Ground Transport

Japan is desperate to regain its reputation as a tech powerhouse and sees a Maglev in the U.S. as the first step towards becoming the primary exporter for high-speed trains. But even with Japan's help, it is unlikely to happen.

Problems with the tunnels impact hundreds of thousands of local commuters as well as those visitors that head east during the summer. The improvements are one step towards improving the city's overall transit infrastructure.

Avis could make some inroads when using Google Wallet, with its location attributes, to make some enticing offers to road warriors on the go.

It's rare to see a transit agency that takes a chance on anything, let alone a PSA about danger. Here's to giving government agencies more leeway.

The taxi industry is going to have to get used to it. There is more competition now in the form of Lyft, Uber, and services such as Zipcar. Although individual startups may come and go, the ride-sharing concept is here to stay.

An expedited car rental pickup process may be more important to business travelers than the latest in-car GPS or other technology amenity.

Sometimes acquired companies transition to the parent company and lose their whole mojo. That doesn't appear to be happening with Avis Budget and Zipcar, which is getting newer vehicles at lower cost, and is positioned to move into new geographies at a quicker pace.

Car-hailing apps are the hot thing in ground transportation, but they'll need a big market to succeed. We see a few glimpses of that here, as well as a few things that could be speedbumps for the services.

Amtrak has done a good job highlighting these stations, but a lot more can be done to enhance their tourism business value, and here we're doing our small bit.

New York City subway campaigns are one of the easiest and most expensive ways to capture an attentive audience. The campaign is particularly clever since New Yorkers and visitors can take public transit directly to the destinations advertised.