Post Tagged with: "Public Health"

Chart(s) of the day: These two charts are enough to paint the appalling state of air pollution in India

March 2, 2015 at 9:18 pm

These graphs below via Qz.com paint a compelling picture of air quality in India. In most western media discussions/stories about environmental pollution is often China-centric. One would expect China to be topping the charts when it comes to pollution, given the country’s ginormous population, its economic clout and the manufacturing prowess which earned it the “factory of the world” label, . But in reality, ‪#‎India‬ is the worst offender and it deserves far more scrutiny than China. 14 of the top 20 most polluted cities are in India and a not a single Chinese city made it to this list. Govt. of India should take urgent steps to combat this issue because of the risks it pose to public health. 

Image Courtesy: Quartz I Qz.com

Image Courtesy: Quartz I Qz.com

For what it is worth, the transportation sector is one of the major culprits, accounting for a significant portion of the overall emissions. While congestion in major cities continues to grow worse, the vehicle sales continues at a torrid pace and doesn’t show any signs of a slow down. To put this in perspective, I am borrowing the following points from the ICCT fact sheet:

  • India’s vehicle population has grown from 50 million in 2003 to 130 million in 2013.
  • Vehicle PM10 emissions have fallen 14% since 2003, but emissions will return to 2003 levels by 2017 due to vehicle population growth if new controls are not mandated

Another major source of pollution in India related to the transportation sector is the noise pollution, which requires a dedicated blog post by itself. So, one of these days I’ll get around to doing some research on that topic and write it up.

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Chart of the day: Implementing world-class vehicle emissions standards would reduce transport air pollution-related mortality from approximately 270,000 deaths to 71,000 deaths in 2030 globally

January 14, 2015 at 12:34 pm

This chart comes from a report titled “The state of clean transport policy: A 2014 synthesis of vehicle and fuel policy developments” published by the International Council on Clean Transportation.

Air-pollutant emissions and public health

Exposure to outdoor air pollution resulted in 3.2 million early deaths worldwide in 2010 and ranks among the top ten health risks. Motorized transport is a major contributor to outdoor air pollution, particularly near major roadways and in urban areas with a high concentration of vehicle activity. The vast majority of health impacts from vehicle activity occur in India, China, Brazil, Mexico, and the countries in the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. Implementing world-class vehicle emissions standards would reduce transport air pollution-related mortality from approximately 270,000 deaths to 71,000 deaths in 2030 globally, with benefits that are greatly concentrated in major cities. These estimates are limited strictly to exhaust emissions of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) from light- and heavy-duty on-road vehicles in urban areas and thus represent a conservative estimate of health impacts from transport.

 

 

Image courtesy: theICCT.org

This report summarizes advances in national and international regulations intended to reduce energy use, mitigate climate change, and control air pollution from motor vehicles and fuels across eleven major vehicle markets from January 2013 through August 2014. These eleven vehicle markets—China, the U.S., the European Union, Japan, Brazil, India, Russia, Canada, South Korea, Australia, and Mexico—represented 85% of total vehicle sales in 2013. Click here to access the report and the presser.

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“Roads Kill” – Washington Post Infograph shows the public health crisis on roads across the globe

February 1, 2014 at 7:43 pm

How bad is the road safety problem across the planet? Pretty bad.  The global road death toll has already reached 1.24 million per year and is on course to triple to 3.6 million per year by 2030. In “Roads Kill,” The Washington Post joins with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting to bring stories from around the world about this neglected but easily curable public health crisis.

[pageview url="http://roadskillmap.com/#58.53959476664049,89.296875,2" height="500px" border="yes"]

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Affirmation via Infograph – Long commutes are deadly; cutting 20mins of your commute cuts heart attack risk by 300%

May 9, 2012 at 1:07 pm

(Source: Collegeathome via LifeHacker)

This data-laden infograph shows some scary stat.. Good news is that shortening your commute by 20 minutes might lower your risk of neck and back pain by 14%, obesity by 20%, and heart attack by 300% . Now if you will excuse me, I’ve to go find a job near my home or find a home near my job.

Image Courtesy: Collegeathome via LifeHacker

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Transportation for America’s Public Health and Safety Webinar Wrap

May 6, 2009 at 6:21 pm

Transportation for America hosted the fourth webinar in the ongoing series last Thursday, April 30. More than 270 people signed up to hear from health, safety and active transportation experts on the effects of our transportation policy on public health and safety.

 Following up on the webinar, we’ve released the 5th in a series of policy papers, focusing on public health and safety.

Our current transportation system puts our health and safety in jeopardy by contributing to sedentary behaviors, hazardous pollution levels, difficult access to health care, and preventable injuries and deaths.

