Autos
*Base price on the 2009 Chevrolet Traverse, due to go on sale in fall, is $28,255 for a front-wheel-drive LS. Freight adds $735. Chevy has not released prices for the LT and LTZ versions or options such as all-wheel-drive. All models will have a 3.6-liter V-6, 6-speed automatic transmission, and stability and traction control. The Traverse is a large crossover vehicle based on the design for the Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook.
*Ford is updating the Escape and Mercury Mariner for 2009, adding new engine and transmission combinations that boost power and fuel economy. Ford says the new model will get 20 m.p.g. city/28 highway with the base 4-cylinder engine, 6-speed automatic transmission and front-wheel-drive.
Safety
*The Federal Aviation Administration is ordering U.S. airlines, starting Aug. 12, to look for cracking on overwing frames on 670 MD-81, MD-82, MD-83, MD-87 and MD-88 registered here.
*The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is overhauling a program for rating vehicle safety, including new crash tests that make it tougher for automakers to earn the highest grades. The changes starting with 2010 models include more challenging front- and side-crash measures that will be incorporated with rollover-test results into a single rating.
Cycling
*This year’s route for the Des Moines Register Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa hasn’t been changed, despite devastating flooding in the northern and eastern parts of the state. Riders will pass some flooded fields and higher-than-normal rivers and creeks on the 471-mile route along the Lincoln Highway. RAGBRAI will run from July 20-26 and from the Missouri Valley to LeClaire.
*A more-than 20-mile unicycle ride from Midland to Bay City, Mich., has raised $1,500 for Bay City’s Calvary Worship Center. Pastor Dana Simmons, his 16-year-old son, Seth, and 15-year-old friend, Martin Morales, made the 5 1/2-hour ride.
FYI
*The Indiana Highway Department will continue maintenance of U.S. 31 through Kokomo even after work finishes on a $267 million bypass around the city. State officials had wanted Kokomo and Howard County to take over the 11-mile stretch of road and bridges with stoplights that often snarl traffic between South Bend and Indianapolis.
*A commuter rail line from Noblesville, Ind., to Indianapolis could take three years to build and cost upward of $100 million, the Metropolitan Planning Organization says. The proposed line would run along an old Nickel Plate railroad line with trains operating every 30 minutes in peak morning and afternoon driving times.
*Researchers have found that nearly 50,000 people were hurt in accidents involving golf carts over a four-year period. One study, by the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said about 1,000 Americans are hurt on golf carts every month. Males age 10 to 19 and people over 80 had the highest injury rates.
*Parking spots near the front entrance of some Long Island, N.Y., office buildings are being reserved for the drivers of hybrid automobiles. The first of the hybrid parking spots are at RexCorp Realty’s offices in Hauppaugue and its Omni Building in Uniondale.
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Quick Trips are compiled from the notebook of Rick Popely and from Tribune news services.
