Transport & Infrastructure News and Discussions

[ººº]

^^^Overall, very impressive.

I would rethink access and departure a little bit. They can't seem to make up their mind about whether they will be traveling all the time or will be stationary. Docking while the vessel is on the move will be a very different from docking while in a relatively stationary position. Think of the turbulence while moving. Also, the legs are taken up in large part by swimming pools. Wouldn't you want some on loading and off loading capabilities there instead?

Also, the airstrips seem well suited to VTOL aircraft, but I am not so sure about trying to use those runways for anything other than VTOLs.

Like The Line™ they value novelty over practicality.

[raklian]

[peekpok]

^^^Overall, very impressive.

I would rethink access and departure a little bit. They can't seem to make up their mind about whether they will be traveling all the time or will be stationary. Docking while the vessel is on the move will be a very different from docking while in a relatively stationary position. Think of the turbulence while moving. Also, the legs are taken up in large part by swimming pools. Wouldn't you want some on loading and off loading capabilities there instead?

Also, the airstrips seem well suited to VTOL aircraft, but I am not so sure about trying to use those runways for anything other than VTOLs.

Like The Line™ they value novelty over practicality.

I don't think I could ever sleep peacefully living on a "floating city." Someday that thing is going to the ocean floor and I sure as heck don't want to be anywhere near it lol. Floating cities have always been a kind of weird fixation for sci-fi and futurists, one that I don't really understand. There are thousands of associated extra-costs and difficulties and next to no benefits.

[Time_Traveller]

[weatheriscool]

United places huge order with Boeing to replace aging planes
Source: AP

By DAVID KOENIG today

United Airlines said Tuesday that it ordered 100 new Boeing 787s, a large, twin-aisle jetliner, to replace planes that are nearing retirement age and allow United to expand its international routes.

United also added to its order book for the smaller Boeing 737 Max, which is used on domestic flights.

The companies did not disclose financial terms of the orders. United said it can choose among three sizes of the 787, which carry list prices ranging from $248 million to $338 million per plane, but airlines routinely negotiate deep discounts on aircraft orders.

United is scheduled to begin receiving the 787s in 2024, and it took options on 100 more.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/business-boe ... m=HomePage

[weatheriscool]

Chinese trucker aims to have 700 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles by end of 2023

https://www.northernminer.com/news/chin ... 003850123/?
Posted By: Northern Miner Staff December 23, 2022

Expanding the use of clean hydrogen in the transportation sector is a challenge China’s MingZhu Logistics Holdings (NASDAQ-CM: YGMZ) and its partners are tackling head on.

MingZhu, which has a fleet of more than 1,500 trucks servicing 29 regions throughout China, is teaming up with Dongfeng Liuzhou Motor Company, a subsidiary of Dongfeng Motor Group Company (US-OTC: DNFGY) and Shenzhen Guoqing New Energy Technology Company to work together and deploy 700 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles by the end of next year.

Mingzhu said it will use the vehicles across its extensive transportation network, which includes cold chain cargo transportation throughout cities in the Pearl River Delta region, where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea; container transportation at the Yantian Port Terminal, a deep-water port in Shenzhen in China’s southern Guangdong province, and bulk cargo transportation in the remote Xinjiang region of northwestern China.

Unlike the electric batteries in electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles generate electricity through an onboard fuel cell using hydrogen as its main source.

According to a report released by the International Energy Agency in June 2019, there were about 11,200 hydrogen-powered cars on the road worldwide. The report noted that “existing government targets call for that number to increase dramatically to 2.5 million by 2030.”

[weatheriscool]

DOT to probe Southwest cancellations that stranded flyers
Source: AP

an hour ago

The U.S. Department of Transportation said it will look into flight cancellations by Southwest Airlines that have left travelers stranded at airports across the country amid an intense winter storm that has killed dozens of people.

Many airlines were forced to cancel flights due to the weather, but Southwest was the most affected. About 4,000 domestic U.S. flights were cancelled Monday, according to the tracking website FlightAware, and 2,900 of those were Southwest’s. Nearly 2,500 more flights had already been canceled as of 5 a.m. Tuesday and problems are likely to continue at least into Wednesday.

Southwest spokesman Jay McVay said at a press conference in Houston that cancellations snowballed as storm systems moved across the country, leaving flight crews and planes out of place

“So we’ve been chasing our tails, trying to catch up and get back to normal safely, which is our number one priority as quickly as we could,” he said. “And that’s exactly how we ended up where we are today.”

