geekosystem

It's no secret that we find various iterations and renditions of Van Gogh's Starry Night both impressive and amusing. We've seen it recreated in bacon, and made out of doorknobs, but if you've never seen Van Gogh's famous work painted in wonderful detail driving down the road on the way to the grocery store, we've got a few Starry Night vehicles below with which you can fill that void in your life.

We're living in an interesting time, where efficiency has become paramount for modern vehicles. Not only that, the ultra-efficient green vehicles that were once pipe dreams are actually becoming reality. But let's set aside the simple and the small and take a look at the big and the bold -- like a car that runs on coffee, or spaceships propelled by lasers. Here's a thoroughly less-than-scientific look at alternative forms of green transportation.

New York City traffic is tough to navigate, no matter what your mode of transportation. For his Master's thesis project at the School of Visual Arts (SVA,) Ron Gabriel made 3-Way Street a video highlighting the dangers New York City intersections pose for drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists.

The video shows pedestrians, cyclists, and cars and trucks engaged in a delicate exchange in which people get cut off, right of way matters naught, and cars inevitably get hit. Yellow circles surround cyclists, black boxes enclose pedestrians, and white boxes showcase vehicles. When a collision seems imminent the boxes all glow red, highlighting the many close calls that can occur at just a single intersection.

According to Gabriel, the project was inspired by the expansion of bike lanes in the summer of 2010 and the subsequent onslaught of close calls stemming from bad habits like jaywalking, cyclists running red lights, and cars that plow through crosswalks. Gabriel believes ingrained habits like these make attempts to use the city streets in different ways (like widening the bike lanes) difficult to implement due to the existing disfunction at intersections.

(Kottke.org via Ron Con Cola Cola)