Newschecker is short and sweet this week.Artists EcoArtTech have developed a mobile solar powered, GPS enabled robot that’s senses changes in the environment, pollution levels and even terrorist threats! It then projects this data via video projection onto the nearest available surface. The Environmental Risk Assessment Rover–AT, Version 1.0 is on display at the Off The Grid exhibition in New York.
Image from EcoArtTech
In America, they are promoting the use of bikes in May. The League of American Bicyclists is promoting Bike-to-Work Week from May 12-16 and Bike-to-Work Day on Friday, May 16. Need some ideas? Check their website for 50 ways to celebrate bike month.
Wired magazine have a photo contest inviting readers to send in photos of different forms of mobility in their countries. It is a varied and interesting overview of everything from trains , planes and automobiles, and a few other surprises! Check out the pictures here.

Image "The no 12 Tram by Calum Davidson" from www.wired .com

The New York Police Department has discovered the advantages of sustainable and flexible mobility.The good old cops and robbers game isn’t what it used to be. Formerly it might have been enough for the police to be faster and cleverer than the bad guys. But thanks to overall technical improvements, the Cops have been forced to upgrade their equipment. The New York Police Department has adopted a real pioneering invention to be more maneuverable: The Segway!The Segway is an electric transportation device that balances on just two wheels, thanks to its sensors, its computerized brain, and its array of five gyroscopes. Riders stand on a platform over the Segway's two wheels and steer by leaning. Sounds complicated, and in fact, the Segway used to have some significant technical problems: The NYPD has tested the scooters before, launching a pilot program in 2003. The program was soon abandoned during a nationwide recall after it had been discovered that Segways would tip when battery power ran low. There was a second recall after at least six riders experienced that their Segways switched into reverse gear without warning. A software update solved the problem.An NYPD officer on a SegwayRight now, the NYPD Segways work without any huge difficulties. The specially trained Cops cruise Coney Island, Prospect Park, Orchard Beach, the Bronx Zoo, Yankee Stadium, Flushing Meadow Park, Shea Stadium, Arthur Ashe Stadium and Central Park with their 2-wheel cruisers. “They’re especially well suited for pathways and boardwalks”, says John Kelly of the NYPD. “It also makes sense to deploy Segways in the milder and warm weather when there is a greater use of the parks and beaches.” Besides the mobility, another obvious advantage of the Segway is the better view: “Officers riding Segways are elevated eight inches from the ground – giving them nearly a foot higher vantage point. They can see over crowds and traffic more easily.”Another plus of the Segway mobility is certainly their eco-friendliness: A Segway does draw electric power during recharge, but that electricity causes fourteen times less greenhouse gas emissions compared to a car. After one year on your Segway you would have literally saved one ton of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere. On the other hand, authorities said that the Segways didn't meet safety standards and couldn't legally be registered in New York State. So in their view, it was illegal to use Segways on the streets or on the sidewalks. For this reason, a man on his Segway was stopped by the police in midtown some time ago. His ticket cost him over $95. This measurement was actually illegitimate because the law does not specifically mention Segways. However, there is no case reported that an officer on a Segway was arrested by his own colleague from the police department!Watch our Segway video at the IAA 2007 in Frankfurt, Germany!

It sounds like a miracle: cars that accelerate as fast as sports cars and consume as little as compact cars. BMW names this technology simply “EfficientDynamics” – which, yes, gets to the point - but of some sort understates the fact of the grand innovative leap BMW has taken with its new technology.
EfficientDynamics in short means a bundle of energy saving measures, concerning engine, gearbox and auxiliary equipment. The basic principle is that the car only uses the functions that are necessary at the moment. So when the car stops so does the engine. Servo steering, air condition and some aerodynamic functions are also controlled in an intelligent way. Above all the system regenerates breaking energy to charge the battery.

It enables the new BMW 520d - with a powerful 177 hp four-cylinder diesel engine - to an average consumption of only 5,1 Liter (138 g CO2/km). Remember, it’s a full size sedan that accelerates from 0-100 km/h in 7,9 seconds!
Efficiency is key to stay dynamic in climate changing times, says BMW and takes their efficient dynamics development now one step further: To be introduced in fall 2007 the BMW top-selling 3 Series will be equipped with new efficient motors (four-cylinder gas and diesel engines), reducing the overall emissions significantly. That makes it altogether 22 models for the German market which will fall into the category EfficientDynamics in 2008. Or in other words (numbers): 40 percent of all new cars by BMW Group (BMW, MINI, Rolls Royce) produce less than 140 gramm CO2/km, among them three MINI models.
BMW 520d
Best of all though: less emissions don’t necessarily have to come with less or let’s say reduced engine power, ergo: less driving pleasure.
It’s the opposite: more power, less consumption. Here’s the ultimative proof: the BMW 123d new generation, also equipped with a four-cylinder engine and a variable Twin Turbo(150kW/204 hp) speeds up from zero to 100 km/h in 6.9 seconds by having an average fuel consumption of 5,2 litre and CO2 emissions of 138 g/km. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? Fun in series… pleasure of driving!
Fotos: website

