Approximately 31.2 million Americans plan to drive to their destinations, up from 31.1 million who drove last year, according to Heathrow, Florida-based AAA, the biggest U.S. motoring organization. The number of air travelers will fall 8 percent to 2.3 million, a four-year low.

AAA estimated 34.8 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home during the four days ending on the May 27 holiday. That’s down 0.9 percent from 35.1 million a year ago, a drop attributed to consumer unease about the economy.

“American travelers are experiencing fee fatigue and frustration with everything from higher fares to airport security,” Robert Darbelnet, AAA president and chief executive officer, said in a statement today. “As a result, many are choosing road travel in higher numbers due to the lower cost and convenience it offers.”

The average price of regular gasoline at the pump was $3.66 a gallon yesterday, according to AAA data, versus $3.68 a year earlier. Prices have climbed 13.8 cents in May.

A survey of intended travelers found that gasoline prices would have no impact on plans for 62 percent of travelers.

Memorial Day marks the traditional beginning of the summer travel season and the peak period for gasoline use. This year, the holiday falls a day earlier than in 2012. Weekend holiday travel tends to be more robust when the holiday falls later in the month, AAA has said.

The average distance traveled will be 690 miles, up from 642 a year earlier. Median spending will fall to $659 from $702, AAA said.

The projections by AAA are based on research and forecasts from IHS Global Insight.

–Editors: Richard Stubbe, Charlotte Porter

To contact the reporter on this story: Barbara Powell in Dallas at bpowell4@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at dstets@bloomberg.net

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Thus, at the upcoming confirmation hearing, members of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee should ask Foxx the following 10 questions…

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A Greyhound bus breaks down in the desert on the way to Los Angeles. Eva / Flickr

Greyhound, the iconic U.S. bus brand, has turned to pricing models used by the airline industry as it seeks a ticketing system capable of boosting profitability by charging more for travel during peak periods.

FirstGroup Plc, the U.K. company that owns Greyhound, will spend as much $40 million on computerized yield-management technology to replace Greyhound’s flat-rate charging plan, and has engaged a U.S. carrier to help with the design, Chief Executive Officer Tim O’Toole said.

“No longer will a trip on Greyhound cost the same on July 17 as the day after Thanksgiving,” O’Toole said in a telephone interview from London. “Pricing will be much more dynamic.”

Yield management was introduced in the airline business in the 1980s, when Robert Crandall, CEO of American Airlines, began employing mathematicians to develop models able to predict demand during given time periods and price tickets accordingly. It has since become a critical tool for most of the world’s carriers, as well as in other businesses such as hotels.

O’Toole declined to say with which airline Dallas-based Greyhound is working as it bids to lift its $1 billion in annual sales. The plan also includes an airline-style loyalty program.

Founded in 1914, Greyhound operates 1,700 buses to 3,800 destinations and carries almost 25 million passengers a year — making it 10 times the size of its nearest rival — yet lacks a system able to analyze who is getting on where and when.

Rights Offer

FirstGroup, which acquired Greyhound via the $3.4 billion purchase of Naperville, Illinois-based Laidlaw International Inc. in 2007, has already applied yield-management tools at the Greyhound Express service introduced in late 2010 with routes serving Chicago and other cities in the U.S. Midwest.

The Express unit, pitched between the traditional brand and the BoltBus unit that FirstGroup runs in the northeastern U.S., increased passenger numbers 10 percent last year, faster than the old Greyhound, and serves 900 cities after entering markets as far apart as California, Louisiana, Delaware and Canada.

“You’re selling seats on a bus,” O’Toole said. “The trick is to take your management system and graft it onto the bigger Greyhound, which requires a lot of computer work. You need algorithms to constantly be balancing the business.”

The introduction of yield-management technology comes as O’Toole seeks to steady FirstGroup following the loss in October of a 5.5 billion-pound contract to run Britain’s West Coast rail line, one of the busiest in Europe, after the U.K. Department for Transport discovered flaws with the bid-assessment process.

Mexican Foray

Aberdeen, Scotland-based FirstGroup said yesterday it would raise 615 million pounds from a three-for-two rights offer, helping it to retain an investment-grade credit rating, remove balance-sheet constraints and ease spending plans.

