Best. License Plate. Ever.

Mystery man in the Tesla Roadster, please marry me.

Via Ecorazzi

Biking Directions On Google Maps

In the US, Google Maps now offers step-by-step biking directions; bike trails outlined directly on the map; and a new Bicycling layer that indicates bike trails, bike lanes, and bike-friendly roads.

Love the new addition but I wish they would get this system working on the phone app.  I’d prefer to whip out my phone just like I do for driving directions as opposed to printing it out on a piece of paper.   I’ll be waiting patiently Google. : )

Last Minute Discount Greyhound Deals To Coachella

Looking for a last-minute ride to the Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival?  Greyhound is offering a price break aimed at people traveling to the festival from other Southern California cities, the company announced this week.  The bus line is offering $39 round-trip travel to Indio or Palm Springs from the following cities:

Anaheim, Claremont, El Monte, Glendale, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Long Beach, North Hollywood, Norwalk, San Fernando, and Santa Ana.

Coachella attendees can still get the lower price for travel between now and Sunday.  The price break is available for tickets booked on www.greyhound.com as well as those purchased at Southern California bus terminals, the company said.

See you in the desert!!!

My Desert

Google Maps Adds Bicycle Paths

Google spent the past six months tweaking its mapping service so it could recommend routes that would steer bicyclists away from big hills and heavily congested streets. The feature can be used to pinpoint bicycling trails in more than 150 cities.

Huffington Post

The World’s First Recycled Surfboard Is Here

Business partners and surf industry veterans, Joey Santley and Steve Cox introduced two first-of-their-kind revolutionary endeavors, Green Foam Blanks and ReSurf Recycling, at the Action Sports Retailer (ASR) trade show in San Diego, Calif. earlier this year.

With deep roots in the surf industry, both Santley and Cox recognized southern California as an epicenter for surfboard manufacturers with more than 1,000 surfboards being produced per day between Los Angeles and the Mexico border. Additionally, nearly 20% of the foam needed to shape each board is rendered as waste and inevitably ends up in landfills.

This unusable foam, partnered with other somewhat toxic materials required to finish each surfboard, equaled an incalculable amount of waste coming from the surf industry. Green Foam took that waste and created the world’s first recycled surfboard blank.

Totally bitchin’ dude.

Source NY Times

Get LOST In A 727 Fuselage At Hotel Costa Verde

Hotel Costa Verde, a resort near Quepos, Costa Rica, opened its newest suite earlier this year in a refurbished Boeing 727 airline fusilage.

The vintage 1965 aircraft, which was once owned by Columbia’s Avianca Airlines, was transported piece by piece from San Jose airport, and mounted on 50 foot tall pillars in the hotel’s coastal location in Manuel Antonio National Park.

The 727 is not the Hotel Coste Verde’s only example of airplane recycling, however. The hotel’s El Avion restaurant, cafe and bar make use of a refurbished Fairchild C-123 cargo plane.The cargo plane was previously owned by the US government and involved in the controversial Iran-Contra affair in the 1980′s. Escándalo!

Source Lost In A Supermarket

Use Your Head

Gotta be safe while riding around town and doing your part to help the environment. Unfortunately, I don’t wear my helmut. It’s ugly. I hiss at the bike shop dude for always trying to sell me one when I come in to get my tires pumped. A few weeks back I bumped in to a friend that hit a big ass pothole while riding and ended up in the hospital. No helmut, messed up collarbone, arm and head. I think it’s time to rethink my ” I wouldn’t be caught dead in one of those” excuse.

Yakkay came up with a good idea. It’s a Danish company that created a standard helmut with various covers available, designed to transform your helmet into a hat and become an accessory to your outfit. They look a bit big and awkward on but I guess it’s better than a crack in your head.

Block Montaño Gets Electric

Bumped into Cesario “Block” Montaño -the underground “Mayor of Venice” and fell in love with his old school electric bike. Block keeps it real by skating, walking or biking to his local destinations. The only 4 wheels he supports are the ones on the bottom of a deck.

Block is co-owner of the skate shop Venice Originals and he also directed and co-produced the documentary film, Rising Son: The Legend of Skateboarder Christian Hosoi. Watch the trailer below.

