impact on health of 10% reduction in gas use

http://newscenter.lbl.gov/feature-stories/2009/05/27/biofuels-and-human-health/

Nonetheless, McKone and Lobscheid were able to prepare an LCIA for reduced gasoline use based on the damage to human health that emissions from gasoline burning can cause. For a baseline, they used a 10-percent reduction in gasoline use. In assessing the impact of these emissions on human health they looked at “disability adjusted life years or “DALYs,” which is a combination of two common damage factors in LCIAs - years of life lost due to premature mortality (YLLs) and the equivalent years of life lost due to disability (YLDs). One DALY is equal to one lost year of “healthy” life. To put this into perspective, the total annual disease burden in the United States is about 30 million DALYs.

“We found that for the vehicle operation phase of our LCIA, the annual health damages avoided in the U.S. with 10-percent less gasoline-run motor vehicle emissions ranges from about 5,000 to 20,000 DALY, with most of the damage resulting from primary fine particle emissions,” said McKone. “While county-specific damages range over nine orders of magnitude across all U.S. counties most of the damage, as you would expect, is concentrated in urban populations with the highest impact in the Los Angeles, New York and Chicago regions.”
Large urban regions also suffered disproportionate health damage as a result of benzene emissions at service stations and during the transporting by truck of gasoline to service stations - approximately 930 DALYs.

D: note that the health costs are borne by the nearby populations, not the purchaser of gasoline.

Again, gas ought to be 2x the price, if negative externalities were incorporated...

a robot battery swapper for electric cars. on driving.

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/05/robotic-battery-swappers---the.html

"The time taken by the proof-of-concept in the video compares favourably with the time spent filling a car with petrol and paying for it afterwards.

...

Better Place thinks that the battery problem can be alleviated by setting up a system of battery-swapping stations, where you can rapidly swap your depleted energy store for a full one."

D: auto manufacturers have tentatively agreed on a battery standard.

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http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/10/are_electric_ve.php

However, it seems one critical piece of the electric car puzzle has been notably absent - how do you fill 'er up? Sure, if you live in an area where you can recharge through an outlet in your garage, things look good. However, for the rest of us, electric cars are impractical without some sort of infrastructure to get electricity from the grid into our batteries. Luckily, charging stations may be on the horizon. Yesterday, Project Better Place announced plans to provide a system of charging and battery exchange stations throughout the world.
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D: as much as I like the idea of cleaner and more efficient cars, there is a problem.
These merely tactical tweaks to the standard car model ignore strategic concerns.
Such as our obsession with suburbs, long commutes, box-shaped cars, and 1-2 people in a 4-5 person vehicle for long commutes.
The present dystopia is reinforced by well-intentioned or simply thoughtless government zoning bylaws and a reflexive road-lane-building response to traffic problems.

BTW, I just purchased my first car. It is a Honda CX Civic hatchback, a 1998 model.
I use a driving method best thought of as 'hypermiling lite'.
I found it amazing how much driving a steady TEN kph above the highway speed limit can drive most drivers bonkers. Slower than that, and I suppose I qualify as a traffic hazard, with so many people passing me.
But faster than that, and at 15kph over the speed limit, I can receive demerit points on my licence. Not worth it!
Having cycled my whole life, I exhibit a certain paranoia of other drivers.
I also use gas efficiently. I accelerate slowly. I don't mind slowing down a bit uphill, harvesting the downhill energy for the next hill.
I take my foot off the gas pedal as soon as I see an obstacle ahead.
I begin to gradually brake when I see a red, to avoid coming to a complete stop.
My braking at stop lights would not spill a held coffee cup, nor cause motion sickness.

Rant: my step-father (now thankfully "ex-") drove like a madman.
He'd gun the gun right out of a green light, only to haul on the brakes at the next red.
He never got to his destination any faster, but caused much more fuel consumption and vehicle wear 'n tear than my hypermiling does.
Of course, he was an idiot.

When folks pass me, I usually catch up to them at the next red light anyway.
It seems so pointless to speed above 10kph.

