The EV-1 was the first battery-powered electric car made by General Motors, in production from 1996 through 1999, although only available in California and Arizona under a lease program. Despite positive feedback from customers, the EV-1 program was cancelled in 2003 under somewhat mysterious circumstances, documented in the 2006 film “Who Killed the Electric Car?“. The film investigates what roles the oil industry, car manufacturers, and the Bush Administration played in suppressing this technology.

On the rebound, Think’s electric, Web-enabled, carbon-neutral vehicles will be part of the solution to sustainable mobility, soon to be available with a zero-emissions Stirling Heat Engine that will extend its range by hundreds of miles. Tesla Motors CEO Martin Eberhard, Segway inventor Dean Kamen, and Think CEO Jan-Olaf Willums are joining forces to change the way autos are made, sold, and driven. The electric vehicles can form a network of Stirling-driven generators that can send electricity back into the power grid, a substantial force in sufficient numbers.

A new paradigm – but changing people’s ingrained attitudes and emotional baggage about transportation will be a challenge. With carefree, carbon-neutral mobility, and the expanded renewable energy base on the horizon, we can enjoy a wider array of employment, educational, and recreational opportunities, even for those of modest means. Energy conservation is necessary and always admirable, but draconian measures resulting in social isolation are unneeded in light of innovations to come.

In most forums discussing the relative merits of various forms of transportation, little mention is made of the security issue. Recent news events have highlighted a disturbing trend involving not only assaults on public transit passengers, but the tendency for certain routes to become conduits of crime, likely exploited by meth and gambling addicts in their quest for victims. The increased police presence is a needed addition, but this problem won’t be going away that easily, and will probably plague public transportation until it’s acknowledged that security will need to be implemented from the ground up in future planning. The issue is particularly acute for the old and vulnerable in public transit, but also for pedestrians and bicyclists in general. Protected personal transportation mitigates this to a degree, but it’s a problem that needs to be solved at a different level if public transportation is ever going to catch on.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 6th, 2007 at 10:47 pm and is filed under Energy Future, Environment, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.