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<h2>Reasons for Reducing Car Travel in Madison</h2>

<h4>Michael T. Neuman<br>

January 12, 2006</h4>



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<p>By public health standards, air quality within the City of Madison has already surpassed the threshold level of particulates within the air from motor vehicle and other combustion emission sources at which the Department of Natural Resources has had to issue an air quality health advisory.  Particulate levels in Madison and vicinity's air during 2005 exceeded safe levels a total of 9 days during 2005.  

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On those days, the DNR had to issue an advisory to the public in the Madison area to use caution and try to reduce their exposure to particulate levels of pollution, and to reduce driving and other activities that contribute to combustion emissions.  

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The air quality index for the Madison area on those days registered into the "orange level", the level at which the DNR, and the U.S. EPA, consider the air to be unhealthy for people in sensitive groups, such as those with heart or lung disease, asthma, older adults and all children, and including people who are not in  sensitive groups but who are engaged in strenuous activities, or who are exposed for prolonged periods of time.

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Under an orange level advisory, all people are advised to reschedule or cut back on strenuous activities activities.  People with lung diseases, such as asthma and bronchitis and heart disease, are advised to pay attention to cardiac symptoms like chest pain and

shortness of breath, or respiratory symptoms like coughing, wheezing and discomfort when taking a breath, and consult with their physician if they experienced those symptoms.  Obviously, the City of Madison should strive to attain no days of the year under which its air quality is in the orange or worse levels.

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There were also 4 days in Madison last year when pollution levels, again from motor vehicle emissions and other sources of combustion, were very close the levels at which Madison's air quality at the ground level exceeded the Federal Clean Air Act standard. Dane County instituted a program a couple years ago that alerts the Madison area public of when air quality in Dane County is nearing the ground level ozone standard - called "Clean Air Action Days" (there is no such

similar program for particulate pollutants) and requests they cut back on driving and other fuel burning during the day.

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There is ample scientific basis for the DNR to issue public health advisories when the levels of particulates in the air exceed the safety threshold levels for particulates, and for Dane County to issue Clean Air Action Days.  Numerous scientific studies show higher hospitalization rates for asthmatics, and increased prevalence of childhood leukemia and other forms of cancer, and a higher incidence of heart attacks and strokes in populations that live near heavily traveled roads.

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A study conducted in San Diego County in the 1990s showed residents who already had asthma reported more trips to hospitals if they lived within a distance of within 550 feet to a heavily traveled highway.<A HREF="#FOOT1"><SUP>1</SUP></A>

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According to a study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, living near a busy road could also increase a child's chances of getting bronchitis or asthma in the first place.<A HREF="#FOOT2"><SUP>2</SUP></A>

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It is the fine pollution particles (the mostly unseen  ones) that are emitted from operating motor vehicle emissions which are the most injurious as they lodge deep into human lung tissue. The problem occurs most frequently in children because children are more likely

to be breathing deeper as their lung capacity is  smaller and they are more often engaged in active outdoor activities that require faster and deeper breathing.<A HREF="#FOOT3"><SUP>3</SUP></A>

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Pollution emissions from motor vehicles can also trigger ischemia, a potentially catastrophic shortage of oxygen to the heart muscle.<A HREF="#FOOT4"><SUP>4</SUP></A>

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A study by New York's Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health concludes that babies in the womb are more sensitive than their mothers to pollutants from motor vehicle tailpipes and other combustion sources.<A HREF="#FOOT5"><SUP>5</SUP></A>

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The medical journals are filled with reports of scientific studies that link human exposure to even moderate levels of particulates from automobile emissions to increased risk of getting asthma, asthma

attacks, bronchitis, heart attack, stroke and cancer. A report prepared by the Sierra Club documents many other of the known health hazards for people who live near heavily traveled highways.<A HREF="#FOOT6"><SUP>6</SUP></A>

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Recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued proposed revisions to the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for particle pollution that reduce even further the number of fine particles that can be present in the air for it to be considered in compliance with the Clean Air Act. Presently, the annual (average) standard for fine particulates is 15 micrograms per cubic meter and that standard would remain unchanged. The current daily (maximum)

standard for fine particulates is 65 micrograms, and EPA proposes a reduction to 35 particles per cubic meter cubed.

