Polluter detectives in LA keep drivers honest between SMOGs
The combination of electronic engine management systems and other emission controls has eliminated anywhere from 90-99% of noxious pollutants from modern cars. The problem is that these systems rely on an array of sensors to manage the fuel/air mixture, and when they fail emissions skyrocket. For several decades drivers, in California have had to get regular emissions checks before renewing their registration. Now drivers won't have to wait until their annual checkup, as the South Coast Air Quality Management District has a mobile emissions check van that evaluates cars remotely as they drive by. The infrared and ultraviolet sensor equipped van parks on on-ramps and takes a picture of polluting cars as they pass by. A letter is sent to the car owner suggesting the car either be repaired or scrapped. There is also a volunteer program that will provide $500 toward repairs or $1,000 to scrap the car. Since the program started in March, 2,000 letters have been sent out. With 10% of vehicles producing over half of the pollution, the program is intended to catch people who are either cheating or making temporary repairs just to pass the annual test and get those vehicles off the road.
[Source: LA Times]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Toledo Guy 8:12PM (9/21/2007)
Wow, Big Brother IS watching you, southern California!
Reply
Gary Blomquist 8:53PM (9/21/2007)
You took the words right out of my mouth.
George Orwell......1984......"Big Brother Is Watching You.". :(
P.S. Got a son attending Medical School of Ohio in Toledo.
RicardoHead 8:20PM (9/21/2007)
You beat me to it. BIG BROTHER indeed!
and quite disgusting too.
Reply
Logik 8:39PM (9/21/2007)
If you can't afford to properly maintain your car, you can't afford to drive. Simple as that. This is no different than cars that leak oil, coolant or other fluids, because of bad maintenance. However, I am absolutely against this sort of monitoring.
Reply
Gary Blomquist 8:54PM (9/21/2007)
Wait till you don't have a penny to your name, and you need to somehow get to work, and you can't afford to fix the old "buggy" from burning some oil past it's worn rings.
It's kinda like walking a mile in another man's shoes. You might get another or different perspective.
Reply
JD 9:07PM (9/21/2007)
Very true. Cars are pricey to repair. Not everyone can spare $500 or more to fix their car to get to work. It's not that easy in the real world.
Moltenauto 11:36PM (9/21/2007)
Southern California is crawling with public transportation; tons of buses, and around LA, decent light rail. Due to the special bus lanes on the freeways, buses often are even faster than driving. Sorry, no excuse.
Gary Blomquist 3:37PM (9/22/2007)
"Moltenauto @ Sep 21st 2007 11:36PM
Southern California is crawling with public transportation; tons of buses, and around LA, decent light rail. Due to the special bus lanes on the freeways, buses often are even faster than driving. Sorry, no excuse.
"
Folks like you that so easily see the splinter in other's eyes, but don't realize that you've got a big old pine log in your own eye.
Thats a parable......that Jesus quoted, on people judging others from a lofty, prideful position with little or no empathy for others.
Glad you weren't my dad or mother, whatever sex you are. I'd end up a hardnosed, miserable, judgemental person, with little or no real friends.
So happens that many people's work or labors for pay, don't work out favorably for taking mass transit, as many folks can't economically use mass transit to get to their work. Bus stops and train stations aren't every where in L.A. or it's adjoining towns.
Also mass transit isn't always that inexpensive either.
I don't know why I even reply to your "kind", as your hearts are hard as stone and cold as ice. I worked in construction for many years, and as the thousands of fellow construction workers will attest; you don't know where your next job will be. Mass transit doesn't work to good for us hard working folks that have to carry a couple hundred pounds of work tools to work each day either. Try and do that on BART, or transit buses?
Big Rocket 7:39PM (9/22/2007)
To Gary Blomquist @ Sep 22nd 2007 3:37PM:
And where in the Holy Bible does it say poverty is an excuse for breaking the law? When rich people like Martha Stewart or Paris Hilton are placed in jail, it's all good; but when poor people receive a citation for their vehicle's pollution, it's bad? Please, let us know what Jesus has to say about double standards.
spacegravity4me 11:59PM (9/24/2007)
You know what, if society cares so much what my hypothetical beater of a care does then why don't you help me pay to have it fixed, or pay for the money for the public transportation. I can tell ya right now, if I was poor enough to wear I literally couldn't afford to repair my car and it began drawing the attention of everyone else then I can pretty much guess that I wouldn't be able to pay for mass transit for an extended period of time either. It's the monitoring, discussions, and people like you that make people like me want to go live in the mountains away from the rest of the world. You only care about yourself. And leave my God out of this. At least in the mountains I can have a better view of the mushroom cloud when the our wonderful, thoughtful, extremely hypocritical world explodes all over itself. Good day sir... I SAID GOOD DAY! P.S. Maybe it shouldn't be a law... maybe instead, there should be compassion...
spacegravity4me 6:15PM (9/24/2007)
and yes i noticed my typos, or rather, my misuse of certain words, i was mad, and typing swiftly. Takes no validity away from my statement. Shazzam...
naggs 8:55PM (9/21/2007)
YEAH!
if you are too poor to have a well running car then you need to STAY HOME! cant pay your bills? TOO BAD! stop dirtying up my air and get a better job, JUST DONT DRIVE TILL YOU DO!
they should bring back debters prision too
Reply
Rob 10:43PM (9/21/2007)
Yeah... what he said and it's a waste of money. Going after the last %1 of the %99 improvement doesn't help the big picture.
