Road Crime

[mulad]

That's a very frustrating situation, since these cars generally have better fuel economy and lower greenhouse gas emissions than the comparable gasoline cars. Swap out a gas engine for a diesel, and you can get 30-40% more miles out of a gallon of fuel. Diesel is more energy- and carbon-dense than gasoline, but you still get 15+% more miles for the same CO2 output because of the way diesel engines work.

Diesels run with much higher compression ratios in their cylinders than gas cars do. When the fuel-air mixture in the cylinder ignites, it's at a much higher pressure and temperature than in the combustion chamber of a gasoline cylinder, and more of that energy is able to be extracted by the engine and converted into mechanical work. The downside is that the high-temperature environment makes the nitrogen in the air -- which is usually fairly inert -- react more readily and form troublesome compounds that incorporate nitrogen. It's one of diesel engines' inherent weaknesses.

I've been looking into one of the main studies that led to this revelation. There are five main categories of pollutants in the EPA's Tier II emissions rankings. From what I can tell, the cars did great on at least three of the five, including the soot (particulate matter) that has long been a trademark of diesel-powered vehicles. One ("total hydrocarbons" or THC) wasn't great on some of the tests, but was still in the ballpark of where it should have been.

The one major failing was the NOx emissions -- oxides of nitrogen. If you look at page 62 of that report, "Vehicle A" (which appears to be either a Golf or Jetta Sportwagen from photos in the document -- the vehicles were all officially anonymous in the report) ends up averaging a bit over 1 gram per mile (one test was lower, one was right on that mark, and two were higher). One gram per mile was the standard in the older Tier I emissions rankings that had been in effect from a phase-in from 1994 to 1997 until Tier II was phased in from 2004 to 2007, but it's 20x what is supposed to be coming out of the tailpipe for the classification the car got (Tier II bin 5).

There are a few more lax "bins" for vehicle classification, and I was a bit surprised that VW didn't try to aim for those. Tier II bin 8 would have been legal in Minnesota, though bin 5 was the "dirtiest" classification that was able to be used nationwide -- states that follow the emissions rules for California use a different Low Emission Vehicle rating system, and bin 5 is equivalent to their loosest category. Still, the NOx emissions were at least 7x what would be legal under Tier II bin 8.

VW cheated when they should have just bit the bullet and gone with the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems that other diesel vehicles are mostly using now. That requires an extra tank of urea solution to be mounted in the car, which gets squirted into the exhaust stream, converted into ammonia, and put into a reaction with the NOx in the tailpipe to convert it back into nitrogen and other relatively harmless gases.

There wasn't much of a distribution network for urea back in 2007, and it's still in the process of growing today (semi trucks now need it in large quantities, as they also fall under similar emissions rules now). It's an extra tank to fill, and extra cost to the consumer, so it's not hard to see why VW would want to avoid it.

I'm usually not one to get on a high horse about government regulation, but this is probably a case where things could have been handled better. One major requirement for any vehicle using these SCR systems was to have cleaner diesel fuel with greatly reduced levels of sulfur. Ultra-low sulfur diesel was mandated to be 80% of the diesel fuel available in the U.S. as of June 2006, but there wasn't a requirement for it to be available everywhere until the start of 2010. Using the older, dirtier fuel could destroy the catalytic systems in newer cars, so people were running a pretty significant risk every time they filled up at an unfamiliar or potentially unscrupulous station.

I'm unsurprised that this happened to somebody, but very disappointed that it turned out to be VW (I own a Jetta TDI model from 2006, the year before the new emissions rules went into effect).

I do hope that this will get the EPA some traction to deal with other violations by makers of other vehicles, but we'll have to see how it goes. We live in an era now where most new cars run clean enough that just one malfunctioning old beater of a car can spew as much crap as a whole fleet of new ones (excepting CO2, of course).

[Mdcastle]

As far as in-vehicle breath sensors- what about requiring them only for certain drivers- say under 21 or for life after the first DUI? Being caught without one would mean a trip to jail and some fines and probation, just like an actual DUI? If we require them for all vehicles, wouldn't there be crashes caused by people distracted by blowing into the thing? If we make them standard, is there some way to make them less distracting, say measuring the air around the driver?

[FISHMANPET]

Don't you just breathe into them to start the car?

Sent from my phone

[MNdible]

Yeah, that's my understanding. There are certainly workarounds for them, some of which could be solved technically, so they're not a perfect solution. But it seems like the best thing I've heard to let people live something like a normal life after they've made some bad decisions.

[seanrichardryan]

Don't you just breathe into them to start the car?

No, I think you have to continue blowing into them occasionally, from what I remember while riding in an effected vehicle once.

[seanrichardryan]

Well, there's and FAQ: http://www.intoxalock.com/ignition-inte ... s/faq#five

[FISHMANPET]

^I was actually surprised how cheap they are to install (per the article, $70 to $150 to install and about $60 to 80 per month for “monitoring and calibration.”). I posed a somewhat serious tw question: why not just make these standard on all human-driven cars? I have to believe costs would be much lower from an install perspective if done at the factory, and calibration could be reduced to yearly or something.

