Imagine you’re in a city, surrounded by tall buildings and busy streets. Now, imagine you’re taking a deep breath. You’re probably picturing the smell of vehicle exhaust and maybe a generally unclean, heavy feel. Perhaps you’re feeling uneasy because you know that the air you are inhaling contains harmful gases and particulate matter that increase your risk of heart disease, lung cancer, and a plethora of other ailments.
Now, imagine standing in that same city, but this deep breath is different. Instead of pollution, you inhale clean, fresh air. This is a much more appealing breath to imagine, is it not? This city air is obtainable, but we have a lot of work to do to reach cleaner air.
Transportation is one of the biggest contributors to air pollution, and our personal cars are a big part of this pollution. This problem sounds like an easy fix – simply remove the highest polluting cars from the road as cleaner and newer vehicles are introduced. But it is not that simple. The gap between lab test emissions and real-world emissions remains large, and emissions fraud abounds. So, how can we move towards the air that we can breathe deeply in our cities?
Continuous monitoring with EDAR is a solution. EDAR measures real-world emissions from vehicles under natural driving conditions, not under laboratory conditions. EDAR is already utilized around the globe in emissions testing programs, but there is so much more potential. Installing a network of EDAR devices around a city would provide invaluable data on the real emissions of vehicles moving through the city. EDAR can monitor 24/7, unmanned, and with no calibration, providing an incredible number of emissions measurements for a fraction of the cost of conducting a standard emissions test.
Over time, the EDAR network would build an extensive database of vehicle emissions. Governments could then utilize this data to answer questions such as:
What are the dirtiest vehicles on the road?
Are any vehicle models emitting more than lab tests indicate that they should emit?
What driving conditions worsen emissions, and how can we improve these conditions?
Are there any vehicle models that have surprisingly low emissions?
Do older but well-maintained vehicles emit significantly less? How can we encourage vehicle maintenance?
Is the vehicle fleet getting cleaner over time as technology advances? Is it getting cleaner at the rate expected?
And so many more.
With the data collected from EDAR, we would know which vehicle types tend to be the dirtiest and construct a plan to remove them from our roads. With the data collected from EDAR, we could detect emissions fraud quickly after a fraudulent vehicle model’s release rather than the model slipping through standard emissions tests for years, all the while polluting our air. With the data collected from EDAR over time, we will know if our vehicle fleet is lowering its emissions over time, and whether it is lowering fast enough to cease contribution to the steady temperature increase on our planet.
Continuous monitoring with EDAR could make a big difference in the air we breathe. If you are interested in hearing more about EDAR, please contact us!
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