According to the National Transportation Operations Coalition, optimizing the nation’s 300,000 traffic lights would cut CO2 emissions from vehicles by 20%. This has the potential to have a huge positive impact on our collective carbon footprint, not to mention that road congestion and traffic accidents would be greatly reduced.
Cutting 20% of auto emissions is like taking a large SUV that gets 12/17 mpg to a 14/20 mpg, overnight. With gas prices at an all-time high, this is information is every consumers dream. We could all use a savings of $8-$15 every time we fill up.
So what are we waiting for here? A shortage of traffic engineers and lack of local budgets are two obstacles that have come up. Also, most federal aid goes to road construction so there is little help in that direction. With the pressures of going “green” being applied in these areas, hopefully relief is in sight. Green lights and carbon offsets, two peas in a pod.
