Mass Transit

October 13, 2009

Looking For Help With That EV Charging Network You Want To Set Up?

We usually write pieces bemoaning the lack of funding for advanced technology vehicle and transportation programs.

Here's one that might help you get some.

The New York Academy of Sciences and ther Urban Age Insrtitute are co-sponsoring a national "Sustainable City Finance" conference early next year. While a lot of the talk will be about greening municipal buidlings at the like, green transportation will be on the agenda as well, says Gordon Feller, Urgan Age's chief executive.

Feller said the Jan. 7 conference is designed to help businesses, private organizations and governments understand financing initiatives that can help accelerate the greening of our cities and the development of cleaner technologies.

A variety of electric transportation financing topics will be on the agenda, including at least onee session on electric vehicle charging systems, or, as Feller puts it:

"We'll help conference participants assess the capacity of municipalities and states to finance the transition to electric transport infrastructure - or to partner with private sector firms that want to work with them on structuring the transactions."

You can get more information, and registration forms, at the conference Website.

Posted by: Permalink | Comments (0); John O'Dell October 13, 2009, 3:01 PM
Categories:: Mass Transit, Tax Incentives
Technorati Tags:: Electric Transportation

September 22, 2009

$100 Million In Green Transportation Grants Awarded by Transportation Department

The federal government has awarded $100 million in grants to 43 metropolitan transit agencies that had submitted plans to cut emissions and create so-called "green" jobs.

The grants mark the Obama Administration's continued investment in reducing the environmental impact of transportation vehicles by using technologies that boost fuel efficiency and cut pollution.

Many of the green grants are for agencies to replace diesel transit buses with diesel-electric hybrid and battery-electric buses, but a number also involve increased use of solar energy.

California-based transportation agencies such as the Bay Area's AC Transit and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority will be given more than $17 million for projects such as boosting solar energy capacity to make hydrogen with clean electricity, installing photovoltaic panels to offset electricity use at maintenance yards, and installing a flywheel energy storage system, the U.S. Transportation Department said in a statement announcing the grants.

Posted by: Permalink | Comments (0); John O'Dell September 22, 2009, 12:12 AM
Categories:: Diesel, Fuel Cell, Fuel Economy, Hybrid, Hydrogen, Mass Transit, Plug-ins and Electric, Solar
Technorati Tags:: Federal Transit Authority

July 15, 2009

U.C. Berkeley Study Says Battery Switching Model Would Accelerate EV Acceptance

"It took over sixty years and six generations of gasoline engines for the Chevy Corvette to accelerate from zero to sixty miles per hour in under four seconds. The first version of the Tesla Roadster, which is the world's first Lithium-ion battery powered car, achieved that feat immediately. Whereas earlier generations of electric cars were plagued by poor performance, high cost, and short ranges, a new generation of affordable, high-performance electric cars is about to enter the U.S. market."

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Right, click on the image to enlarge it.
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Thus begins a very readable and interesting report commissioned by U.C. Berkeley's Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology entitled, "Electric Vehicles in the United States: A New Model with Forecasts to 2030." Its author is Thomas Becker, a U.C. Berkeley economist who specializes in international and environmental economics.

The paper estimates the rate of market adoption of EVs in the U.S. through 2030 and analyzes the impact of electric-car deployment on the trade balance, business investment, employment, health care costs and greenhouse-gas emissions. And, the paper forecasts three electric-vehicle adoption scenarios based on two oil price scenarios and possible purchase price incentives for electric cars.

Before moving on to a summary of the paper, there are some things we feel you ought to know about it. In response to a query from Green Car Advisor, the university acknowledged that Better Place - a huge advocate of electric vehicles in general and the major proponent of battery switching technology in particular - helped fund the program that conducted the study, which found that the U.S. can greatly benefit from EVs and battery switching.

The study's premise is that electric vehicles would be sold without batteries at a cost similar to conventional gasoline or diesel cars, and the batteries would be leased at a cost approximating the monthly cost of gasoline for a conventional vehicle.

That is a big part of Better Place's business model. The company envisions itself as a major battery leasing enterprise and operator of quick-change battery swapping stations.

