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by pembrook 1011 days ago
On a hot sunny day, the blacktop beneath the traffic jam is radiating more heat than all the cars on top of it are creating.

And a car engine is producing far more direct heat than the increase in ground-level ozone from exhaust pollution is increasing heat (from that same car).

Also the fact that cars have air conditioners is a total non-sequitur. The air conditioner in the car requires negligible energy compared to the force required to move 4000 pounds and 1-5 people at 70mph.

1 comments

This maybe true, but I'd argue the air con still takes about 5mpg off the range of the fuel, but their existence and heat isnt magically disappearing, it spreads out helping to raise temperatures.

This link [1] suggests traffic jams can increase temperatures by 7 degrees Celcius.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9678727/