This is an amazing idea that takes a liability (the cost of asphalt roads) and turns it into an asset (electricity generating solar panels). Can it be made to work? Probably… if only the oil industry didn’t stand to lose billions.

Potential benefits/applications:

• Safety warnings displayed on the road
• Illuminated dividing lines
• De-iced roads
• Real-time traffic sensors
• Pipes for electrical and data cables
• Really, really fun playgrounds!

Source: Solar Roadways

Years ago, when the phrase “Global Warming” began gaining popularity, we started batting around the idea of replacing asphalt and concrete surfaces with solar panels that could be driven upon. We thought of the “black box” on airplanes: We didn’t know what material that black box was made of, but it seemed to be able to protect sensitive electronics from the worst of airline crashes.

Suppose we made a section of road out of this material and housed solar cells to collect energy, which could pay for the cost of the panel, thereby creating a road that would pay for itself over time. What if we added LEDs to “paint” the road lines from beneath, lighting up the road for safer night time driving?

What if we added a heating element in the surface (like the defrosting wire in the rear window of our cars) to prevent snow/ice accumulation in northern climates? The ideas and possibilities just continued to roll in and the Solar Roadway project was born.

It seems counter-intuitive, but you can never estimate how many people will use a new bridge by counting the number of people currently swimming across the river.

This group advocates more spending for public transportation, but where will the money come from in the provincial budget? Ultimately, it seems riders will have to share more of the burden.

Source: Montreal Gazette

Unless Quebec changes its spending priorities and abandons or puts on ice some of its plans to expand the road and highway network, a crisis will follow, Alliance members warned.

“We are like a housing cooperative that is using our reserves to put in a swimming pool, rather than fix the leaky roof,” said Christian Savard of Vivre en Ville.

According to a report released Wednesday by the Alliance, studies have shown that building more road capacity only results in more congestion. For each increase of 10 per cent in road capacity, there is a 4.7 to 12.2 per cent increase in road congestion within 10 to 15 years.

Montreal has a choice to make: design itself to be a car-friendly American city, or a pedestrian, bike and bus friendly European city.

In the Plateau, where the debate over parking has been raging for several years between the Green party and store owners, both sides could learn from Europe.

The city of Zurich found that when cars were banned and the street was turned into a pedestrian zone with trams, foot traffic increased 30-40 percent, actually helping local business.

Source: New York Times

While American cities are synchronizing green lights to improve traffic flow and offering apps to help drivers find parking, many European cities are doing the opposite: creating environments openly hostile to cars. The methods vary, but the mission is clear — to make car use expensive and just plain miserable enough to tilt drivers toward more environmentally friendly modes of transportation.

Cities including Vienna to Munich and Copenhagen have closed vast swaths of streets to car traffic. Barcelona and Paris have had car lanes eroded by popular bike-sharing programs. Drivers in London and Stockholm pay hefty congestion charges just for entering the heart of the city. And over the past two years, dozens of German cities have joined a national network of “environmental zones” where only cars with low carbon dioxide emissions may enter.

“In the United States, there has been much more of a tendency to adapt cities to accommodate driving,” said Peder Jensen, head of the Energy and Transport Group at the European Environment Agency. “Here there has been more movement to make cities more livable for people, to get cities relatively free of cars.”

The car is not yet available in Canada.

Source: Arimoto

The Arcimoto SRK is a reasonable choice for sustainable transportation. The SRK is designed for the everyday driver: its environmentally efficient footprint is easy to maneuver and park, it has the capacity to carry two people and plenty of groceries, and its grin-inducing ride experience ushers in a new era of responsible driving – free from compromise and the gas pump.

Featuring an all-electric ultra-efficient drive system, race caliber suspension, a sturdy space frame, and a lightweight body shell, the SRK strikes a unique balance between economy, efficiency, utility and pure electric fun. It sports a variety of body options, multiple range choices and a base price that won’t break the bank.

Arcimoto unveiled the SRK product prototype, ‘Red 5’ on April 23, 2011. The Company is currently testing this prototype as it moves towards product finalization, the launch of the SRK pilot fleet and the push to production.

You can now reserve your place in the initial production fleet for a fully refundable reservation deposit of $100. Click here to place your pre-order.

We hope to see many of you at the Launch party of our Green Neighborhood Plan for Plateau East. Register by April 8th!

Several sites in the Plateau East are working to promote active transportation (walking, cycling and others) and increase the quality of life in the Plateau East.

The Green Neighborhood Plan proposes hundreds of courses of action in order to guide the district and the actors in the progressive development of the Plateau Area Green East.