As the panelists demonstrated, we need federal leadership to help make the critical link between health, safety, and transportation policies and create communities that promote active living, reduce pollution levels, increase accessibility, and ensure safety for all transportation users.  Panelists also addressed the transportation needs among older Americans, minorities, low-income residents, and people who live in both rural and metropolitan areas — all of whom deserve safe transportation that improves health outcomes.

Click here to learn more about the panelsist’s views.
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Grinding to a halt! ITDP brings to fore key transportation issues facing Jakarta, Indonesia

April 27, 2009 at 12:50 pm

(Source: Institute for Transportation & Development Policy)

Activist Says Jakarta Current Vehicle Growth Leads to Transportation Failure

If the vehicle growth rate in Jakarta continues to hover around tens of percent annually without any breakthrough in transportation and traffic management, the city will be paralyzed by total gridlock by 2014, a nongovernmental organization said Wednesday.

“Total traffic failure is an unbearable risk caused by the city’s failure in transportation and traffic management,” the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy said in a statement sent to The Jakarta Post.

“Traffic jams have degraded the environment and people’s health due to excessive vehicle emissions. They also halt residents’ mobility that, in turn, cause economic losses,” it said.

Jabodetabek, a large-scale metropolitan area with a population of 21 million, consists of Daerah Khusus Ibukota/DKI (Capital Special Region) Jakarta, as the capital city of Indonesia, which is the center of politics, economy and social activities, and 7 local governments (Bodetabek) in the surrounding areas covering Kota (municipality) Bogor, Kabupaten (regency/district) Bogor, Kota Depok, Kota Bekasi, Kabupaten Bekasi, Kota Tangerang, and Kabupaten Tangerang.

Traffic congestion is a chronic problem faced in the Jabodetabek region and the situation is expected to worsen should there be no improvement of any kind made on the existing transportation system. According to a 2005 study,  the economic loss caused by traffic congestion in the region could be as much as $ 68 million per year due to traffic congestion – and this estimate excludes the impacts of traffic congestion and pollution on human health.

Jakarta’s Paratransit Network Still Stuck In Slow Lane 

Focussing on plans for modern subways, rapid-transit buses or express trains, while Jakarta delays overhauling its Metro Mini, Kopaja, angkot and mikrolet networks, the administration is just sweeping dirt under the rug.

At a recent meeting with city councilors, Governor Fauzi Bowo proudly reported Jakarta’s priority program of continuing to develop the BRT (rapid transit buses) network as well as the proposed subway, but nothing was said about the existing semi-formal modes of public transportation – the “paratransit” system.

Well, pardon me governor, the key to overhauling the city’s transportation system lies not in modern technology alone: It is about the addressing the system as a whole, while slowly introducing a new transportation backbone. This involves harmonizing existing means into a working network – not an overlapping one.

Sure, the paratransit system is meant to act as feeder lines for the BRT network, but how?

Jakarta’s last effort to synchronize existing microbuses and public minivans involved trying to introduce a single-ticket system for the feeder and BRT buses – an approach that failed not long after its introduction, and which has never been replaced with other initiatives.

They do say that transportation issues have more to do with political tendencies than technicalities.

But what makes it so hard to deal with the existing paratransit system and why does the Jakarta provincial government rather focus its energy in developing the new BRT and subway projects?

Transportation in Jakarta is so tied up with conflicting interests that overhauling it has become extremely complicated.

Officially, it seems non-physical projects such as integrating Kopaja and angkot benefit no one (financially that is) and this is a large part of the reason that the paratransit system is being ignored.

Turning back the clock a little to when the government chose to focus on building roads and highways (one of the consequences of Indonesia becoming a Japanese automakers’ production hub), our city buses and angkots were left on their own.

Jakarta Wants Less Cars, More Days 

The city administration has expanded its controversial car-free day program from just once a month to twice monthly.

The Jakarta Environmental Management Board, or BPLHD, announced on Thursday that it had scaled back the ban on vehicles on the main Jalan Sudirman-Jalan Thamrin thoroughfare during the last Sunday of every month, but would now bar traffic from other parts of the city on the second Sunday of every month.

“We received many complaints from people whose activities were disrupted so we gave up and reduced [the closure] by two hours,” said BPLHD head Peni Susanti.

Speaking at a press conference to outline the changes, Peni said traffic would now be barred from Sudirman-Thamrin between 6 a.m. and noon, bringing forward the previous finishing time of 2 p.m.

