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UPI California’s strict limits on diesel air pollution appear to have paid off. Since the limits were added in 1990, diesel exhaust-related deaths have been halved, with the largest reductions in deaths seen in lower-income communities, a new study finds. The number of annual diesel-related cardiopulmonary deaths in California between 1990 and 2014 was half what would have occurred if the state had the same reduction in diesel emissions as the rest of the country, the researchers estimated. “Everybody benefits from cleaner air, but we see time and again that it’s predominantly lower-income communities of color that are living and working in close proximity to sources of air pollution, like freight yards, highways and ports. When you target these sources, it’s the highly exposed communities that stand to benefit most,” said study author Dr. Megan Schwarzman, a physician and environmental health scientist at the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Public Health. Read the article at UPI. |
The Detroit Bureau Subaru of America Inc. received the 2021 Best Overall Brand honor – for the second consecutive year. It was one of three awards it captured as part of the Kelley Blue Book’s annual Brand Image Awards. The company also took home Most Trusted Brand and Best Performance Brand honors. Subaru was joined by Tesla, which captured four awards, including Best Overall Luxury Brand, Best Value Luxury Brand, Most Refined Luxury Brand and Best Performance Luxury Brand. Toyota received the Best Truck Brand award. “Brand awareness is one of the keys to success in a business as highly competitive as the auto industry,” KBB’s editors noted. “Shoppers need to know a company’s name and hold it in high enough regard to add to their shopping lists.” Read the article at The Detroit Bureau. |
The Drive According to Ford’s first-quarter sales report, 25,980 fully electric or hybrid vehicles were sold over the first three months of this year. Of those, 6,614 were Mach-Es while 7,176 were F-150 PowerBoost Hybrids. These numbers represent a 74.1 percent increase in the brand’s electrified vehicle sales. The Mustang Mach-E is Ford’s first real crack at a fully electric mass-market SUV. Range estimates for the vehicle seem to be somewhat conservative, and the choice to call the vehicle a Mustang seems to be paying off from a marketing perspective. The PowerBoost Hybrid F-150 has also been getting good press after it powered people’s homes during the long blackouts in Texas over the winter, with Ford even instructing dealers to loan them out to people without power. Read the article at The Drive. |
IIHS The modern roundabout is a circular intersection with design features that promote safe and efficient traffic flow. It was developed in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and now is widely used in many countries, including the United States, where its use is growing. At traditional intersections with stop signs or traffic signals, some of the most common types of crashes are right-angle, left-turn, and head-on collisions. With roundabouts, these types of potentially serious crashes are essentially eliminated because vehicles travel in the same direction and at low speeds. Several studies conducted by Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and others have reported significant improvements in traffic flow following conversion of traditional intersections to roundabouts. Read the article at IIHS. |
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Using Stress to Your Advantage
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McKinsey Stress serves a natural, physiological purpose that can help us solve important problems and learn and grow from our experiences. Instead of trying to eliminate or tamp down stress, we should try to understand it and optimize it, minimizing the downsides while capturing the upsides. Through practice, we can learn to move deliberately between an engaged state, where we’re energized, focused, creative, and productive, and a recovery state, where our brain processes events, learns, and recuperates. Locating and describing your stress is a process of discovery, and the more you learn the better you will harness your own stress response. Likewise, our methods of recovery are also unique—riding a bike, for instance, versus reading a book. To reach optimal stress, we need to be conscious of our stress; in neurological terms, it’s the first step toward lasting behavior change. Read the article at McKinsey. |
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Car and Driver Officially known as the American Jobs Plan, President Biden’s plan includes $174 billion to promote electric vehicles and EV charging stations, $80 billion for public transit, and another $80 billion for railroads. Electric vehicles will benefit the most thanks to $174 billion in spending, including incentives to buy EVs and support to get more EV chargers installed across the country: 500,000 of them by 2030. The plan does not set an end date on when gas vehicles will be sold in the U.S. The reason for the bill’s focus on EVs is not exactly secret: Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg told NPR this week that the administration believes “time is running out” to confront climate change, and this bill is one way the federal government is approaching the challenge. Read the article at Car and Driver. |
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By Ed Pierce, Contributing Editor The recently completed 2021 IARA Virtual Conference featured remarketing’s best and brightest from IARA (International Automotive Remarketers Alliance, the IAG (Independent Auction Group), the NAAA (National Auto Auction Association) and other leading organizations. The consignors session, called “Consignors Rising to Change,” provided viewers with an extended opportunity to ask pertinent questions and get expert answers from high-caliber executives, including moderator Tammy Swofford, National Sales and Marketing Director, America’s Auto Auction, and panelists Larry Knapp, Director of Remarketing for Donlen Leasing; Steve Kapusta, Senior Vice President of Remarketing Services at Ally; Mark Lindenmuth, Asset Manager, Caprock Auto Remarketing; and Mona Spoon, Senior Territory Manager, Emkay. Here are some of the panelists’ answers to some of the critical questions… READ MORE |
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