Transportation

The University of Washington is one of four schools that will get small Innova Dash electric micro cars this summer to conduct sustainablity research.

On the outside, it’s a basic, affordable, midsized Chevy Malibu.

But on the inside it’s a hybrid like no other, with two separate engines — one biodiesel, the other electric — that together give it the muscle of, well, a muscle car, not the faint and tentative speed of some hybrids.

For the past three years, a team of University of Washington students has designed, planned, tested, rebuilt, rewired and re-engineered the innards of the General Motors car.

Ross Reynolds speaks with Margaret O'Mara, history professor at the University of Washington, about how Seattle's urban center focus might affect the University District. The urban center focus is one of three planning alternatives being considered for Seattle 2035 as the city prepares for population growth over the next 20 years.

Click here to listen.

To cope with the proposed changes in the transit services from King County Metro, the UW Transportation Services (UWTS) encourages UW students, staff, and faculty to take advantage of UW carpooling and rideshare programs in Seattle to get to campus.

“Huskies are smart,” said Josh Kavanagh, director of UW Transportation Services (UWTS). “I have every reason to think that they can navigate this change and for many people, they can still take transit. It may be a less convenient connection or a more crowded connection and frankly, I don’t think that approach is good enough.”

Although I try to ride my bike to work a few days a week all year ‘round, spring is the time when I really get motivated. It’s finally light when I go to work and when I head for home. In the daylight I feel a little safer and there’s more to enjoy on my ride – dramatic skies, spring blossoms, ducklings at Green Lake, and parades of joggers, dog-walkers, and families out for a stroll. The ride can still be a bit chilly, but I don’t need as many layers or as much determination as it takes to ride in the middle of winter.

After weathering a sponsorship drought and the bankruptcy of a bicycle vendor, the new Puget Sound Bike Share should be ready to hit the streets by late summer, its director says.

The opening phase will cover Seattle Children’s, the University of Washington, Eastlake, Capitol Hill, South Lake Union, downtown and the central waterfront, with 500 bicycles at 50 roadside stations. Customers can subscribe online, or use a credit card to rent the shared-use bicycles from a kiosk, similar to using the city’s parking pay stations.

Pamela Dorris takes two buses and a train to get to the University of Washington campus from her Bonney Lake home every day — a commute that can easily claim up to four hours of her day.

She’s one of thousands of students who take a Metro bus to college in Seattle, saving as much as 27 percent of the cost of attending the UW by living at home with her parents.

The University of Washington (UW) EcoCAR 2 electrical team’s main goal for Year 3 is to make the vehicle’s high and low voltage wiring systems both more serviceable and more compact. The electrical team lead, Brian Magnuson, comments, “Our goal is to have zero time troubleshooting in the pits and move directly into Safety Technical Inspection at the competition.”

Care packages offered this week to carpoolers, vanpoolers
Transportation Services and U-PASS say they will be “showing some love” to all campus carpoolers and vanpoolers this week, Feb. 10 through 14.