Automobile
How bicycles conquered Amsterdam
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Amsterdam is a city where bicycles have been king for decades. In the 1970s, the city was known for its high rate of car ownership and traffic congestion. But Amsterdam embarked on a series of changes that would ultimately make it one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world.
Amsterdam has been a city where bicycles have been king for decades. In the 1970s, the city was known for its high rate of car ownership and traffic congestion. But Amsterdam embarked on a series of changes that would ultimately make it one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world. These changes included creating more bike lanes and investing in public transportation. Our terms for use of feeds are below. The link between music and math is a strong one, with many people finding that they think more mathematically when they listen to music, or that they can better do mathematical equations in their head when music is playing.
The relationship between music and math is a strong one, and many people find that math comes more easily to them when music is playing.
In a city where bicycles outnumber humans, the omnipresence of the machines can be overwhelming. The bikes of Amsterdam cluster at every curbside, line canals and bridges, and sweep silently around you when as you stroll. The urban fabric is saturated with cyclists, flowing through a complex network of bike-optimized lanes, paths, fietsstraten and woonerfs in numbers that can astonish — and intimidate — newcomers.
“You are here in the bike capital of the world,” Meredith Glaser announced to a gaggle of attendees at the Bloomberg CityLab conference in the Amsterdam this week. More than 60% of trips in the city happen on bicycles, she told us. As the director of the Urban Cycling Institute at the University of Amsterdam, Glaser helped develop an online course called Unraveling the Cycling City, which aims to explain how the Dutch transformed their transportation infrastructure to bring the bike to the top of the mobility food chain.
To tell that story — and show how other cities could follow the Dutch example — she led a group of neophyte riders on a field trip through the city’s streets at dawn.
Many of us were uneasy about setting off on an urban ride bare-headed. Why no helmets? “Look at the bikes you’re riding,” Glaser said.
We rolled out on standard-issue Dutch “black bikes” — utilitarian machines with big fenders, single gears and enclosed chains. Built for comfort and not speed, they allow the rider to sit upright; most riding mishaps are broken wrists, not head injuries, Glaser assured us.
As we clattered out along the cobblestones, we got a taste of why bikes are so well-suited to this environment. Cruising along the historic district’s ancient lanes and bridges in the early morning, it was easy to chat with companions and take in the scenery.
Dutch cycling, Glaser told us, is very social: Communication with fellow travelers, via eye contract and gestures and speech, is what allows riders to negotiate often-packed paths without incident. There’s no barking “on your left!” when passing; riders just flow silently past. At a red light, we were told to “herd the intersection” — pile up as tightly as possible, to make space for incoming riders.
Leaving the historic district, cobblestones gave way to the red pavement of a bike path running alongside a tram line. In this early hour, only a few other riders were out — parents with tiny kids tucked into child seats, sleepy commuters distractedly munching bagels or scrolling through phones, children pedaling to school in packs. I passed a bakfiet (“box bike”) with a huge happy dog standing in the front cargo hold, like a figurehead on the prow of a Dutch galleon. Hey, this was easy!
“Wait about an hour — we’ll see some pressure on the network,” Glaser said.
At an intersection near Alexanderplein, we got a taste of that. Here, cars, trucks, trams and cyclists converged as two busy arterials met. The city removed all the traffic lights at this crossing several years ago; bikes were just whizzing past each other, with cars and trams inching their way through at intervals. It looked anarchic. But the redesign proved to be safer — crash rates fell, since drivers and cyclists were forced to pay such close attention to each other.
The intersection offered a vivid illustration of the Dutch deployment of “safe system” principles, which hold that humans are innately error-prone, so road design must be forgiving, minimizing the ill effects of mistakes. A tiny illustration: We found ourselves on a narrow cycle track separated from the sidewalk by a low curb, so when I cluelessly drifted to the right to let a faster rider pass, the gentle curb just nudged me back into the proper lane instead of pitching me to the pavement. Mistake made; lesson learned.
“If you need a sign, it’s a bad design” is a planning axiom held in high regard in the Netherlands, Glaser told us. Often, the uses of various parts of the road are cued via the style, shape and coloration of pavers, which are standardized across the city via a regime known as the Puccini Method.
On to a neighborhood called Oost, home to many newer residents of the city — migrants from Turkey, Morocco and Suriname, along with more recent arrivals from Ukraine. About half of the area’s residents live in social housing, and most don’t own cars. Amsterdam’s public transit options look impressive to US eyes — trams seem to roll past every few moments — but Graser insisted that the city lags behind many EU cities in that respect, with its relatively puny subway network. That, too, has helped spur the adoption of alternative modes — not just bicycles but mopeds and motorized scooters of many sizes and shapes, along with tiny microcars that sit somewhere on the golf-cart-to-car continuum.
