Pub. 3 2013 Issue 2

8 AT THE CENTER OF UTAH INDUSTRY commuting terms to define what many people are experiencing: • Extreme commuting is when you have to travel 90 minutes or more to get to work. • Long-distance commuting is when you travel 50 miles or more. • If you travel for 90 or more minutes, and more than 50 miles, that is called mega commuting. Holiday travel around long weekends is huge. According to Scott Burgess of AOL autos, almost 35 million people traveled 50 miles or more during the Memorial Day weekend in 2012. Th i nk f o r a momen t abou t t he resources it takes to create the modes of transportation we use in the U.S.. How many cars are there? What about mass transit and the buses, planes, and trains? How about the shipping industry? What about recreational boating? And what about the infrastructure needed to support those modes of transportation? The network of highways, rail lines, airports, shipyards and docks in the U.S. is enormous. The U.S. Department of Transportation offers the following facts: • In February 2013, 52.5 million people got on a plane, and on average, they traveled 1096 miles. • In 2010, the total number of registered vehic les on t he hi ghways was 250,272,812. • The number of transit vehicles in 2010 — such as trolley and motor buses, light and heavy rail cars, and commuter rail cars and locomotives — was 135,674. • Th e numb e r o f r a i l ve h i c l e s — 1,334,478. • The number of planes — 230,801. • For boats and vessels of various kinds, the 2010 number was 40,512, but did not include large ocean-going, self-propelled vessels (that is, vessels weighing 1,000 gross tons or more). Our vas t t r anspo r t at i on sys t em didn’t just happen. These things were built over time, and it took the mining industry to make it happen. And, it will require a healthy and vibrant domestic mining industry in the future to maintain and expand our transportation network to meet growing demand. According to the U.S. and World Population Clock on May 31, 2013, there were almost 316 million people in the U.S.: • One person is born ever y eight seconds; one person dies every 12 seconds. • More people come into the U.S. than leave it. The net amount is one new person every 44 seconds. • The net gain for all categories is one person every 15 seconds. Just consider the amount of metal used in our cars. Numbers var y depending on make and model, but the World Steel Association reports that 55 percent of the weight of the average 4,144 -pound car comes from steel. In 2007, that meant about 2,400 pounds wor th; for an SUV, the amount was 3,000 pounds. The second most common metal in a car is aluminum. On average about 327 pounds, aluminum is approximately eight percent of a car ’s weight. In fact, one-third of the aluminum that was used in Nor th America during 2005 was for transportation purposes. Cars also use the following mined materials, in addition to many others: • Ca t a l y t i c c o nve r t e r s c o n t a i n platinum, palladium, and rhodium. • Batteries use lead. • Solders use tin. • Galvanizing metals, which protect your car from the weather, use zinc. • A ir bags use cobalt; so do t he batteries in a hybrid. • Molybdenum and vanadium are used in steel alloys. • Copper is used for wiring; even more in a hybrid vehicle. In short, you may not have realized how mining keeps you mobile, but the contribution is a substantial one no matter who you are or where you go. It’s something to think about the next time you grab your (metal) keys and run to the store.  TRANSPORTATION continued frompage7 Commuting has become such a fact of life that there is even a term for people who travel long distances in order to get to work: they’re called mega commuters.