Over 3 years ago, I blogged about the MTA going green, and ways they can improve the entire transportation system. The very last bullet-point of the latter blog post identified "Kinetic Energy Generators" as a way to capture the wasted energy through turnslides.

Inhabitat.com published an article yesterday about Vycon, a company that plans to integrate a system to capture the kinetic energy of moving trains. The potential energy that can be captured and reused when a train is decelerating is about 4 megawatts, which is approximately the amount of energy required to get a train moving. New York City is one the largest consumers of energy in the world. Implementing these types of systems would drastically affect energy costs and energy waste.

I am a frequent customer of the New York MTA subway system, and lately, I've been pretty observant as to what's been going on. How can things be improved to make traveling via the MTA a more pleasurable and (most importantly) desirable experience? I figured I'd be a bit productive on the train instead of just listening to my music or watching my podcasts. This is the list of things I've come up with that could possibly reshape the MTA into something amazing!

Before reading, I just wanted to say that I do realize that some of these might be a lot to ask for, but as time goes by, and as the MTA piles up on their multi-million dollar surplus, it would be easier to achieve them - eventually. Would you like these improvements in your city, too?

I was on my way to the New York Public Library today and surprisingly, I saw something quite pleasing. The trash bins all throughout the stations now have this sign stuck on them! It looks like the MTA is trying to go green and get the thumbs up from the environmentalists! This is definitely good progress on their side.

One cool thing that made me smile is that as I was walking, I saw somebody stopping to read and acknowledge the sign! I'd like to see further developments with MTA's steps towards keeping the subways clean, and green!

In response to my excitement, I made a whole list of things the MTA can improve on to become greener, cleaner, and more efficient. I'll finalize this list and post in soon. Who wouldn't want to have energy generating turn-slides? From the millions of times these things go round and round, the carbon emissions will go straight down!

I don't know if this is a good thing, or a bad thing, but it looks like we've reached the point where a law needs to be enacted so cars don't get too quiet! I thought it would be something opposite, like trying to put a limit on how loud those V8 muscle go! So yea, the bill is expected to be presented to the U.S. House of Representatives pretty soon.

AutoWeek reported that the reason why this bill was created is because cars that are too quiet pose a risk to disabled (primarily) pedestrians. This bill requires the U.S. Secretary of Transportation to undergo studies in order to determine whether or not a minimum sound level is needed. I understand the intention behind this bill and all, but I find it kind of humorous if auto makers were forced to make their engines go VROOM! More after the jump...

Tesla Motors is that company that you've been hearing about for the longest time. You know, the guys making the first luxury electric sports car that's right on par with the other big boy toys. Well, wait no more! They are set to begin production of the P1 Roadster in mid-march, and go full force later in the year. Although this car is not targeted to the general demographic, they're reservations are booked for until 2009.

I haven't yet mentioned it, but this is an electric sports car, people! It outputs zero emissions as you accelerate from 0 to 60mph, with a top speed of 125mph (which you should never be hitting unless under professional supervision), unless you count the fumes of the burning rubber! This is most definitely a luxury item and not something that the typical Joe who wants to get a Prius can afford. The technology put into the Tesla Roadster is highly advanced, innovative, and should be made mainstream for "every-day" automobiles. Now, this is definitely a bold statement, but it's more than possible! More after the jump...