The Effects of Neglect

The decay of the infrastructure in America has directly affected the country much more than ever imagined by the United States Government. When the Reagan office took power in the 1980s, One of the cabinet's biggest policies was ending government spending on infrastructure. Reagan's quote, “America should be worried about arms control not potholes”(1), shows how little the government knew about the effects of neglecting the infrastructure in out great country. The cities in out country are falling apart as well as the interstate highway system and rails. The city of Detroit is a great example of a once great city nearly becoming a wasteland because of the effects of the neglect of infrastructure. The city suffers from lack of transportation for its citizens as well as an ever growing negative population growth because of the general “unhappiness” of the population. Our cities can be reclaimed, but only by throwing away our old mentality and replacing it with one of emphasis on infrastructure.

There are many options that we have that could potentially fix the plight of the cities in our country beginning with a more modern and innovative public transportation system. As can be seen in many countries in Europe, innovation in transportation can lead to population growth and economic stability. The country of Spain who is widely considered the leader in public transportation technology, has become much more efficient and welcoming because of its reliance and emphasis on infrastructure and public travel. The first obstacle standing in the United States' way from becoming a leader in public transportation is an admit to bad policies and a promise to use the Europeans countries as a starting point to create our own mass transportation system and infrastructure in cities ultimately stimulating our economy to what it once was.

It is easy to write about change in government but there are usually not as easy as they seem. As seen in the video, The Next American System, many government leaders would love to help change our policies on infrastructure but the red tape and general rigors of amending polices has stagnated their plans. The changes that need to be made will more than likely take many years to fully implement, but will ultimately positively impact the United States for a very long time. Another obstacle which stands in the way of the United States is the largeness of our country. The Europeans have created many gains in their infrastructure and public transportation but implementing those changes to the entire United States would take a very very long time. While some may argue that it is impossible, you only have to look at the Interstate Highway System as proof that with strong initiative and policies that we can create and country-wide transportation system. While many lambast at the Interstate Highway, it stilled helped our country to create more interstate commerce and travel in our country. We must look into ways such as light rails and bullet trains which will make traveling around the country much more efficient and maybe even cheaper for America and it's citizens.

References:

1 "The Next American System ~ [VIDEO] Beyond the Motor City | Blueprint America | PBS."PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Web. 20 Sept. 2011. .

Urban Sprawl

Urban sprawl, the decentralization of a city population to its surrounding suburbs, is a problem affecting many major cities in America. Most people prefer living in the suburbs and commuting to the city to living in the city. There are many personal benefits such as less air pollution and noise pollution, but sprawl has external costs. Some of these costs, such as the reliance on more expensive modes of transportation, affect the lower class more so than anyone else. Others affect everyone more or less equally, such as the environmental impacts. Although living in the suburbs can be beneficial, urban sprawl is harmful to the city because it creates segregation through means of transportation and harms the environment.

Urban sprawl and transportation go hand in hand, and with transportation you get segregation. As I discussed in my previous blog post, only those who can afford their own automobiles can afford to live in the suburbs. Everyone has to have access to certain essentials such as food and a source of income. Most of these things are found in the city, so, before the invention of the car, many people preferred living in the city. With the advent of the car, many white upper-class Americans decided to leave the city and commute to work. The effect this had on racial segregation in cities was devastating. “Racial segregation in housing, as well as in schools and jobs, is fundamental to the geography of the modern American city.” (Bullard) The geographical relocation of the privileged white Americans has segregated and spread out all major American cities. This map of Atlanta indicates the racial segregation problem.

(Maps)

The fact that population density in cities has decreased is bad for the lower class individuals relying on less expensive modes of transportation to reach their essentials because there are even fewer jobs, grocery stores, gas stations, etc. Overuse of improved transportation of the upper class has a negative effect on the rest of Americans.

Sprawl also has a negative impact on the environment. Population is increasing over time while population density in cities is decreasing due to sprawl, thus population density in suburban areas is increasing. This means that more land preserves have to be destroyed for houses, apartments, and parking. According to numbersusa.com, “Between 1982 and 1997 America converted approximately 25 million acres of rural land – forests, rangeland, pastures, cropland, and wetlands – to developed land: that is, sub-divisions, freeways, factories, strip malls, airports, and the like.” (Key Statistics) Many of those developments can be attributed to urban sprawl. Sub-divisions and freeways have more obvious reasons for being attributed, but even strip malls are an effect of sprawl because their demand was a product of the movement of people from the city to the suburbs. In addition to the space that cars take up while parked at home, they also require roads be built between suburbia and the city. On top of that, all these cars output greenhouse gasses such as carbon monoxide that contribute to global warming. Global warming isn’t harmful to just lower class Americans, it’s harmful to everyone.

