Cars in NYC bike lanes get stickered

The Daily Green reports on the controversial stickers (right) that some activists are putting on cars parked in bicycle lanes in New York City. Parking in bike lanes is against the law.

The anonymous group - who started putting the stickers on the offending vehicles last week - has already handed out "a couple hundred."

They claim it's a safety issue, yet the car owners could consider it vandalism even though they are breaking the law by parking in a bike lane.

As one commenter wrote: "some bicyclists will just pick their bike up and slam it into the car and continue on their way. This does a lot more damage than a sticker on the window or bumper."

Read the full story: A sticker situation - cars in the bike lane get a wake-up call

Photo from The Daily Green

Electric car to power utilities and income

Reuters reports on the University of Delaware researchers who have fashioned an electric car to not only run on just electricity but also to store and generate electricity for utilities.

This technology on the prototype car is called vehicle-to-grid or V2G and the professors hope this will also generate future revenue.

To help lay the groundwork for V2G in Delaware, the state passed a 2009 law - the first of its kind in the world -- requiring utilities to compensate electric car owners for power sent back to the grid at the same rate they pay to charge the battery.

At a current cost of about $75,000 per [Toyota] Scion - including V2G conversion and the basic car -- the vehicles are beyond the reach of most drivers. But [Professor Willett Kempton, who is leading the university's V2G program], argues that costs will fall as production increases. With all costs optimized, a V2G car should eventually sell for $3,000-$5,000 more than an equivalent gasoline model, he said.

And Kempton estimates that the value of providing storage and electricity generation to utilities is $4000 per year.

Read the full story: Electric cars give power back to grid

Photo from University of Delaware

Toyota's green sheen fades

GreenBiz.com reports on how marketing "green" is changed after the high-profile Toyota Prius recall.

Toyota had become a darling of the eco-minded, a case study in the green halo that can inure to old-line companies that bring environmental innovation to mainstream audiences. Toyota seemed to have done it the right way: with products that weren't just greener, but better -- in this case, high-aesthetic, high-performance, affordable cars.

But now that ideal has experienced a crash-course in reality, a collision of technological snafus and a corporate culture that shunned transparency for expediency — and may have committed criminal neglect.

Read the full story: Toyota and the future of green marketing

Photo from GreenBiz.com

Elk, deer and Grand Teton car accidents

National Parks Traveler reports on the animals involved in the most vehicle accidents in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park.

Every year around 100 animals are killed by car collisions. Elk and deer top the list. Moose (picture right) and bison are also listed.

Wildlife-vehicle collision statistics for the past five years reveal that an average of 33 deer, 38 elk, ten bison, seven moose, three pronghorn, two bears and one wolf are killed each year on [Grand Teton] park roads, the park said in a release this week. In addition, a host of smaller animals such as foxes, porcupines, beavers, marmots, pine martens, sage grouse, and owls die each year as a result of collisions with automobiles. The data suggest that vehicle speed, time of day (e.g. dusk, dawn, and nighttime), and specific location may be factors in wildlife-vehicle incidents.

Read the full story: Elk, deer most likely wildlife involved in vehicle collisions

Photo by National Parks Service

Visit these car-free places

Mother Nature Network has a slide show of seven car-free places around the world.

Showcased are places like Makinac Island, Michigan (photo right), Lamu Island, Kenya and Venice, Italy.

Read the full story: 7 car-free cities

Photo by Makinac cowgirl / Flickr

Norwegian electric car, made in Indiana

The New York Times reports on Norwegian electric car maker named Think, who will manufacture in an Indiana plant.

The Think City, a battery-powered, two-seat hatchback, is set to begin rolling off the Indiana assembly line in early 2011, ramping up to a potential annual production of 20,000 cars by 2013. Think said it will spend more than $43 million to upgrade the Elkhart factory, which is expected to eventually employ more than 400 workers.

Read the full story: Indiana chosen for electric-car plant

Photo by PR Newswire

Buy electric and get high tax credit

Environmental News Network reports on the momentum electric cars are gaining.

Federal tax credits for purchasing electric vehicles have a $2500 base and can go as high as $7500 depending on battery kilowatt capacity.

Read the full story: Electric cars generate sweet tax credits

$45k electric car coming soon to CA

GreenBiz.com reports on the new electric Coda car that will be available soon in California.

The Coda (picture right) is reported to go 100 miles before needing a recharge, and can drive at up to 80 mph. The price is $45,000 but buyers can apply a federal rebate of $7,500 dropping the price to $37,500.

That’s not exactly a car priced for the masses but Kevin Czinger, Coda CEO says: “Things will only get better. We will drive down price and drive up performance.” The company will ship its first cars next fall, he says, and hopes to sell a few thousand vehicles in 2010. Sales will initially be limited to California.

Read the full story: An (almost) affordable electric car

Small cars = high MPG and less emissions

The Daily Green has a slide show and review on eight small cars that have high MPG or are electric.

Look at pictures and reviews of cars from MINI (picture right), Fiat, and Smart among others.

