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Traffic Pollution

Decent Essays

Over the past few months, there has been a growing concern over the worsening of traffic congestion particularly in Manhattan. The speed of traffic in Midtown has declined by 23% since 2010. This traffic gridlock will cost the City over millions of dollars in wasted fuel, wasted time and carbon emissions. This past summer, Mayor Bill de Blasio has proposed a millionaire tax to fund infrastructure improvements on the subway. Later in October 2017, he laid out a Five-Point Plan to reduce traffic congestion. Working closely with Con Edison, the Mayor has also set the goal for 20% of all city vehicles to be electric by 2025. In addition to these initiatives, Governor Andrew Cuomo has appointed a panel to study congestion pricing and report back to him by the end of the year.

The moderator and panelists of this discussion session at NYU School of Law on November 7, 2017 sought to identify the impacts and explore plausible solutions to this perpetual problem. The discussion was moderated by Katrina Wyman from NYU School of Law and featured the following panelists: (i) Iyad Kheirbek, Executive Director of the Air Quality Program at NYC Health; (ii) Sam Schwartz, CEO of Sam Schwartz Transportation Consultants; (iii) Ashwini Chhabra, Policy Director at Uber; and (iv) Elizabeth Stein, an attorney in EDF’s Clean Energy Program.

Mr. Kheirbek from NYC Health initiated the discussion by identifying some of the most common traffic-related pollutants (PM2.5, BC, NOx, etc.) and their adverse health impacts (premature deaths, respiratory hospitalization, etc.). Based on the data collected by NYC Health, the largest contributor of air pollutants are heavy-duty diesel trucks, which account for only 5% of total vehicle miles traveled (VMT) but 50% of the health impacts. Although the air quality in the city has generally improved over the past seven years (PM2.5 and NO2 levels have gone down by 18% and 24% respectively), higher pollution levels continue to plague many neighborhoods. These pollution hotspots include areas of heavy truck traffic in Manhattan, the Bronx, North Brooklyn and Queens, particularly in communities near major roadways. A concerted effort is therefore required to reduce the vehicle emission through

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