We queried the university and Better Place after both issued reports Monday that shed an attractive light on electric vehicles. The timing of the reports seemed coordinated; the university and Better Place denied that the same release date was anything more than a coincidence. Click on "5-Nation Survey by Electric Vehicle Backer Shows Strong Consumer Interest in EVs" to read our piece on the report issued by Better Place.

Now, without further adieu, click on the "Continue reading" button, below, to read a summary of the U.C. Berkeley study.

Posted by: Permalink | Comments (1); Scott Doggett July 15, 2009, 1:01 AM
Categories:: Batteries, Chevrolet, Emissions, Fuel Economy, Mass Transit, Plug-ins and Electric, Tax Incentives, Tesla
Technorati Tags:: Batteries

June 8, 2009

Daimler Debuts Mercedes-Benz Citaro FuelCELL Diesel-Electric Hybrid City Bus

Daimler is presenting its new Mercedes-Benz Citaro FuelCELL Hybrid city bus to a conference of public transport authorities in Vienna all of this week.

The fuel-cell hybrid bus is the first vehicle in Daimler's new generation of fuel-cell buses. According to its maker, the bus combines the environmental advantages of the diesel-electric Citaro G BlueTec Hybrid with those of the hydrogen-powered Citaro fuel cell buses, which have delivered impressive performance in fleet tests.

The Mercedes-Benz Citaro FuelCELL Hybrid runs without emitting any pollutants and is virtually silent, making it ideal for use in highly congested inner-cities and urban areas.

Daimler is the No. 1 busmaker by volume worldwide. If any company is positioned to revolutionize that market, it's Daimler. And clearly the compnay is attempting to do just that.

The Mercedes-Benz Citaro FuelCELL Hybrid was developed within the framework of Daimler's global commercial vehicle initiative to use clean, efficient drive systems and alternative fuels to make zero-emission commercial vehicles a reality.

The fuel-cell systems used are identical with those installed in the Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-CELL passenger car, for which small-lot production will begin later this year. Several components were also borrowed from the B-Class F-CELL, with developers mutually benefiting from their respective test results.

Daimler will produce a small batch of about 30 vehicles of this new generation of fuel-cell buses and offer them to European mass transit companies.

Beginning in fall, Daimler will be conducting extensive, large-scale testing of the Mercedes-Benz Citaro FuelCell Hybrid bus in a number of European cities.

Posted by: Permalink | Comments (0); Scott Doggett June 8, 2009, 6:15 PM
Categories:: Daimler, Diesel, Emissions, Fuel Cell, Fuel Economy, Hybrid, Mass Transit, Mercedes-Benz
Technorati Tags:: Daimler

May 22, 2009

Hydrogen Boosters Plan 1,700-mile Road Trip To Showcase Their Technology

It's proving to be a long and winding road to the hydrogen economy.

But the California Air Resources Board, the California Fuel Cell Partnership, the National Hydrogen Association and the U.S. Fuel Cell Council are betting that the 2009 Hydrogen Road Tour, which will stop in 28 cities in the U.S. and Canada, will give motorists an opportunity to see how hydrogen fits into the transportation future.

The 1,700-mile road trip will begin on May 26 in Chula Vista, Calif. and end on June 3 in Vancouver, B.C. The tour will showcase a number of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles from General Motors Corp., Volkswagen Group of America, Daimler and other manufacturers. Though some of the planned events are by invitation, most are open to the public, and some lucky folks will be invited to test drive hydrogen-powered vehicles.

"Fuel cell technology is on the verge of becoming a practical alternative to burning gasoline," said CARB Chairman Mary D. Nichols. "This year's road tour demonstrates how far the industry has come and how near we are to putting these cars in the public's hands."

Given recent budget cuts proposed by the U.S. Department of Energy, the hydrogen sector could use an upbeat road trip to clear its collective head.

On May 7, DoE Secretary Steven Chu proposed that more than $100 million be cut from his department's hydrogen program. The proposed cut in the 2010 federal budget would slash hydrogen fuel cell spending by 59 percent to just $68 million and shift research to stationary power generation from transportation.

Why? "We asked ourselves, 'Is it likely in the next 10 or 15, 20 years that we will convert to a hydrogen car economy?' The answer, we felt, was 'no,'" Chu said in a briefing.

