Starting off furious and fast with an all new season 2…
The most difficult decision of your day in San Diego should be where to go in such a beautiful place, but its hard to keep rolling forward if your stuck stopping for gas.
How Can I Help? Season 2, Episode 1: Electro-GO! (Electric Vehicles)
Start the season with the inside line on lower environmental impact, absence of noxious exhaust fumes, and superior performance while combining tight, technical corners with the thrill of electric karts at K1 Speed in Carlsbad, CA.
Get unplugged with the newest get going green options for everyday with Car2Go San Diego which provides a sustainable solution in the city with a fleet of electric vehicles. See why its green to get behind the wheel of this idea.
Then roll out to the California Center for Sustainable Energy Resource Center and you won’t be running out of capacity for this conversation on current affairs.
It’s definitely not static as we continue at the Energy Resource Center to find out how shockingly easy it is to be more energy efficient everyday.
Before we pull the plug on the episode, we’re gonna rock down to an electric rendezvous and we’ll take it higher as we meetup with some diode electric advocates right here in San Diego to get a down ohm understanding of electric scooters.
Its getting electric as we roll out Season 2 right with the premiere episode. Electro-GO! originally aired Thursday December 8th at 6:00 PM on ITV.
All new episodes every Thursday…
Green Yourself and get yourself moving forward as you ride the city with a great guide to the best bike routes and energy efficient ways to charge your EV. Don’t get caught in traffic again with an ideal instead of idle drive out of traffic congestion.
Green Yourself: Be the engine of change
Lose the use for carbon emitting transportation by taking the chance at traveling by bike. It’s a fun, healthy way to help San Diego.
To learn more about the biking community as well as FREE discounts for popular San Diego shopping and restaurants just for biking be sure to explore SD Bike Commuter.
A business discount program for cyclists. There are no cards to carry around and no secret handshakes. Just go to a participating small local business on a bicycle, you get a discount. The logo on the right would normally be seen as a small wooden sign in the window of participating businesses. The signs are pretty easy to see from the street but click on the logo to see which businesses are offering discounts.
Ride your bike more and support small local businesses. Don’t forget to ask for the discount.
Green Yourself: Take the time to be Energy Efficient at the right times.
What is on-peak, off-peak, and super off-peak?
The demand for electricity or energy varies during the day.
On-peak = highest demand, super off-peak = lowest demand
Energy demand is at its lowest in the middle of the night when most people are sleeping and most commercial/industrial buildings are not in operation and then highest from about noon to 8 PM when everybody is working, cooking, watching TV, running laundry and dishwashers, etc. The temperature makes a big difference (more power is required to run air conditioners or heating systems). On-peak describes a period in which energy demand is expected to be provided for a sustained period of time with a higher-than-average energy supply level.
The difference in demand creates on-peak (12pm-8pm), off-peak (5am-12pm, 8pm-12am), and super off-peak (12am-5am) energy use periods.
Why should I care and does this matter for the environment?
The reason why this is green is because our power grid has to be designed to meet peak demand. It’s kind of like having a car with a huge engine because once in a while you need to drive really fast. The rest of the time a smaller engine could, but you need the extra power in reserve.
To adjust for this higher energy supply energy companies use Peaker Plants when there is a high demand. Peaker Plants are typically low capacity and high cost because it is too expensive to build an efficient power plant for energy on demand during high demand on-peak hours. The equipment and fuel of cleaner more efficient energy technology requires a longer warm up and cool down period which makes clean or renewable energy technology inefficient for on-peak hours.
The greatest emissions from Peaker Plants are pollutants such as nitrogen oxides (NOx). Other pollutants emitted include carbon monoxide and to a smaller degree particulate matter, volatile organic material, and sulfur dioxide.
The opposite of a peaking plant are base load power plants, which operate continuously, stopping only for maintenance or unexpected outages. In San Diego we have a diverse portfolio of energy choices (Clean Natural Gas, Geothermal, Wind, Solar, Nuclear, Biomass, etc.) to provide a sustainable source of energy throughout the day.
California has the highest standards for a clean energy technology grid so research and development of better energy solutions are being developed daily. While every energy source has its advantages and disadvantages our individual impact is a simple solution for helping the environment, economy and community.
Green Yourself: Hot Route
Efficient travel with smart traffic choices helps reduce your use of gas or electricity when caught in traffic. Here’s a couple congested areas, alternative routes, and great driving tips to keep you moving forward.
Avoid these areas…
The most congested corridors (bottlenecks of at least 3 miles) are the eastbound I-78 between Rancho Santa Fe road and Mission Road has about 4.2 miles of congestion; southbound I-805, from I-5 merge to La Jolla Village Drive/Miramar Road; northbound I-5 from I-805 merge to Manchester Avenue; and southbound I-5 from Harbor Drive in Oceanside to Birmingham Drive.
Top Ten Worst Traffic Congestion areas in San Diego
Everyday is different, but these routes are consistently the worst traffic areas in the city.
10. Eastbound SR-78 at Barham Drive
One more SR-78 bottleneck, at 1.75 miles long, 18 hours of congestion during day with an average speed of 28.3 MPH.
9. Eastbound I-8 at SR-54/2nd Street
Decades ago, the eastbound I-8 used to be the most congested, but with commutes moving northward, this .88 mile stretch now ranks only 9th with 15 hours of congestion and an averaged speed of 22.8 MPH.
8. Southbound SR-125 at Grossmont Boulevard
This .49 mile stretch in the La Mesa area had 14 hours of congestion and an average speed of 22.4 MPH.
7. Southbound I-5 at Mission Avenue
This .73 mile stretch of I-5 has 17 hours of congestion and an average speed of 25.7 MPH.
6. Northbound I-5 at Del Mar Heights Road
This 1.46 mile stretch of 1-5 just beyond the 5/805 split is what most San Diegans associate with freeway congestion, but surprisingly, it only ranks 6th, with 16 hours of congestion and an average speed of 23.3 MPH.
5. Eastbound SR-56 at Carmel Creek Road
You don’t typically think of this stretch of SR-56 is all that busy, but this .55 mile stretch comes in 5th place with 11 hours of congestion and average speed of 16.7 MPH.
4. Southbound I-805 at Mira Mesa Boulevard/Sorrento Valley Road
This stretch, just north of the La Jolla Village bottleneck, runs 1.56 miles with 15 hours of congestion and an average speed of 20.8 MPH.
3. Southbound I-805 at La Jolla Village Drive/Miramar Road
This stretch of I-805 is traditionally a bottleneck at 1.37 miles long with 22 hours of congestion and 23.7 average MPH.
2. Eastbound SR-78 at San Marcos Boulevard
Another SR-78 bottleneck, this one is 1.62 miles long with 19 hours of congestion with an average speed of 19.4 MPH.
1. Eastbound SR-78 at Twin Oaks valley Road
The bottleneck might only be .76 miles, but this stretch of the always sluggish SR-78 had 21 hours of congestion and the average speed is 20.8 miles per hour.
Try to avoid these areas by finding alternate routes to get where you’re going without emitting extra carbon sitting in traffic.