I drive to work on I-94, usually entering at the Baker Rd. ramp.  There are
two REALLY HUGE truckstops there and 1/4 mile East is a highway reststop. 
On real cold clear windless mornings, there is a blue smoke haze hanging there
so thick that it looks like fog.  The smell is strong and burns your lungs.

The truckers idle their diesels all night and the smog becomes thick.  I
wonder if it (1) has any noticable effect on the local environment, and 
(2) generates some really irate neighbors?  

Anyone notice this?

4 responses total.

I hadn't noticed it there, since I don't tend to go past there early in the
morning, but I've noticed busses doing that in the city, and been annoyed by
it.  The claim I've heard is that they're too hard to start to be worth
turning off, which to me suggests something fundamentally wrong with the way
they're designed.  This time of year, for sleeping in the trucks, I can see
more of a point to it, if that's what keeps the heat in  the truck going. 
I wonder, though, if there might be a better way to heat them.

That hard to start line is getting a bit old.  Fact is that diesel is their
energy source.  It keep them warm in the winter and cool in the summer.  I'd
also be willing to bet that the truckers get so use to it's constant throb
that they can't sleep well without it running.  The fact is that even diesels
are easy to start when they are warm (Or cold when maintained)  When the big
co-op diesel truck stops by our place, they shut it down.  It starts right up
and is ready to go an hour later.
 
I commute down Industrial Hwy. by bicycle.  I hate it when the AATA busses
pull out of their garage there spewing half burnt diesel fumes from their
still cold engines.  Their drivers are good people though.  They give me 
plenty of room and will often hang out at the traffic light by Eisenhower
and Industrial to trip it for me.

In addition to the nuisance value, I would think the fumes and particulates
are bad for your health.  I would hate to work there or live just east of the
I-94 truck stops.

You bet!  The health risk is significant.

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