Baddest Mom-Mobile On Two Wheels: Makes Me Want To Pop One Of Those Baby Things Out!

The Bridgestone Angelino Assista electric bike is a bicycle for parents: this one has no crossbar, a child seat (there’s also space for one on the back) and an electric motor to help with the pedaling. It’s range per charge is 37 miles. The handlebars are elongated so that the adult can see right over the top of the child.

There’s a long list of it’s features that can be found at the G Living link below. I’m too lazy to write them all out. The only one I care to mention is that the baby seat can be transformed into a basket! Guess I won’t have to join the Hollywood baby manufacturing alliance after all.

Asking price: $1312.00. Not bad IMO compared to the ones I saw at Best Buy recently.

Source G Living

Posted by thuy

Maria Menunous in Coco Eco Magazine #7

Here is the long awaited Maria Menounos story I styled for Coco Eco Magazine. There were so many good things about this shoot. Maria was an absolute sweetheart to work with and all of the amazing eco-lines we used fit her like a glove (a stylists dream). We shot in the beautiful, solar powered Marrakesh House and had an electric powered, bright orange Tesla delivered specifically for the shoot.

Happy 1st Anniversary Coco Eco mag!

Check out Cocoecomag.com for the rest of the shots and the inside scoop on TV’s green “it” girl.

Posted by thuy

El Camino= Electric Feel

Wow. Some dude spent serious dough to convert his 81 Chevrolet El Camino into an electric g-ride. Love it.

Source Wired

Posted by thuy

Sex Definitely Sells: Angry Green Girl

Free car washes for earth loving g-rides by sexy green girls in bikini’s? Hot! How did I miss this?

Check out the new kids on the block and their social networking site which includes green tips, news and more of their eco-eye candy videos.

Angry Green Girl

Source Green Daily

Posted by thuy

Stash Your Goods While Riding

How cute are these pouches for carrying your personal items while riding?

Hambone Designs are a result of a brother and sister team that made a rule of giving handmade gifts for holidays to family and friends. Visit their Etsy shop to see the rest of the designs or to request a custom order.

Source Treehugger

Posted by thuy

Cash For Clunkers Ends Monday

You better get yours!

Souce Cars.gov

Posted by thuy

No Shame To This D-Bag’s Game

My dear friend Rich Kim snapped this picture in the streets of El Lay recently.

I bet the driver of this oversized Massengill box is wearing an Affliction or Ed Hardy shirt and likes hair gel. Alot. Gag me with a biodegradable, potato starch spoon.

Posted by thuy

Carpool Convos – Episode 1 of 3

This is part 1 of an upcoming series produced by Sarah Shewey of Pink Cloud Events. It features the guys of Fallen Fruit and Damien Somerset of Zaproot having candid and unscripted conversations while driving in a new Honda Insight.

Kudos to you Sarah! And I’ll be sure to never throw my apple cores out on the street again.

Posted by thuy

Coco Eco Shoot With Maria Menounos

I was beyond excited for the Coco Eco magazine shoot yesterday for several reasons:

• Subject: Maria Menounos (Access Hollywood)= HAWT!
• Location: Marrakesh House (21st century remodeled green residence.) Check out those solar panels!
• Sexy electric sports car: Tesla
• All the beautiful eco-friendly clothes and accessories that were pulled by moi (with the help of Anna and Sarah Griffin.)

Clothes used:
LIV GRN
Linda Loudermilk
Leila Hafzi
Sarah Shepard

Accessories by:
Hovey Lee
Nola Singer
Caleen Cordero
Brooke Benson
Olsen Haus
Mink Shoes

And there just happened to be another Tesla in the garage charging up. The owner: filmmaker Chris Paine (Who Killed the Electric Car?)

Isn’t she lovely? Especially in Leila Hafzi, who is one of my favorite designers at the moment.

Thanks again to Anna and the Coco Eco crew for another successful shoot. New issue dropping soon!

Posted by thuy

The Horns Are Coming Out To Play

Off to San Diego for a bachelorette party to corrupt celebrate Michelle’s remaining days as a free woman before she ties the knot with Andy.

I’ll be with a group of green, grown and sexy mother earth lovin’, crazy-fun tree snugglers but there won’t be anything green about this weekend- unless it’s involves something like this..

or this.

