Sidewalks save planet
Want to be cool? Buy a home in a place with sidewalks. Don't care about pollution? Live in a suburb, where you need to hop in the car just to get a cup of coffee.
That's the message of a new report released today by the nonprofit Urban Land Institute called "Growing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change."
The study concludes that switching from gas-guzzling SUV's to hybrids won't be enough to cut down our carbon dioxide emissions by the 60 to 80 percent needed by 2050 to stave off environmental catastrophe. We need to change the way we live, so we don't have to drive so many miles.
Since World War II, almost all new housing in the U.S. has been manufactured in spread-out patterns -- often without sidewalks, and segregated from stores, which are surrounded by vast oceans of blacktop. So even if an average soccer mom wanted to walk more, her stroller would likely be clipped by an SUV as she tried to trudge along the breakdown lane of the highway to get to the mall.
"Americans drive so much because we have given ourselves little alternative," the report says. "For 60 years, we have built homes ever farther from workplaces, created schools that are inaccessible except by motor vehicle, and isolated other destinations -- such as shopping -- from work and home."
Since 1980, the number of miles Americans drive has grown three times faster than the U.S. population and almost twice as fast as vehicle registrations. All that means more vehicle exhaust, more carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, and a warmer planet with rising sea levels and worsening storms.
The solution: live in a town were you can walk to work, school and the grocery store. Places like.....Baltimore!
READER JOE K RESPONDED: "Sounds good...perhaps the City of Baltimore should lower property taxes and solve the crime problem in order to attract people back into the city."
MY RESPONSE: That's true. But perhaps people who care about the environment should also invest in the city -- despite its flaws -- to help Baltimore deal with its problems. Certainly buying in the suburbs isn't going help the city -- nor will it help global warming, sprawl or the destruction of Maryland's beautiful green places.
I report on the environment and Chesapeake Bay. A native of West Virginia, I have focused mainly on Maryland's environment since moving here in 1983. Along the way, I've crewed aboard a skipjack in the bay, canoed under city streets up the Jones Fall from the Inner Harbor, and gone deep underground in a western Maryland coal mine. Recently, I have been covering the growth and development transforming the landscape. I love seafood, rambles in the country and good stories. I hope to share some here.
Comments
As regular visitors to www.baltimoresun.com can tell, a lot of us at The Sun saw this report, and at least a couple of us felt it worth telling the public. Here's a link to the story I wrote that appeared in today's online news:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bay_environment/bal-climate0920,0,1139786.story?coll=bal_tab01_layout
Tune in for more later.
Posted by: Tim Wheeler | September 20, 2007 4:13 PM
Sounds good...perhaps the City of Baltimore should lower property taxes and solve the crime problem in order to attract people back into the city.
Posted by: joek | September 26, 2007 6:48 AM
I'm amazed that there are people who haven't figured this out yet. Where I live we walk everywhere-school, grocery store, restaurants, post office, playgrounds. Often 3 or 4 days go by before I need to get in my car. Many of my neighbors walk to work. It's an incredibly pleasant way to live. I was recently in Timonium and found myself needing to be on the other side of York Rd from where I was, if people think living in the city is risky try crossing York Rd!
Posted by: Emily | September 26, 2007 12:20 PM