These Cities Swapped Out Freeways for Gardens and It Worked Out Fantastically

Editor’s Note: We are going to acknowledge right off the bat that this post is based on Gizmodo’s fantastic piece, “6 Freeway Removals That Changed Their Cities Forever”

Once upon a time, the automobile was born. Wheat-chewing farmers and cigar-chomping industrialists regarded the new machine with wonder and avarice, respectively. Baseball-loving boys and gradually-liberated girls clambered over the new horseless wagons as the newest plaything. And city councilmen cracked open cases of cigarettes, pouring burnt coffee into environmentally-unsound paper cup after environmentally-unsound paper cup as they stayed late at the office, trying to figure out how their city was going to handle the inevitable coming of the gasoline traveler.

Many of these freeways—like I-440 around Raleigh—handled the new wave of traffic just fine, and have even had to be widened. But some freeways never received the traffic they were built to handle. Other freeways received too much traffic with nearby viable roads receiving very little. In either case, inefficiency was happening. When city freeways are overloaded, it can create smog, pollution, a decrease in health, increase of crime and even a raising of cities’ internal temperatures.

Instead of expanding over strained roadways, some cities have chosen a different route altogether: they've demolished them.

Despite arguments that this would only make matters worse, traffic flowed to other areas of town and created an explosion of nature, good health and a shift in the cities’ cultures. Streams, rivers, bicyclists, joggers, street vendors and pedestrians have all laid claim to these miles of new space. We've included a few photos here, but you should check out the examples in San Francisco, Seoul, Portland, Milwaukee, Madrid, Seattle, and plans for the same in Dallas, Texas and Rochester, New York.

What do you think about this concept? Are there areas in our city that you think could benefit from it? If nothing else, we hope this prompts new thinking about roadways and city development.

Here’s Seoul before…

And here it is after!

These Self-Smacking Wipers Knock Ice Off Your Windshield!

Great clouds almighty: is winter over yet? Snow, sleet, |freezing rain, hail—come on now! It’s been a season of much precipitation and through it Raleigh has received a hard lesson: we’re not quite as equipped for winter as we thought we were.

As we drove through neighborhoods frozen by winter weather, however, we did notice that many residents had one trick down pat: keeping windshield wipers off the front window overnight so that they wouldn’t be frozen to the glass. As commendable as that is, many of us know that ice can still form on the wipers themselves, not to mention the glass, and trying to break up a half-inch layer of ice in the morning cold is no picnic.

One company has come up with a rather innovative—and automatic—way to circumvent this seasonal annoyance. Motor City Wiper is a company based out of Rochester Hills, Michigan, just outside of Detroit. They’re so far north that they’re nearly into—gasp!—Canadian levels of latitude, and at that area of the U.S., they encounter serious amounts of snow and ice for not just days, but months.

MCW’s solution is a special, wiper-banging arm mechanism that installs right in place of your normal wiper arms, only looking a bit more muscular. Do you sometimes tap your toothbrush against the sink to knock the water off the bristles? Same principle. The wipers themselves are nothing special, just whatever you happen to know. The muscly arm, however, smacks them against the glass with enough force to dislodge any ice on the blades themselves or your windshield. Observer:

You’ll notice that it’s a very confident, assertive rapping that isn’t overly violent or overbearing. As you can see at the end, the smacking isn’t automatic, but rather, triggered by the driver instead pushing a small, custom installed red button. That way you never have to worry about rogue wipers smacking you around the parking lot—unless you’re being chased by someone with a sense of humor behind the wheel.

As of yet this system isn’t for sale to people. Its inventors are shopping it around the major automakers in hopes that it will be either invested in or implemented across a brand’s lineup. In either case, we wish them well as this is one more device intended to keep us in the car where we belong while technology does the outside work for us.

Electric B-Class Readies for June Arrival

Mercedes-Benz B-class

Ah, first looks. That first time you see a new model in its not-quite-finished prototype form and realize what a new and interesting thing it is.

With the Mercedes-Benz B-class, you’ll have no need to worry about tensions between the lower and upper echelons of the Mercedes-Benz lineup as this is the automaker’s sole electric vehicle unless you count the Smart Fortwo. Thankfully we won’t have to wait long to see it—the new Mercedes EV will arrive in dealerships this June.

So let’s get acquainted! A recent first look article by Autoweek praised the B-Class for the exceptionally well-constructed nature and quality of its interior materials and finishing. Even though Autoweek was only evaluating a prototype version, it was clear that the top brass in Stuttgart wanted the press to have the most impressive model possible.

The B-Class is specified as seating five adults with 17.1 cubic feet of storage space in the rear. Up front is the Tesla electric motor, no small coup since Tesla—founded by genius billionaire Elon Musk—has gone through 11 years of trial and error in producing electric vehicles. Mercedes-Benz has been a supplier to Tesla of internal parts, so it makes sense that Mercedes-Benz would have close ties with the California-based company.