City regulations have strained to impose order on new micromobility variants; while new rules ban scooters and microcars from bike lanes, some encroach anyway. We had some dicey moments attempting to join the thickening flow of commuters swirling near the Amstel train station; speedier riders of e-bikes and scooters flew around our poky peloton of black bikes. But the underlying logic of the road network, which shunts major motor-vehicle traffic onto limited-access highways, kept us in line and upright.
What about pedestrians? One might argue that those on foot are on the losing side in the Dutch bike revolution, as cycle lanes and parking corrals gnaw at sidewalk space and complicate street crossings. To walk in Amsterdam is to be subjected to near-constant jangle of bike bells from riders who seem to have little interest in yielding their hard-won pavement. Glaser acknowledged that bike-pedestrian crashes do occur, but these low velocities, they’re usually minor. Meanwhile, the Dutch pedestrian fatality rate has plummeted since bike-centric street rehabs began.
In De Pijp, a now-gentrified former working-class neighborhood, it was easy to see why. We threaded through dense blocks of brick rowhouses on slim one-way streets, joined by only a handful of cars and delivery vans; bollards often foiled drivers entirely. In front of a small neighborhood school, we marveled at the stillness.
“This is hell driving in this neighborhood,” said Glaser, who once lived nearby. On one street, residents had taken their war on cars one step further, converting most vehicle parking spaces into patches of greenery, interspersed with bike corrals and a loading zone for neighborhood deliveries.
It’s not that cars were banned — in fact, for residents with private vehicles, the city built an underground garage nearby. But this maze of one-way thoroughfares leaves drivers at a severe disadvantage. Cars are obliged to pick their way warily through the city, cowed by thousands of tiny rivals. Near train stations, the scale of the bike takeover could be grasped — surrounding plazas were carpeted in heaps of bicycles; thousands more were stashed in underground garages.
For those from North American cities — where even the best cycle networks serve just a small fraction of the metro area and urban bike commuting is something reserved for the foolhardy and athletic — this role reversal was a source of endless wonder. We’d landed in a Planet of the Apes scenario, where bicycles had somehow evolved to be the dominant species.
But Glaser emphasized several times that Amsterdam’s bike-first approach wasn’t an accident of timing and culture but the deliberate product of policy changes that have come relatively recently in the city’s long history. In was only in the 1970s that a popular movement against rising traffic fatalities began to transform the country’s auto-oriented development patterns, and the crackdown on free parking and accompanying wave of parking-fee-funded bike infrastructure improvements didn’t arrive until the 1990s. Several times, Glaser produced before-and-after photos of specific streets, some less than a decade old, showing car-clogged streetscapes that could have been from any US city.
A few Dutch-specific factors helped this process along, Glaser noted. In addition to being very flat, Netherlands has no domestic automobile industry to lobby for car-only infrastructure, and its passenger rail network is so extensive that 85% of the population lives within biking distance of at least one station. The country boasts a robust pre-World War II bicycling culture, and its government’s command of land use can preempt the disputes between property owners and residents that delay or derail so many US transportation projects. More broadly, mobility and safety are universally understood to be public responsibilities — and the first priorities of any new development.
“There’s a deeply different collective government process here,” Glaser told us. “We’re two meters below sea level. That helps instill a sense of ‘We’re all in this together.'”
That doesn’t mean the Dutch bike takeover hasn’t drawn resistance. Equity tensions revolve around plans to drop speed limits and impose new rules on motor scooters, which are widely used by lower-income residents in distant suburbs. Those who cannot bike may find their housing options limited or their mobility needs unmet. The road network itself continues to evolve: Some cycle tracks are transforming into wider fietsstraten that allow a small amount of vehicle traffic, upsetting some traditional bike advocates. And grumbling about parking fees has an ageless ring that any US city leader would recognize.
Instead of a pedal-powered utopia, Amsterdam is “a regular city,” Glaser said. “People will do what they want to do and try to get away with it.”
But critically, this is a city and country that has managed to bring bicycling into the urban transportation conversation at a level that avoids the political polarization that is so inescapable in American life. Here, accommodating those on two wheels is less an ideological statement than a prerequisite for basic functionality.
“Bikes in public space isn’t a left-wing or a right-wing thing,” Glaser said. “It’s just what is done.”
