There are few cyclists who don’t have at least a small addiction to speed – whether it’s cruising down a steep hill or whizzing past traffic. If you really have the itch to fly down the road, you may want to check out the Specialized Turbo, an electric-assisted bike that can cruise at speeds of up to 27 mph. This is the first plug-in from the California-based company — the bike has already been rolling around Europe for a year, but US federal laws have deemed the bike too fast to be sold without calling it a motorcycle until now. The solution? A top-speed limiting gear that won’t let you break 27mph.

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Post tags: California, charger, electric bicycle, lithium ion battery, motor, plug-in, specialized turbo, SRAM, traffic

Until now, nothing has worked to curtail rhino poaching, and 200 of the endangered animals have already been killed in South Africa this year. Tired of watching an entire species vanish before their eyes, a private game reserve took matters into their own hands. The idea isn’t new, but Sabi Sand Game Reserve is the first to inject chemicals that are toxic to humans into the horns of 100 rhinos. In addition to making whoever consumes the rhino horn very ill, the parasiticides are accompanied by a dye that can be detected by airport scanners – two tactics that the reserve hopes will put a small dent in the lucrative trade backed by the South African government.

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Post tags: endangered species, game park, illegal wildlife trade, IUCN, poaching, poisoned rhino horn, rhino, rhino horn, Sabi Sand Game Reserve, South Africa, South Africa National Parks, traffic, wildlife trade

Smugglers already have to answer to the police if they are caught, but a 38-year-old Thai man may have to answer to a much higher authority for attempting to steal almost thirteen percent of an entire species. According to the watchdog group TRAFFIC, law enforcement arrested the man at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok and found that he was attempting to steal 54 ploughshare tortoises, a critically endangered species from Madagascar. Not only was he abducting a large number of rare animals, but his haul put a dent in the conservation efforts of organizations hoping to preserve the 400 individual animals thought to be left in the wild.

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Post tags: baggage, bankok, CITES, engandgered species, luggage, madagascar, ploughshare totroise, smuggler, suvarnabhumi international airport, Thailand, traffic

Back when Darwin visited the Galapagos, he noticed that finches had evolved beaks in varying shapes and sizes to deal with eating different foods. Now birds probably long for the days when all they needed to worry about was keeping away from predators and finding their next meal. New research from Charles Brown at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma has found that cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) have evolved shorter wings to deal with motor traffic. With 80 million feathered friends being killed by cars each year, humans may be a literal driving force for their adaptation.

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Post tags: adapt, cars, charles brown, cliff swallow, Darwin, evolve, finch, galapagos, length, oklahoma, traffic, university of tulsa, wing

China’s cities are experiencing record-breaking levels of air pollution. Fearing for their health, Shanghai’s traffic police department has distributed nasal smog filters to more than 200 officers in an effort to protect outdoor workers from air pollution in the city. If found to be effective, the nostril-sized pollution screens may be given to the entire police force.

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Post tags: air pollution, Air quality, Beijing, cancer, china, nasal filter, police, shanghai, smog, traffic

Read the rest of IPV Delft’s Floating LED-Lit Hovenring Bridge Keeps Cyclists Out Of Traffic in Eindhoven

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Post tags: Architecture, bike bridge, bike safety, cable bridge, cyclists, Eindhoven, Hovenring, ipv Delft, LED lighting, Netherlands, pedestrians, steel, traffic, walkability

A new study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has found that 2.3 percent of people in Fulton County, Ga., where the city of Atlanta is, are exposed to significant levels of highway noise that can disrupt sleep. Extrapolated to other urban areas, this research suggests that rates of such sleep disturbances could be very high in the U.S – and annoyance and sleep disruption from road traffic noise have been connected to health problems such as heart attacks and hypertension.