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/business-tra ... osition_04

[weatheriscool]

GM reclaims title as America's top automaker after a 2.5% jump in sales last year

Source: CNBC

DETROIT – General Motors reclaimed its U.S. sales crown from Toyota Motor last year as the Detroit automaker eked out a slight gain in annual U.S. vehicle sales despite supply chain problems. GM said Wednesday it sold 2.27 million vehicles in the U.S. in 2022, up by 2.5% over 2021, including a 41.4% increase during the fourth quarter.

Analysts expect overall U.S. auto industry sales to have declined by 7% and 10% last year compared to 2021. Toyota said it sold 2.1 million vehicles in the U.S. last year, down 9.6% from 2021. The company was able to manage supply chain problems, specifically with semiconductor chips, better than others.

Toyota edged out GM in sales by 114,034 vehicles in 2021 – dethroning the Detroit automaker for the first time since 1931 when it surpassed Ford Motor. Toyota executives previously said the top sales spot was unattainable, but CEO Akio Toyoda last year told dealers he did a “happy dance” when he heard the news.

Jack Hollis, executive vice president of Toyota Motor North America, on Wednesday said the Japanese automaker remains focused on retail sales, which are traditionally more profitable than commercial or fleet sales. Toyota has led those sales for several years.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/04/general ... -2022.html

[weatheriscool]

FAA systems restored after outage that halted all domestic flight departures in the U.S.

Source: NBC News

Flights across the United States were brought to a standstill Wednesday morning after the Federal Aviation Administration suffered a computer outage, forcing it to halt all departures nationwide while it worked to resolve the issue.The FAA announced that the ground stop had been lifted at around 8:50 a.m. and that normal air traffic operations were resuming gradually while it continued to look into the cause of the problem.

But delays and cancellations had already spread across the country after the agency said its Notice to Air Missions, or NOTAM, system had "failed." More than 4,500 flights within, to and out of the U.S. were delayed as of around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to the online flight tracker FlightAware. More than 1,500 of those flights were with Southwest Airlines, according to the flight tracker. More than 900 flights were listed as canceled.

The FAA had said in a tweet just before 7:20 a.m. that it was ordering airlines to pause all domestic departures until 9 a.m. ET “to allow the agency to validate the integrity of flight and safety information" as it worked to restore the NOTAM system. In subsequent updates, it said that all flights in the sky were safe to land. “Pilots check the NOTAM system before they fly. A Notice to Air Missions alerts pilots about closed runways, equipment outages, and other potential hazards along a flight route or at a location that could affect the flight,” the FAA said.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a tweet that there was "no evidence of a cyberattack at this point," and added that President Joe Biden had directed the Department of Transportation to conduct a full investigation into the causes. She added: “The FAA will provide regular updates.”

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/us ... -rcna65243

[weatheriscool]

Buttigieg says feds 'not ruling out' nefarious activity in FAA system outage
Source: The Hill

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the department was not ruling out the possibility that nefarious activity was to blame for a computer system outage that delayed and canceled flights all over the U.S. on Wednesday.

“We’re not prepared to rule that out,” Buttigieg said in an interview on MSNBC when asked if he was positive the outage was not the result of foul play. “There hasn’t been any indication of that.”

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) placed a pause on all domestic flights early Wednesday morning after a system that communicates real-time flight hazards to pilots experienced an outage. More than 6,500 flights within, to and out of the U.S. were delayed, according to FlightAware, an online flight tracker.

Buttigieg stressed that while the government was not ruling out the possibility of outside interference, there had been no evidence yet to suggest that was the case.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... r-AA16egWo

[weatheriscool]

World's first ammonia-electric semi packs as much energy as the Tesla
By Loz Blain
January 17, 2023
https://newatlas.com/automotive/amogy-f ... MAIL_ID%5D

Claiming a system-level energy density 5X higher than batteries, Amogy has rolled out "the world's first ammonia-powered, zero-emission semi truck." It holds about 900 kWh of energy, like the Tesla Semi, but you can refuel it in about eight minutes.

Ammonia does a better job of storing hydrogen than hydrogen itself, in many ways, and it could help clean up some difficult industries that require high-density energy. Brooklyn company Amogy has now presented a world-first ammonia-powered semi truck.

