Autoblog

Police using 43-year-old Plymouth Satellite to patrol Seattle streets [w/video]

Jonathon Ramsey — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:57:00 EST

Filed under: Classics, Sedan, Etc., Videos, Police/Emergency

It's like throwback uniform days at the ballpark, only this happens every day and it's at the police station. A story and video by the Associated Press takes a look at Seattle police officer Jim Ritter and his 1970 Plymouth Satellite police cruiser (the Satellite was renamed Fury in 1975) - and yes, that's him above with the car, Ritter in his period-correct police uniform. As you might guess, this is one of those community relations efforts, but it's no show pony - the Satellite is Ritter's daily driver and he'll ride in convey with Crown Victorias to answer any kind of police call.

Ritter started the Seattle Metropolitan Police Museum 15 years ago, and there are 14 cars in its collection of automobiles. This one was offered by a retired Seattle city worker living in Nebraska, and after it was determined that it was indeed part of the King County Police Department in 1970, the museum restored it with the help of local businesses. It hasn't been made modern, though - it's got no air conditioning, no computer, and 43-year-old ride quality.

Nonetheless, as a woman remarks in the video below, it's "filthy," which means "awesome." You can read even more about it over on KOMO News.

Continue reading Police using 43-year-old Plymouth Satellite to patrol Seattle streets [w/video]

Police using 43-year-old Plymouth Satellite to patrol Seattle streets [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This is how a tunnel boring machine will burrow a viaduct under Seattle

Jonathon Ramsey — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 08:31:00 EST

Filed under: Etc., Technology, Videos, Specialty

So it's not exactly automotive, but it is a fascinating vehicle - and you'll excuse us if we don't make any puns about how boring it actually is. A portion of Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct is being replaced by a deep tunnel, and the machine purpose-built for the job is the world's largest tunnel boring machine (TBM), christened "Bertha." Built by Hitachi Zosen, the 300-foot-long doomsday machine is excavating a 57.5-foot-wide hole for a two-level highway with two lanes in each direction.

Bertha has only recently arrived at the Port of Seattle and is still waiting to get off the cargo ship she rode in on. The video below lays out in detail how she'll crawl her way from one end of the tunnel to the other, 6.5 feet at a time. Warning, it's dry, but we think it's interesting. Beneath that is a time-lapse video of Bertha's 6,100 tons being loaded up in 40 pieces for shipping from Japan to Seattle which makes us think of Fraggle Rock and dozers, but perhaps that's just us...

Continue reading This is how a tunnel boring machine will burrow a viaduct under Seattle

This is how a tunnel boring machine will burrow a viaduct under Seattle originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 09 Apr 2013 08:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How Seattle buses get up snowy hills

Jonathon Ramsey — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Etc., Government/Legal, Videos

Seattle has taken a white, snowy beating of late, but the city has made it a point to keep its bus services running. Not being the flattest city on record, Seattle's steeper inclines can present a challenge to municipal vehicles. One way around this is, apparently, to use a wrecker to push a bus up a hill.

To the casual eye, this looks like a potential avalanche of lawsuits; a single mistake could make a lot of people very unhappy. However, the practitioners seem so familiar with the act that it comes off as if it's a regular occurrence. Follow the jump to see the tandem in action.

Continue reading How Seattle buses get up snowy hills

How Seattle buses get up snowy hills originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 21 Jan 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Police using Twitter to track down stolen cars

Jeff Glucker — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 16:32:00 EST

Filed under: Etc., Technology

Police in Seattle have turned to social media in an effort to help recover stolen vehicles. By sending out a Tweet that describes the liberated vehicle, authorities are hoping someone in the network of followers will spot it and report the vehicle's location. The Twitter account being used by the SPD goes by the handle @GetYourCarBack and sends out a message listing the year, make, model and license plate of the stolen vehicle.

Every little bit helps and it's always interesting to see how companies or organizations adopt new uses for technology. Besides the usefulness of the feed, it's also quite interesting to see what is getting stolen in the Seattle area. We spy lots of Hondas, but also a few scooters and someones Ford F-350 pickup.

[Source: Social Car News]

Police using Twitter to track down stolen cars originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 16:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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VIDEO: Seattle earthquake viaduct simulation released; timing politically motivated?

