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?

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News on AirPod
Compressed air cars

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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