THIS SUBMERGED SECTION OF THE HOLLYWOOD FREEWAY CUTS THROUGH THE HEART OF DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES AND IS THE SCENE OF FREQUENT CONGESTION. A SCHEME HAS BEEN INTRODUCED ALLOWING CARS WITH MULTIPLE OCCUPANTS, AS WELL AS SPECIAL LOW EMISSION VEHICLES, TO ACCESS A DEDICATED LANE IN WHICH TRAFFIC MOVES FREELY. STATE LAWMAKERS HAVE ALSO PASSED LEGISLATION TO REDUCE GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS FROM NEW MOTOR VEHICLES FROM 2009. THESE REGULATIONS ARE EXPECTED TO CUT GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS FROM NEW CARS BY 30% BY 2016.
These measures are token gestures towards environmentally friendly travel. Americans are never going to get out of their oil guzzling 4×4s…and they will go to any lengths to take control of oil reserves to keep themselves driving.
How are they going to keep these special lanes moving freely? We have these lanes in parts of Connecticut and they are hardly used because most exits aren’t accessible from the dedicated lanes. If anything they should create dedicated lanes for rigs as these produce the most harmful emmissions when idling. They also create the most traffic back congestion. Every time I get stuck in traffic, when I finally see the cause, 80% of the time there is a rig pulled over on the side of the road. We whould also look into moving more freight by train than by rigs.