Going back in time we can see how this issue of
transportation has been a problem for many Centuries. We are now in the 21st
Century, and looking at some history of transportation can help us figure how
this became such a big problem. Starting from the 1900s, we received our first
transportation crisis, which arose from the increasing of automobile purchases,
and this led to overcrowding of streets and highways. The second transportation
crisis happened after WWII and this one happened because of the increasing of
people and homes that needed to be created, which created more congestion in
the streets and the third crisis during the 20th Century which was
not that long ago was because people were over exceeding the number of cars per
household, which becomes a problem because for each of these crisis’ policies
had to be implemented and the solutions called for more highways. The increase
of automobiles only increased the amount of pollution in the air because of the
emissions that were released from the different types of transportation. Some
of the issues that occurred were that Los Angeles was being effected by
photochemical smog, which is a brownish-orange haze that is formed by the
different pollutants that are released from automobiles, building, etc., these
pollutants are particulate matter, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, carbon
monoxide and ozone, and different types of mobiles release a big amount of
Nitrogen Oxides and Carbon. These pollutants are also the cause of a dust dome
that surrounds the Los Angeles region and this haze can be seen from atop of a
mountain or driving down the freeway and getting close to LA you can see it
from afar. These large amounts of transportation also cause congestion in the
streets and especially in the highways, so traffic a big issue in Los Angeles.
These problems cause issues for everyone especially humans; air pollution harms
the health of people, which can lead to higher levels of asthma, cancer, and
affects lung development as well. This issue is improving slowly, like Los
Angles implementing smog checks, which lowered the levels of smog in the air,
and other ways as well.
“This histogram is shown in
Figure 4, which shows that most trips produce about 330 grams per mile (g/mi)
of CO2 emissions,
corresponding to approximately 26 miles per gallon of fuel economy. Other
trips, however, produced far less or far more CO2 emissions per mile, depending on the specific driving pattern.
This variation comes from the driver’s behavior, the roadway type, and the
level of traffic congestion. Further, other vehicle types will have quite
different CO2 emissions
depending on their weight, power, and other vehicle factors” (Barth &
Boriboonsomsin 4).
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