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Damn Traffic Lights

I drove up to the Voorheesville Traffic light this evening, waited for three minutes — there was over a 1/4 mile traffic backed up behind me — and the light never turned green. I tried rolling forward, but still couldn’t trip the damn induction loop.

Ultimately, ended up running the red — the light turned as soon as the next car moved up the sensor.

This happens from time to time — but it’s been happening more frequently for me. I wonder if the DOT has turned down the sensitivity on the induction loops. It’s not like I replaced my truck with a completely plastic vehicle.

Big Red

Rolling back fuel economy standards will do nothing to improve traffic safety, and will be very costly for American consumers

Consumer Reports: Rolling back fuel economy standards will do nothing to improve traffic safety, and will be very costly for American consumers

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Consumer Reports, the nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, today released an analysis showing that American consumers will lose about $460 billion dollars in fuel savings in the coming years if the federal government goes forward with plans to roll back the nation’s fuel economy and emissions standards for new cars and light-duty trucks.

The rollback was just submitted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for review within the White House, suggesting the proposal may soon be finalized. Even though the basis for the rollback proposal is purportedly to improve highway traffic safety, and thus named the “SAFE Rule” by federal agencies, this analysis by Consumer Reports (CR) finds that freezing fuel economy and emissions standards would not improve safety.

How Hi-Rail Pickup Trucks Work | -The Daily Drive

How Hi-Rail Pickup Trucks Work | -The Daily Drive

At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be much to converting a pickup into a road-rail truck (or hi-rail truck, as they are often known)—just some steel wheels and a jacking mechanism, right? Turns out, the process is a little more complicated than that—and the impact on the pickup itself is not insignificant.

While all sorts of commercial vehicles are converted for rail service, pickup trucks are the most common. Hi-rail pickups are perfect for rail-inspection duty, as well as transporting track maintenance crews to on-rail work sites.