Furthermore, Ontario has a new "drag racing" law.
If over 50kph over the speed limit, the police will confiscate your car.
On the highway up north, one can blunder from a 80-90kph highway to a 50-60kph village or hamlet in the blink of an eye.
Add that extra 10-20kph over the speed limit and BAM! there goes your car.

Furthermore, the kinetic energy of velocity increases as the SQUARE power of speed.
That means your car goes from a fender bender to a major repair in c. 10kph, and then to a write-off in 20kph.
It also dramatically increases the lethality of impacts - particularly for pedestrians.
About HALF of all people injured in vehicle impacts were not in vehicles.
This is particularly harmful to the child demographic.

Think about that the next time you accelerate to 20-30kph over the speed limit...

germany makes suburbs without cars

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/science/earth/12suburb.html?_r=1

See also: cul de sac video on Treehugger yesterday - new urbanism.

Driveways and home garages are generally forbidden in this experimental new district on the outskirts of Freiburg, near the French and Swiss borders. Vauban’s streets are completely “car-free” — except the main thoroughfare, where the tram to downtown Freiburg runs, and a few streets on one edge of the community. Car ownership is allowed, but there are only two places to park — large garages at the edge of the development, where a car-owner buys a space, for $40,000, along with a home.
As a result, 70 percent of Vauban’s families do not own cars
--
D: local zoning bylaws for residences mandate a certain amount of parking.
Once one has free parking, there is a temptation to use it by buying a car.

It's like there is a 'vehicle casino' and the car dealerships own the casino.
All the odds are on the house.
The house always wins.

Also, why don't buildings use built-in parking garages for high rise developments?
In town here, the city talked about building public parking for some hotel.
Why?
Sprawling parking lots just uses a lot of asphalt and sends the message that land is cheap.
It's not.
Free public parking spaces send the same message.

virtual drivers as bad as drunk while on cell phone

http://www.livescience.com/health/090504-texting-driving.html

Similar studies have found that adults who talk on cell phones while driving in simulators perform as dismally as drunken study participants. Studies from the University of Utah show that hands-free devices do not make it safe to use cell phones while driving.
In January, the National Safety Council called on state and federal lawmakers to ban the use of cell phones and text-messaging devices while driving and also urged businesses to prohibit it.
The problem is acute among younger people.

D: this could very well drive up the cost of insurance for young people.
Think you're paying a lot now - well just wait.

The vid link is a scary vid. The bus driver was texting in highway speed traffic.
And ran full-speed into the car in front.
The IDIOT.

I hope they jail him.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/30472366#30472366
D: it took SIX MINUTES of texting.
But texting is just plain nuts at any duration!
And even just talking on a cell phone.
Of course, talking to the passenger is not great either.

That's how I ended up on a car hood a few years ago.
There was no other traffic, visibility was good, and sight lines were good.
D and I waited for the walk signal.
Then the driver gunned it.
She didn't look. She was too busy talking.
I would have been kneecapped, had I not leapt.

I ate van in similar circumstances a coupla years ago.
Again, I had right of way.
My bike was covered with refectors. I had not one but two lights fore and aft.
I had aimed the blinking helmet light directly at the driver.
Visibility was good for a block. There were no barriers approaching the stop on a side street for the van. There was no other traffic.
When the van did a cursory almost-stop and punched the gas, I had no chance to evade it.
I was travelling 30kph forward and did not wish to eat car door.
So I swerved in front - low bumper and only 20kph.
My bike got totalled but I was OK.

In both cases, the drivers lacked good habits.
A habit needs to be reinforced 100x in a row.
It is why I signal in parking lots.

Yesterday a driver decides an advanced green, or even yellow, was not his taste.
Nope, red was his favorite colour.
I was walking my bike across the pedestrian walk.
The light changed so long back that I was able to leisurely walk to the second lane before he reached me. I was watching. If he didn't notice, I would have stepped back, leaving my bike on my right side in his way. I always appreciate somebody buying me a new bike. <:
No rush. Waved, smiled, walked. Slowly. While he jammed the oncoming traffic lanes.
The humiliation does drivers like that good.
God knows nothing else works.