Diesel Fumes
Something’s not right.
As my father is fond of saying, I have a high intake of diesel fumes. Sitting in a trishaw or walking, you get a good face level blast of the toxins from our ancient buses and modern diesel trishaws like that shitbox Piaggio. And hey guess what, last month the WHO concluded that “diesel engine exhaust causes lung cancer in humans” (via LBO). In his column my dad is now calling for diesel three-wheelers to be banned outright, which I think is good. But I also think they have to do something about the buses.
There are clean diesel cars in Europe and around, but the shitbox Piaggio Ape trishaws and Lanka Ashok Leyland buses are straight dirty. I refer to the Piaggios as shitboxes because, while larger than the usual tuk, they are insanely noisy and polluting. They suck and should be banned, just as two-stroke trishaws were banned years back. The buses, however, I think are a bigger problem. The government subsidy on diesel (since revised) went largely to them and they are ancient. It feels like we’ve had the same buses since I was a kid, or they’re importing vintage ones.
These buses suck on multiple levels, ranging from comfort to safety, but they also spew cancerous exhaust, right in my face. The government imported some modern city buses and parked them across from Galle Face Green, but I’ve managed to catch them like never. Sometimes I see them passing and I want to get in (even though I’m not going anywhere), but it’s not like they’ve replaced the usual cancer, death and discomfort machines.
So the Piaggio’s need to be banned for sure, and diesel needs to be taxed to death, not subsidized (the latter subsidy has dropped recently). Perhaps more importantly, however, the entire bus and public transit sector needs to be reformed on multiple levels. People are dying out here. Slowly.
Not to quote Ice Cube, but the Sri Lankan police are hardly beloved. A 
I just gave a talk at the University Of Sri Jayawardenapura along with Reeza Zarook of Anything.lk and Rohan Jayaweera of Google. These are my notes: Devin Jayasundara asked me for a subject for this talk and I told him Internet property. But I talked to my fiancé Shru and she had a better idea. Startups aren’t about creating property at all, not really. They’re about creating territory, about creating land.
I haven’t been blogging much, I know. It’s partly because we’ve been doing a lot of work on YAMU, especially shipping 1.0.1 of the Android app today. It’s on the 
I met an old-timer who said they used to drop acid and sleep atop Sigiriya, but the place has taken on a more commercial and quasi-spiritual role now. It was built by a king as a sort of retreat and used as a monastery. Now it’s a prime tourist and cultural destination. Hence it’s a bit odd to see a Japanese beer commercial shot up there. There’s a bunch of people eating, um, deep fried cream filled coconuts and then drinking some bracing beer. I hear the whole thing cost Rs. 25,000 (I’m presuming they used stock images).
I totally agree with you – they should be banned!
http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/CancerCauses/OtherCarcinogens/Pollution/diesel-exhaust
I think the subsidy on diesel is because it is the main fuel in the agriculture and transport sectors and without it, prices of goods and services would go up significantly. I know in some countries they have a separate subsidised supply for key industries like agriculture (called Red Diesel, because of the dye that is added to identify it). However the administrative logistics and opportunity for corrupt practice would probably make this impractical in Sri Lanka.
Take everything you know we should, could, would do. Now throw it ALL out. Take the illogical, ignorant, hateful shit we shouldn’t be doing and implement it- you now a wonderful little island called Sri Lanka! Truly a land like no other (and thank God for that).
But yeah, diesel fumes in my face suck donkey balls. I also hate the fact that every time I’m in a trishaw the driver has this need to wiggle in tight spaces and park me right next to a bus’ exhaust pipe…bastards…
From Clean Air Lanka, a group of professionals:
“Our (diesel) fuel quality is bad compared even to India’s,” he says. “The diesel sulphur level in Sri Lanka is 3,000 parts per million (ppm), while in India it is 350 ppm (almost one tenth of ours), and in Japan, 30 to 50 ppm.”
For more, see: http://collidecolumn.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/when-worlds-collide-24-kicking-lead-in-petrol-lessons-for-cleaning-up-dirty-diesel/
I always cover my nose and mouth with a handkerchief when travelling in a three wheeler.
Agree.
One of my major peeves is why the government cannot invest in better buses for its public transport service. I don’t understand why they cannot get better buses since they are spending so much money on things like Mihin, trying to host international sports events etc. Instead they continue to import the cheapest designs from Ashok Leyland and Tata. Ashok Leyland and Tata actually have nice buses [ http://www.ashokleyland.com/product/buses ] but we in Sri Lanka insist on being poverty stricken and so import the cheapest and ugliest varieties while burning money elsewhere. Improving the bus service will immediately improve the lives of many, many Sri Lankans who use them to get around.
The things I dont understand about this government would fill volumes.
LOL. I have to say it was the same with all the previous governments. The good thing is that there has been some investments in infrastructure that are worthwhile (Southern Highway, Katunayake Highway, cleaning up and improving Colombo). But there is some serious disconnect when it comes to investing the money in a sane way. Millions of dollars wasted to try and host the Commonwealth Games (WHY???) when all that money could have gone to, say, nicer buses, nicer trains, or how about refurbishing some of the railway stations? Or improving roads? Would have been so much money better spent even if they just hired more street cleaners to keep the streets in other cities like Kandy spic and span – or maybe spent it on an effective garbage removal service etc etc the list is just endless!!
Aren’t there emission control for vehicles? Here in CA, we need to smog test old vehicles every other year. Banning three wheeler might not be feasible but I am sure you can raise the standards of operations.
Our neighbor has converted his Mercedes to run on Veg oil and being Bay area, there are places which collects spent oil from all the restaurants and provide to veg vehicle users. It does smell, but like potato fries! I am not sure of the used oil supply but I am sure with all the restaurants in Colombo, they will be able to run at least a few tuktuks. Pedicabs are also pretty popular in San Francisco :) May be a good business idea for someone to start the conversion. The conversion does not stop the user from using diesel when he runs out of Veg oil or the oil is in short supply!