Energy Wasted By Average Driver

I think all that is understood. Some lights you can beat, others not so much. It isn't always the same.

 

Why else do people try, but to win. Sometimes a light can beat. Simple concept even if disdained.

 

When you hit another car, did you 'win' ?

Do you include the time spent sitting on the side of road waiting for you ticket, or the time spent at work to pay for the ticket ? So you see, 'winning' is not so simple after all.

 

And I wouldn't call it "my" problem. We are discussing the generic stupid driver.

 

The high moral ground is a lot squishier that one would think. Be careful standing there.

 

Maybe just a bumper sticker "Slow down. Our troops are dying for oil"

 

Please, "Hit". "Ticket." You must try a lot harder than most folks trying to beat a light.

 

Hey, Proximal. How you doing? No new material?

 

Yep.

I like "Slow down, Save US lives" with a US flag. Maybe add rifles to the pic for the much adored jingoism effect.

 

Pardon me for leaving for the evening. I'm swimming upstream against a tide of margaritas and I need all my strength.

Pleasant dreams.

 

Me ? No at fault accidents ever, last ticket over 20 years ago.

Get informed, read up on the causes and frequencies of intersection accidents and driving through red light violations.

 

Absent regen (of 20-50% in a Prius) the energy dissipated by friction brakes from speed 'v' to zero is m*v^2/2, where v is meters/second, m is mass in kg, and the result is joules.

Unit conversion shtuff ..
1 mph is about 0.447 m/s
1 Mjoules is about 0.277 kwh

In terms of source energy, most cars are about 20% thermally efficient, so multiply your calc result above by 5.

Example: 3000 kg truck stopping from 40 mph
speed is 40*0.447 = 17.8 m/s
Kinetic energy = 17.88*17.88*3000/2 = 0.454 * 10^6 joules

Source energy (times 5) = 2.27 MJ = 0.63 kwh
This amount is pretty close to the energy my refrigerator uses in a day. From one stop !

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Starting from 33.5 kwh/gallon of petrol, each stop is about 1/50th of a gallon.
City drivers can easily waste a one gallon a week, and have to work another 15 minutes on average to pay for their habit. Save time, indeed

 

New enough for you?

 

You're a real hoot. Does that hair shirt itch much?

 

Sounds about like my driving record, so when you say "When you hit that car,..." and "...waiting for your ticket..." you are, again, assuming a lot. And, again, incorrectly.

Intersection accidents and red light violations are caused by inattention and gross negiligence. There's a huge difference in trying to get ahead of a light and trying to get ahead of a light at the risk of life. Even before I got my Prius I drove like I do now. I usually find myself at the back end of the pack, timing the lights, and letting the faster drivers flow around me. I drive this way in all vehicles. But that doesn't mean I don't see the other side of the argument, and I don't stand around sounding like the "Leave Brittney Alone!" guy on everything environmental/oil/Prius/superior morality/war/guns/(all other liberal causes).

 

Nah. SS, DD. LBA-guy stuff.

It's a big, wide world out there, full of differing view points. Oil is the lifeblood of commerce in that world. Either fight for it or learn to speak Chinese and have no religion whatsoever, or Arabic and bow to Mecca. Don't think for a minute that liberals would last any longer than conservatives. Unless you pick up a gun. Rocks and bottles wouldn't work very well.