The Real Solution to Utah's Air Problem
My papa believed the Utah air pollution was killing him. After 55 years living here, he finally left his family and friends to live in Washington. Every year, the Utah air crisis seems to worsen. From liberationNews, Utah was rated with the worst air quality in the world. Utah has the innate disadvantage of dealing with inversion, which traps toxic air in the atmosphere but where is most of the pollution coming from? Unfortunately, it's our motor vehicles. Let me quote the article.
"According to IQAir, the primary drivers of pollution emissions in the Salt Lake area are motor vehicles (55%), home and business emissions (27%), non-road combustion sources like construction equipment, airplanes, boats, and lawn mowers (10%), and industry-related emissions (8%)." (5)
Our poor air quality has serious ramifications on our health, and has even been cited linked to infertility. https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-017-0291-8
The proposed solution is less driving. I've wondered for years how this was even possible. I even felt guilt for my lack of participation. "Stop driving so much." "Please carpool more." "Don't drive on a bad inversion day." "Take the train or the bus." Except for maybe the last one, which is still entirely problematic, these ideas are not feasible. I can't stop going to work because it's a bad inversion day. I can't carpool if I arrive at a doctor's appointment for myself. I'm not going to stop taking my daughter to school or soccer practice just because of the bad air. Carpooling is possible in some circumstances, but it is often a given that a group of friends will arrive at a planned event together. More often than not, it is entirely inconvenient to gather friends to go grocery shopping and it simply isn't done. Our lives keep moving and we need our cars.
And this is the point. We need our cars. We cannot function in our current society without them. After doing some passive research, I discovered a Youtube Channel called, "Not Just Bikes." In the videos, the author explained that there are European cities, such as Basel Switzerland that are not only beautiful, and clean, but quiet. Sounds like a suburb, doesn't it? But they aren't suburbs, they are densely populated cities. Can you imagine New York city... quiet? The biggest difference? Their infrastructure is not built around the motor vehicle, it is built around the pedestrian. Their city infrastructures have mixed zoning, all focusing on easy convenient travel for the pedestrian without a car. They've made walking, cycling, and taking the tram as incredibly easy solutions to arrive at the local grocery store or to the elementary school. Locally owned stores are built to walk to as a priority first. Bike paths are wide, beautiful and not encumbered with dangerously fast moving vehicles. They are not loud or uncomfortable to bike on. The infrastructure of the roads favor the cyclist rather than the car, making it more difficult for a car to hit a mother child duo on a bicycle. Without the need for a car, there are simply less cars on the road, and less road needed. Switzerland also has an extensive train system across the entire country, making train transportation incredibly speedy and convenient for work or sightseeing (Switzerland is not car infested and it is still very beautiful). The reason why public transportation has failed in Utah is because we have not dedicated nearly the time or infrastructure for it to be publicly preferred or slightly convenient. Our current public transportation is minimal, confusing, and extraordinarily time consuming. Only used by the most desperate and poor in our communities. In Switzerland it is the wealthy that prefer public transportation because it is treated as a first class transportation network.
If perhaps you counter, "Switzerland is a smaller country than Utah." Within pure geographical space, that is true. But the majority of Utah land is not currently being lived in. Switzerland caters their public transit for about 8 million people. Utah has 3 million. What is our excuse? This must be remedied and it can be. Not only is it cheaper and sustainable in the long run to have well designed and sustainable public transportation, it is more convenient, and cleaner towards the environment and our air.
This is our solution to Utah's air problem. It is to not drive less, but to barely need to drive at all. We must make a concerted effort to change the infrastructure in Utah cities. We must redesign our suburbs to be more functional to their inhabitants. It is absolutely imperative that suburban cities are not isolated from their local businesses and need to drive out of their communities to function. This only adds another car to the ever growing road. We must change our R1 (residential) zoning laws to include low-traffic, non-intrusive businesses. We must design our sidewalks for pedestrians, not for the car. Our cities should be clean, walkable, bikeable, and use well developed public transportation. Our goal should not be to expand the highways to avoid traffic, it should be to shrink highways so that they are no longer needed. The goal is to not destroy the freedom of the car, but to provide car-free freedom within our communities. Cheap, quick and convenient public transportation should be preferred over spending an hour and half alone in rush hour traffic back from work. Utah citizens need clean air, they need to function without a car. They need beautiful, clean, peaceful and lively cities, not isolated and nonfunctional suburbs. With the population of Utah ever growing, we must make this pivotal turn to clean Utah air now before it's too late. We must create a beautiful and functional Utah for all.
Citations
(1)https://www.sltrib.com/news/environment/2018/01/05/utahs-air-pollution-woes-unlikely-to-clear-up-before-2024-state-scientists-say/
(2)https://www.kuer.org/health-science-environment/2021-08-06/utah-had-the-worst-air-in-the-world-today-heres-what-you-need-to-know-to-be-safe
(3)https://www.sltrib.com/news/environment/2020/04/09/study-shows-air-pollution/
(4)https://www.zicasso.com/a/switzerland/ms
(5)(https://www.liberationnews.org/worst-air-in-the-world-salt-lake-city-utah/)
