is the separation of the ownership of the batteries: since they still are expensive, if they were provided separately from the car (and assimilated with running costs), the car’s price could fall dramatically.

The establishment of national networks of battery-exchange stations is a pre-requisite to extend the use of electric cars beyond the boundaries of a metropolitan area. In this line it is worth mentioning the initiative of Better Place, a California based company, which is ready to build networks of car-charging and battery-swapping stations that will use robots to exchange exhausted batteries for fully charged ones in seconds. Stations are planned in Israel, Denmark, Hawaii and Australia and a partnership with Renault-Nissan Alliance has already been started to assure that new electric vehicles from the French group use BP-compatible batteries.

Concerning the batteries, it is worth recalling the Nissan-Renault joint venture with French government agencies to develop, build and recycle batteries for electric cars, which involves the French Atomic Energy Commission and might be supported by the European Investment Bank. Renault expects batteries’ recycling and reuse in energy storage and backup power applications (traditionally, secondary markets for batteries after their useful life in vehicle applications).

Looking at what is happening downstairs is useful also for them who look at the mountains!

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In Italy an interesting case in the Alpine area is represented by the “Intelligence Control System” project, launched by Regione Piemonte in cooperation with scientific and technical partners. It aims at providing an all-inclusive service to travellers: for instance travellers’ vehicles are used to collect data which are processed in a later stage (e.g. traffic flow is calculated in relation with weather conditions). The resulting “Infomobility system” is easy to access for citizens, and should allow them to get useful information and plan their journeys in advance, limiting trip time, traffic congestion and noxious emissions. Some interesting projects already exist on that territory and were developed by skilled professionals.

Experts from all the Alpine countries are discussing on these topics in the frame of the Alpine Convention Working Group on Transport.

Some questions are still open, and might be asked to the conference’s participants: are European tourists ready to use public transport to visit mountain destinations? Are well built Infomobility systems likely to produce behavioural change in people using their own car to reach Alpine destinations? How much would an extensive use of ICT in the mobility sector cost to local governments? Do the expected advantages counterbalance the required public expenditure?

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Infomobility @ Comune di Biella (Italy)

Radio Traffic: live maps from the Regione Piemonte web site

Infomobility @ the Italian Innovation Forum 2009

The most remarkable barriers to a wide use of car pooling are psychological, and the possibility to travel with known people could make car pooling more attractive, reports Marco Di Mitri in his blogpost. A possible solution could be travelling with colleagues.

Several platforms are available to ease car pooling (such as roadsharing.com and pendolaritalia.it in Italy, and NuRide in the US), but some of them deserve a special attention.

One of my favorite platform to be used in a working environment is Caringbee . Each user can register, declare her track with starting point, time and arrival and share this information with her colleagues. The platform has been developed according to the web 2.0 principles and can be embedded in a business intranet.

Car pooling seems to be a viable practice also for people who live in the mountains and often commute to larger centres for work, business, public services and leisure. A large number of private cars can remarkably contribute to produce well known externalities of traffic congestion and pollution in urban centres. The experts who are going to meet at SWOMM 2009 will certainly share their impressions concerning the concrete role which car pooling might play in mountain towns.

Other websites you might find interesting:
Car Pooling Italia
Tandem Mobility
Car pooling//Autostrade Italia
Car Pooling Liguria

In SWOMM 2008 a brief summary of the most viable available technological options was presented by Wilfried Klanner of FIA office in Brussels. In this year’s edition the technological aspects of vehicles and the needed infrastructure to ease the dissemination of low and zero-emissions cars will be discussed. A specific focus will be placed on the concrete experience of Nissan-Renault in some European countries, and the process leading to public-private-partnerships and cooperation agreements.

Numerous other car manufacturers have strongly invested in green R&D: on November 4 and 5, the H2Roma “Scientific Workshop with the press” takes place in the city centre of Rome, near piazza Navona. Since 2002 this event aims at bringing to the attention of large audiences the results of technological research to reduce the environmental impact of cars.

Everybody can see and test the low emissions vehicles produced by groups such as Fiat, Honda, Lexus, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Toyota, by booking a test drive on the H2Roma website.

The SWOMM organisers will participate in the Workshop and try to use this occasion to enrich the debate at SWOMM 2009, looking for possible synergies between the latest innovations in automobiles and the specific needs of mountain urban centres.

The H2Roma youtube channel here

In the latest years a growing pressure has been exerted on cars manufacturers inside and outside Europe, as responsible for a growing share of CO2 equivalent emissions. However, automotive industry worldwide is making great efforts aiming at greening vehicle fleet and reducing the burden of cars on the environment.

In this line the International Federation of Automobile (FIA) launched an international environmental campaign called “Make cars green“, aiming at reducing the impact of motoring on the environment in 2008.

Several initiatives have also been taken by some car manufacturers worldwide going in the same direction, that is a reduction of GHG emissions and a growing energy efficiency of the engines. Remarkable steps have also been made on specific technologies such as electric and hybrid cars. Some governments have strongly invested in the expansion of LPG and methane filling stations network, and in providing incentives for car owners shifting to lower emissions vehicles. Possible policies and concrete initiatives are taking place in several regions, and a growing interest for testing low-carbon vehicles is to be found also in mountain regions.

Within the scope of application of the Alpine Convention, a private-public agreement was signed in the Principality of Monaco with the Nissan-Renault Alliance in 2009 to establish a network for recharging electric batteries of zero-emissions vehicles.

Is an increase of these types of solutions to be expected after the Copenhagen meeting which is taking place in December 2009?

We had the occasion to explore pros and cons of the available technologies in SWOMM 2008, where a specific focus was placed on the technological options for personal mobility. It would be worth analysing how things have been evolving since last year, and which actions might be delivered in mountain areas. Additionally, integrated planning seems capable to promote a model of city where intermediate solutions between private and public transport can be adopted (e.g. by means of the latest evolutions of cars, bikes and other vehicles’ sharing), where the freedom classically associated with private cars is gradually shifted to new types of public transport.

A fruitful discussion on this topic and on how things might change in a post-Kyoto more flexible perspective is likely to be raised in the afternoon session and during the round table of the 2009 SWOMM edition, where the participation of industry, governments and experts is foreseen.

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Nissan-Renault lands in Monaco with EVs too
Green Week given taste of “Make Cars Green