By Jim Sanders / Sacramento Bee

Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, May 18, 2008

Steers like a car, tilts like a motorcycle – and gets 100 miles per gallon of gas.

California lawmakers are wrestling with whether to allow into carpool lanes a high speed, fully enclosed, three-wheel hybrid that is under development in Los Angeles.

The legislation is pushed by the hybrid's creator, Venture Vehicles, which acknowledges that sidestepping bumper-to-bumper commutes could make it easier to obtain financing and to sell the vehicle.

VentureOne, patterned after a model sold in Europe, the Carver, is designed to feature a tiny body, a $25,000 price and many of the safety and comfort features of a car.

"I've ridden one of them," said Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes, who drove the European Carver on a test track. "They're very nifty. You can't drive them without smiling."

"It's a different sensation," said Fuentes, D-Sylmar. "When you turn, it leans, no matter what you do. It feels like a very narrow car, but you feel very safe."

Like a motorcycle, the VentureOne is meant to seat only one person in front and one in back. But like a car, it promises a steering wheel, automatic transmission and air conditioning.

The three-wheeler is expected to hit speeds of more than 100 mph, tilt up to 45 degrees, and come equipped with an airbag, rear bumper and side impact beams.

With less than a week remaining until the start of the STS-124 launch countdown, space shuttle Discovery is in place at NASA Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A. Final preparations are on schedule for liftoff May 31 at 5:02 p.m. EDT. The countdown begins May 28 at 3 p.m., counting from the T-43 hour mark.

"Preparations are going really well," Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach said at a May 19 news conference. He pointed out that Discovery's remarkably smooth processing flow will allow shuttle work crews to take off the Memorial Day holiday. "Right now we're in great shape, and we really expect to have a good three or four days off this weekend and come back and launch."

A shuttle mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope is now set for Oct. 8, giving NASA one final chance to fix the 18-year-old telescope before it is retired.

The space shuttle Atlantis and its crew were supposed to fly to Hubble on Aug. 28, but that mission was delayed because extra time was needed to build extra shuttle fuel tanks in case another shuttle needed to be launched as part of a rescue mission.