Transportation : In The News

The Atlantic Cities reports on online grocer Peapod's placement of virtual storefronts at select SEPTA stations throughout Philadelphia.

While awaiting a train, users can download the Peapod app, peruse the items in front of them, and scan the barcode of anything they'd like to purchase. The groceries are delivered to their homes later that day.

Philly marks the idea's American debut, but a number of international cities already have similar services.

Original source: The Atlantic Cities
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It has been 40 years since new ship construction at Navy shipyards ended, and Area Development delves into redevelopment at a few, including the transformation in South Philly's Philadelphia Navy Yard.

The 167-acre historic core of the Navy Yard, with more than 2.5 acres of waterfront, is actually on the National Register of Historic Places. The core offers opportunities for renovation of existing buildings for commercial use, and for the conversion of older loft space to residential use.

Original source: Area Development
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The Atlantic Cities takes a broad look at wayfinding, or environmental graphic design, including our city's 17 year-old Walk!Philadelphia pedestrian wayfinding program.

If you've been to downtown Philadelphia since, you may have appreciated how easy the convention center was to find. But you probably did not appreciate that someone had to design your path there.

"My parents never understood what it was that I did," Labouvie laughs. "People know what advertising is. They know how to sell products. But understanding that there are best ways of moving through cities, that there are cues that will help you do that, people don’t understand that until it’s really pointed out."

Original source: The Atlantic Cities
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Drexel University materials scientists Alexander Moseson and Michel Barsoum have created a low-tech, low-energy cement they hope will reduce carbon output as developing countries build more sidewalks, roads and housing.

Potential demand for lower-carbon building materials has sparked a race to replace Portland cement featuring a handful of manufacturers and scientists. Some claim to sequester carbon within the cement itself. Others use alternative fuels. Still others tap unconventional feedstocks, such as magnesium silicate, that require lower kiln temperatures.

Moseson and Barsoum are trying the latter, mixing recycled iron slag or fly ash with readily available limestone. "We literally used a bag of garden lime from Home Depot," Moseson said. Instead of a coal-fired kiln, they use a bucket with a spoon at room temperature.

Original source: Daily Climate
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Young Upstarts takes a peek at Philadelphia's Storably, launched in September by Wharton graduates and on the verge of bringing its platform -- likened to Airbnb for storage -- to other markets.

The founders started working in a basement from May this year, putting together mockups and building the site with an off-shore development team. However, the quality wasn’t quite what they expected. Kowitt and Gupta then hired a full-time VP of Engineering, Nick Shiftan, who rebuilt the site from scratch. They later brought on Brendan Lowry as a community manager. The site was formally launched in Philadelphia on September 21, and the startup intends to expand nationally soon.

Original source: Young Upstarts
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The owner of Hybrid Cycles on East Gay St., West Chester, has added another line of electric bicycles and reports that sales are up 80 percent, reports the Daily Local.

At Hybrid Cycles, President Gary DiVincenzo said sales of electric bikes -- he sells four lines altogether -- are up 80 percent so far this year. Even so, electric bikes are in their infancy in the U.S. compared to the rest of the world, and the East Coast is about two years behind the trend compared to the West Coast, DiVincenzo said.

"There were 20 million (electric bikes) sold in China last year, 1 million in Europe and 125,000 in the U.S.," said DiVincenzo, a former pharmaceutical industry worker who spent 10 years doing custom woodworking before starting Hybrid Cycles.

Original source: Daily Local
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An application called "Simple SEPTA" was the top prize winner among a dozen projects at the SEPTA Hackathon, reports Technically Philly.

All told, more than 30 participants took place on at least eight teams, though other side projects and deviations were shared as is often the case. At least six officials from the SEPTA emerging technologies team were on hand throughout the two-day event. In addition to a half dozen small projects to make SEPTA more rider friendly, the transit agency announced it had opened up a dozen new data sources, as documented on a SEPTA URL including the word ‘hackathon,’ an innovation itself.

“I have never seen a city agency be this supportive and this present at a hackathon,” said Mark Headd, the Voxeo Labs developer who organized the event with web development firm Jarvus, which operates Devnuts and Technically Philly recently profiled.

Original source: Technically Philly
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The Energy Cooperative wants to increase awareness of bioheat through a video contest, according to Biodiesel Magazine.

