Lung Health News, Fall 2004 / Winter 2005
As motor vehicles clog our roadways and pollute our air, it’s hard to imagine a time when electric cars outsold gas vehicles and electric trolleys efficiently moved the masses throughout our cities. Even Los Angeles had a thriving trolley system called the Red Car. But much has changed since the turn of the 20th century and Californians are breathing some of the dirtiest air in the nation as a result.
In 1900, electric cars were more popular than gas because they didn’t have the vibration, smell and noise of gas-powered vehicles and they didn’t require a hand crank.
Just five years later, the vast majority of cars sold had internal combustion engines. Historians offer a variety of reasons, including cheap and available gasoline, the rise of the more affordable Model T, and the advent of the electric starter.
While cars were becoming more popular by the 1920s, most Americans still didn’t own one and instead relied on public transit.
“In 1922, only one in 10 Americans owned a car,” says Martha Olson-Jarocki, who co-produced “Taken for a Ride,” a documentary about the rise of automobiles at the expense of electric trolley cars.
Auto and Highway Forces Reshape America
Her documentary asserts that General Motors drove electric trolleys out of business across America by systematically buying them up and replacing them with diesel buses manufactured by the company in an effort to “motorize” our cities.
“At that time the trolleys ran down the center of the streets,” Olson-Jarocki says. “They wanted the space for more cars.”
GM also wanted to get rid of the competition, she says. While the trolleys were clean and reliable, the stinky diesel buses were much less popular. Soon fewer people chose to ride public transit and service was scaled back, making it even less desirable.
By the 1950s, car manufacturers had joined forces with oil and tire companies to form the influential highway lobby, launching years of unabated highway building and the rise of urban sprawl.
“Rail lines cause a different urban pattern,” Olson-Jarocki explains. “Development occurs around rail lines and rail stations. The auto development pattern is what we term sprawl.”
Sprawl Leads to Air Pollution and Global Warming
The almost single-minded focus on highway construction from the 1950s through the 1980s encouraged housing developments in outlying areas and made it easier for businesses to set up shop in remote office parks. Strip malls and big box stores have replaced walkable downtowns.
The farther we have to travel from home to work and beyond, the more likely it is that we will drive. The end result of all this driving is that our air quality has suffered and so has our health.
Motor vehicles are responsible for more than 60 percent of California’s smog problem and 40 percent of its greenhouse gas emissions, which lead to global warming. Vehicle emissions contribute to respiratory ailments, increased hospital visits and even death. Global warming is expected to make matters worse in the future as rising temperatures lead to more pollution.
Smart Growth Improves Air Quality
The American Lung Association of California is working with other environmental and health groups to advocate for smart growth policies that promote higher density pedestrian and transit-friendly development. Smart growth incorporates mixed-use strategies so that businesses and transit lines are near residential units, making it easier for people to walk or bike to errands and work.
“We have to stop building communities that require people to drive,” says John Balmes, MD, American Lung Association of California volunteer and chief of the Division of Occupational Health and Environmental Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital. “All this driving is killing us, literally. If we don’t start considering health when we plan new communities, Californians will continue to suffer from the negative impacts of air pollution and global warming.”
