Weekend Beyond Cars Roundup January 20, 2024

Brightline high-speed passenger trains operate between Orlando and Miami and hold the unwelcome distinction of being both the first intra-city high speed rail in the U.S. and the deadliest trains in America, by far. After three people died at a single grade crossing in two separate incidents last week it seems the feds are finally perking up and taking a closer look at what the heck is going on in South Florida these days. - Erin Marquis Read More

Over in the United Kingdom, there’s a certain dessert known as a “teacake” — or, as a British friend kindly informed me, it’s more accurately known as a “Tunnock” in Scotland. Basically, the food in question for this particular story are actually a cookie base topped with marshmallow, coated in chocolate, and wrapped in foil. Believe it or not, these marshmallowy treats ended up on the Royal Air Force’s no-fly list. - Elizabeth Blackstock Read More

The world, in 2023, is cyberpunk. We’ve got the advertisements in the sky, the retro-inspired asymmetrical vehicles, and the rampant wealth stratification that keeps the rich folks rich and the poor folks desperate. But in cyberpunk media, people are always riding sweet futuristic motorcycles. Why are we stuck with the same bikes we’ve always had? - Steve DaSilva Read More

In the wake of recent major Boeing quality control news, including loose hardware, door plug failure, and the debacle that was the development of the 737 Max, it isn’t a good time for further failures by the company. A piece of news out of Japan that would probably normally be swept under the rug, an unrelated 737-800 with a cracked windshield, became international news this weekend. - Bradley Brownell Read More

When you buy your next motorcycle, what will you buy it for? Will it be a highway hauler, a single-track slayer, or just a competent city commuter? The answer of course, is rarely just one thing — we all pick out our bikes based on a thousand little criteria, a unique mix of use cases that makes up the riding we do. - Steve DaSilva Read More

Airports seem like the sort of large, hulking and expensive buildings that will be there forever. There’s no way something so monumentally huge and costly to construct would ever just be cast aside. But there are a ton of lonesome airports around the world, ones that once hosted international flights full of diplomats, celebrities, business people and holiday-seekers, to only now rot away. - Erin Marquis Read More

As Korean Air Lines flight KE766 to Seoul was pushing back from its gate at New Chitose Airport on Tuesday, its port side wing came into contact with the starboard vertical stabilizer of a stationary Cathay Pacific Airways aircraft bound for Hong Kong. This comes just two weeks after a near-catastrophic collision at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, and days after an aircraft with a cracked windshield was re-routed back to New Chitose. - Bradley Brownell Read More