Jonathon Ramsey — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:29:00 EST

Filed under: Etc., Government/Legal, Safety, Technology, Videos

Alaskan Way Viaduct earthquake simulation -- Click above to watch video

The Alaskan Way Viaduct (AWV) is an elevated roadway running along the Elliot Bay Waterway in Seattle. An earthquake in 2001 damaged the viaduct, and the structural degradation has only gotten worse over the years. To forestall the possibility of having the conduit collapse in another natural disaster, the city and Port of Seattle, King County, and the state government agreed earlier this year to dig a deep-bore tunnel to go under the waterway and eventually shut down the viaduct.

According to the Seattle Times, the tunnel is a contentious issue, with residents fervently pro and against. Two years ago, though, the state commissioned a video to show what would happen to the AWV if another serious earthquake hit. The six-minute CGI video that resulted could be a clip right out of the disaster movie 2012, and because of its sensationalism, it was never shown. Seattle resident Elizabeth Campbell doesn't want the tunnel and recently requested to have the video released. After saying that Campbell wouldn't get it for eight months, the city put the video on a local news show - and Campbell still hasn't received her copy.

Naturally, there's some political intrigue to accompany everything. The problem is that there's a mayoral race happening right now, with the current mayor siding for the tunnel and his opponent is against it. It has therefore been suggested that the video has been released in order to help that current mayor's campaign - you would not want to be anywhere near the AWV and phrases like "liquefied soil" if the video is anywhere close to reality. Whether it will affect votes remains to be seen. Either way, you can check out the video footage for yourself after the jump.

[Source: Seattle Times]

Continue reading VIDEO: Seattle earthquake viaduct simulation released; timing politically motivated?

VIDEO: Seattle earthquake viaduct simulation released; timing politically motivated? originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Neff (allegedly) uses Buick, rope to drag bull; police and motorists irate

Jonathon Ramsey — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:32:00 EST

Filed under: Etc., Government/Legal

We occasionally decry some of the daffy laws that are still on the books, and then things like this happen and we're reminded that we need some of them. Two men in King County, Washington allegedly tied a live bull to a Buick's door frame and were spotted dragging it down the road to another pasture. The bull, apparently dead set against heading to said pasture, was on its belly, legs splayed out, leaving a trail of blood behind it.

The two men, Terrance Neff (no relation) and Jonas Arnbrister, told police the bull "is stubborn" and dragging it around is what they always do. Why? Because "You have to be like that with cows." After having pulled it a half a mile they also said that the bull wasn't hurt.

The men are currently in the King County jail awaiting court appearances on charges of animal cruelty. The bull was given pain medication and given to animal authorities for better keeping. Whenever Neff and Arnbrister get out, the next time they need to relocate some bull, we figure they ought to get themselves a lightly-used Pontiac Grand Am and try doing it like the gent in the above photo.

[Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | Image: Bugack.com]

Neff (allegedly) uses Buick, rope to drag bull; police and motorists irate originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Seattle's plow crews not trying to clear snow from roads by design

Jonathon Ramsey — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 17:01:00 EST

Filed under: Etc., Government/Legal, Green

Not long ago, Washington state's Department of Ecology was making noises about not letting people wash their cars at home because "what goes on the street goes into the creek." Now the state is on the opposing side of Seattle's efforts not to let harmful chemicals wash into the freshwater streams feeding into Puget Sound.

Seattle is not using salt to clear the roads because it doesn't want the salt flowing into waterways. As well, the city's snow plows have rubber-edge blades that can clear snow, but can't get the ice off the road. Seattle's DOT cheif says the city is trying to "create a hard-packed surface" of snow. It will then lay sand down over the hardpack in order to offer enough traction to cars, and employ a soy-based de-icer only good for temps below 32 degrees.

The hitch: only 4-wheel-drive and front-wheel-drive cars with chains have any traction. That means that even the police can't drive on many roads. If the police make a call to a location on a hill, they park at the bottom and walk up the hill. As well, the police are having to respond to literally hundreds of collisions and disabled vehicles.

The state DOT has taken a much different tack: it is using sand, salt, metal-edged plows, and chemical de-icer in its battle with the elements. Seattle is now experimenting with a "silver bullet" concoction that is saltwater from a cheese factory, calcium chloride, and de-sugared molasses.

