Skip to main content

California Leaders Pollute California

Mr. Gary Richards AKA Mr. Roadshow of the San Jose Mercury News recently reported that the new southbound 680 express lanes have added on average a minute to the commute time. The study cited was done by the Alameda County Transportation Agency.

What that means is the results of the new lanes are an absolute and total failure contributing MORE pollution from idling vehicles than before. I would also like to know just how bad the spikes are and how badly the statistics show the real story every day.

ALSO, on southbound 680 AFTER the express lanes end during the evening rush hour, traffic slows down while there is a very large median area next to the center divider that could easily accommodate another lane. Why it hasn’t been made into a useful lane is beyond me.

Finally northbound 680 during the late afternoon and evening looks horrible as well, observed during late afternoon drives southbound.

Why California continues to mandate harmful and/or useless fuel additives, lower octane rating for premium gas, draconian restrictions for vehicle modification despite extra clean burning engines while cramming as much traffic as possible into as few lanes as possible is absolutely stupid beyond all measure and environmentally criminal. Surely there are representatives trying to stop this?

I strongly urge you to contact your government representatives and demand cleaner air and less fuel consumption by banning carpool and express lanes with use requirements.

Mr. Roadshow article: http://www.mercurynews.com/mr-roadshow/ci_17438165?nclick_check=1

Find and contact your state representative: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/defaulttext.asp

Previous article urging a ban on carpool lanes from 3/2009: http://www.examiner.com/autos-in-san-jose/ban-carpool-lanes

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Ford Mustang GT350 and GT350R review

It’s the exhaust system. It’s an eye widening, amazing mechanical roar, both exotic and muscular at the same time. And that is in the Sport mode. In the standard mode, it’s a quiet cruiser and an excellent grand tourer. Comparisons to the BMW M4 are immediate and inevitable, it is that dialed in. Ford took the already very good Mustang platform and enhanced the suspension and drivetrain, and based on past drives of the current the model, the some interior bits as well. The 2016 Ford Mustang GT350 is Ford’s flat plane crankshaft V-8 answer to the Camaro Z/28 but is absolutely street friendly and less expensive. The non-R version has a starting MSRP $47,995. It features a 5.2 liter V-8 rated at 524hp at 7500 rpm and a healthy 429 lb-ft. torque at 4,750 rpm. The 8000rpm redline makes for a long, hard pull to redline. With the exhaust in the quiet mode, and 80mph cruise is as silent as the BMW 3-series. Styling takes the great lines of the current GT and adds more aggressive touches withou...

The Absurdity of Fastrak and the HOV lanes

The state of California continues with the ridiculous HOV or High Occupancy Vehicle lanes that are intended for Electric Vehicles, hybrids with limited issue permission stickers, motorcycles and multiple occupant vehicles. As you can guess, eventually these lanes won’t move any quicker than other full access lanes. That’s how stupid they are. They are so poorly thought out that there are multiple scenarios that the system can be foiled. Of course, not everyone can use these lanes which I covered in a previous article here: http://cartruthblog.blogspot.com/2016/07/abolish-wasteful-and-unfair-hov-lanes.html so they are patently unfair. Now in the infinite wisdom of CalTrans and others, the Fastrak was introduced in order to charge a fee for solo riders who want to use the lanes. This meant adding sensors to detect vehicles but still no cameras for reading license plates. Of course cameras came next along with a revised Fastrak that has a switch to indicate how many passengers are in the ...

Advice for drag racing with an automatic transmission

7/3/2016 Advice for drag racing with an automatic transmission | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/article/advicefordragracingwithanautomatictransmissionadvice 1/3 LEISURE / AUTOS & MOTORCYCLES / CAR & TRUCK ENTHUSIASTS See also: car & truck enthusiasts, drag racing, racing, car advice, ask rob about cars Advice for drag racing with an automatic transmission March 6, 2014 11:16 PM MST Hi Robert Warming up a tire helps increase traction. San Jose Cars Examiner 7/3/2016 Advice for drag racing with an automatic transmission | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/article/advicefordragracingwithanautomatictransmissionadvice 2/3 I have a question for you, what’s the best way of drag racing on a automatic tranny? Everytime I take off my tyres always spins off and I always lose traction. What’s the best way to do it? I have a Holden Commodore VZ SS. Rae E., Australia ____ Hello Rae, The good news is an automatic is easier to launch due to consistency and only one pedal to manage...