I will write this as if it was a research study. As me and my brother were going back from Aleppo I came up with the idea of checking how many trucks or buses (anything bigger than a car, usually used for non private transportation) emit visible exhaust or black smoke from their muffler. So here it is...

The Prevalence of Ill-Maintained Vehicles with Smokey Mufflers from Homs to Maaloula

Authors: Me, and My Bro

Introduction: public transportation and cargo transportation is taken care of by buses, trucks, and pick-ups. A transient visitor to any highway in Syria, or any street inside a town or a city, would notice a dusty cloud of all colors: black, white, grey, and some with red sparks. The comer to Damascus from the north is bound to notice the dark cloud that starts to form beginning in the early morning, and last until the last light of the day. I call this the muffler smoke cloud. It really looks like the ugly cloud in Independence Day or War of the Worlds movies. Of course all these vehicles have "passed" the biyearly test it has to undergo in order for registration. Oh... really?!!!!
So the idea was to check how many of these trucks mentioned above have bad muffler and combustion system.

Methods: all trucks and pick-ups and buses from Homs to Maaloula were enrolled. Inclusion criteria were: a vehicle that is not for private operation (سيارات سياحية يعني) i.e. trucks, pick-ups, trailers, and buses. The vehicle has to be moving. Only one side of the highway counts (the one we were on). Exclusion criteria: stopped vehicles, tourist cars (private use), opposite side of the highway.
Tools used: bare eyes and a piece of paper.
Counting: included all eligible cars that were passed (it should be noted that no car took us over so there are no duplications). A mark was made for every vehicle as smoking or non smoking.
Results were analyzed afterwards.

Results: 220 eligible vehicles were included in the final survey. The study was stopped at Maaloula as then the road was descending and many would not use push the pedal to save fuel.
Of the 220 cars: 140 cars had clearly visible exhaust from the muffler. The quality of smoke ranged from thin the very condensed. Most were in the mid density range. The quality ranges from disgusting to horribly disgusting.
80 cars were not visibly smoking from their mufflers.
The ratio of bad cars to seemingly-not-so-bad cars is 7:4 equaling 1.75

Discussion: the above number is just a small proportion of the trucks traveling everyday between states and cities. It is a major underestimation due to the inclusion criteria set. But we believe that the above ratio is real but very much underestimating the real ratio.
The real ratio is actually bigger due to the following reasons: 1) it is difficult sometimes to notice the smoke if not big while moving 2) the amount of insects killed on the windshield blurs the vision sometimes 3) if the muffler is on the side of the vehicle facing the shoulder it may not be noticed.
So many cars were deemed good while they may have been faulty.

Conclusion: the situation of automobiles in Syria is in deep shit. New regulation should prevent bribing at the vehicle inspections and force all such automobiles to fix the mechanical problems it acquired prior to being allowed to run again. Those who fail to do so after a certain period of time should be deprived from their vehicles; such vehicles should be disassembled and discarded. The government through the Ministry of Transportation should force inspection to be every six months for these vehicles. It should also initiate a "Clean Syria" initiative to convert black clouds over cities to clear sky.

For correspondence please comment on the entry below..