New York Taxis Going Green

Those famous yellow cabs are about to go green. Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday New York will be adding more eco-freindly hybrid vehicles to its fleet and is aiming to convert its entire fleet of 13,000 vehicles to gas-electric hybrids by 2012. In addition, the TLC will begin phasing out the current Ford Crown Victoria taxis late next year.

In 2005, six hybrid vehicles were approved for service by the New York Taxi and Limousine Commission: the Ford Escape, Toyota Highlander, Lexus RX 400, Honda Civic and Toyota Prius. This year more hybrids are hitting the streets like the Toyota Camry, Mercury Mariner, the new Ford Escape , Saturn VUE and possibly the Chrysler PT Cruiser.

No word yet from Ford or Chevrolet if they will produce a hybrid version of the fleet oriented Crown Victoria's and Chevrolet Impala's.

3D New York Video

A bit of digital inspiration for the New York City Journals was found while browsing around YouTube today. I came across a 3D digital model of New York (or at least Downtown and Midtown).


The streets are rendered in amazing detail and the buildings have photo-realistic textures on them. Times Square appears to be dated as some buildings are missing which implies the model was created a couple years ago. Still, the 3D model of New York is something to be admired.

To be able to fly around the streets of New York like that in SimCity 4. Maybe in SimCity 5.

Google New York: Times Square

Times Square has made its way into Google New York, my other New York recreation project. This week there were a bunch of models posted by the Google Earth 3D model team. Among some were models of well known (or at least fairly known) buildings of Times Square such as Westin New York Hotel, 1585 Broadway, the Rueter's Building and more.

Here's a look at their hard work.

View looking south down Broadway toward 1 Times Square.


Typical billboards in Times Square on Marriot Marquis Hotel.


Intersection of 45th and Broadway looking east.


View of One Times Square


Conde Nast Building and Times Square skyscrapers.


More 3D New York coming up next time.