Alan Kattelmann Traffic Report

        In order to estimate traffic levels near Mercer I stayed on the street in Mercer village and observed all through traffic for 45 minutes around 4:30pm on Thursday afternoon. During this period I observed 92 cars pass by my spot. What I observed is as follows:

Large(ex: pickup truck or SUV)-44
Medium(ex: sedan, smaller 4 door, etc.)-25
Small-(ex: 2 door, fuel efficient car)-23

The age is an estimate considering that I could not see the year of each car that passed.
Old(older than 2000)-34
New-58

Number of people in car:
one-68
two-12
three-7
more-5

Analysis- According to the U.S. EPA web site, transportation accounts for 32% of CO2 emissions released into the atmosphere. While my findings do not speak for Macon as a whole with such little data, it does not speak well for the levels the drivers in this area who likely are responsible for a large amount of CO2 releasing into the atmosphere. Most of the cars I saw were fairly large cars, and while gas mileage has certainly gotten better on these bigger vehicles, they still can pose a risk to the environment in large numbers. However, their practicality for families and working people is going to be more important, as well as their popularity and strong marketing from producers in this area. I didn't really find the number of cars surprising, however, the fact that there was usually only one person in the vehicle did. I can only assume that people were coming back from work, but this drive is where they put on the most mileage every day. Most people that don't face a morning commute have no reason to inconvenience themselves with a carpool, and public transportation is poor in Macon. My father is the owner of a brand new F-150 that he drives himself to work in every dat because that is a sustainable practice for him. To my family and many others economic sustainability is more important than environmental sustainability. On another note, several of the older cars I saw would likely not pass any sort of environmental inspections, being decades old and spewing black exhaust from their tail pipe. I understand that this is a reality anywhere that people can't afford newer cars, or simply prefer older ones. As time passes I would like to think this problem will get better, as new more efficient cars will be lower in value as time passes and be affordable to the segment the population that does not have much. On a personal note, I hope its a little warmer the next time someone has to do this assignment, because man it was cold out there.