CARB will regulate tire pressure starting in July 2010
Last week, the California Air Resources Board - fresh from not banning black cars - adopted a regulation to force the 40,000 businesses in "California's automotive maintenance industry to check the tire pressure of every vehicle they service." This means that, starting in July of 2010, when you bring your car in for service in California, the shop will have to make sure that your tires filled to the manufacturer's recommended air pressure level. CARB estimates that this will save the average Californian about $12 a year.
This move doesn't please everyone. The Tire Industry Association (TIA) calls CARB's decision "overreaching and burdensome." CARB didn't even reach out to the TIA before announcing the decision. TIA's director of government and business relations, Paul Fiore, said that "Trial lawyers are always looking for pieces of paper to use... it's a gift to the trial lawyers."[Source: CARB via Green Car Congress, Modern Tire Dealer]
Photo by squidish. Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
jeffzekas 3:17PM (3/30/2009)
Am I the only person who thinks the California Air Resources Board is TOTALLY INSANE?!!!
Here's a novel idea: trust folks to check their own air pressure!
If C.A.R.B. really wants to help California, how about these ideas:
1. Legalize Kei cars and allow duty-free and unrestricted importation of the Nano.
2. Give $5,000 cash for clunkers; newly bought cars must get 30 mpg city.
3. Sell gas, tax-free, to owners of cars which get 30 mpg (combined) or more.
4. Have Arnold to convert his new Dodge Charger to Poulsen hybrid power.
5. Have CARB stop making inane announcements.
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ME 3:26PM (3/30/2009)
So, if my tires are over inflated are they going to lower the pressure?
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Nick 3:26PM (3/30/2009)
"Here's a novel idea: trust folks to check their own air pressure!"
>>You might have misread the article..because people DON'T check their air pressure, which wastes $12 a year for each driver.
"1. Legalize Kei cars and allow duty-free and unrestricted importation of the Nano."
>>Kei cars and the Nano are not built in large enough numbers yet, are not built to U.S. safety and emission regulation. Besides, it will help India more than the U.S.
"2. Give $5,000 cash for clunkers; newly bought cars must get 30 mpg city."
>>Read the news, the government is working on that one, as that worked very well in Germany.
"3. Sell gas, tax-free, to owners of cars which get 30 mpg (combined) or more."
>>Gas tax pays for road construction and maintenance, with your idea, who is going to pay for it? And how are you going to enforce it? Having a guy standing next to each gas pump? That is a very dumb idea buddy.
I don't have any problem with my tires getting checked by each stop at the maintenance shop, I actually would appreciate it.
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futuresound 3:31PM (3/30/2009)
Of course the Tire Industry Association is going to disagree with this! Properly inflated tires last a lot longer than those that are low on air.
This isn't that big a deal in my mind - it just means that when you take your car in, they'll check the tire pressure. If I'm not mistaken, it used to be a given that 'your mechanic' would check your tire pressure when servicing your car.
And more importantly, this sort of shift in mindset is going to be essential if we're going to move onto a sustainable, non-petroleum-based path. These things are easy to do, and will make a difference - we just have to get used to doing things a tiny bit differently than normal.
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Throwback 3:47PM (3/30/2009)
Wow, have we as a country sunk to this? The government is mandating companies check the air pressure in our tires because most people don't. Is it now the government's responsibility to ensure we save ourselves from flat tires? I guess personal responsibility has no place in this "new" America.
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Max 3:58PM (3/30/2009)
@Throwback
LoL, yeah right, the 'Stalinist' government is 'stealing out tire inflating freedom'. Look, auto maintenance ALREADY check tire pressure, it is such as BIG DEAL for you that you have to WHINE about it? You and your presonal responsibility, haha you really think people will act reasonably when you let them do whatever?
What's next, are you going to start the "Tire inflation freedom of choice act" ?
futuresound 4:52PM (3/30/2009)
'Personal responsibility' hasn't gotten us very far in terms of cutting back on auto emissions. If it had, something like CARB obviously wouldn't be necessary.
CARB's mission is this: "To promote and protect public health, welfare and ecological resources through the effective and efficient reduction of air pollutants while recognizing and considering the effects on the economy of the state". Seems to me like they're doing their job.
Eventually, even the dimmest citizen among us will realize the desperate need for environmental protections. Until that happens, we can't leave the future of our planet up to 'personal responsibility'. I wish we could.
jpm 3:54PM (3/30/2009)
CARB is a fucking joke. Why are they finding all this little shit to pick on but completely dropped the ball on implementing EVs?
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Tim 4:23PM (3/30/2009)
Statists overreaching? Naaaw, now you may feel a slight pressure from behind so just turn your head and caugh...
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Chris M 3:59PM (3/30/2009)
Ironically, I have the opposite problem. The Toyota dealer where I go for regular maintenance always checks the tire pressure, but since I normally keep the tire pressure slightly higher than the "standard recommended" pressure for better fuel economy, they always let air out to bring the pressure down! So I'm always having to recheck and add air after any service is done.
No, I don't keep the pressure so high that it adversely affects ride and handling, an additional 5 psi is just about right.
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Brn 4:02PM (3/30/2009)
Making sure your tires are properly inflated is important. It improves handling and conserves fuel. It also extends the life of your tires. Making it a law is about as dumb as it gets. Just because something is a good idea, doesn't mean it needs to be a law.
I hope there's more to this than meets the eye. If nothing else, absurd stuff like this (and black cars) are going to continue to discredit CARB.
