From: aburt@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu (Andrew Burt)
Newsgroups: co.general
Subject: Emissions, RTD (was Re: Emissions Inspections, is new really better than old?)
Date: 5 Jan 93 15:17:17 GMT
Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci.

In <1993Jan5.015022.8647@colorado.edu> bear@tigger.cs.Colorado.EDU (Bear Giles) writes:
>My '87 MR-2 failed emissions (but only by 1.5x allowed HC, as I recall).
>I drove it to a mechanic I trust (from Boulder to south Denver) and they
>said it passed emissions with plenty of room to spare.

I know the little stand I usually get our testing done at has a sign saying
"make sure you've driven your car at least 15 minutes".  I'd say half an
hour is better yet, from experience :-)

Of course, this means that the whole emissions testing process may be
flawed:  If cars pollute most in the first 15 min., and if most trips are
short (which stands to reason), then even a "clean" car may actually be
a failing car "most" of the time.  Hmmmmmm.

>The Moral of the Story:  trying to minimize the use of your car may
>actually cause it to fail emissions!

I'd suggest it's not cummulative, i.e., I don't think the pollution just
sits in the engine, building up.  I tend to think it's more that all
cars are dirtier at first than after 15+ min.


>[A tax + tax credit] Done properly, this could...
>... encourage use of alternate transportation
>(since they would get the tax credit based on income and need, not simply
>use of an automobile) and make the clunkers that are on the road much safer
>and less poluting.

Well, unless you pay them to get tune-ups, I doubt it'll do much for
the clunker's themselves.

My real gripe is with the *lack* of alternate transportation.  RTD is so
pathetic.  I'm not sure how they devise their routes, but I don't think it's
based on any reality, like where people want to go.  Most people do NOT
go downtown.  Sure, a lot of people DO, and the existing setup is great
for them (unless you want to work late).  I had a consulting job downtown
about five years ago, and taking the bus was fairly good; near my house
passed three routes that went downtown, and they let off not far from the
site.  Worked great, and I never planned to stay down there past 8pm or
so -- when the routes quit running out to my house :-(

But mostly I work at home, and my main travel destination is out to DU --
this is diagonal to downtown; driving it, I take 6th ave. to I-25 to
University, fairly direct route.  By bus, it would be:  Go downtown...

Now, I am not going to spend an hour and a half to two hours getting where
I can drive in 25 minutes.  Oh, and I frequently leave DU about 9pm, when,
guess what, the routes don't go out by my house again.

My proposal is for RTD to abandon the "downtown hub" idea and create many
"mini-hubs", say, at shopping malls & large office parks.  Each hub
would have express busses to each other hub.  In the areas between hubs
would be circulators that go to/from the hub, mostly north-south or
east-west as now, and shuttles going around small neighborhoods (like the
16th st. mall shuttle, which is about the only time I use RTD these
days!), but with a balance of routes: residential areas must be served,
but the routes should also go by common local destinations, like local
shopping.

Granted, this would take more busses than we have now, but I'm sure smaller
busses or even vans would be fine for the smaller routes.

Further, ideally, each stop should be visited no more than every 10 minutes.
This every half-hour thing is ridiculous.

So, go tax gasoline, but first make RTD draw up a plan for a workable
'alternative transportation' scheme.  Currently they have no clue.
-- 

Andrew Burt 		   					  aburt@du.edu

"But if he was dying he wouldn't bother to carve "Aaaaargh", he'd just say it."
Newsgroups: co.general