Here's your chance not just to be the mayor, but the original city planner as well! Imagine a medium sized city that would be developed with modern, low carbon transportation in mind, and other strategies to reduce the average citizens' carbon footprints.
What would that city look like? Would that make you more likely to want to live there?
Sustainable City >
The Subtle Effects of Traffic Lights
Something many people don't consider when thinking about an environmentally friendly city is the effect of traffic lights. While it is a common misconception that there is no alternative to traffic lights, roundabouts are much more fuel efficient. As quoted from Mead & Hunt, "Moving a vehicle from a full stop at a traffic light takes a tremendous amount of energy. This burns unnecessary fuel and harms the environment. Allowing cars to keep moving through an intersection reduces the amount of harmful emissions." Because cars don't have to come to a full stop in a roundabout, much less fuel is wasted. Additionally, maintaining streetlights is both expensive and uses energy: "Where long-term costs are considered, roundabouts eliminate hardware, maintenance and electrical costs associated with traffic signals, which can cost between $5,000 and $10,000 per year." Lastly, in the event of a power outage, roundabouts continue to be fully functional, while regular interse ctions must be treated differently.
Sources: https://meadhunt.com/roundabouts/ https://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Safety/roundab … nefits.htm
This is an interesting topic. I never thought about how detrimental stoplights are to the Earth. I think a good way to advocate for installing more roundabouts in the city would be to contact city council members and bring it to the attention of climate change activists in the Bay Area who could also rally for change. Do you think that Ecocity Builders have thought about this in their plans to build an ecocity? Or would using extra materials (concrete, mulch, plants, signs, etc.) be worse for the planet than stoplights? Does this mean that stop-signs are also bad for the planet because they make cars use more energy?
I had also never thought about this idea of Traffic Lights being detrimental to our environment. I think the roundabout idea is interesting and it potentially could be very beneficial to out environment, but I do think that it would be difficult to change the status quo of stop lights because some intersections do not have room for a roundabout and to implement these roundabouts, cities would have to replanned, and it could potentially cost a lot of money to the government. If it could be implemented in new developing cities however, I think that this idea is great and based on the quantitative data that was shown, it would be great for our environment.
In addition, I would never have realized the impact Traffic Lights could be implementing on our ecosystem. This is a great idea to reduce the amounts of Traffic Lights in cities with roundabouts; however, with the large amounts of land that is taken up by roundabouts, these would be very hard to install in the areas that actually have the most lights: urban areas. According to Weburbanist.com they have a design for a more efficient traffic light system. This light would tell drivers exactly how long it will be until the light turns green, causing drivers to not stop and start their engines again. What are you opinions on this?