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Automobile
Amazon Prime Day deals: Get discounts up to 30% and more on these 5 desktops
Great reductions in prices are offered on the five desktops on sale for Amazon Prime Day. Have a look at these reductions on computers available on the Amazon Prime Day celebration.
Home Laptops PC News Amazon Prime Day deals: Get discounts up to 30% and more on these 5 desktops
The Amazon Prime Day sale is coming to its end tonight, but there are still a few hours left, which means you can do some last-minute shopping and save big amounts. If you are looking to buy a well featured desktop with a huge price cut, then these 5 Amazon Prime Day deals on desktops are for you.
1. ASUS Vivo AiO V222:
The ASUS desktop with 4 core Intel is now available with a 35 percent discount. Which means you can get it for Rs.27990 instead of Rs.42990.
Not sure whichlaptop to buy?
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2. Lenovo IdeaCentre AIO 3:
This desktop is available at a 28 percent discount. Under this Amazon Prime Day deal, you can buy it for just Rs.51490 instead of Rs.71190.
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3. Acer Aspire C24: The Acer Aspire C24 desktop is available at a discount of 28%. You can buy it for just Rs.50590 instead of Rs.70550.
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4. ASUS Zen AiO 24: This ASUS desktop is available with a 36 percent initial discount which brings the price down to Rs.60490 from Rs.94990.
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5. HP All-in-One PC AMD Ryzen 3 3250U: The HP desktop is available with 20 percent initial discount, which makes the desktop available to you for just Rs.37990 instead of Rs.47267.
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Although the initial discounts are already high you can bring the price down further by taking advantage of exchange offers and bank discounts available as part of these Amazon prime Day deals. The offer is for a limited period of time so, hurry up.
Automobile
Lego Mars Perseverance can spin 360 degrees in place just like the real rover
Lego has created a version of the Mars Perseverance rover that can turn around completely, just like the real life vehicle does. The replica was announced on Autoblog on Sunday, July 16th, 2023. Check out our stipulations concerning using our feeds. Share a link to this post and send an email with your comments to show your support.
For nearly 2 1/2 years, NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance has been cruising the Red Planet, collecting soil samples, examining rocks and looking for signs of microbial life. Now, the six-wheeled crawler has been immortalized in Lego form with the release of a new 1,132-piece set.
The kit is part of Lego’s Technic line, which is designed for more engineering-curious builders. A big part of the draw is the functioning complex systems that mimic the real rover’s mechanisms. For example, the finished Lego kit lets you switch the rover between a regular driving mode and a 360 mode. In the latter, the four outer wheels each lock at an angle so the rover can rotate in place.
Speaking of which, the wheels mimic the cleated aluminum wheels with titanium spokes of the real Percy. All six wheels on the Lego kit articulate to let the rig travel over rocky and pockmarked surfaces never touched by human beings. The long robotic arm with rock coring head and sample collector is replicated with movement along three axes. The set even includes the Ingenuity helicopter, an experimental solar flier equipped with cameras to scan the Martian landscape.
The real Perseverance and Ingenuity were launched on July 30, 2020. The duo landed on Mars a little over half a year later, on February 18, 2021. Since then, Perseverance has traveled just under 12 miles on the Martian surface as it examines the Jezero Crater. After that, it’ll proceed toward an ancient river delta to seek evidence of remaining water. Signals sent to Earth take about 11 minutes to arrive. Meanwhile, Ingenuity has completed 52 flights in the alien atmosphere, the first human-made machine to take flight on another planet.
The Lego set will be released on Aug. 1, three years and a day after Perseverance and Ingenuity were launched from Cape Canaveral. The kit will retail for $99.99 and is recommended for kids ages 10 and up.
Automobile
Formula One’s Netflix effect is filtering down to kids
The effects of Formula One’s association with Netflix are extending down to younger generations, resulting in more children getting interested in the sport. This was first reported by Autoblog on Sunday 16th July 2023. Check out our stipulations concerning using our feeds. Share a link to this post and send an email with your comments to show your support.
LONDON — Organizers of the “F1 in Schools” competition say the Netflix “Drive to Survive” effect is reaching the classroom with a record number of teams entered in this year’s finals in Singapore in September.
The global not-for-profit program, which aims to encourage students into science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) subjects, offers university scholarships and future work opportunities with F1 teams.
“‘Drive to Survive’ has definitely helped the whole sport,” the program’s founder Andrew Denford told Reuters, referencing the docuseries credited with a rapid rise in the sport’s popularity.
