More evidence confirms that vehicles with higher hood lines — meaning large trucks and SUVs — are more likely to injure pedestrians in the event of a crash, according to new research from the Insurance Industry for Highway Safety.

As Gersh Kuntzman reports in Streetsblog USA, pedestrians struck at 27 miles per hour by median-height trucks have an 83 percent chance of suffering “moderate injuries,” compared with a 60 percent chance for median-height cars.

This indicates that taller vehicles pose more danger to people outside the cars even when traveling at lower speeds. “For example, as crash speed increases from 15 mph to 35 mph, the risk of a serious injury goes from 9 percent to 52 percent when a median-height car is involved. With a median pickup, the risk shoots up from 11 percent to 91 percent.”

In a statement, the IIHS noted, “The findings point to the need for policymakers and traffic engineers to account for the makeup of the U.S. fleet when thinking about speed limits and traffic-calming.” The report recommends that automakers modify front-end designs to improve safety and add automatic braking systems to vehicles.

• Road Safety
• Traffic Safety
• Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
• Pedestrian Safety
• SUVs
• Trucks
• Vehicle Design
• Crashes

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1. Open the Mail app on your iPhone or iPad.


2. Tap the More button (three dots) in the upper right corner of your inbox.


3. Select List View from the pop-up menu.

In a piece for Strong Towns, Ben Abramson explains why minimum lot size requirements often stifle new housing development and lead to higher housing costs and a dearth of affordable housing for smaller households.

Advocates for incremental development suggest that cities should adjust their zoning codes to allow for more flexible, affordable development that makes use of existing infrastructure to increase the housing supply, eliminating expensive approval processes whose costs get passed on to buyers. “Enabling a fee-simple transaction lets buyers own the dirt under their property and gives underwriters greater confidence in its viability. The more ways your community can enable builders to develop housing options with fee-simple sales, the faster they can address North America’s glaring housing shortage.” 

Portland, Oregon developer Neil Heller says incremental development, such as building multiple housing units or subdivided homes on single-family zoned lots, doesn’t bring about the massive changes some people fear. “Yes, you do notice change, but it's almost imperceptible … the average person just going down the street would probably not even notice what's going on in the backyard.”

Some cities, such as Austin and Houston, have reduced minimum lot sizes as part of zoning reforms to both encourage denser, more walkable development and boost the housing supply. 

• Minimum Lot Size
• Zoning
• Zoning Reform
• Density
• Housing Crisis
• Housing Costs
• Single-Family Zoning
• Multi-Family Housing
• Multifamily Housing
• Missing Middle Housing
• Sprawl

Earlier this year, Bentley stopped making the W12 that has carried its super-luxury vehicles since 2003, making way for the launch of its V8 hybrid in the new Continental GT. Now comes the second model with this potent combination: the 2025 Flying Spur. 

It’s equipped with the same turbocharged 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 cranking out 592 horsepower and 590 pound-feet of torque developed in conjunction with Porsche. Paired with a powerful e-motor and a 25.9 kWh battery, total output is an impressive 771 hp and 738 pound-feet of torque. In sum, Bentley calls the Flying Spur the most powerful sedan it has ever built.

The Flying Spur is hand built at Bentley’s “Dream Factory” in the UK, which includes a new design center, paint shop, and battery-electric vehicle assembly line. This facility is streamlined for sustainability, reducing carbon emissions, saving water, and lowering the temperature in the paint shop to conserve energy.

This super-luxury car, while it looks nearly identical to the previous model, has multiple engineering and technological secret weapons to set it apart. One, it can zip from zero to 60 mph in 3.3 seconds, which Bentley head of communications Mike Sayer calls “outrageous” in the best way (and that’s a half-second faster than the previous gas-only Flying Spur). Also on tap is all-new electrical architecture, an advanced suspension system, and impressive battery regeneration.

While regeneration is not uncommon for vehicles with an electric motor, the Flying Spur has an uncommonly good energy recuperation system. During a 300-mile scenic test drive from Phoenix to Sedona and back, I noticed that the battery could gain double-digit miles of all-electric range on a descent.

“We have a very strong regen system in the car,” Sayer says. “When you first apply the brakes, watch the gauge to see how the car can slow itself down just by using the motor in reverse to charge the battery. You don’t even have to plug it in; it’s a very powerful system.”

