Twice as cool as a Vespa, half the work of a moped, ten times cleaner than both put together 

We've been trying hard to hold off featuring the eGO Cycle, you know, trying to build some suspense. But the holidays are coming up and we wanted to give everyone ample time to pick one up for a loved one (hear that, Mom?)

Forget that it's the most expensive item on our Top 30 Countdown, the eGO Classic is also proportionately the coolest. It definitely has the best name. Show up to work on one of these and prepare to be adulated. The eGO has a top speed of 24 mph (which, granted doesn't seem all that fast when you're in a car, but is pretty impressive if you're walking). It goes zero to 20 mph in less than 4 seconds. The ride? Smooth as a baby's bottom. Gotta go up a hill both ways? Cake. The eGO Cycle will climb a 15% grade at 18 mph with a 170lb rider. There's even special climbing gear available from eGO if you live in a super hilly area.

Just plug the eGO into pretty much any electrical outlet and you're ready to roll. In three to five hours you're fully charged. Perfect for commuting to work, running weekend errands, or tooling around the neighborhood soaking up the envy.

Tesla Changes the Road Rules

Toyota or Honda don't give their hybrids the same quality of styling and design as the classic European cars being produced by Ferrari, Porsche, and Mercedes, well, hold on to your helmet. Here comes the Tesla Roadster

The Tesla is an electric car that looks like a Lotus (in fact, it was designed in conjunction with Lotus and manufactured at the Lotus plant in the UK), but this car gets 135 miles per gallon, goes 0-60 in 4 seconds, produces no harmful emissions, and doesn’t make a sound.

The brainchild of Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning — ex founders of NuvoMedia — the Tesla was developed for people who want to drive high performance, energy efficient cars but “didn’t want to suffer every minute” of driving an electric vehicle.

As they say on their website:

“We needed to change perceptions of electric vehicles in a big way. To make electric cars a viable alternative, we set out to build one that was gorgeous and thrilling to drive Our first car, the Tesla Roadster, isn‘t a plan, pipedream or prototype; this car exists and is for sale now. It‘s a no-compromise driver‘s car that can accelerate faster than a Porsche 911 and hit a top speed of nearly twice what the law permits. With a range of 250 miles on a single charge, you can use it all day long and not worry you‘ll run out of juice. Just plug it in at night the same way you drop your cell phone into its charger, and sleep well, without guilt.”

You read it right: 250 miles on a single charge. And the beautiful thing is that you can recharge the car’s battery at pretty much any normal electrical outlet. Additionally, Tesla offers a solar package that allows you to install solar panels at home so you can power your car completely grid free.

Tesla claims that the Roadster is actually twice as efficient as current popular hybrid cars on the market (and up to six times as efficient as standard cars), including the Prius, because it has no combustion engine at all. Yet, even with a two-speed transmission, it manages to outperform most of them.

Tesla has already sold about 40 or so cars at about $100,000 each, but the car won’t be available until early 2007, and only then in select “luxury sports car markets” like Los Angeles, The Bay Area, Chicago, Miami, and New York.

Eventually Tesla plans to build an electric powered sedan that will retail for between $50,000 and $70,000. If their first stab with the Roadster is any indication, they’ll be rewriting the rules for that model as well.

For more information: www.teslamotors.com

Green Ferries? No, it’s not the Absinthe

Revived in the New York area in the mid 1980s and long a major part of the commuting system in Seattle and San Francisco, ferrying to and from work sounds charming — passengers can view miles of gorgeous shoreline, appreciate the city skyline, access the internet, and sip drinks to unwind after work. But the ugly truth is that the diesel fumes those boats spew pollute the atmosphere at a rate hundreds of times that of cars.

San Francisco has come up with a clean solution to dispatch with such diesel dirtiness. Solar Sailer, an Australian Company has created solar- and wind-powered ferries that use a combination of solar, wind, and newer, cleaner diesel engines. These new engines cut fuel consumption by 50% to 60% and drastically cut emissions that create smog and release carcinogens into the air by 70% to 90%. The principles they employ are similar to that of a hybrid car — and they do cost about $1.5 million more than typical ferries, but the extra expense can be recouped within three years at the current price of fuel. Two of these green ferries are scheduled to be used for the National Park Service tour of Alcatraz, former prison and now popular tourist attraction. The new technology comes just in the nick of time, as the San Francisco Water Transit Agency has just unveiled plans to triple the amount of ferry passengers by 2025 to ease the glut of commuter traffic.

Now a nice relaxing ride home from work is also friendlier for the environment and your lungs. Let’s hope Seattle and New York catch wind of San Francisco’s new idea and bring a breath of fresh air to their cities, too.

Salt Lake City — On the Right Side of the Trax

Having good mass transit is like having good circulation. It can form the pulse of the rapid, efficient transport of a city’s population; stimulating growth, business, and cultural life. Growing cities are, thus, motivated to build such systems. However, getting consensus on the how, when, and how much, can be a major pain in the neck. The Utah Transit authority rolled out its “Trax” transit system in 1999 in Salt Lake City amidst public hostility, protests from anti-rail banners, and the skepticism of Salt Lakers who believed no one would give up his or her car.

Luckily, the skeptics were wrong. The 19-mile-long light-rail train line draws 58,000 riders a day, which is more than double what was projected for the year 2020. Public opinion has also turned about-face as the city collects award upon award from environmental groups, including the Sierra Club’s “Green Streets” designation, which recognizes great ideas that transform urban life by saving money, attracting business, and improving quality of life. Proposals are on the table to expand the successful train system out in four directions of the Salt Lake Valley, and voters are deciding on plans to raise taxes that would speed the completion of such projects15 years earlier than originally imagined. Construction might even begin next year.

