Op-Ed | Local | Idling Reduction: A Common Sense Plan

Old habits are hard to break. To most, idling a car may seem fairly harmless, but in fact, there are many adverse effects. Carbon emissions have a major impact on air quality, with implications for public health and the environment, as we all know. One way to lessen these emissions is to reduce needless pollution from idling. However, most drivers don’t think twice about running their engine while the car is not in motion. For this reason, the City of Portland and Multnomah County need to work together to create idling regulations for passenger vehicles.

The two municipalities have worked together briefly on this issue before, during the “Idling Gets You Nowhere” public outreach campaign in the summer of 2011. As part of that effort, Mayor Adams’ office convened an idling reduction task force to look into various options for addressing the issue.  Multnomah County took the lead on outreach by creating an informational website, hanging “Idling Gets You Nowhere” banners across the Hawthorne Bridge and mobilizing volunteers to hand out postcards explaining the dangers of vehicular idling during bridge lifts and at community events.

The partnership makes sense in light of the two municipalities’ efforts to reduce carbon emissions. In 2009, the City of Portland joined forces with Multnomah County to adopt the ClimateAction Plan, a three-year plan to put us on a path to achieve a 40 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 and an 80 percent reduction by 2050. “The Climate Action Plan commits the City and Multnomah County to 93 actions over the next three years and establishes 18 objectives for 2030 (City of Portland, 2009).” However, in the whole 70 page document, idling is mentioned only twice.

Proximity to Major Roadways & Our Health

A study by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center found a link between living proximity to roadways and kidney health.

Fossil Fuel Reserve Pricing

I just watched this interesting clip from the Economist and thought that I would share. It was about the large disconnect between Governments and large fossil fuel companies and the amount of carbon emission they say they will reduce compared to how large their fuel reserves are. It is estimated that we can only burn 1,000 gigatons of carbon to stay within the desired limits and to not raise the risk of global warming. This is interesting because there is currently 3,000 gigatons of reserves.....

Unpredictability in Commute Times and Stress

Do you ever get angry at the MAX for being 15 minutes late? Are you really grumpy when it takes you an hour to get from OR-217 to downtown Portland due to congestion?

NYC's Making Streets Safe for Seniors

NYC, like many big cities globally, has a large and growing senior population. This population is especially vulnerable to the dangers of street traffic. In NYC, seniors make up 12% of the population but as pedestrians account for 36% of all traffic fatalities.  To address this growing problem, in 2008 NYC became the first major US city to establish a safety program specifically focused on making the streets safer for senior pedestrians. Bolstered by initial success, over the past 5 years NYC DOT has been expanding the program to include more streets across the city.

The Health Benefits of Denver's New West Line LRT

Research has shown that uses of public transportation benefit from increased physical activity when compared to private automobile use. In fact, transit users took 30 percent more steps per day and spent 8.3 more minutes walking than drivers, a major step towards curbing obesity (Active Living Research 2009). An interesting design feature of public transit to point out is that bus transit typically has shorter stop spacing than rail transit, so perhaps light rail riders benefit even more by accessing the stations on foot or by bike, particularly to access more frequency rail service.

Health Impact Assessments and their Influence on London’s Transportation Policy

Health Impact Assessments (HIAs) have been informing transportation policy in London since the early nineties, when several reports were published, establishing a direct link between health and transportation. These reports offered HIAs as a tool to mitigate the adverse health impacts and maximize the health benefits of transportation policies. HIAs have played a major role in aiding London’s recent cycling revolution and raising awareness for the need to reduce auto-dependency. They have also been used as a tool to address inequities existing in the current transportation system and public health programs that seem to ignore older population, children and depraved population.