Category Archives: Governance

Sobering Statistics: How long will it take for your car to decompose?

April 20, 2009 at 11:39 pm

(Source: AutoblogGreen; Photo: Jalopnik)

Take a walk through any junkyard in the world and you’re likely to come across any number of vehicles that are a mere rusted-out shell of their former selves. That’s mostly because sheet metal is thin and, as the outer-most skin of an automobile, takes the brunt of the weather’s nastiest beatings. Underneath, it’s a different story entirely.

Photo: Netwind.ru via Jalopnik

An article on AOL Autos examines the major bits and pieces of an automobile and offers rough estimates of how long it takes for the average vehicle to rot away, and there are a few surprises.

  • Rubber tires decompose naturally over a fairly reasonable-sounding period of 50 to 80 years.
  • Engine blocks will take at least 500 years to break down.
  • And finally, the windshields take more than a million years.  That’s the figure that the figure that the U.S. Park Service uses for glass objects, and some experts in waste management think that is an understatement. Theoretically, glass lasts forever, and it would take eons of geological action to grind it into anything resembling the sand, or silica, that it comes from.

Fortunately, nearly every bit of modern automobiles is recyclable, and automakers have been making serious advancements to bring that figure as close to 100 percent as possible. USCAR says that about 95 percent of vehicles go through the end-of-life recycling process. Still, AOL Auto’s sobering figures should serve to remind us how important it is to properly dispose of used-up vehicular machinery, especially with the advent of government-sponsored scrapping programs.

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Electric cars not enough to meet transport emissions targets – UK Energy Research Council warns Brits must reduce their dependency on cars to meet country’s climate targets

April 20, 2009 at 7:09 pm

Transport account for 22% of emissions in the UK - more than half of that comes from cars

 (Source: Guardian, UK;  Photo: thingermejig @ Flickr)

Government must encourage motorists to get out of their cars and walk or cycle, say scientists

Britons must reduce their dependency on cars if the UK is to meet its climate targets, scientists warn today. In a new study they said that simply switching wholesale to cleaner or all-electric cars, as announced by the government in its low-carbon car strategy last week, would not be enough for the transport sector to cut its carbon emissions.

The report by the UK Energy Research Council (UKERC) said the government had to tackle driver behaviour as well as car technology to reduce transport emissions. That means incentivising overall changes in the way people travel by encouraging walking and cycling, for example, and also discouraging the use of cars through taxation or other levies.

Last week the government announced a £250m plan for incentives of up to £5,000 each to consumers to buy low-carbon or electric cars from 2011 to help decarbonise transport.

Speaking ahead of this week’s 2009 budget announcements, Jillian Anable, head of transport research at UKERC, said the electric car plans were welcome but not enough to tackle the transport emissions problem alone. “They’re being billed as policies to affect the low-carbon car market and that’s very one-dimensional. [The government needs] a set of policies around low-carbon transport transformation so the grants that we see need to be more widely […] targeted to low-carbon travel behaviour.”

She added: “Without managing travel patterns themselves, it is very difficult to meet the technological challenges, including how the electricity is generated, at the scale and pace required. Without effective policies to manage demand for travel, emission cuts through vehicle technology will be made much more difficult and may come too late.”

Road transport accounts for 22% of the UK’s total carbon emissions, with more than half of that coming from cars. In trying to work out how to cut these emissions, the UKERC report reviewed more than 500 international studies looking at different policies aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions from road transport. The scientists looked for methods and incentives that seemed to work best and where well-intentioned policies led to unintended consequences.

Friends of the Earth’s transport campaigner Tony Bosworth said the UKERC report was “further evidence that we need a green transport revolution. Low carbon cars, though important, are not enough to tackle transport’s contribution to climate change — we must also change how and how much we travel. The RAC revealed this week that people use their cars for over three quarters of journeys between two and three miles long — with proper facilities in place, there’s no reason why these journeys couldn’t easily be made by bus, bicycle or on foot.”   He added: “The government must rapidly steer its transport policy in a greener direction and make alternatives to cars more attractive by improving public transport services and make walking and cycling far safer.”

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “We agree that in order to tackle climate change we need to do more than support electric cars. That is why in addition to the £400m to encourage development and uptake of ultra-low emission vehicles, we also spend £2.5bn a year on buses, £140m on cycling and require local authorities to factor in the impact on the environment when developing their transport strategies. Tackling climate change is one of the single most important issues we face, and transport is central to how we deal with it.

