Serious but stable: U.S. infrastructure condition: What it means for air

As with air quality, when it comes to infrastructure, condition matters. So, right now, according to one measure – the one just out Mar. 9, 2017: the American Society of Civil Engineers’ “2017 Infrastructure Report Card,” condition-wise, overall, America’s infrastructure got a D+. A serious situation: make no mistake. So, what is going on here? In … Read more

Will four disparate transportation projects hurt or help Fresno air?

In case you are not aware, the city of Fresno in California’s interior Central Valley, a metropolis whose residents number a half-million and who breathe some of the poorest quality air in the United States, has four major transportation projects going on simultaneously. These are: The Q: A 15.7-mile bus rapid transit install Midtown Trail: … Read more

San Joaquin Valley Air Basin 2016 vs. ’15 ozone update

Ozone exceedances in the San Joaquin Valley in California’s interior, preliminarily speaking, in 2016 numbered 88. This is six exceedances more than the year before. 2015’s numbers are preliminary also. The ozone season in the Valley roughly lasts from March through October. So, why the increase? Keep in mind that a big part of the … Read more

Trains: No better mode than rail for providing air (pollution) relief

In less than a month the construction activity on the California high-speed railroad project will have been underway exactly one-and-a-half years on Dec. 16, 2016. Four days earlier, yet another milestone will be reached: Amtrak California’s Capitol Corridor service will celebrate 25 years in operation. Capitol Corridor trains began service on Dec. 12, 1991. Trains … Read more

An air quality pep-talk primer: Transportation – a rallying cry, really

‘When I’m mobile’ … People are locomotive creatures. No, really. There is a sort of restlessness about us in that we are not one, generally, to be sedentary for too long a time. We are mobile beings, admittedly, and this not-always-wanting-to-be-in-one- (or the-same-) spot inclination, (our need or desire) to get out and about has … Read more

America’s infrastructure progress and what it means for air

Crossroads Every four years the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) releases an infrastructure report card. It covers dams and bridges, roadways, railways: If it is infrastructure related, it’s probably covered. In 2013 when the report hit the streets (the last such report released), roadways had only earned a grade of “D,” a slight improvement … Read more

Air Quality Matters blog on the cusp: The start of year five

When the Air Quality Matters blog first was started – Nov. 5, 2012, President Barack Obama had just completed his very first term in office and was ready to embark on his second. Meanwhile, the country at this juncture had emerged – and I would add glowingly and stalwartly – from what has since become … Read more

CATS: In-the-cab, approach-lit light, lighting systems. Techniques that save bucks, energy, Earth

Number 36 in the Clean Air Technologies Series. Yesterday In “CATS: For environmental sustainability, security and even safety, solar ‘lights’ the way,” in the first few paragraphs, I described what I had observed on a part of the then return leg of what had at the time been a vacation taken to the California coastal … Read more

Fresno Bee op-ed calls for air cleanup/emissions reduction

On Sept. 21, 2016, The Fresno Bee Editorial Board printed an op-ed, the crux of the editorial having to do with work in California and the San Joaquin Valley centered on helping “economically disadvantaged communities” better deal with the effects of poor area air quality. This was indeed a big part of the story. Brought … Read more