“Cash for clunkers” was wildly popular when the federal government instituted the vehicle trade-in program in the summer of 2009. Congress first earmarked $1 billion to lure drivers out of their old gas-guzzlers onto depressed car lots and into new fuel-efficient vehicles. Designed to run between late July and early November, the program burned through that money in a week. It ended less than a month later, after 678,359 new cars were purchased in exchange for $2.85 billion in government rebates. In the midst of the program, Barack Obama lauded the dealerships it was reviving, the fuel ... Read More
Vehicle-to-Grid: A New Spin on Car Payments
October 31, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Willett Kempton is an anthropologist. And an electrical engineer. On this winter morning at the University of Delaware, both skill sets come in handy as he courts two Japanese businessmen. They’ve traveled here from Tokyo to see how much progress he’s made toward a revolutionary idea: electric cars that will make several thousand dollars a year for their owners, and speed the switch to renewable energy sources. Observing Japanese business etiquette, Kempton presents his business card to the senior visitor, Makoto Horiguchi, then the two exchange bows. He repeats the ceremony with ... Read More
Can China Avoid Getting Stuck in Traffic?
February 6, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
The new Great Wall of China is the "Great Wall" of cars stuck in city traffic, researchers say, and it will take more than restrictions on new license plates and car registrations to break the gridlock. The problem is, there's barely enough space on the roads in China's largest cities for the 35 million cars that were bought during the past decade of frenzied consumerism, according to transportation experts at the University of California, Berkeley, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the ancient capital city of Xi'an, home of the buried armies of terracotta warriors, Lee ... Read More
Cash for Clunkers, Visualized
March 5, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
Data from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Cash for Clunkers program is displayed below as a directed network that represents the flow of car ownership, from the trade-in of "gas guzzlers" toward the purchase of new, supposedly more efficient auto makes. Each node represents a make of car and is scaled in size according to the total number of units traded in and purchased new. Node color varies according to the number of units traded in versus purchased new: The brightest red nodes represent car makes that were more frequently purchased new; the bluest nodes indicate makes more often ... Read More
Making the Case for Carpool Lanes
March 4, 2010 • By • 1 Comment
Do carpool lanes reduce traffic, or are they a waste of space — space that would be more efficiently used if it were accessible to all drivers and not just the ones who are carpooling, driving hybrids or riding motorcycles? There are plenty of commuters arguing for and against carpool lanes, and now both sides have research to back up their arguments. An earlier Miller-McCune.com article suggested that four general-purpose lanes on a freeway carry more people and vehicles per hour and than a freeway with one high-occupancy vehicle (HOV), or carpool, lane and three unrestricted lanes. The ... Read More
Government Rebates – The Uneasy Case For Subsidizing Energy Efficiency
January 27, 2010 • By • 4 Comments
Most people would agree that rebates for more energy-efficient cars and appliances are a good thing: They give consumers incentives to buy more environmentally friendly products. Cash for Clunkers gave people a several-thousand-dollar reason to buy more fuel-efficient cars, got gas-guzzlers off the road and, some say, jump-started the auto industry. But University of Delaware professors Burton A. Abrams and George R. Parsons found that the Cash for Clunkers program cost American taxpayers a bundle — and the environmental returns on their investment don't make up for the millions ... Read More
Gentlemen, Start Your Clunkers
July 27, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
It was a record race for cars described as "clunkers" — 30 days from a bill signing to administrative regulations on the street. The new "cash for clunkers" program, aimed at getting gas hogs off the highways and autoworkers in the plant, kicked off today with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood telling Americans to start their engines. "With this program," he is quoted in the official Department of Transportation press release, "we are giving the auto industry a shot in the arm and struggling consumers can get rid of their gas-guzzlers and buy a more reliable, fuel-efficient vehicle. ... Read More
