MoveNews #103 for the week of May 30, 2010

Regional

Interstate 5 would grow by as many as six lanes - including a roadway-within-a-roadway for car pools, buses and toll-paying solo drivers - under a plan crafted by transportation officials. Four lanes would be built along the middle of the freeway between La Jolla Village Drive and north Oceanside, similar to the express-lane network on Interstate 15. Two conventional lanes could be added to the regular segment of the coastal freeway as well. Caltrans plans to release an environmental study on the project as soon as late June and then stage a series of public hearings. Cost estimates for the expansion range from $3.3 billion to $4.5 billion.

Starting in mid-June, contractors will add a second set of tracks to a 2-mile stretch of the coastal railway through Carlsbad.

Having a double set of tracks will provide new passing points for trains and reduce delays for both local Coaster commuter trains and Amtrak long-distance trains, John Eschenbach, senior project manager for Amtrak, said last week. "This particular project will increase on-time performance and reliability," he said.

Most of the project's $16 million price tag is being paid for by Amtrak, but the state Department of Transportation contributed $1 million for design work, Eschenbach said. Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner runs 24 trains a day along the coastal railway corridor, and the Coaster line has 22 daily trains. There also is regular freight train service along the route during the night-time hours. While the extra row of tracks may improve existing train service, the number of trains using the route will not increase because of this project, officials have said.

National

How Will People Adapt to Electric Cars?
Scientific American, April 27, 2010

Electric cars could cut greenhouse gas emissions if used properly. So how will people use them?

Last October, the Energy Department gave it $100 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for a two-year study of exactly how Americans want to use electric cars, and how they can be nudged to use them in the cheapest, most environmentally sound manner.... All the participants are volunteers who expressed interest in the Leaf, an all-electric sedan scheduled for release this year. They agreed to give up information about where they drive, where they charge, and how much it costs. The data will get wired to Idaho National Laboratory for use in future DOE reports. This database may eventually form the backbone for how the government thinks about electric cars and their potential benefits for the climate. ... Switching to electric-drive cars doesn't automatically wipe out oil use or carbon emissions. Plug-in hybrid cars can only travel so far on a charge; eventually, the gasoline engine kicks in. Environmental groups also point out that with a coal-dominated grid, plug-in hybrids would cause about as much greenhouse gas emissions as a regular hybrid car -- not the minuscule footprint they seek.

MoveSD Note: San Diego is one of the 11 regions where electric car infrastructure is being rolled out to test how we will use them

International

Europe Shifting to a Carbon Dioxide-based Vehicle Taxation Regime for a Low-carbon Automotive Industry
Frost & Sullivan, January 18, 2010

As Europe shifts steadily toward a carbon dioxide (CO₂)-based vehicle taxation regime and vehicle manufacturers (VMs) hasten to comply with stringent EU CO₂ norms (average fleet emissions less than 130g/km by 2015), demand for low-CO₂ cars has skyrocketed. As a result, every European VM is racing towards capturing a share of this opportunity. ...

"By 2015, the average car in Europe will be 5 per cent lighter, with 30 per cent lower CO₂ emissions," says Frost & Sullivan Programme Manager Vigneshwaran Chandran. "Downsizing, gasoline direct injection (GDI), and start-stop will be the key technologies helping original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) achieve emission targets by 2015."

Innovation

Do Poorly Designed Communities Deserve a Surgeon General's Warning?
Congress for New Urbanism, April 28, 2010

The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) expressed its support for a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that illustrates the urgent need to weigh public health factors - such as physical activity, respiratory and mental health, water quality, social equity, healthy aging, and social capital - when deciding how to develop and redevelop communities. ...  Ellen Dunham-Jones, executive chair of CNU 18, suggested that poorly designed communities should received a Surgeon General's warning. "Imagine the impact of, 'The Surgeon General warns: This zoning code may be bad for your community's health,' said Dunham-Jones."

When asked to describe the work of CDC's Healthy Places Initiative, the program's director Andy Dannenberg said, "The short answer is, When you want people to walk, you have to give them a place to walk. The longer answer is that community design impacts a number of health issues, including obesity, climate change, mental health, social equity, social capital, respiratory health, accessibility, and healthy aging."

Fast Facts

The EV Project will have a total cost of $200 million and focus on 11 cities in five states: Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona and Tennessee. It will install just over 11,000 car chargers for the program's 4,700 vehicles.
      Source: Scientific American

NOTE: if there is no link provided to an item, then there is no additional content on that item. All links were current as of the date of publication.