Near the beginning of the drive, I hadn’t yet activated cruise control and yet, the Flying Spur felt as though it was driving itself. No, Bentley hasn’t quite mastered full self-driving cars. It does, however, have a few things going for it that give the driver a sense that the sedan is magically moving forward. One is the weight balance; the main battery pack sits on the floor beneath the trunk, acting as a counterweight to the hefty V8 up front. Most EVs integrate the battery into the floor under the passengers to create a low center of gravity. The Flying Spur carries about 400 more pounds than the Continental GT, but its weight distribution helps the heavier car carry its bulk gracefully.  

Another element giving the Flying Spur a silky-smooth driving feel is that it doesn’t require cylinder deactivation to reduce its carbon footprint. With the motor backing up the internal combustion engine, the e-motor enables the system to turn off all eight cylinders and hitch a ride on the electric side. Bentley’s new “Ultra Performance Hybrid” powertrain delivers 11 percent more torque in the new Flying Spur over the previous year’s model, and nearly 20 percent more power overall. As Sayer explains it, it’s a one-two punch in a velvet glove.

“In the gearbox we have a 190 PS [187 hp] e-motor, which can generate 450 Newton-meters at torque peak, so it’s very much like having a 2.0-liter [Volkswagen] TSI engine bolted to the back of our 4.0-liter V8.”

Plus, you can drive for up to 515 miles, Bentley says, before you have to stop at the gas station. Even in all-electric mode, the V8 stands ready to take over. if your speed exceeds 87 mph or the battery’s reserves are depleted. Or just press the accelerator into the floor and the internal combustion side kicks in immediately. 

Bentley mode is the default setting, or the driver can choose the Comfort setting, which loosens the anti-roll bars and electronic stability control for a looser ride. In Sport mode, the springs get stiffer and the active all-wheel drive sends more power to the rear axle and limits how much will go to the front. The e-differential stands at attention, and the car hunkers down.

As it is in Bentley’s Continental GT coupe, the twin-valve suspension system plays a major role in ride comfort. The key benefit of fitting each corner with a damper is completely independent control between compression and rebound, Sayer explains. In the real world, that means that while the Flying Spur keeps the body control of its previous Sport setting in the chassis, the Comfort mode is significantly better. 

Underpinning all of this is a new electronic architecture tying it together. Bentley equipped the Spur with an all-new semi-autonomous driving system, giving the sedan the ability to monitor up to five vehicles around it. The car also received an updated air conditioning and heating system with an air quality display, showing quality of air inside and out while iIonizers pull particulate matter from the air. In a nifty trick, the ionizer is tied to the navigation system, so the car knows without instruction to use recirculation if you’re heading into a high pollution area or a tunnel, for example. 

If you’re going to go for this $280,000-plus vehicle, go all the way: Bentley has over 100 colors in its palette, including the stunning blue Kingfisher or deep burgundy Cricket Ball hue, and the British automaker claims there are billions of potential combinations for customization.

The post Bentley hybridizes its Flying Spur and boosts its range to 515 miles appeared first on Popular Science.

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Thrilled to be back in London for an exciting and special week ahead! Thank you to the teams and customers at Apple Battersea for such a great visit during a busy time of year! pic.twitter.com/kxILR3IXWT

There’s nothing like London during the holidays. It was great to meet with Slow Horses star, Jack Lowden, to tell him how excited we are for season 5 on Apple TV+! pic.twitter.com/soFlPbBPQf

I’m in a suburban office park and it feels like a music festival. I’m in a showroom and it feels like a concert hall. I’m in a 3,000-person auditorium and it feels like a 10,000-person arena. I’m outside of Paris, in London, and at the offices of sound reinforcement specialists L-Acoustics—on a multinational adventure to experience 40 years and the future of audio as a transformative medium.

It’s September 2024, four decades to the month that Dr. Christian Heil founded the sound solutions company in a farmhouse south of Paris. L-Acoustics systems can now be found on some of the most high-profile tours and in 10,000 iconic concert halls, cultural centers, events facilities, and festival grounds worldwide. 

I’m at the L-Acoustics headquarters in Marcoussis, another Parisian suburb, where I’ll learn about L-Acoustics’ approach to amplifying art and amplification as art. But to truly understand how the company has developed tools that give engineers full control of the sonic environment, I first have to imagine it’s 1977 and I’m facing a stage bathed in projections, topped with inflatables, and surrounded by massive, chaotic, messy speakers.

