Fliers go their own way with airline meals
Even the top fliers that have equal status to George Clooney in Up In The Air pack their own meals on planes. So do thousands of coach travelers. They are looking for low salt, low carb and high nutrition options that the airlines don’t provide.
A triathlon competitor, she prefers to create a traveling pantry. She packs her own meals with food from home that she supplements with purchases at the airport. She carries couscous or rice, mixed with some fresh vegetables or protein, which can be eaten cold. Her goal is to avoid salt, fat, preservatives and processed foods.
“I always call it shopping for ingredients because it’s usually really tough to find a preprepared, preassembled meal,” she said. “But when you can find the bits and pieces of ingredients to pull together, you can have a pretty fulfilling meal.”
…
Mr. Huntsman, who has the invitation-only Global Services status on United, says he prefers the quality and variability of the menu offered by international carriers, including Lufthansa, Air France and Singapore Airlines.He creates his own menu by picking and choosing items for one light meal and a snack from what is offered. One dish that stands out is Emirates’ traditional Arabic mezze, which combines hummus, moutabel and stuffed vine leaves.
In Boston: MBTA eyes discounts for low-income riders in the future
The Boston “T” is looking at charging passengers based on their income. That would mean some sort of income test and is generating lots of controversy.
The MBTA recently tested income-based discounts on its service for disabled riders, and Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack has voiced support for discounts broadly applied to thousands of low-income riders.
But income-based discounts on public transit — or “means-testing” — are still a rarity across the country, and Laurel Paget-Seekins, the T’s director of strategic initiatives, said the agency would need to carefully study the idea more before implementing any discounts.
…
Many roadblocks have stopped such discounts for low-income riders across the country, according to experts. Those problems include logistical difficulties with verifying who qualifies for the discounts and transit agencies that need more revenue to replace aging trains.
Automakers, not Silicon Valley, lead in driverless car patents: study
A recent study shows that car manufacturers are ahead of tech companies when it comes to rolling out driverless cars. Though Google is making the headlines, automakers are leading on producing these new machines.
The findings illuminate the challenges for both established automakers and Silicon Valley companies as they compete to profit from moving people around in a world that is increasingly congested and concerned about carbon emissions.
The global auto industry is in the midst of three simultaneous, and interconnected, technology revolutions. The first is the quest for cleaner alternatives to internal-combustion engines. The second involves connectivity and linking cars to information or data services. Lastly, the autonomy revolution is the effort to develop self-driving cars that could enable services in which electric cars connected to the Web can be summoned to provide rides on demand.
“Automakers aren’t as good as technology companies in tooting their own horns,” Tony Trippe, principal author of the report, told Reuters in an interview. “But when you look at the patent data, the automakers are all over this.”
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 11 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.