Need Gas Mileage/pollution facts

[sweetdream]

Hi, I am trying to develop a presentation to the city council of the Texas town of 250K where I live, to force them to TIME their traffic lights. I have never lived in a place where the timing of the lights is so ridiculous: drivers end up stopping for a red light at EVERY intersection along EVERY major and minor thoroughfare EVERY hour of the day and night, often for nobody at the cross street. Even "protected left turns" here run 24/7/365, so you end up sitting there, say, at 4:00am (I am "on-call" at a couple of hospitals and this is very frustrating to me, especially if I'm going in for an emergency), waiting thru 4 light changes for NOBODY. It literally takes 20-30 minutes just to drive 4 miles here because of the traffic lights.

What I need are some generic facts showing: 1) the reduction in fuel efficiency related to stopping and starting, 2) the increase in pollution associated with waiting at a light and then accelerating. Then I would need the same facts from a vehicle that is allowed to go a consistent speed of ,say, ~30 mph along the same road without having to stop (I.e. if the lights are timed). A 4 mile road with 10 lights would be a good example for comparison.

I am so serious about this, I'd even like to promote state legislation forcing municipalities to "GO GREEN" with traffic lights!! Think of how much fuel consumption/energy we could save and how much green-house gasses/pollution we could reduce NATIONALLY, (not to mention wear & tear on our vehicles and mental state), if towns HAD to professionally engineer and use "smart" timers on traffic lights!!

Any info or links would be appreciated.

-sweetdream

[Paul79UF]

try contacting these sites

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/

good luck