“At the primary final, I asked the kids who likes Formula One and all their hands went up when four, five, six years ago maybe only half of them (did).”
The school teams must raise sponsorship, draw up a business plan, design and make tiny model cars and hold presentations before going racing.
The finals held in the run-up to the Singapore Grand Prix weekend will have 68 entries from 60 countries compared to a previous best of 55 teams.
“There’s 68% girls in Saudi doing it and three (Saudi) teams coming with a majority of girls,” said Denford.
All will get garage and paddock tours and meet the drivers, with every Formula One team and tire supplier Pirelli providing a trophy of sorts.
The program launched in Britain in 2000 with eight schools in Wakefield and now has more than 28,000 educational institutions involved worldwide.
At the youngest level, kids start at the age of nine with paper cars powered by bicycle pumps. In the top 11-19 age bracket the cars are carved from a block of balsa wood and powered by a gas canister.
“We’ve got townships in Soweto … favela schools in Brazil. There’s no level of entry,” said Denford of the program’s reach.
Automobile
Used EV prices are collapsing, and Tesla is why
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Used electric vehicle prices are going down, and it is because of Tesla. This phenomenon was originally reported on Autoblog on Sunday, July 16th of 2023 at 8:00 A.M., Eastern Daylight Time; please acknowledge our terms of usage for feed items. Check out our stipulations concerning using our feeds. Share a link to this post and send an email with your comments to show your support.
Last week’s government inflation data showed used car prices were falling and likely stabilizing to levels just above pre-pandemic pricing. It seems prices for used electric vehicles, however, are falling even faster.
According to auto research firm iSeeCars.com, used EV prices are collapsing more than those in the overall used car market. In the firm’s June 2023 report, the data shows that used EV prices have fallen by nearly 30% year over year, with price drops actually accelerating from 8.8% in January to 16.8% in March and to 29.5% in June. The firm analyzed transactions from over 1.8 million one- to five-year-old used cars from the June 2022 and 2023 time period to capture the results.
“A year ago, used EV prices were on the upswing, rising faster than the average used car,” said iSeeCars executive analyst Karl Brauer in the report. “Electric vehicle prices are now falling at nearly 10 times the rate of the average used vehicle, reflecting a clear shift in EV supply and demand.”
Meanwhile, the overall used car market is stabilizing according to iSeeCars.com, with overall prices down 3.6% year over year in June, following price drops of 2.9% in May and 3.6 % in April.
Tesla price cuts
The biggest reason behind the fall in used EV prices? Tesla’s (TSLA) massive price cuts earlier this year put extreme downward pressure on the used EV market, which is dominated by Tesla EVs like the Model 3 and Model Y.
“With Tesla cutting prices on new models its used EV values have tumbled. And because Tesla makes up the bulk of the used EV market the dramatic drop in Tesla values has impacted the entire category,” Brauer said.
Other factors pushing prices lower on the second-hand EV market include fuel prices stabilizing this year (hurting demand for EVs), rising interest rates, and price-conscious shoppers looking for better vehicle deals regardless of powertrain, Brauer said.
Looking deeper into the data, the top 10 models with the steepest price drops included six hybrid and electric vehicles, with Tesla occupying three of the top five slots with the Model 3 (30.5% drop), Model X (21.3% drop), and Model S (19.0% drop).
Conversely, used cars with the biggest overall price increases were traditional gas-powered cars led by the Mercedes-Benz SL convertibles, Fiat 500X crossover, Chevrolet Suburban, and two Porsche sportscars — the 911 convertible and 718 Cayman coupe.
Looking across metropolitan markets in the US, the data showed that the Miami market saw the steepest used car price drops at 8.1% year over year in June, followed by New York (6.9%) and Jacksonville, Florida, at 6.8%. Only Dallas, Salt Lake City, and San Antonio saw used car price appreciation across the 50 metro areas covered by iSeeCars.
The bottom line for used EV car buyers could be this: If you want a cheap Tesla EV, now might be your best chance to buy one. And don’t shy away from going across state borders to Florida or New York to buy one.
Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.
Click here for the latest stock market news and in-depth analysis, including events that move stocks
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Automobile
The best impact wrenches of 2023
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Classified in the areas of Commerce and Parts and Accessories, The best impact wrenches of 2023 was initially revealed on Autoblog on Sunday, 16 July 2023 at 07:00 EDT. We kindly suggest that you observe our usage guidelines for material sources. Check out our stipulations concerning using our feeds. Share a link to this post and send an email with your comments to show your support.