It’s a Pink Floyd concert, and an era where Heil felt sound was very necessary but not very celebrated. A Ph.D. in the field of particle physics, Heil felt that, while the “In the Flesh” tour was profound, he could use his understanding of how energy travels through mediums to improve electro-acoustics and how concert speakers vibrate particles on the way to moving our souls. So, in September 1984, he founded C.HEIL.TEA—the company that would become L-Acoustics—so he could apply the knowledge of what slows and slurs sound waves in order to engineer clearer expression and emotional engagement at live events.

Stacks towers walls—the way speakers were described shows that concert sound had always been building toward something. But building blocks are just that: Blocks. These cubes and columns sit beside, under, on top of each other, bolted to pre-existing architecture. They spit output in the same direction and interfere with each other. And making things louder did not make them clearer. The disjointed doubling of sound waves causes comb filtering, which can result in a hollow response that volume does not fill. 

Heil’s solution to the destructive sound patterns from these clusters was 1992’s Variable Curvature Line Source Array, or V-DOSC. This multi-speaker system used Wavefront Sculpture Technology to ensure consistent SPL throughout the audience, funnel the high frequencies into coherent beams, and produce intelligible sound at scale. 

Without a waveguide, sound ripples outward, becoming uneven and indistinct depending on the area. But when properly engineered and aligned, the reflectors in these vertical speaker stacks help deliver a flat, cylindrical wave of sound rather than a round, expanding one, minimizing drop-off. This, in turn, reduces volume hot spots and dead spots and paints an overall more balanced experience regardless of where you’re in the crowd. 

Presenting the high, mid, and low drivers as a single continuous source, V-DOSC was the first step from where things were—producing louder and louder speakers—to where they are—producing speakers that are not only sonically effective but space efficient, cutting down on transportation and installation costs. Properly placed line arrays also narrow the space between performer and speakers, cutting down on the disconnect of seeing a band directly in front of you but hearing them coming from off to the sides. Even in a cavernous space, reconnecting sound and vision can make things seem more immediate and intimate. 

Line arrays are the standard now—if you’ve been to a mid-sized or large venue recently, you can’t miss the ribbons of black boxes flying above the stage, gently curling inward to make sure the audience can hear from GA to far away. Better dispersion at distance is the norm. If it sounds simple, it’s not. If it sounds awesome, that’s because it is. But before the L-Acoustics era, this wasn’t always the case.

Of course, it’s one thing to talk concepts. It’s another thing to encounter them. We wander through the rigging/racking demo area and walk down the street to take a quick tour of the product lines (see the slideshow below), looking at the craftsmanship and quality control that ensure customer satisfaction. L-Acoustics has speaker, amplification, and DSP (digital signal processing) component facilities in France and Germany. But while manufacturing is spread out, final assembly takes place right here—keeping the supply chain and the signal chain proprietary for the sake of traceability and reliability. 

I’m then taken behind Marcoussis HQ, beyond the parking lot, and into the trees, where we can focus on focus and experience the innovations that set the stage—literally and figuratively—for live sound. It’s here, in a grove under the transmission towers, that L-Acoustics stages K and L Series speakers that require very understanding neighbors when the company runs A/B test sessions of modules and their accompanying subwoofers. 

Walking me to, and through, these systems are Tom Laveuf, an L-Acoustics application engineer for Southern Europe, and Rahul Samuel, L-Acoustics head of application for Northern Europe. Both transitioned from playing on stage to manning the mix around the turn of the millennium, so have plenty of perspective when it comes to taming unruly reflections or uneven coverage—a process that was once as much guesswork as science. Now, however, you can sweat the details pre-arrival so you sweat less on-site.

“When I started as a system tech, we’d do everything in Microsoft Excel, putting numbers in there and trying to find the angles you needed to deploy to, the heights you want to put something at,” says Samuel. “And the tolerances weren’t always so tight, so you could have five of the same model loudspeakers, and they could all sound slightly different from each other. Thanks to modeling programs [like L-Acoustics Soundvision] and adjustable waveguides and working with a company with consistent sound quality enabling accurate predictions, now you can spend time on site finessing things, not fixing them.” 

Physical developments in the line arrays helped achieve this new level of control. With the K Series (released in 2008), L-Acoustics improved weight management and flexible rigging options, allowing adjustable angles between boxes for even smoother tailoring of vertical directivity. And with 2014’s K2, L-Acoustics introduced Panflex technology—mechanically adjustable “fins” visible along the trough in the middle of speakers below—that could work alongside DSP to steer horizontal coverage as needed to respond to venue width.