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Sprinting for “green” stimulus dollars, plug-in hybrid manufacturer brings vehicles to Washington, DC; invites law makers to test drive

April 20, 2009 at 6:52 pm

(Source: New York Times)

AFS Trinity

The chase for stimulus dollars now includes a sprint up Capitol Hill, quite literally.

The stimulus package has $2.5 billion for batteries and hybrids, and one of the many companies seeking a slice, AFS Trinity, arrived in Washington on Sunday with two Saturn Vue S.U.V.’s — “crossover” vehicles that General Motors sells as hybrids, but which AFS Trinity has extensively modified as plug-in hybrids.

The company is inviting members of Congress and their employees to drive them, and a favorite stretch is a steep hill up Constitution Avenue on the north side of the Capitol building.

AFS Trinity, of Bellevue, Wash., added two kinds of batteries to the Vue: A bank of lithium-ion batteries with 16 kilowatt-hours of usable storage (enough to go more than 40 miles), and a small bundle of ultra-capacitors — devices that hold only a little bit of energy, but can deliver or accept it very quickly.

The ultra-capacitors smooth out the start-and-stop flow of that comes with everyday driving, buffering the main batteries in a way that extends their lifetime. And they deliver real “vroom,” even though the electric drivetrain is silent.

The original Saturn comes with a four-cylinder, 170-horsepower gasoline engine. As a plug-in, normal practice would be to charge the battery overnight and drive around without the engine for the first 40 miles or so, but AFS Trinity put a button near the cigarette lighter. Push it, and the electric motor kicks in, creating a 370-horsepower street rod.

The vehicle can also run in gasoline–only mode. And it can run in something called “charge-depleting mode,’’ in which it uses electricity from the battery to assist the gasoline engine. In that mode, it gets 68 miles a gallon, the company said, and it can operate that way for 60 miles — far longer than most peoples’ daily drive. 

From the outside, the prototypes look like ordinary Saturn Vue’s, except for the big lettering on the side that announce them as 150-mile-per-gallon vehicles (that number assumes the owner drives it in all-electric mode most of the time).

Edward W. Furia, AFS Trinity’s chief executive, is looking for $40 million to build 100 cars, probably for use by a government agency like the Postal Service, then $200 million for the next thousand vehicles. Eventually he would like $1.3 billion to re-tool a GM factory to produce hundreds of thousands of plug-in hybrids. The company’s long-term plan is to produce vehicles with a price premium of $8,000 above the cost of the regular, nonhybrid version. If it could reach that point, the consumer’s extra investment might be quite small, after federal and state tax credits.

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A road warrior, from Pakistan! Inspection certficate not needed!

April 20, 2009 at 6:29 pm

Pakistani men pray next to a bullet-ridden vehicle parked in the compound of radical Lal Masjid or Red mosque in Islamabad.

Though it has no direct significance to transportation, this image was too impressive to pass.   Captured from Time’s Today’s Best Pictures (Friday 17 April, 2009 edition), it paints a grim picture of the dangers of living in today’s Pakistan.  It also serves as a warning sign for the dangers that lurk in one of the world most dangerous places – Pakistan.   The question that naturally arises here is – what is the criteria for clearing a vehicle safety inspection in this country where AK-47s are much more feared than the law or those who guard them.  TransportGooru assumes that this vehicle was pockmarked by bullets that flew around during the Pakistan Government’s  crackdown on militants in the Lal Masjid (Operation Sunrise) during July 2007.  A standing testimony for the carnage that happened inside the mosque’s premises that resulted in 154 deaths, and capture of 50 militants.  

Here is an article from BBC with the same vehicle (with captured nearly a few moments before/after the previous one was taken).

(Image Source: Time.com)

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Road Rage Re-defined! State Police Photo-Radar Van Driver Shot to Death

April 20, 2009 at 5:09 pm

 (Source: Fox 10 News via Jalopnik)

Rage against cameras taken to another level

PHOENIX, AZ – Phoenix police arrested a suspect in the fatal shooting of a man who was operating a state police photo radar unit that was parked on a north Phoenix freeway to catch speeders, police said Monday.

The suspect was being questioned Monday morning, Phoenix police spokesman Sgt. Andy Hill said in a news release. Police said more information would be released at a briefing later in the day.

The victim, 51-year-old Doug Georgianni, was shot just before 9 p.m. Sunday on the Loop 101 freeway and 7th Avenue.

Video equipment on the photo enforcement SUV, which is marked as an Arizona Department of Public Safety vehicle, showed a vehicle that was believed to have been used during the shooting. The driver of that vehicle was described as a man who appears to be in his 60s and has white hair and a white mustache.