Autoblog may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page. Pricing and availability are subject to change.
There are regular wrenches that almost everyone is familiar with, and then there are impact wrenches. Impact wrenches can do everything a regular wrench can do but much faster. They can also take on more heavy-duty tasks that manual wrenches cannot. They have a high amount of torque, which makes the most stubborn nuts and bolts easy to remove. Most of them are cordless and battery-powered, but some of them are wired and work just as well. Here are the best impact wrenches available for sale online.
AVID POWER Cordless Impact Wrench – $99.99
$99.99 at Amazon
Key Features
Cordless impact wrench kit
3.0A lithium-ion battery
1 hour fast charger
Up to 330 lb-ft of torque
Maximum RPM of 2,000
1/2 ” chuck size
The AVID POWER Cordless Impact Wrench is powered by a 3.0A lithium-ion battery that reaches a maximum of 2,000 RPM and up to 330 lb-ft of torque for tightening and 770 lb-ft of loosening torque. This wrench has a special friction design where it holds sockets onto the anvil better than a standard bearing ball.
PORTER-CABLE Impact Wrench, 450 lbs of Torque – $79.99
$79.99 at Amazon
Key Features
Corded
1/2 ” hog ring anvil
Maximum RPM of 2,200
Up to 450 ft-lb of torque
7.5 amp motor
3 year limited warranty
This PORTER-CABLE Impact Wrench has a plug-in cord and is powered by a 7.5 amp motor. It reaches a maximum of 2,200 RPM and up to 450 lb-ft of torque. Socket changes are made simple with its 1/2 ” hog ring. This wrench comes with a 3-year limited warranty.
Makita XWT15Z 18V LXT Lithium-Ion Brushless Cordless Impact Wrench – $165.00
$165.00 at Amazon
Key Features
5.0Ah lithium-ion battery
Extreme Protection Technology
Brushless motor
Maximum RPM of 3,2000
Up to 430 lb-ft of torque
Long lasting battery life
This Makita Lithium-Ion Brushless Cordless Impact Wrench is powered by a large 5.0Ah lithium-ion battery. It reaches up to 3,200 RPM and up to 430 lb-ft of torque. The wrench has three forward and three reverse auto-stop modes to increase efficiency while working.
DEWALT 20V MAX XR 1/2″ High Torque Impact Wrench – $244.99
$244.99 at Amazon
Key Features
Maximum RPM of 2,400
Up to 700 lb-ft of torque
1/2 ” hog ring anvil
Magnesium gearcase
LED light
3 year limited warranty
This DEWALT 20V MAX XR High Torque Impact Wrench is equipped with a lithium-ion battery and has 700 lb-ft of torque and 1,200 lb-ft of breakaway torque. It can reach up to 2,400 RPM and has a 1/2 ” hog ring anvil with a detent pin. There is a LED light with a 20 second delay to add invisibility in low light conditions. A 3 year warranty is included with the purchase of this wrench.
Milwaukee 2767-20 M18 FUEL High Torque 1/2″ Impact Wrench – $213.82
$213.82 at Walmart
Key Features
REDLITHIUM battery
Up to 1,400 lb-ft of maximum torque
Up to 1,000 lb-ft of fastening torque
4-mode drive control
1/2 ” friction ring anvil
This Milwaukee High Torque Impact Wrench is powered by a REDLITHIUM battery which is a unique type of lithium-ion battery that lasts longer and has extra protection from overloading and overheating. It can reach 1,400 lb-ft of maximum torque and 1,000 lb-ft of fastening torque.
What are the benefits of an impact wrench?
Impact wrenches have various benefits that make them worth the price. Their high torque output gives them a major advantage over other drills and wrenches. They can work much faster than other wrenches and come as either wireless or they can be plugged in.
Are there any disadvantages with impact wrenches?
The biggest downside of impact wrenches is the price. They can cost around $100 or much more and if you don’t use it often then it may not be worth the price.
Impact driver vs impact wrench
The names are similar, but they are different. According to Pro Tool Reviews, “An impact driver is a screwdriving specialist. Use one for slotted, Phillips, square, Torx, and other fasteners with a head that requires a driver bit to install. Turn to the higher power of an impact wrench for fastening and loosening nuts and bolts.”
Impact wrench vs torque wrench
Impact wrenches are power tools that are recommended for more serious projects such as taking apart heavy-duty equipment or removing tires while torque wrenches are more practical for basic work that can be done by hand.
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