SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Sara Novak reports that according to a recent study, “badly tuned” cars and trucks make up one quarter of the vehicles on the road, but cause 95 percent of black carbon, also known as soot, 93 percent of carbon monoxide, and 76 percent of volatile organic chemicals like benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes. “The most surprising thing we found was how broad the range of emissions was,” says Greg Evans. “As we looked at the exhaust coming out of individual vehicles, we saw so many variations. How you drive, hard acceleration, age of the vehicle, how the car is maintained – these are things we can influence that can all have an effect on pollution.”
Researchers at the University of Toronto looked at 100,000 cars as they drove past air sampling probes on one of Toronto’s major roads. An automated identification and integration method was applied to high time resolution air pollutant measurements of in-use vehicle emissions performed under real-world conditions at a near-road monitoring station in Toronto, Canada during four seasons, through month-long campaigns in 2013–2014. Based on carbon dioxide measurements, over 100 000 vehicle-related plumes were automatically identified and fuel-based emission factors for nitrogen oxides; carbon monoxide; particle number, black carbon; benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX); and methanol were determined for each plume.
Evans and his team found that policy changes need to better target cars that are causing the majority of the air pollution. “The ultrafine particles are particularly troubling,” says Evans. “Because they are over 1,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair, they have a greater ability to penetrate deeper within the lung and travel in the body.”
(Score: 3, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Friday May 08 2015, @03:58PM
I live in New York City, which has an extensive public transportation system (bus, subway, light rail, ferry) so I think I can speak to this. 70% of New Yorkers don't own cars, so that's a pretty good measure of the quality and availability of public transportation here. The vast majority of commuters take some form of public transportation. But since you were speaking specifically about buses, I'll stick to that.
Express buses are really quite effective, since they travel in dedicated lanes. They come every 10 minutes or less during peak travel hours, about every 15 at off-peak times. Those are the ones that come in from the far-flung areas of the outer boroughs like Staten Island. Everybody from all walks of life rides them so that psychological barrier you mentioned just isn't there. The buses that come in from New Jersey to the Port Authority come 3-4 times an hour and get preferential treatment through the bridges and tunnels. They still have to contend with drivers who feel they must drive to work, so they're a bit slower than the city express buses.
Regular city buses do alright. They run every 10 minutes or so, more at peak times, less at off-peak times. Several of the bus lines in my neighborhood in Brooklyn, like the B63, have started implementing transponder-tracking; you can text to a shortcode or pull up a QR code posted at the bus stop and the MTA system will text you back or give you a web page telling you exactly how many stops away the next bus is. They are significantly slower than taking the subway, though, because they 100% have to contend with drivers who feel they must drive. But there are times when it's a good option, such as when it's raining, or when you have a package you don't want to lug up and down subway stairs, or you're handicapped, or when you're tired and don't want to walk, or when your destination is not easy to get to via subway. I also like to take it when I'm not in a hurry and I want to see the neighborhoods I'm travelling through instead of riding in a dark tunnel, blind, underneath them; I like to think of it as going on safari, since New York is full of so many different things and is constantly changing. Again, on the bus, everybody from all walks of life rides them, so there's no stigma.
One of the best things about riding the bus instead of driving is that I can read or zone out and not have to deal with the aggravation of taxi drivers and drivers from places where there are no traffic laws and stop signs and red lights are suggestions. Note, I also own a car in the city and drive on occasion, too, like when I make a trip to Home Depot to pick up lumber, so I am no zealot for any form of transportation over another. But anybody who chooses to drive here as anything but a last resort is insane (not least of which is because you'll lose your precious, precious parking spot).
So, to answer your question, yes, it is quite possible to organize a bus service in a US city that people want to ride. You can visit New York and see for yourself.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday May 09 2015, @12:47AM
A city like New York has no choice than to use public transport. People should do the math and see for themselves that if too many people used individual transport the city would congest such that no one would get anywhere within reasonable time.