So I leave you all with this image of us as happy, sane and sober hapas..

because I’m pretty sure we’ll be coming back like this after all the debauchery that’s about to go down (me being Bernie of course…)

Or the female version of this- minus the baby and all teeth intact. I hope ; )

The GG&S blog will be on vacay as well. I’ll be giving my carpal tunnel a break from typing by replacing it with the strenuous task of lifting a glass to my big mouth continuously over the next three days.

Have a great weekend! xx

thuy

Best Buy Gets Electric

Went to Best Buy the other day and tripped out when I noticed an entire section of electric scooters and bikes. Made me want to apply for their 0% finance card and get myself one.

Posted by thuy

Recycled Camera Strap

Love these camera straps by Photojojo, made from salvaged seat belts of junked cars. They also made guitar straps out of reclaimed belts for Wilco and TV on the Radio.

Posted by thuy

Shape-Shifting Solar iChange Vehicle

Swiss automaker Rinspeed unveiled another quirky concept at the 2009 Geneva Auto Show: an electric sports car that grows. At the push of a button, the rear end of the iChange pops up to expand from a one-seater to accommodate two additional passengers.

When configured for just one occupant, the driver sits in the center of the car, and the exterior canopy forms an aerodynamic teardrop shape. Expanding the rear for more passengers creates seats on either side behind the driver. In this mode, optimum aerodynamics are sacrificed for increased interior space.

Power for the iChange comes from an electric motor producing 201 horsepower. The sprint to 60 mph comes in just over 4 seconds, and top speed is 137 mph. The car’s lithium-ion batteries are designed with two different configurations for long- and short-distance driving. To maximize range, weight is kept to just over 2,300 pounds.

There are no doors on the iChange. Instead, the entire roof canopy tilts forward using electric power. Solar panels on the roof drive fans that keep the interior comfortable in the summer and also charge the batteries. In place of the traditional car key, the iChange uses an Apple iPhone, which also controls many other vehicle functions. The navigation system also features the ability to calculate the route that requires the least energy.

Source Inhabitat

Posted by thuy

Cash For Your Bucket/Hooptie/Clunker

Ed note: Bare with me please. The photo problem didn’t fix itself over the weekend. (SHAHRAM HELP!!)

President Obama signed into law a program the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) or Cash for Clunkers. This is a program that helps you purchase a new, more fuel efficient vehicle when you trade in a less fuel efficient vehicle.

1. You can get $4,500 if new car is 10 MPG more fuel efficient than the older car
2. You can get $3,500 if new car is 4 MPG more fuel efficient than the older car
3. This bill sets aside $4 billion for ‘Cash For Clunkers’ program
4. You may trade in or buy a domestic or a foreign vehicle

Who is eligible?
1. Only purchase or lease of new vehicles will qualify
2. Clunkers eligible for the program must get 18 MPG, or less
3. Must hold a valid legal title to the car seeking to trade in
4. Registered to the same owner for the full year preceding the trade-in

Who is NOT eligible?
1. Cars that have not been insured for the past year
2. Cars that are older than 25 years
3. Cars not in drivable condition
4. New Car manufacturer’s suggested retail price cannot exceed $45,000

Posted by thuy

Eco-Cup 2009 June 12-14

What: Harmony Festival, Rude Boyz Present, and Megaramp Productions announce first ever Eco-Cup Skate Competition with musical line-up at 31st annumal Harmony Festival.

When: June 12-14

Where: Sonoma County Fairgrounds, Santa Rosa, CA

Some of theworld’s top skate legends including Steve Caballero and Christian Hosoi (holler!) will be present for demos, judging, and Meet and Greets. The Eco Cup trophy will be created out of recycled and repurposed mixed media, and the steel and plywood-constructed Eco Cup skate zone will be reused, making this a truly eco-friendly attraction.

Entrance to the skate zone is included with paid admission to Harmony Festival. $30 pre-sale and general Harmony tickets are available online now ($40 at the gate) and at participating Whole Foods stores and dozens of other retail outlets (see web site for locations). This year, kids age 7-12 are $10 and kids 6 and under are FREE!

Tickets and detailed Festival information is available at www.HarmonyFestival.com.

