Are low gas prices diametrically opposed to our goal of energy independence?  It would seem so.  When gas prices were over $4/gallon, everyone was clamoring for alternative energy.  Now that gas prices have fallen below and remain under $2/gallon, the clamor has gone very quiet.

In a story from the Indianapolis Star, they say “We Can Only Dream About Low Gas Prices, Independence”.  The writer goes on to explain what it would take to achieve these two goals:

To Get Low Gas Prices

• Encourage more domestic drilling
• Give companies incentives to drill where oil is cheap (Middle East, Russia)
• This would make us even more dependent

To Get Independent

• Make gas prices really high
• Large tax would anger many
• Politicians fear voter backlash

Given these assumptions, then yes, these two objectives do seem to be mutually exclusive.  The story goes on to say that we continue to gamble on innovation and technological advances in an attempt to solve these two contradictory goals.  So far we have been unsuccessful.  The electric car is the next such “fix” on the horizon and it faces an uphill battle.  Low gas prices mean that it will take a lot longer to recoup the additional $10,000 you have to spend to purchase one.  The new stimulus package will offer tax breaks, but this ends up costing us all in the long run.

In principle, I agree with this basic premise and it is hard to argue with history.  The problem I have with this thinking is that it never addresses conservation.  Instead of trying to reduce our wasteful consumption, we continue to focus on finding more oil at a cheap price.  We can keep gas prices low and reduce our dependence at the same time by simply cutting our usage.

Click on the links below to see the price tag of our current commuting habits:

• Lots of cars cost lots of money
• Over $60 billion wasted annually in traffic
• Fight for energy independence

Instead of looking for the next “fad diet”, we need to focus on consuming less and conserving more.  For long term weight loss, you need to eat less and exercise, it really is that simple.  Can we curb our voracious appetite for oil and improve our energy efficiency?

photo credit: Wesley Fryer

I read an interesting article on The American Prospect web site this weekend.  The article entitled “How the Stimulus Screws Commuters” makes the argument that Congress is missing a big opportunity by not putting enough funding into public transit.  By spending most of the transportation money on highways, they are not doing enough to help the environment.

Currently there is $27 billion proposed for highway projects that will create new jobs and address our aging roads.  Now I wrote a post last month called Transportation Headaches that examines how massive spending is not the answer to our problems.  This will create jobs, but I have a tough time with the argument that we will “save” money with this kind of spending.

The stimulus package also wants to allocate 11.5 billion in tax incentives for automobile purchases.  I understand the desire to help the Big 3 Automakers, but I don’t think putting more cars on the road is really the answer.  If the automakers had invested more research on alternative fuels, maybe they would be offering better cars today.  They were happy making big profits on SUV’s and we were too happy to buy them, but times have changed and they need to change with them.

Yes, the primary goal of the stimulus package should be to stimulate the economy.  So while road work and automobile purchases could provide a spark, they will not light a fire to long term growth.  I would rather see more money put into projects that would help our economy and our ecology.

When gas prices rose, so did transit ridership.  Investments in mass transit, alternative energy and reducing traffic should be our main focus.  We could boost the sagging economy while also addressing climate change.  That is the type of spending I could support, what about you?

photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

My son is a big fan of Green Day and I like a lot of their music too.  They have the raw energy of a 3 piece band that reminds me of some of the best punk bands in the early 80’s.  This song has a solid bass and drum line that erupts into a typical Green Day crescendo after the chorus:

There’s a drought at the fountain of youth, and now I’m dehydrating
My tongue is swelling up, as say 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4

Troubled times, you know I can not lie
I’m off the wagon and I’m hitchin’ a ride

On Wednesday, Google introduced a new mapping feature called Latitude.  This works with Google Maps to allow smartphone and laptop users to share their current location.  So if your friend wants to broadcast their location, you can check to see where they are.  Like Facebook or MySpace, you decide who to share this information with and it will not store past movements, only your current position.

In case you are concerned with privacy, Google has a good YouTube video showing how Latitude will offer you protection:

So how does this work?  In this story from PC World, they detail some of the technology involved.  They also walk through a couple of different examples and offer a few screen shots to illustrate the process.

This technology is not new, I wrote about this last year in my post, GPS – Where Are you?.  Many cell phones now have built in GPS capability with location-based service that is available from cell phone networks.  So Google is not the first to do this, they are just releasing it on a much bigger scale.

I definitely understand the privacy concerns, but I am very excited about the potential of this service.  Now you could allow family and friends to track your location while accepting a ride.  Would this help ease some of our fears about ride sharing?