Urban sprawl conveniences a relatively small portion of the American community, but harms everyone else and destroys the environment in the process. The overall benefits are marginal at best compared to the drawbacks. Ultimately, we’ll have to change our ways or just accept America’s segregation and the declining global ecosystem.

Works Cited

Bullard, Robert D. “Anatomy of Sprawl.” Sprawl City: Race, Politics,

and Planning in Atlanta. Eds. Robert D. Bullard, Glenn S. Johnson, and

Angel O. Torres. Washington D.C.: Island Press, 2000. 1-20.

“Key Statistics of Urban Sprawl” numbersusa.com. NumbersUSA, n. d. Web 21 Sept.

2011.

<http://www.numbersusa.com/content/learn/issues/farmland/key-statistics-urban-sprawl.html>

“Maps of the African American and White Populations in the Atlanta, GA MSA”

umw.edu. University of Wisconsin UWMilwaukee, n. d. Web 21 Sept. 2011.

<http://www4.uwm.edu/eti/integration/atlanta.htm>

But Why?

Clearly, America is not in the best of positions in regards of many factors; economy, environment, infrastructure, and so on. Many people feel that America has lost its influence; that the glory of the birthplace of the great democracy has faded into the past. Detroit is an example of one of the great areas of America, one the highlights of the American culture, that has become a shadow of its former glory. Detroit had a population of 2 million! 2 million people used to live in the city which is in a state of hopelessness; a state of decline rather than progression into the future. Failed projects, ditched efforts, and empty buildings seem to litter the once-grand-city. This is a tragedy, and perhaps, ironically, one of the greatest reasons why this exodus of people is happening is because of the lack of a good form of transportation. The city that once created cars at a national level is now entrenched in a transportation that cannot properly transport its people.

What could change this? Only a revolution; a “vision” for a form of transportation that can effectively move its population quickly, frequently, and efficiently. But this kind of vision seems impossible. With cars as the dominant form of transportation, moving to the use of public transportation seems like a whim for a small area of people. Everywhere, people have already become completely comfortable with their cars and personal automobiles. The complainers seem to only be in those small pockets of individuals who do not have the luxury of the private form of transportation. Why change such a huge part of the culture in order to appease these strangers?

The surprising fact is, not only those few people are ones to benefit from the use of public transportation. Public transportation, as shown in many foreign countries that have adopted large scale public transit, can flip a country upside-down in regards of economy, direction of infrastructure, and even social happiness. Social happiness! A public transit can provide cheap travel to a baseball game, a family reunion, even a favorite theater. Environmental health! The use of few large transit systems, even with the use of gasoline, is astoundingly healthier for the general ecosystem. Some forms of transportation have completely left gasoline in the dust; for example, trains that run completely on electricity. Buses and large transportation models can follow this eco-friendly suit because with fewer vehicles that require refills of their own types of energy, it is easier to plan and create stations for re-energizing. Not surprisingly, environmental and social health are two subjects that are concentrated on for a fairly large portion in the world of politics.

But these are just ideas for a perfect world, and it seems that we are trying to rebuild a damaged country. Unsurprisingly, public transportation may have the answer to one of our greater problems of the American present: the economy. Moving back to Detroit, the demographics have shown a very large shift in the general workforce moving to the suburbs; this is where there is more land, space, and effectively, spatial freedom. But as discussed above, this kind of exodus leaves a void that can cripple an entire city. Suddenly, the jobs have moved with the workforce, leaving a sort of giant ghost town. Say that a large-scale transportation system was made to connect the entirety of Detroit and its suburban branches; immediately, people who once were looking desperately in their restrictive daily commuting spaces are able to reach to places and jobs that were completely inaccessible before. People actually find jobs that they are specialized in, and perhaps even enjoy. This does not apply to only those in less-than-desirable situations; a large transit system, which will be naturally faster than the daily commuting blob due to its lack of sheer numbers and, in the case of trains, simply stronger engines, can broaden their horizons as well, opening new doors for jobs, commodities, and more. The latter also means more business for everyone because suddenly, one must walk a certain distance to get where they must be, opening themselves to places that they might have never seen; transportation centers even act as a hub for business!

