Climate change is here. It affects transportation systems, sometimes in unexpected ways. In this article, I describe the effects that this year’s drought had on waterways in Germany and world wide.

In this second article on climate change and transportation system, I talk about the increase of flooding, especially the more and more common flash flood.

Climate change is here. It affects transportation systems, sometimes in unexpected ways. In this article, I describe the effects that a recent heat wave had on the tramway services in Nuremberg, Germany.

Adding comments to a Hugo blog can be tricky because Hugo is a static site generator. I needed a simple, low-maintenance solution, so I chose Echothread to add comments to my Hugo site. In this article, I show you how I chose a commenting framework and how I installed it on my homepage.

I recently migrated this homepage from Wordpress to Hugo. This gave me a huge boost in satisfaction and enjoyment of my publishing process. In this article, I show you why I did it and how you can do the same.

I am happy to announce that my latest book is now also available as a paperback on Amazon.com. Click here to read samples of the stunning limericks from this creative piece of poetry.

The Changtai Bridge - The World’s Longest Cable-Stayed Bridge A magnificent feat of engineering opened in China: The Changtai bridge. It is more than 10kms long and connects the cities of Changzhou and Taizhou across the Yangtze river. It combines both road traffic and railway lines, and it shortens the travel time between the two cities from 80 minutes to just 20. Once again, China shows its prowess in civil engineering. Maglev in Augsburg? The SWA, the utility and mobility provider in Augsburg, Germany, is reportedly looking into the construction of a maglev. The idea is to build the maglev instead of the planned tramway line 5 from the central station to the new university hospital. If these plans were to come true, it would be the first ever line implementing the Transport System Bögl (TSB). This topic might be driven by political interest, as the original plans to erect a TSB in the city of Nuremberg have faltered, but Bavaria’s Minister President Markus Söder would like to see this technology of Bavarian origin in his home state. evtol News Last but not least another web tip for all fans of electric planes, aerotaxis and eVTOL in general. This homepage collects all relevant information regarding this interesting technology in one place. The only drawback is that its RSS feed seems to be broken, so I won’t see their latest updates in my inbox. Title image by China Communications Construction

Every second year, the IAA becomes the Mekka of the automotive world. Since the IAA moved from Frankfurt to Munich in 2021, it also showcases other mobility solutions, not just cars. Much has been written in the last days about the cars, and here I want to give an overview about the other mobility options that were on show.

First Tesla Diner opens in Hollywood Tesla opened its first diner in Hollywood. The concept combines a Tesla charging station with foods and drinks as in a diner. The idea is that patrons spend the time it takes to charge their car batteries at the diner. Here they can eat fast food, buy Tesla merchandise or watch a movie on the big outside screens. The biggest appeal of this diner seems to be its retro-futuristic design - it apparently cannot decide if it is from the future or from the 1950s. Also people cannot seem to decide yet if this concept is going to be top or flop. According to reports on the web, long queues mainly form when the touchscreen stations for ordering food are broken. Also the popcorn-making humanoid robot apparently needs some time off in between. Will such fanciful service stations become the norm as electric vehicles are becoming more widespread, offering drivers a good time while they wait for their vehicles to be charged? Or will this concept become obsolete as soon as charging times reach the range of just a few minutes? In my humble opinion, the concept of the Tesla diner is a sign that the fully self-driving Tesla is not around the corner yet, as the really autonomous car could go charging by itself while the driver is doing something more worthwhile. Competition for the ICE - German company Flixtrain to launch high-speed trains The German company Flixtrain - together with Flixbus a subsidiary of Flix - announced its plans to enter the market for high-speed trains in Germany and also in Europe. It ordered 65 train sets at Spanish company Talgo. Its competitor Deutsche Bahn ordered the same trains, the difference is only that Flix will buy the locomotives from Siemens instead of Talgo. With this order the Deutsche Bahn will for the first time have serious competition in the long-distance passenger market. Flixtrain plans to beat its rival with cheaper fares and mandatory seat reservations. The passenger potential seems to be there, yet questions remain if they can get non-discriminating access to the tracks and also to the booking system of the Deutsche Bahn. And even if their concept is good, they still have to suffer from the overloaded and ailing railway infrastructure in Germany. I wish them all the best in their endeavor, as only real competition can bring about real improvements for the passengers. Title image generated with ChatGPT