Watch the trailer for Rising Son: The Legend of Skateboarder Christian Hosoi. The rise, fall and rebirth of the “rock star” of skateboarding. From his early days in Venice Beach, his bad boy persona, revolutionary skateboard designs, record-breaking tricks, his abuse, to his current inspiration of today’s youth.

Posted by thuy

Hello Tesla Model S!

Goddamn! That’s one sexy electric car.

With a range up to 300 miles and 45-minute QuickCharge, the Model S can carry five adults and two children in quiet comfort – and you can charge it from any outlet, without ever stopping for gas. World’s first mass-produced electric vehicle offers performance, efficiency and unrivaled utility for a base price of $49,900, making it the only car you’ll ever need.

Tesla

posted by thuy

Louis Vuitton: Your Wish Is Their Command

Louis Vuitton is happy to create almost any custom piece, if you’ve got the cash. Last year Karl Lagerfield bought a custom LV trunk to hold his 20 iPods. And now a Chinese gentleman has commissioned something a little more grandiose, and just a little more strange.

The client “wanted to be able to watch television and offer coffee to his friends wherever he traveled in the world, including the remotest desert,” Louis Vuitton’s Patrick-Louis Vuitton recounts. “We agreed to put two solar panels linked to a battery for the flat-screen TV and DVD player, two-way radio, tuner and coffee machine.”

The one-of-a-kind trunk, which is covered in the label’s iconic Damier canvas, took a year to complete and costs tens of thousands of dollars.

One person who probably won’t line up for an exclusive LV trunk is the brand’s creative director, Marc Jacobs. He commented at the recent Met Costume Institute Gala that he doubts trunks will ever make a comeback.

“I don’t think there’s anything practical about traveling with a trunk,” he said. “Luxury travel is traveling with a toothbrush. That’s it, end of story. The people who really live luxurious lives don’t need to pack. They’ve got stuff wherever they go.”

I can’t knock anything with a solar cause but I’m totally laughing at the image of homeboy on a deserted island with this trunk. Seriously?

Source Earth First

Posted by thuy

Casual Mafia In My Prius

Highlarious.

via autobloggreen

posted by thuy

Toxic Alberta, Canada

An intro to the future of American oil. It’s a messy, grim business. Happy driving.

See the rest of the 15 part series on VBS.TV

Posted by thuy

Fairey & Sharf For Livestrong

Here’s s a peek at Lance Armstrong’s Trek art bikes designed by artists Shepard Fairey and Kenny Scharf for his upcoming race (Giro D’Italia). The Giro D’Italia is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year and it is considered the most prominent race behind the Tour de France.

Source Hypebeast

Posted by thuy

A Family Affair To Remember

All aboard! Decided to head out by means of public transpo. Universal City to downtown hell-a. Final Destination- Standard Rooftop.

Made new friends with a young pack of skater boyz. Don’t call Chris Hansen on our asses.

I don’t know why we found this so amusing. (cough, sigg sippy cup, cough)

Cali Angels and friends.

Thanks to Family Affair for partnering with Surfrider Foundation West LA/Malibu Chapter to support the Rise Above Plastics campaign. The campaign was dedicated to eliminating single-use plastic water bottles and all other single-use plastic such as utensils and bags.

Special thanks to Chris Caparro and of course to Marques Wyatt and all the other DJ’s for getting our booties bumping under the sun. L.O.V.E.

Posted by thuy

Have You Hugged A Cop Today?

Po-po’s in the happiest place on earth (Denmark) took to the streets to give out hugs and bike helmets to bicyclists to promote safety.

How sweet. You know that would never happen on the streets of LA.

Source Huffington Post

Posted by thuy

Coachella Roundup 2009

Ladies at Viceroy enjoying tequila & the sun.

A sight for sore eyes. Literallly.

Our weekend sponsored by Vitamin Water.

Spank Rock killin’ it!

Enjoying Sinatra’s bed.

Jeremy Scott/Adidas @ 4am. Where to next?

Sippin’ on some sizzurp.

OG Coachella crew.

Public Enemy.

Celebrating our 23rd with The Cure.

Peace out! See you in 2010.

Posted by thuy

The 2nd Annual Wilshire Center Earth Day / Car Free Day

The 2nd Annual Wilshire Center Earth Day / Car Free Day this Wednesday, April 22, 2009 from 11AM-2PM at 3700 Wilshire Blvd.