[Source: Seattle Times]

Seattle's plow crews not trying to clear snow from roads by design originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 27 Dec 2008 17:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Driver puts faith in GPS, shears off top of charter bus on bridge

Jonathon Ramsey — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:29:00 EST

Filed under: Gadgets, Etc., Technology

As of today, we're taking bets to see how long it will take before people realize that "GPS" does not stand for "Auto Pilot." The latest "But the GPS told me to..." story is brought to you by a charter bus driver in Seattle. Piloting a coach through the Washington Arboretum -- as the GPS instructed him -- the driver ignored, or didn't see, or didn't believe (take your pick) the flashing lights and sign warning him that his 11-foot-high bus was too tall for the looming 9-foot concrete overpass.

You can see how the story ends. The overpass ended up with some superficial damage, the coach got a removable top, and the girls softball team inside received some minor injuries. Luckily, the 60-inch sewage pipe inside the overpass wasn't ruptured. The driver was ticketed for $154. And in response to the charter company executive who remarked, "We just thought it would be a safe route because, why else would they have a selection for a bus?", a Garmin spokesman responded "Stoplights aren't in our databases, either, but you're still expected to stop for stoplights."

[Source: Seattle Pi]

Driver puts faith in GPS, shears off top of charter bus on bridge originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Picture this: Warhol car crash painting brings $71 million

Jonathon Ramsey — Fri, 18 May 2007 11:58:00 EST

Filed under: Etc.

Warhol said "Art is what you can get away with," and the late, great artist's paintings are still getting away with a fortune. Among the most recent works auctioned by Christie's is his painting Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I), from Warhol's Death and Disaster series, which went for $71.7 million dollars on Wednesday, May 16. The painting is based on a photograph that appeared in Newsweek magazine from June 3rd, 1963. The photograph depicted the end of a car chase, when a 24-year-old commercial fisherman in Seattle flipped his car, hit a telephone pole, and was ejected from the car forcefully enough to be impaled on, but not immediately killed by, a climbing spike. The mangled car burns in an otherwise mundane residential setting -- there's even a guy crossing the street like it's nothing special. Seventy-one million for a green-tinted painting of a random photograph, however... that doesn't happen every day.

Thanks to Stuntman Mike!

[Source: BBC]

Picture this: Warhol car crash painting brings $71 million originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 18 May 2007 11:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Return of the blue-tape car: Toyota Tercel dies in pursuit of art

Dan Roth — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 11:21:00 EST

Filed under: Etc., First Drives

Pursuing art is about the only thing a Tercel could successfully chase. Inspired by a fun Audi trick we covered back in November, a '96 Tercel was covered in 3M Painter's tape prior to departing Chico, CA with Seattle as their destination. Much alcohol was consumed by all at the signing party, where Sharpies were employed to offer some personality to the blank blue canvas. Long story short, it didn't make it all the way - the little Tercel succumbed to low oil pressure in the Olympia area. At first, it was acting like worn main bearings, and frequent stops would return oil pressure, but the little mill could hold out no longer and ultimately threw a rod. There is a happy ending, though. After hanging out in Seattle for spring break, the ride home turned out to be a Mazda 6 with V6 underhood. That totally kicks the ass of driving a Tercel any distance.

Thanks for the tip, Sky!

[Source: tehnerdery]

Return of the blue-tape car: Toyota Tercel dies in pursuit of art originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 30 Mar 2007 11:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Miami declared tops in rude driving

Chris Paukert — Wed, 17 May 2006 08:01:00 EST

Filed under: Trends, Etc., Safety

Perhaps its the fact that there are thousands of doddering septuagenarians plying area roads, but Miami, Florida has just been dubbed America's least courteous drivers. Or to put a finer point on it, they've got some road rage and rude driving issues. A new AutoVantage survey of 2,000 adult commuters in 20 major cities has concluded that Miami has the worst road etiquette. The Norwalk, Connecticut company's phone survey also found a lot of negative feelings in:

Phoenix, Arizona
New York, New York
Los Angeles, California
Boston, Massachusetts

And there must be something to the whole 'Minnesota Nice' thing, as Minneapolis topped the list of friendliest commuter cities. Other top finishers included:

Nashville, Tennessee
St. Louis, Missouri
Seattle, Washington
Atlanta, Georgia

AutoVantage questioned participants on everything from obvious displays of motoring anger (middle fingers, cutting off other cars, tailgating, etc.), turn signal use, talking on the phone, and 'driving too fast.'

[Source: The Associated Press via CNN.com]

(Top Tip, Evan!)

Miami declared tops in rude driving originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 17 May 2006 08:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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