RWCMoves: Wake Up And Smell The Exhaust! Citywide Transportation

Urban city planning needs to take into account sources of air pollution. The reality is that air pollution kills an order of magnitude more people than HIV and malaria combined and is second only to cancer in number of yearly deaths attributed to it. And yet local San Francisco Bay Area city planners including Redwood City staff in contrast to municipalities all around the world in countries like China and India but also more local cities like Los Angeles have yet to include this issue in their citywide transportation and urban design plans.

In Los Angeles there are already plans to force developers of residential buildings along highways to incorporate necessary filtration systems to ensure that residents don't inhale the pollutants that cars generate. "But even the highest-quality filters capture only some of the dangerous ingredients of car and truck exhaust, and to be effective, experts say, they must be frequently replaced and the building’s ventilation system must run virtually full time with all doors and windows closed." ( http://www.latimes.com/local/l...)

Recent studies have shown that most particulate matter mitigation programs such as the smog program in California only measure exhaust particulates which means that car manufacturers are only looking at reducing exhaust particulate matter. The reality however is that in addition to carbon particulates from gasoline and diesel burning, cars also generate a fair amount of pollution that originates from the wear and tear of brakes and tires. A state of the art electric vehicle may not produce carbon exhaust however it does nothing to mitigate brake and tire material particulates.

Redwood City just released a draft Citywide Transportation Plan, named RWCmoves. "The draft plan seeks to develop a framework for a balanced transportation network serving all modes of transportation including walking, biking, and driving to address the City's transportation challenges and needs and builds on Redwood City's existing transportation system." The plan is now available for review and community input at: rwcmoves.com

Understanding that bicycles do not produce the pollution that cars do and realizing that they also have the added benefit of keeping their owners moving instead of sitting in a car, means cities are looking to incentivize their use. As a bicycle rider myself, I have nothing against incentivizing the use of bicycles. However developing a multi-modal friendly urban environment doesn't have to mean having all the possible modes of transportation as well as pedestrians sharing the same routes. A healthier alternative already being implemented in places like Holland, Germany and Malaysia would include dedicated side streets and bicycle and pedestrians pathways that are separate and car free.

P.S. Here are a couple of car free bicycle routes available in the United States. https://www.bicycling.com/ride...