This video is hilarious, not just for the parking enforcement officer’s half-wittedness, but moreover for the reporter’s reaction to the situation. She just won’t let it go! But KBB representative is right, if you can afford a Panamera, you can afford to park anywhere you damn well please.

Well, it seemed only a matter of time. Web sites, protests, and even a murder later, Arizona has finally cancelled the speed camera contract with Redflex out of Australia. The murder was a tragedy, to be sure, but the cause wasn’t entirely routed in the brain of a psychotic (though perhaps that could have been the cause). In fact, the man accused of the murder was a 68-year-old Phoenix resident.

The speed camera contract was a pet project of former Governor Janet Napolitano (now tasked with running the nation’s security), which undoubtedly hoped to both increase public safety and raise funds for the state. On both accounts, it failed. At best, the program did little to educate the drivers of the state, and at worse, it stole funds directly from their pockets.

Legislators should heed the result as a warning that implementation of automated traffic enforcement systems ought come with a direct vote of the people, just as the people might vote to raise taxes (which the program arguably was doing) or legalizing marijuana for medicinal use.

What’s that line, a government by the people…

Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.q13fox.com/news/kcpq-052310-pickaxelostload,0,5760348.story

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/05/24/dnt.flying.pickaxe.KCPQ?hpt=T2

Vroom, vroom, or bust?

I am an automotive writer, and I have yet to review the new Nissan Leaf or even drive it. I did sit in it when it came to Tempe, AZ earlier in this year, but as it was a special event, I did not have the opportunity to test it.

Normally, we don’t cover Nissan’s on this web site because we specialize in European cars, but I heard earlier today that the car emits a particular noise to pedestrians that it was approaching. Clever, I thought, and was interested to read on that this noise was similar to one of the flying cars in the movie Blade Runner. This I HAD to check out.

So after 15 minutes spent searching online and this on Nissan’s Facebook page, I began to notice one thing – this marketing campaign is about the people, not the car. And to me that’s a weird approach. When Apple releases a new product, they interview executives of the company, potential users, and even celebrities. That launch then becomes more about the people and the product, and about what the two can do when you put them in a room together.

But when someone like Ferrari or Porsche releases a new car, the advertising tends to be more about the product. How fast is it? What does the vroom of the engine sound like? How fast can it lap around the Nürburgring? Yet, all of the marketing seems to be of the Apple sort. And that’s fine if you are selling a consumer electronic, but for a car, it just doesn’t make sense to me.

I want to see this reviewed on Top Gear, I want to see You Tube videos of it lapping the saltiest tracks in the world. I want to see a professional review. I want to see it compared to a Tesla and then to a Versa, or whatever comparison you may draw between this car and another. At the very least, I want to see it in motion.

But sadly, there is very little footage of this car doing what it is supposed to do: getting me from point A to point B. Com’mon Nissan, let’s see a little more vroom, vroom!

Well, the short answer is over $2 million. The math is astounding, but the whole speech really calls into question the American stop sign system.

Go Roundabouts!