In many of American cities, it is just more viable to take public transport with gridlock traffic consuming the cities. But even if you don’t live in the city, public transportation may be a great choice, not only to help the environment but to also save yourself a considerable amount of money. Not only would we not have to pay for the the car itself, the gas that powers our cars to get us from home to work and back again, but you may also avoid tolls and car maintenance bills. We can also avoid the monthly car insurance bill as well and when the average cost of a car insurance premium in 2009 was $1,800, that breaks down to be $150 a month. That is $150 we can save or even use to buy something more important.

Now everyone has pondered the idea of traveling to work like George Jetson.  Avoid the morning rush hour and traffic congestion prevalent in our modern cities. There have been many attempts at the flying car, some more plausible than others, but we are now almost there.  Its name, the Terrafugia Transition, as it can travel in both the air as well as on land. Now it’s not exactly as advanced as the Jetson’s car, but it is as advanced as we can ask for. It can switch between a car and a plane within 30 seconds, and can amazingly fit in any standard sized garage. On land it averages 30 mpg, not bad for a car/plane hybrid. In the air it maintains 115 mph and has a range of over 400 miles. Now the Terrafugia is not even considered to be a prototype yet but its developers plan on doing some additional testing to improve its performance and hopefully plan to get it into production. The real question we have to ask ourselves is if we really want to be flying around in the air thousands of feet above the ground with the same people who cut us off on our daily commutes and flip us the bird as if we did something wrong. Obvioulsy this flying car will not solve the traffic congestion problems in the city because there is no place to land, but if you were trying to avoid the traffic you may encounter between point A and point B, and you have the space to take off and land, the Terrafugia may be for you.

As a bittersweet farewell to one of the most tumultuous years in automotive history, RideLust presents to you a re-cap of all the biggest industry events in 2009…and a few that slipped in under editorial bias.

Rick Wagoner, Bob Nardelli, and Alan Mulally spent weeks feigning humility and destitution in three piece Brooks Brothers suits in an attempt to wrangle a billion-dollar loan from an apparently benevolent Uncle Sam. Eventually, the government acquiesced and agreed to bail out both General Motors and Chrysler so as not to interrupt their steady production of poorly built, aesthetically unappealing vehicles.

Stunt double Ben Collins outed himself as Top Gear’s infamous masked driver, The Stig, potentially blowing the sweetest gig on planet Earth. Rather than kill him off, Top Gear attempted to counter the rumors by fingering (::snicker::) legendary racer Michael Schumacher as The Stig. Gearheads in America with an Internet connection that’s too slow to cope with downloading the weekly BBC broadcast still don’t give a rat’s ass.

There was some sort of F1 scandal involving Renault intentionally throwing the Singapore Gran Prix, but we were too immersed in our rally obsession to care. Just Google it or something.

As per their plan to cut costs and pretend to pay back taxpayers, GM made the logical decision to axe one of the only remaining brands that consumers still cared about, Pontiac. Shortly after the announcement, rumors began to circulate that the late John DeLorean’s company was interested in purchasing the rights to produce the Pontiac Solstice. The idea, much like the DMC-12, was short lived.

Drawing heavily from the blatantly phallic styling of the Ambiguously Gay Duo’s car, Porsche released it’s first 4-door sedan, the Panamera.

Appropriately dubbed the “Distraction Lab,” Ford’s Human Machine Interface Verification Laboratory has been busy at work duplicating the flighty attention span of the average teenage male. To achieve this, Ford engineers have outfitted research participants with special occlusion goggles equipped with small LCD screens programmed to track the amount of time a driver spends with his eyes on and off the road. While wearing the goggles, test subjects are asked to engage in a simulated driving course that requires them to interact with Ford’s in-car infotainment system. By observing the amount of time that any given driver spends orienting himself with (or being otherwise distracted by) the informational system as well as other outside stimuli, researchers may then determine how information should be displayed and accessed to minimize the risk of an accident.

“Occlusion testing is faster and a lot more efficient than other methods for determining eyes-off-road time and the potential for visual distraction,” explained John Shutko, Ford technical specialist in Human Factors and Ergonomics. “In the past, we used occlusion testing primarily to verify other research, but over the past couple of years we’ve been able to develop test models with the technology that allows us to rapidly complete research faster than ever before.”

Much like the principles held by their European subsidiary, Volvo, the primary objective of Ford’s exhaustive research is to accommodate drivers’ needs in the safest way possible. “Studies show voice-operated systems like SYNC offer significant safety benefits over hand-held manual devices,” says Dr. Louis Tijerina, Ford senior technical specialist. “If people are going to use nomadic devices – and there’s no reason to believe that they will stop – Ford wants to offer our customers a safer way to use them, through SYNC.”