And with the L Series (introduced in 2023), the company took into consideration average venue and audience geometries to develop a Progressive Ultra-Dense Line Source (PULS) in a streamlined design with optimum curve, power density, and off-axis performance, but reduced weight and materials (and therefore lower fuel costs and carbon footprint). A new auto-lock rigging system and single cable connector, among other factors, mean five times less action to get an array in the air. Computational fluid dynamics contributed to redesigning the internal volume to create bigger, better airflow, and, therefore, better bass. 

Despite all this, the cardioid pattern of the boxes minimizes low-frequency bleed if you’re not in front of the speakers, which is good for performers and staff and the stage behind you at a festival. After walking around the speakers while playing test tracks, stopping at designated angles to gauge efficiency and engagement, I can confirm its surprising effectiveness.

In general, prototyping with algorithmic digital twins led to many innovations. As important as the hardware is for tonal consistency, however, the sound wouldn’t be as exactingly sculpted without the pre-visualization of L-Acoustics software. Soundvision is 3D modeling software for a venue’s acoustic response, allowing engineers to import CAD models of spaces and simulate speaker confirmations. Considering virtual variables and potential obstructions gives actionable insight so engineers can optimize coverage and clarity before a single cable is laid. This makes for a shorter setup that’s all about precision, not panic. And once systems are soaring, real-time coverage pattern changes in software reduce physical adjustments required.

“With Soundvision, we could design systems that delivered consistent sound quality from the front row to the nosebleeds,” says Laveuf. “It changed our workflow, shifting from reactive problem-solving to proactive design.”

If there are mitigating factors, the control of an L-Acoustics system goes far beyond physical arrangements. When it comes to sound propagation, wind, temperature, humidity, and other environmental factors will have a discernible effect on sound projection. With software, you can map out where the energy is projected to be distributed and dented and compensate for frequency losses with granular adjustments. Wherever a few more dBs needs to be pushed, amplification channels are always on tap. 

Of course, all this control available to L-Acoustics’ 12,500 registered software users goes beyond mere convenience and can be used for creative purposes, as well. The L-ISA Immersive Sound Art allows for object-based audio, for specific elements to be moved throughout a three-dimensional sound field. While impactful for concerts, this spatial audio is particularly powerful in bespoke auditory experiences like Broadway productions, where directional cues are part of the narrative.  

When it comes to the L-Acoustics narrative, I leave Paris with half the story. Along with its use at Bon Iver concerts and Adele residencies, among so many others, L-ISA has found applications beyond performances and has been used in museums, corporate installations, and other shared spaces. But these are all planned and paced encounters. I arrive in London and head to the L-Acoustics Highgate facility ready to learn about the company’s latest technologies that allow spaces to be transformed at the press of a button.

The HYRISS platform exemplifies this vision of architectural audio, enabling venues to tailor their acoustic identity dynamically. Case in point, we’re ushered into a well-appointed sitting room, striking in its elegant simplicity. Velvet couches, impressionistic art and expressionistic carpet, and a flatscreen TV are to one side, small gilt marble tables and chairs to the other, a piano in the divide. Sonically, it starts out a “blank canvas of quiet,” according to our host Scott Sugden, L-Acoustics director of product management. And you can’t always reshape the space that exists for sound, so why not reshape how the sound exists in a space.

HYRISS, or Hyperreal Immersive Sound Spaces, does just that; it lets you take the static space and match it to the context of the occupants. Walking around with an iPad, Sugden launched a standard stereo track into the dead air—first playing it throughout the room before moving it from one wall to one corner till he finally split its frequencies, with vocals and bass at opposing ends. Next a nature soundscape enveloped us as we wandered our serene sanctuary, until the ambiance was broken by the entrance of concert pianist Belle Chen. Teasing the keys, she and Sugden exchanged thoughts on the need for some resonance. And with a tap, reverb gave the piece she was playing the big hall energy it needed to breathe. 

“The goal is to make sound as adaptable and integrated as lighting,” says Sugden. “You can highlight, dim, or redirect sound based on the mood or activity.”

A comfortable space for casting those evocative hues requires an investment, of course. For this showroom, 60 speakers from the short-throw X Series and medium-throw S series are powered by 60,000 watts, all embedded in the walls and ceiling. At the same time, the control platform leverages L-ISA’s overall positional capabilities and Anima machine learning for the localization and spatialization of separate sonic elements. Finally, the Ambiance system uses custom-installed sensing microphones and processors to change the room acoustics—further sculpting the echoes and eddies in real time from speech-friendly to concert-ready. 

