Transportation Hacks

1603 Articles

Regenerative Bike Brakes

September 4, 2008 by 21 Comments

For their senior design project at Arizona State University, these guys built a regenerative braking system for their bike. As they brake, the system spools up to give them a push back up to speed.  They achieved 25% efficiency on one run, which isn’t too shabby.

The site has all kinds of information. You can check out their different plans and ideas from before they decided on this specific layout as well as all their data from the test runs. Be sure to look at the piece by piece breakdown of what changes were made from the initial design.

[thanks Mario Gomes]

Monster Truck Lawn Mower

August 25, 2008 by 23 Comments


It’s no secret that we’re gear heads at heart. Our transportation hacks category is full of unfortunate machinery like [Steven Laurie]’s motor art, weed whacker bikes, and electric motorcycles of all types. Even we have trouble justifying the existence of this monster truck style lawn tractor though. We haven’t found a project site for it and can’t help but wonder what kind of person would build such a thing? It’s obviously the type that would own a car sized American flag. We just need to realize with the popularity of lawn mower racing, this sort of thing was bound to happen.

[via Toolmonger]

How To Hotwire Your Own Car

August 15, 2008 by 74 Comments

Ignition switch
Picture this scenario: it’s 2 AM, you’re stuck somewhere you’d rather not be, and you’ve lost your car keys. If you can’t call the Auto Club, what do you do? Hotwire your own car, of course. Wired.com has a wiki article detailing all the things you need to do to get that car running: how to identify which wires to connect, potential pitfalls of newer cars that require an RFID chip in the key, and so on. Of course, hotwiring a car that doesn’t belong to you is illegal, but this is one of those skills-like lockpicking-which just might come in handy in an emergency.

[Photo: D.B. Blas]

Free Parking Garage Access

August 10, 2008 by 21 Comments

This hack is an interesting twist that will allow you to get in or out of some parking garages when the attendant isn’t looking. Using something metal to trip the parking lot’s proximity sensor that is meant to let cars out automatically you can get into the garage or vice-versa without opening your wallet. A magnet from a hard drive might work a bit better because it is able to trip multiple types of sensors, but for this hack any kind of metal will work. This proximity sensor is a high–frequency oscillation type, so anything that attenuates, varies the frequency or stops the oscillation trips the sensor. When you can’t find a place to park, this hack will certainly impress your friends more than this method, but your street credibility could quickly turn into never lived down stories, if you end up driving over tire strips and ruining your tires, get a huge parking or trespassing ticket, or worse yet get your vehicle towed!

Defcon 16: MIT Boston Transit Presentation Gagged

August 9, 2008 by 13 Comments


[Zack Anderson], [RJ Ryan], and [Alessandro Chiesa] were sued by the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority for an alleged violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act after copies of their presentation slides were circulated at Defcon 16. The slides give an eye widening glimpse into the massive security holes present in the Boston subway system. There are at least 4 major security flaws in the subway, which allowed them to get free subway rides by finding unlocked, back door routes into the subway, spoofing magnetic and RFID cards, and attacking the MTBA’s network. Judge Douglas P. Woodlock has issued a gag order, stopping the trio from giving the presentation at Defcon or disclosing sensitive information for ten days. However, the MIT school newspaper, The Tech, has published a PDF of the slides online. The research culminated in the trio warcarting the MTBA’s headquarters and being driven off by police.

Black Hat 2008: FasTrak Toll System Completely Broken

August 6, 2008 by 35 Comments


FasTrak is the electronic toll collection system used by the state of California. Motorists can purchase a toll transponder for ~$26 and link the serial number with a debit account to have their tolls deducted automatically. Today at Black Hat in Las Vegas, security researcher [Nate Lawson] presented not just the privacy problems with FasTrak, but why absolutely no transaction from the tag should be trusted.

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