Clearing the Air Over Our Roads Beating Traffic Michael L. Sena
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Clearing the Air Over Our Roads Beating Traffic A practicalTime to Getlook at solvingUnstuck two of the planet’s most pressing YOU CAN BEAT THE TRAFFIC CONGESTIONand PROBLEM related. Take problems back the week or two of time you lose each year being stuck in traffic, and spend that time on something much more useful and productive. This book is intended to get you off the traffic treadmill. Michael L. Sena Michael L. Sena ii ÅSA , S W E D E N GREEN H ORSE P UBLISHING C O M P AN Y 2008 iii C OPYRIGHTED , 2008 B Y GREEN H ORSE P UBLISHING C O M P AN Y ÅSA , S W E D E N iv Dedication This book is dedicated to all the people in the world who value their time as a gift to be cherished and who view every minute wasted in a traffic jam as a minute removed from their lives, and to all those who value the health of the planet earth as a responsibility which all individuals must share. Traffic congestion is not new, but it has gone from being an exceptional event for a few to an everyday affair for many. v Table of Contents Taking Traffic Congestion Personally ............................... 1 The Dynamics of Traffic Congestion .............................. 13 The Roots of Congestion ................................................. 27 Too Much of a Good Thing ............................................. 51 Wal-Marting the World ................................................... 71 Let the Kids Walk to School ........................................... 85 Separate Transportation from Recreation ........................ 95 Shop Locally .................................................................. 103 Give Commuting a Rest ................................................. 117 A Place for Tolls ............................................................ 125 Accept Some Friendly Advice ....................................... 145 Acknowledgements ........................................................ 179 vi Taking Traffic Congestion Personally YOU CAN TAKE BACK the week or two of time you lose each year being stuck in traffic, and spend that time on something much more useful and productive. This book is intended to help you do just that, to get you off the traffic treadmill by building up your understanding of the dynamics of traffic congestion. We will look at why, when and how congestion occurs, the part that you play in it, and what you and your family can do to reduce the negative effects of traffic congestion on your lives. We will also look at how to best avoid traffic congestion while you are helping to solve the problems that cause it. First, we need to put traffic congestion into its proper perspective. It has become a deeply polarizing issue, an “us versus them” dilemma. Whether you are an “us” or a “them” depends on whether or not you own or drive a motorized vehicle. If you live in a densely populated urbanized area and, for economic or other reasons, do not own a car or van or pick- up or sport utility vehicle or anything with four wheels and a motor, you may resent all of those cars and trucks clogging up your streets and causing your bus or trolley to be delayed. If you are one of the large majority of people who do own and drive a car, and you are moving everyday at a snail’s pace on increasingly choked-up roads to get on with your normal business and your life, you may have a different view of congestion. You might resent the bus lanes and trolley tracks, the pedestrian crossings, the red lights and stop signs. Car drivers are being scolded for polluting the environment and wasting precious natural resources. Anti-car groups are forming alliances all over the world to make purchasing, Taking Traffic Congestion Personally owning and driving a car more difficult and more expensive than it has been in the past so that people will abandon them and flock to public transit, or start walking or cycling as we did before cars and trucks proliferated. These groups are promoting the elimination all cars and trucks from urban areas, are recommending heavy usage taxes for all roadways, and want to make truck transportation so difficult and expensive that goods transport will be forced to return to the rails. Here are a few examples of what is happening: • The Mayor of Paris created car-free zones by having piles of sand dumped at the entrances to major thoroughfares. • Every Saturday and Sunday, weather permitting, the main street of the Ginza shopping district in Tokyo along with all connecting streets for one block are closed to vehicular traffic. • The Mayor of London succeeded in instituting a so- called congestion charging scheme in Central London. The charges were increased from the original £5 to £8, a 