Traffic.
We all hate it, we all want it fixed.
But how is that best done? And
why is a Public Health blog talking about traffic congestion anyway? What’s public health got to do with it?
The basic transport unit has become the car. Canadians currently own about 1.5 cars per household, or some 21 Million licensed vehicles on the roads. In support of the fossil fuel dependent engines a massive oil and gas infrastructure has developed, some 900,000 km of roadway have been developed, Unlike raising a family, Canada’s 24 Million licensed drivers are expected to be trained, licensed and continue to demonstrate competency.
Regrettably
some 2000 persons die each year from motor vehicle collisions. The good news is
that the number that has been decreasing over the past few decades, as have
serious injuries and all injuries. The
reasons engender speculation from reduced distance traveled to greatly improved
engineered space for occupants of the vehicle (seat belts, air bags, structural
integrity).
Beyond the
obvious of motor vehicle crashes, is the insidious impact that vehicular
dependence has imparted to waistlines.
The average Canadian now commutes 25 minutes in either direction to
their place of work. That is nearly an
hour of sedentary activity per day. The
dream of a single home in the suburbs has become the nightmare associated with
overweight. Not that the car is the sole
contributor to the expanding girth, but in places where vehicular commutes are
being replaced by active transportation, weight reductions and better control are
being documented.
Innovative
approaches to maximize the use of the single vehicle have included
rides-sharing (car pooling), high occupancy lanes on major commute
thoroughfares, and car sharing. Of these
only car sharing invokes an increase in active transportation as access points
to the jointly used cars often require a short walk to parking locations.
Collectively
road transportation accounts for three times the total global contribution of
the transportation sector to greenhouse gas emissions. In Canada road transport accounts for
18.5% of all emissions. The total
contributions of greenhouse gases being a small piece of the story of the
contribution of road transportation to airshed contamination from fine
particulates, diesel and carbon particulates, ozone, and nitrous oxides. While efforts to reduce vehicle related
pollution has been successful, much of the individual car gains have been onset
by the increased population use of vehicles.
And by
design or just human nature, housing which is in proximity to roadways tends to
cater to lower socioeconomic groups and are avoided by those with wealth to
purchase quieter settings. This
contributes to poorer health outcomes amongst those in proximity to more pathogenic
pollutants pollutants such as diesel and carbon particles that are relatively
reactive and disperse with distance from the roadway.
Two areas
receiving more recent attention relate to the impact of road transport on
noise, where noise is seen by some as the major contributor to increased stress
amongst nearby residents and as much or more of an issue for health impacts
from pollutants in its contribution to cardiac outcomes from chronic stress. The
second area relates to the mental wellbeing, and while noise is one
contributor, increasing evidence speaks to the chronic stresses associate with
prolonged commutes. While some drivers
may enjoy a stressfree music filled commute, many commutes are associated with
stressful driving conditions and the long term impact of such commutes is showing
its wearing effect.
The future
of the car speaks to increased automation, safety improvements that may reduce
impacts on those hit by a car, shifting dependence on non-renewable resources
to renewable energy use and cleaner fuels such as natural gas – little of this
speaks to the need for treating the addiction and reducing our dependence on
single-person fossil-fueled transport units (the car)
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