San Antonio traffic jam photo from viainfo.net.

A recent study laid out what I found to be an amazing stat.

For every hour driving, U.S. life expectancy decreases by 20 minutes, suggests analysis in a University of Toronto study. The shorter life spans are due to crashes.

An hour a day is about the average two-way San Antonio commute. So the typical driver here loses four days a year, about half a year over a 40-year career. The payoff is a year and a half slogging through traffic to make the bucks.

The finding that drivers lose a minute of life for every three minutes on the road wasn’t even the main point of the study. Authors wanted to consider the risks of driving faster to reduce travel times. They determined that time saved by speeding is far outweighed by shortened lives due to higher chances of crashing.

The conclusion: Americans drive a little too fast and can live longer by driving slower.

The main road to Corpus Christi, circa 1910

A wee trip to the coast, a fine way to spend a hot and hazy Sunday.  While I’m still stuck in bachelor mode – decide to go, jump in the car and away – my wife needs, shall, we say, a little more, um, preparation.  Providing my ipod is loaded and charged, I am sorted.  She, on the other hand, loaded our vehicle like the old days when we were carrying a baby.  Blankets, pillows, books, a lap top for heaven’s sake, towels, changes of clothes, the works.

 I chose our route.  Down Highway 181 on the way there and IH 37 on the way back.  The distance is just about the same but I prefer to meander on the way there and haul boogie on the way back.  You get to see more of the small towns and countryside on 181.  It follows the long gone tracks of the San Antonio and Aransas Pass, from Elmendorf through Floresville, Poth, Falls City, Karnes City, Kenedy, Beeville, Skidmore, Sinton, Gregory and Portland before crossing the causeway to Corpus Christi.  Each of these communities was created by the railroad back in the 1880s.

 IH 37 follows, more or less, the route of the old San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf.  Finished in 1914, the last railroad built in our area, this railroad, too, helped found a few towns and move a few county seats, but they lack the charm of the earlier era.  No more squares and handsome civic buildings, unless you count George West.  Just utilitarian structures strung along the old main drag, now rendered obsolete by the interstate.  From experience, many of these places look better at 3 AM than they do at 3 PM.  Here you set cruise control and barrel through nondescript landscape.  These are miles to be endured, not savored.

 Some years ago a friend and I did the same route far more thoroughly, doing our best to find every remaining trace of the old SA & AP.  Like most local railroad enthusiasts, to him the SAU&G, often refereed to as the “Sausage,” is just chopped liver, a Johnny Come Latelyupstart.  The fact that the “SAP” was a failure in every measurable way somehow adds, apparently, to its romantic allure.  I was obliged to go solo through Three Rivers, Campbelton and Pleasanton on another day.  And it isn’t chasing ghosts either.  The “Sausage” is alive and well and was part of the reason the Toyota factory is where it is.

 Click this link for the web pages referring to these ventures

 http://www.txtransportationmuseum.org/RAMBLE2.htm

 Going to the coast a hundred years ago would have be a fine trip indeed, requiring an overnight stay if you wanted to get the most benefit out of it.  Arriving at the station early in the morning to ride in cars without air-conditioning for seven hours would make a person appreciate the shore all the more.  Of course Corpus Christi was a different place then.  No deep water port and vulgarly intrusive freeway slashing its way through the heart of the old town, of which most traces have gone, perhaps as a result of storms, who knows.  Now you can leave the parking lot at the Lexington and be home in less than two and a half hours without breaking any laws, carrying enough baggage to fill the old aircraft carrier, in comfortable A/C, and listening to your own personal play list.  It’s a good trade.

Here is a link to a set of snaps taken at the recent fourth annual Ford Model T Show here in San Antonio.  It is a joint project with the local Model T club, the “T Fords of Texas,“ and sponsored by the Red McCombs Automotive group.

http://www.txtransportationmuseum.org/WE.htm

 It was during this event that I arrived at the surprisingly conclusion that all  Ts are divas.  That’s why they are still here.  Someone was just too crazy about each one to let it go.  So far this year I have had the pleasure of touring both Medina and Caldwell Counties in this persnickety old machines and I fully understand the devotion.  Now all I have to do is get the one I am looking after for future generations to run right!  Having said that she did come through in spades during the Flambeau Parade, so she makes all the effort worthwhile!

Cozy, secluded and deadly. That’s how a new study portrays suburban America’s unassuming cul-de-sacs.

