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Metalworking (rec.crafts.metalworking) Discuss various aspects of working with metal, such as machining, welding, metal joining, screwing, casting, hardening/tempering, blacksmithing/forging, spinning and hammer work, sheet metal work. |
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Large scale gasoline savings and emissions reduction idea
When idling your car, you get zero mpg., waste money and resources,
and create pollution. Do you turn your engine off when waiting for a train to pass? What about a red light that you just missed and know from experience will take several minutes to go green again? Would you do it more often if you always knew exactly how long you were going to sit before getting the green? I've got an idea for getting you this information without adding any infrastructure. It would only require some reprogramming. Most traffic signals are computer controlled nowadays. Why couldn't the DOT make the yellow light flash very briefly every five seconds during the red phase whenever there was more than a minute left? Then it could flash every two and a half seconds, until there were only ten seconds left, at which point it would flash every second. The red would of course remain continously red the entire time. Implementing this idea would cost almost nothing (in transportation spending terms) and require no changes in basic traffic laws or conventions, but could save unimaginable amounts of fuel and hugely reduce emmissions and CO2. Best of all, there would be no new rules or big brother. It would force nothing on anyone! When I learned to drive, they taught us that is was wasteful to idle for more than three minutes. On modern cars it is more like ten or fifteen seconds. Not everyone believes this, and many people refuse to ever turn off their engine when they are in their car for any reason, but there are plenty of people out there who are with the idea of saving money, reducing emissions, or both. Enough anyway, that this would have a significant impact from the outset. With a big public awareness campaign (Which could be privately funded) participation would grow quickly, the positive results would become documentable, and many naysayers would jump on board too. I'm sorry I can't provide documentation on gallons of gas or tons of CO2 saved, but I'm convinced it would be well worth doing. Documentation on this is thin, but the EPA claims ten seconds is the break-even time. Please read: http://www.edf.org/documents/9236_Id...where_2009.pdf Typical negative reactions: Shutting down the engine in traffic is a bad idea. 1. Bad for the car. 2. Bad for traffic flow and safety. 3. Confusing to motorists. 1. The starter will fail sooner from overuse. A: Yes, true, but don’t forget that with regular shutdowns the engine is running less, so other components should last longer. Repair costs should be reduced overall. Also: "Emissions at startup are much higher than at normal idle." Yes, but a warm start has much less impact that 30 seconds idling. Some people will not be convinced of this. Better to leave it alone until good studies are produced. 2. If lots of people shut down at traffic lights, many will not be able to restart in time, creating traffic jams and safety concerns. A: It seems unlikely. First, emergency vehicles make their presence known from a long way off – plenty of time to restart. Also, very few modern cars are difficult to start, and the owners of those which are are aware of the problem and would likely not shut down in the first place. The program would be strictly voluntary. Just because you suddenly have information about how long you are going to wait does not force you kill the motor. Many drivers would instead use the info to send a text, do a superb lipliner job which they would otherwise have skimped on, or even use the extra time to masturbate. Everyone wins! 3. Confusion. This would likely be the reaction from DOT officials. But come on. Red = Stop, Green = Go. How simple is it? If you have the intellectual capacity to go to the bathroom by yourself, you can easily get this. Subtle changes in the function of the yellow light would not disrupt traffic signal effectiveness for honest and reasonable people. Those who would use it as an excuse to run a light should get what they deserve – How ‘bout a Rodney King? Anyway, many people won’t like the idea of not idling through traffic lights, but I am only suggesting that we give some information to motorists via the yellow light, which is currently underutilized. They can make up their own minds how to use it. As I described, the program would cost almost nothing and force nothing, but could save huge amounts of fuel and reduce emissions. I would love to hear reasonable arguments against it. I’ve heard none so far. |
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