Chu's action marked a dramatic reversal from 2002 when former DoE Secretary Spencer Abraham boasted that "At the Department of Energy, we're not just talking about the hydrogen economy. We're working to make it a reality."

Posted by: Permalink | Comments (0); Greg Johnson May 22, 2009, 9:03 AM
Categories:: Alternative Fuels, General Motors, Hydrogen, Hyundai, Legislation, Mass Transit, Mercedes-Benz, Transportation Alternatives
Technorati Tags:: Battery Electric Vehicles

May 14, 2009

Vanderbilt University Professor Wants To Stop "American Idle"

The headline on a story in a recent Vanderbilt University publication is an eye-catcher: "The Campaign To End American Idle."

It's not a typographical error. The story describes how American motorists waste energy and create additional tailpipe emissions by allowing their cars to idle rather than shutting their engines down.

A nationwide survey of 1,300 drivers conducted recently by the Vanderbilt University Climate Change Research Network suggests that passenger cars with engines idling could account for 1.6 percent of the nation's overall mobile and stationary pollution.

About half of that occurs at red lights and during traffic jams. But, Mike Vandenbergh (shown above), a Vanderbilt law professor and a co-author of the study, links the other half to motorists who are waiting to pick up their children at school, talking on cell phones or waiting to pick up a burger in a fast-food drive-through lane.

Eliminating that unnecessary idling time could save almost $6 billion in fuel a year based on 2008 prices, said Vandenbergh, who is director of the research network.

"Drivers who idle their cars and light trucks in driveways, school pick-up lines, to warm up a car or while waiting in fast-food or bank drive-through lines account for 17 billion pounds of carbon dioxide emissions each year," according to Vandenbergh. "As a basis for comparison, industrial aluminum production currently accounts for 13.7 billion pounds of carbon emissions and petrochemical production for 3.3 billion pounds.

"We tend, in the policy arena, to look for areas or actions that have the greatest emissions," Vandenbergh said. "By doing that, we focus on some of the very hardest behaviors to change," such as the never-ending attempt to get more people to use public transportation.

Prior to teaching at Vanderbilt, Vandenbergh was an environmental attorney in Washington, D.C. From 1993 to 1995 he was chief of staff at the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

Greg Johnson, Contributor

Posted by: Permalink | Comments (3); Greg Johnson May 14, 2009, 12:22 PM
Categories:: Emissions, Fuel Economy, Mass Transit, Transportation Alternatives
Technorati Tags:: Emissions

May 12, 2009

Clean Energy Fuels Corp. Agrees To Buy Exterran Holdings' Fueling Business

Clean Energy Fuels Corp. , the company founded and controlled by Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, has agreed to acquire Exterran Holdings Inc.'s natural gas fueling station business. The deal includes natural gas fueling station operations and maintenance agreements covering approximately 25 million GGEs (gasoline gallon equivalents.)

Clean Energy provides CNG and LNG for fleet operators in the refuse, transit, ports, shuttle, taxi, trucking, airport and municipal sectors. It fuels more than 15,000 vehicles annually at 176 stations in the U.S. and Canada. It also owns two LNG production plants (in Willis, Texas and Boron, Calif.) with a combined capacity of 260,000 LNG gallons per day.

Exterran Holdings' customers include the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the country's largest clean air bus fleet, the Montgomery (Maryland) County Transit system, Washington, D.C.'s Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in Boston. The sale must be approved by the transit agencies.

Posted by: Permalink | Comments (0); Greg Johnson May 12, 2009, 12:30 PM
Categories:: Mass Transit, Natural Gas
Technorati Tags:: Clean Energy Fuels Corp.

April 8, 2009

California Increases Number of Hydrogen Fueling Stations in LA and San Francisco

The California Air Resources Board has awarded $1.7 million each to Mebtahi Station Services, the San Francisco Airport, Shell Hydrogen and UCLA to help cover their respective costs of building hydrogen refueling stations.

The competitive bidding process for the awards began in December 2008 when the board asked for proposals to help build out the state's "Hydrogen Highway Network."

The grants provided by the California legislature and distributed by CARB are part of the state's ongoing bid to encourage the use of alternative fuels. The new stations are clustered in Los Angeles and San Francisco and will "double the amount of hydrogen available to the public," according to CARB.