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The American Lung Association claims the proposed limits are still not low enough to protect public health and will lead to thousands of premature deaths. The American Lung Association states that, despite

the strong scientific consensus by an independent outside scientific review panel and the EPA's own staff scientists that stricter standards are needed to protect public the health, EPA is proposing the standards anyway.

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The Association claims EPA's proposed annual standard of 15 micro grams (ug) of particles per cubic meter and daily standard of 35 ug particles per cubic meter annual average standard should be reduced to 12 and 25 ug, respectively. Additionally, the Association 

recommends EPA adopt a standard of "no more than four days in any year be above the daily standard of 12 ug", and that coarse particles be included in that standard as well.

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"There is no scientific basis to determine that particles from any source - especially sources that can include toxics such pesticides and heavy metals - are safe for people to breathe", the Association

states.

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What is needed to protect the health of Madison's resident population is a plan to reduce the overall increases in fuel burning in Madison so that health advisories and clean air action alerts don't need to

be issued.

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Personal motor vehicle operation in and around Dane county is the one of the leading contributors to high ozone and particulate levels to Madison's air.  There needs to be a goal identified in the Comprehensive Plan that focuses more attention on the need to reduce

overall levels of motor vehicle driving in and around Madison. 

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Reducing the annual number of motor vehicle miles driven in and around Madison by 20% by the year 2015 would help ensure Madison's air remains healthy to breathe and in compliance with the Federal Clean Air Act requirements.  

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A 20% reduction in motor vehicle miles driven in Madison would also reduce traffic congestion, the potential for collisions and automobile-pedestrian and automobile-bicycling conflicts, and reduce the need for highway/street capacity expansion and maintenance. It

would also help Madison meet its climate protection commitments, since emissions from motorized transportation is undoubtedly the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere in the Madison area as it is in the country as a whole.

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Wisconsin is by no means immune from the dangers of global warming. There presently exists overwhelming scientific consensus that earth's climate is warming in response to rising concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Fossil fuel burning in motorized transportation is the largest source of emissions of greenhouse gases in the U.S., followed by the industrial, residential and commercial sectors. In adopting its "Climate Protection Plan" (Final Update -

2002), the Madison Common Council recognized that local actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase energy efficiency provide many other local benefits including decreased air pollution, more jobs, reduced energy expenditures, and money saved for City government, its businesses and its citizens, in addition to helping to preserve Madison's hospitable climate for the future.

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"Increasingly, cities are providing the answers to some of America's toughest problems. So it's fitting that we're leading the way on global warming as well", said Mayor Dave Cieslewicz in May 2005 upon his signing of the U.S. Mayor Climate Protection Agreement, which

presently has 195 mayoral endorsements from around the country.<A HREF="#FOOT7"><SUP>7</SUP></A></P>

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A 20% reduction in motor vehicle driving would also improve Madison and Dane County's ranking as one of the more healthy areas of Wisconsin to raise a family.  The UW Population Health Institute released a study late in 2005 which ranks Wisconsin's 72 counties according to how healthy they are for people to live in the county.

Dane County missed out on being among the healthiest counties due to its poor air quality score.

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The study attributed the poorer air quality in Dane County to too much motor vehicle traffic and suggested alternatives to automobile use along with stronger adherence to smart urban planning as a way to move up in the statewide county health rankings in 2006.<A HREF="#FOOT8"><SUP>8</SUP></A></P>

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In conclusion, the City of Madison's Comprehensive Plan should include the goal of reducing motor vehicle miles traveled in the city by at least 20% of its current volume within ten years. This would make Madison's and Dane County's air cleaner to breathe, its sidewalks and bicycle paths safer and its economy and population more

sustainable.  There is too much single occupancy motor vehicle driving in Madison already, and it's time for a change to more sustainable modes of travel than the personal automobile.