Why?

Because people who live in the pods don’t walk and bicycle much, according to research by a University of British Columbia professor. The swirling, disconnected streets don’t allow short trips to a whole lot of places.      

Look at the maps above. They show all paths within one kilometer of a selected spot in each of two Seattle neighborhoods; one constricted by meandering streets and the other splayed open by a connected grid.

People who live in the networked neighborhoods travel 26 percent fewer miles by car than those who ensconce themselves in the spaghetti-and-pod burbs.

And, studies by the author, Lawrence Frank, and others show, people who live in neighborhoods that are more walkable tend to, well, walk more. And bike more. That means, per capita, their body mass indexes are lower and they breathe cleaner air.

LINK:

• The Unintended Consequences of Cul-de-sacs

2011 Audi R8

MSN has had fun giving us the show’s 10 most notable unveils, and the 10 sexiest rides — i.e., to your right is a glimpse of the Audi R8 Spyder (go ahead, click the glitz for a full view).

“Give us sports cars and make them sexy as hell,” MSN’s Matthew de Paula declared. “We want 10-mile-per-gallon Lamborghini Gallardos and 510-horsepower Aston Martins all the way.”

Closer to ground level, Consumer Reports plodded forward to give us the New York standouts. Cars.com patiently poked and prodded the show’s winners and losers.

It’s a lot to digest, sort of like trying to eat your way into a bargain at an all-you-can eat buffet.

I guess that’s why my thoughts keep drifting back to a more meat-and-potatoes Top Picks announced just before the noise revved up in New York. Using affordability, comfort and safety as criteria, AAA selected the best cars to commute to work in.

And topping AAA’s list is the …

2010 Honda Insight

Yeah, how’s that for a splash of vanilla?

Two of the other nine commuter workhorses on the list are also Hondas — the Civic and Accord, of which two older models sit in my driveway every night. 

My sandy-brown 2000 Accord isn’t sexy by a long shot, but it’s the best car I’ve ever owned, beating out makes by Ford, Chevrolet, Chrysler and Oldsmobile, even — I almost hate to say — my beloved 1968 Volkswagen Beetle.

So, for predictably practical consumers, here’s AAA’s Top Picks of cars that balance gas mileage with just enough leg room.

1. Honda Insight
2. Ford Fusion
3. Volkswagen Jetta TDI
4. Hyundai Elantra
5. Subaru Legacy/Outback
6. Honda Civic
7. Chevrolet Malibu
8. Honda Accord
9. Mazda3

 I marked the occasion by not driving it at all.  Instead I cycled the 23 miles to and from my job at the Texas Transportation Museum.  It was a windy day, too, and the ride was, as usual, significantly less than enjoyable.  Too many busy roads impossible to avoid.  I have an easier time cycling to my other job at Camp Bullis, which I did for the first time this year on Friday.  Yesterday, Saturday, I took the museum’s 1924 Ford Model T truck for a ten mile spin which was unsatisfactory, as it has just come out of the shop – again – and it needs some more work before everything gets settled in nicely.  The same day I also took the museum’s 1929 Ford Model A truck to a meeting at, of all places, the Barnes & Noble store at Henderson Pass and Loop 1604.  Nothing makes you appreciate how much of an improvement the A was over the T like driving one right after the other.  And both will make you feel like you drive in luxury in any kind of modern vehicle.

 The 2005 Dodge has been, so far, a wonderful form of transportation.  I no longer drive it anywhere near as much as I used to, mainly because research for my “San Antonio On Wheels” book which obliged frequent out of town visits to places like Kerrville and Seguin is long finished.  Since I have owned the vehicle, it has only been out of the state once.  I think I have only had the third row seats installed and occupied maybe three times since I have owned it.  On the trip to Orlando in 2007, accomplished more or less non-stop in less than twenty-hours each way, we took out one of the second row seats as well and placed an inflatable mattress so my wife and I could lay down between driving shifts.

All in all, I am delighted with it.  I bought from a Red McCombs used car lot which now sells new KIAs and HYUNDAIs.  There is a flip side to their slogan, “Where the deal gets done.”  Having sold cars for a while, not too long ago, I knew how the system could work to my advantage, despite being in a tough spot with a badly damaged trade-in, less than glamorous credit and nothing to put down.  I told them up front what it would take for me to leave in one of their cars and they made it happen, with a pretty good interest rate to boot, something my own lousy credit union could or would not do.  My bottom line buying point was a low monthly payment.  How they made it happen was up to them.

