Rethinking the NYC cab

Great visualization of a more exciting NYC taxi... by Steven Johnson.

Zippy

Zipcar.com. strategically placed automobiles within communities make this for-profit car share program one of the most known of the programs. 9 bucks an hour.... 66 a day?

This depends upon a network of vehicles, placed, filled, sized, allocated perfectly....A personal zipcard allows you access when requested. Its like a smart parking lot....

How large of scale could this work on? Do people personalized their cars? their zipcard? their parking space? How could this combine with social networking as we see in goloco? leaving notes, messages for the next driver?

Share My Ride - NY TIMES

Go Loco

"...turn your social networks into travel networks." (www.goloco.org)
The more transparent we make our everyday lives the more we are able to actually come together. Since our urban scale prevents us to "gather" and "relate" with neighbors, we have the internet, with the "social networks" that have "virtually" brought people together. Now comes GoLoco, that operates much like a social network, communicating to friends, offices, churches, or the greater public, opportunities to meet up and share expenses.

This becomes even more transparent with new personal devices with GPS, such as the iphone, where one can see at a glance where others are.

It seems while our physical network of community degrades, the virtual one strengthens.
What impact will this have on our cities?

...or are we already seeing it...

they are becoming theme parks, movie sets and un-real spaces....or simply abandoned.

Car Shares

PhillyCarShare. This car share program out of Philadelphia has claimed their 50,000 member. The concept is pretty simple...you don't have to buy a car, you buy into a community non-profit that allows you to borrow a car. They offer monthly plans, parking spots and multiple vehicle types.

How does this work on a rural scale? or can it? How could this operate on a commercial level? shipping vehicles with distribution hubs. Can Americans share their automobiles? What of individuality? of Materiality? will energy rates alter our options for material identity? What sort of urban scale could this increase too? private/non-profit owned public transportation? How could dealers begin to operate/outreach in this way?


(photo from mslk.com)

additional articles:
Diamler to Bring Car Sharing to Texas:
Ikea Announces Car-Pooling Service