CAH Report: Motor Vehicles Account for Half of City Air Pollution

By: Ryan McGreal
Published: 2007/06/19 (Category: Transportation)

In a presentation I made to City Council on its air quality and climate change policy in the summer of 2006, I tried to draw parallels between the city's various directions and guidelines on what the city's goal should be.

From Vision 2020 to Places to Grow, GRIDS, climate change, peak oil, and agriculture, the same recommendations about building a dense, vibrant, walkable urban environment turn up again and again.

That trend continues in a new Clean Air Hamilton report to City Council, just covered by Citizens at City Hall (CATCH).

According to the CAH report, motor vehicles produce half the air pollution in the city, with the worst pollution near the busiest thoroughfares.

The report stresses that urban design is as important as industrial pollution sources in impacting air quality.

The report notes, "greater street connectivity and increasing the 'walkability' of neighbourhoods decreases driving, and decreases the amount of air pollution associated with automobile emissions."

The CAH researchers found that the Hwy 403 corridor has the highest nitrogen oxide levels in the city, and that the Red Hill Expressway, once completed, will likely also have poor air quality. (Today, the air quality in the Red Hill Valley is quite good.)

Poor air quality is associated chiefly with a greatly elevated risk of premature heart attacks and cardiovascula disease. Heart attack victims are twice as likely to have been exposed to traffic pollution within an hour of having the attack.

Ryan McGreal, the editor of Raise the Hammer, lives in Hamilton with his family and works as a process and service analyst, web application developer, writer, and journal editor. Ryan volunteers with Hamilton Light Rail, a citizens group dedicated to bringing light rail transt to Hamilton. He is also is the city editor for H Magazine. Several of his essays have been published in the Hamilton Spectator.

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By peter
Posted 6/19/2007 8:15:37 PM

it's shocking to think the air quality will be bad in the red hill valley. dude, sometimes i hate this city.

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