Autoblog

Glomming onto a Federal program in the 1970s meant to spur the development of more accessible buses, DeLorean Motor Corporation saw a potential revenue stream. Not that the DMC 80 had anything to do with their now cult-classic sports car, it wouldn't have even been built by DMC. An example of how badge engineering and pimping platforms has been going on forever in the automotive business, DeLorean was essentially planning on affixing the DMC badge to buses from Germany's FFG.

Like the DMC-12, success was not to be had. The Urban Mass Transit Administration's (now Federal Transit Administration) Transbus program was cancelled in 1981 after several years of floundering. DMC couldn't continue to devote resources to the effort, so they abandoned the licensing effort and scrapped a proposal for a bus assembly plant in New York, too. While DeLorean may be little more than a passing curiosity in automotive history, the fact that they got an automobile into production and on the market means that there are plenty of enthusiasts looking for any remaining vestiges of the company. The nature of launching an automotive enterprise also means that there's a ton of material to be strip-mined on eBay. If you find this little footnote in DeLorean's history as fascinating as we do, you can pony up bids and get your hands on a small trove of goodies like blueprints to the non-starter bus plant, a brochure for the DMC 80, and a random DeLorean certificate of achievement. Our favorite item, though, is the memo from John DeLorean to Bill Haddad, essentially saying "call this guy, he can help us, oh yeah, he was also convicted of fraud."

[Source: eBay via Winding Road]

As we're all well aware, magnetic-levitation (maglev) trains have come under fire recently for being unsafe at high speeds. There are other alternatives, however, for next generation public transportation that's both fast and environmentally friendly. The Superbus is a project for a futuristic public bus that runs on electricity (either batteries or fuel cells) and can reach speeds of 155 mph on dedicated "supertracks". It's the brainchild of designers and engineers at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and has received €9 million in government funding and additional €1 million from local bus company, Connexxion.

The Superbus may look longer than a football field, but it's actually the same length and width as a normal city bus. It looks extra long because it's only 5.6 feet high, or about the height of an average SUV. That means that passengers can't stand up inside the Superbus, but they won't need to since each of its 30-some seats has an individual door.

Read more about the Superbus and see more pictures after the jump and click here to see a quick video of the project...

Thanks for the tip, Arthur!

[Source: TU Delft via Economist.com]

Traffic in many German cities is atrocious, and some people don't have the patience to wait for a train to show up and be herded on the rails like some sort of cattle. One particularly ballsy German decided to take his car and run the same track used by those public trains. We definitely don't recommend sharing rails with commuter trains, as we half expected a tire to come bouncing out of one of the tunnels. Still, the reaction of people waiting on the platform for a train and seeing a hatchback fly by is priceless.

For those wondering, the accompanying music is called "An Tagen wie dieser" and is by Fettes Brot, one of Germany's biggest bands.

[Thanks for the tip, jdawg]

[Source: YouTube via Netscape]

As U.S. cities take a new look at mass transit services (anticipating increased demand following rising gas prices), transportation planners might want to take a look at a recent survey sponsored by U.K. insurer esure. The survey of U.K. drivers finds that gas prices would have to reach the equivalent of a stratospheric $13.48 per U.S. gallon before they'd consider switching to mass transit.

A remarkable 55 percent of drivers said they'd never switch, no matter how expensive fuel becomes.

There are lots of ways to interpret these results (existing mass transit may be perceived as too inconvenient and/or too expensive, but improved systems might change peoples' thinking, for example) but one thing's for sure - automakers must be breathing a sigh of relief.

[Source: Reuters]

Auto repair shop chain Midas has declared Dave Givens to be the ultimate road warrior, with a daily round trip of 372 miles, earning him the America's Longest Commute award. Every day, Givens drives from his 7.5-acre ranch in Mariposa, CA to his electrical engineering job at Cisco Systems in San Jose, CA (Google Local says that it's "only" 159 miles one way, but maybe Givens takes a few trips around the block at either end because he likes to drive so much). The stated reason for this is the enjoyment he receives from living in a rural area, although we're not sure how much time is left after his seven-hour commute. All that time is spent in a 2005 Honda Accord, which already has nearly 75,000 miles on the clock after nine months of ownership.

The Federal Highway Administration says that the length of the average commute increased by about 5% from 1990 to 2000... we're thinking that Givens himself might be solely responsible for that increase.

[Sources: North Country Times; Google Local]

Sibling site Gadling has posted a list of the top 10 American cities to live in the event of an oil crisis. The data, complied by the website SustainLane, looked at such factors such as public transportation, 'sprawl', food sources, and even wireless access. SustainLane examined 50 cities then narrowed to the following ten:

1. New York City
2. Boston
3. San Francisco
4. Chicago
5. Philadelphia
6. Portland
7. Honolulu
8. Seattle
9. Baltimore
10. Oakland

[Source: Gadling, SustainLane]