[gumby]

> ...preventing me from buying sub-freezing temperature windshield wiper fluid

Actually you can buy and use that stuff in California, you just can't buy it in the valleys (which are warmer BTW) because the emissions cause smog. But in the sierras, where it's a safety issue and the topographic features are different, its available in every service station and car parts store. It's in in my gf's car right now.

The same sensible attitude works in reverse: some states ban studded winter tires because they rip up the roads. California allows them from November-April (longer in very snowy years) because they are safer in snow (and annoying as hell, especially in dry conditions, so you never encounter them at low altitude).

[asguy]

You're missing the point: I don't live in the Sierras. I live on the coast, and I drive to the mountains.

What do I do with the windshield wiper fluid that is in my car, before I go to a freezing area? Do I waste it all by overusing it on the drive up? Do I set calendars to make sure I cycle my windshield wiper fluid, so that I'm low enough by the time I get to the mountains, I can buy sub freezing fluid, that my remaining fluid won't freeze?

What I end up doing is making my own blend on the coast because (thankfully) I know how, but it's a ridiculous limitation of California environmentalism.

[gumby]

Wow, must be difficult being you. I just add some to my fluid reservoir when I get up there.

And I benefit from the clear skies down in the valley when I am here. In the 60s you couldn’t see the mountains from Mountain View. Now you can again, and people have fewer breathing problems.

If that’s “California Environmentalism” well, it seems pretty good to me.

[asguy]

> In the 60s you couldn’t see the mountains from Mountain View.

Do you think sub-zero windshield wiper fluid banning did that, or catalytic converters and efficient engine management? Hint: it was the latter.

[gumby]

It was the suppression of volatile vapors, the smog being photocatalytic hydrocarbons as you point out. Catalytic converters were indeed a big deal, as were the vapor barriers on fuel pumps.

But that witches’ brew of smog was (is) a mixture of all sorts of volatiles from many sources (e.g. paint shops and factories).

There’s by definition no one solution to diffuse fugitive emissions, and I’m glad the various AQMDs and CARB are working on it. I’m also glad they are organized in a decentralized fashion, so that different districts can have different rules and programs.

Oh and the ECUs (and their O2 sensors) came in after a lot of the work had been accomplished back in the carburetor days, but things are a lot cleaner today because they continued.