Schuiling challenged the idea that land use changes are required to meet the state’s GHG reduction goals because the goal cannot be met by making cleaner vehicles, as the California Air Resources Board has suggested. “That is simply not true,” Schuiling said.But its not just transportation, it's building as well, but we need to look at this as a complete system. This singular focus on one method is somewhat maddening. I know there are a lot of people who are hoping for a magic green car or a magic green building but we're also forgetting our water usage and population growth among other things. We can't keep building lanes on our roads and we certainly can't keep growing out over all the farmland in the Central Valley or Napa. The best thing we can do is look for solutions to all these things and I feel that is compact development and transit options.
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Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Not About Just Buildings, Cars
CNT has released another Affordability Index update that shows transportation emissions is 70% less in cities than in the suburbs. Why is this? Because people don't have to drive as much. You can see already the benefits and it isn't all about electric cars. Yet some in Southern California think that SB375, the landmark climate change bill can be addressed with electric cars alone. Sorry guys. It doesn't work like that.
Just got back from the "streetcar/subway city" of Toronto two hours ago from a trip by train. I used the streetcars and the subway a lot, and a bus once, and rode the entirity of the subway (including the Scarborough RT, a light metro type line) and four entire streetcar lines, including the longest, the 501 Queen. Last Friday, when I arrived, the Blue Jays beat the Red Sox 6-3 after a nine game losing streak!
ReplyDeleteThese people who claim that changing cars alone will suffice, I believe, don't understand it as well as I do. They see it in terms of just changes in technology to make building and cars "green", as if they think it's like a cure for everything. Sorry, guys, that just won't cut it.
Firstly I would like to say good blog. I work in restoring classic cars so I am not into the electric cars. However in are ever changing climate the electric car is the future. It will cut down on pollution but will not eradicate it. For that we have to have new technology and change how we live, which I do not see happening any time soon.
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