Other than FREEDOM! is there really a reason the costs wouldn't outweigh the benefits? In 2012 there were about 244m passenger cars & light duty trucks/SUVs in the fleet, and 2014 saw ~8 million new cars sold in the US. Up front costs to retrofit all cars using the low range ($70) = $17.1bn plus ongoing yearly costs of new vehicles + calibration 1x a year totaling $15.1bn ongoing. The 10,322 deaths in crashes where a driver was 0.08 or above in 2012 cost society a NPV of $109bn using MnDOT's $10.6m per life. This ignores injury costs. The question is how many deaths/injuries would be prevented vs business as usual (which has trended slowly down over the past many decades), and is the total cost worth it? I bet it'd be close.

So in Minnesota, the legal requirement for ongoing testing is once 5-7 minutes after first starting the call, and then randomly every 15-45 minutes. So I can see a huge problem with that being an invasive search if required on all vehicles. Also there doesn't seem to be any mechanism to stop the car if you fail or don't take a "rolling retest," though in the legally mandated ones, the violation is reported (though probably not acted on, just recorded, since if you accumulate too many violations things can happen). I think you could also possibly have problems even mandating one to start the car for all cars, though if it was legally allowed I think it'd be a lot cheaper because it's probably a simpler device (and no reporting moving violations means no or less monthly fees).

I was gonna write a paragraph here about how most likely even requiring a breath test on starting the vehicle would be an unreasonable search, and then I did 5 seconds of googling on the legality of refusing a breathalyzer. And apparently by getting a drivers license you've given implied consent for a breathalyzer test if an officer suspects you of being impaired. So right now it's more likely than I thought that it could be legal. But since it's all predicated on the notion of driving being a privilege, not a right, it wouldn't be outside of the realm of possibility that implied consent laws could be changed to included consent to a breath test at any time, not just when suspected of impairment by an officer.

E: Now that I've done that research, I'm getting ads for Interlock devices and DUI lawyers.

[PhilmerPhil]

Again with the school buses... https://twitter.com/startribune/status/ ... 0952061953

[LakeCharles]

A story with not much information at all, but a pedestrian was killed at West 7th and St. Clair:

http://www.startribune.com/pedestrian-r ... 330248301/

And the Star Trib did not use the term "accident."

[Anondson]

An old friend of mine was killed while riding his bike on the 27th. In Hermantown, a 71-year-old driver swerved his SUV over the centerline and smashed him head on.

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/s ... hermantown

Police don't know what to charge the driver with, as expected, yet again.

[xandrex]

Sad, but sadly not surprising. The roads in Hermantown are largely two-lane country roads with 40-50 mph speed limits, but now with significantly more development/cars around.

[Anondson]

Could Minnesota get a Right of Way law like this article mentions? Are there any legislators in the state who could lead this? If not this, what could Minnesota get legislatively done?

http://www.wired.com/2015/10/stop-calli ... -accident/

The Right of Way law allows police to charge drivers with a misdemeanor if they kill a pedestrian with the right of way in a crosswalk or a bike in a bike lane.

[Anondson]

Common method of estimating intoxication for DUI arrests derided as junk science.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/ ... TE=DEFAULT

The technique is called "retrograde extrapolation", it estimates blood alcohol levels.

[mattaudio]

Man jumps on SUV's roof, driver takes off, reaching 70 mph, charges say
http://www.startribune.com/man-jumps-on ... 330779311/

Motorists are the worst.

[Rich]

So we should conclude that all motorists are “the worst” because 21-year-old Shatavia N. Jackson of St. Paul once behaved badly?

[mattaudio]

Yes, that's standard practice when discussing the operators of different vehicle types.

[MNdible]

Rich, you just walked into his trap.

[Rich]

Rich, you just walked into his trap.

I know. He’s full of mischief isn’t he?

[trigonalmayhem]

I once saw someone jaywalk.

[ProspectPete]

http://www.twincities.com/crime/ci_2899 ... auls-payne

When a mother coming home from work gets off the bus and gets gunned down in the street, not only is that a tragedy but yet another reason to drive in the eyes of potential/transit users. So, I'll use this horrible crime as an opportunity to talk about how un/safe people feel using inner city transit. I think most people on this thread support the increased density/transit model, but if transit doesn't feel safe, most people, if given the choice, will stay in their cars.

On several occasions I use the greenline to get home after an evening shift.
Riding after midnight often feels like a lottery. There is almost always some person who wasn't holding up their end of the social contract. Examples include: littering, swearing, feet up on the seats, screaming, as well as excessive use of the N word. At times groups of kids get on board and it can even feel threatening.

Now, before I get shamed for being too soft, I should remind you that to the transit rider, perception *IS* reality.
In my mind I am thinking about the newly retired couple who has decided to relocate to the city after their kids leave home, or the recently arrived college co-ed freshman from rural Minnesota. If the transit experience feels unpleasant or threatening to them, given the choice, they will choose another option. Unfortunately for this mom who was killed, it sounds like she didn't have another option, and now a 5 year old is motherless (yes I get that there are risks involved with driving, and she could've been killed while waiting at a red light... but I go back to what is the perception of transit).
Any thoughts? I am not offering any solutions to societies problems here (since that is what this is all about...concentrated social problems), I'm just curious to hear about other people's experiences/ suggestions/ ideas.


http://www.twincities.com/crime/ci_2899 ... auls-payne