[Mpls] Re: prt and Mpls

[Bruce Gaarder]

I read http://www.pca.state.mn.us/air/pubs/aqtrends.pdf and
http://www.epa.gov/air/aqtrends and
http://www.epa.gov/ttn/chief/trends/trends98/ looking for detailed info,
which isn't easily obtained in up-to-date form.  I look to those things
regulated by the Clear Air Act.  If you think that CO2 is a pollutant,
I gues that you don't breath or eat vegetables or anything that grows
by eating vegetables.  I won't get into arguing about that.  I can
provide pointers off-line to information about that.

In the Minnesota data, the trends are 10 or 20 years, ending in 1994,
the last year in the on-line report.  Looking at on-road vehicles, since
that's what cars and trucks mostly are, CO down 26%, SO2 down 45%, NOx
down 6%, O3 down 32%, particulates down 13%.

In the second EPA report, take a look at the graphs on pages 3-22 through
3-28.

As far as ozone is concerned, there are multiple things goinig on.  One is
a new EPA standard that is far more strict, the second is that in many
cities the ozone level is higher on the weekends when emissions of the
precurson chemicals is down.  See
http://www.aei.org/include/pub_print.asp?pubID=19746 and pay attention to
the footnotes rather than being knee-jerk about the site on which it is
found.

Looking at the EIS data, Hiawatha lrt, proposed University lrt, and 
northstar rail each would reduce emissions by 1/1000th, while they
increase congestion along their routes.

The continuing reduction in emissions required by EPA will far outpace that
as the fleet turns over.  One of the reasons that the instpection program
did so little was that the worst polluters weren't required to do anything
because of the cost exemptions built in as well as the fact that cars older
than the earliest emissions standards were never tested.  That's why
California has a hard time, they have a lot of old cars running.  Have a Saab
95 or 96 or 99?  An old Volvo?  An old Chevy?  An old Mercedes?  And they
don't even have to that old to have a major impact.  Compare the numbers
in the table I referenced between current cars and, say, ten year olds.

The idea that a doubling in vehicle miles travelled will somehow offset
a cut by 80% of a pollutant is quite obviously unsupported by mathematics.


Visit www.EffectiveTransit.org

The Independent Unsubsidized Voice of
Citizens for Effective Transit in the Twin Cities  (no lrt)

* lrt isn't a potato chip, you can stop at just one *

Bruce Gaarder
Highland Park  Saint Paul  MN
bruce_gaarder at acm.org