• FREE Electronic Waste Recycling
  Bring your old TV, computer, monitors and other electronics to be recycled for FREE!
• We will host a farmers market featuring organic and locally grown produce.
• The Mayor’s Million Trees Initiative along with KYCC will be giving out over 200 fruit trees.
• There will be NO street closures. Wilshire Blvd and all adjacent streets will remain open.
  The entire event will take place at 3700 Wilshie Blvd. on the grass lawn between Oxford and Serrano.
• To learn more go to: http://www.wilshirecenter.com/earthday

Earth Day Event: Fuel The Movie At The Fine Arts Center

In celebration of Earth Day, Fuel will be playing at the Fine Art Center in Beverly Hills. A must see documentary!

Description: Josh Tickell will be at the Fine Arts Theater of Beverly Hills showing FUEL and signing books. Josh will be participating in an open discussion with Rebecca Harell, producer of FUEL, and 10 year old UN Jr. Goodwill Ambassador Nikkos Hansen.

Director Josh Tickell takes us along for his 11 year journey around the world to find solutions to America’s addiction to oil. A shrinking economy, a failing auto industry, rampant unemployment, an out-of-control national debt, and an insatiable demand for energy weigh heavily on all of us. Fuel shows us the way out of the mess we’re in by explaining how to replace every drop of oil we now use, while creating green jobs and keeping our money here at home. The film never dwells on the negative, but instead shows us the easy solutions already within our reach.

When: Wednesday, April 22nd (Earth Day.) Book signing 6 P.M. Movie 7:30 P.M.

Where: Fine Arts Center. 8556 Wilshire Ave. Beverly Hills, CA 90221

Admission: $8. Buy your tickets online here.

Thanks Jenny!

Posted by thuy

All Aboard The O-train

Obama’s vision for high speed passenger train. This will reduce traffic congestion, dependency on oil and help the environment.

Source The Daily Green

Posted by thuy

Automated Bike Valet

You don’t need to learn Japanese to understand how dope the Giken Eco Cycle is. Press play. You’ll get the drift.

Underground bike parking. No lock needed. You roll your wheels into the rail, swipe your pre-paid card and the magical little doors open and suck your bike right in.

Go to Eco Hookups for the deets.

Posted by thuy

Eye Candy

Aww. How cute. Some little kid in Venice Beach is serious about not getting their wheels jacked.

Posted by thuy

What’s The 411?

Obama in the doghouse: WH pup coming soon and he isn’t a rescue. Obama Dog Blog

Still got love for him. The big O getting 17,000 hybrids for his government posse. Swoon. Washington Post

Mmm. It’s that pesticide flavor that taste so damn good in Mickey D’s fries. Daily Green

5 million w/o water for 36 hrs in Mexico City. Learning to reserve water the hard way. Eco Worldly

Posted by thuy

ILVTOFU Denied!

Can’t those pesky people at the DMV see that she just wanted to show her love for the creamy, delectable, odorless, & moist good stuff?

Get your mind outta the gutter you stuffy ass DMV people!

Posted by thuy

Greenster

Going green means different things to different people. For tuner RUF it means cleaner cars and in this case, cars also painted in green. RUF has developed the eRUF Greenster with Siemens Corporate Technology. The eRUF explores many of the themes being investigated by automakers such as fewer C02 emissions and electric propulsion.

The Greenster, like its name suggests, is designed to look like a roadster vehicle of yesteryear complete with plaid seats. But the tech speaks to the 2000′s interest in green technology.

Going further than that the eRUF does something quite new in that it is fitted with a bi-directional network connection that not only allows its battery to be recharged in less than an hour on a 400-volt power outlet but also lets the car return energy back into the power network if needed. The system is called eDrive.

RUF will start producing the eRUF in small series by 2010.

Lovin’ the 915-Targa-style car. That shade of green, not so much.

Source cnet news

Posted by thuy

We’re Off To Land Of Windmills

We’re headed out to the desert for a “Jen & Thuy’s Excellent Adventure” weekend. We’ll be missing out on the LA LIVE event for Earth Hour but we’ll definitely be doing our part from Palm Springs. Let’s just say we stocked up on a (reusable) bag of candles and lot’s of (local) wine.

