The Red Monkey

Sounds About Right: San Francisco spending $25M to determine how much parking should cost

by Chris Shunk (RSS feed) on Jul 29th 2010 at 6:32PM

If you reside or frequent a large metropolitan area, you’re probably all too aware of the cost to park your vehicle. In cities like New York or Chicago, you can pay upwards of $30 or more for a full day of parking. To make matters worse, even with astronomical costs many drivers can’t even find an open spot.

San Francisco is looking for a permanent solution to its parking problems by going high tech and paying big bucks to do it. Frisco is investing $25 million on a new electronic parking system that will constantly gauge demand for spots and raise or lower pricing accordingly. So why go to all this expense and trouble to set parking prices?

Parking that’s too cheap may lead to spots getting filled too quickly, which will lead to cars circling around waiting for spots, clogging streets with unnecessary congestion. The goal of the $25 million project is to make parking cheap enough for people to afford it while at the same time expensive enough to ensure spots are always available.

The electronic parking system will work as a network, setting prices between a quarter and $6 per hour depending on demand. The high-tech solution will start with 190 new meters in the Hayes Valley area of San Francisco and in two years end with 6,000 metered spaces and 12,250 spots at the city’s 15 parking garages. The system will eventually make it possible for advanced planners to go online to find where the most spots are located. Distracted driving aficionados will be able to search for spots on their smartphone, making it easier for multi-taskers to park and harder for pedestrians and other drivers to avoid getting hit.

[Source: NPR | Image: Ingrid Taylar - C.C. License 2.0]

Filed under: Government/Legal

Tags: electronic parking system, ElectronicParkingSystem, parking cost, parking lot costs, ParkingCost, ParkingLotCosts, san fran parking system, san francisco parking costs, SanFranciscoParkingCosts, SanFranParkingSystem

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This actually makes me excited about this film.

iO9 posted this cinematic for the upcoming DC universe MMO. Its an epic battle of superheros that creates tension and drama the way only Nolan could translate to film thus far. Hollywood take note, this kind of epic battle is what we want.

Monterey Bay is the scene of an extraordinary wildlife spectacle this month.

Locals say there are more whales and dolphins in the bay than at any time in perhaps a decade. Blue whales, Earth’s largest creatures, are the star attractions, and they are being seen by the dozen.

Abundant food is he reason the immense mammals are there in force.

A resurgence of deep mixing of Pacific Ocean currents is the cause, in turn spawning huge blooms of krill, the tiny shrimp on which the whales feed.

No one knows how long the whales will linger. But for now, they are prompting nature lovers to swarm the bay in equally impressive numbers from around the world.

See a full account in a story by Matt Weiser and photos by Manny Crisostomo in The Bee and at Sacbee.com on Saturday.

© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.

Call The Bee’s Matt Weiser, (916) 321-1264.

Dodge releases 2010 Mopar Challenger pics

by Zach Bowman (RSS feed) on Jul 23rd 2010 at 1:00PM

2010 Dodge Mopar ’10 Challenger – Click above for high-res image gallery

Good news if you’ve been itching to get a look at something other than a renderings and grainy detail shots of the Mopar ’10 Challenger. Dodge has just dropped a hefty batch of photos of the model in full. Supposedly, the company is only building 500 examples of the car, each of with a price tag of $39,000 if you want a six-speed manual. If you can live your life with a slushbox, Dodge will give you the car for $38,000. For that kind of coin, you get a raucous hood scoop and your choice of three accent colors.

Likewise, the interior will also wear a slew of new niceties, including Mopar logos embroidered in the side bolsters of both front seats, matching thread accents and a new steering wheel. Unfortunately, the car is based off of an R/T model, so don’t expect to see the heavy-breathing 6.1-liter V8 from the Challenger SRT8 under the hood.

Gallery: 2010 Dodge Mopar ’10 Challenger

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[Source: Chrysler]

Filed under: Coupe, Performance, Chrysler

Tags: 2010 challenger, 2010 Dodge Challenger, 2010 Dodge Mopar 10 Challenger, 2010Challenger, 2010DodgeChallenger, 2010DodgeMopar10Challenger, Challenger, Dodge, Dodge Challenger, DodgeChallenger, Limited Edition Challenger, LimitedEditionChallenger, Mopar, mopar 10 challenger, Mopar10Challenger

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Any of you who know me know that I’m a HUGE fan of our robot friends. So when I heard they were taking on the soundtrack for the remake of one of my favorite childhood movies I could not have been more stoked. Up until now we’ve only heard little snippets from the film trailers but now we get our first real taste. click through below and enjoy!

daft5<—Click to Listen

daft3<—Click to Listen

daft2<—Click to Listen

daft4<—Click to Listen

daft1<—Click to Listen

daft6<—Click to Listen

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Gorgeous – Frank Westfall’s 1930 Art Deco Henderson motorcycle

Frank Westfall’s 1930 Art Deco Henderson motorcycle via Twitter. Knucklebuster writes -

I took these photos at the Rhinebeck Grand National Meet where the newly restored bike was unveiled. The bike belongs to Frank Westfall from Syracuse, NY. According to some info I found online, the bike was originally built by O. Ray Courtney in 1936 and is based on a 1930 K.J Henderson. The bike is powered by inline four cylinder (not a scooter as some have said, check the shot of the motor below) and as I’m sure you can gather by now, is a one-off custom. What I can confirm is it does run and while it looked a bit unwieldy, Frank could be seen riding the bike around the Fairgrounds all weekend. But let’s be honest here (and maybe I’m wrong) – you don’t have this bike in your stable to go out for a long Sunday afternoon ride to get some ice cream. That said, it was pretty awesome to see the bike being ridden (even when rain started to come down) instead of being sheltered behind a velvet rope, never to see the rubber touch asphalt again. The bike is a fantastic piece of history, the craftsmanship is absolutely stunning and it’s surely more of a museum piece than a daily rider. Frank has obviously spent an incredible amount of time meticulously restoring and rebuilding the bike to its current gorgeous state. Hats off to Frank for the amazing work he did and for sharing it with all us gawkers.

Posted by Phillip Torrone | Jul 22, 2010 08:00 PM
Retro, Transportation | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email This |