Mebtahi Station Services will add hydrogen fuel to an existing Chevron Station near the corner of Western Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway in Harbor City.

The San Francisco Airport will build a hydrogen refueling facility at the Millbrae Avenue exit on Highway 101. The station will service passenger cars and vehicles operated by local transit agencies.

Shell Hydrogen will add hydrogen refueling equipment at an existing gasoline station on Jamboree Road in Newport Beach.

UCLA will build a hydrogen fueling station at a transit facility at the corner of Veteran and Kinross Avenues in Westwood.

Posted by: Permalink | Comments (0); Greg Johnson April 8, 2009, 5:22 PM
Categories:: Energy Companies, Hydrogen, Mass Transit, Transportation Alternatives
Technorati Tags:: Alternative Fuels

January 28, 2009

Gore Urges Congress to Pass Obama Plan as First Step to Controlling GHGs

Former Vice President Al Gore is urging lawmakers not to let the economic crisis get in the way of addressing global warming.

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Former Vice President Al Gore during his Congressional years. He served in the House (1977-85) and in the Senate (1985-93).
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Testifying today before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Nobel Peace Prize winner said lawmakers should pass in its entirety the economic stimulus plan envisioned by President Obama as a first step to bringing greenhouse gases under control.

The plan's unprecedented and critical investments in four key areas - energy efficiency, renewable energy, a unified national energy grid and the move to clean cars - represent an important down payment and are long overdue, he said.

"For years our efforts to address the growing climate crisis have been undermined by the idea that we must choose between our planet and our way of life; between our moral duty and our economic well being," Gore said.

"These are false choices. In fact, the solutions to the climate crisis are the very same solutions that will address our economic and national security crises as well."

He said that as long as America continues to send hundreds of billions of dollars for foreign oil year after year to "the most dangerous and unstable regions of the world," its national security will continue to be at risk.

And as long as the country continues to allow its economy to remain shackled to the OPEC rollercoaster of rising and falling oil prices, America's jobs and way of life will remain at risk, he said.

Moreover, as the demand for oil worldwide grows rapidly over the longer term, even as the rate of new discoveries is falling, it is increasingly obvious that the roller coaster is headed for a crash, he said, "and we're in the front car."

Posted by: Permalink | Comments (1); Scott Doggett January 28, 2009, 12:04 PM
Categories:: Legislation, Mass Transit
Technorati Tags:: Al Gore

January 27, 2009

Electric Vehicle Promoter Lays Out Radical Transportation System for U.S. Cities

By Scott Doggett, Contributor

Every so often someone comes up with a plan that, despite its merits, is so far out it doesn't stand a chance of being realized and is eventually placed in a landfill.

We suspect Tony Locricchio's plan will go that way - and we aren't convinced that it shouldn't.

The Hawaii attorney and electric-vehicle proponent on Monday presented a pod of reporters with a dress rehearsal of the pitch he'll make to the general public tonight at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.

And the plan is a doosey. Titled "Time Is of the Essence: Changing America's Transportation and Power Alternatives," it requires American households, neighborhoods, cities and other entities to adopt an entirely different approach to transportation.

Households would be expected to shed at least one of the 2.3 petrol-consuming automobiles they now possess and buy at least one zero-emissions, electric-propelled vehicle such as a Land Glider 3-wheeled open-air scooter or a 3-wheeled, 2-occupant NearCar, which Locricchio says can be had for less than $3,000.

Posted by: Permalink | Comments (3); Scott Doggett January 27, 2009, 2:43 PM
Categories:: Batteries, Emissions, Fuel Economy, Mass Transit, Plug-ins and Electric
Technorati Tags:: Electric Vehicles

January 5, 2009

Congestion Pricing - Let's Provide Alternatives Before Demonizing Autos

As concerns about global warming, energy independence and plain old traffic congestion grow and the automobile continues to be demonized, it seems that we are, as usual, approaching possible solutions to our problems in a posterior-backwards manner.

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San Francisco authorities want to reduce traffic pouring into downtown on weekdays.
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What kicks off this cogitation is the recent proposal by officials in San Francisco to introduce congestion pricing to attempt to reduce greenhouse gases and time wasted sitting in traffic jams by reducing the number of cars that cram into the downtown area on weekdays and make the city the second-most congested in the nation.