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Throwback 4:05PM (3/30/2009)
max, I don't feel the government has to do everything for me. Perhaps you feel safer knowing big brother will take care of you, even to making sure your tires are properly inflated. If where you get your car serviced does not do this for you complain, or find another shop. Do you need the government to make that decision for you? Dp you really think the government is capable of making better decisions for you, than you are for yourself?
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GoodCheer 5:35PM (3/30/2009)
Throwback:
You and I, and I assume Max are quite capable of, and in fact do, check our tire pressure at reasonable intervals. This regulation is not intended to help us, and in fact it will have no effect whatsoever on us. It's intended to help people who don't think about cars, don't think about car maintenance in general, and don't keep their tires properly inflated.
I don't suppose you would argue that there are no such people... we all see them driving around on the roads every day. I also don't suppose that you would argue that those people are making a rational, informed decision to drive around with (sometimes dangerously) under-inflated tires.
You could argue that they have the right to do so, but... so what? Are their rights to willful ignorance (and the potential endangerment of those with whom they share the road) being impinged against by mechanics who put some air into their tires when they get their wiper blades or oil changed? What does it cost any of us to improve the maintenance of those people's cars? It makes us a little bit safer, it makes us a little bit less dependent on oil imports, and as you yourself claim, it's something that mechanics should be doing anyway.
Max 3:00AM (3/31/2009)
@Throwback
If you were correct, why can one see a bunch of cars with under-inflated tires on the road? Why do so very few people check their air pressure regularly? This is proof that relying on "personal responsibility" does not work.
Unfortunately, 99% of the populace isn't responsible, and since there's so many of us now, small changes have huge impacts. If the $12 savings per car is true, than multiply that by 100m U.S. cars, that's $1.2bn currently wasted a year .....because of a lack of personal responsibility.
Nowhere did I say that "I am not able to make better decisions than the big brother govt", that just sounds like alarmist FoxNews sh... talk "government is robbing our rights!" LoL
montoym 12:18AM (4/01/2009)
quote from GoodCheer:
- "This regulation is not intended to help us, and in fact it will have no effect whatsoever on us. It's intended to help people who don't think about cars, don't think about car maintenance in general, and don't keep their tires properly inflated." -
OK, so if that's true, then this regulation will do nothing for those people. If they don't care about maintenance in general, how many of them do you think drop off their car at a service station regularly? So, the regulation solves very little and just adds a lot of bueracratic mess.
Plus, it doesn't take into account the many shadetree mechanics who do their own maintenance and may or may not check their own tire pressure I, for one change my own oil and do a lot of my own maintenence and I admit I don't check my tire pressure that often. What next, a safety force put together to go door to door to check the pressure of everyone's tires to be sure they are in compliance?
Why don't they add an additional regulation that any time a person is pulled over for any offense, the officer checks their tire pressure for them as well as a courtesy? At least then we'd be sure to catch those who dare to do their own maintenance work as well Other than the cost of a bunch of tire gauges, what's wrong with that? Heck, why not give some tire gauges to the homeless guys on street corners too so that they can check tire pressures in addition to or instead of cleaning windows or just mindlessly panhandling?
You see where this is going. If something is good, more of it must be better.
GoodCheer 4:54PM (4/02/2009)
montoym:
"If they don't care about maintenance in general, how many of them do you think drop off their car at a service station regularly?"
Only the ones that hope to get more than 20,000 miles out of a car before the oil turns to tar and the engine seizes.
"You see where this is going. If something is good, more of it must be better."
What I see is that you have no complaint to make against this regulation except that "it adds a lot of bueracratic [sic] mess", a conclusion that I question: I would guess that it will just mean that inflation checks get done more regularly by local gas stations. The only arguments you managed to come up with involved fanciful future establishment of some fearful jack-booted tire inflation police.
Lou Grinzo 4:32PM (3/30/2009)
I can't believe all the negative reactions here.
It's this simple:
1. People don't keep their tires properly inflated.
2. If they did, it would save them money, put less CO2 into the air, and consume less of a non-renewable resource--oil.
3. By passing this law CA will be providing both a private and a public good at nearly zero cost.
No, it won't save the planet all by itself. Yes, it means that, gasp!, Mean Old Mr. Government is telling you what to do. I wish the people who object to this law would think seriously about all the far more intrusive things they put up with from their government, without the slightest complaint, and get a little perspective.
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Throwback 4:58PM (3/30/2009)
Lou, there are many things I have to put up with that I don't like because some "staffer" or agency decided it was good for me. Should not call out stupidity when I see it because there are other worse laws on the books? This is just utterly ridiculous. How much oil is this going to save? Do you get your oil changed every week? If not, then what about all the time between oil changes that your tires are not properly inflated? For the 1-2 weeks after your oil change your tires "may" be properly inflated, and we need a law for this? Suppose you are someone who always checks their tire pressure. Now you have to pay for someone to do, what you do already, because your neighbor is too lazy to do it for himself. Is that fair?
House of Mirth 6:20PM (3/30/2009)
It used to part of routine service that tire pressure was topped up. For some reason that stopped. Now there are shops out there that will do, say, a brake job, then let the customer drive away without checking the tires. Hello? It's simple neglect, and it shouldn't be allowed.
This legislation makes a lot of sense. It doesn't ask for the moon and the results are proven. It sounds like you're against it for ideological reasons more than anything else. If the government declared that it was good for people to eat, sleep and breathe, would you stop doing those things just to spite those evil bureaucrats?
jstdadd 3:20PM (3/31/2009)
If I change the tires on my car from the standard manufacturer's tires, what tire pressure will then be used/ The sidewall maximum?
What a joke.