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Post tags: Atlanta, CDC, fulton county, georgia, Health, heart disease, highway, noise, noise pollution, research, sleep disturbance, study, traffic

Approximately eight million people travel between Melbourne and Sydney each year, and that number is set to double within the next 25 years. There is doubt that the country’s current infrastructure can meet this demand, so international design firm Hassell Studios set about to prove there was a better solution than 16-lane highways and endless traffic. The firm recently unveiled the Australian High Speed Vehicle (A-HSV), a double-decker train concept that could revolutionize the way Aussies travel.

Read the rest of HASSELL Unveils High Speed Rail Vehicle Inspired By 1960′s Muscle Car

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Post tags: australia, australia high speed rail, australia high speed train, green transportation, Hassell Studios, high speed rail, HK Monaro, Melbourne, muscle car, sydney, traffic, train, urban commuting

A small army of highly sophisticated research vehicles has been unleashed on the streets of Ann Arbor, Michigan. No, these vehicles aren’t armored or carrying surveillance equipment – in fact, it’ll probably be impossible to tell them apart from the other mini-vans, trucks, and hatch-backs vying for position at the red light. What these “connected cars” will do is use Wifi to silently transmit information to transponders located on the state and city’s traffic infrastructure equipment. Researchers say this type of technology helps them better understand infrastructure and traffic flow, which could reduce traffic, accidents, and even pollution in the future.

Read the rest of Michigan Deploys 300 WiFi-Connected ‘Talking’ Cars to Help Prevent Traffic Jams

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Post tags: car accidents, connected cars, connected vehicles, driving habits, safety, traffic, university of michigan, US Department of Transportation

Traffic congestion doesn’t just raise your blood pressure; it’s a drag on the economy and it causes a lot of unnecessary pollution. A recent study showed that congestion wasted 1.9 billion gallons of fuel in 2010, and when it all adds up, drivers waste roughly $100 billion it lost time and fuel because of traffic jams. The best way to ease congestion is to drive less, bike and walk more, and to use public transportation when it’s available. But beyond that, it makes sense to look at how our current driving behavior contributes to congestion. That’s the problem that Honda has been tackling, and now the Japanese automaker says it has developed technology that can help prevent traffic jams.

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Post tags: Adaptive Cruise Control System, cars, congestion, fuel economy, fuel efficiency, green transportation, highways, Honda, navigation systems, traffic, traffic jams

As the economy has started picking up, so has the congestion on our streets, a new study from Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University has found. According to the study, our traffic levels are starting to resemble pre-recession levels nationally, forcing people to spend more money on gasoline, which is wasted while cars idle in traffic.

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Post tags: infrastructure, mobility, road congestion, Texas Transportation Institute, traffic, traffic congestion, traffic jam, transportation policy, urban mobility report, wasted gasoline

If ever there were a case for the importance of good urban planning that includes mass transit, this is it: a 62-mile traffic standstill on a road leading to Beijing is now in its ninth day, with individual drivers caught in it for as long as three days. The cause of the jam — beyond the skyrocketing number of drivers in China — is heavy use of the route, the Beijing-Tibet expressway, by trucks bringing construction supplies into Beijing. The trucks don’t just add to traffic; they also damage the road, necessitating repair crews.

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Post tags: Beijing, china, traffic, urban planning

Thinking about zipping through that red light? Well, you won’t physically be able to if IBM has anything to say about it. The technology giant’s recent patent application for  “A System and Method for Controlling Vehicle Engine Running State at Busy Intersections for Increased Fuel Consumption Efficiency” prevents cars from running red lights by–get this–remotely stopping vehicle engines.

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Post tags: car accidents, green design, ibm, red light, traffic, traffic lights

Different cities are taking different approaches to reducing both pollution and car usage. While Londoners are charged a fee for entering the central district of the city, certain German cities are now banning the most pulluting cars from downtown areas. Next time you’re considering driving your black smoke-spewing clunker into central Berlin, Cologne, or Hanover, think again!

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Post tags: ban, berlin, centre, city, germany, Green Transportation, Pollution, traffic