Turn off your lights tonight from 8:30-9:30. C’mon, everybody’s doing it. Ok, well only like a billion people throughout 2,400 cities in 82 countries…

We’ll leave you with these musical gems ’til our return.

Straight up baby making music. Teddy Pendergrass “Turn out the lights.. light a candle..” The slideshow to this is kinda funny.

Bob Marley & Lauren Hill “Turn Your Lights Down Low”

Jay-Z & Mary J. Blige “Turn Off The Lights”

Santogold Santigold “Lights Out”

Britney Spears “Kill The Lights.” No video for this yet but it shows lots of clips of her before she got crazy in the brains.

Morrisey. “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out” and it’s beaming out of my chocha and it will never die for you Moz!!

Posted by thuy & jen

James Perse Bike

This beach cruiser bike by James Perse is modeled after the original cruisers of the ’50s and ’60s. Each vintage beach cruiser bike features stylistic fat tires that can handle sand, wide-style handlebars and coaster brakes.

Combining a vintage style with a modern look, each James Perse Cruiser is custom built and includes a limited edition serial number. Some of the features include: Hydroform steel frame, billet aluminum stem, triple-clamp fork, extra large aluminum sprocket, extra wide 2″ rims and 2.125″ tires, 1 speed coaster brake hub and a limited edition serial number tag.

Bikes are available exclusively at James Perse boutiques and come in black, dark orange, khaki green and anique white.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention the 2,200.00 price tag. Hey, if you can afford his expensive ass t-shirts, I’m sure the bike isn’t that far of a stretch. Ride with care.

Source Broccoli City

Posted by thuy

Electric Love Affair

Yesterday, President Barack Obama announced $2.4 billion in new grants for electric vehicle developments, which will come from the $787 billion in stimulus funds.

Obama is making my yes yes hole do the electric boogaloo..

And it goes without saying, I’d hit it in the back of that plug-in beauty.

Source Huffington Post

Posted by thuy

Recycled Skateboards For Furniture

Newport Beach-based design firm Skate Study House takes its inspiration from contemporary design, California living and most importantly- skate board culture. Works like the Noguchi coffee table, the Nelson bench, the Eames Lounge and more are reproduced with the features of a classic skateboard deck. The “Jet Set Lounge” shown above, is a skateboard-inspired take on the original Le Corbusier Lounge. This version uses neoprene wetsuit material used by surfers and 8 skateboard decks as support.

A GearCrave favorite, the Noguchi coffee table inspired the skate style version by Skate Study House, theTokyo Lounge Table. Where the original employed dark, smooth, geometric wood as its base, the Tokyo table uses a split skateboard deck in the same fashion. The template for this skateboard deck is from the Jim Gray Pro Model, well known in the 80s.

Another all-time GearCrave favorite, the Eames Lounge and Ottoman are reproduced here with skateboard vision. The Godfather Lounge and Ottoman uses 7 walnut laminated skate decks with cushions on the metal frame.

Last, the classic, oft-copied Nelson wall clock has found its own inspiration from the half-pipe. The Skate Study House version, shown here as the Astro Clock, uses flourescent skate wheels and bearings in place of the bright painted wood pieces on the Nelson version.

More info and ordering details are available on the Skate Study House website.

Totally rad!!

Source ecofriend via Gear Cave

Postd by thuy

Kaws X Livestrong

Designed especially for Lance’s upcoming run in this year’s vaunted Milan-San Remo race, KAWS’ ultra-Pop graphic treatment was created to respectfully infuse a modern aesthetic into a truly classic competition.

Employing a vintage style paint scheme as his foundation in honor of the race’s storied 102-year legacy, KAWS then transformed the entire bike into one of his trademark characters with two giant spinning mouths for wheels (Bontrager 5.0s) and a sneering row of teeth snaking across the frame itself. His signature XX eyes appear at key focal points of the frame as subtle reminders of his aesthetic hijacking. Screaming yellow paint was employed to heighten awareness of the Livestrong mission at hand.

A painter known for his iconic character design and interventionist tendencies when using existing designs as a base, Lance’s bike proved an ideal opportunity for KAWS to create an unprecedented piece of rolling art. Fun fact: Lance had KAWS hide the legend WNW 2009 “Winners Not Whiners” on the bike’s bottom bracket. It’s Lance’s personal motto tucked out of sight but not out of mind.