The Energy Cooperative, a Philadelphia-based member-owned nonprofit, has launched an initiative to encourage the use of Bioheat. To kick off the Clean Heat initiative, The Energy Co-op is holding a Clean Heat video contest. Members of the group submitted videos of their experiences using Bioheat. The Energy Co-op will use these videos as a way to promote the use of the biodiesel-blended heating oil, as well as create more awareness of the renewable heating fuel. The contest is scheduled to conclude on Oct. 20.

Source: Biodiesel Magazine
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Renmatix, a company that creates biofuel from sugar, is setting up shop in King of Prussia, according to BusinessWeek.

Gov. Tom Corbett traveled to suburban Philadelphia on Tuesday to welcome a biomass energy company that plans to move its headquarters from Georgia and create 150 jobs over the next three years as it tries to develop ways to turn products such as wood and waste into fuel.

Venture capitalist John Doerr moderated a discussion of alternative energy inside the warehouse building that Renmatix -- which has another facility in Kennesaw, Ga. -- will be calling home.

The company is developing ways to access the fermentable sugars that are the foundation of biofuels. The effort, along with other alternative energy efforts, are all part of helping the country become less dependent on foreign oil, Doerr said.

Source: BusinessWeek
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Philadelphia ranks third on a list of the least-polluting major cities in the U.S., according to UrbanLand.

Urban areas around the world account for an estimated 71 percent of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions (including everything from power plants to automobile driving). But a new study found that big-city metros differ markedly in how much they pollute.

In a study published earlier this year in the journal Environment & Urbanization, researchers at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., found that New York City had less than half the per-capita greenhouse gas emissions of Denver, Colorado, and Los Angeles--considered by some to be the smog capital of the country--had lower per-capita emissions than Minneapolis, Minnesota. Outside the United States, some of the largest urbanized centers, such as Tokyo, Paris, and even Seoul, had some of the lowest per-capita greenhouse gas emission rates in the world.

Source: UrbanLand
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The Community College Times writes about how the Green Jobs Academy at Bucks County Community College teaches students to convert gas cars to electric.

Imagine a car that can run for 44 miles on $1.20 worth of electricity.

That recently happened at the Green Jobs Academy at Bucks County Community College (Pennsylvania) when 10 participants converted a 1990 Mazda Miata into a fully electric battery-powered car.

Source: Community College Times
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A skybridge is more than just a skybridge at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, according to USA Today.

But the skybridge that links the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown hotel to the Pennsylvania Convention Center had grown so busy in recent years that it received a major makeover during the hotel's just-completed $60 million overhaul.

"It's become the front door to the hotel," Tim Haggerty, the hotel's director of sales and marketing, told me.

The answer is linked to the fact that the hotel is the only one in downtown Philly that's connected to the convention center - and it's also connected to the train station. (The train station is below the convention center.)

Source: USA Today
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Aker Philadelphia Shipyard will build two massive oil tankers for an ExxonMobil affiliate, according to World Maritime News.

Aker Philadelphia Shipyard ASA announced today that its sole operating subsidiary, Aker Philadelphia Shipyard, Inc. (APSI), has signed a Letter of Intent with SeaRiver Maritime, Inc. (SeaRiver), Exxon Mobil Corporation's U.S. marine affiliate, for the construction of two aframax tankers. The 820 foot long, 115,000 deadweight ton tankers are intended to be used to transport Alaskan North Slope crude oil from Prince William Sound to the U.S. West Coast.

Project planning work is currently underway in conjunction with APSI's technical partner, Samsung Heavy Industries. Construction of the first vessel is expected to begin by mid-2012 and both vessels are scheduled for delivery in 2014. The vessels will be equipped with double hull protection, the latest navigation and communications equipment, and energy efficient engines.

Source: World Maritime News
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The Chicago Tribune marvels at Philly's outdoor art scene through a pair of tours showcasing the groundbreaking work of the Mural Arts program..

On my latest trip there, Philadelphia again stole my heart. But this time, instead of falling for Philly's red-bricked history, I fell for its outside art. Nicknamed the City of Murals, Philadelphia has more than 3,000 outdoor murals. The nonprofit City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program (MAP) collection includes 1,700 painted walls.

Although founded to help eradicate graffiti in 1984, under Executive Director Jane Golden, MAP now connects artists with communities by creating art in public spaces. When travelers pay for a guided tour from MAP, it helps support Mural Arts' education and youth development, including the Restorative Justice Program, which teaches inmates, ex-offenders and juvenile delinquents how to paint murals.

Source: The Chicago Tribune
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