Georgianni had worked for three months for RedFlex Traffic Systems Inc. The company has a contract with DPS to operate photo enforcement vehicles and fixed cameras on state highways.

When he was shot, Georgianni was inside the Ford Escape and monitoring data collection, the DPS said.

DPS Director Roger Vanderpool called the killing “appalling (and) senseless.”

Before police announced the arrest, Redflex said it took its 40 radar vehicles out of service out of concern for the safety of its employees. “The entire Redflex family is grief-stricken for Doug and his loved ones,” Chief Executive Karen Finley said in a statement.

Scottsdale-based Redflex Traffic Systems is a unit of Redflex Holdings Group, based in South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Arizona’s groundbreaking photo enforcement program is controversial, with state lawmakers considering legislation to eliminate the program when the contract expires in 2010. Meanwhile, critics have proposed initiative measures to put a repeal on the 2010 ballot.

The program sends notices to owners of vehicles photographed going at least 11 mph above the posted limit. Civil violations are punishable by a fine and surcharges totaling $181. Through Jan. 31, 34,000 motorists had paid.

In a previous act of violence involving the photo system, a 26-year-old man who damaged a fixed camera with a pickax in Glendale pleaded guilty to criminal damage and was sentenced in Maricopa County Superior Court last month to probation and fined more than $3,500.

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Sources: Chrysler Financial Refused Government Loan Over Limits on Executive Pay

April 20, 2009 at 4:35 pm

(Source: Washington Post)

Top officials at Chrysler Financial turned away a $750 million government loan because executives didn’t want to abide by new federal limits on pay, sources familiar with the matter say.

The government had been offering the loan earlier this month as part of its efforts to prop up the ailing auto industry, including Chrysler, which is racing to avoid bankruptcy. Chrysler Financial is a vital lender to Chrysler dealerships and customers.

In forgoing the loan, Chrysler Financial opted to use more expensive financing from private banks, adding to the burdens of the already fragile automaker and its financing company.

Chrysler Financial denied in a statement that its executives had refused to accept new limits on their pay.

The company’s decision comes amid a firestorm on Capitol Hill and elsewhere over the lavish pay of executives at companies being aided by government money. The uproar has made companies skittish about taking federal aid and hindered the Obama administration’s effort to revive lending by replenishing the coffers of the nation’s financial firms.

The Treasury Department previously had loaned Chrysler Financial $1.5 billion, when less stringent requirements on executive compensation were in place for recipients of federal bailout money. Since that first loan was announced on January 16, the Obama administration and Congress have toughened the rules.

During March, when it seemed that the first loan would run out, the Obama administration began working on a deal to lend the company another $750 million.

Click here to read the entire article.
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Got a burning question? Washington, DC Metro’s chief planner to host online chat Tuesday

April 20, 2009 at 2:56 pm

(Source: WMATA Press Release)

Join us for “What’s the Plan?”

Metro Assistant General Manager of Planning and Joint Development Nat Bottigheimer will respond directly to questions about planning issues during an online chat Tuesday, April 21, when he hosts “What’s the Plan?” — a live hour-long chat from noon to 1 p.m. 

Metro customers can log onto Metro’s online chat at http://www.wmata.com/onlinechat.cfm or via Metro’s homepage at www.metroopensdoors.com. As many questions as possible will be answered during the hour-long session. 

An archive of all of the previous online chats is posted on the Web site. Persons without Internet access can call Metro’s Customer Service Office at 202-637-1328 to request a session transcript. 

Media contact for this news release: Candace Smith or Lisa Farbstein at 202-962-1051.

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The TransportPolitic scoops more details on the Federal High-Speed Rail Strategic Plan

April 19, 2009 at 1:25 pm

(Source: The Transport Politic)

Proposal reveals a little – and a lot – about how the administration wants to proceed with its rail programs

As many of you commented in the previous, and unfortunately inadequate, post on the administration’s high-speed rail strategic plan, the report – though significant – doesn’t tell us all that much more about how the U.S. government will spend the $8 billion approved for fast rail by Congress in the stimulus bill. On the other hand, I want to point out that the administration never promised such information: for god’s sake – the states haven’t even submitted their proposals for the use of the funds yet! I think that our collective enthusiasm for rail projects may be getting a bit ahead of reality.

