Report: New Yorkers get spooky LED skeleton reminder to obey speed limits

Filed under: Etc., Government/Legal, Safety

Skeleton Speed BoardDrivers in New York City can expect to be met with a new reminder of the local 30-mile-per-hour speed limit this summer. According to The New York Times, the Big Apple’s transportation department will unveil a speed board that will flash a custom skeleton animation toward drivers who are over the limit. You’ve likely seen the technology employed before with slightly less morbid effects.

Municipalities routinely use mobile, radar-based speed boards to make drivers aware of just how fast they’re traveling in low-speed zones. Typically, the onboard LED screen simply flashes an offending vehicle’s speed in big red numerals. NYC is taking it one step further.

The transportation department already employs skeletons in its “That’s why its 30” advertising campaign, which underscores just how much more lethal a vehicle traveling 40 mph can be over its slower counterpart. The new speed boards are intentionally attention-grabbing, though since traffic slugs along at an average of 9.3 mph in most parts of the city, we don’t think anyone will have a hard time obeying the law.

New Yorkers get spooky LED skeleton reminder to obey speed limits originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 13 May 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Continue reading “Report: New Yorkers get spooky LED skeleton reminder to obey speed limits”

Turkish taxi of tomorrow design beats Nissan, Ford proposals among New Yorkers [w/video]

Filed under: Hybrid, Wagon, Etc., Work

Karsan V1 New York City taxi
Karsan V1 New York City Taxi – Click above for high-res image gallery

The people of New York City have spoken, and they’ve found the taxi designs from both Ford and Nissan lacking. You may remember that the New York Taxi and Limousine Commission recently set about polling residents on which of a handful of taxi designs they preferred for the future of transportation in the city. Automakers from around the world submitted their designs for a cab that was safe, offered a small environmental impact, complied with Americans with Disabilities Act requirements and was physically smaller than the tried-and-true Crown Victoria. Well, the votes are officially in, and a cab from the Turkish company Karsan is the winner.

Around 66 percent of respondents either liked or loved the design of the Karsan V1, and that was enough to seal the vehicle’s fate as the people’s choice for the Taxi of Tomorrow. The V1 boasts a number of appealing unique features, including a panoramic glass roof and wheelchair ramps on both sides of the vehicle for easy access. It’s also a hybrid, which means that cabbies can expect to save fuel in the future if the commission picks the V1 as the city’s new cab, and it is easily adaptable to other fuel sources as needed, including diesel, natural gas or fully electric.

The city is likely to take the results of the survey into consideration as it makes a final decision later this year, though popularity with the public provides no guarantees that NYC cabbies will soon be talking Turkey. Check out a video detailing the finer points of the Karsan V1 New York City taxi concept after the break.

Gallery: Karsan V1 New York City Taxi concept

Karsan V1 New York City Taxi conceptKarsan V1 New York City Taxi conceptKarsan V1 New York City Taxi conceptKarsan V1 New York City Taxi conceptKarsan V1 New York City Taxi concept

[Source: NY1]

Continue reading Turkish taxi of tomorrow design beats Nissan, Ford proposals among New Yorkers [w/video]

Turkish taxi of tomorrow design beats Nissan, Ford proposals among New Yorkers [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Continue reading “Turkish taxi of tomorrow design beats Nissan, Ford proposals among New Yorkers [w/video]”