Tesla’s experience pays off with a motor that produces 174 horsepower and 251 lb-ft of torque. Those numbers mean the B-class won’t rattle at high speeds, nor lack the power to be aggressive when necessary. The car has a 100 mph top speed and a 90 mile range before it needs recharging.

Ninety miles should be plenty for commuters in the triangle since only 25 miles separates Raleigh from Durham. There are dozens of electric charging stations all over the area including 14 in downtown Raleigh alone. With a three-hour charge time, you could easily recharge over night or even before lunch if you have a station near your workplace.

Stay tuned for updates as we draw nearer to its June launch.

Garrett McNamara Builds Surfboard with Mercedes-Benz

In vehicles, we’re familiar with certain values from Mercedes-Benz: comfort, performance, technology, safety and innovation, all that. While impressive, there is another element that we forget because we’re grown used to having excellent cars around us year-after-year. We’re referring to the wonder of what an automobile actually is: a gasoline-combusting machine that would have seemed straight out of science-fiction when it was first invented except that science fiction itself had barely been invented.

We want to get back to that original wonder, that marvel movement and speed that now gets buried underneath all the satnav and hand-stitched leather and refined drive-trains. To help us appreciate the marvel that driving can be, Mercedes-Benz collaborated on a vessel that captures motion and nature in a way that many of our vehicles try their hardest to emulate: a surfboard.

Garrett McNamara is a world-class Hawaiian surfer who holds the record for largest wave ever surfed—it happened at Nazaré, Portugal—survived the 2012 Jaws surf break in Hawaii’s Pāʻia, and has surfed actual tidal waves—tidal waves—from shattering glaciers in the arctic circle. Mercedes-Benz invited McNamara to the design center in Sindelfinge to glean what lessons they could from one of the world’s foremost authorities in ocean surfing.

To survive the monstrous hellions that he eludes in his profession, McNamara needed a board that was faster than any ever built. From Garrett, Mercedes-Benz’s engineers learned the principles of surfing: where the maximum dynamic point lies, where the board needs to be thin, where it needs to be rigid and where it needs to have some give. The engineers were then able to use their knowledge of materials and digital design to produce what heretofore had only existed in Garret’s mind.

Want to see how it turned out? Check out the video. You might find yourself wishing for summer a little more by the time you’re finished.

First Driving Impressions of the GLA-Class

When we last wrote about the GLA, it had just entered production in Germany, and we were looking forward to a spring arrival in the U.S. We now know, however, that the 250 4MATIC and 45 AMG will arrive in the fall, and the 250 in the spring of 2015.

To herald their coming however, we have our first drive impressions thanks to a write-up by Motor Trend. The GLA class is essentially meant to be the most entry-level of entry-level SUVs for Mercedes-Benz. Priced in the low 30s, it will either include or make available many of the upscale features that the brand carries, which should make you curious about exactly one thing: how does the low-cost, high-value GLA fit into Mercedes-Benz’s business model?

The answer isn’t terribly important because consumers are still going to get an exceptional product for an unreasonably reasonable price. As Motor Trends notes, the GLA is a small vehicle. It’s about four and a half inches shorter than the Range Rover Evoque, and almost two inches shorter than the MINI Cooper Countryman—MINIs, after all, are known for one thing.

The 250 version gets a turbocharged four-cylinder, and the AMG is an AMG. Motor Trend thinks that the AMG’s exhaust note is perhaps the liveliest across the entire AMG lineup, which shows that it’s not how big the car is around the engine, but the engine itself that counts.

The magazine’s writers took the GLA around Malaga, Spain to test out its roadworthiness and were able to detect the 4MATIC’s favoritism toward the front wheels, and extra boost to the rear wheels when tough cornering demands more traction.

All in all, the next 12 months or so are going to see lots of change in the crossover SUV space, and Mercedes-Benz clearly wants to enter the fight with the best possible machine instead of rushing to market. A fall arrival will also give additional time to study new challengers like the Porsche Macan to see if M-B can’t give the GLA an extra thing or two to push it over the top when it arrives. A wise strategy to be sure, and one that makes us look to the GLA’s arrival with anticipation.

Winter Driving Guide: Tips to Survive the Snow and Ice

Sure the birds will be annoyed, but the Great Winter Storm Leon is coming through Carolina today. Review these tips for dealing with ice and frost so you stay safe on the roads:

Winter driving isn't as hard as people think it is. It just takes a little more concentration and awareness. Drive like you’re tiptoeing on ice, because you might be. Use small, slow motions. Ease on the brakes, drive like there’s an egg under the accelerator, and if you start to skid, steer in the direction you want to go and keep steady, light pressure on the gas. If you’re skidding sideways, the brake is not the pedal to press. It will just make things worse. When you brake in a straight line and the pedal starts pulsing or chattering, don’t release pressure. Keep your foot in it. That noise means the anti-lock brakes are working.