Tamara Giltsoff is the MD of OZOlab. OZOlab creates and markets eco businesses. She writes regularly for Treehugger.com on service innovation and green growth. We spoke with her in New York.
What is OZOcar about?OZOcar is a 'luxury' eco car/taxi service in New York. It competes with the black Town Car/limousine services that ferry corporate execs all over the city and are used as a bookable taxi service by individuals. OZOcars are all hybrid Toyota Pruis' (and some Lexus') – each equipped with wifi, XM radio, AC power (to charge laptops/phones) and access to an Apple laptop. And all the drivers are trained to give personal customer service and invited to engage in the success of the company.We often talk about OZOcar being the 'first seed of green' for many. OZO exists to make sustainable living a desirable and intuitive choice. Does it make sense to drive a car in Manhattan at all – even though it is a not so emissive one?I don't drive in the city, but occassionally I need to take a taxi. The subway is excellent in Manhattan, but connections to the airport aren't great for instance. It's not an integrated transport system here. And sometimes, when there is an important meeting and work to be done on the way, yes it makes sense. OZOcar makes much more sense than sitting in a car twice as big that burns more twice as much as fuel with less than half the service experience. How do you see the future of individual mobility?I see the future of individual mobility not being 'individual'. This is a huge leap of faith, particularly in the US. Each time I've written a piece about this on Treehugger.com I get a barrage of comments from (rightly) cynical readers who assure me that Americans will never give up the (big) cars they own and certainly will never share them. "This country was founded on the notion of property and ownership", I am told. But here's a thing: We have reached peak oil. No one really talks about this. I saw a great film The Crude Awakening the other day. I live and breathe this stuff, but I was even surprised about soon there will no more fuel for us to be driving around like loonies in cars 40 times our weight. Couple this with pro-social trends sweeping the networked society and the rise of community supported initiatives and cooperative models, that are changing our notion of property and single ownership.I am not saying we are all going to ride-share, but I do think that it will soon/is already beginning to be socially un-acceptable to sit in traffic alone in a large car amongst thousands of others doing the same. Living in the US and the UK – do you see any difference in the level of awareness of the people regarding ecology / climate change and a difference in the consumer reaction?I am going to talk about the market not people. And by that I mean consumers and businesses because one responds to the other. Since I left the UK, exactly a year ago, awareness levels have tipped there largely because of consistently provocative and brilliant media coverage (God bless The Guardian, The Independent, The BBC, and George Monbiot) as well sustainable development becoming a political obsession. I am very proud to hear about the innovative policy debate around sustainability building momentum in the UK; I also want to see market action. A year ago I would've responded by saying that in the UK we are ahead on policy (compared to the US), but the market is slow to respond and is stuck in a "I will if you do" situation (waiting for gov to implement policy before market innovation). Today I might be disagreeing with myself. Marks & Spencers are case in point. They have put sustainability at the strategic heart of the organisation; it is a business issue but also a problem opportunity. M&S are using their presence as a retailor to demonstrate their role and the opportunity to consumers, inviting them to participate in sustainable consumption and "look behind the label". This is strategy, not reaction. Plus, eight major companies in the UK (including M&S) have rallied together to unveil "We Are In This Together", a campaign to provide consuemrs with compelling products and services that make it easy to reduce their CO2. (Check this at www.together.com/solutions)
The US in contrast to the UK 'is' an enterprising nation. It responds and is somewhat largely led by markets, not policy. Hence, this country is in trouble because it's the world's greatest consumer of natural resources and because central policy has chosen, until recently, to ignore this. So the market kicked in and change started to happen.

Once many small rivers in the northeastern United States had pocket hydropower stations that supplied clean, easy to tap hydroelectric power to municipalities and local industries. These were largely phased out and supplanted by large dams and by monolithic power authorities in the 1950's & 60's.Most of these stations are no more but a few small facilities have been restored and there is great interest putting the machinery back in some of the old stone power-plant buildings and spillways.

Photo by Kit Latham: Housatonic River, MassachusettsNew York City on the other hand is trying out a tidal electric installation on the bottom of a river. Verdant Power, a developer of free-flow turbine systems recently began installing its new kinetic hydropower plant in New York City's East River. The East River is a tidal estuary that runs right by Manhattan through the middle of New York City. Tides flow through the river which connects New York harbor with Long Island Sound and can sometimes run in excess of 8 knots, fast enough to roll good sized boulders along the bottom of the river according to some coast guard personnel. The Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy Project (RITE) seeks to harness the potential kinetic energy of the river's motion by installing free-flow hydopower turbines on the riverbed. These turbines resemble smaller versions of wind turbines often seen on land using the flow of water instead of air to generate energy potential.

The first two of the six turbines were deployed on December 11th and 12th of 2006, the remaining four turbines will be installed in the first part of April for an 18 months test. One of the initial turbines has a dynamometer to measure load factors and the other turbine contains a power generation system.According to Trey Taylor at Verdant Technologies the turbines are being put through their operational paces in their first 5 weeks with following results:• 40 days of continuous operation (about 155 tides)
• 100% turbine availability during that period.
• reached or exceeded every performance specification
• world's first grid-connected power without any switching or power-quality problems
• generated power to the grid 77% of the time
• performed equally well in both tide directions, another first
• average power output during tidal generation periods of 14.5 kW
• average energy production of 270 kWh/day = 8.1MWh/month = 97 MWh/yr
• generated a total of over 10 MWh

This underwater turbine farm is completely submerged but essentially located directly in front of the United Nations Building, not a bad location for the first test of its kind in the United States.