Posts about Smart Meters

Roads

Breakfast links: Choices for unhappy drivers

by David Alpert   •   October 14, 2008 8:11 am

One way to reduce the number of cars: People are torching their own cars in increasing numbers, in places like Capitol Hill's "Car-B-Que Alley". Even abandoned cars not on fire pose a nuisance, but DC's law makes it difficult to remove them. (Post, City Paper, Infosnack)

You could have driven to San Francisco: The average Washington commuter spent 60 hours in traffic last year, the second most behind only LA and tied with Atlanta and San Francisco. With 60 hours, they could instead have driven to Atlanta and San Francisco, plus Spokane along the way. (Post via Get There)

Motorist intentionally hits cyclist, runs: SWDCBlog's roommate was cycling down 14th Street in downtown DC when a motorist screamed "get the f**k off the road," then revved up and crashed into him. We look forward to criminal charges being filed.

And across the nation: "Smart meters," which tell homeowners how much electricity they are using in real time, are growing in numbers and creating jobs; Sarah Palin's political career started by opposing zoning in Wasilla. While she opposed any government intervention in land use, she built lots of roads, spending lots of government money in ways that influenced land use. Via Planetizen.

Roads

Pay-as-you-drive or pay-as-you-drive-safely?

by David Alpert   •   September 3, 2008 5:07 pm

Pay-as-you-drive auto insurance is an important tool to unbundle the costs of driving. Today, car insurance premiums depend on the driver's record and amount of experience, but have almost nothing to do with whether the policyholder drives one thousand miles a year or one hundred thousand miles a year. The more you drive, the better deal you get on your insurance. That's unfair to those who drive less, and creates a backward economic incentive.

California's state insurance commissioner took steps last week to legalize this type of insurance. The Brookings Institution, which has published research showing the benfits of PAYD, concluded that two-thirds of California households would save money, especially low-income drivers but including drivers in all income groups, ethnicities, and rural and urban households. Overall, implementing PAYD would cut auto use 8 percent, Brookings projects, cutting pollution, saving money on health-care and disability payments, reducing accidents and cutting congestion.

Progressive already offers a program, MyRate, in Maryland, New Jersey, Alabama, Minnesota, and Oregon. Unlike California's proposal, MyRate not only considers total mileage, but also driving speeds, aggressive driving, and time of day, by using a special electronic device that plugs in to the car. This is the sort of plan loved by economists and loathed by privacy advocates, who successfully lobbied California to prohibit GPS tracking in PAYD programs.

Whether the plans use a GPS or just an odometer reading, they'll be most effective when drivers perceive a direct connection between their behavior and their insurance costs. Progressive's program shows drivers how they're doing online, with graphs of driving behavior, comparisons to the average MyRate driver, and up-to-date information about their discounts.

As we've learned from experiences like the ambient orb for power consumption, the more feedback people get and the closer it is to real-time, the bigger the effect on behavior. Ideally, Progressive's device could flash some statistics while the driver is on the road, just as the Prius's onboard display shows owners their real-time gas mileage and helps train them to conserve as much as possible.

An odometer system wouldn't do any of this, of course, but insurers could tell drivers a simple cost per mile, or suggest thinking about it in terms of an average added insurance cost per gallon of gas, or even provide an online calculator so they can compute the incremental insurance cost (and gas cost) of a long car trip.

Even a small reduction in VMT is significantly reducing auto fatalities. PAYD insurance will help reduce VMT further, while eliminating the unfair pricing structure that penalizes those who don't commute by car or commute only short distances. Let's bring it to DC and Virginia!

Parking

Lunch links: Three steps forward, two steps back edition

by David Alpert   •   July 25, 2008 12:29 pm

Arlington moving toward performance parking: Arlington's recently-approved Master Transportation Plan includes a policy of making meter prices "vary by hour and location to better match parking availability and demand." county staff said a detailed proposal is in the works and may be approved by the County Board in December. (Infosnack HQ)

NYC gets another cycle track: There's another separated bike lane going up in New York City, this one on Grand Street. Instead of separately timed signals for bikes and cars, there will be a "mixing zone" at the ends of blocks for cars and bikes to merge, copied from successful ones in Copenhagen. Meanwhile, we're still waiting to hear about 15th Street. That's why we need a visionary DDOT director. (Streetsblog)

Smart pricing for electricity: PEPCO is evaluating three possible pricing schemes to charge more for electricity at peak times. Perhaps the best part of these plans is "smart meters" which will show consumers how much they are using and how much it costs. In California, when the power company gave some customers an "Ambient Orb" that glowed a redder color when the consumer was using more electricity, consumers reduced their usage by 40% at peak times. (The Goodspeed Update)

Virginia begins HOT boondoggle: VDOT broke ground on widening the Beltway to create HOT lanes. USDOT Secretary Mary Peters has pushed this idea in her singleminded zeal not to have gas taxes. But all indications show that the HOT lanes won't pay for themselves, meaning we're pouring more public money into making more people drive. (Washington Post Get There)

MPD goes after bicyclists: The day after Robert Novak escaped with only a $50 fine for hitting a pedestrian, MPD has chosen to focus their traffic enforcement resources by going after bicyclists riding the wrong way on New Hampshire Avenue just north of U Street. While they were breaking the rules, they were riding on an extremely wide and lightly-used street, avoiding much busier and more dangerous nearby streets. (DCist)