The company plans to invest 1.6 billion pounds over the next four years across five divisions that include First Student, operator of more than 50,000 yellow school buses in the U.S. Some of that money will go towards an overhaul of its information technology systems.

Greyhound, which already has routes in Canada, is gearing up to commence operations in Mexico after becoming the first U.S. bus company certificated there, O’Toole said.

“We’ve always moved people in partnership with Mexican bus lines, but now we can actually go into Mexico,” he said. We’re completing a terminal and we’ll be initiating the service soon.”

The first route will start this summer, with 10 buses running from Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas, to Monterrey, Mexico’s third-largest city, about 140 miles away.

Leather, Wi-Fi

The Greyhound brand was introduced to Britain in 2009 as FirstGroup sought to tap demand from motorists no longer willing to get behind the wheel on crowded roads.

The U.K. buses, given women’s names from American songs including “Sweet Caroline,” “Peggy Sue” and “Jolene,” have more in common with the Bolt fleet and are fitted with power sockets, leather seats and air conditioning. Passengers get a complimentary newspaper and free wireless Internet access.

Similar upgrades will be soon rolled out across the main Greyhound fleet in the U.S., according to O’Toole.

“You’ll notice the old Greyhound white bus being replaced by a blue and gray one,” he said adding that the makeover will include features such as wi-fi access. “I hope we’ll make substantial progress over the next two years.”

FirstGroup shares fell 30 percent yesterday after it halted dividend payments to focus on the rights offer, saying the next award will be for the six months ending March 31 next year.

Chairman Martin Gilbert will also leave when a successor has been found, after 17 years on the board.

Editors: Chris Jasper and Heather Harris.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andrea Rothman in Toulouse, France, at aerothman@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Benedikt Kammel at bkammel@bloomberg.net.

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This week’s SkiftSeedlings speaks to that breadth of opportunity by including everything from a media company looking to launch the world’s largest consumer travel event to a small device that tracks employees’ driving behaviors.

GET YOUR DAILY DOSE OF SKIFT: SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER, RSS, TWITTER OR FACEBOOK.

FOR ALL OF OUR SKIFTSEEDLINGS COLLECTION, CHECK OUT OUR ARCHIVES HERE.

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A woman rushes to catch her cab in New York City. David Thompson / Flickr

New York City’s much-anticipated e-hail app program was cut short by a temporary restraining order (TRO) just days after launch, but that hasn’t halted the operations of the two startups that were already approved for participation.

Hailo and Uber‘s cab drivers continue to pick up passengers via the companies’ mobile e-hail apps every day.

Why do they continue to operate even after the pilot program was so clearly blocked?

That’s an answer that no one seems able to agree on, or in some cases, even answer.

New York’s Taxi and Limousine Commission is tight-lipped as it works out what will happen next. Uber is similarly quiet, while Hailo is taking another approach that includes court sessions and courting Prince Harry.

Uber and Hailo in NYC

Even though Hailo and Uber are similar in allowing customers to use their respective apps to hail yellow cabs in New York City, the startups have reacted very differently to the TRO.

Uber spokesperson Matt Mittenthal declined to comment to Skift’s inquiry, but he did note that its competitor, Hailo, “is also operating at the moment under the same conditions.”

Hailo continues to aggressively pursue its entrance into the New York City market. The startup sent out an email on May 10 asking early Hailo Beta testers to “Tweet a pic of your first ride and tag it with #SaveOurSoles to score five Beta invites to share with your friends.”

It announced its open Beta via email on May 14 and tweeted a picture of Prince Harry receiving a brief tutorial of the app from co-founder Russell Hall the next day.

Hailo co-founder Russ showed Prince Harry how to use Hailo to get home after a big night at the @uktiusa Tech event: hailo.to/l4naQ

— HailoNYC (@HailoNYC) May 15, 2013

Hailo heads to court

Hailo CEO and co-founder Jay Bregman went to court on May 6 to argue that the startup doesn’t need a pilot program to run in New York.

Bregman’s affidavit (embedded below) estimates that Hailo is losing some $18,000 every day that the Pilot Program remains ordained. He also said that several of Hailo’s key employees have deferred payment, and six city launches have been delayed as a result of the changing situation in New York.

