Every time my sister and I speak, I have to spend a portion of the call listening to her bitch about traffic (she lives in LA). Now I know why she’s complaining.
Traffic is much worse than it used to be. How much worse? According to the Texas Transportation Institute, in 2003 we lost 3.7 billion hours to being stuck in traffic. That’s over 400,000 years.
Planes and cars figure heavily into the ecological footprint equation I blogged about last week. Can we give up our cars? Maybe someday. Until then, we can check the fuel efficiency of our rides, investigate hybrids, buy bikes, organize carpools.
The most and least efficient cars on the U.S. market are here.
Cars generate a lot of pollution, hence the big footprint. When you burn a gallon of gas, about 5 pounds of carbon are released into the atmosphere. If it was solid, you’d notice the equivalent of a five pound bag of potatoes falling out of your tailpipe for each mile you drove. But instead it’s released as an exhaust stream of toxic particles and carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas that’s contributing to global warming/ weirding).
According to the EPA, there are simple ways to make our rides more fuel efficient & reduce our environmental load: keeping tires properly inflated, driving 55 instead of 65mph, changing your air filters, limiting our use of air conditioning.
Who knew mundane changes could make such a diff? Not I.
Okay, traffic. A big reason we’re driving more is because of sprawl. According to Co-op America,
we drive about 45% more per capita than we did in 1980. Researchers have found a link between car-dependent lifestyles and obesity, and we spend more money paying for our cars (fuel, upkeep, insurance) than we do on food and healthcare combined. Our transport needs are responsible for over 2/3 of the 20 million barrels of oil we in America guzzle every year.
Smart growth is the antidote to sprawl. It’s intentional growth: thinking about how we grow businesses, communities, gardens, homes in ways that serve all of our interests. Not just wanting our grocery store to be a 2 minute drive away, but also thinking about how those traffic patterns might impact the ability of our kids to walk to school. It’s about believing gardens are just as vital to a community as parking lots. (Thinking of my Naniji in Chandigarh and what Le Corbusier originally envisioned for the city versus what Chandi has become. . .)
Smart growth suggests that we think not only about where we are today, but about where we’ll be 50 years from now. Here’s one of my favorite Smart Growth sites. I like this model because it’s visionary. It’s predicated on the belief that we can use the knowledge we have now to create a better future.
And the sweetest ride of all? I’Il take the eco-friendly skateboard.
Cruising. . .
Simran
traffic congestion of cars are just some popular issues these days especially in foreign places. sometimes i prefer commuting than driving our own speedy parts car.