WEDNESDAY'S HUM (05-30-07)
TOP 7 HUMMERS OF THE WEEK
1 - GENTLEMAN JIM DOUGLAS SEEKS ANOTHER TERM
Wait. Didn't he just win? Oh, that's right. It's every two years, and in this robust political climate, one must be constantly campaigning. Republicans are hoping Scudder Parker runs again, too, 'cuz he'll get the same spanking he got last time!
2 - CINDY SHEEHAN AND PETER WELCH
Cindy Sheehan is backing out because she's running into the same problems as Peter Welch has encountered - being slammed from both the right AND the left. Sheehan has a great line in her resig letter:
"Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives."
Here's her essay from Daily Kos, entitled "Good Riddance, Attention Whore."
3. - ESSEX MEMORIAL DAY PARADE
One of the high school marching bands was playing Born In The U.S.A. Check out the words sometime.
4. - VERMONT CITY MARATHON
What a great event it is -- EXCEPT FOR THE HUNDREDS OF LOCAL RELAY RUNNERS WHO ARE SHUT OUT EVERY YEAR THANKS TO THAT STUPID LOTTERY!!!
There. We feel better now.
5. - LAKE MONSTERS AT CENTENNIAL JUNE 19
They don't have to win. If the beer's cold and the kids are having fun, life is good.
By the way - 19 former Vermont players have made the bigs. So who knows? Go to a Lake Monsters game and catch a possible future star.
6. - HIGH GAS PRICES
Hmmm. Wonder how much gas is being idled away at the Essex Junction Five Corners each day? Is there an engineer in the audience?
7. - CLINTON AT MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE
Ex-prez Bill Clinton was the commencement speaker at Midd's 207th Grad ceremony. The Burlington Free Press had a great front page pic of Clinton touching hands with an attractive 20ish female grad. Bill was smiling and he looked very, very happy.
posted by Brian Mcclintock at 14:55
3 Comments:
Gas usage for Idle time...simple
Traditional estimates for fuel usage at idle is 1/3 gal/hr, at $3.00/gal that is 1.67 cents per minute.
From http://circeis.org/documents/purpose_and_need/050624_WO5_Purpose_Need.pdf (Ref 1), I found that the Five Corners intersection is classified as LOS F (read the report).
From http://www.ctre.iastate.edu/educweb/ce553/HCM_SignalizedLOS_Handout.ppt (Ref 2), slide 5, LOS F has a greater than 80 second wait per vehicle.
From Ref 1, page 9, approx 50% of AADT (estimated in ref 1 as 18,000) goes through Five Corners during the PM. That is roughly 9000 vehicles. Assume same for AM.
So, for AM and PM, 9000 x 2 = 18000 vehicles. 18000 x 80 seconds x 1/60 (convert to minutes) x 1.67 cents = $400.80/day
$400.80/day which at $3.00/gal is 133.6 gallons per day. This is nearly 35,000 per year.
That was a beautiful assessment of fuel burn at the corners.
BORN IN THE USA IS A PROTEST SONG
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