Most important, slow down. Don’t leave the house unless necessary (this is splendid advice no matter what the weather’s like—traffic congestion thanks you).

In addition, make sure you have the following:

A Healthy Battery: Idling with your front and rear defrosters on high, your lights on, Lady Gaga cranked to full volume, and a coffee warmer plugged into the cigarette lighter is asking a lot of an alternator. A good battery can help manage the electrical load.

Proper Warm-Up: Plenty of people claim that letting the engine warm up any longer than it takes for the oil-pressure gauge to register is wasting gas. But a fully warmed engine is a more efficient engine. Besides, taking off in a car that hasn't warmed properly, hasn't had the windows cleared of ice or snow, and is still freezing cold inside is dangerous at worst, no fun at best.

Winter Tires: Bolt up a set of Bridgestone Blizzaks or Michelin X-Ices, and suddenly your car can actually go and possibly even stop in slippery conditions.

Emergency Kits: The ideal cold-weather crisis kit consists of a thermal blanket, ten bucks in cash and two in change, a charged-up flashlight with batteries (or one of those crank-’em-up flashlights with the LED bulbs), an extra ice scraper, a five-pound bag of cheap clay cat litter (to throw under your tires when you get stuck), a small shovel, a charged-up battery booster with an extra cell-phone car-charger cable, one of those little sets of jumper cables that come in a pouch, a couple of pairs of warm gloves, a warm hat, an extra flannel sweatshirt with a hood, some paper towels, a can of aerosol spare-tire filler, a few packs of chemical hand warmers like HotHands, and a half-open box of fabric-softener sheets. Why dryer sheets? Mostly because they smell good, but when people see your kit and ask why you have dryer sheets, you can look sly and say, “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Windshield Wipers

Like car batteries, windshield wipers do not improve if you ignore them. Get some premium, heavy-duty snow-and-ice wipers. A lot of these have a fabric or rubber boot to prevent moisture from accumulating and freezing their moving parts. Be sure your washer fluid is filled with a good winter solution. 

Your Gas Tank

Keep it full. More gas means more weight, which can mean better traction. Also, a gas tank nearing empty is more susceptible to condensation, which can form in the tank and then freeze in your fuel lines, preventing your car from starting.

In addition: 

Four- or All-Wheel Drive and Traction and Stability Control. 

That cover it? Good. Be careful out there.

The E63 AMG Wagon is the Snarling Torque-Maker You Didn’t Know Existed

Once upon a time there was a dream. The dream was to have the functionality of a station wagon—a rare breed itself in the U.S.—and also give it a little bit of power. Sure, it’s nice to have the hauling capacity for a few children and a full grocery load, but it would be nice if that car weren’t a total brick wouldn’t it? Years passed, and station wagons grew rarer with every year, and those that remained were lucky if they came equipped with six simple cylinders. 

The dream faded. All of that is ripped completely to shreds by the 2014 E63 AMG 4MATIC Wagon. 

It’s essentially an E-Class sedan with a 5.5-liter twin-turbo V-8, seven-speed transmission, all-wheel-drive and an adjustable suspension. That’s enough power to go from 0-60 in three and a half seconds. But what are we saying—this is a station wagon right? It’s for parents and surfers, 16-year-olds whose parents want a safe collision-proof box.

Not anymore. This is a premium luxury vehicle that includes carbon ceramic brakes as an option if you’re a racing enthusiast, or lane drifting assistance in case you’re a family driver who pulls lots of sleepy late-night road trips. The interior styling has been updated to reflect Mercedes-Benz’s most modern motifs, there’s an optional S-Model trim if you want to get even fancier, and of course LED lights because they look fantastic. 

All of that, however, would make this “a great station wagon.” What makes it a car that would make your neighbors jealous is the fact that it’s an AMG. Simply put, it can smoke most cars on your block. It’s a dual-clutch, paddle-shifting wonder that wants to be let loose. It wants to grip, it wants to go, and its top speed is listed at 186 mph. For a station wagon, that’s insane. This is, without a doubt, one of the most fun wagons you can buy in 2014, which is probably why it garnered Left Lane’s editor’s rating of A. 

To read Left Lane’s full review and to check out photos, you’ll probably want an oxygen mask because this is a car that doesn’t have curves—it has angles. When you’re done, call or e-mail Leith Inc. if you’re curious about E63 AMG wagon, or just AMG in general. We’d be happy to walk you through it.