On a rotational basis, the second Sunday of each month would see traffic restrictions enforced during the same hours in areas such as Jalan Rasuna Said in South Jakarta, the Kota area of West Jakarta, Jalan Danau Sunter in North Jakarta, Jalan Pramuka in East Jakarta and Jalan Soeprapto in Central Jakarta.

During the car-free days, only the TransJakarta busway would be allowed to use the main roadways, while other public transportation and private vehicles must use the slow lane.

Peni said the aim was to improve air quality by reducing pollution from traffic, and to encourage more efficient use of cars.

Air-quality evaluations conducted during car-free days have shown significant drops in pollutant concentration levels, with dust particles reduced by 34 percent, carbon monoxide by 67 percent and nitrogen monoxide by 80 percent.

“Those three parameters are the primary pollutants from motor vehicles,” Peni said. “Motor vehicles are still the biggest polluters in Jakarta.”

Slamet Daryoni, the interim director of the Jakarta branch of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment, or Walhi, however, said that the car-free day program was ineffective.

One Project At A Time Keeps Congestion Away, Experts Say (Jakarta)

Jakarta’s administration should focus on one public transportation project at a time, to avoid projects being half completed and unsuccessful, like the waterway and monorail projects, urban planning experts said Wednesday.

Despite worsening traffic conditions in the city, the administration has not yet managed to develop any form of efficient public transportation, said urban planning expert Yayat Supriatna.

“The administration is inconsistent in developing transportation systems. It should prioritize and focus on completing one project before starting another,” he said, citing several unfinished projects.

Despite the monorail project not being completed, the administration went ahead with building the waterway, which has been considered a failure.

“Existing modes *of transportation*, such as the Transjakarta bus, have yet to be optimized by the administration. To some extent, they only create new traffic problems,” Yayat said.

The administration has been planning to build the monorail project since 2003, erecting pillars in the middle of several main streets. However the project is now in a deadlock due to legal and financial problems.

Yayat said the project was still feasible, but needed stronger commitment from the administration and the company consortium.

Furthermore, he warned administrative uncertainties in transportation projects could lead to stakeholder distrust and hamper the improvement of the entire system.

The Institute of Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) said the city’s infrastructure could not catch up with the growing number of vehicles.

The group estimated that if vehicle growth rate continued to hover around an annual two-digit percentage without any breakthrough in transportation and traffic management, the city would be paralyzed by 2014.

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Webinar Alert: Transportation for America webinar series to examine transportation’s impact on impacts on our housing and job markets, public health, energy needs, climate, economic competitiveness

March 9, 2009 at 5:51 pm

(Source: Transportation for America)

Do you know how transportation policy affects housing? Oil? Climate? Economic opportunity?

Here is your chance to find out.

Transportation is the second biggest federal discretionary spending category — second only to defense spending. Where and how we choose to invest in transportation will have deep impacts on our housing and job markets, public health, energy needs, climate, economic competitiveness, and nearly every other pressing issue facing our country today.

To better understand and examine these connections Transportation for America will be holding a series of online discussions throughout March, April and May with several of our key partners.   Hear from experts about how reforming federal transportation spending is connected to meeting our urgent national goals of reducing America’s oil dependency, helping the nation compete and thrive in the 21st century, and bringing opportunity to all Americans.

The first four sessions are open now, so visit the webinars page to see the list of sessions and sign up for one today. Open sessions include:

Transportation and Economic Opportunity

Speakers will explore how the transportation sector drives the economy and creates opportunities for American workers. Topics will include the transportation sector’s ability to create jobs and sustain global growth, and the use of transportation as a driver of neighborhood revitalization.

March 19th at 1 PM EST / REGISTER NOW

Transportation and Social Equity

Social equity activists, labor groups, and community development professionals will examine how transportation access and mobility affects basic needs such as healthcare, education, and economic opportunity for millions of Americans.

March 24th at 4 PM EST/ REGISTER NOW

Transportation, Climate Change, and Energy Security

Within the United States, transportation is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Webinar attendees can learn how various modes of transportation impact the environment and energy security, and how our land-use patterns affect vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and air quality.

April 2 at 2 PM / REGISTER NOW

Transportation, Housing, and Development

Real estate development professionals and affordable housing advocates will explore the linkages between transportation and housing development, the shift in housing and real estate preferences and value, and the creation of affordable mixed-use development near jobs and transit.

April 16 at 4 PM EST / REGISTER NOW

Transportation and Public Health and Safety

Transportation influences the health and safety of communities by affecting physical activity levels, traffic speeds, and air pollution. This session will investigate the needs of paratransit and transit-dependent populations, the success of Complete Streets and non-motorized transportation programs, and the connections between transportation and active living.

Transportation in Rural Areas and Small Towns

Click here to read more

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