Being stuck in traffic isn’t just a cause for irritation or potential factor for divorce (at least, if you’re in your first five years of marriage and living in Sweden, according to one study); traffic has serious global economic and health implications. Idling personal vehicles, including those stuck in traffic jams, waste an estimated 3 billion gallons of fuel each year, generating around 30 million tons of CO2. According to a report by the US Department of Energy, “eliminating the unnecessary idling of personal vehicles would be the same as taking 5 million vehicles off the roads.”
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Why the cost of traffic jams is higher than you think
High emissions, wasted fuel, and serious health risks abound. But hybrid cars may be the solution we’ve been waiting for.
Exhaust fumes contribute to air pollution, which as been linked to “asthma, cancer, cardiac disease, and other serious health risks,” especially in children. It’s even estimated that three times as many people die from air pollution-related deaths every year than in car accidents. To combat the problem, some municipalities have enacted new regulations against idling cars. As of September 2018, 23 states have passed legislation that limits idling by some or all vehicles.
But reports on how to reduce idling note that it’s not safe for vehicles to stop their engines while stuck in traffic. Hybrid cars, on the other hand, are a different matter. The first-ever Lexus UX, for example, was designed to maximize the efficiency of its hybrid battery while in traffic, with adaptive engine technology that actually learns and adjusts to the driver’s route. Once you activate route guidance, the navigation system looks ahead and predicts the optimal times to charge or discharge the battery. The more you drive, the smarter the system gets — just imagine if everyone drove a car like this.