For this article, I examined the test results of eleven to thirteen cars that were placed on dynamometers. It is my conclusion that they did not. The cars were run for only 1360 seconds, and at no point did they spend more than thirty seconds in an idling cycle. Most Bay Area commuters would love that type of commute. But we know that many traffic intersections have timed lights of two minute intervals, and our cars idle two and three times that amount when traffic is heavy.
Many people experience rush hour commutes where traffic is bumper to bumper for ten minutes or more.
Often mentioned as a good test of the new fuel mixture is the Caldecott Tunnel Study. It took place in October 1994. Like the tests by CARB's sub-contractors, it did not examine car fuel emissions during an idling phase, but only when cars were going forty to fifty miles an hour. This test did find that carbon monoxide pollution was down. An insignificant change in the amount of hydrocarbon emissions was noted and also in oxides of nitrogen emissions.