Remember, the US imports 53% of its total oil. That dependence on foreign oil could be almost completely eliminated if the average fuel economy of cars was 45 mpg instead of 25 mpg

Saving energy in the Transportation Sector:

Options:

• Mass Transit
• Work close to Home
• Work in Home
• Better fuel efficiency
• Alternative Fuels/power
• Tax Gasoline

Transportation Issues:

• The average person uses 500 gallons of gas per year at an average cost of $700.
• This is because we are a one occupant per car transportation system --> suburbia (let's hear it again for the 50's!)
• In 1973 the average fuel economy was 13 mpg. After the Arab Oil "Crisis" of 1974, the following goals were put into place:
  • 1980 --> 20 mpg
  • 1985 --> 26 mpg
  • 1995 --> 50 mpg

• Newton's second law ( F = ma ) tells us that fuel efficient vehicles should have low m . However, the profit margin on low m cars is low so there is little incentive to build and market them. This is a real problem. When gas prices feel to historical lows in the late 80's the muscle cars came back.

• California had an aggressive mandate. By the year 2000, 10% of all commercial fleets (\eg FedEx vans, etc) had to be solar powered and 2% of all cars on new car lots had to be solar powered. Recently, this mandate was rolled back as industry claimed the targets could not be met.

• Energy losses for cars:

• Friction between tires and the road (this is desireable, however, for braking)
• aerodynamic drag --> goes as velocity²; (75/55)² = 1.85 (!)

• Amount of fuel usage has increased by a factor of 3 between 1948 and 1990. How much we drive

• State distribution of Highway Miles Driven

• Seattle Traffic

• Phoenix Traffic Cams

• LA

• How to reduce fuel consumption:
  The Well Duh Category:
  • Drive less --> use public transportation, carpool. live near where you work (move to Toronto (note the masthead theft)), shop less, ride a bike, walk, telecommute

• Reduce the mass of your vehicle
• Get a tune-up --> 10% fuel savings
• Reduce your drag

But the real problem is cultural. Americans are married to their automobiles as a means of defining who they are. Possible the only time now when you can really be yourself is when you are alone, in your car, cursing at the world ...

Mass Transit Statistics:

• 65% of commuters drive alone
• 20% take carpools
• 5% walk
• 3% work at home (but this number is starting to grow considerably)
• 7% use mass transit and most of this use is in NYC of Chicago

Once before we tried to persuade people not to drive so much to conserve resources: This was in world war II.

The true cost of our private conveyance habit: The cost of this habit is extremely large when objectively looked at.

Major cause of air pollution which is a health hazard that kills people!

We export billions of dollars of US currency overseas for fuel and then evolve a foreign policy to protect that this is beyond stupid ...

We consume lots of resources (steel) via the relatively short lifetime of a basic non-recyclable unit. Automobiles basically serve to transport iron ore from omuntains into distributed junk yards across the US (entropy at work ...)

40,000 people per year are killed in accidents compared to 500 per year in mass transit.

Infrastructure and maintenance costs are absolutely enormous where is high speed rail when you need it ...

Everyone's has got to park (except at the UO) so we convert green space into parking lots (e.g. malls).

We end up with Grid Lock


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