Discover the upcoming changes for the neighborhood. See how our neighborhood will change!

> Project News: Read the Green Neighborhood Newsletter Plateau East. March 2011

The Green, Active, and Healthy Neighbourhoods project in the Plateau-Est, or Green Plateau-Est, aims to redesign streets and public spaces in order to prioritize walking, cycling, and other modes of active transportation. The project, launched in June 2010, involves a series of participatory activities for citizens during which design solutions for the following priority sites will be proposed and discussed.

> Mont-Royal Avenue East
> Key destinations for neighbourhood youth
> The Masson district
> The STM and Ford district

The project is made up of three phases (Understanding, Exploring, and Deciding). The Green Neighbourhood Plan for the Plateau-Est will be launched in Phase three. The launch is scheduled for mid-april 2011; the exact date will be revealed soon.

Perhaps with this new rail service, the West Island will be more like Philadelphia and less like Los Angeles.

Source: The Suburban

Quebec Transport Minister Sam Hamad announced help is on the way for Montreal’s beleaguered West Island commuters…the Cherest government supports the plan to build a dedicated track line for the West Island’s commuter train service. Once preliminary plans for the new system are completed, transit authorities believe the system could be on track by 2014…With up to 86 two-way circuits available per day, authorities believe the AMT’s service will be increased from 3.6 million to more than 9 million rides per year.

For many Scandinavians and Europeans, skiing isn’t just a sport, it’s how they get to work.

Source: Montreal Gazette

…at Le Massif in the Charlevoix region, where a $230-million expansion is under way, green transportation is a major theme. The project, which should be completed by 2013, will offer dedicated rail service from Quebec City, gondola service from the train station to the base chalet and various types of green transportation on site (including dog sled and electric vehicles). A new hotel will be heated and cooled using geothermal and solar energy.

Mont Sutton, in the Eastern Townships, now composts organic waste from its four restaurants, buys local food when possible, provides shuttle service for its employees and guests from the village to the mountain, and encourages carpooling on its website and through occasional lift-ticket discounts. Along with five other Quebec ski hills, Mont Sutton is running an awareness program to get clients and bus drivers to stop idling their engines in ski-hill parking lots (and elsewhere).

…

So if you must downhill ski or board, and apparently many of us must, it’s important to support these changes and to encourage more. Here are some other tips on skiing green to keep those mountains white:

- Take a bus or a train to the ski hill whenever possible. Check the ski-area websites to see if they are served by bus or rail. Also check out express-ski.com,which offers bus transportation from Montreal and lift ticket deals to several ski destinations, including Killington, Le Massif, Mont Tremblant, Mont Ste. Anne, Smugglers’ Notch, Stoneham, Stowe, Sugarbush, Whiteface and Sejour.

- Carpool whenever possible. Check ski station websites to see if they offer a carpool coordination service. You can also coordinate with other skiers and find group travel deals at qc.bougex.com.

- Take your own food and drinks. Even if some resorts do offer recyclable dishes and packaging, you will waste less energy, reduce waste and save money by taking your own food in your own containers.

- Don’t idle your engine at the hill or elsewhere. It’s bad for your engine, wastes gas and pollutes big time. The vehicle will warm up faster as you drive.

- Buy or rent used equipment at places like Play it Again Sports and La poubelle du ski.

More:
- Sustainable Slopes
- Keep Winter Cool

Looking at the affluent West Island demographics, it is strikingly similar to Philadelphia’s western suburbs in the “main line”. Those suburbs west of Philadelphia were called the “main line” because of the excellent commuter rail service that was created in the 1950′s. There is no practical reason why the West island couldn’t have such a service. Of course, the reason why there isn’t and why the freeways are jammed every day, is political.

Source: The Suburban

Traindelouest.ca wants to improve commuter rail service to the West Island and Vaudreuil-Soulanges

Like Laval and the South Shore, we need regular, reliable service with trains every half hour running from 6:00 AM to midnight. For this, commuter trains must have a dedicated commuter line and stop sharing the rails with freight traffic.

Montreal is opposed, but the decision is not in the bag. They put a priority on funding the airport shuttle, a prestige project of $600 millions that won’t serve a single commuter and will compete with the STM new 747 airport express bus.

As for the government, they believe the West Island have no political alternatives and take the West Island vote for granted no matter how hard our local MNA’s try. We have to show stronger political resolve and demand to be heard.

The most difficult step in any journey is the first one…

Source: Montreal Gazette