60% increase, just a year after the scheme was introduced in 2003, and plans were on the board in 2006 to extend its coverage beyond central London to the surrounding boroughs. • Raising the price of operating a vehicle is another method being used to force people out of their cars and off the roads. This is what is done in Europe. The United Kingdom and Norway, both oil producers, have the highest prices for fuel in Europe, triple the price of a gallon of gas in the U.S., and most of it is tax. These are not isolated occurrences. Car-free cities, inner city car charging schemes and road tolling are being discussed and implemented everywhere in Europe, in the U.S., in Asia and in the Middle East, all in the name of reducing the negative effects 2 Taking Traffic Congestion Personally of traffic congestion. The list of traffic congestion offenses includes noise, pollution, crowding out of on street public transportation, impeding emergency vehicles, adding danger to pedestrians and the general inconvenience caused by delays in making daily journeys to work, school, recreation and shopping. A normal Saturday on the main street in Tokyo’s Ginza shopping district. Getting people of all ages out of their cars and walking and exercising more is a very good idea. The world’s population has gotten obese while its environment has grown more polluted from car, truck, bus, airplane and all other vehicle fumes. Too much riding in cars, too much TV and PC gazing, and too much fast food are the main reasons for the sorry state of our collective health.1 We need to reduce harmful emissions 1 The Economist (December 17 th 2005) reported that the American Institute of Medicine (IOM) has estimated around 16% of children aged 6-19 in the U.S. are now obese. That is three times the level in 3 Taking Traffic Congestion Personally before global warming is so far advanced that we cannot stop it. We need to stop killing more than a million people a year, and injuring almost fifty times that number, in vehicle accidents all over the world. Most people agree that we do need to reduce traffic congestion and promote more healthy and environmentally sustainable transportation. Where the disagreement occurs is with the methods that are being promoted by the anti-car lobby to achieve the desired results. Greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks are not the principal culprit behind global warming. Transportation, including cars and trucks, but also planes and trains, boats and buses, are tied in fourth place with agriculture , at 13.5%, and just slightly ahead of other , with 12.9%. The main contributor to greenhouse gases is electricity generation and heating , at 24.5%, which is still concentrated on the use of coal as a fuel. In second place is deforestation , at 18.2%. In last place, at 3.6%, is the disposal of waste products. 2 Indiscriminate road closings, road user tolls, high fuel taxes and similar measures punish the victims of traffic congestion, not those who created the original conditions for it and who continue to foster these conditions. Anti-car solutions attack the symptoms, but totally ignore the real causes of traffic congestion, which are, on the one hand, a lack of forethought by governments and planners to build city regions that do not promote congestion-causing movement, and on the other hand, well-contrived business decisions—backed by political policies, legislation and financial incentives—that have allowed the 1960s. In both Europe and North America, public health agencies claim that it is the excess of high calorie and low nutrient foods marketed to children by the fast food chains that are to blame for putting children’s long-term health at risk. 2 The Economist , A Survey of Climate Change, Special Report, September 9 th , 2006. 4 Taking Traffic Congestion Personally urban regions all over the world to develop in ways that make non-car solutions to transportation ineffective and obsolete. Figure 1: Means of Transportation to Work: 1990 and 2000 Means of Transportation 1990 in% 2000 in% Change% Car, truck or van 86.5 87.9 1.3 Drove alone 73.2 75.7 2.5 Carpooled 13.4 12.2 -1.2 Bus 3.0 2.5 -0.5 Streetcar or trolley 0.1 0.1 - Subway or elevated 1.5 1.5 - Railroad 0.5 0.5 - Ferryboat - - - Taxicab 0.2 0.2 Motorcycle 0.2 0.1 -0.1 Bicycle 0.4 0.4 - Walked 3.9 2.9 -1.0 Other means 0.7 0.7 - Worked at home 3.0 3.3 0.3 Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 1990 Census Summary Tape File 3 and Census 2000 Summary File 3 Most people who are not fortunate enough to live in a city where they can also work, shop, recreate and educate themselves and their children—and where there is actually an alternative to driving, like an operating public transit system— need their cars today to get themselves to wherever they have to go.