Would you lengthen a car trip by 11 percent to reduce carbon monoxide emissions by 27 percent?
That’s what University of Buffalo researchers say is possible by taking streets rather than freeways.
But they been reading JunkScience.com they’d know that the latest research from Israel claims that a little carbon monoxide may actually be good for you.
So what they’re really saying is that by *optimizing* trips, emissions are reduced. Kind of like when I spotted a traffic jam ahead of me on the freeway yesterday, I escaped to surface streets, took a longer route, but probably saved myself some time…and while my car probably emitted more emissions and used more fuel, it was a much more efficient use of both because I was actually moving, not sitting in a traffic jam.
This is news? Here’s the study I want to see: How many millions of gallons of fuel would be saved if we’d simply re-time traffic signals so that we don’t have to stop at every intersection?
So less stop and go driving means lower emissions? Duh! You gotta love these studies that tell us what we already know.
Maybe the solution isn’t rerouting traffic, but to use some of that ridiculous fuel tax to improve highway systems and provide more consistent speeds with fewer traffic jams? Then that would be expecting intelligent thought out of the DOTs and Federal Highway admins. Forget it.