Ammonia has two chief advantages over hydrogen as an energy carrier. One is the fact that it's a liquid at ambient temperature and pressure levels, making it a ton easier to store, transport and handle; hydrogen either needs to be heavily compressed to around 700 bar, or else kept cryogenically cooled as a liquid, to just 20.28 K (−252.87 °C; −423.17 °F) – both of these are energy-intensive processes. The second is how much energy it carries: by volume, nearly three times as much as hydrogen gas, and by weight, more than 20 times as much as today's lithium batteries.

[weatheriscool]

The world’s largest zero-emissions truck is more than two stories tall

Up until now, one of these trucks emits as much pollution in a year as 700 cars. A new retrofit replaces the diesel with a battery and hydrogen fuel cells.

In photos, a truck commonly used in mining looks a little like a children’s toy. In person, it’s almost unimaginably huge—between 2 and 3 stories high and more than 50 feet long, capable of hauling 300 metric tons of rocks. If you stand in front of it, your head might reach the center of one wheel.

The standard version of this truck also runs on a massive amount of diesel, with a single vehicle emitting as much climate pollution in a year as 700 cars. Around the world, thousands of these giant vehicles are in use. But a new retrofit can shrink a truck’s emissions to zero. First Mode, an engineering startup, has spent the last several months testing a prototype with the mining giant Anglo American, which now plans to roll out the technology in hundreds of other vehicles.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90837208/th ... -tall?h2fd

[wjfox]

New aircraft design from NASA and Boeing could benefit passengers in the 2030s

By Ashley Strickland, CNN
Updated 4:53 AM EST, Thu January 19, 2023

Greener commercial flight technology may be on the horizon.

NASA and Boeing will work together on the Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project to build, test and fly an emission-reducing single-aisle aircraft this decade, according to an announcement from the agency on Wednesday.

“Since the beginning, NASA has been with you when you fly. NASA has dared to go farther, faster, higher. And in doing so, NASA has made aviation more sustainable and dependable. It is in our DNA,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in a statement.

“It’s our goal that NASA’s partnership with Boeing to produce and test a full-scale demonstrator will help lead to future commercial airliners that are more fuel efficient, with benefits to the environment, the commercial aviation industry, and to passengers worldwide. If we are successful, we may see these technologies in planes that the public takes to the skies in the 2030s.”

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/ ... index.html



Credit: Boeing

[weatheriscool]

Boeing bids farewell to an icon, delivers last 747 jumbo jet
Source: AP

SEATTLE (AP) — Boeing bids farewell to an icon on Tuesday: It’s delivering its final 747 jumbo jet. Since its first flight in 1969, the giant yet graceful 747 has served as a cargo plane, a commercial aircraft capable of carrying nearly 500 passengers, a transport for NASA’s space shuttles, and the Air Force One presidential aircraft. It revolutionized travel, connecting international cities that had never before had direct routes and helping democratize passenger flight.

But over about the past 15 years, Boeing and its European rival Airbus have introduced more profitable and fuel efficient wide-body planes, with only two engines to maintain instead of the 747′s four. The final plane is the 1,574th built by Boeing in the Puget Sound region of Washington state.

A big crowd of current and former Boeing workers is expected for the final send-off. The last one is being delivered to cargo carrier Atlas Air.

“If you love this business, you’ve been dreading this moment,” said longtime aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia. “Nobody wants a four-engine airliner anymore, but that doesn’t erase the tremendous contribution the aircraft made to the development of the industry or its remarkable legacy.”

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/boeing-deliv ... 9c47d81a9a

[caltrek]

LA Wins in California’s $2.5 Billion Award for Local Transit
by Hillel Aron
January 31, 2023

Introduction:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Courthouse News) — California Governor Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday that the Golden State is awarding more than $2.5 billion to 16 different local transit projects throughout the state.

“The projects funded represent critical transportation and will provide alternatives to driving with access to a modernized, public transit system,” Newsom said in a statement. “California is unwavering in our commitment to our world-leading climate agenda, including record levels of investments in public transportation projects to electrify fleets, expand and improve service, and spark ridership growth.”

Much of the money will go to two projects in what have generally been considered less-fancied parts of the Los Angeles area: Inglewood and the East Valley. The East San Fernando Valley Transit Corridor, a 6.7 mile section of light rail in the northern part of Los Angeles, will receive $600 million, while the Inglewood Transit Connector, a 1.6-mile people mover — an automated, elevated rail line that will connect the K Line with SoFi Stadium and other entertainment venues — will receive $407 million, with an eye toward completing it by 2028 when LA will host the Summer Olympics.

