Posted on 09/02/2008 6:49:33 AM PDT by Vigilanteman
(LifeWire) - Lost time and endless aggravation are two of the
biggest drawbacks of a grueling commute by car. But gridlock on
the way to work also harms the environment by pumping extra
pollution into the air and wasting precious fuel.
How wasteful and time-consuming a commute becomes depends in part
on how slowly traffic moves and how long it is stalled, says
David Schrank, an associate research scientist at the Texas
Transportation Institute, part of Texas A&M University in College
Station.
Things start to get inefficient only when highway traffic begins
to bog down, he says. "You're not wasting fuel until you drop
below 60 mph, but when you get to stop-and-go traffic, you're
really wasting fuel as you accelerate and decelerate."
Schrank is part of the team that conducted the institute's latest
annual Urban Mobility Study, examining the fuel (and time)
commuters waste because of congestion. The study, based on 2005
data (the most recent available), measures how many hours and
gallons of fuel are wasted per individual commuter˜whether that
commuter is traveling by car, rail, bus or other form of
motorized transportation˜during peak commute times.
Overall, traffic congestion costs the U.S. economy $78 billion a
year, wasting 2.9 billion gallons of fuel and robbing commuters
of 4.2 billion hours, the study found. Here are the top 10 most
wasteful cities in the country for commuters, based on fuel
usage, according to the institute:
(Excerpt) Read more at climate.weather.com ...
Let me tell you something, I was in Seattle doing a PhD. I did some research w/the Seattle city government and was told that they were actively taking steps to restrict parking so people would be forced to use public transportation. Now you tell me, if I want to come in from Renton or Federal Way to go to a show or a restaurant, do these people honestly think I'm going to do it by bus?? By cab?? I was floored - they want people to come in and take advantage of city offerings, but punish them for using a car to do so.
I never had a car until I moved out here to the heartland. I have never, ever, had as hard a time getting around a major city via public transportation as I did in Seattle. A 12 minute trip by car from my place to campus was 45 minutes by 2 buses, sometimes 3 if I was trying to avoid long walks to bus stops in bad weather.
Seattle is a beautiful town in many ways, but the transportation there is terrible. It is the one city which would have forced me to buy a car had I stayed after grad school.
When I lived in Penn., there was this common intersection, known as the ‘jughandle’. There were no left turn lanes. If you wanted to turn left you had to drive through the intersection, get in the right lane, go around a ‘jughandle’, (looks like a cloverleaf and takes up the same amount of space, but it is not). Then you would have to go through the red light a second time to ‘turn left’. This doubles the amount of time in the ‘center square’. I have had some very evil thoughts for whomever designed this.
Yeah but the police can zip through traffic on those, buses can improve their “end to end” travel times, and the city can fine those who are illegally in the HOV lane. Of course it comes at an expense of four lanes (2 in each direction) for the rest of the city.
The congestion cost of those HOV lanes is even higher when you realize how long OTHER lanes were closed while the “improvement” project was built (that stretch dates back to 2001 and only now is being finished).
Jughandle eh?
In Houston, there are some intersections that prohibit left turns (well, except for police and buses). The signage indicates that drivers are to make a right turn at the light, and then make a U-turn midblock (yes this is on the sign).
Of course, they have also put up red light cameras to catch those “running” the light at these intersections (so you spend several cycles to navigate a turn and will be penalized further if you get frustrated by it).
As I say, such congestion is by willful design.
"ever been on a los angeles bus when some armed brothers get on? at the next stop, everyone gets off the bus."
I don't see your point. How would the riders know they were siblings?
..smell?
I assumed it was. I guess I should be careful when driving out of state.
I do know that most folks thing "right on read" means you don't even have to look to see if the lane is clear.....
Yes. The "safety freaks" want to slow everything down. They trade an occasional high-speed crash for numerous low-speed crashes.
They’ve never driven in Honolulu at rush hour. 2 hours to go 20 miles for some living on the leeward side.
Yes, but it will be so much better once commie bureacrats herd yet more people out of the suburbs
and into the city where they are forced to use public transit. /s
uh duh ...
I have plenty of gas...
"uh duh ..."In other words you are saying your comment was a disparaging remark made in general aiming at all Negroes? Is this why you editorialize to me with a, "uh duh?
The rules specifically ban racist sentiments. "When brothers get on the bus..." is so obvious you feel someone not getting it deserves a "duh," maybe you are being recist.
Perhaps I am not dumb but am being coy here to draw you out and to a degree have seemed to have done so, You do understand the rules in here, Yes?
"uh duh ..."In other words you are saying your comment was a disparaging remark made in general aiming at all Negroes? Is this why you editorialize to me with a, "uh duh?
The rules specifically ban racist sentiments. "When brothers get on the bus..." is so obvious you feel someone not getting it deserves a "duh," maybe you are being recist.
Perhaps I am not dumb but am being coy here to draw you out and to a degree have seemed to have done so, You do understand the rules in here, Yes?
i did not say what you said i said.
Houston was ravaged by the Urban Planning idiots. They strive to maximize congestion in order to force misery on everyone and force them to abandon suburbs for the urban living environment.
Did anyone who watched those poor people trying to escape New York on 9/11 wish they lived in one of those high-rises right next door to the twin towers?
"ever been on a los angeles bus when some armed brothers get on? at the next stop, everyone gets off the bus."
You give the audience enough clues to your meaning.
Unless of course you would never infer Negroes who are male and getting on a bus are likely to be armed and people react like that is a known common fact of life in LA.
But that is not likely to be the case, yes?
In any event, I am done making my point. Your words are your words, and you can parse the meanings as much as you wish. But that does not change how I take them.
“Yes, but it will be so much better once commie bureacrats herd yet more people out of the suburbs
and into the city where they are forced to use public transit.”
Where are people being forced to leave the suburbs?
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