But I think the report’s basic outlines of the kinds of projects the federal government wants to fund with rail money are demonstrative of the administration’s seriousness in undertaking this project. By arguing that high-speed rail is most applicable for corridors between 100 and 600 miles in areas of moderate to high density, we can be assured that the government won’t be funding just any project with the limited funds available for rail. It’s good to know, in other words, that a line between El Paso and Phoenix isn’t going to get money over the connection between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The report’s attempt to define different qualities of rail is also an admirable response to the fact that no one thus far has been able to come up with a concrete series of words that can be used to provide meaningful definitions of different types of rail services. I think there’s been a major problem in discussions about high-speed rail because of the lack of uniform agreement about what the term means, so it’s nice to have officially-sanctioned definitions. For the time being, I’ll attempt to incorporate them into the transport politic:

  • HSR-Express – 200-600 miles apart, more than 150 mph, dedicated rights-of-way.
  • HSR-Regional – 100-500 miles apart, 110-150 mph, some shared track with positive train control
  • Emerging HSR – 100-500 miles, with 90-110 mph speed service – developing the passenger rail market
  • Conventional Rail – 79-90 mph
  • IPR – Intercity passenger rail

Click here to read the entire article.

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New report from Brookings Institute – “Making Transportation Sustainable: Insights from Germany”

April 17, 2009 at 3:57 pm

(Source: The Brookings Institute)

To help improve the energy efficiency and overall environmental sustainability of the U.S. transportation system, we will need to adopt policies that foster changes in the way Americans travel. A new Brookings report “Making Transportation Sustainable: Insights from Germany” finds that Germany may offer valuable lessons. Like the United States, Germany is a federal republic but it has taken impressive steps to improve transportation options, link transportation planning to land use, and advance other reforms – all while empowering metropolitan action.

Lessons for the United States:

Public policy can play a major role in reshaping America’s transportation system. The German experience offers five lessons to the United States for improving transportation sustainability through changes in travel behavior:

Get the Price Right in order to encourage the use of less polluting cars, driving at non-peak hours and more use of public transportation
Integrate Transit, Cycling, and Walking as Viable Alternatives to the Car, as a necessary measure to make any sort of car-restrictive measures publicly and politically feasible
Fully Coordinate and Integrate Planning for Land Use and Transportation to discourage car-dependent sprawl and promote transit-oriented development
Public Information and Education to Make Changes Feasible are essential in conveying the benefits of more sustainable policies and enforcing their results over the long term
Implement Policies in Stages with a Long Term Perspective because it takes considerable time to gather the necessary public and political support and to develop appropriate measures.

Click here to download the report.  Here is the read-only version of the report.

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EPA Considers Higher Ethanol Mix for Gasoline

April 17, 2009 at 12:11 am

(Source: Wall Street Journal)

Allowing 15% Gasoline Blends Would Help Industry, but Poses Car-Warranty Issue

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has opened the door to allowing higher mixes of ethanol in gasoline, a potential boon to farmers and the struggling ethanol industry, but opposed by auto makers whose consumer warranties typically are tied to the current EPA standard.

The agency Thursday said it is seeking comment on whether to allow ordinary gasoline to consist of as much as 15% ethanol, an additive that has been heavily promoted by farm states. For decades, the EPA has allowed gasoline to include up to 10% ethanol.

The EPA’s move came in response to a petition filed last month by the trade group Growth Energy to allow motor fuel ethanol blends of as much as 15%, citing an Energy Department study that found “no operability or driveability issues” with blends as high as 20% ethanol.

Corn is loaded into a truck at a farm in Valley Springs, S.D. Higher percentages of ethanol mixed into gasoline would be a boon to farmers. About one quarter of all corn produced in the U.S. is used to make the fuel additive.

Corn is loaded into a truck at a farm in Valley Springs, S.D. Higher percentages of ethanol mixed into gasoline would be a boon to farmers. About one quarter of all corn produced in the U.S. is used to make the fuel additive.

Most car warranties, however, have followed the 10% standard, which means consumers who use blends with greater than 10% ethanol could get stuck paying the bills if there’s damage to fuel lines or other components unless auto makers agree to shoulder the costs.

Auto makers offer so-called flex-fuel vehicles designed to accept up to 85% ethanol fuels. But many current and older model cars aren’t designed for ethanol concentrations above 10%.

Alan Adler, a spokesman for General MotorsCorp., said if the EPA allows higher ethanol blends “we want to be sure that we’re not on the hook for vehicles” that end up having problems with higher blends.

Earlier this year Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. recalled 214,500 Lexus vehicles sold in the U.S. that were vulnerable to corrosion problems in their fuel-delivery pipes when some ethanol fuels were used.

Pushing against the auto industry’s objections are farmers, investors in ethanol-fuel start-ups, big agricultural commodities companies and some environmental groups that argue the U.S. would be better off substituting home-grown biofuels for foreign oil.

Click here to read the entire article.
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