A very intriguing piece of legislation was passed out of committee in Sacramento today that could one day lead to San Francisco traffic generating more than road rage. The bill, which was passed by the Assembly Natural Resources Committee by a vote of 6-1, would use new technology to turn vibrations caused by cars on our roadways into electricity.

While the Reset community believes we should do everything we can to get cars off our streets, we also like the idea that those cars clogging our highways could one day help power our homes. Using this new green technology a single lane of highway stretching less than a mile could generate upwards of 44 megawatts of electricity per year – enough electricity to power 30,000 homes for an entire year.

According to the sponsor of the bill, Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles), this new green technology called “piezoelectric generation” is already in-use in Israel and Italy. Since San Francisco and the Bay Area have always been seen as leaders in the clean energy and green technology sectors, our elected leaders should quickly get behind this innovative idea.

If passed, Caltrans would be tasked with launching a pilot program that we could have the results of by 2013. And if all goes accordingly San Francisco and California could be at the forefront of a new green technology movement that would turn cars polluting our environment into tools for creating clean energy.

Source: http://earth911.com/news/2011/04/28/californias-future-electric-highways/