#car dependency stinks

[atlurbanist]

Why you're coughing more today: Atlanta's high ozone alert

Atlanta has a "code orange" air quality alert today due to high ozone concentration, a chemical reaction between sunlight, oxygen, & pollution from cars, power plants, factories, etc.

(Sounds like car traffic makes it harder for pedestrians to breathe)

People in sensitive groups, such as asthma sufferers, may experience watering eyes, coughing, throat irritation, chest pain, and breathing difficulty. Try to limit your time outside, especially in the middle of the day.

Also, let's please stop polluting the air so much. How? From the EPA website:

"On Days when High Ozone Levels are Expected, Take these Extra Steps to Reduce Pollution:

> Choose a cleaner commute - share a ride to work or use public transportation.

> Combine errands and reduce trips. Walk to errands when possible.

> Avoid excessive idling of your automobile.

> Refuel your car in the evening when its cooler.

> Conserve electricity and set air conditioners no lower than 78 degrees.

> Defer lawn and gardening chores that use gasoline-powered equipment, or wait until evening."

Good tips. Notice that several of them revolve around cars.

Personally, I also recommend that the world focus on multifamily housing for the long run, which I'm committed to for several reasons, including the lessened burden on energy (shared walls = less AC/heating energy needed) and lessened burden from lawn-care pollution, and the way that density supports public transit.

[High horse dismounted. Good horse. Goooood horse.]

Code Orange Alert issued in metro Atlanta this afternoon. Here’s what it means.

Metro Atlanta will be under a Code Orange Air Quality Alert this afternoon. Here's what you need to know.

[atlurbanist]

I'm never trying to make drivers feel guilty about their pollution. Instead, I'm always trying to state the importance of more-compact developments that better enable alternatives to driving such as walking and transit.

Personal car trips need to be de-centered in our development patterns.

With that caveat...

Research over the last few years has revealed more and more harm coming from the ultra-fine particle pollution of tire and brake dust. One report found that 78 percent of ocean microplastics are from synthetic tire rubber. Others have found links to bad health outcomes in humans.

Despite the benefits of switching to electric powered vehicles, it's a problem they can't solve -- in fact, the heavier weight of EVs can worsen the pollution. One study found that EVs can shed around 20 percent more from their tires due to their higher weight compared to internal combustion vehicles.

Things I'm not saying: "ban all cars" or "EVs are evil" or "anyone driving a car should be ashamed." I don't think that and I'm not saying that.

What I am saying: every development going forward needs to be intentionally designed to contribute to a cure for car dependency, and to not sustain or exacerbate the problem.

[atlurbanist]

This image was used in a 2017 Streetsblog post from Yonah Freemark, titled "In Atlanta, Transit Service Lags Behind a Booming Population."

As Freemark noted, the Atlanta region sprawled out dramatically across several counties during the last few decades, onto previously undeveloped land. We've come to the point where only 8% of our metro population lives within a mile of MARTA's 48-mile heavy rail system.

Imagine if Metro Atlanta had instead spent the last few decades building transit-focused, compact neighborhoods that serve transit well -- versus exploding outward in a sprawling, car-centric format that doesn't help transit become an efficient alternative.

It's like Atlanta ran away from our train lines with our growth format, enforcing car dependency along the way through zoning laws that demand low density neighborhoods.

We can't simply build new train lines to every suburban cul-de-sac (with the current cost of rail construction, it's doubtful we'll see new heavy rail lines at all).

But we also can't build inclusive density near all of our existing rail stations unless zoning is changed to allow it.

In the center city, we have been treating single family neighborhoods -- even ones that are near train stations -- like each one of them is a precious jewel in need of preserving in amber, even as housing woes increase and low-income people are pushed into suburbs without transit service and with dangerous roads.

We need to reverse all of that. Step one is convincing people that a problem exists and that our old ways of land development are in need of a fix.

[atlurbanist]

With suburban zoning, you can live in a house that's 400 feet from a grocery store, but it requires a 1.2 mile drive to get there.

Or you could walk, if you're up for a death-defying journey on a large arterial road.

Roswell Road, Cobb County, GA.

*But* -- I can't let cities off the hook. We've got some unwalkable nonsense intown as well, due to zoning that prevents retail from being intertwined with housing in many areas.

Do you ever think of tweaks you would make to your own, neighborhood to make it so that you could easily walk to destinations?

[atlurbanist]

This is fine (*sips*)

[atlurbanist]

Atlanta's urban treasures may neighbor an asphalt-heavy Walmart

Creative Loafing reports something I've long suspected -- that the notorious, proposed development next to Glenwood Park at the Atlanta Beltline will not only feature a large surface parking lot, but also a Walmart. Though I'm not a Walmart hater (more of an avoider), I do think this is as bad a spot for the car traffic this store generates as you could possibly find in Atlanta.

Glenwood Park and the Beltline are two of Atlanta's most acclaimed developments in good urban design. They've been praised nationwide as examples of Atlanta's ability to move development in a more sustainable direction, building attractive infill in a welcoming, walkable environment. Kaid Benfield, a popular writer on urban sutainability, called the Beltline "the country's most ambitious smart growth project" In the national urbanist community, these two are known as beacons that point to a more positive future for a city often refereed to as the "poster child of sprawl," with the past few decades being dominated by car-dependent built environments.

Just take a look at this video featuring Glenwood Park that made the rounds on urbanist websites a couple of years ago:

What is potentially going to be harmed with this Fuqua project is (among other things) the ability to continue pointing growth in the area surrounding Glenwood Park in a more sustainable direction. This area can serve as a great example of what Atlanta neighborhoods could achieve with additional attractive, compact, mixed-use structures and environments that give equal importance to pedestrian traffic. A big box store (Walmart or otherwise) with a large surface parking lot seems like more of the same old thing for Atlanta rather than the bold change it needs, particularly in this spot next to Glenwood Park and the Beltline. What chance does this area have for good pedestrian and cycling mobility if it ends up with the same car traffic we have at other intown shopping centers that are as car-focused as the one proposed here?

Glenwood Park photo by Flickr User cnuatlanta

[atlurbanist]

The sad tale of metro Atlanta's failure to embrace MARTA

There's a must-read article in the new Atlanta magazine by Doug Monroe called Where It All Went Wrong : If only we could undo the MARTA Compromise of 1971.

It explores the damage done to MARTA by the 50/50 compromise from 1971 which established that no more than 50 percent of MARTA's sales tax revenue (from City of Atlanta and Fulton/Dekalb counties) could go to operating costs.

As the article states:

That has meant that whenever MARTA needed more money for operating expenses, it had to cut elsewhere or raise fares. As a result, MARTA has raised the fare over the years to today’s $2.50, making it one of the priciest transit systems in the country.

My favorite part of the article is one that examines the way the metro embraced car-dependent sprawl while shunning transportation alternatives and a walkable built environment.

It reads like a case study of what happens when a metro focuses on short-term money making instead of long-term place making.

Georgia started “building highways expressly to enrich developers,” [former AJC reporter David Goldberg] says. “A whole lot of land owners and developers who knew how to do suburban development had the ear of state government and the money to buy influence...A lot of what was new suburban development back then is now underused, decaying, and part of an eroding tax base in the older suburban areas.”

“The sick joke of it all is that we built the place to be auto-oriented and designed it about as bad as we could to function for auto use,” Goldberg says. “The highway network we did build was designed in a way almost guaranteed to produce congestion—the land use around all that development put the nail in the coffin.”

Read the full article here.