Forward Virginia

'The Starbucks Effect'

Could your morning habit be contributing to our region's traffic woes? This April 2005 Washington Post article explores the issue. (April 2005 seems to be a big month for transportation reports based on the Washington Post Web site; articles from this month will be a subject of discussion on this blog for a while, it seems.)

The problem is that traffic forecasters assume that people use the shortest, fastest route to work when in fact many of us will make the occasional, or daily, detour to pick up that cup of coffee at Starbucks or that breakfast sandwich at McDonald's. As the Department of Transportation's Nancy McGuckin puts it, "If you see people replacing an in-home activity like brewing your own coffee with an activity that requires a new [car] trip, that's not exactly the trend we're looking for."

Each additional mile driven in your car adds to the pollution levels that EPA regulations are trying to limit, and it adds traffic to roads that are harder for traffic experts to predict. Traffic aside, I think the biggest inroads on the pollution front will be realized as more and more people switch to hybrids in the face of higher gas prices. Any decent hybrid shuts off its gas engine entirely while moving at low speeds – or, say, idling in a fast-food drive-thru.

posted by Omar @ 12:15 AM