Read the full story: Eight microcars transforming the American road

Photo from MINI

1 man, 1 year, 1 car, around the world

Associated Press Art Director Nicolas Rapp is quitting his job next month to travel around the world solo with only his newly-equipped Land Cruiser.

It's not exactly an eco-trip since he will be driving, and where he can't drive he'll ship his car and fly... but he will be camping most of the way and basically living in his car.

He estimated his total expenses to be around $45,000, but we think he should add in some more for border bribes and/or other bribes to get out of sticky situations along the way.

We wish him luck and will be following his travels.

Follow his trip at transworldexpedition.com

Map by transworldexpedition.com / AP

Electric cars not so clean; report

Reuters reports that electric cars aren't as clean as touted according to a new scientific report.

"For electric vehicles to become a major green alternative, the power fuel mix has to move away from coal, or cleaner coal technologies have to be developed," said Jared Cohon, the chair of a National Research Council report released on Monday called "Hidden Costs of Energy: Unpriced Consequences of Energy Production and Use."

About half of U.S. power is generated by burning coal, which emits many times more of traditional pollutants, such as particulates and smog components, than natural gas, and about twice as much of the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

Read the full story: Electric cars don't deserve halo yet: study

Photo by Thomas Peter / REUTERS

Drive through and create power

Reuters video reports on a New Jersey fast food drive-thru that is helping to test an energy capturing prototype.

New Energy Technologies Inc. is testing a new kinetic energy capturing device that looks like a speed bump at a Hillside, New Jersey Burger King. When cars slow down to go over the Motion Power bump, energy is captured and can be used to power the restaurant.

Watch the video below:

More deer hit by NC cars; study

The Charlotte Observer reports that more deer are being hit by cars now that man is encroaching on their habitat.

A new study shows deer-related crashes reported to police hit a high last year in Mecklenburg and across the state, as new residents and increasing development gobble up habitat.

Rapid growth across the state also means fewer places to hunt - still the most effective way to cull the deer population, said Jon Shaw, an N.C. Wildlife Commission biologist in charge of Mecklenburg and nine other western counties.

The above photo shows a deer just before it's hit by the Google Street View car.

Read the full story: It's wild: wrecks due to deer have surged in North Carolina

Photo from Computer Weekly

Electric Trabant unveiled

Reuters video reports on the Frankfurt car show where three new electric car models were shown as well as an electric Trabant.

Trabants, nicknamed Trabis, were the most common and often only available car in communist East Germany. Residents waited 15 years to even receive one of these cars after they had put in an order. They are now seen as a symbol of the former communist country and regarded with a "derisive affection," according to Wikipedia.

Watch the report below:

Cars to run on used clothing?

Reuters video reports on bio-fuel made from old clothing.

Swedish engineers have created a chemical process that breaks down cotton and synthetic fabrics into bio-fuel (ethanol and methane) which could fuel vehicles.

The scientists claim that this process uses less energy than extracting from plant sources and "50 percent more ethanol is produced."

Watch the report below:

More OR coast birds killed by drivers

The Seattle Times reports that more Oregon Coast seabirds are being killed by beach drivers.

Sharnelle Fee, director of the Wildlife Center of the North Coast, said she found the bodies of eight protected seabirds on Saturday, scattered on the sand just north of the entrance to Gearhart Beach on the Oregon coast

Fee has found the bodies of dead birds just about every week this summer. In June, a young motorist hit and killed nearly 50 seabirds near Long Beach on the Washington coast. "In many instances, the tides just wash the bodies away," Fee said. "I think we're just seeing the tip of the iceberg."

Read the full story: Beach drivers killing birds on Oregon coast

Photo from Wikimedia

Cabs taking backseat to mass transit

The New York Times reports that more travelers are foregoing expensive (and CO2 emitting) taxis for shared or public transportation options to and from airports.

Although the premise of the article is for budget reasons; positive environmental effects also occur by taking mass transit.

Another positive is that many travelers found that taking the train to/from the airport was much more reliable and sometimes even faster than a cab, especially during rush hour.

Read the full story: More fliers skipping the cab

British hydrogen fuel-cell car

New Scientist reports on the new hydrogen fuel-cell car unveiled in London this week.

The Riversimple Urban Car is so far only a concept car that runs on the energy created by combining hydrogen and oxygen.

Plans for leasing of this vehicle should be underway by 2011 in the UK claim the company.

Read the full story: New hydrogen-powered city car takes to the road

French compressed-air car

Reuters video reports on a compressed-air car that will most likely go on sale in France in 2010.

Watch below:

By train, car, or bus?

The Associated Press via USA Today compiled a list to answer the question of "what's the greenest way to travel?"

It explains how to determine which form of transport leaves the smallest carbon footprint depending on distance, vehicle size and class.

Read the full story: What's the greenest way to travel?

content note: the AP now only allows subscribers to view and use their content; so that's why most of the AP stories we use here have been printed elsewhere.