Transport

Reevu is a company keen on reinventing the helmet as we know it. Most recently, the company touted a rearview camera that keeps track of the action going on behind your head. This is rather useful for motorcyclists and could be adapted by those racing open-top cars.Now Reevu is looking to push commercial helmet technology even further. Get ready to get your fighter pilot style on, because helmets are getting head-up displays.Already available in military applications, the helmet-based HUD hasn't trickled down into civilian applications... until now. Reevu has created a helmet that utilises an optical display, which can be adapted to provide a wealth of information.GPS can be integrated to show directions; a phone can be paired with the helmet so that calls can be taken without a rider moving his or her hands away from the bike, and his or her eyes away from the road.Reevu says that a system could even be devised to display engine data so the rider is aware of the current conditions of their machine. At the moment, the systems are currently geared towards the world of motorsports.It's not hard to see this technology trickling down to everyday applications. It will need to be refined so that it doesn't create a distraction for the rider, but when done right it could be a great tool in keeping the rider moving along in a safer manner. An extra set of “eyes” is a good thing on a bike.www.motorauthority.com  

Dash cam captures a public bus careening through an intersection in Russia.

Who wouldn’t like the freedom to double-park without fear of being stung with a hefty fine? A scheme in London has found a way to do just that, in a city where the pain of a fine can also be raised with the additional cost of release from a clamp and car impoundment.Building maintenance firm Aspect.co.uk has found a way around the fines by hiring young people to sit in their vans in traffic while their staff go into premises to perform work.The head of Aspect was reported in British media as saying it was a cheap solution for the business -- with the van-sitters paid about $12 an hour – compared to the fines of around $180 for double-parking, plus the extra cost if the vehicle was wheel-clamped or impounded."No one likes to pay fines. It's crippling and unfair in a lot of cases,” Will Davies told auto website Cars.AOL UK. “But the money paid out in fines can go to excellent use paying for young people to have meaningful employment. Everyone wins."Davies claimed the scheme was within the law, and said Aspect had checked with the London traffic enforcement offices to ensure it was legal. "It's completely legal and trials … have been incredibly successful,” he said.For the moment, the van-sitters are minding only commercial vehicles, but Davies is considering expanding the scheme to offer it to the public. "We are thinking of rolling out the scheme to include anyone who needs a car-sitter while they attend a meeting," he said.And added to fears of the scheme clogging traffic, Carsguide is tipping that if it takes off, it won’t be just meeting attendees swarming to it. For years we’ve seen cars double park in upmarket shopping areas while their drivers ‘just pop inside’ to have their claws sharpened or shoes massaged to a mirror finish.With that kind of financial insolence already around, it’s clear some private drivers feel they can afford the fine – so let them pay it.This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott 

Findings by research company Jato show Europe is on track to achieve its 2015 target of 130g of carbon dioxide per kilometre for new cars ahead of schedule, after a fall of almost 3 per cent last year.The 2012 figure of 132.3g/km includes nine mainstream brands that already get 130g/km or better while 40 per cent of new cars sold in Europe emitted 120g/km or less.Fiat is the star performer in terms of average emissions but the German luxury trio of Audi, BMW and Mercedes are reducing quickest as they focus more on small cars.The picture in Australia is very different. Figures from the National Transport Commission released today show Australian emissions are reducing slightly faster with a 3.7 per cent fall last year. However, we remain a long way behind Europe with a 2012 result of 199g/km, down from 206.6g/km the year before.The reason, according to Neil Wong of the NTC, is Australia's preference for larger vehicles with automatic transmissions, compared with Europe's fondness for small manuals.Given the government's intention to introduce mandatory emissions targets in 2015, the NTC report contains an informative comparison between buyer types. Private buyers averaged 191g/km against 206g/km for business purchasers and 212g/km for government fleets.In other words, if the expected 2015 target of 190g/km is introduced, then government will have to set its house in order -- or ordinary consumers will need to make up the difference. One thing governments might consider -- in the absence of local purchasing obligations, of course -- is to steer clear of Australian-made cars. Average CO2 for them was 210g/km.Another alternative would be to abandon the idea of mandatory targets all together. They can influence what carmakers offer but do little to change showroom preferences. The NTC report calculates that if we had all bought vehicles with best-in-class emissions last year, the national average would be 40 per cent lower (119g/km). 

