"Green is Green" Synchronize the Lights

To:  U.S. Congress

To: Members of the United States Congress

We, the undersigned, while believing in the importance of traffic laws, also believe that the system has gotten out of control and city planers have become focused on paving more land, replacing more stop signs with traffic lights, and have for the most part overlooked a simple and effective traffic solution. One which will ease traffic congestion, increase fuel economy, decrease fuel consumption, decrease traffic, decrease commuter travel time, increase the half life of our autos by decreasing wear and maintenance. And overall increase the quality of life for the 107 million US households, each with an average of 1.9 cars.

Quick acceleration and heavy braking can reduce fuel economy by up to 33 percent.

Going from a dead stop at a traffic light to 35 mph you go through consumption stages
0 to 5 mph = 0 to a max of 5 mpg,
5 to 10 mph = 10 to 15 mpg,
10 to 15 mph = 15 to 22 mpg,
15 to 25 mph = 22 to 28 mpg,
25 to 35 mph = 28 to 29 mpg
As you can tell it is very inefficient to achieve 25 mph from 0 mph but super efficient to maintain 25mph.

Now there is the wasted fuel by unnecessary breaking; Every time you step on your car's brakes, you're wasting gas. Why? It's simple. Every time you use the brakes, you're wasting the "acceleration" you've already used. Instead of moving your car, that energy is being transformed into steaming hot brake pads.

Running electrical accessories (e.g., air conditioner) while stuck in traffic further decreases fuel economy. Operating the air conditioner on "Max" can reduce MPG by roughly 5-25% compared to not using it. *

We have an opportunity to implement a small fix that will have a major impact on or economy and demonstrate how a small adjustment to existing infrastructure can have a major impact on the economy, quality of life and its green, we use less fuel which is great for our environment, but most of all it makes sense.

The importance of forward thinking to tackle existing and planned road and traffic conditions is paramount yet one facet has often been overlooked, the implementation of a simple and efficient traffic light synchronization system for our public roads. We believe the public transportation system and infrastructure is crucial to the quality of our daily lives as well as the economy. By mandating a traffic light synchronization system we would help eliminate congestion, pollution, and fuel consumption, thereby reducing our dependence on foreign oil. We believe that many cities simply don’t have the progressive minds to implement such a plan, furthermore we believe that there are many cities and neighborhoods deliberately dis-coordinate their traffic lights to make travel through their neighborhoods less appealing.
We therefore write to petition you to consider mandating that all cities implement a synchronized traffic light system by 2010.


This legislation would strengthen our existing road infrastructure without burdening the economy with new road or expansion projects.

We therefore call upon Congress to introduce this legislation.

As a result of traffic laws as they are today with non-synchronized lights the law i.e. green = go, red = stop in a dis-coordinated fashion stands in the way of a greener driving experience. Here is a tool that could help us become up to 30% more fuel efficient, while improving productivity and quality of life. We should not allow the law to get in the way, as the law does so now.


Data Sources

Estimates for fuel savings from sensible driving are based on Energy and Environmental Analysis, Inc., Owner Related Fuel Economy Improvements, Arlington, Virginia, 2001.

Estimates for the effect of speed on MPG are based on a study by West, B.H., R.N. McGill, J.W. Hodgson, S.S. Sluder, and D.E. Smith, Development and Verification of Light-Duty Modal Emissions and Fuel Consumption Values for Traffic Models, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, March 1999. Via fueleconomy.gov

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The "Green is Green" Synchronize the Lights Petition to U.S. Congress was created by and written by MARK MEND MENACHEM STERN (mendystern@gmail.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.