Bregman tells Skift, “The TRO enjoins the Pilot Program, not Hailo. In fact, we specifically went to court to clarify that point and the judge said unequivocally we were not affected by her ruling. The City has consistently maintained that absent the Pilot program e-hailing is legal – that there are no rules or laws preventing it.”

Stance of the Taxi & Limousine Commission

As Bregman points out in the affidavit, the Taxi & Limousine Commission‘s approval of the Pilot Program is key to eliciting cab drivers’ participation.

“It is apparent that many taxi drivers are wary of using e-hail applications without the express endorsement of the TLC, which is now tied to the fate of the Pilot Program,” Bregman writes in the affidavit.

TLC Commissioner David Yassky was bullish on the eventual success for the pilot program even after the pilot program was cut short.

Yassky is quoted as saying “The Supreme Court was absolutely right that taxi-hailing apps are not only good for the riding public, but perfectly legal as well.  It is appalling that narrow commercial interests continue to try to block passengers from using the latest technology….We’re confident this program will move forward.”

The Taxi & Limousine Commission; however, has been less forthcoming about its current position since the pilot program block.

The TLC was scheduled to meet on May 16, and although the meeting was ultimately cancelled, the e-hail app program was not on the agenda.

“I don’t expect it to be relevant to this meeting, other than a mention of the TRO during the chair’s report at the start of the meeting,” TLC spokesman Allan Fromberg responded in an inquiry from Skift.

New York City’s statement

The quotes captured from what appears to be New York City’s main spokesperson on the topic over the last three weeks make it difficult to deem the city’s official stance on the issue.

On May 1, the TLC cites Michelle Goldberg-Cahn, Senior Counsel of the NYC Law Department as saying, ”It’s unfortunate that taxi riders will not be able to continue to test this innovative tool for hailing taxis.”

One week later, Goldberg-Cahn confirmed in a statement to the New York Daily News, “There are no regulations that prevent e-hailing per se.”

When Skift asked TLC spokesman Fromberg on May 14 if Uber or Hailo were allowed to operate outside of the pilot program, he could only reply:

From City attorney (Senior Counsel) Michelle Goldberg-Cahn: “The City is fully complying with the TRO.”

The fate of New York City’s e-hail apps is still pending, but we could have an answer by Monday evening.

A final decision on whether the restraining order will stand or be appealed will be issued on May 20 when a full panel of Appellate Division judges decides on the petitioners’ motion for an injunction.

Below is the affidavit of Jay Bregman, CEO and co-founder of Hailo, which outlines the impact of the pilot program’s delay on the plausibility of an eventual launch.

Download (PDF, 1.89MB)

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The five men face charges including soliciting or accepting a bribe as a public employee and soliciting or accepting an unlawful gratuity as a public employee.

The defendants, all employed as Ground Transportation Unit agents at Logan and known as “cab starters,” are accused of allowing drivers to skip the sometimes lengthy wait at the airport’s taxi pool in exchange for cash.

The defendants are scheduled to be arraigned May 24.

Massport CEO Thomas Glynn says the agency will “not tolerate abuse of the public’s trust.” The workers have been suspended without pay.

Copyright (2013) Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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A car with the RelayRides magnet in central San Francisco in August 2011. Michael Andersen / Flickr

With a still small, but growing, market around people that want to rent out their personal cars to their neighbors, some consolidation seemed inevitable. On Tuesday startup RelayRides, which was one of the first companies to jump into the neighborhood car sharing market, announced that it has acquired Wheelz, a startup that had originally focused on building car sharing communities at universities.

RelayRides says it will acquire, among other things, Wheelz’s DriveBox technology, which enables Wheelz users to unlock and drive away in a rented car, without having to meet with the owner and get a key. Picture it basically like one of Zipcar’s unlocking and verification systems.

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Electric cars line the streets in Oslo, Norway. Fiona Bradley / Flickr

A study from Norway sheds a little light on what kind of person is buying electric cars, and how they drive.

The Institute of Transport Economics in Norway concludes that the typical early-adopter of an electric vehicle is likely to be a man, probably middle-aged, living in or near a big city who has a high income and education level, according to a literature review of various studies from multiple countries. One French study found the early adopters also tended to work in industries that exposed them first hand to EVs before buying one, such as electricians, or government workers in municipalities with EV fleets.

