Unnecessary fuel waste + irrecoverable delay = a price too high to pay – 2

In Part 1, I had an apparent brain hiccup when I switched in the word “irrevocable” for the word “irrecoverable” in the title. Ah, to be human. “Irrecoverable” is what I intended to use. I hope you will excuse. That said, there is absolutely no excuse for the amounts of wasted fuel, “irrecoverable” delay and … Read more

Unnecessary fuel waste + irrevocable delay = a price too high to pay

Following hot on the heels of the Federal Highway Administration’s report regarding mid-year driving and mileage data, comes the 2015 Urban Mobility Scorecard from the Texas A&M University’s Transportation Institute and INRIX, which details congestion, delay and other important motor-vehicle-related data. It’s not welcoming news. INRIX and the TTI in an Aug. 26, 2015 press … Read more

Re mid-year driving totals things aren’t exactly looking up

We Americans must love our cars or why else in June 2015 would 261.9 billion so-called “seasonally-adjusted” miles have been driven; 8.7 billion more than in June 2014? That’s an increase of 3.4 percent June ’15 versus June ’14. Driving is also on pace to surpass 2014’s collective 3.016 trillion vehicle miles traveled (VMT) with … Read more

The envelope, please. And Darwin(er) is …

I do not proclaim to be the world’s smartest person. If anything, far from it. And, I have to admit that, as an adolescent, I pulled some pretty dumb – and daring – stunts. I would be inclined to believe many teenagers would be guilty of such things. Chalk these up as “testing-the-waters” experiences. I’ll … Read more

Clean Power Plan a noble idea, its implementation anything but guaranteed

As the name implies, the Clean Power Plan has to do with appreciably reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the energy sector and from power plants in particular. It looks as though the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be in court defending the plan’s legality. Understand this: regardless of whichever way the court rules, over time … Read more

July ’15 sees better air quality in Valley – is Mother Nature or are humans responsible?

July 2015 in California’s San Joaquin Valley, as far as July’s go, was one of the least smoggy. Though the air quality data is still preliminary, there were no exceedances of the federal eight-hour health standard for ozone on 21 out of July’s 31 days. So, what’s behind the improvement? Favorable weather conditions such as … Read more

Vehicle-exhaust checking, etc.: It’s all good – or is it? – 2

And now for the other part of the story. In 2014, in excess of 250 million motor vehicles’ odometers registered slightly more than 3 trillion miles of travel on American roadways. That works out to just about 12,000 miles per vehicle. Per capita, it comes out to a little less than an average 10,000 miles … Read more