Dirty,noisy,smelly!!!!!!.

[willic]

I advocate, Motor Vehicles, should be like a cigarete packet and have a "public health warning" message written on the side of them.

I have just arrived from my daughters home after sitting in a traffic jam for "god" knows how long , with a thumping headace,stinging eyes and a foul temper.

All of which i put down to sitting in the car surrounded by other motors pumping out their obnoxuios fumes.

I guess since this is the first time for a couple of years since i gave up owning a car, such a situation has occured for me , i am not used to breathing in that filth.

And in those two years my body has been purged of such toxins

P.S. pass me the Paracetamol , then let me get out on the BIKE.....

[John C. Ratliff]

The headache is probably due to carbon monoxide poisoning. A study years ago in Seattle showed that drivers coming in from traffic accidents tested positive for carbon monoxide (and alcohol for some--part of the tests). The two in combination made for a greater drunken effect than simply drinking.

John

[Pete Clark]

Will, more and more I am heading out on the backstreets just to avoid the smog-belchers.

Man, cars do stink!

:rolleyes:

[Bikes-N-Drums]

"Dirty, Noisy, Smelly". I thought this topic might have been about my ex wife.

[Paige]

Originally posted by Bikes-N-Drums
"Dirty, Noisy, Smelly". I thought this topic might have been about my ex wife.


Look here brother, who you jivin' with that cosmic debris? ;)

[Roughstuff]

Originally posted by willic
I advocate, Motor Vehicles, should be like a cigarete packet and have a "public health warning" message written on the side of them.

I have just arrived from my daughters home after sitting in a traffic jam for "god" knows how long , with a thumping headace,stinging eyes and a foul temper.

All of which i put down to sitting in the car surrounded by other motors pumping out their obnoxuios fumes.

I guess since this is the first time for a couple of years since i gave up owning a car, such a situation has occured for me , i am not used to breathing in that filth.

And in those two years my body has been purged of such toxins

P.S. pass me the Paracetamol , then let me get out on the BIKE.....

Well in that case put a BILLBOARD WARNING on any local bus, which spews out far more crap than almost any vehicle on the road. We have all seen inner city buses belching smoke and crap, often at street level. I can just IMAGINE what these cities would do if a 'private vehicle' dared belch so much into the air. And the buses are almost always EMPTY. Nor do they carry products with anything approaching the value added that private trucks often do.

roughstuff

[Alexey]

How to reduce the number of cars on streets?

There should be a way. I think and think, but nothing comes out.

It seems they are just multiplying. They do not need a "critical mass". Just popping up in scores.

[John C. Ratliff]

In Portland, TriMet is in the process of switching their buses to a hybrid, electric/high-efficiency diesel (I believe) engine which is far less polluting than conventional diesels on buses.

I really don't like breathing the diesel exhaust, and will go to great lengths not to while biking or riding in a car. In a car, it's fairly simple to switch to internal circulation of the fan for the heater/air conditioner. However, on a bicycle there are only two choices:

--wear a respirator. I've tried this approach when I was on an especially bad stretch of road for buses (185th Ave. in Beaverton/Hillsboro). However, it is somewhat inconvenient to ride with a respirator.

--hold my breath. I have pretty good lung capasity, and if I'm only going through a bus' plume, then I will hold my breath through it. If not, I sometimes stop and wait until the air clears ahead.

John

[khuon]

Originally posted by John C. Ratliff
However, on a bicycle there are only two choices

How about a third? Carry onboard oxygen ala scuba gear, airline O2 bottles, NASA space/envirosuits, MIL-SPEC NBC survival gear...

Seriously though, it does suck that there are many harmful things in our environment but I really don't see how putting up more fuss will really help. I honestly doubt there will be an overall decline in auto usage regardless of how much public awareness about pollution we raise. The best we can hope for is to develop cleaner technology... like electric vehicles... so we can start complaining about ozone burning motors and potentially cancer-causing EMF.

[greg360]

RoughStuff said,
"Well in that case put a BILLBOARD WARNING on any local bus, which spews out far more crap than almost any vehicle on the road. We have all seen inner city buses belching smoke and crap, often at street level. I can just IMAGINE what these cities would do if a 'private vehicle' dared belch so much into the air. "

Is it just me or does there seem to be a proliferating number of massive macho pick-up trucks driven mainly by middle aged men? These monsters spew diesel fumes like a freight train, and get away with it because they are classified as trucks even though used only as cars (and seldom get used for any other purpose than is typically performed by cars).

Detroit has found a profitable way to pander to the baser instincts of a marketing niche, and found an innovative way to weasel out of paying for the environmental consequences.

Like the bumper sticker says, "A Man & His Truck - It's a Beautiful Thing".

[MediaCreations]

Originally posted by willic
I guess since this is the first time for a couple of years since i gave up owning a car, such a situation has occured for me , i am not used to breathing in that filth.

And in those two years my body has been purged of such toxins.
You know what they say - nothing worse than a reformed motorist.:D

[Alexey]

Originally posted by greg360
Is it just me or does there seem to be a proliferating number of massive macho pick-up trucks driven mainly by middle aged men? These monsters spew diesel fumes like a freight train, and get away with it because they are classified as trucks even though used only as cars (and seldom get used for any other purpose than is typically performed by cars).

