Transportation

Here’s an update on the iPod subway map saga – the MTA wants $500 to license the maps for one year so ipodsubwaymaps.com could once again allow the downloads – I used to make NYC maps for all my devices when I worked there, it’s pretty awful that public transportation maps are not really public. Link.

Ultralights have sometimes been described as the “motorcycles of the air,” which the new Flite Bike really is, combining a Honda Reflex motorcycle with a Buckeye powered parachute. You buy the bike, and then get them to install the kit. Thanks Doug. Link.

Follow up on the solar powered scooter – With Don approaching 1,000 solar-powered miles (he has 932 and counting), Don’s scooter seems to still be going strong. In fact, it has been five months since Don last had to charge it. In those five months, Don has been driving his scooter almost every day going around 11 miles on the average day. By occasionally giving his scooter a day off, he is able to make sure that his scooter always has a charge. Link.

It looks like a typical Toyota Prius hybrid, but in the trunk sits an 80-miles-per-gallon secret – a stack of 18 brick-sized batteries that boosts the car’s high mileage with an extra electrical charge so it can burn even less fuel. Gremban, an electrical engineer and committed environmentalist, spent several months and $3,000 tinkering with his car. Link.

If you’re in themarket for a used car, you should be suspicious of old cars with low mileage. Here’s a $2500 gadget that supposedly lets the owner change the mileage indicated on digital odometers. [via] Link. and spotted on eBay.