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Traffic densities on highway and arterial roads in Madison continue to increase and are a significant source of air pollutants, including airborne particulates. Wisconsin Department of Transportation estimates show the number of motor vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in Dane County has grown from 3.0 billion VMT* in 1990 to 4.9 billion VMT<A HREF="#FOOT9"><SUP>9</SUP></A> in 2004, an increase of 63%, which is over 2 and a half times Dane County's population growth rate of 23% (450,730 - 367,085)<A HREF="#FOOT10"><SUP>10</SUP></A>

during the same period.  Clearly, Dane County, Madison and residents of other south central counties surrounding Madison are driving more miles today than ever before.  It's time to drive less.  Driving twenty percent less, on average, shouldn't be all that difficult. It's for a good cause.

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Per capita VMT in Dane County (a surrogate for the amount of driving done by Madisonions) grew from 8,172 miles per capita (MPC) in 1990 to 10,871 (MPC) in 2004 (a 33% increase). 

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A 20% reduction in VMT using the county's current population would therefore amount to a reduction in vehicle miles traveled per capita per year to 8,697 miles, which still exceeds the average number of

miles driven per capita in 1990 by 525 miles per year.





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<strong>Footnotes</strong><br>

<A NAME="FOOT1"></A><SUP>1</SUP><a href="http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/members/1999/107p761-767english/english-

full.html">"Examining Associations between Childhood Asthma and Traffic Flow Using a Geographic Information System"</a><BR>

<A NAME="FOOT2"></A><SUP>2</SUP> <a href="http://my.webmd.com/content/Article/93/102364.htm"> "Living Near High-Traffic Areas Linked to Childhood Asthma, Bronchitis"</a><br>

<A NAME="FOOT3"></A><SUP>3</SUP> <a href="http://www.resultsforamerica.org/calendar/files/042904childhoodasthmaG

WreleaseFINAL.pdf3">"Experts: Childhood Asthma "Epidemic" Among Inner-City Youth Seen in Absence of Steps to Curb Global Warming, Fossil Fuel Use".</a><br>



<A NAME="FOOT4"></A><SUP>4</SUP> "Air pollution: particularly offensive to the heart. Tiny particles

from traffic and industry, along with other pollutants, can trigger heart attacks and spur the development of heart disease". [Harv Heart Lett. 2005 Aug;15(12):4-5.<BR>

<A NAME="FOOT5"></A><SUP>5</SUP> <a href="http://www.ccceh.org/news-events/CCCEH%20PRESS%20RELEASE%20

(Jun23).htm">"Study of Effects of Air Pollution in New York City Reveals that Babies in the Womb are More Sensitive to DNR Damage from Pollution than their Mothers."</a><br>

<A NAME="FOOT6"></A><SUP>6</SUP> <a href="http://www.sierraclub.org/hhh/HHHFinalReport6-28-04.pdf"> "Highway Health Hazards:  How highways and roads cause health problems in our communities&#151;and what you can do about it."</a><br>

<A NAME="FOOT7"></A><SUP>7</SUP> <a href="http://www.ci.seattle.wa.us/mayor/climate/quotes.htm#mayors"> http://www.ci.seattle.wa.us/mayor/climate/quotes.htm#mayors</a><br>

<A NAME="FOOT8"></A><SUP>8</SUP> <a href="http://www.madison.com/tct/mad/topstories/index.php?

ntid=61560&ntpid=0">"Health Goes With Wealth Throughout Most of State."</a><br>

<A NAME="FOOT9"></A><SUP>9</SUP> Wisconsin Department of Transportation.<BR>

<A NAME="FOOT10"></A><SUP>10</SUP> Wisconsin Blue Book.<BR>