NYPD Blue Fuzz Goes “Green”

According to reports in the New York Post, the New York Police Department (NYPD) is trialling hybrid cars as patrol cars starting with 40 Nissan Altima vehicles that will hit the streets over the next two weeks.

If the pilot scheme proves to be a success, the department is expected to phase out their fleet of Ford Crown Victorias and Chevrolet Impalas in favour of the Altima which can achieve 35mpg in New York City traffic compared to the 16mpg achieved by the existing models.

The transition to green cars has been slowly progressing for some time. The police are already using hybrid saloon cars and SUVs for parking enforcement and now they are testing them to see if they are suitable for wider use on the beat.

As part of the pilot scheme, 18 hybrids will be used as marked patrol cars, 20 will be unmarked and two will be disguised as yellow cabs for anti-crime work.

The department ‘s park patrols and traffic and street demonstration control units presently use 329 Piaggio scooters and 104 smaller Yamaha scooters that run on gasoline.

The Vectrix is heavier than the Piaggio, but with a top speed of more than 60 miles an hour is nearly as fast. And the electric scooters can be recharged simply by plugging them into a standard outlet for as little as two hours.

via Edmunds and NY Post

posted by thuy

Shoes From Recycled Transit Upholstery

Source Inhabitat

Posted by thuy

Blinged Out BMX Bike – What Recession?

We love two wheelers and we love shiny gold things but DAYUM- this 24ct gold Hutch Star is craze! Especially in these times. If you happen to have $12,378 saved up for a bike, mosie on over to this site to get your very own.

Whoever gets one of these better get the AVID Microchip Identification System for animals put somewhere up in that mug along with a LoJack system, The Club and about 20 Kryptonite bike locks for it, otherwise we’ll be seeing it in the next Cash4Gold commercial.

Source Auto Motto

Posted by thuy- Vietnamese/French

WhyTF Is This Dog Riding A Bike?

So I’m getting my nightly dose of CNN while blogging and this story comes up on the screen. My fingers stopped typing and my jaw dropped. WHY do humans insist on training their animals to do things that do not come naturally to them?

The part where he’s getting on the bike and they pan onto his ass as he takes a seat is not right. Can’t this poor Dalmation chase balls, sniff butts, lick faces, eat, sleep, bark and walk like dogs are meant to do?

Posted by thuy

Escape To Alcatraz On The Hornblower Hybrid

The Hornblower Hybrid uses power generated by two ten-foot-tall wind turbines and a photovoltaic solar array covering the awning on the top deck. That power is converted and stored in battery banks that power the navigation tools, lighting and other electronics on board the vessel.

The HH also has Tier 2 marine diesel engines. These cleaner, fuel-efficient engines reduce the amount of diesel fuel used, emissions and overall carbon footprint.

The vessel also contains a number of other environmentally friendly materials. The carpeting contains post consumer recycled materials and is recyclable. The countertops are made from recycled vodka bottles- HOLD UP! Did I just read that correctly? RECYCLED VODKA BOTTLES? Who is the genius man behind this and where has he been all my adult drinking life?

Oh snap, ya’ll are gonna have to go to the site to read what else this modern day Love Boat is all about. You know the drill.. I got some research to do.

Google search gods don’t fail me now.. please let him be single..and tall.

Alcatraz Cruises

Posted by thuy

MTA Taps Out On The Paper Pass

Reusable electronic fare cards will replace paper passes for daily use on Metropolitan Transportation Authority buses and rail lines starting March 15, Metro officials said Tuesday.

The Transit Access Pass, or TAP card, was designed to eventually replace bus, subway and train passes across all public transit systems in Los Angeles County.

To promote the use of the new system, Metro will provide complimentary TAP cards to customers who do not already have one when they buy a $5 day pass until April 11, or until supplies run out, according to Metro. After that, the plastic cards will cost $2 each. The rechargeable cards, which have been used in other cities for decades, will be sold at vending machines.

Well amen to getting rid of paper. Of course that still leaves us with the issue of the cards being plastic and non-recyclable but you can’t win them all.

Source LA Times

Posted by thuy