Hybrid Vehicles
Paving The Way For Healthier Highways
September 21, 2011 | 
Author 
Our highway and transportation systems need some help…they need it soon. Here’s how you can do something about it.
(NAPSI)-More than 46,000 miles of road compose our nation’s highway system. They are crumbling. They’ve been neglected too long, maintained not with vision and foresight but, instead, with short-term fixes. The average American now spends nearly the equivalent of a week each year stuck in traffic. A lack of infrastructure investment is affecting our quality of life, our environment, our economic competitiveness and safety.
The time for change is now.
Perhaps nothing that happens in the Barack Obama presidency will be more important to the American transportation system than creating a vision for the future.
That opportunity comes this fall, when President Obama and Congress can reinvent how the U.S. transportation system is planned, prioritized and funded with the reauthorization of federal transportation funding.
The plan must be visionary and bold, and it must answer three basic questions:
What is the federal government’s role?
How do we prioritize a long-term plan?
How do we pay for it?
Already, the U.S. Department of Transportation estimates the annual cost of simply maintaining our current highway system is 12 percent more than the government is actually spending. The current administration cannot afford to limit its role in transportation policy but, instead, must prioritize interstate commerce and national security.
It must develop a long-term vision, with multimodal infrastructure investments that go beyond the highway system and stretch our imaginations: an increased load of freight rail to minimize highway congestion, a national system of Critical Commerce Corridors as proposed by ARTBA that moves truck freight safely while separating it from passenger traffic, eco-friendly transit lines that ease congestion.
It’s time to get creative, to reinvent our transportation system and adopt groundbreaking concepts that are part of a strategic approach framed at the federal level. Recent stimulus funding should not be confused, or substituted, for reauthorization and long-term solutions.
Discussions about funding mechanisms must be inventive–and plentiful. Potential sources could include the following:
Increase the gas tax and tie it to inflation. Create state infrastructure banks. Replace or supplement the gas tax with user fees, which would be tied to vehicle miles traveled, and tolls. Allow public-private partnerships where they make sense.
The possibilities are limited only by the imagination. The challenge is here, the time is now.
To let your elected officials know your opinion on this or other issues, contact them at www.house.gov or www.senate.gov.
Paul Yarossi is president of HNTB Holdings Ltd and co-chairs the SAFETEA-LU Reauthorization Task Force on behalf of the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) in Washington, D.C.
Posted in 
Modified Cars « Longlife
I have put Some simple information together to explain what an exhaust system is, and what it will do for your car.
What is an exhaust system?
An exhaust system in general removes the by products of combustion from the car’s engine and vent them in to the atmosphere away from passengers. This silences the noise of the engine and cleans up car engine emissions before venting them into the atmosphere. (Post 1992 cars only)
What will a stainless steel exhaust system do for my car?
have a soul purpose of replacing the factory fitted exhaust system of a car. This will improve the cars visual, sound and general performance. Stainless steel exhausts will give any car a great style upgrade, by making changes to the more visible parts such as the exhaust tip. But you must keep in mind that aftermarket stainless steel exhausts are not just a stylish accessory but also alters the performance of a vehicle.
So before you can even consider buying a new exhaust system, make sure you think about these considerations before any purchases:
• Cost: the cost of a system is quite overweighed, but please keep in mind that an exhaust made from such durable steel will last many yeas. Less maintenance is required to keep a high level of shine with stainless steel exhaust. So perhaps setting yourself a budget before ordering will give you a better idea of what you can get.
• Sound: if you have ever dreamt of driving a sports car with a unique rumbling noise that will instantly turn heads, then a
stainless steel exhaust could be a great investment for you. Depending on the system you choose you could get a deeper roar, replicating those high end sports cars. All you need now are the
!
• Performance: an aftermarket stainless steel exhaust gives your car a more efficient fuel path. Making your engine breath better and creating more power. I should explain that my VW Passat is now seven years old and completely standard except for the performance exhaust that I had fitted with great results about two years ago. The standard output of the engine when new was 130bhp which in itself gave fairly lively performance. The much increased power delivery with my new
exhaust was fantastically smooth with the feeling of more grunt coming in even before the turbo spooled up.
http://www.longlife.co.uk/blog/index.php/tag/modified-cars/
Tags: Alfa Romeo five-door MiTo rendering
Source: http://www.eurocarblog.com/post/3241/alfa-romeo-five-door-mito-rendering
Alfa Romeo will produce a five-door version of its compact car. Following the success of the sexy little city car, 2013 will see a bigger hatch version appear after a restyling in 2012. Alfa intends to compete with the Audi A1 Sportback, and it should increase worldwide sales with five-door MiTo production also in the US. The overall aim is to reach half a million sales a year by 2014.
The ambitious target would mean that Alfa will have to increase its sales by 400,000 units over the next five years. While the Alfa MiTo has been a successful car so far for the company, and the new
should also help out with the target, but it won’t be easy. In an interview with Automotive News, Arndt Ellinghorst from Credit Suisse said that Alfa has huge potential but that its strategy isn’t what it needs to be.
The target of 500,000 vehicles a year, for example, includes just 85,000 sales in the US, with the latter 425,000 being absorbed by the European market alone. The MiTo is as cute as you like, but that’s a tall order for any manufacturer in Europe. The Fiat Group is obviously still testing the US waters, but Alfa will have to expand its focus to achieve these sales targets.
Source |