Quote:
Originally Posted by daring4
What about all the diesel fuel burned to build new cloverleafs, roundabouts, etc. New intersections dont just pop up! I drive a 45,000 lb truck for work, it gets about 3 mpg. We have two for every crew, and this is just to repair electric utility lines!
Road construction must use incredible amounts of fuel to build a road for us to get 1mpg better!
Just shut it off and coast if you can, turn it off at red lights, thats how to save fuel!
I have two original peoples cars, a 62 beetle and a 65 type 3, they are cool but I'm thinking something based on the Yaris would go far.
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Daring,you might consider the cloverleaf as the Light-Emitting-Diode of intersections,where a dedicated left-turn lane intersection is a whale-oil lamp.
The efficiency in lumen output and energy consumption between the two would be symbolic of the difference between the cloverleaf and the traffic congestion created at the traffic light.
The U.S. is in an ambitious plan to lose the incandescent lamp,moving on to the compact flourescent and LED.The payoff comes after the investment.
If Earth is at its half-life,then the Sun won't red-dwarf for another 4.5-billion years.That's a lot of time to save fuel with more efficient intersections,or end things as you know them.
In a capitalist nation as the US,we all need to act like capitalists,doing a complete life-cycle-cost-analysis when planning on new or remodeled construction.
Cloverleafs will pay dividends for billions of years.
Conventional intersections will remain a cash liability for billions of years.
Students buy debt to finance future higher earnings a college degree can bring.
Taxpayers can buy short term debt to finance future low-cost driving only efficient infrastructure can bring.