“We design the full stack of technology, and we manufacture the full stack, and that’s a huge help,” says Sugden. “You know, a Formula One car is so fast not because it’s naturally the fastest car, but because they’re integrating everything together. At the end of the day, that’s how you get that level of performance and how you do it consistently around the world. And that’s the reason why artists choose L-Acoustics … because around the world, the level of control we maintain means it’s going to be consistent.”

HYRISS is the kind of integration that could be done in a bespoke home theater but would be equally suited to a conference center or gallery or theater or other custom-built multi-use “temples for the ears,” as Heil calls them. Why just fill the room when you can fulfill the room? It’s a question asked and answered again when I encounter one more L-Acoustics system later that night. 

I’m at ABBA “Voyage,” the virtual residency of the Swedish pop band in a purpose-built, engineered-wood East London venue full of L-Acoustics solutions. I’ve come for the kitsch but stayed for the kicks. There’s an infectious feedback loop as thousands of people sing along with the digital avatars (or ‘ABBAtars’), the room itself amplifying the escapism and making every new old song a happiest memory. It’s engineering meets artistry, immersive and articulate—the essence of L-Acoustics in its fifth decade. The company has four decades on the front line of line arrays, leading the first wave of waveguides, and is still finding new ways to re-engineer experiences.

“Good sound means connection,” says Heil earlier in the day. “It’s not just about fidelity or full frequencies; it’s about creating an environment where the audience feels emotionally engaged and present in the performance. That’s what we’ve dedicated 40 years to achieving—an environment where sound doesn’t just accompany life, but helps shape it.”

The post The physics of feeling: Inside the science and showcases of live sound pioneers L-Acoustics appeared first on Popular Science.

How does daily travel activity affect people's wellbeing. The study, Does Car Dependence Make People Unsatisfied With Life? Evidence From a U.S. National Survey, uses data from a national survey to explore how transportation affects life satisfaction. 

The results indicate that beyond a certain point, increases in car dependence reduce people’s satisfaction with life. It finds that relying on cars for more than 50 percent of out-of-home trips is associated with significant reductions in self-reported life satisfaction. These findings suggest that planners and decision-makers should promote multimodality and land use patterns that may help to reduce car dependence and its potential negative effect on subjective wellbeing (SWB).

• Automobile Dependency
• Car Dependence
• Auto-Centric Planning
• Car-Centric Development
• Cars
• Driving
• Walkability
• Mobility
• Public Transit
• transit access

The San Diego Unified School District is considering a proposal to build 1,000 units of workforce housing on five of its properties to help struggling teachers and staff access affordable housing.

As Kristen Taketa explains in Governing, the move could house 10 percent of the district’s employees. “School districts around California are increasingly pursuing the idea of building affordable housing for employees as a way to improve recruitment and retention amid a worsening housing crisis.”

The district already engages in real estate development, with about 50 low-income employee households living in a district-owned development in Scripps Ranch.

There are two proposed funding models for financing district-owned housing: low-income tax credits combined with long-term bank mortgage and state and local funding; or a permanent loan that could reduce the cost of construction per unit. “The district has also set aside about $206 million in bond funding from its Measure U, which voters passed two years ago, just for housing.”

• San Diego
• School Districts
• Workforce Housing
• Affordable Housing
• Housing Costs
• housing affordability
• Housing Supply

The Denver-area Regional Transportation District (RTD) board approved a historic $1.2 billion budget for transit operating expenses, reports Bruce Finley in The Denver Post. 

The agency is also introducing a new tap system for fare collection and making fares free for youth. “RTD staffers say they’re counting on increased fare revenues in 2025 to cover costs of letting residents aged 19 and under ride for free,” Finley adds. Only around 4 percent of the agency’s costs are funded by fare revenue. 

“RTD officials said in an email that the new budget will lead to increased service. Starting in January, agency supervisors plan to reinstate 15-minute train frequencies along the E Line and the H Line. They also plan to boost bus service between Denver International Airport and Boulder.” Ridership dropped sharply between 2019 (106 million rides) and 2023 (65 million rides), but the agency projects ridership will increase slightly in the next year.

• Denver
• Regional Transportation District
• Public Transit
• Transit Funding
• Transit Fares