Transport

Should we talk about the weather?

One of the peculiarities of living in a country as big as the USA that touches two oceans, two major gulfs, straddles the continental divide, and has climates ranging from sub-tropical forests, to snow-covered mountain ranges, all the way to sub-arctic (if Alaska counts)… is the differences in the weather, and to a lesser extent, natural disasters. The East Coast gets hurricanes, and the Northern seaboard can also get hammered with snow and “Nor’Easters” (storms blowing from the Northeast). The Midwest has abysmal snowy winters, thunderstorms, and tornadoes and in the Spring and Summer. The West coast has earthquakes, torrential rains, wildfires and sometimes mudslides. In the Pacific Northwest, it rains, then it rains, and sometimes it rains some more. The South sees severe Thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, and ice storms in the winter.

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February 23, 2011 6 comments

Winter Driving in Canada

Across the country, this past week has seen huge snowfalls. Together with the snow come the unique driving conditions of our Canadian winter.

From driveway to sidewalk to road, it's all whiteness.
From driveway to sidewalk to road, it’s all whiteness.

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January 14, 2011 5 comments

Buying a Car in California

The state of California leads the way for the rest of the United States when it comes to environmentalism and air quality. It has the toughest automotive emissions controls of all states and after the U.S. Government balked at signing the Kyoto Protocol, California enacted Assembly Bill 32 which mandated hefty reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

Despite this, people have been slow to buy hybrid cars. As long as gas was relatively cheap, Californians could pay lip service to environment and still drive their gas guzzlers. Americans pay a third of what Europeans pay for gasoline, primarily because they don’t pay the “true cost” of gasoline. Americans go crazy when the price of gas gets above US$3.00 per gallon but even at that price it is not covering the cost of ensuring supply (Iraq War) or the full cost of cleaning up the environment.

2010 Toyota Prius
2010 Toyota Prius
 
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November 24, 2010 8 comments

Horse drawn carriages in Bucharest

Green Carriage at Bucharest Days

Red Carriage at Bucharest Days

These beautiful horse drawn carriages are from Bucharest days, by Carmen in Romania.

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October 29, 2010 1 comment

Nantes tramway (Picture Postcards)

Catching the Tramway

October’s photo theme is local transport. See the other posts here.

Today’s photo is the tramway in Nantes, Western France. It’s by xiaozhuli.

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October 23, 2010 0 comments

Ferry on Lake Geneva

PA070116

October’s photo theme is local transport. See the other posts here.

This photo of a ferry leaving the port of Rivaz on Lake Geneva (Lac Leman) in Switzerland is by keepps.

Do you have photos to share? We’d love to see them. Just add them to our Picture Postcards photo group on Flickr.

Read more:
A magical midsummer night – St Juan in Spain
Say hello in 20 languages
Tell us about a favourite children’s game in your country

October 16, 2010 0 comments