Transportation

Cal-fed settlement with Fiat Chrysler over alleged illegal ‘defeat-device-software’ use reached

The below Jan. 10, 2019 news release is from the California Environmental Protection Agency Air Resources Board. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and the California Air Resources Board (CARB), together with the United States Department of Justice and Environmental Protection Agency, announced today [Jan. 10, 2019] a joint settlement valued at more than $500 million with Fiat Chrysler … Read more

Environmental change: Implications for humans going forward

In the mid-1980s when I was doing Master’s thesis work, I obtained a Cal Poly college catalog for the years 1984-’86. My research was all about the program I enrolled in when I attended said university located in San Luis Obispo in California, between Sept. 1973 and Mar. 1976 – Engineering Technology. Interestingly, and quite … Read more

Greenhouse-gases reduction: A work in progress

Much painstaking work has been initiated to limit fossil-fuel burning so as to reduce the concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases and therefore prevent any further related fallout. A complete moratorium on the burning of fossil fuels is the ideal. Being that this is not likely to happen anytime soon, it is, however, important to keep … Read more

At long last, a curbing-air-pollutant-emissions-and-greenhouse-gases focus

For the longest time, it has seemed like, air pollution and emissions of greenhouse gases were thought of in different contexts. Air pollution is thought of as being associated with poisons (toxic chemicals, toxicants or chemical pollutants) and haze in – or discoloration of – the air and poor – and damage to – health, hospitalizations and … Read more

No place like home for the holidays – ’tis the season

As to how many Americans have traveled, are or will be traveling throughout the holiday and dare I call it the end-of-year crush, I haven’t a clue. I’ve heard reports – I mean, who hasn’t? One-hundred-million; 105 million; 110 million; a-hundred-fifteen million, really it’s anyone’s guess. So, picture if you can 110 million traveling Americans. … Read more

Electric vehicles seeing increasing market share of all new vehicles sold

In 2016, the transportation sector for the first time since 1978 contributed the most emissions. So, in terms of new vehicle purchases, how is the world responding? In America as of Oct. 2018, the number of electric vehicles purchased reached 1 million, according to the Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA). “In less than a decade, … Read more

Buildings, carbon neutrality, a changing climate and one European response

So, I wanted to get a feel for what the tenor toward climate change in the European Union (EU) is. Important and integral to the discussion on climate change and global warming are not just the terms greenhouse gas and the greenhouse effect but when it was that those terms were first introduced into the … Read more

Approved housing project in habitat-sensitive, L.A. County wilderness area a mystery

Some things defy logic. They’re inexplicable! How a 19,000+ home housing project to be built on 42 of 420 square miles in what is considered a wilderness region in the Tehachapi Mountains along the Interstate 5 corridor some 65 miles from downtown Los Angeles that was granted approval by 4 of 5 L.A. County Supervisors, … Read more

Ride-hailing, emerging technologies, AVs, can play greater role in transit-commuting lifestyle, APTA finds

The below Dec. 13, 2018 press release is from the American Public Transportation Association. With innovations in public transportation and new service providers, reliance on car ownership is no longer the only way to be mobile. Nearly 80 percent (77 percent) of commuters see public transit as the backbone of a lifestyle that includes current … Read more