Who's Driving Up CO2? Check the Maps!
Posted May 28, 2009 in Curbing Pollution, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
NRDC’s Smart Growth Director, Kaid Benfield, first drew my attention to these fascinating new maps from Chicago’s Center for Neighborhood Technology. For dozens of American metropolitan areas, they’ve compiled census-block-by-census-block data on where CO2 emissions from driving are the highest.
Here, I’m teasing out the California regions CNT covered. From yellow, to orange, to red, the darker the area, the higher the per household emissions from driving. Any surprises?
The San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego
Sacramento and Stockton :
I’d go to the site for the LA map; it warrants some zooming.
In all cases we’re seeing what we would expect: lower per household driving when you get closer to the regional center and when you live in a denser area. Regional centers tend to be those places with adequate transit service, a mix of uses and walkable streets and sidewalks. Although suburban and exurban areas may have the superficial appearance of vast, green, eco-living, these maps tell the real story.
And some good news: during the first quarter of this year, bike sales topped car sales!!