To call this is fancy would be an insult to the multitudes of people working on projects to make this kind of dream possible. I have heard myself people who simply state that, “it’s just not possible.” For those who believe that it is not just a dream but a plan with set instructions and methods, it is more than possible. It is the definitive future.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/blueprintamerica/reports/beyond-the-motor-city/video/939/

Cleaner and Healthier

By Yihang Yan

As almost every car on the road is powered by fossil fuels, vehicles give off air pollution as they drive. With the increasing mobility demands for passengers and freight, the level of air pollution also increases. Transportation activities are a dominant factor behind the emission of most pollutants and thus we cannot neglect their impacts on the environment.

In the article Dismantling Transportation Apartheid: The Quest for Equity, the authors (Robert D. Bullard, Glenn S. Johnson, and Angel O. Torres) state that some transportation activities have unintentional consequences of imposing different environmental and health burdens on most of citizens, especially minority and low-income communities. It is important to note that analyzing and addressing environmental problem may assist decision makers in determining the distributional effects of transportation. (Page 16 ) Robert D. Bullard also mentions in Anatomy of Sprawl that another harmful by-product of air pollution is increased asthma and other respiratory illness. Atlanta had 580 hospital admissions and 1740 emergency rooms linked to bad air. (Page 7) For this reason, transportation pollution and health problems are closely interrelated.

In fact, millions of tons of gases each year are released into the atmosphere from the transportation industry. Such gases have detrimental effects to the human health and are associated with lung cancer, heart disease, respiratory illness and premature death. Long-term exposure to pollution from traffic may be significant a threat for premature death as traffic crashes and obesity. In California alone, pollution is a factor in an estimated 8800 premature deaths a year^<1>. This is really an alarming statistic because it reveals the fact that although symptoms of these diseases are not able to be manifest in the short period of time, ignoring and underestimating the severity of harmful gases not only increase the opportunities of getting chronicle disease but also allow the traffic pollution to become worse without any remedy. The health risks are exacerbated by transportation patterns that often embed heavy traffic in poor and predominantly minority neighborhoods. The American Lung Association has found that 61.3 percent of African American children, 67.7 percent of Asia American children, and 69.2 percent of Latino children live in areas that exceed air-quality standards for ozone, compared with 50.8 percent of white children^<2>. People in these areas are just too passive because they cannot get involved in transportation decision. For long and sustainable development, government should find a way to alleviate gas emission and equally distribute the negative impacts of transit system.

Another problem is traffic noise. In 2009, Tukwila residents rallied against light-rail noise. Lots of loud spots include the south Tukwila curve at Highway 518, track switches in Rainier Valley and intersections along Seattle's Martin Luther King Jr. Way South, where train bells or clanging alarms annoy some neighbors. The agency has received 60 to 70 noise complaints, as well as 100 petition signatures from people in the Duwamish area^<3>. It is reported that there is a striking contribution of noise to premature deaths from accidents and disease. Excessive exposure to traffic noise may account for three per cent of deaths in strokes and heart attacks. Furthermore, the daily life of people near light-rail track is heavily disturbed and lots of thing cannot be normally processed under the annoying effect of noise.

Figure 1: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/zoom/html/2009451555.html

Despite the direct health effects mentioned above, there are some indirect health effects related to the transportation. People without reliable and affordable ways to get around are cut off from jobs, social connection and services. Access to transportation and to resources for healthy living is linked.

I think whether people can get a good job with high wages is one of important determinations of health. Poverty and poor health are inseparable. However, as residence and working places moved further apart, people without ability to drive and access to public transport always have the difficulty in getting the satisfied jobs. This makes commuting to work unpredictable and more expensive. 33 percent of poor African Americans and 25 percent of poor Latinos lack automobile access, compared with 12.1 percent of poor whites^<4>. Low-wage households (earning $20000 to ￥35000) living far from employment centers spend 37 percent of their incomes on transportation. In neighborhoods well served by public transportation, families only spend an average of nine percent^<5>. How can we expect poor people to get nutritious foods and medical care to sustain health if they have to spend a large amount of money on transportation which already eat into other necessities?

Finally, I must state that transportation system should seriously consider environmental quality, health and equitable access in order to create cleaner and healthier world.

Work cited

<1> http://www.arb.ca.gov/research/health/fs/pm_ozone-fs.pdf

<2> http://www.lungusa.org/site/pp.asp?c=dvLUK9O0E&b=44567

<3> Sound Transit calls light-rail noise a public-health problem

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009938600_trainnoise25m.html

<4> Program on housing and urban policy (Steven Raphael & Alan Berube )

http://urbanpolicy.berkeley.edu/pdf/raphael.pdf

<5> A heavy load: The combined housing and transportation burdens of working families

http://www.nhc.org/pdf/pub_heavy_load_10_06.pdf