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L.A. keeps building near freeways, even though living there makes people sick
- oneplane 10y agoBecause in that country, the pricetag is more important than health. I wonder if there will ever be a tipping point for this type of issues.
- TheOneTrueKyle 10y agoDon't know why you are getting down voted, this is completely true.
- benevol 10y agoIt's so amazing how much shit people are (apparently) willing to eat (or maybe simply have no clue about due to lack of education due to lack of money). I know of more than 1 study which has proven serious adverse health effects for people living near traffic axis. It's so obvious: constant noise keeps your stress level high 24 hours a day, and air pollution adds damage to the brain, lungs, cardiovascular system, etc.
- ryandrake 10y agoLet's not mistake necessity for willingness. Most people live where they can afford.
- MegaButts 10y agoIf we ever try to make healthcare a non-profit industry, then sure.
- alexkavon 10y agoMusk's got it in the bag anyways with his boring company.
- surrey-fringe 10y agoPlease don't post trollish comments on HN. I don't like it when you do that.
- heyjon 10y agoWill electric cars change the health issues related to living near freeways? I know we are a long way away from replacing most of the vehicles with electric.
- jhpankow 10y agoAs a cyclist my primary concern is diesel trucks with scant emissions controls belching particulate and other combustion byproducts. I see little movement to get these off the road.
- vvanders 10y agoMost trucks on the road should be Tier IV and using DPF + DEF. I think they mandated it as a requirement for all semi trucks a few years back as well. There are people who install "delete-pipes" though, and they should be taken out back and made to inhale what they spew.
- tekromancr 10y agoFor anyone else curious, I googled it and it looks like a delete-pipe, (aka muffler delete, cat delete) is basicly a muffler/catalytic converter bypass device. Some do it for performance, some for the noise, some explicitly to "piss off tree-hugging liberals".
- Klathmon 10y agoGood god have you ever see someone "rolling coal"? it's insane. Big lifted trucks spouting thick black smoke from their exhaust that leave behind little ashy flecks.
- vvanders 10y agoOh yeah, we get plenty of them out here in the rural parts. Friggin stupid. We've got a little '81 tractor that's a 3-cyc 1.4L diesel and if the wind blows the wrong way you definitely don't want to inhale too deeply. I'd love to convert it to Tier IV but there just aren't kits made for it.
- rdtsc 10y agoAn acquaintance of mine is a realtor and he noticed a seemingly higher incidents of sickness associated with people living close the highway. He believes he sold more houses around the highway where one spouse got sick and died from cancer, and the surviving one was selling the residence than in other parts of town.
- mturmon 10y agoThe article quotes Mayor Garcetti as saying that "improving air-filtration, building design and tailpipe emissions" may be better than zoning restrictions. The article is properly scathing about the building of apartments with balconies and sliding doors not more than 100 feet from very busy freeways. But, it does not follow up on Garcetti's point: we need to be more aggressive in curtailing vehicle pollution. That's the root cause, after all. As their particulate graphs point out, vehicle pollution has an 80/20 quality. A few vehicles cause a disproportionate amount of pollution - they cause the spikes in the graphs. This is also evident from driving around. You can clearly smell, and see, when you are following a badly tuned truck, or almost any 1970s and earlier car.
- lima 10y agoIn Germany, we did exactly what you suggest and banned all the old and badly tuned cars in the inner cities, with significant success ("Umweltplakette"). Edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-emission_zone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-emission_zone The concept is used in many other European cities, too.
- knz 10y agoUnfortunately (in this case) the US seems to have a much greater sense of individual right rather than collective right. My right, and that of my family, friends, and community, to clean and pollution free air seems to be less important than someone else's individual right to drive the vehicle of their choosing and maintain it as their means allow. I know some States have emissions testing etc but that is not universal across the US. I assume the assumption has always been that the market will slowly correct the issue and the fleet will change accordingly. But CAFE laws are of course a politicized issue.
- Klathmon 10y agoIIRC emissions testing is similar to building codes in that you are only tested against the year the car was manufactured in most cases. So a 1970 car will still pollute as much as a 1970 car.
- spraak 10y agoI'll be moving to LA soon for work.. Are there any areas anyone can recommend that have a lot of trees/plant life/parks? I also appreciate farmers markets and a health food store. I'd like to not be too far from e.g. Santa Monica or Northridge
- squiguy7 10y agoIf you don't mind commuting a little more, I would suggest Simi Valley. It's right over the hill from San Fernando/Northridge and has much less traffic. Simi is also more family-oriented if that is the type of city you are looking for.
- wcarron 10y agoI would, but you named one place in the valley and then Santa Monica, so I have no clue where you'd actually be working => can't recommend an area.
- SippinLean 10y agoRelated: the Princeton study that concluded that reducing congestion near toll booths lowered birth defects for nearby residents > We find that reductions in traffic congestion generated by E-ZPass reduced the incidence of prematurity and low birth weight among mothers within 2km of a toll plaza by 6.7-9.1% and 8.5-11.3% respectively, with larger effects for African-Americans, smokers, and those very close to toll plazas. https://www.princeton.edu/~jcurrie/publications/Traffic%20Congestion%20and%20Infant%20Health.pdf https://www.princeton.edu/~jcurrie/publications/Traffic%20Co...
- chrismealy 10y agoThey could tear out the freeways and let people be free to live anywhere.
- djeunneun 10y agoYet you weren't clever enough to ban Hitler or muslims ... oh well ...
- dang 10y agoWe detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13778363 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13778363 and marked it off-topic.
- mason240 10y agoThe buildings are "permanent," but the auto emissions will greatly reduced and gone in 20 years once electric cars become mainstream.
- HillaryBriss 10y agoAn LA real estate person once told me that San Fernando Valley prices for homes really close to (but south of) the 101 freeway are higher than prices of homes far from (but north of) the 101 freeway. Prices seem to be driven less by smog and more by neighborhood quality. In the SF Valley, locations south of the 101 tend to have better schools, less crime, proximity to the hills and west side, etc. The 101 itself seems to serve as a barrier between good neighborhoods and less-good ones. Perhaps something similar can be noted in San Francisco, again, around the 101 freeway, where it divides the Mission District from Potrero Hill. I mean, the wind is very often out of the west, blowing that smog up across Potrero Hill.
- TheCoelacanth 10y agoCars are the real "American carnage". There were 40,000 deaths from traffic accidents in 2016. MIT estimates another 53,000 from traffic pollution[1]. That's more than 5 times as many as the number of homicides. [1] http://news.mit.edu/2013/study-air-pollution-causes-200000-early-deaths-each-year-in-the-us-0829 http://news.mit.edu/2013/study-air-pollution-causes-200000-e...
- cdransf 10y agoHaving lived in and now moved out of LA, I can't really think of anything that would make me want to go back. The air quality is an issue, as are the terrible commutes (which can only be avoided by living within a few miles of where you work — not easy when more than one person in the household works).