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| Save on your transportation costs by walking or biking |
According to this Washington Post Express newspaper article, transit columnist Vicky Hallett wrote about an interesting study by the Environmental Health Perspectives that found if more people in the upper-Midwestern United States biked instead of drove for half of their trips that are five miles or less, there would be 1,100 fewer deaths and a savings of $7 billion in reduced helath care costs and improved air quality. And if people walked instead of biked, the savings would jump even higher than $7 billion. That's huge!
In the U.S. roughly 28% of all car trips are one mile or less, another 41% are two miles or less. Those short trips are particularly damaging, based on research that shows 25% of volatile organic compounds and 19% of particulate matter are emitted by cars in the first few minutes of operation.
The researchers concluded: “The current fossil fuel-based transportation system of the U.S. negatively impacts human health by increasing air pollution and automobile accidents and decreasing physical activity.
“Transport-related inactivity, i.e. the use of motorized transport rather than walking and bicycling, has been linked to increased mortality and decreases in healthy life years, with the greatest impacts on chronic diseases including heart disease, stroke, colon cancer, diabetes mellitus type 2, obesity, breast cancer, and osteoporosis.”
The results of this study show that walking and biking are a legitimate means of transportation and should not be overlooked in our race to pave over the country with new roads.
Please contact our County Councilmembers, County Executive, and State Senators to express your support for sidewalks and pedestrian-bike paths on Norbeck Road to make the area more walkable, liveable, and appealing.
Please telephone or e-mail our County Councilmembers and County Executive:
Nancy Navarro at 240-777-7968 or Councilmember.navarro@montgomerycountymd.gov
Marc Elrich at 240-777-7966 or Councilmember.elrich@montgomerycountymd.gov
Phil Andrews at 240-777-7906 or Councilmember.andrews@montgomerycountymd.gov
Ike Leggett at 240-777-2500 or ocemail@montgomerycountymd.gov
Also, please telephone or e-mail our State Senators:
Roger Manno (301-858-3151) or roger.manno@senate.state.md.us
Karen S. Montgomery (301-858-36251) or karen.montgomery@senate.state.md.us
Together, we can bring change to Norbeck Road and create a safer environment for everyone,
Full article available after the jump:
Bargains Afoot
By Vicky Hallett
Posted Friday, November 18, 2011
With Black Friday looming, everybody’s looking for a deal. But slashed prices for flat screens, video game consoles and cashmere mittens can’t compare to the best way to save dough over the holidays: keeping your car in park.
It’s not just that you’ll have to limit your shopping haul to what you’re willing to bring back with you on the Metro, or that you’ll pocket a sizable chunk of change by not having to fill up your tank or pay for parking tickets. It’s also that you’ll be contributing to the societal savings that come from pumping less exhaust into the air and from shrinking countless waistlines.
A study published this month in Environmental Health Perspectives projected that if we could get just the people in the Upper Midwestern U.S. to bike rather than drive for half of their trips that are five miles or less, that would be worth $7 billion in reduced health care costs and improved air quality.
Add in walking and you’re looking at even more value. By my definition, that includes the hoofing it you do on either end of your transit trips. Last week, I’d forgotten I’d thrown a pedometer in my purse. When I fished it out, I was amazed to find that just carrying it to the train between my apartment and my office (and back), I’d clocked about 5,000 steps — which is, depressingly, more than the national average of steps taken all day.
A couple miles isn’t much, but multiply that by the millions of other riders getting a move on and you wind up with massive sums.
So maybe that’s why the figures quoted in recent transportation news stories haven’t fazed me. Sure, it’s slated to cost $103 million to rebuild the Capital Crescent Trail to make way for the Purple Line, a $1.93 billion project. The Silver Line out to Dulles has a current price tag of $2.8 billion. And the proposal to add streetcars to Arlington and Fairfax estimates the initial costs to be in the neighborhood of $160 million.
That’s a lot of zeros. But when we look at those costs, we have to factor in the huge economic benefits that come from creating walkable neighborhoods, including more foot traffic for businesses and easier access to employment opportunities. There’s also the not-so-insignificant issue of increased property values.
These projects are far from free, but when you crunch the numbers, they could wind up being a bargain. And the best part of all? They don’t require waiting in line at Best Buy at midnight.
Photo Credit: Illustration by Bendependent.com
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