SEPTEMBER 2015 ARTICLE

“Drive Less, Go More” – The Environmental Impact

On September 16, the Panorama community will have an opportunity to explore several alternative options to driving at our “Drive Less, Go More” event. Representatives from several groups encouraging bus and train use, including Intercity Transit (Thurston County buses), as well as Panorama Transportation and Resident Council Transit will be present at Panorama to demonstrate various forms of transportation other than the automobile. While using these alternatives to a car is an individual choice, they do provide many environmental and community advantages.

Less Congestion on our Roads
Many of us who drive have experienced increasing traffic congestion on our roads, particularly I-5 from Olympia through Tacoma to Seattle. In 2011, the Seattle Urban Area (including Tacoma) was tied with Philadelphia as the 9th most congested urban area in the United States (out of 498 urban areas) by the 2012 Urban Mobility Report. Each car in the area experienced 48 hours of delay in traffic during the year. The Thurston Regional Planning Commission states that there would be “30 to 40 percent more highway capacity if every drivealone commuter carried one other commuter to and from work or took the bus.” If every commuter avoided one rush-hour round trip weekly, capacity on our roads would increase by 20 percent. Intercity Transit estimates that a full local transit bus could take around 40 cars with one driver off the road. We do not have to commute to work to help relieve congestion on our roads; anytime we drive less, we reduce traffic congestion.

Less Need for Parking
Parking takes up considerable space in our communities. According to estimates on parking infrastructure in Spring 2015 at the University of California, Berkeley, there are around 810 million parking places in the United States, taking up about 24,000 square miles of land (including on roads). Parking lots of asphalt and concrete, often empty at night and over weekends, significantly reduce green areas, and contribute to polluted rainwater runoff. If we drove less and left our automobiles at home, less parking would be needed, thus greatly enhancing our environment.

Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Energy Use
The summer of 2015 has reminded us all of the potential long-term effects of climate change. For Olympia June 2015 was the hottest June ever since official records began. Throughout Washington, we are experiencing significant drought, water restrictions, and forest-fire danger. Our entire region is under duress. Reducing our carbon dioxide emissions is one important way we can address climate change. Transportation, accounting for 28 percent of emissions in the United States, is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Only Industry contributes more greenhouse gases.

While rail transportation (of all kinds) emits the lowest amount of carbon dioxide per passenger mile, a transit bus produces almost two-thirds the carbon dioxide per passenger mile of a single-occupant car (2007 National Transit Database, U.S. Department of Energy). Transit buses also use on average about 85 percent of the energy per passenger mile of a car with one person (in 2007) according to M.J. Bradley and Associates. For many environmental reasons riding the bus is a desirable alternative to driving. Reducing carbon dioxide emissions and energy use will not only help our environment but also our communities – good reasons for all of us to drive less and go more.

Roy C. Treadway, Panorama Green Team
Reprinted from the Panorama News, September 2014.

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