Who knew a lifestyle that necessitates surviving almost exclusively on a diet of Ramen noodles and Natural Ice could prove so beneficial to the environment? According to Zipcar, their rideshare programs that currently dot an estimated 140 university campuses across the U.S. and Great Britian are succeeding in astronomically reducing emissions, and all thanks to the overwhelming response from college kids too broke to spring for their own set of wheels. By the numbers, Zipcar estimates they’ve cut CO2 emissions by 56 million pounds annually, which is roughly equivalent to the amount of CO2 that would be emitted by 4,800 dilapidated Honda Accords with Greek and/or obscure band bumper stickers affixed atop the more noticeable dents.

In addition to the significant environmental benefits, Zipcar’s service has also done wonders for solving many of the congestion problems plaguing certain campuses and university officials laud the program with praise. “I cannot say enough about our partnership with Zipcar; their commitment to innovation, marketing, and customer service has allowed us to create the type of brand awareness and customer loyalty that students identify with and respect,” said Tony Mazza, Director of Transportation for the University of Southern California (USC). “With over 20 cars and approximately 1000 members on campus – we are dedicated to continue growing our car-sharing program until our parking demand and environmental goals have been realized.”

With Sweetest Day (a holiday that no one aside from that aunt of yours who works at Hallmark has ever even heard of) right around the corner, Ford has taken another opportunity to highlight the outstanding cargo capability and fuel efficiency of the Ford Transit Connect. Rather than rely on trusty (if a little outlandish) PR verbiage to do the trick, however, Ford went directly to Transit Connect owner and local Michigan florist Frank Mancuso, who is busily preparing for one of the largest greeting card-created holidays of the year.

Mancuso owns and operates Mancuso Florists in St. Clair Shores, Michigan, and he lauded the Ford Transit Connect with praise for the invaluable asset it’s become to his business. “A full-size van is almost invisible, because they’re everywhere,” explained Mancuso. “But all kinds of people notice our Transit Connect. Our drivers get so many inquiries about the vehicle, we hand out cards with information about it. Transit Connect serves as a ‘rolling billboard’ for our business.” Of course, some might argue that a panel van with a halfway decent graphics package could achieve the same results without being so, well, weird looking but the Mancuso’s praise for the Transit Connect doesn’t stop there. “It costs us about $30 to fill the gas tank in the Transit Connect,” said Mancuso. “It costs us about $70 to fill the tank in one of our full-size vans. A full tank lasts around the same time in either vehicle, so delivery costs are significantly reduced by using the Transit Connect.”

In an effort to stay one step ahead of the media blitz launched by fellow Detroit automaker, GM, Ford has launched a new marketing campaign involving the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid, relatively unknown comedian Mark Malkoff, and a 28-day road trip. It sounds like the campy plot to a Nickelodeon movie, but Ford’s goal is not to see how many painful eye rolls it can elicit in one sitting but rather to showcase the Fusion Hybrid’s astounding fuel efficiency. According to the press release, Malkoff’s lofty goal is to see how many mayors east of the Mississippi he can convince to hand over the keys to their cities while using Ford’s hand-free SYNC system to keep all 10 of his fans updated on his progress via Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr.

“Mark came to us with the idea, and we loved it,” said Jeffrey Eggen, manager, Ford Car Experiential Marketing. “It fits in well with our strategy to raise awareness of our new Ford vehicles by getting real customers behind the wheel and letting them tell their own story.”

No, the title isn’t a misprint, Toyota is preparing to recall an estimated 3.8 million vehicles from both the brand of the same name and their luxury arm, Lexus, over potentially deadly removable floor mats. Apparently, the mats in question have the potential to interfere with the accelerator, causing it to be stuck in the full open position.

Unfortunately, the recall is not purely preventative in nature as the problem apparently wasn’t even a blip on Toyota’s radar until an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer and his family were killed in an automobile accident caused by a defective floor mat in a 2009 Lexus ES350. According to the rather disturbing 911 phone call, the accelerator had been stuck open and the car was rocketing down the road at 120 mph shortly before the accident.

All across South Jersey, police are targeting motorists who fail to yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk. To date, over 700 tickets have been issued to drivers in Cherry Hill, Collingswood, Pennsauken, and Burlington City, and vehicles have begun slowing down to as little as 50 mph before blowing by the foot traffic. Eventually police aim to have them coming to a complete stop, but that plan seems optimistic at best.

Usually, when an automaker debuts a remarkably hideous concept car at a major auto show, you can be assured of two things: 1.) the engineers probably experiment with LSD and 2.) it’s highly unlikely it will ever see production. The Renault Twizy Z.E. Concept, however, has robbed us of that sense of security. While yes, the parties responsible for its construction are likely guilty of multiple counts of felony possession, Renault has announced that the Twizy Z.E. Concept – though not itself a production-intent vehicle – will serve as the forerunner for an as-yet-unnamed EV due out in 2011. According to the press release, the 900-pound Twizy Z.E. is powered by a 20-horsepower, 70 Nm motor that provides an acceleration rate similar to that of a 125cc bike, without any of the cool factor.