Detroit has found a profitable way to pander to the baser instincts of a marketing niche, and found an innovative way to weasel out of paying for the environmental consequences.

Like the bumper sticker says, "A Man & His Truck - It's a Beautiful Thing".

This fashion came to our parts too. It is exacerbated by the fact that the fuel is of much worse quality than in the US (if "quality" is the term, which can be used for fossil fuel).

Such a truck is bad enough in the US, but when it is fuelled here, it really starts to show its true colours.

But the rubber dust, which it also leaves behind, should be about the same.

[willic]

Is it just me or does there seem to be a proliferating number of massive macho pick-up trucks driven mainly by middle aged men? These monsters spew diesel fumes like a freight train, and get away with it because they are classified as trucks even though used only as cars (and seldom get used for any other purpose than is typically performed by cars).

Also in the U.K. There is a large increase in Diesel powered, for want of a better description, service type vehicles on the roads.

My suspicion is somewhat more sinister as regards the reason tho` for this.
Not the "fashionable" vehicle to drive, but the tax cheats,
It is estimated that more than 3/4 of a billion£ in lost revenue is being acrued by the use of illegal diesel being black marketed.

That is agricultural Diesel which carry`s a much lower taxation premium than forecourt Diesel, a simple colour change is added to the cheaper fuel and "bingo" you save mucho £`s on your tank of fuel

[Richard D]

Originally posted by Roughstuff


Well in that case put a BILLBOARD WARNING on any local bus, which spews out far more crap than almost any vehicle on the road. We have all seen inner city buses belching smoke and crap, often at street level. I can just IMAGINE what these cities would do if a 'private vehicle' dared belch so much into the air. And the buses are almost always EMPTY. Nor do they carry products with anything approaching the value added that private trucks often do.

roughstuff

I don't know what it's like in Cambridge, but round Canterbury the buses are normally pretty packed, certainly of a rush hour they're standing room only, and on my few trips to London it seemed pretty much the same there. If a double decker bus holds say 70 people in rush hour and an average car seems from observation to average two people I'd think the bus is probably the better option (plus it's less to overtake ;) on a bike). That aside they do seem ideal candidates for a 'greener' fuel getting their fuel at their depots.

Richard

[greg360]

Originally posted by willic
... Also in the U.K. There is a large increase in Diesel powered, for want of a better description, service type vehicles on the roads.

My suspicion is somewhat more sinister as regards the reason tho` for this.
Not the "fashionable" vehicle to drive, but the tax cheats,
It is estimated that more than 3/4 of a billion£ in lost revenue is being acrued by the use of illegal diesel being black marketed.


Hmmm... there was something in the papers over here the other day about that. It seems that some folks avoid gas station fuel taxes by using grease and fat from restaurants to fuel their cars. Wow, they must have some seriously strong motors over in the UK. Do you think they could burn the drippings from a certain dining establishment near my place? They would love to get into the export business!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Now my advice for those who ride (ah ah Mr. Wilson), declare the tires on your bike (ah ah Mr. Heath!), 'cause I'm the Taxman...

[cycletourist]

What you are refering to is called BioDeisel. Any deisel engine can burn vegetable oil or a mix of deisel and vegetable oil WITHOUT MODIFICATION.

Unfortunately, vegetable oil is more expensive than deisel so people who run this stuff make arrangements with restaurants to pick up their used veggie oil (which restaurants are required to recycle anyway). It has to be filtered before you pour it in the tank but it really does work. The exhaust smells like french fries.

If you get Mother Earth News check your backissues. They wrote about this several months ago.

[iamlucky13]

Guess I don't see much of it, since I do most of my riding in the country. Portland, however, seems to be a reasonably clean place. I do have a few interesting observations.
- Diesals actually burn a little cleaner than gas, they just smell worse. Hybrid has a lot of promise.
- I know a lot of people who drive down the block. I walk just about anything less than a mile, ride intermediate distances, and drive only when distance/weather/other circumstances demand it.
- How many people actually need an SUV? Pickups yes, minivans yes, but SUV's? They don't hold very many people, can not carry bulky loads, and manuever poorly. I'd estimate the NEED for SUV's is 1-2 percent of the DEMAND.

[greg360]

Originally posted by iamlucky13

- How many people actually need an SUV? Pickups yes, minivans yes, but SUV's? They don't hold very many people, can not carry bulky loads, and manuever poorly. I'd estimate the NEED for SUV's is 1-2 percent of the DEMAND.

check out this amusing anti-SUV website
http://poseur.4x4.org/

Perhaps if SUVs burned surplus yak butter they would not be such an environmental/social abomination.
Better yet, we need a vehicle that burns SUVs and emits bicycles!

[Airborne]

Originally posted by Bikes-N-Drums
"Dirty, Noisy, Smelly". I thought this topic might have been about my ex wife.

classic!

[Pete Clark]

In Atlanta, the natual gas-burning buses, with the exhaust pipe
higher than the roof, are much better to get behind than the typical school bus.