NONSTOP POLLUTION SOLUTION? ROADSIDE SMOG BUSTERS SET UP SHOP.Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer Hoping to catch the worst-of-the-worst cars that slip through the state's smog-check program, regulators have started testing a high-tech, remote-control smog device for police to use on Los Angeles streets Los Angeles Street is a historic avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, California. Traffic on the street travels northbound only, from the I-10 Freeway in the south of downtown, through the Fashion District, and on through Little Tokyo, where it ends after passing between LAPD and freeways. It measures tailpipe tail·pipe n. The pipe through which exhaust gases from an engine are discharged. Also called exhaust pipe. tailpipe Noun a pipe from which exhaust gases are discharged, esp. exhaust as vehicles drive by. The remote sensing Deriving digital models of an area on the earth. Using special cameras from airplanes or satellites, either the sun's reflections or the earth's temperature is turned into digital maps of the area. equipment has been tested and suppressed by regulators and legislators for more than a decade because of worries about technical flaws and ``big brother'' government oversight. But proponents say remote sensing could dramatically reduce vehicle emissions by detecting the worst polluters - especially in the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. region, where more than 10 million cars and trucks clog the roads each day. So-called gross polluters constitute an estimated 10 percent of the cars on the road but generate more than half of the vehicle pollution. ``We know there's this large source of emissions out there and regulators have implicitly assumed it doesn't exist,'' said Joel Schwartz, a visiting fellow at American Enterprise Institute The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) is a conservative think tank, founded in 1943. According to the institute its mission "to defend the principles and improve the institutions of American freedom and democratic capitalism — limited government, , a free-market-oriented think tank. ``I think (remote sensing) is a way to get a lot more air emissions reductions and clean air sooner.'' Remote sensing could catch cars that break down between the biennial smog check or those ``clean-for-day'' drivers who bribed or cheated their way through the smog-check program, said Edward VanMil, who is heading the pilot remote sensing project for the Bureau of Automotive Repair. Another possibility is to exempt cars from their $50 smog check after numerous remote-sensing hits show they are clean. The equipment is being pilot-tested for six months in Los Angeles and elsewhere around the state. Legislators will ultimately decide whether and how remote sensing becomes part of the smog-check program, and what the penalties would be. Bureau of Automotive Repair mechanics set up shop in Arleta on Tuesday, screening cars on Laurel Canyon Boulevard Laurel Canyon Boulevard is a major street in the city of Los Angeles, California. It starts off at Polk Street in Sylmar in the northern San Fernando Valley near the junction of the San Diego (Interstate 405) and the Golden State Freeways (Interstate 5). . Orange cones directed northbound drivers into one single lane past a series of cameras, mirrors and computer equipment. The detection device sits a foot above the pavement and shoots a steady infrared and ultraviolet beam across the lane to a tiny mirror that reflects the beams back to the device. Auto emissions block the infrared and ultraviolet spectra, so the more pollutants pollutants see environmental pollution. in the exhaust, the less light reflected back to the detection device. Two cameras snap pictures of the passing car - one black and white to read the license plate and another in color so technicians can manually read the plate if the first camera fails. Staff members sit in a white van parked next to the road, watching the car images and tailpipe readings on computer monitors. Exhaust from a 1980s Mercury Cougar The Mercury Cougar was an automobile sold under the Mercury brand of the Ford Motor Company's Lincoln-Mercury Division. The name was first used in 1967 and was carried by a diverse series of cars over the next three decades. is more than 10 times more potent than allowed. A newer model Chevrolet pickup truck Chevrolet has produced full sized pickup trucks under many nameplates and platforms:
Mechanics often can predict the high polluters just knowing the model year, make and performance. Early 1980 models that were the first computer-controlled cars tend to be the worst, because the equipment failed long ago. But any car that's missed a couple of oil changes and checkups can become a gross polluter. ``You could stand a person on the street and do it, but this equipment doesn't look at color or the sex of the driver - it just looks at vehicle emissions,'' VanMil said. Critics have said remote sensing disproportionately affects poor people who are most likely to have older, higher polluting pol·lute tr.v. pol·lut·ed, pol·lut·ing, pol·lutes 1. To make unfit for or harmful to living things, especially by the addition of waste matter. See Synonyms at contaminate. 2. cars and don't have the money to fix them. Others poke holes in the technology, saying the equipment can easily skew (1) The misalignment of a document or punch card in the feed tray or hopper that prohibits it from being scanned or read properly. (2) In facsimile, the difference in rectangularity between the received and transmitted page. results if not installed properly. ``For enforcement purposes, we don't really feel that it's able to be that accurate yet,'' said Frank Bohanan, a Orange County-based technical consultant to the Specialty Equipment Market Association that represents the speciality automotive industry The automotive industry is the industry involved in the design, development, manufacture, marketing, and sale of motor vehicles. In 2006, more than 69 million motor vehicles, including cars and commercial vehicles were produced worldwide. . The state continues to use voluntary roadside tests to gauge the effectiveness of the its smog-check program implemented in 1984. Vehicles are flagged down by California Highway Patrol highway patrol n. A state law enforcement organization whose police officers patrol the public highways. officers, and their engine emissions measured by equipment set up alongside the road. The new remote sensing equipment doesn't require cars to stop, and officials say the pilot program is aimed at showing that the equipment can be used to accurately screen the exhaust of some 15,000 cars a day - and flag the worst offenders. ``You're not going to catch gross polluters without a high-volume instrument like this'' VanMil said. Kerry Cavanaugh, (818) 713-3746 kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- 2) Above, left, pollution meters and cameras recording license numbers feed data to air quality engineer Richard Erceg, above, of the Automotive Repair Bureau, shown inside a van in Arleta. John Lazar/Staff Photographer |
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