There's nothing inherently wrong with requiring motorists to pay for the privilege of bringing their vehicles into intensely crowded city centers - it is being done all over Europe.

But in Europe, one can get to those same city centers quite easily without a private car: Most countries have decent-to-superlative mass transit systems, both inter- and intra-city.

That's not the case in the U.S., and as we hear and review more and more pitches for ways to get Americans to abandon their cars, at least for a portion of the time most now spend in them, it's become clear that for any such scheme to work, we must first provide public transit alternatives.

San Francisco is one of the relatively few cities in the U.S. in which it is easy to get from point A to point B without a car. More important, people can get into San Francisco from outside the city via mass transit.

It might work there - leaving aside the impact on people's pocketbooks.

But try getting around - or into and out of - Los Angeles or a host of other large metropolitan areas that did most of their growing after 1900. By plan or happenstance, most ended up being developed to serve a populace enamored of the private automobile and public transit, such as it is, is spotty at best.

Posted by: Permalink | Comments (0); John O'Dell January 5, 2009, 3:00 AM
Categories:: Emissions, Mass Transit, Opinion, Transportation Alternatives
Technorati Tags:: San Fransisco Proposes Congestion Pricing

December 29, 2008

Buses Tops for Green Travel Says Environmental Group; But Cars Can Do Well, Too

Wanna start the new year (or end the new one) with a big cut in your carbon footprint?

Book the bus, or take a train - a car if there are three or more of you - but try to avoid planes on your next trip out of town, says the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Even though those buses you see on the highway look to be polluters of the worst kind, they are far, far kinder to the environment than other means of mass transit, according to UCS's travel analysis, "Getting There Greener."

Buses did well in the carbon footprint assessment because the hold almost as many passenger as small regional airplanes but spew far less carbon dioxide because they burn less fuel.

The study found that buses also are better than cars, even hybrids, in most cases involving travel by one or two people. A couple taking the bus to grandma's farm for a holiday will be responsible for only half the carbon output they'd cause driving a hybrid car on the same trip, according to the UCS analysis (this presumes, of course, that the bus is pretty full).

If more than two people are going on the same trip, the scenario changes, though.

Buses remain the top choice, but the average compact sedan is a better choice for a group of three or more travelers than a train or airplane - whatever the trip's length,

Posted by: Permalink | Comments (1); John O'Dell December 29, 2008, 3:02 AM
Categories:: Emissions, Mass Transit
Technorati Tags:: Carbon Dioxide

December 1, 2008

Rapid Shift to Fuel-Saving Hybrid Buses Is Reportedly Underway in United States

In Troy, Michigan, engineers are reportedly tweaking what they believe to be the public transit vehicle of the future: a super-lightweight hybrid bus.

The GTB-40 (right) is made of a high-strength steel that will last longer than most bus frames. Its builder, Fisher Coachworks, says the chassis allows it to zip along with half the weight of its peers.

And, its hybrid-electric engine not only consumes less fuel, but also stores electric energy whenever a driver hits the brakes.

The result is a bus that gets 10 miles per gallon--if you convert its battery power to diesel equivalents, that is.

But the average diesel bus--the dominant vehicle in public transit--gets just over 3 miles to the gallon, so the new mpg number has city transit agencies taking note, the subscription news service ClimateWire reported today. Battered by fuel prices and hoping to spruce up their environmental records, they are buying more and more hybrid buses to run everyday routes.

Compared to the tens of thousands of diesel buses already in service, the hybrids are few. In most places, they haven't graduated from pilot projects. But they're at the front of a trend that's been building since early this decade. In 1995, according to the American Public Transportation Association, only 6 percent of buses ran on anything other than straight diesel or gasoline. In 2007, that number had risen to 22 percent, ClimateWire reported.

"They're all prototypes. None are really final in the sense that they're out on the road in any type of mass," Lurae Stuart, an alternative-fuels analyst with the American Public Transportation Association, told ClimateWire. "But that's still a rapid change for a technology."

