Draft Regulatory Standards for Heavy Truck Emission

Which state agency is proposing new heavy truck emission standards?

California Air Resources Board

What’s the new proposal?

  •  require manufacturers to start selling electric heavy trucks in 2024
  • by 2030, 4% of the commercial heavy truck fleet in the state to be zero-emission

What’s NOT in the proposed heavy truck emission standards?

  • no funding for charging infrastructure
  • no incentives for truckers to buy electric vehicles

San Francisco Chronicle | Heavy Trucks Are New Target for Reducing Air Pollution

3 Hyperloop Projects

  • Columbus, Ohio to Chicago and Pittsburgh
  • Dallas-Austin-Laredo Texas
  • Kansas City and St. Louis Missouri

Company Behind the projects: Hyperloop One, a Virgin company

What 3 benefits are Ohio supporters touting?

  • economic development benefits
  • helps to meet sustainability goals
  • makes Ohio a leader in next-generation mobility
  • Allow people to live in 1 city and work in another city hundreds of miles away with a 30 minute commute

Governing | Ohio Working Fast to Finalize Hyperloop by Early Next Year

4 Local Pilot Programs for Underserved Communities + Workforce Development

Where: Los Angeles

How much funding?  $500,000 from the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator

What are the pilot programs?

  • growing car-share
    • Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles car-share pilot project in partnership with the car-share company Envoy
    •  Envoy & Pick My Solar will identify payment and other barriers to EV adoption in low-income neighborhoods led by San Fernando Valley-based environmental justice organization Pacoima Beautiful
  • growing bike-share
    • solar-powered e-bike-share program by environmental justice organization Communities for a Better Environment
  • more emissions-free delivery opportunities
    •  zero-emission e-cargo bike operation by the Conservation Corps of Long Beach

What push came from the Legislature: Add a workforce development angle to the Emissions Free projects

Governing | EV Companies Race to Los Angeles for Low-Income Passengers

High Speed Rail Deaths by the Numbers

Which U.S. high speed rail has the highest death rate? The Brightline Rail

What is the major cause of death?

  • Suicide
  • Impatient motorists, pedestrians, or bicyclists who misjudge the trains’ speed & ignored bells

What do the numbers look like?

  • 40 since July 2017
  • 1 death per month
  • 1 death for every 29,000 rail miles traveled
  • By contrast, Florida East Coast, a freight line, has 1 death for every 160,000 miles during the past 2 years

What proactive work is the rail doing to lower these numbers?

  • working with suicide prevention groups
  • using infrared motion detectors to identify suicide potential
  • drones to patrol tracks

CBS 4 Miami | Brightline, Florida’s High-Speed Train, Has Highest U.S. Death Rate

Local TREND. Cities looking for more authority over ride share. What’s New?

Where: San Francisco

Why does the city want more authority over ride share? To handle swelling traffic dilemmas like gridlock & double parking that blocks bike lanes

What regulatory authority are we talking about?

  • How many vehicles are allowed in a city
  • How deep or extensive driver criminal background checks are
  • How often ride-hail vehicles should be inspected
  • Who should inspect ride-hail vehicles
  • Whether ride-hails are required to provide motorized wheelchair access or not

San Francisco Examiner | City officials could seek more power to regulate ride-hails

4 Novel Liability Issues. Autonomous Driving Vehicles.

Who is the liable party for an accident when a computer is driving?

Can the computer be held liable for leaving a child or pet in a vehicle?

Are self driving cars, for lawmaking purposes, like elevators, autopilot systems, or horse-drawn carriages?

Liability for a data breach or hack of a self driving vehicle?

Governing | Whose Insurance Pays in a Driverless Vehicle Crash?

Local TREND. Cities + Scooter Companies = Safety Incentives

Who: Bird

Where:The cities of Washington D.C. and Austin, TX

What: A selfie incentive program. A rider takes a selfie with a helmet on and received ride credits.

Why: Reduce the number of scooter related accidents. In a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study of fall 2019 scooter accidents, 1 of 190 injured riders was wearing a helmet.

Governing | Austin American Statesman | A Modern Exchange: Helmet Selfies for Scooter Ride Credits

TRENDING. Delivery Services + Low Emissions

What is the solution du jour for low emission delivery ? Delivery by drone

How do big trucks factor into emissions?

  • 29% of US greenhouse gas emissions are transportation related
  • 1/4 of the 29% are attributable to medium- and heavy-duty trucks

What is the determining factor on whether drones are clean (low emission)? whether they have clean power sources 

Los Angeles Times | Drones Could Deliver Us Into Environmentally Friendly Future