May 1, 2009

iReport: a city without cars

Posted: 05:22 PM ET

In case you missed them, here are three cool user-submitted videos from CNN's iReport.com.

The first shows a car-free day in Jakarta. The city looks pretty eerie without any cars on the streets. Check out the photos, and also this story from the Jakarta Post, which says pollution is greatly reduced when there aren't so many people driving. More there:

According to the Jakarta Environmental Management Board's (BPLHD) 2008 data, dust particles in the air on Car-Free Day drop by 34 percent on average, carbon monoxide (CO) drops 67 percent and nitrogen oxide (NO) 80 percent.

Twenty-two car-free events are scheduled this year, 12 of them on Jl. Sudirman and Jl. Thamrin on the last Sunday of each month.

Next up, San Diego iReporter Chris Morrow interviews Gary Vaynerchuk, a fast-talking Internet wine critic, about how to hold an effective conversation on Twitter. Check out the critic's site (he's known for drinking throughout his reviews, so they're usually most interesting by the end) and also Morrow's Twitter feed. [disclaimer: Morrow misspells Vaynerchuk's name in the video]

Finally, watch this young traveler's take on the H1N1 outbreak (formerly known as swine flu). Sort of in defiance of his post's title - "WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!" - the reporter overall is a voice for calm amid the rising illness toll.

Also check out CNN's H1N1 coverage, swine flu topics on Twitter and iReport's discussion on school closings.

Posted by: John D. Sutter -- CNN.com writer/producer
Filed under: Cars • climate change

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Doris

May 4th, 2009 3:21 am ET

Hello
Years back my friends and I took a cordless drill , and adapted a small generator to the chuck and wired it to the contacts where the battery makes contact. And we locked the trigger and it ran until it almost drove us crazy. We then took the photovoltaic cell found on some calculators, the ones that run the device when even the battery is removed. We attached them to our cell phones, and then to our laptops. and have not had to use any wall charger for the last 8 months. Our thing is that we cannot mass produce this! But we have ours.
Now we have a body less vehicle that runs completely on its own. without the need of ever recharging. The reason it has no body is because we cant decide on a body style! We have it wired very simple, the front wheels drive the vehicle by a electric motor powered by the rotation of the rear wheels, of course we have batteries and an inverter.
But we have been driving it at our test site an it has not required recharging of it main battery pack which only weights in at 90 lbs. The rear wheel rotation is 1 to 3, for every one rear wheel rotation, it generates enough energy to power the fronts 3 times! With this excess going back in to the system. It can be adjusted for more or less E. P .R. (energy per rotation) depending on the weight of the vehicle.
It is very quick and has not yet needed to be plugged into anything.
We are still running on the main charge from the batteries out of the box. We have put over 12,000 miles and it still runs. Tonight we are going on fence check, that’s when it sits still, unmoving. Once the batteries drop 15% from a full charge. Then the relay/sensor starts a small electric motor which engages a 73 amp alternator which then recharges the battery pack, how the electric fan on newer fuel burning vehicles radiators, but ours makes free energy.
When we first started, onto the bigger things, after the phones and laptops. It was by intergrading an alternator to a bracket which then attaches to the rear-end housing of this hybrid. We then had this wheel which rode on a small shock absorber. so that a light pressure is kept on the wheel engaging a roads surface, which then spun the alternator on that bracket. Then it is wired through an inverter to a corded plug, and that is just plugged into that bumper plug while driving around, and it looks clean instead of using the charge that is normally recharged in a persons garage. of your everyday electric vehicle. The ones that you have plug in at night in your garage or even at some charging depot! We don’t ever have the need to recharge this way.

Want to see something respond to lunatort@yahoo.com.
Thank you for your time in this matter.

iReport: a city without cars

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