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25% of Cars Cause 90% of Automobile Air Pollution

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Re: 25% of Cars Cause 90% of Automobile Air Pollution

#21

Post by sliverstorm »

crxgames wrote: post #13
crxgames wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Badly tuned generally refers to incorrect AFR (air-fuel ratios). These can not only cause lower power, but increase the amount of unburned fuel and other chemicals in the exhaust. On some high performance cars you can even go as far as using the fuel's injection to cool combustion and decrease knock in the combustion cycle of the engine...sometimes this can lead to a richer AFR (more fuel in exhaust gases) which caus…

These "badly tuned" cars could also have worn out valve seals/piston rings which can cause excess amounts of oil to burn during combustion, adding to the chemicals spewing out the exhaust.

(Worn seals & rings leads to oil burning, not excess fuel consumption)

Re: 25% of Cars Cause 90% of Automobile Air Pollution

#22

Post by collyw »

SCAQTony wrote: post #15

And 16-container ships create as much pollution as all the cars in the world. Perhaps these ships are softer targets to correct than tens of millions of cars? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1229857/How-1...

Can we have some proper references rather than the Daily Mail. Its the UK's equivalent of Fox news. They have a pro car owning readership, so any headline like this will be welcome to them

Re: 25% of Cars Cause 90% of Automobile Air Pollution

#23

Post by nikomen »

collyw wrote: post #19

Here in Europe (well UK and Spain whee I have lived and owned a car) you need to get a check every year for older cars, and that includes an emissions test. Don't you get that in the States / Canada? (It would appear that the study was done in Canada). Saying that, go to many less developed country and the cars are far worse condition. My friend always used to claim that the environmental cost of producing a new car…

Emissions tests in the US are at the state level, not federal. For instance, the state of Virginia has emissions tests. However, the state of South Carolina does not require a test.

Re: 25% of Cars Cause 90% of Automobile Air Pollution

#24

Post by sliverstorm »

organsnyder wrote: post #18

Living in a state (Michigan) without any sort of vehicle inspections, I can usually spot a vehicle that will be especially bad well before I smell it. If I'm driving, I'll punch the recirculate button to head off the issue, and look at making lane changes (or even varying my route) to avoid vehicles. This doesn't work as well if I'm walking or biking, however. I have asthma, so I'm especially sensitive to this. I'd l…

Why would mandatory smog checks never be politically feasible? They are not just a California-only thing.

Re: 25% of Cars Cause 90% of Automobile Air Pollution

#25

Post by atom-morgan »

jchrisa wrote: post #17

This is why we should move from mandatory emissions checks on all vehicles, to spot checks of the worst vehicles (but we'd need to get the police excited to run a test.)

You'd have to get everyone excited to allow those tests to be run. If you're spot checking the worst vehicles that will more than likely lead to a large proportion of checks occurring in low-income areas.

Re: 25% of Cars Cause 90% of Automobile Air Pollution

#26

Post by bvrlt »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #8
bvrlt wrote: post #2

Title should be: "25 Percent of Cars Cause 90 Percent of Vehicle Air Pollution"

That's more likely to mislead, because it implies a difference between 'Car' and 'Vehicle', and 'Vehicle' can include trains, ships, planes, etc. 25 percent of Automobiles Cause 90 Percent of [Automobile] Air Pollution.

Even better.

Re: 25% of Cars Cause 90% of Automobile Air Pollution

#27

Post by oalders »

collyw wrote: post #19

Here in Europe (well UK and Spain whee I have lived and owned a car) you need to get a check every year for older cars, and that includes an emissions test. Don't you get that in the States / Canada? (It would appear that the study was done in Canada). Saying that, go to many less developed country and the cars are far worse condition. My friend always used to claim that the environmental cost of producing a new car…

In Ontario, Canada the emissions tests are required, but not until the car has seen a lot use: "Generally, you need to get the test every 2 years, once your vehicle is 7 years old. Larger vehicles (called ‘heavy-duty’ vehicles) require the test every year, once they are 7 years old."

http://www.ontario.ca/environment-and-energy/drive-clean-tes...

Re: 25% of Cars Cause 90% of Automobile Air Pollution

#28

Post by koolkat »

What i allways ask myself is for example if someone has an old car which polutes more than a new one, what would polute more to buy a new one or to continue to use the old one. Because producing the new car releases a lot of polutants as well. I have never investigated this.

Re: 25% of Cars Cause 90% of Automobile Air Pollution

#29

Post by bryanlarsen »

collyw wrote: post #19

Here in Europe (well UK and Spain whee I have lived and owned a car) you need to get a check every year for older cars, and that includes an emissions test. Don't you get that in the States / Canada? (It would appear that the study was done in Canada). Saying that, go to many less developed country and the cars are far worse condition. My friend always used to claim that the environmental cost of producing a new car…

Yes, Ontario (where the study was done), has such a program. An emissions test is required every 2 years on every car more than 7 years old.

The major loophole is that if your car fails, you only have to spend $450 to fix the problem. Spending $450 to improve emissions gives you a pass whether or not it actually fixed the problem or not.

Ontario uses a lot of salt in the winter, so there aren't a lot of old cars on the road.

Re: 25% of Cars Cause 90% of Automobile Air Pollution

#30

Post by genericuser »

collyw wrote: post #22
SCAQTony wrote: post #15

And 16-container ships create as much pollution as all the cars in the world. Perhaps these ships are softer targets to correct than tens of millions of cars? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1229857/How-1...

Can we have some proper references rather than the Daily Mail. Its the UK's equivalent of Fox news. They have a pro car owning readership, so any headline like this will be welcome to them

Also even their language is phrased such as it says "16 of the world’s largest ships can produce as much lung-clogging sulphur pollution as all the world’s cars"

Note the inclusion of the word 'can' before produce. Making this statistic unreliable without further support.

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