I bet the mobile big-brothers drive around in turbo-diesel trucks while "assessing" you. Seems assess-e-nine to me.
Let the state inspectors and cops do their jobs.
Eric Biran 9:22PM (9/21/2007)
I live in the LA area, and I think this is mostly a good thing. The first step is to actually crack down on people who are already failing the smog test, or driving unregistered vehicles thereby avoiding the smog test.
There are a lot of older work trucks and beater cars out there which you don't need any fancy equipment to catch, just open your eyes and bare witness to the clouds of pollution spewing out. I realize that it may be a financial hardship for their owners to repair many of them, but that doesn't excuse the damage they are doing. If you can't afford to maintain it, don't drive it.
Before any of these steps are taken, government needs to start cracking down on some other sources of pollution:
-Leaf blowers
1 leaf blower pumps out as much smog as 80 cars!
http://www.thedailygreen.com/2007/07/19/1-leafblower-equals-pollution-of-80-cars/4083/
-Paint booths and other commercial chemical endeavors not up to code
It’s not as if I go looking for them, but I have seen tens of small-scale automotive paint booths at upstart body shops where they paint the cars in a garage open to the outside air, and then take the cars outside to let them dry as the fumes escape into the atmosphere. There is no way this is even close to legal, but no one does anything about it. Add to that, shady and uninformed construction crews, chemical cleaners such as door-to-door rug service vans, harsh solvents, and who-knows-what-else being illegally released into our environment everyday just because that’s what they did yesterday and no one’s there to stop them.
-Big Business
Big business gets away with murder simply because politicians have their hands so deep in the pockets of big business lobbying. I suspect that the amount of pollution coming out of all the cars in California combined doesn’t equal what’s coming out of all their smokestacks (but when was the last time anyone broached that comparison?). Cars are owned by individuals, who are easy to push around, so they are the focus of all pollution and global warming crusades. Big business isn’t just large enough to fight back against political efforts, politicians avoid the issue entirely so as not to upset their largest sources of financial backing.
-Cigarettes
As long as we’re eliminating sources of fowl smelling pollutants which are harmful to our health, why not target smoking out of a moving vehicle? I don’t have any numbers to show that cigarettes are a significant source of environmental pollution, so this last one is a bit harder to support than my last points, but I still believe in the right to breathe clean air. It’s one thing if you want to enjoy a cigarette in your car, and no one is being forced to endure it with you in there (especially minors), but why do smokers always have to roll down their windows and share their smoke with the world? If you like it so much, roll them up and enjoy your cancer stick and all that savory smoke in private. It’s impossible to drive more than a few blocks with your windows/top down in LA without feeling like you’re driving through a giant ash tray. Shame on smokers for killing open air motoring and clean air for the rest of us. Oh, and keep your hands on the wheel!
Reply
naggs 12:52AM (9/22/2007)
exactally
all those things you mentioned should be done before you start impounding poor peoples cars because they cant afford to do much more than keep them running.
and people wonder why big cites in america have such a bad homeless population
Rob 1:25AM (9/22/2007)
While we're at it banning smoking in your own car, I'd like to ban your breathing due to your carbon dioxide and smug output.
whofan 9:24PM (9/21/2007)
Maybe if some of you find a fellow man in need you should help him out.
Everyone needs food water shelter and transportation.
Some of you ignorant people who relish the down fall of American industry may find out yourself what its like to squeek by pay day to payday.
I have knowen old people who have lived throught the great depression. A lesson learned but forgotten.
Reply
robotrock 9:45PM (9/21/2007)
if i drive by and pass do i get a free renewal for a year? why pay for tests if they do it for free
Reply
Big Rocket 10:06PM (9/21/2007)
If a car is polluting the air more than it should, then the driver is breaking the law. And if the law is being broken, why does it matter if the person is poor? I don't believe in one law for the rich and one law for the poor. Either we relax the air pollution requirement for everyone, or we hold everyone to the same high standard.
Reply
RicardoHead 10:27PM (9/21/2007)
You mean one high legal standard like how the rich can buy their "equal" justice by paying lawyers to convolute facts but the poor go to jail for a long time for far lesser offenses?