Why Intelligent Transportation Systems: Alternative Fuel Technology & Advanced Transportation Technology in Air Pollution & Environmental Pollution Reduction

You have the opportunity to become involved in one of the most exciting and rapidly changing industries of the 21st century!

Everyday you can see that the transportation system is becoming transformed all around you - automobiles using hybrid technologies of gasoline and electric fuel; buses operating on natural gas; trucks using biodiesel or liquefied natural gas; and even forklifts powered by propane! Vehicles now have satellite connections, directional finders, online computers, with many more computer and other electronics on their way. These changes are just the beginning - you have the chance to be there from the start!

In completing the program you select at Miramar College you will become a highly skilled technician with industry experience - ready to successfully compete in today's marketplace and equipped for the future. See for example the work going on about alternative fuels in the San Diego region at www.sdrafvc.org.

Any doubts about the need for change in the transportation system - consider the problems to be solved. Our present system is dependent upon one fuel, costly, congested and unhealthy.

As noted by the California Energy Commission, "in California, about 75 percent of our petroleum is used by the transportation sector; that represents one-half of all energy used in the state. Californians spend $74 billion a year on transportation energy. That works out to about $4 million an hour or $65,000 EVERY SECOND!"

Based on the California Department of Transportation's 1995 State Highway Congestion Monitoring Program Report (the most recent year available), 315,476 vehicle hours of delay per day on urban area freeways in California was due to traffic jams. In addition, California motorists in 1995 used an extra 1.1 million gallons of fuel per day due to urban freeway congestion. The increased travel time and extra fuel cost motorists about $5.9 million per day.

According to the California Air Resources Board, mobile sources in the state account for 81 percent of carbon monoxide emissions and 80 percent of the emissions oxides of nitrogen, two major components of California's air pollution. While gasoline and diesel fuels and vehicles themselves have become cleaner and produce less emissions, the total number of vehicles in California -- 22 million and climbing -- cumulatively continue to produce the air pollution and associated health problems we face.