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Our gassy peers at
Jalopnik were shocked to find that social networking/microblogging service
Twitter was being used for something other than subscribing to their news feed. Indeed,
gasoline-starved Atlanta drivers have been pinging each other and tagging posts to point fellow drivers to stations with fresh supplies of fuel.
Jalopnik comments that "Atlanta has been running on empty for about three weeks now," and says some drivers have waited in lines up to an hour long at the stations that still have reserves to sell. They also note that Governor Sonny Perdue delayed lifting low-sulfur fuel requirements for Georgia when the crisis loomed, compounding the problem and lengthening the gas lines.
To help Atlanta Twitterers locate gas in the suburban sprawlopolis, users of the service have been tagging posts with "#atlgas."
The city's gas shortages are expected to last into next week, as a result of hurricanes Ike and Gustav slowing supplies to the southeast.--
Colin Mathews
Posted in : 2008, Driving, Politics
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Record-breaking couple John and Helen Taylor just added a new Guinness world fuel economy record to their impressive list of 36. Their new record is for average fuel economy while driving across the 48 contiguous United States, which they achieved by averaging 58.8 mpg in an '09
Volkswagen Jetta TDI. This is huge news for
Volkswagen, who were disappointed by the U.S. EPA's official rating of 30/41 mpg. An independent testing agency, AMCI, ranked the
Jetta at 38/44 mpg.
The couple drove a stock clean diesel
Jetta TDI, completing the 9,419-mile journey in 20 days on Shell Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel Fuel. The previous record was 51.58 mpg, which the Taylors blew past by 14 percent. Their driving included stints during rush hour and over diverse terrain, and the couple saw mileage exceeding 60 mpg on "several legs" of their journey. They spent a total of $653 on fuel, averaging 6.9 cents per mile.
Far from secretive technology or driving at a snail's pace, the Taylors employed
FuelStretch techniques that they developed jointly with Shell Oil. Driving economically is a way of life for the Taylors; they've been earning world records for 26 years, and this record marks their 37th world fuel economy world record. They also conduct workshops around the world on fuel-efficient driving techniques.
Via their Web site, the Taylors share experiences from their journey. For more information and reports, visit
www.fuelacademy.com.--
Colin Mathews
Posted in : 2008, Advertising/Marketing, Diesels, Driving, Green Machines, North America, Sedans
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The folks in Stuttgart--the
Mercedes-Benz side of town--say their latest headlight innovation, Adaptive High-Beam Assistant, takes the worry of high-beam control out of the driver's hands.
By monitoring both vehicles and pedestrians in the path of an Adaptive High-Beam Assistant-equipped vehicle's beams, the system always keeps the headlights dipped just below the range where it could blind or annoy onlookers (
Mercedes calls it "dazzling"). But since current low beams are set a bit lower than this blind threshold, in everyday use the new Benz system will often afford drivers the benefit of low beams aimed a little bit higher (anywhere from 213 to 984 feet). As soon as there are no traffic or pedestrians in front of the vehicle, the system gently switches into high-beam mode for maximum illumination and safety.
Mercedes notes that, currently, high beams are used for only about 8 percent of nighttime journeys. By eliminating the need for the driver to manually select high beams,
Mercedes is hoping they will be used more frequently in appropriate situations and never in inappropriate ones.
The system is commandeered by a small camera positioned inside the windshield, which monitors the view in front of the car. The data it transmits to the system's microprocessors is analyzed and transmitted to the headlamps every 40 milliseconds, allowing faster-than-human reaction times. The system works in concert with Mercedes' self-leveling bi-xenon headlamps, taking steering angle into account and lowering the beams appropriately. Adaptive High-Beam Assistant will become active above 34 mph when drivers of a
Mercedes so equipped turn the headlights to "Auto" mode and engage the vehicle's high-beam function by pushing forward on the turn-signal control stalk.
Given that high beams are only selected in 8 percent of night driving, as
Mercedes points out, will this useful safety feature remain largely dormant?--
Colin Mathews
Posted in : 2009, Driving, Mercedes-Benz, Safety, Technology
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And like a good neighbor...or perhaps a nosy backseat driver...
State Farm is there, noting that parents are often culprits of the very driving dont's they scold their teens for. Today, the insurance company released the results of a survey that seem to show teens emulate their parents' driving more closely than parents might be aware of.
Specifically, State Farm found that among parents, "65 percent of parents talk on cell phones at least sometimes while driving; however 94 percent restrict their teens from doing the same." They also found that 68 percent of parents are at least occasionally guilty of being in a rush when they drive, and 65 percent also occasionally drive tired.
This parent survey is a follow-up to the agency's '07 National Young Driver Survey co-conducted with The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, which highlighted three main issues that pose danger to young drivers: driving while fatigued, talking on cell phones, and driving with multiple passengers.
Safety-conscious finger-pointing from your insurance company can be rather annoying. And yes, of course, busy parents sometimes have to take important phone calls, rush Junior to the soccer game, and get behind the wheel after a particular exhausting day. State Farm just wants to remind you that your kids are watching, and copying, your behavior. And for some unexplained reason, State Farm claims that October is the month with the single highest number of young driver claims involving injury or collision (football season? Halloween hunch punch? autumn reveries?).
Regardless, State Farm wants to save young lives and prevent injuries, and the insurance agency is again joining Congress in support of National Teen Driver Safety Week, Oct. 19- 25.--
Colin Mathews
Posted in : 2008, Driving, Safety
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Georgia and North Carolina commuters are being forced to telecommute, take public transit, carpool, or wait in 15-minute-plus lines due to the most significant fuel shortages since Presidents Carter and Nixon. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration and the American Petroleum Institute, by way of
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, hurricanes Gustav and Ike bear the main responsibility.
The hurricanes, which recently hit the Gulf Coast back-to-back, forced refinery shutdown in anticipation of the storms (prior to Gustav), and power outages during the storms slowed the process of restarting the refineries. Pipelines that ship oil from Gulf Coast refineries to Southeastern petroleum facilities were alternately stopped and slowed by the issues above.
To someone who's never seen lines for gas pumps in his life, the experience was surreal. One particular line on Friday night in midtown Atlanta stretched 15-plus cars long, with some residents claiming to have driven from outlying suburbs as far as 20 miles away. The eclectic mix of Sentras,
Land Rovers,
Volvos, and taxicabs, waiting in frustrated resignation on Cheshire Bridge Road (known citywide for its assortment of liquor stores, tattoo parlors, nightclubs, and "adult establishments"), was nearly as effective a leveler of social class as that great New York City melting pot: the subway. The moment could only have been made more complete if Garth and Wayne had driven up in their sputtering AMC Pacer.
Could this Southeast phenomenon be a chilling harbinger of energy crises yet to come?
--Colin Mathews
Posted in : 2008, Driving, Miscellaneous, North America
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