It’s no secret that Lyft has its sights set on a country without individual car ownership — with the company’s co-founder calling it a “$9,000 ball and chain” that people have to drag along in their daily lives — but now the ride-hailing service is elaborating further on how exactly it can accomplish that goal. [More]
traffic
Police Using GPS ‘Darts’ To Track Suspects, Prevent Dangerous High-Speed Chases
By 4.10.17
It sounds like something straight out of a movie: A suspect’s vehicle blows past a police car, tires screeching as it speeds away. But instead of hitting the gas and starting a high-speed chase that could endanger everyone involved — including innocent bystanders — police in one Colorado city can now fire GPS tracking “darts” at fleeing vehicles. [More]
Taco Truck Stuck In Traffic For Hours Does Everyone A Favor By Opening For Lunch
By 2.28.17
Being stuck in traffic for hours on end? Awful. Being stuck in traffic for hours on end with some tacos? Not so bad at all. [More]
Driver Says Police Radar Confused His Car With A Really Fast Deer
By 1.30.17
My speedometer must be broken…. You must have me confused with another car… I think your radar gun needs calibrating… I think that super-fast deer over there is the one who should get the ticket… One of these statements is not a common excuse for trying to get out of a speeding ticket. [More]
Would Surge Pricing Help Prevent Traffic Gridlock On Busy Roadways?
By 1.17.17
A few months after Lyft’s last manifesto regarding the future of transportation, company executives are once again laying out a plan to tackle traffic issues. Specifically, congestion pricing aimed at preventing traffic jams in our cities’ busiest highways and byways. [More]
California Police Catch Driver In The Carpool Lane With Mannequin Passenger
By 9.23.16
Listen: if you want to hang out with a mannequin or a wooden dummy instead of a real person, no one is going to stop you from being your best Lars and the Real Girl self. Just don’t expect the police to count your inanimate friend as a passenger when you’re in the carpool lane. [More]
Waze Will Now Point You To The Best Parking Spots
By 9.19.16
Google’s traffic app Waze has long been used by commuters looking for the best possible route from point A to point B. Now, some of those drivers can use the app to find the best parking spot at the end of their trip. [More]
Nation’s Interstate Highways Celebrate 60th Birthday With Growing Congestion, Repair Backlogs
By 6.27.16
With record numbers of travelers set to hit the highways and byways of America this holiday weekend, it sounds like it’ll be quite a party out there on those roads. But according to a new report, it’s this kind of increased travel that’s putting a strain on the nation’s 60-year-old interstate highway system, causing congestion while needed repairs stack up. [More]
Motorists Love Waze; People Who Live On Side Streets Not So Much
By 2.17.16
The app Waze, which Google acquired back in 2013, is a navigational aid that’s sometimes useful, and sometimes leads to a car full of Consumerist editors driving in circles for a solid twenty minutes. You don’t have to use the app to be annoyed with it, though: some people are annoyed that the app sends people through their neighborhoods in the name of finding the fastest and most efficient route. [More]
42 Million Drivers Likely Grateful They’ll Be Paying Lowest Thanksgiving Gas Prices Since 2008
By 11.24.15
The roads are going to be crowded this Thanksgiving, with 42 million drivers expected to travel the highways and byways of the U.S. According to AAA, they’ll be enjoying the lowest prices at the gas pump for the holiday since 2008. [More]
Google Self-Driving Car Pulled Over For Going Too Slow
By 11.13.15
You probably know the feeling: you’re driving along happily at the speed limit, on your way to work or school or that new mud-wrestling pit that just opened up, when suddenly, you’re forced to slow down to a veritable crawl, stuck puttering onward below the speed limit because one driver is moving at a snail’s pace. Who could be such a sadist? It could be a self-driving car, like the Google vehicle police pulled over yesterday. [More]
Truck Full Of Salmon Turns Over On Highway, Blocks Traffic For 9 Hours
By 3.26.15
The creatures of the sea are rising up to…snarl our traffic and then get eaten anyway. First, a tractor-trailer in Maine overturned, but its cargo of 30,000 pounds of live lobsters were fine and survived to be loaded on another truck. Now a truck full of salmon turned over on a highway in Seattle, messing up traffic everywhere from down the road to in the sky. [More]
Oscar Mayer Wienermobile Slides Off The Road, Crashes Into Pole In Pennsylvania
By 2.16.15
Although its human passengers are just fine, the bad news is that one of Oscar Mayer’s Wienermobiles is in rough shape after a crash in Pennsylvania. The good news? The company has more than one hot dog vehicle. Whew. [More]
You’re Not Seeing Things, Virginia Drivers — Those Are Some Seriously Crooked Road Lines
By 8.26.14
Drivers in Virginia were probably rubbing their eyes and wondering if maybe someone slipped a bit of booze into their morning coffee yesterday, when the lane lines on a major roadway turned all squiggly and wiggly. [More]
Seattle Apologizes For Labeling Stuck-In-Traffic Drivers As “Scumbags”
By 5.6.14
When government organizations try to be funny on social media, it usually falls flat. And when that attempt at humor is directed at people who are likely in a humorless mood — like, say… people stuck in a traffic jam — it will probably end in an apology. [More]
Your E-ZPass Might Be Tracking You Everywhere, Not Just Tollbooths
By 9.13.13 — Updated: 9.15.13
When you get a toll-paying transponder like the E-ZPass, you assume that it just sort of sits there until you drive through a toll booth. That’s not true. Maybe, according to a recent presentation at DEFCON, you should put your E-ZPass away unless you’re actually paying a toll right now. [More]
Catastrophic LEGO Incident Leaves West Virginia Highway Strewn With Bricks
By 3.6.13
If you thought stepping on a LEGO with your bare feet was bad, imagine the scene in West Virginia, where a tote filled with the tiny bricks spilled across a highway and held up traffic for hours on Sunday. More importantly, it made imaginations run wild, wondering how that many LEGO could end up strewn across a highway on a snowy day. [More]
