Comment 93834

By kevlahan (registered) | Posted October 28, 2013 at 09:35:17 in reply to Comment 93829

In fact, studies show that with modern cars speed is not a significant factor for pollution, at least at city speeds of 0 - 60km/h. Idling is also less of an issue with modern cars, and will become insignificant as more and more cars are fitted with automatic engine start-stop features (already standard on many higher end vehicles).

What has been shown to increase pollution significantly in urban settings is rapid acceleration and deceleration, which is a "feature" of Hamilton's current one-way green wave set up, as cars rapidly accelerate away from traffic lights.

If you were really concerned about pollution, you could prioritize taking transit, cycling, walking or maybe buy a hybrid vehicle. Designing the streets in the core of a city of 520,000 to encourage high speed driving at all times of day increases pollution by encouraging more drivers and rapid acceleration/deceleration.

Not to mention the fact that lower traffic speeds increase safety in two ways: they reduce the chance of collisions because lower speeds give drivers more reaction time to avoid problems, and the lower speeds mean if an accident does occur it will be far less serious (energy increases like the square of speed).

Comment edited by kevlahan on 2013-10-28 09:38:17

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