Posted by: Permalink | Comments (1); Scott Doggett December 1, 2008, 7:22 AM
Categories:: Batteries, Biofuels, Diesel, Fisher Coachworks, Fuel Cell, Fuel Economy, Hybrid, Mass Transit, Natural Gas, Plug-ins and Electric, Tax Incentives
Technorati Tags:: Biodiesel

November 24, 2008

Monday Read: Bangkok Air Quality Conference Focus Is On Traffic and Pollution

World traveler, sustainable cities advocate and sometimes contributor Gordon Feller, chief executive officer of the Urban Age Institute, was in Thailand recently to attend the Better Air Quality 2008 conference in Bangkok and offered to fill Green Car Advisor in on the goings-on.

As Feller put it in his preamble, "air pollution levels generated by private vehicles have, in some cases, become a matter of national crisis" yet fewer than 20 percent of the world's larger cities bother to monitor air quality and fewer still are taking action aimed at cutting pollution levels.

At the Bangkok gathering, held Nov 12-14, the idea was to examine "the need to integrate air quality management and climate change mitigation, as well as to scale up solutions to tackle the immense air pollution challenges of Asia," Fellers wrote.

Here's his report:

Bangkok 2008

By Gordon Feller, Contributor

Car makers are anxious about the initiatives national governments and cities will be taking in many of Asia's 2,500-plus cities with populations of more than 100,000.

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A typical Bangkok traffic scene.
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The anxiety is spawned by the enormous global attention on climate change, intensified by air quality concerns during the recent Beijing Olympic Games. It is increasing pressure on the big air polluters - energy, transport and industrial sources - to curb emissions of smog-causing pollutants and greenhouse gases.

A host of government policy makers and other stakeholders were among the more than 900 participants at the workshop, organized by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, the Pollution Control Department of Thailand and the Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI-Asia).

They were assisted by the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations Environment Program and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.

The theme is timely: most of Asia's cities are expected to make policy and investment decisions on their transport and energy supply structures that will lock them into specific greenhouse gas and air pollution scenarios for next 20 to 30 years.

"The overwhelming attention to climate change offers great potential for the air quality community in Asia to embrace a 'co-benefits approach' that integrates air quality management with climate change mitigation," said Cornie Huizenga, executive director of the CAI-Asia Center.

"It is important now to identify, through research and discussion, measures that can reap such win-win benefits and those that will bring about trade-offs for air quality and climate change."

One clear signal coming out of the Bangkok sessions: Asia's rapidly growing cities need to follow the model of Singapore, as well as some European cities, in developing integrated and sustainable public transport systems. They also need to include land use planning so that people can travel more easily and affordably to offices, schools or entertainment areas.

Posted by: Permalink | Comments (0); John O'Dell November 24, 2008, 8:00 AM
Categories:: Emissions, Mass Transit
Technorati Tags:: Air Pollution

October 8, 2008

High Fuel Prices Spur 24 Million Americans to Use Mass Transit, Survey Finds

Spurred by high fuel prices, 24 million Americans - or 11 percent of the country's adult population - are using buses, light rail or other forms of public transportation, according to a nationwide survey commissioned by HNTB Companies and released today.

What's more, that number is expected to grow, as 16 percent of survey respondents said they expect their ridership on public transit to increase in the coming year.

Nearly one in three Americans surveyed said their biggest motivator to choose public transportation over driving would be high gas prices. Other motivating factors include convenience (14 percent), avoiding traffic (5 percent) and concern for the environment (4 percent).

The survey also found:

â€¢ More than twice as many men as women (15 percent versus 7 percent) say they're using public transit more often than a year ago.

â€¢ Nearly one in five young Americans (ages 18-34) have increased their public transit usage in the last year (19 percent); that's more than twice the number of Americans ages 35 and up who can make the same claim (8 percent).

â€¢ The average American who has public transportation available to them uses it once a week, in effect giving their car the day off.

â€¢ Nearly four in 10 Northeasterners (38 percent) use public transportation, more than any other region in the country.

â€¢ One in 10 Southerners says he or she does not have public transit where they live or work. That's twice the number of Northeasterners and Westerners (5 percent each), and nearly twice of those in the Midwest (6 percent).

The survey polled a random nationwide sample of 1,000 Americans Sept. 24-29. The survey was conducted by Kelton Research, which used an e-mail invitation and an online survey. Quotas are set to ensure reliable and accurate representation of the total U.S. population. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percent.