Los Angeles and its surrounding cities are in the midst of an ambitious expansion of the area's rail network. The county's regional transit agency Metro hopes to have a number of projects completed by the time LA hosts the Games for the third time.

“These historic investments in transit and intercity rail projects will help get these transformative projects over the finish line and into operation so the people of California can enjoy more of the mobility, safety, environmental and equity benefits that come with riding transit,” said California Transportation Secretary Toks Omishakin in a statement.

Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/la-wins ... -transit/

[weatheriscool]

EU approves 2035 ban on new fossil fuel car sales
https://techxplore.com/news/2023-02-eu- ... sales.html
by Dave CLARK

European officials hope the looming ban on sales of petrol cars will spur investment in the production of all-electric models.

The European Parliament on Tuesday gave its final approval to a ban on new sales of carbon-emitting petrol and diesel cars by 2035, with a view to getting them off the continent's roads by mid-century.

European Union member states have already approved the legislation and will now formally nod it into law at an upcoming ministerial meeting, despite opposition from conservative MEPs, the parliament's biggest group.

Supporters of the bill had argued to that it would give European carmakers a clear timeframe in which to switch production to zero-emission electric vehicles, and spur investment to counter competition from China and the United States.

[wjfox]

[funkervogt]

"although not profitable for china" is a gigantic caveat.

[Time_Traveller]

First hands-free self-driving system approved for British motorways

Fri 14 Apr 2023 10.26 BST

Drivers will be legally allowed to take their hands off the steering wheel on Britain’s motorways for the first time as long as they watch the road, after the government approved another step on the path to self-driving cars.

The driving-assist feature in Ford’s latest Mustang Mach-E model, which allows the vehicle to steer and accelerate but also monitors the driver’s attention to ensure their eyes are on the road, will be permitted by the Department for Transport in a first for Europe.

The BlueCruise system, an £18-a-month subscription add-on to the £50,000 electric car, uses radars and cameras to track road markings and other vehicles, and an infrared camera in the car to ensure the driver’s eyes remain on the road ahead.

It will be usable on a geofenced area of 2,300 miles of motorway – over 95% of the network – in England, Scotland and Wales.

Ford said the technology, which is already in use in the US and similar to Tesla’s “self-driving” features, is the first time level 2 autonomy will be available for general use on UK roads outside trials. Level 2 is defined as partial automation – the next step towards level 5, or full self-driving vehicles, on the car industry’s internationally recognised autonomy scale.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/ ... 1681468798

[caltrek]

Natural Flood Prevention – Higher Trust Through Better Communication
April 17, 2023

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) There have been repeated flood disasters in Germany in recent decades. For example, in 2002 and 2013 along the Elbe and in 2021 in the Eifel region. As climate change progresses, severe floods are expected to occur more frequently. It is therefore important to quickly implement effective protection measures in vulnerable areas.

In the past, flood protection consisted mainly of technical solutions such as building dikes close to the river or constructing water retention basins. However, this is often no longer sufficient in order to be able to provide effective protection against flooding. Nature-based solutions such as dike relocation and floodplain renaturation are thus increasingly coming into focus in Germany and across Europe. “The aim of such projects is to give the river more space so that it can spread out during flooding and the renaturalised floodplains can fully develop their water-absorbing effect”, says Prof. Christian Kuhlicke, head of the UFZ Department of Urban and Environmental Sociology. “Natural flood prevention serves different purposes: It sustainably reduces the risk of flooding, restores the original state of the river landscape, increases biodiversity, and enhances the quality of life in the region”.

However, the local population is often sceptical or critical of natural flood protection measures. For example, there are fears that they might not be as effective as conventional technical flood protection. The interventions in the landscape appear drastic, and there is uncertainty as to whether the landscape will change for the better. The sudden proximity to the widening river can also seem threatening. “The relocated dike means that the water may get much closer to people’s home during high water levels. The fact that the river is now more visible can be frightening, especially for those who have often been affected by floods. However, these new measures can actually make things safer than before”, says Kuhlicke.

In their study, the UFZ team wanted to find out how people living near dike relocation areas perceive the natural flood protection measures and how well informed they feel.

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/986308