This scan of studies paints a picture that EV adoption is still far from widespread, but that the very act of owning an EV might change the owner’s behavior and government polices can influence the choice to own an EV.

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Normally, we in Illinois would not mind being grouped into a category with Wisconsin, which has a much sturdier tax base and a state government not strangled by burdensome debt. However, the speed limit on rural swaths of interstate highways is one place where we should stand apart from our neighbor to the north.

Illinois and Wisconsin, aside from states in the northeastern part of the United States and California and Washington, are the holdouts on the 65 mph speed limit. Every other state that borders Illinois — Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky and Indiana — has rural interstate speed limits of 70 mph. In fact, 34 states have set the rural interstate speed limit at 70 mph. It is even higher in some Western states.

In April, the Illinois Senate by a 41-6 vote approved a plan to raise the speed limit for rural interstates from 65 mph to 70 mph. The House is considering the measure now. It passed out of committee on Wednesday and is awaiting action by the full House, which should follow the Senate’s lead.

While Illinois Department of Transportation Secretary Ann Schneider opposes such a change, the people who enforce traffic laws see no problem with the change.

In Macon County, divided by Interstate 72, Sheriff Thomas Schneider said there may not be much difference for motorists if the bill becomes law. “The reality is that you do have people driving faster than the 65 mph limit, and probably a majority are driving 70. So, an increase of 5 mph is probably not going to make that much of an impact,” he said.

While the sheriff noted higher speeds can mean more serious accidents, he also predicted a speed limit increase might mean more drivers would follow the law. “From a sense of total compliance, you are probably going to have more people complying at 70 than at 65.”

McLean County Sheriff Mike Emery said he’s not against the proposal, either. Emery’s county is where interstates 55, 74 and 39 crisscross at Bloomington-Normal. “I think it brings us in line with other states around us. It’s just a matter of time. If not this General Assembly session, the next one,” Emery said.

Emery is exactly right. It makes no sense for a driver cruising across America on Interstate 80 to drive 70 mph in Ohio and Indiana only to hit 65 mph in Illinois before resuming 70 mph in Iowa.

The Illinois Insurance Association also opposes the legislation. A spokesman for the group said while deaths on Illinois roadways have decreased in recent years, statistics show a dramatic rise in fatalities attributable to speeding. In 2009, speeding contributed to 325 highway fatalities and the number jumped to 439 in 2011.

However, many motorists are driving more than 70 mph and Sheriff Emery has a good idea to help control excessive speeding. The current fine for driving 20 mph over the speed limit is $75. It is $95 for 30 mph over.

“A greater penalty for speeding, I think, would keep people closer to that 70 mph limit,” Emery said. “And I think the state of Illinois can use the revenue.”

The sheriff is right on both counts.

A rural interstate speed limit to 70 mph is an idea whose time has come in Illinois. The House should pass the Senate version of this legislation and Gov. Pat Quinn should sign it. ___

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Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski joined Democrats Chuck Schumer of New York, Barbara Boxer of California and Claire McCaskill of Missouri in supporting the measure aimed at keeping unsafe rental vehicles off the road. A hearing on the proposal is expected later this month.

The senators say that while current law prohibits car dealerships from selling recalled vehicles to consumers, no law bans rental car companies from selling or renting them to unsuspecting consumers. They want to close that loophole.

The bill requires that vehicles under a safety recall be withheld from consumers within 24 hours after the rental company gets the safety recall notice.

“Rental car companies are rolling the dice with passengers’ lives each and every time they rent a car that’s under a recall,” said Schumer. “This practice has already proved tragic. Most rental companies have now changed their policies, but we need a law to ensure that recalled cars are never again driven off of rental lots.”

The Raechel and Jacqueline Houck Safe Rental Car Act of 2013 is named for two young sisters from California who died in a fiery crash in 2004. They were driving a rental car that had been recalled because a leak could cause a fire in the engine compartment. The rental car company had been notified about the defect a month before the fatal wreck.

The measure is supported by major rental car companies and several consumer groups. Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., plans to introduce a similar bill in the House.

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