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How much pollution do motorcycles generate? Are there
efforts to make them more eco-friendly?
Motorcycles typically get about double the gas mileage
of even the most fuel-efficient cars, but that doesn’t mean that
they’re green. Despite getting 60 to 70 miles per gallon, motorcycles
are not subject to the same rigorous emissions standards as cars and
light-duty trucks, even though they spew as much as 15 times more pollution
per mile, mostly in the form of smog-causing hydrocarbons and nitrogen
oxides. Increasingly stringent regulations in Europe and the
United States have forced automakers to make their engines cleaner, but
motorcycle manufacturers have not been held to such high standards and have
therefore been slow to implement similar advances. According to the
European Commission, motorcycles — despite only accounting for about
3 percent of total traffic volume in Europe — are expected to
generate as much as 14 percent of that continent’s total hydrocarbon
emissions by 2010. But there is light at the end of the tunnel, thanks in
large part to the state of California, which in 2004 passed legislation to
green up motorcycles sold and ridden in that state. California’s new
standards dictate that hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide emissions from
motorcycles must top out at only 0.8 grams per kilometer, down from
1975-set standards of between 5.0 and 14.0 g/km (depending on engine size).
And in 2005 the United Nations’ World Forum for
Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations, which works internationally to set
vehicle-emissions standards, issued a new set of
motorcycle-emissions-testing guidelines that will make it easier for
manufacturers to design more green-friendly motorcycles.
In the wake of these developments, the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency established new federal rules that require
motorcycle makers to reduce their products’ emissions by 50 percent.
In place since the beginning of the 2006 model year, these new rules are
expected to cut combined hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide emissions from
motorcycles by about 54,000 tons a year while also saving approximately 12
million gallons of fuel annually by preventing it from escaping from fuel
hoses and fuel tanks.
Many manufacturers are rising to the challenge. Honda,
already a world leader in the development of greener cars, is putting the
finishing touches on its new “idling-stop system” that cuts
fuel consumption and exhaust emissions by turning off the engine instead of
idling at stop lights and in traffic jams. And Intelligent Energy, a
British company, is developing an Emissions Neutral Vehicle, a motorcycle
powered by a detachable hydrogen-powered fuel cell. The vehicle can reach
speeds topping 50 mph while making virtually no noise and can run for as
long as four hours without being refueled. Bigger, faster, and
longer-running versions of the ENV are currently in the works and should
become widely available in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere within
a few years.
For more information:
California’s “New Standards for On-Road Motorcycles,”
www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/motcycle/onrdmc.htm; EPA’s Motorcycle Emissions
Info, www.epa.gov/otaq/roadbike.htm; Intelligent Energy,
www.intelligent-energy.com; Honda Motorcycles,powersports.honda.com/
the_story/environment.
Send questions to Earth Talk, care of E/The Environmental Magazine,
P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881 or e-mail earthtalk@emagazine.com.
This article appears in Jul 5-11, 2007.
