Pollution calls for solutions
Regardless of where we fall on the issue of man-made climate change, we can agree that pollution is a bad thing. Certainly it is a blight on the aesthetic of cities, but the environmental damage can also be devastating. Now, in Boston, we are faced with the possibility of real human health consequences. As the Herald’s Brooks Sutherland reported, environmental experts and activists are sounding the alarm on Boston’s air quality, with high asthma rates as an economic boom fuels the region’s worsening traffic congestion.
According to the transportation analytics firm INRIX, Boston has become the seventhmost congested urban area in the nation. That, combined with a 2017 Department of Public Utilities report that revealed there were approximately 64.8 million ride-hailing service trips, the potential for Amazon to bring 50,000 jobs here and a major casino opening next year, is causing experts to say it’s time the city looks toward the future.
As it stands, Boston is in pretty good shape. Suffolk County has received high grades for ozone and other pollution measures from the American Lung Association, though asthma rates have been increasing in those areas with the most congestion.
A 2018 Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America report listed Boston as the 11th most challenging place to live with asthma and ranked the city fourth nationally for asthma prevalence, with the state recording asthma rates at 10.2 percent for adults and 12.9 percent for children.
With more cars idling, in far greater numbers, pollutant emissions increase sharply.
Tufts University environmental professor Mary Davis predicted that additional traffic to and from the Encore Boston Harbor casino in Everett will add to pollution problems in an already congested area. “I have no idea what their plan is, but it’s already a mess,” Davis said. “I can tell you at times it’s at a standstill.”
Anyone who commutes in and out of the city can vouch for professor Davis. Rush hour is, in reality, rush hours — at least six of them every day when a sevenmile trip out of Boston can routinely take an hour to complete.
Downtown Boston is tiny, comparably, and could virtually fit into New York’s Central Park. Add to it a baseball stadium, a professional basketball and hockey facility and various other venues as well as an airport just 2.5 miles away and you’ve got trouble. Add to that, nonsensical and undersized streets and it is a perfect recipe for congestion.
It is a challenge that will have to be met with innovation, but not to the detriment of the population. We should not impose levies and fines on those living and working in town as a deterrent. A mass exodus is not what we want.
Public transportation, electric vehicles and more satellite parking opportunities, as well as incentives for alternatives, are practical starting points, but all options should be on the table.