Prepare for Impact!!!
The time has finally come to really consider reducing our use of fossil fuels, especially oil. There are several reasons including: impact on national security, impact on environment and impact on the wallet!
DocBrain always believes in pressing the easy button. What can be done today to reduce fuel use by cars? Here are a few simple solutions.
1. Encourage work at home days. As a physician, there is no reimbursement for telediagnosis and treatment, but patient assessment and management is actually quite easy (except for procedures) to do remotely and is very accurate. If insurers would pay for this type of activity, it would result in a significant savings and would improve access to specialty evaluations in remote communities.
2. Intelligent traffic signals. Do you realize that 40 cars idling burn 1 gallon of gas/minute? Think of how much gasoline could be saved by intelligent traffic systems! Below is an example of one system. This is probably current state of the art, but improvements based on current technology could probably significantly increase this benefit.
http://www.scoot-utc.com/Toronto.php?menu=Results
3. Staggered work start and end times. Why does it have to be 9 to 5? Why not 11 to 7? 12 to 8? Business is largely 24/7 and work schedules could be tailored to improve traffic flow.
4. Better drivers. Have you ever been waiting at a light behind a car that did not move when the light turned green? If a light changes in 1 minute and if a driver takes 1 second to react, you will get more cars through the intersection than if a driver takes 5 seconds to react. This is mainly due to impaired attention or slow reaction time. A simple test of reaction time and attention could be administered where cars get their annual inspections. If the driver failed to react within a reasonable time (shifting foot from brake to gas or gas to brake), his/her driver's license would be revoked. DocBrain actually took this test in driver training 45 years ago, so it is not new technology. Passing could be set at 1 second, which actually is quite a long time.
DocBrain always believes in pressing the easy button. What can be done today to reduce fuel use by cars? Here are a few simple solutions.
1. Encourage work at home days. As a physician, there is no reimbursement for telediagnosis and treatment, but patient assessment and management is actually quite easy (except for procedures) to do remotely and is very accurate. If insurers would pay for this type of activity, it would result in a significant savings and would improve access to specialty evaluations in remote communities.
2. Intelligent traffic signals. Do you realize that 40 cars idling burn 1 gallon of gas/minute? Think of how much gasoline could be saved by intelligent traffic systems! Below is an example of one system. This is probably current state of the art, but improvements based on current technology could probably significantly increase this benefit.
http://www.scoot-utc.com/Toronto.php?menu=Results
3. Staggered work start and end times. Why does it have to be 9 to 5? Why not 11 to 7? 12 to 8? Business is largely 24/7 and work schedules could be tailored to improve traffic flow.
4. Better drivers. Have you ever been waiting at a light behind a car that did not move when the light turned green? If a light changes in 1 minute and if a driver takes 1 second to react, you will get more cars through the intersection than if a driver takes 5 seconds to react. This is mainly due to impaired attention or slow reaction time. A simple test of reaction time and attention could be administered where cars get their annual inspections. If the driver failed to react within a reasonable time (shifting foot from brake to gas or gas to brake), his/her driver's license would be revoked. DocBrain actually took this test in driver training 45 years ago, so it is not new technology. Passing could be set at 1 second, which actually is quite a long time.
posted by DocBrain at
5:29 AM
1 Comments:
5. Alternative energy sources for heating/cooling homes. Cape wind anyone?
By
Anonymous, at 4:24 PM
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