Google has released bicycling directions for their maps:

A quick look at their map shows a thin web of connections even for a city that claims to be bike friendly

What’s really missing is topology. Notice the weirdly isolated green lines at the intersection of California and Stockton in the upper left corner…it’s on a big hill, as you can see in the topographical map.

Google could integrate vertical distance as part of the calculation for optimal path. That would be innovative.

The SF bike coalition already provides an overlay of the Google data online, but they do not calculate the climb and descent.

All this combined with crime data, as I mentioned earlier, would make for an excellent bicycle map. You could have bike paths rated by elevation using theft, robbery, assault and actual topography.

I have waited years (since 2006) for diesel motorcycles to emerge from development. No luck.

Electric motorcycles, however, are now available and look very promising. The Brammo is a good example.

I have read that subsidies can bring the cost of this bike to around $6,000. With a top speed of 60mph and range of 40 miles it can easily handle daily commute tasks. Removing fuel stops from the mix (and only four hours to recharge the battery) makes the following immediate benefits seem likely in urban areas:

• Quieter streets
• Improved air quality
• More time to be productive (less standing at the pump)
• Less traffic congestion
• Better space use — fewer parking spots required

Cities should be jumping on this to bring costs down even more since they stand to benefit in so many tangible and immediate ways. More drivers should be jumping on this as electric bikes give plenty of torque for hills and are more accessible than other bikes — require no clutch/gear training.

It will be interesting to see if anyone develops a sound modification kit to make the electric vehicles sound more like traditional engines. I have listened to race car enthusiasts complain that the Audi Le Mans diesel race car is too quiet — it lacks the scream of gasoline. Some people have also started to make noise about the fact that quiet cars are dangerous — they are so accustomed to listening for engines instead of looking for them they feel threatened.

The temporary solution for this odd problem could be a speaker mounted on the electric motorcycle that gives sound options like Harley, Ducati or Triumph. I know BMW has engineers that tune the engine to have a distinctive sound. Might be the best way to get people past the fear of change to streets with less noise. Another option could be to mount fancy sound systems with massive amounts of bass…that might help make less noise more popular.

It looks great so far, but I also see a security failure in the design.

The key has to be in the ignition for charge mode so it requires secure parking space with power, which is uncommon for urban residences. It begs the question of how easy will it be for the bike to be stolen. It would be nice to have the option to unlock and pull the battery to charge it elsewhere, like the 20th floor of an apartment building, while leaving the bike immobilized. The battery could even serve as another key, such that only the correct battery would power the bike.

John Stewart gives a brief review of US Presidential resolve to achieve independence from foreign oil:

Why didn’t it work? Stewart analysis:

• We have the ideas
• We are good people
• Deadlines were missed

The President most likely to succeed at this (he created the EPA, Clean Water Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act) was unsuccessful getting Americans to reduce petroleum consumption because….

Watch and find out the reason for US Dependence on Oil.

Audi’s has won the Le Mans race nine times according to Eurotuner Magazine. The victory this year was especially important for them. They not only managed to take the top three places, but they proved yet again that a reliable engine with high efficiency is actually faster than a powerful one.

The development achievements of this year’s Audi R15 TDI bode extremely well for their consumer models:

In 2010 the demands on diesel engines were particularly high due to the restrictions imposed by the regulations. “Squeezing more output from the engines without sacrificing reliability posed a great challenge, which our team mastered in an outstanding manner,” said Ullrich after the race. “We did not use the full potential of the V10 TDI engine this year in order to be on the safe side. That’s why it was clear to us even before the race that we wouldn’t have the fastest car – but a very reliable and efficient one. The development objective of the R15 plus was 20 percent higher efficiency. We managed to achieve this. We’ve been working very hard for this over the past few months. This makes this success even more rewarding.”

20% more efficient? Congrats Audi! Reliable and efficient wins the race. More importantly it translates well to the average driver — still happy and more productive (fewer stops) while causing less damage to the environment.

Perhaps it should be noted that Audi had reliability issues last year that cost them the race, losing to Peugeot’s diesel supercar.

Peugeot out-Audied Audi

The R15 was new last year and Audi decided to save money by performing fewer tests before competition. This cost them the race. Peugeot capitalized, which setup Audi this year to relaunch the R15 with significantly more tests and a better understanding of risk from overheating.

Alas, it is hard to watch all of this and wonder when US car manufacturers will see the beauty of diesel efficiency in a performance vehicle. Dodge and Cadillac are the obvious candidates. Imagine a CTS diesel wagon…again.