Wow, I have seen the future and it is Avego Shared Transport.  This company based in Ireland is actually implementing the Pay4Rides concept that I have been researching for the last few years.  It is very exciting to see them working on this new way to travel.

Their vision matches exactly what I have been looking for.  They are trying to expand the public transit system to run on every road in the country.  All of our single occupant vehicles are wasting a tremendous amount of passenger capacity.

So how do they do it?  Watch this YouTube video for a short explanation and demonstration:

This is a very intelligent combination of 4 exiting technologies to enable shared transport:

1. GPS – satellite tracking easily establishes driver’s daily routes
2. GSM – mobile phone networks connect all participants
3. GIS – geographic information systems enable automatic decision making
4. Web – facilitates communication with all users and ride share web sites

As you watch the demonstration, I think you’ll agree this is a smooth process with enormous potential.  They have addressed 2 of the biggest concerns with ride sharing by offering a system to validate participants and ratings for both drivers and riders.

Yes, it will take time to build a community of users for a system like this.  However increased participation over time will only enhance the number of available rides and riders.  If you take a few minutes to watch the video, let me know if you are half as impressed with Avego as I am.

My friend Mike has recently been doing some consulting work with me and today he shared my weekly commute.  We rotated our mp3 players taking turns as DJ.  We talked, laughed and enjoyed the companionship during the 2 hour ride.

Since we both have a lot of experience with computer software, at one point the conversation turned to how to create a paid ride sharing web site.  We batted around several ideas on how to mix the internet with text messaging to more easily enable riders and drivers to get together.

When I got home tonight, I did some research to see what was already out there and I was surprised to find some very interesting ideas:

• TreeHugger - Car Pooling is Still a Growing Trend
• NY Times - Need a Ride? Check Your iPhone
• Mashable - PickupPal is eHarmony for Hitch-Hikers

So it looks like other people have also been thinking about this and implementing some promising technology.  Take a look and then share your thoughts on using the latest technology to match drivers and riders together.

photo credit: Dave Duarte

Saw an interesting story this week entitled Public Transportation 2.0 by Tara Brown.  She shines a light on how web technology can improve our experience with public transit and keep us informed of any alerts.

The story highlights some of the recent innovations in the Bay Area, but this must also be happening elsewhere.  They are using Twitter to send text messages directly to your phone.  The messages can be about delays on your train or the arrival time of the next bus.  This is a great way to apply new technology to an old problem.

Now the story does not end there.  Apparently another writer at this blog, Mark Pritchard, was also inspired by Tara’s story and he posted Public Transportation 2.1 as a response.  He makes a very good case for small battery powered autocabs to supplement trains and buses.

On his daily commute, he could take the train into the city, but then how does he travel the last 2 plus miles to his office?  It is too far to walk and a bus would double his total commuting time.  So, he like most commuters just drives his own car every day.  Now here is someone who wants to take public transportation, but it is just not convenient for him.

He then goes on to detail the problem of there not being enough taxis and why they don’t really fit for these short ad hoc rides.  He has an idea for autocabs that works because one of these can replace many cars and solve the parking dilemma in most cities.  They would nicely fill the gap in getting you to a transit hub from your point of origin and then from another transit hub to your destination.

I think Pay4Rides could also greatly benefit from a texting service.  Imagine a host site that could accept ride requests and text drivers for availability.  The driver could text back to accept the request and the host server could text the rider with a confirmation.  Now instead of developing a fleet of battery powered autocabs, we could just employ the autos that are already on the road.

WIBNI (Wouldn’t it be nice if)?

photo credit: numberstumper

With Bruce Springsteen playing the Superbowl halftime show, I thought; why not feature one of his songs this week.  I have been fortunate enough to see Bruce play live a dozen or so times and he always puts on a tremendous show.  In searching for a song to feature, I found this acoustic version of “Reason to Believe”

Struck me kinda funny
Seem kinda funny sir to me
Still at the end of every hard earned day
People find some reason to believe

It is interesting to see how Bruce re-interrupts his own music.  This version is close to the original, although he added some nice slide guitar for spice.  When I saw him on the Magic tour, this song was transformed into an all out rocker complete with Bruce playing harmonica on a bullet microphone and guitars that sounded like ZZ Top.

You see, there are many ways to perform the same song and it just takes some vision, desire and work.  For me, there is reason to believe that we can redesign the way most of us commute.  As we struggle through our current difficulties, what do you find at the end of your hard earned day?