Says Marc Heileson from the Sierra Club, “The Sierra Club is trying to inspire other cities around the country and saying, ‘You can turn around too.’ Start building communities for people rather than cars, and start having clean air instead of a brown cloud of pollution. Salt Lake right now is an example of somewhere that's going in the right direction.” Salt Lake was even honored by Sierra Magazine as the “Biggest Transit Turnaround.” Looks like this city will be on the right side of the Trax for years to come.

For more information: www.utabus.com

A Motorcycle so Clean Even a Hog Could Love it

It has been said that four wheels carry the body, but two wheels carry the soul. If you are a motorcycle enthusiast, you might agree. However, as the soul of the nation moves towards a cleaner and greener future, one particular motorcycle stands out; one with a unique soul of its own.

The new fuel-cell-driven motorcycle by ENV is powered by its Core technology and is so clean that you could actually drink one of its byproducts: water. Beautifully designed, the bike is as visually appealing as it is technologically stimulating, taking a minimalist approach to convey the scarcity of emissions it produces. The bike’s architecture is light and airy, lending to its quickness and speed. Agile enough to handle even the toughest city’s complex twists and turns, the motorcycle is also steady and powerful, ready to roam any highway.

The soul of this bike is as clean and glistening as the images in the minds of its creators. Though currently the central Core technology (essentially a metal box stylishly encasing the fuel cell apparatus) only holds about 4 hours worth of hydrogen, the idea is that someday it will be able to power almost any daily-life contraption. The vision: just detach the box from your bike, and hook it up to your car, house, boat, or anything else that needs powering — and at the end of the day, you’d have left almost zero emissions in your wake. If your soul isn’t stirred by this idea, perhaps you should get on ENV’s two wheels for yourself.

For more information: www.envbike.com

The Big Green Apple

They’re still yellow on the outside, but cabs in New York are getting “green” makeovers. Although New Yorkers have been requesting hybrid taxis for years, progress was impeded in 2005 when the Taxi Commission balked at issuing medallions, citing “lack of legroom.” The bidder for such medallions sued and won. The City Council also helped speed things along by passing a law last year that essentially ordered the Commission to approve hybrid cars for use el pronto.

Right now, there are only 27 hybrid or alternative fuel cabs on the road. Thanks to Mayor Bloomberg, though, 254 of the 308 medallions issued this June will be destined for hybrid or natural gas vehicles; a definite step in the right direction. And, happily, medallion owners can save up to $5000 per car per year. Green cabbies save an average of $20 per shift on gas costs, cut global warming gas emissions by 40%, and help clean up NYC air, which currently falls below federal smog standards. In the congested stop-and-go traffic of the city, the hybrids will generally emit no exhaust when traveling below 25mph.

Passengers also happen to love to ride in the “clean” cabs; drivers report better tips and enthusiastic responses. According to cabbie Gennadiy Abramov, “The customers want all taxis to be hybrids.” Even the powers that be agree; City Councilman David Yassky says, “I’m determined that in five years, every cab on the streets of New York will be a hybrid.”

New Yorkers and Big Apple visitors: get ready to hail some green cabs this summer! So far, approved car manufacturers include Ford, Mercury, Honda, Toyota, and Lexus. Apparently, even New Yorkers can agree they want a greener Gotham.

If only Superman could Battle Global Warming with the Same Force he uses to Defeat Evildoers

It’s a bird, it’s a plane…it’s Superman! No…wait; it’s definitely just a plane. In fact, it doesn’t look like even Superman can save the world from its latest evildoer: the red-eye flight.

According to a recent BBC report, nighttime airplane flights contribute more to global warming than their daytime counterparts. During the day, the vapor trail left by an airplane acts as both a blanket — trapping heat in the earth’s atmosphere, and a mirror — reflecting light from the sun back into space, reducing the earth’s heat. In this way, the airplane’s contrail typically comes close to balancing the effects of its heating and cooling to minimize the overall effect on the earth.

However, when the sun is no longer shining, a plane’s vapor trail will continue to trap heat without nullifying its effects by preventing other heat from entering the atmosphere; the result is that planetary villain known as global warming.

Additionally, because contrails are more likely to form during colder weather, summer flights are better for the environment than winter flights. With air travel looking to grow rapidly in the coming years, Superman will have his hands tied. Let’s just hope he chooses to fight off the evils of global warming and fly during the day.

Just Can’t Wait to Get on the Road Again with Bio-diesel

When Willie Nelson first sung about getting “On the Road Again,” he probably had no idea he’d one day be selling his own brand of fuel. Now, however, he has brought together his longtime concern for American farmers with his interest in helping the environment and has introduced “BioWillie” bio-diesel. Made from vegetable oil or animal fats, bio-diesel significantly reduces its impact by cutting both carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide emissions. And not only is it easier to handle than traditional fuel, but so too is it safer — a lighted match thrown into a bucket of bio-diesel will not catch fire.

An additional advantage of bio-diesel is that it can be used in the same fuel tanks and containers as those designed for traditional diesel — without compromised performance. Other alternate fuels often face a roadblock because their use requires vehicle or storage modifications, but not so with bio-diesel. Plus, in the place of standard-issue exhaust fumes, bio-diesel emits a smell that has been generously compared to that of french fries or doughnuts.

BioWillie sells its fuel nationwide but currently has outlets in only six states: California, Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina. Nelson’s advocacy has greatly increased awareness of the issue, however, and economies of scale will hopefully enable bio-diesel to soon be a comparably (or more cheaply) priced alternative fuel. That it can enable the U.S. to reduce its dependence on foreign oil while helping the atmosphere and revitalizing the farm economy is a most valiant calling for the humble soybean.

For more information: www.wnbiodiesel.com