Hybrid Research, Missing Data

[Wha3454]

Hello,
I am a student at California University of PA. I am currently doing a graduate level paper on the correlation between air quality versus the increasing number of hybrid cars in the city. I have chosen to start my project on Los Angles. I have the air quality data I need but I am lacking information on the number of hybrid cars. I am hoping to go back as far as 1997 with this data but anything would help. Can anyone help me go in the right direction on where i can obtain this data.
Thanks
Matt Whaley

[casebro]

You are the graduate student, do your own research.

But, if L.A. basin has 10,000,000 cars, and 1,000,000 are hybrids putting out only 1/2 as much pollution, then that would be a 5% reduction in pollution. Or the equivalent of having the sea breeze blow 2.1 mph instead of 2.0.

But you can try R.L. Polk? I think they track auto trends.

[Complexity]

You are the graduate student, do your own research.


Harsh. I don't think it inappropriate for him to use requests like this to get leads on information sources.

[casebro]

My 'hook' got somebody else to respond.

I did give him a lead, did you? Or are you just here to get harsh with me?

Not only did I give him lead, I gave him input. Did you?

Now, do you have any topical input?

[mhaze]

Hello,
I am a student at California University of PA. I am currently doing a graduate level paper on the correlation between air quality versus the increasing number of hybrid cars in the city. I have chosen to start my project on Los Angles. I have the air quality data I need but I am lacking information on the number of hybrid cars. I am hoping to go back as far as 1997 with this data but anything would help. Can anyone help me go in the right direction on where i can obtain this data.
Thanks
Matt Whaley
Since virtually all the cars for your time period will be Prius, the source would be Toyota dealerships service managers and their databases. Obviously you have several intertwined variables to try to separate apart, not easy.

I think it would be possible to establish pretty easily that hybrid cars have had no effect on air quality in the southern California basin, and will not, in the future. That of course might not be a popular conclusion...

[David Rodale]

Another consideration is how much pollution is created in manufacturing (including all the hidden polluting steps) the hybrid versus continuing using or recycling (refurbishing) the car it is intended to replace. In other words, if I rebuild (reusing as many components as possible) a 10 year old vehicle with the goal of making it last another 10 years, would replacing it with a hybrid be a net loss or gain after 10 years?

[Fnord]

Matt,

Have you made inquires at CALTRANS or the DMV?

-Fnord-

[mhaze]

Another consideration is how much pollution is created in manufacturing (including all the hidden polluting steps) the hybrid versus continuing using or recycling (refurbishing) the car it is intended to replace. In other words, if I rebuild (reusing as many components as possible) a 10 year old vehicle with the goal of making it last another 10 years, would replacing it with a hybrid be a net loss or gain after 10 years?

Toyota's own numbers show only a 1 ton C02 savings per year for a Prius.

If the price increment for Prius over similar non hybrid is $5000, then using a $500 GNP/ton of emission (China) it is 10 years to payback and using US $2000 per ton of emissions it is 2.5 years before payback in emissions.

Reality lies somewhere in between those numbers. That is in addition to your fundamental question of "Is it smart carbon footprint wise to buy a new car at all?"

[Wha3454]

Thanks to everyone for your input! I signed up on a few forums, and this one has been helping me the most. Casebro, no i am not a grad student, I'm only a Junior. It is just a graduate level course . Fnord, I have contacted the California transportation, and they game me a number for the DMV which i will try and contact Monday.
On another note, I have been getting several replies saying that I would be wasting my time with this subject being that the data will have to many variables and would show insignificant and unreliable data. This will eventually turn into a 20-30 page paper for my "Applied Climatology" class, so if i was to make changes in my research it must be connected to climatology. If any of you have any suggestions on any slight changes i could make in my research topic please share. I wish to make this paper somewhat eye-catching so that some of you may even ask me for a copy :D

[mhaze]

Wha, regarding the "you are wasting your time" critiques, you might consider the following.

State the hypothesis in the negative, eg., "There is no sig correlation between the number of hybrids and the air quality". Then in the wrapup, have a couple of paragraphs of essentially, self criticism. Go into everything that you couldn't test or variables that you could not separate, and why they might be important. Explain how each of the factors might be separated in future research. This is part of what should be in any scientific paper, sort of an anticipation of the criticisms and to what point possible, answering them in advance and thus furthering the discussion.

The contra argument "there is no reason to study the effect of hybrid cars on air pollution in LA because there are other factors and they can't be separated out yada yada yada" is IMHO obviously ridiculous.

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

And then there's the battery to dispose of.

~~ Paul