A recent study by researchers at the University of Tennessee has explored the impact of electric vehicles on China’s air quality and particulate matter emissions (the most likely to result in health issues).

According to the study published in TreeHugger, the particulate matter impacts per passenger-km in most Chinese cities are greater for e-cars than for petrol cars (3.6x on average), lower than for diesel cars (2.5x on average) and equal to diesel buses.

The key reason for the increased particulate matter and environmental performance of the electric vehicles is highly dependent on the source of electricity. With around three quarters of China’s electricity coming from dirty local coal, fairly lax air-quality regulations, densely populated coastal regions (many cities are located near very dirty coal plants) and the life cycle impact of electricity, it is clear that electric vehicles in China are going to result in negative environmental outcomes.

The good news is, however, that China is very much at the extreme of the situation, and when compared to countries such as France and Norway, where almost all electricity comes from very clean sources, the results are very different, with electric vehicles having a positive impact on air quality and emissions throughout their life cycle.

The residents of two major cities in California have recently seen the introduction of car sharing and bicycle hire operations, thus increasing their choice of transport.

In Los Angeles, the US’s largest car sharing network, Zipcar, has recently opened for business, placing over 125 vehicles throughout the city. The ‘car capital’ of the US is already exhibiting adoption trends and usage patterns similar to the other major markets across the US.

Meanwhile, it seems that one of the biggest stumbling blocks to bicycle sharing in San Francisco has been overcome. The recent addition of electric bicycles to the City CarFleet’s existing car sharing service, will allow users to deal with the city’s steep hills and terrain without facing exhaustion.

According to TreeHugger, the program will be trialled to find out how many car-share trips will be replaced by electric bicycle trips, and what factors influence the switch. 45 e-bikes will be added to the fleet in 2012, with an additional 45 to be added in 2013.

Residents of Decatur in Indianapolis, US, have received approval to open a paid parking lot near the local airport, with revenues going to the community rather than the airport authority.

The private group of residents were successful in defeating strong opposition from the mayor’s office and the airport who claimed that parking is not the best use of land, with a significant portion of the existing airport’s parking facilities currently underutilised.

According to wthr.com, the parking facility will supply covered parking for over 3,700 vehicles, with the revenue being used to help fund the fire department, poor relief, and all township government entities.

This is a really interesting issue and raises a lot of questions: Who is going to fund the construction project? How much will it cost to park there as opposed to the car parks within the airport? How will passengers get from the car park to the terminal and back? How will this affect the already low occupancy of the airport’s facilities? According to the Airport’s website there are many parking options available on site so it will be interesting to follow how this project develops!

South Australia’s Health Minister, John Hill, has said that the state’s heath budget could overrun by $99 million for the financial year.

According to ABC News, he blames the overspend on unforseen demand for health care, and a shortfall of $11 million in hospital parking revenue, with the protracted legal dispute over hospital parking fees adding to the problem.

The decision by the Public Service Association to pursue the introduction of car parking fees for the hospital staff, and the legal challenge against the paid hospital parking has meant a significant shortfall in the health budget. The appeal (dismissed by the Industrial Relations Court, see our previous post here), now been lodged in the Supreme Court, with the argument that the budget decision breaches enterprise agreements.

Following a nationwide pro-cycling campaign, the French government has issued a decree allowing cyclists in some cities to disregard red lights at certain intersections. Until now cyclists have been subject to the same rules of the road as other vehicles.

According to TreeHugger, the newly relaxed road rules for cyclists are now being tested across 15 intersections in Paris, though bike-commuters aren't given full liberty to cross every intersection. Rules will continue to require that cyclists wait for pedestrians and opposing traffic.

According to UK’s The Telegraph, the move comes after road safety experts deemed that the measure would cut the number of road accidents, which occur from too many cyclists proceeding through an intersection only once the light turns green. The relaxation in rules should result in more fluid traffic, avoiding bunching up of cyclists when the traffic lights turn green for motorists.

The rule already applies in Belgium, Germany and Scandinavia, and comes in response to the dramatic increase in the number of bike users on the road following the success of the ‘Velib’ low rental scheme and addition of hundreds of new cycle lanes.

A great video showing parking innovation and creativity 1950’s style. 

The NYC Department of Transportation is piloting a program in the Bronx that uses in-ground sensors to monitor the location of available parking spaces.

The pilot’s aim is to test how the sensors survive the harsh NYC winter, standing up to a variety of factors including snow plowing, daily street sweeping, underground utilities, electromagnetic interference and general traffic.

For the pilot, sensors will detect a parked car using infrared and/or magnetometer sensing. They transmit the data to wireless gateways mounted on street light poles, which kick the information to cellular and wireless networks and ultimately, back to the Department of Transportation. Once the project goes full scale, that data would then be made available to the general public.  

If the initial test passes, the program will expand to the other boroughs of the city next spring. 

On the topic of snow, we received this photo from our Senior Designer George Burton – it was taken in a town in the south of the Czech Republic. On February 6^th it was a balmy 39.40^C below zero!

Click here to view the image in full size.

In South Australia, a bid to overturn a government decision to charge staff for car parking at some Adelaide metropolitan hospitals has been dismissed by the full bench of the Industrial Relations Court.

The Public Service Association made the application, arguing the parking fees were a breach of enterprise agreements for staff at the public hospitals.

According to an ABC News bulletin, the parking charges for some public hospitals were introduced as a 2010 state budget measure, but partly overturned when Jay Weatherill took over from Mike Rann as premier. This change allowed two hours of free parking for hospital visitors, but not for staff who have to pay for parking for their entire stay.

Meanwhile in Wollongong, plans for the $86 million expansion of Wollongong Hospital have attracted concerns over parking issues, with planning documents showing that additional staff and patient numbers after the expansion will generate the need for almost double the number of parking spaces now available on site. According to the Illawarra Mercury, there are no short or medium-term plans to include more on-site parking. 

Instead, patients, visitors and staff will have to park on nearby residential streets, which consultants claim have ‘‘high’’ spare capacity. NSW Health is currently reviewing the submissions. We consider the supply of adequate parking to be an essential component of Hospital planning, given the potential mobility issues of many of the people attending the hospital, not to speak of the stress levels of visitors to patients. Penalising the nearby residents by adding congestion to the surrounding street network would not seem to be a good idea in principle considering that those streets were not built to cater for high levels of traffic activity. And don’t let’s forget pedestrians, which is what all drivers are at the end of the journey!