 It helped that they happened to have a short wheel base minivan with non fold-flat seats on the lot due to go back to the auction the next deal.  Dealers will do just about anything to avoid sending such “cold” vehicles back.  Not only was this the first minivan I have owned, it my first non convertible.  But I like the thing, I really do.  You can drive it for hours and not get a sore back and the backs of the second row seats go almost horizontal which is wonderful for taking naps.  I have heard that the trade off for the utility of fold flat minivan seats is that they are nowhere near as comfortable plus they don’t recline.  That’s a bad deal, if you ask me.  Admittedly the seats on mine are a tad cumbersome but I’ve only had the second row out two or three times, and the discomfort is not worth the sacrifice, in my experience.

 The thing has been very reliable and gets pretty good mileage.  Before they started selling 10% ethanol gas, which screws up the performance of the Model T and the Model A something rotten, I used to get over 26 MPG.  Now I only get 25.  It has the popular SXT package, with a lot of nice features.  The most amusing is the CD / tape deck combo.  Who would have guessed in 2005 that both formats would be completely obsolete so soon?  The tape deck has one big advantage.  It allow me to play my MP3 player through an adaptor.

 I also spent some time today on a John Deere back-hoe / front end loader combo today, smoothing out some of the museum’s unpaved roads after this weeks rain.  Talk about getting in touch with the fundamentals.  And in yesterday’s mail I received my first ever toll road bill, for a couple of trips in Austin over the last few weeks.  No toll plazas on those roads, just a bank of cameras and scanners at certain points.  I guess over the next few years I’ll be getting more and more of those unhappy-grams as souvenirs of my continuing travels around the state.  I’m optimistic the Dodge will see me through many more comfortable miles.  I’m certainly happy so far.

You’re in an Electric Networked Vehicle, a smart electric car that will be able to drive, brake and pack more cars into shorter stretches of road while keeping traffic moving.

General Motors will display three models at the World Expo in May.

The two-seaters, about a third the length of a regular car and made of lightweight plastic and carbon fiber, were designed by GM and sit on a power train developed by Segway.

The ENVs go just 25 mph and have a range of 25 miles, but sensors and wireless communication let them to talk to other cars and traffic systems so they can avoid tie-ups. Instead of a traffic jam crawling 5 mph, tight platoons can flow five times faster.

If you’ve seen a Segway seemingly floating along a city street or sidewalk, steered by the rider’s slight body movements, you can start to see how it might work.

You can also get a sense of what they’re thinking by checking out the Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility prototype that GM and Segway showed off last year. This is another pod vehicle, more Segway than car, that has now evolved into the ENV.

This could be big … uh, I mean … you know.

Links:

• GM unveils future
• Segway Advanced Development

T Fords of Texas at the Bigfoot museum

Last Saturday, March 6, I had the great pleasure of taking part in a ”T Fords of Texas” club cruise around Medina County.  Led by Castroville residents Tom Campbell and Wayne McBryde, a group of nine Ts traversed the area’s handsome back roads under a glowering sky, dense with dark and darker grey clouds, too high to actually rain, but very dramatic.  In an open runabout T driven by Gary Bethke, I had the full opportunity to take in the wintry landscape with occasional hints of spring, such as isolated peach and red bud trees in delightfully unexpected full bloom.

 I dressed warmly for the occasion.  We stopped first at an old folks home then moved on from Castroville to a restaurant in Devine.  You find yourself waving to a lot of people along the way.  Yard work, my most disliked obligation, was popular that day.  We headed to Bigfoot in the afternoon and had the opportunity to visit the museum opened in honor of Bigfoot Wallace who ended his tumultuous days in a small cabin at the Medina River nearby in the late 1880s.  Wallace was one of the people who created for the rest of the world the romantic impression that everything is bigger, better, wilder and yet more convivial in Texas.  Reporters and writers sought him out to hear his first hand accounts of his frontier exploits.  Though he claimed Scottish ancestry I think he must have had a good share of Irish blood in him, too.  He never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

 Model T events in the early part of the year are particularly rewarding.  Before raw heat settles its torpid haze over us for the rest of the year, it’s worthwhile to experience how our forbears traveled in other kinds of weather.  In the 1850s, young Castroville resident August Santleben, who would go on to become the region’s preeminent freight hauler before the arrival of the railroads, accompanied his father on trips to Bastrop in an ox drawn wagon to collect lumber floated up the Colorado River during the winter, to earn extra money while avoiding the heat of summer during such a lengthy trip.

