With today’s passing of Bill 26, Albertans are soon to face much tougher penalties in regards to impaired driving, and blowing between the 0.05 BAC warn limit, and the 0.08 BAC criminal DUI limit. Under the new law, if a person is caught driving with a BAC level from 0.05 to 0.08, their license would [...]
The AMG Performance Tour Road Show made a stop in Calgary this week, bringing with them 14 AMG vehicles for a lucky few to sample. AMG owners were invited by their respective dealerships and sales staff to join AMG in testing out their current line of vehicles in an enviroment they were designed for, on [...]
The City of Calgary will be wrapping up its year long pilot project on LED street lights in the next few weeks. Last February, the City installed LED bulbs from seven different manufacturers (LED Roadway, Ruud, Lumen, Elumen Lighting Networks, Dialight, Deco and Leotek was added into the mix in November) in Brentwood.
While there is currently no funding for a city-wide deployment of LED bulbs, the objective of the pilot project is to evaluate electricity savings associated with various LED lighting fixtures and to determine whether the technology aligns with the City’s long term street light upgrade strategy.
In 2002 the City began replacing the “bubble” street lights with a newer flat lens design by EnviroSmart. The benefit was two-fold: It focused the light downward towards the street reducing light pollution and due to the lower wattage bulb it cut the electrical use by nearly half on residential streets. The upgrade to the flat lens resulting in $1.7M in annual electrical cost savings. The cost of that upgrade will be paid off by the time this current LED pilot project ends.
The flat lens resulted in about $45 savings per street light and by comparison the LED bulbs would save about $15 per street light. A further $15 would be saved on maintenance costs for the LED bulbs as they would last longer. Calgary is well suited for LED street lights as the pole spacing is quite tight in much of the city. The “over-lighting” of Calgary may have been inefficient in the past, but it may allow LED fixtures which tend to have a tighter beam pattern to be installed in the next few years.
If you want to check out the LED street light project in Brentwood, check out the following map on the City of Calgary website: LED Streetlight Pilot Project Map We’ve also included a few pictures after the jump to show the whiteness of the light, it looks great and reduces electricity usage to boot.
Every single year, beyond members gather online and debate the merits of winter tires, and compares what works best in our climate. Over the last 5 years, wintertiresthreads are by far the most popular winter discussions on our forums. We have a mix of the all season tire warriors, the winter tire nuts, and the crazies like myself that drive their sports cars in the winter trying to find a winter tire that’s actually manufactured in aggressive sizes. These threads must have garnered the attention of Michelin, as they have invited us to their unveiling of the brand new 2012 Michelin X-Ice Xi3 for review (don’t forget to check out the Xi3 preview for more pics).
How do you improve on something as good as the Michelin X-Ice Xi2? Apparently, Michelin has found a way. This week, Michelin is debuting the all new X-Ice Xi3 winter tire at the Mecaglisse Ice and Snow track. Like it’s successor, it’s a dedicated snow and ice tire, which are very popular (and mandatory in Quebec) on our Canadian winter roads. How much better? The ice acceleration improvements stand out, delivering a whopping 17% shorter distances to get up to speed.
With today’s passing of Bill 26, Albertans are soon to face much tougher penalties in regards to impaired driving, and blowing between the 0.05 BAC warn limit, and the 0.08 BAC criminal DUI limit. Under the new law, if a person is caught driving with a BAC level from 0.05 to 0.08, their license would be suspended for 3 days, and their car could also be seized for the same period. That’s an increase from the previous 24-hour suspension for blowing between the 2 levels.
There has been a lot of debate over how strict this limit is, and how many drinks will actually tip you over the limit. In our first unscientific breathalyzer challenge, we found that most of us couldn’t even register a 0.05 while drinking at a bar, even though all of us did not feel safe to drive. We concluded at that time that 0.08 is way too high of a limit, and applaude the tougher 0.05 rules that were being considered.
Here’s a reason to be happy if you’re in Calgary. The City of Calgary launched a highly anticipated free app for the iPhone this morning, called YYC Roads. The app allows the user to receive notifications for snow events, current road conditions, access to traffic cameras, live locations of plow trucks and sanders, and status of roads that have been plowed.
You can download the app here, or simply search for YYC Roads in the app store. Be sure to join our forums to discuss the app with fellow motorists!
At the peak of the wind storm yesterday winds reached 149km/h as measured at the top of the Bow tower. For reference, thats about the upper range of a Category 1 hurricane. Hundreds of trees were uprooted around the city downing power lines across the city. Shingles and sidings were ripped from homes, and in some cases embedding themselves in neighboring homes. The winds were especially destructive downtown as debris caused a dozen windows on the Dome Tower to shatter raining debris down below. Calgary Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) activated the Municipal Emergency Plan shortly after 1pm and closed down traffic into downtown.
May 1st, 1994. I was into the 3rd race of my 2nd year of following Formula 1. That fateful morning in Canada, I watched my racing hero, the man that got me interested in the sport, crash into the wall at Tamburello and die at the San Marino grand prix, live on television. 17 years later, I’m still following Formula 1, watching nearly every race live.
Senna was a Formula 1 legend, a legend that deserves such a great film documenting his life, his career, his mark that he left with us in Formula 1 history. A few beyonders joined me at The Uptown Theatre in downtown Calgary to catch this excellent documentary on the big screen.
This is a great way to avoid traffic during the morning rush hour! Shave an hour off your commute if you’ve got the balls to do what these two guys are doing. If you don’t sit through the whole thing, at least catch the epic part at the 2:45 mark. I’ve always wanted to try something similar when I need to go down a one way street late at night ;)
We’ve covered the C63 AMG Black Series in depth over the last few months, revealing details of the car before anyone else, and covering the Nurburgring worldwide debut of the car. So what better place for a North American debut of the C63 AMG Black Series than Laguna Seca. Mercedes AMG brought 5 of the cars, optioned up with the Track Pack and Aero Pack, to flog around the legendary track for a press event a few days before the LA Auto Show opens up.
And what a car. A logical successor to the wildly successful 2008 CLK63 Black Series, Mercedes spent over a year tweaking the setup, fine tuning the aerodynamics to create a beast that can lap the Nurburgring a whopping 19 seconds faster than it’s predacessor. That’s an eternity in terms of laptimes.
For the last 2 months, I’ve been whining and complaining on our forums about how boring the 996 Turbo is. Monday night, after our first dusting of snow on the roads, I take it all back. But first, let’s go over the progress of our 911 Turbo winterization program.
Our first modification was a set of winter tires provided by Integra Tire on MacLeod Trail. Due to the 996’s AWD system, there’s only a small number of winter tires that fit the 996 Turbo. We choose a set of Hankook Icebear W300’s, 225/40R18 up front and 265/35R18 out back. These tires have average grip in snow and ice, but grips well on cold dry pavement, which is a great compromise for Calgary’s winters. Because the 265’s require a 10″ rear wheel (factory rear wheel is 11″ wide), a new set of winter wheels were required, and was provided by Kulu Motorcar.
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