  

   

Taxi drivers are usually not surprised to find passengers have left things in cabs. But one driver cleaning out the back of his vehicle at the end of a shift was astonished to find somebody had forgotten a laptop case crammed with money. The Las Vegas cabbie - an Ethiopian immigrant who arrived in the US by winning a chit in a government visa lottery - opened the laptop case to find US$221,000 ($216,500) in bills.  Adam Woldemarim, who works 12-hour days for $350 a week, checked whether the cab’s earlier shift driver could shed light on the case’s owner, and then turned the cash in at his company’s office, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. The cab company was able to track down the money’s owner - a young man who had won the cash at the Wynn Las Vegas casino and then left it in the taxi on the way to the airport - and called Woldemarin back to base to meet him. The report says the money’s owner gave Woldemarim a grateful hug - and a tip of US $2000 ($1960). However some of Woldemarin’s friends have told the Review-Journal they consider the tip to be a bit stingy for the safe return of such a large amount of cash – saying that 10 per cent of the winnings, around $20,000 would have been fairer. What do you think? Was $2000 a fair reward for returing the money, or should it have been more? Or perhaps should the cabbie have just been happy with a thank you and the knowledge he did the right thing? Take our poll at left and let us know what you would have done.  

This week a minor victory was won in the war of attrition waged by people who hate cars -- which is to say time-rich, underemployed people with absolutely nothing better to do.On the basis of complaints by these wowser stickybeaks, the unsmiling bureaucrats of the Advertising Standards Board censured Peugeot for a television ad in which a passenger in a 4008 SUV waves her hand outside the window. They weren't aiming an Uzi at rival gang members or even making the universal salute. They were waving."A person must not travel in or on a motor vehicle with any part of the person's body outside a window or door of the vehicle," parped the Board. The sequence is to be edited. There is some consolation that the Board rejected two other complaints -- one that the car was being driven in reckless and menacing manner.I've made it a point to see this innocuous and otherwise forgettable ad and can only suggest that the last accuser should refrain from watching TV under the influence of hallucinogens. I've been told who made one of the complaints, but have a policy of withholding from print the name of this notorious publicity seeker and sufferer or relevance deficit disorder. Giving these people oxygen only encourages them to breath.An advocacy body or even political party for and by the people who drive is long overdue. One of you, surely, must be up for it. Just think, you'll represent a hitherto silent majority, one tired of having life made miserable by government authorities and then being forced to pay them for the privilege. I'd vote for you. 

Brisbane mother of three Margaret Rapley has just completed four years alone with her little 250cc Suzuki Intruder motorcycle and says women need not be afraid of chasing the gypsy life of freedom on the open road."I want to inspire women that they can do anything,'' she says. Rapley hit the road on her $4900 bike in 2008 when her youngest child went to live with her father for the last two years of school. After 66,000km circumnavigating the continent she is back home again; but not for long. "I want to teach English in Vietnam and I'll be taking my bike as I want to travel around,'' she says. "I also want to go to Tuscany with my bike.''Rapley worked her way around the country town by town, job by job. "I worked as a carer, tour guide in Tasmania and Uluru, I did retail, picked fruit, worked in supermarkets, seeding, slashing, house mother you name it,'' she says. "I now have a nine-page resume. I'll never be unemployed.''Rapley says life on the open road with all your worldly possessions strapped to a bike has been "liberating''. "When I decided stop in a town and get a job I'd go to a second-hand shop and buy some clothes and when I decided to move on I'd give them back,'' she says. "Everything I own is second hand except my riding equipment.'' Rapley's odyssey has included riding in 47 degree heat in the Northern Territory, black ice at -3 degrees in Tasmania, strong sidewinds on the Nullarbor that lifted her bike off the road and dodging camels, horses, sheep, goats, emus and wedgetail eagles.Yet she's only had one crash. "A backpacker in a ute turned in front of me and I had to lay the bike down,'' she said. "The panniers saved the bike and me from major damage.''Rapley says a female biker arriving in an outback town on her own generates a lot of interest. "People would always come up and talk to me, although I had to be careful not to tell too many people that I was travelling alone,'' she says.But she also loves the solitude of being able to "scream and sing'' in her helmet. "It's helped me cope with menopause being on the bike,'' she says. "Most women I tell about the trip say, 'my god did you do it by yourself?' and 'weren't you scared and worried you wouldn't get work'."When I started I had to stop 10 minutes up the road with self doubt and worry. I couldn't believe I was free of everything. "But now my bike's my most faithful companion and I just want to tell women that they can do anything.''