The UK's Black Cab is truly iconic. Though typically painted black, some of the UK's symbolic cabs have taken on a shade of green. Not literally, but figuratively.
A handful of London's "cabbies" are set to have "spring-o-meters, guest books and bleepers" to encourage drivers to save fuel. The dashboard-mounted "spring-o-meters" wobble and beep if the cabbie brakes too harshly or accelerates too aggressively. The "guest book" allows passengers to comment on the cabbies hypermiling skills and the "bleepers," well, they bleep.
By encouraging hypermiling techniques, The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) hopes to slash the cab's CO2 emissions by 200 kilograms a year, while saving cabbies £600 ($978 U.S. at the current exchange rate) in annual fuel costs.
Why choose cabbies? Well, Jamie Young, a RSA researcher on the hypermiling project, says, "We chose cabbies on purpose because they are stereotyped by critics as cynical and set in their ways and so are a relatively difficult group to influence and who tend to think the high cost of fuel just comes with the job." Young says the "white-van man" could be next. Hat tip to Karl!
[Source: Hypermiler.co.uk]
A handful of London's "cabbies" are set to have "spring-o-meters, guest books and bleepers" to encourage drivers to save fuel. The dashboard-mounted "spring-o-meters" wobble and beep if the cabbie brakes too harshly or accelerates too aggressively. The "guest book" allows passengers to comment on the cabbies hypermiling skills and the "bleepers," well, they bleep.
By encouraging hypermiling techniques, The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) hopes to slash the cab's CO2 emissions by 200 kilograms a year, while saving cabbies £600 ($978 U.S. at the current exchange rate) in annual fuel costs.
Why choose cabbies? Well, Jamie Young, a RSA researcher on the hypermiling project, says, "We chose cabbies on purpose because they are stereotyped by critics as cynical and set in their ways and so are a relatively difficult group to influence and who tend to think the high cost of fuel just comes with the job." Young says the "white-van man" could be next. Hat tip to Karl!
[Source: Hypermiler.co.uk]
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