Our World and Everything in It

Ford Motor Company is really reinventing itself. Ford is not just concentrating on delivering cars with greater mpg and lower emissions, but transportation in general for growing population centers.

Ford, in partnership with U of M, has been studying congested cities worldwide, tracking growing populations, and the migrations of these populations in order to offer solutions for metropolitan traffic. Their answer is a network of hubs within big metro cities that suffer the most traffic congestion. According to an article on world-wire:

By 2015, about two-thirds of the world will be living in urban areas, which will exacerbate traffic congestion and present major challenges to basic transportation and personal mobility.

“Ford Urban Mobility Networks” is a pilot program that is exploring how to coordinate a variety of transportation options and provide vital real-time information to individuals living in densely populated urban centers.

The program is the result of Ford’s ongoing collaborations with University of Michigan’s Sustainable Mobility and Accessibility Research and Transformation (SMART) initiative.

Ford’s Urban Mobility Network considers all types of transportation, buses, trains, taxis, car-share fleets, mopeds and bicycles. All or some of these modes of transportation transfer at the hubs. The hub idea looks to me like a way to converge and disperse smaller packs of people all over simultaneously, rather than allowing everyone to herd along in one big jam pile of traffic until individuals peel themselves out of the pack as they near his/her destination.

Well good luck with this one if our populations grow out of control that badly. The article said some 35 cities worldwide would have populations of over 10 million. In honor of George Carlin’s death, and his wonderful truths, I think he would say something like “wouldn’t a better solution be a little abstinence so we don’t have population explosions? I mean if we have to really gear up for all these people that are going to be born, wouldn’t it be a lot easier to forgo that big growth and just maintain for awhile. Afterall, population is something we can control.

And I would add,  if we can’t control our garbage, can’t sustain ourselves comfortably, can’t help ourselves let alone someone else, why are we still procreating like it’s 2,000 years ago?

Before I digress farther, the article is a good read to get a idea of what our transportation future might be: http://world-wire.com/news/0806110002.html.

I read an interesting article on World Wire about electric scooters. People are fed up with gas prices and are genuinely concerned about the environment. So scooters are selling like hotcakes all over the country. The number one question potential scooter buyer’s ask: “Will it get me to work and back?” Sure will. They run on pennies compared to dollars per gallon for gas, have 1/10th the impact on the environment, a cheap model can be purchased for $200-$300 dollars, and they are quiet.

Cities are beginning to revise their laws to allow these scooters on the streets. Will we have scooter lanes? Some cities have bike lanes. It’s all very Asian I think. It reminds me of pictures of downtown Saigon. Everybody is on a scooter. Unfortunately, Vietnamese scooters are puffing out CO2, but the picture remains the same. Will people in suits use a scooter? I can see the tie trailing behind now. Will everyone have to wear a helmet? This is all pretty new.

Green is a brand new industry waiting to happen. Scooters sales are a good example of a green market that is taking off because it offers a product that does the job with very little environmental impact, comes in all price ranges, and the savings on gas pays for the scooter in a short time. It’s a good green product that the public will buy when offered the choice. An electric scooter dealer reported over 28% increase in his sales on-line and at his Tampa retail-outlet since 2006.

Tampa retail outlet? New picture here. Senior citizens, I love em to death, but many do not drive well. My new mental picture is of senior drivers on the street at the same time as a bunch of electric scooter commuters. Scooter Commuter has got a ring to it. Anyway this could be a recipe for disaster.

My dear departed father was a moped man in Florida. To me, moped is a scooter with another name. I got him a baseball hat that said “Senior on Wheels.” He had all kinds of mopeds. His hobby was restoring them to run like new. We each had our own when we visited and would tear around in the orange groves on them.

My husband set out with my dad on mopeds. When they got back my husband, hair sticking straight up from the wind and eyes wild, swore he’d never go with my dad again. Why? Because they went along side a highway on the shoulder (illegal), my dad then cut across 3 lanes of traffic to a ramp, while cars were winging buy, and then stood up and waved for Ed to come on; it was all right. Mind you my husband has owned 2 Harleys. On top of that my dad had a heart condition and knew it. He shouldn’t have been out there to begin with. See what I mean about scooters in FLA?

Now that I’ve taken you off the subject, if you are interested in becoming a scooter commuter, or want one for fun, to get around your property, or to buy for your kids (scooters come in sizes) check out this website:

http://www.tm-scooterhaven.com/

Hey, I just remembered. Mary, who writes the HR blog, used to wing to her job at the bank on a scooter way back in the 70’s. It was an old gas bike, but I remember that now. She wore a helmet. I can’t remember if she wore a skirt too. Rotten I should blog this huh? LOL