Plan for less pollution
Transportation improvements can and should enhance air quality, but they don’t come cheap. So, when federal funds become available, local government should put them to good use.
It may not be entirely the fault of some Triad communities that federal grant money remains unclaimed. Less than clear guidelines and communication problems might be partly to blame.
On the other hand, as News & Record Staff Writer Taft Wireback reported Sunday, Greensboro has done well with $6.7 million made available through the federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program. Some of it helped fund the popular Higher Education Area Transit buses, and some paid for upgrading the traffic-signal system. Additional money will contribute to an expansion of city bus service.
High Point and Winston-Salem have been slower to utilize the grant and could see funds rescinded if they don’t come up with plans in the next few months.
Many kinds of projects would qualify, from sidewalks to bike paths to buses. High Point is lagging in all areas. Extending its daytime-only bus schedules and expanding routes to cover more of the city have been issues stressed by some current council candidates. Those who are elected should push for tapping into this funding source to get something done.
No one should favor spending money just because it’s there. Federal money isn’t free for local governments; everyone chips in for it. And more allocated for transportation might reduce what’s made available for sanitation, law enforcement or other services. Furthermore, projects must be designed to achieve maximum effectiveness. If the goal is reduced vehicle emissions and better air quality, then every proposal must include measures that will show clearly it will make a difference. A greenway, for example, might be a popular amenity, but if its use is purely recreational — meaning it can’t be used as an alternative route to work by foot or bicycle — it shouldn’t qualify. Even mass-transit proposals must be examined carefully to make sure they meet a demonstrated need in a cost-effective manner.
There should be no shortage of sensible ideas for helping people reach their destinations without need of personal vehicles. Relieving traffic congestion and reducing pollution are necessary objectives that require more funding than government at any level has at hand right now. Local leaders should have ready plans, however, for utilizing clean-air money as it becomes available. This is going to be a high priority for decades to come and no opportunity to make progress should be missed.
Comments (2)
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The best way to reduce air "pollution" is to muzzle you liberals! I find it astounding that as the liberal loons tell us that we are poisoning the air, the water, the food, and everythign else around us, our life expectancy continues to rise, and is now nearly 80 years!
Let's go back to the days prior the those horrible, dangerous, carbon based materials (which are NATURAL!) and look at what life expectancy was!
All of this lunacy comes from the same warped mindsets that told us in 70's when we began drilling at the North Slope, we would destroy the environment, destroy the Caribou herd, which has quadrupled, and we would get SIX months of oil!
Or that in in 1978 were told by world renowned geologist, Jimmie Carter, that we had only 10 years of oil left. I must have been out of town when we ran out!
Or of course, all of renowned climate scientist, Al Gore's apocolyptic pronouncements of our impending doom within 10 years (in the 70's, 80's, 90's and he's begun with the 2000's!)
Then there was world renowned oceanographer, Ted Danson's dire predictions that if we didn't do something soon, the oceans would be destroyed within, yep, you guessed it, 10 years!
These people would be funny if they wern't so dangerous to our growth and prosperity. Oh, and try to keep in mind the simple fact that our wonderful, glorious, "fragile" planet has survived for nearly 4.5 BILLION years, including times when it was too hot to sustain life, Ice Ages that killed off almost all living things, the continents crashing into each other, twice being one large land mass, tektonic plates, to this day, rubbing against each other, so I don't think my Honda Accord is going to end life as we know it. Perhaps liberal life, if we're lucky!
Posted on October 25, 2008 11:08 AM
Tony, are you suggesting air pollution is good for us?
Posted on October 25, 2008 12:30 PM