Brad Johnson 
CTA: Transportation Policy's Environmental Impact 
Premliminary Draft

From an environmental perspective, transportation policy has a profound impact on air and water quality. The availability of open space is also a direct result of cities' transportation policy and urban planning. Current local governments, unable or unwilling to implement the principles of sustainable development, continue to encroach on our state's forests, farms, wetlands and beaches. Cities' unrestrained annexation and incorporation policies demonstrate state and local governments' unfortunate lack of foresight. In the absence of a viable transportation network for the citizens of a growing North Carolina, rapidly expanding urban centers persist raising mile upon mile of roads as a stopgap solution for intensifying congestion and a swelling population. These "answers" further encourage commuter reliance on automobiles, compounding the natural and manufactured dilemmas of an already pressing urban environment.

Since the passage of the Federal Clean Air Act in 1970, there have been increasingly tighter federal governmental controls intending to preserve clean air. This long overdue legislation coupled with marked technological improvement provided a stepping-stone for a comprehensive overhaul of antiquated state and national environmental policy. Regrettably; however, North Carolina's air has not reaped the benefits of stricter guidelines and technological advances. Urban and suburban sprawl, larger automotive engines, and a numerical swelling of motorists on our state's roads have overturned these positive developments.

Nationwide the ever-growing transportation sector accounts for roughly 30 percent of 1.5 billon metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. Mobile sources, including cars and trucks, are responsible for 48% percent of nitrous oxide emissions nationwide . These two compounds are two of the chief chemical culprits behind global warming. Within North Carolina, the proportion of nitrous oxide emissions from mobile sources is equivalent to the national average, but within the Triangle, nitrous oxide coming from mobile sources has ballooned to almost 60%. The increase of other volatile organic compounds is equally alarming. The release of VOC's, most notably benzene (gasoline), weaken the Earth's ozone layer. This layer acts as shield, protecting our the people of our planet from harmful, cancer-causing ultraviolet rays. Cars are also leading producers of carbon monoxide and particulates, chemicals that are dually harmful to human health and the environment. 

With the exception of lead, the presence of the five other chemical subsets regulated under the Clear Air Act has increased dramatically since 1970. The air of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area and the Piedmont-Triad area largely mirrors that of the Triangle. Of these cities, only Charlotte has implemented significant steps to adapt its car-oriented society to a more user-friendly and viable system of public transportation . Unless our state and national governments begin to implement real urban renewal plans alongside feasible public transportation alternatives, this situation will only become more desperate. 

North Carolina's formerly pristine lakes, streams, and rivers equally shoulder sprawl's heavy burden. Acid rain from rising numbers of motorists, both from within and outside our state, has made local freshwater systems increasingly acidic, making them less hospitable to indigenous marine life. North Carolina's wetlands, long considered impediments to the state's economic and urban development, are now understood to play a vital role in our state's biological and chemical water filtration system. The real estate market, however, sees these remarkable lands as potential prospects for urban expansion. Their low cost makes these once undesirable lands prime targets for developing interests hoping to drain, fill, and pave them into just another suburban housing neighborhood or shopping mall.

In urban planning, too often the maxim "onward and upward" seems to have been misconstrued into "onward and outward." This philosophy has created sprawling cities marred with poor air, sparse green space, and polluted water systems and continues to foster a transportation policy centered on heavily polluting automobiles. Only swift revision of this strategy will reverse current trends. Public transportation alternatives, including light rail and urban bussing, provide the key to lessening the man's detrimental impact on The Old North State. As North Carolinians, we must realize that our prosperity goes hand-in-hand with the resources bestowed on our native lands. Sound public policy united with progressive science will ensure that our mutual progression will be impeded and that our state's endowments will be protected for generations to come. 


SOURCES:

NC Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (linked to the EPA)
http://www.epa.gov/otaq/ap42.htm

US Environmental Protection Agency:
http://www.epa.gov/ttn/chief/trends/trends98/chapter8.pdf

US Energy Information Administration:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/gg99rpt/emission.html
http://www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/fun_val.pdf

Manchester Metropolitan University 
Website on Chemical Emissions
http://www.doc.mmu.ac.uk/aric/eae/Air_Quality/Older/VOCs.html