 I did not take the 1924 Ford Model TT truck I usually drive on the cruise because it only moves at 25 MPH, a good ten miles slower than regular Ts.  A person would have to think about driving it anywhere over long distances, though I have been known to navigate it as far as Lavernia, making sure to avoid major roads.  But the TT was positively revolutionary compared to ox or mule drawn wagons, though decidedly louder. 

 There were few mechanical problems that I was aware of on our trip which probably involved around fifty miles of driving, though a few hoods were open at one point or another.  If you are interested in seeing around forty plus Ford Model Ts of every kind, from race cars to heavy duty trucks, plan to visit the Texas Transportation Museum, 11731 Wetmore Road, San Antonio TX 78247 on either Saturday or Sunday, May 1 & 2.  Admission to the T show and the whole museum, including train rides, will be free thanks to the Red McCombs Automotive Group.

Here is the topic schedule:

Saturday February 20, 9:30 – 11;30 AM – Ox, mule and horse drawn transportation.

Saturday February 20, 1:30 – 3:30 PM – Railroads; 1850 to the present

Saturday February 27, 9:30 – 11:30 AM – Public transportation, streetcars, jitneys and buses

Saturday February 27, 1:30 – 3:30 PM – Private transportation, from the bicycle to the present.

The first San Antonio car dealership was a bike, photo and typewriter repair shop that started selling 1902 Curved Dash Oldsmobiles.

It’s amazing to see today’s rush of technologies, ragged edges and all, bump and grind in the marketplace in a race to reconfigure how we work and play.

But the dizzying pace really isn’t all that new. Consider the shock of the first horseless carriages rumbling over rutted streets more than a century ago, stirring up dust, dropping jaws and spooking horses.  

Giving us a glimpse into those strange and heady times is “San Antonio on Wheels,” a book written by fellow OnTheMoveBlog.com blogger Hugh Hemphill.

Just as tech ventures come and go in a slippery market – producing epic battles among giants such as Netscape and Explorer, Google and Bing, iPhone and BlackBerry – so too did early auto experiments.

The first horseless carriage in San Antonio probably wasn’t even gasoline-powered, Hugh wrote in his book. It was likely an electric vehicle built for Montgomery Ward, which toured Texas in 1897.

The first actual recorded auto in the city was also electric, a one-seat wagon delivered in October 1899 to a carriage dealership. Strangely, no batteries were included. (Wonder if that was on the label.)

Hugh says electric cars were limited by their short range and long recharging. (Sound familiar?) But they were much easier to start than hand-cranked gasoline competitors. Ironically, another electric motor, the electric starter for combustion engines, swiftly booted electric cars out of the market after 1911.

Steam cars also gave their gas cousins a run for their money, especially in the early days when highly flammable petrol was sold in buckets and hand filtered through a chamois, Hugh wrote. The first steamer to actually hit the streets in San Antonio was a Locomobile in 1902.

Texas oil discoveries, dropping gas prices and gradual development of a network of filling stations slowly choked off the heavy steamers with their water tanks and boilers, though they lingered until the 1920s.

Meanwhile, the first gas-powered carriage, a Haynes-Apperson, arrived in San Antonio in 1901. Not long after, Hugh wrote, some citizens petitioned City Hall to ban the dangerous contraptions, but to no avail.  

The city’s first auto agency was a bicycle, Kodak and typewriter repair shop that added the Curved Dash Oldsmobile to their line in 1902. The shop’s first car, a $650, one-cylinder, wooden-wheeled affair, was sent by train and horse-drawn wagon to the back yard of one of the owners. They assembled the car, drove to a local race track and pushed the vehicle to speeds of 30 mph.

That’s not so fast, you probably say. But folks back then thought so. In 1910, the city’s first traffic ordinance set speed limits of 8 mph downtown and 15 mph elsewhere.

Like Internet connections, cars got a lot faster. But like the relentless change swirling around us, sometimes they were too fast for comfort.

Hugh trekked across the San Antonio region for years, sifting through uncounted documents and photos and pulling together a largely untold story about automobiles coming to San Antonio and changing the city forever. “San Antonio on Wheels” is a richly detailed slice of just some of his many findings.