Getting Cars Off the Road: The Cost-Effectiveness of an Episodic Pollution Control Program
Author: Maureen L. Cropper, Yi Jiang, Anna Alberini, and Patrick Baur (2010)
Synopsis: Ground level ozone remains a serious problem in the United States. Because ozone non-attainment is a summer problem, episodic rather than continuous controls of ozone precursors are possible. We evaluate the costs and effectiveness of an episodic scheme that requires people to buy permits in order to drive on high ozone days. We estimate the demand function for permits based on a survey of 1,300 households in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Assuming that all vehicle owners comply with the scheme, the permit program would reduce VOCs by 50 tons and NOx by 42 tons per Code Red day at a permit price of $75. Allowing for non-compliance by 15% of respondents reduces the effectiveness of the scheme to 39 tons of VOCs and 33 tons of NOx per day. The cost per ozone season of achieving these reductions is approximately $9 million (2008 USD). This compares favorably with permanent methods of reducing VOCs that cost $645 per ton per year.
Smart Growth in Maryland: Looking Forward and Looking Back
Author: Gerrit Knaap and John Frece (2007)
Synopsis: Spring of 2007 will mark the 10th anniversary of the passage of Maryland's Smart Growth and Neighborhood Conservation Initiative; an effort designed to discourage sprawl development, foster more compact communities, protect the best remaining farms and open space in the state, and save taxpayers from the growing cost of providing services and infrastructure to serve far-flung development. Almost before its various provisions took effect in 1997 and 1998, the Maryland initiative generated interest and acclaim across the country. It received numerous awards and became the principal legacy of the program's primary architect, former Governor Parris N. Glen- dening. Governors in other states, such as New Jersey, Colorado and Massachusetts, instituted their own "smart growth" proposals, often modeled after portions of the Maryland program. Even the popularity and wide usage of the now omnipresent phrase "smart growth" can be attributed in large part to the Maryland program.But, what has been the effect of Maryland's Smart Growth program? Looking at it some ten years later, has it worked? Did it accomplish what it was designed to do? What have been the strengths and weaknesses of the Maryland approach, and how can lessons from the Maryland experience be used to offer a new set of policymakers in Maryland, as well as elsewhere in the nation, practical suggestions on how to make smart growth smarter?
Determinants and Effects on Property Values of Participation in Voluntary Cleanup Programs: The Case of Colorado
Author: Anna Alberini (2005)
Synopsis: State Voluntary Cleanup Programs (VCPs) were established starting in the 1990s to encourage the environmental remediation and redevelopment of contaminated properties. These programs typically offer liability relief, subsidies and other regulatory incentives in exchange for site cleanup. This paper asks three questions: First, what type of properties are attracted to voluntary cleanup programs? Second, what is the interaction between these state programs and other incentives for remediation and economic development, such as Enterprise Zone and Brownfield Zone designations? Third, what is the effect of participation in the VCP on property values?We use data from Colorado’s VCP to answer these questions. We find that most of the properties enrolled in this program were not previously listed on EPA’s contaminated site registries, and that most applicants seek to obtain directly a “no further action” determination without undergoing remediation. The main determinants of participation are the size of the parcel and whether the surrounding land use is primarily residential, while other incentives have little effect. Properties with confirmed contamination sell at a 47% discount relative to comparable uncontaminated parcels, and participation tends to raise the property price, but this latter effect is not statistically significant.Taken together, these findings suggest that the participating properties are those with high development potential, and hint at the possibility that owners or developers may be seeking to obtain a clean bill of health from the State with only minimal or no cleanup efforts. Were these findings confirmed with data from other states, they would raise doubts about the effectiveness of voluntary programs in encouraging remediation and their usefulness in reversing some of the undesired effects of the Superfund legislation.
The Role of Peer Social Network Factors and Physical Activity in Adolescent Girls
Author: Carolyn C. Voorhees, David Murray, Greg Welk, et al. (2005)
Synopsis: Objective: To study the relationship between peer-related physical activity (PA) social networks and the PA of adolescent girls. Methods: Cross-sectional, convenience sample of adolescent girls. Mixed-model linear regression analyses to identify significant correlates of self-reported PA while accounting for correlation of girls in the same school.
Can the Physical Environment Determine Physical Activity Levels?
Author: Reid Ewing (2005)
Synopsis: Can the physical environment determine physical activity levels? Does your place of residence affect your level of physical activity and ultimately your weight and health? There is relatively strong evidence of association between compact development patterns and use of active travel modes such as walking and transit. There is weaker evidence of linkage between compact development, overall physical activity, and downstream weight and health effects.
Identifying and Measuring Urban Design Qualities Related to Walkability
Author: Reid Ewing, Otto Clemente, Susan Handy, et al. (2005)
Synopsis: In active living research, measures used to characterize the built environment have been mostly gross qualities such as neighborhood density and park access. This project has developed operational definitions and measurement protocols for subtler urban design qualities believed to be related to walkability. METHODS: Methods included: 1) recruiting an expert panel; 2) shooting video clips of streetscapes; 3) rating urban design qualities of streetscapes by the expert panel; 4) measuring physical features of streetscapes from the video clips; 5) testing inter-rater reliability of physical measurements and urban design quality ratings; 6) statistically analyzing relationships between physical features and urban design quality ratings, 7) selecting of qualities for operationalization, and 8) developing of operational definitions and measurement protocols for urban design qualities based on statistical relationships. RESULTS: Operational definitions and measurement protocols were developed for five of nine urban design qualities: imageability, visual enclosure, human scale, transparency, and complexity. CONCLUSIONS: A field survey instrument has been developed, tested in the field, and further refined for use in active living research.
Neighborhood Schools and Sidewalk Connections: What Are the Impacts on Travel Mode Choice and Vehicle Emissions
Author: Reid Ewing, Christopher V. Forinash, and William Schroeer (2005)
Synopsis: The study reported here was the first to examine the relationship between school location, the built environment around schools, student travel to school, and the emissions impacts of this travel. Students with shorter walk and bike times to school proved significantly more likely to walk or bike‚which argues for neighborhood schools. Students who have access to sidewalks along main roads were also more likely to walk, which argues for improvements in sidewalk networks. Neighborhood schools that can be reached by walking and biking can increase the amount of walking and biking to school, can shorten trip distances, and can reduce motor vehicle emissions significantly.
Building Environment to Promote Health
Author: Reid Ewing (2003)
Synopsis: Editorial published in the "Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health" on the future of collaboration between public health and urban planning professionals.
Travel and Environmental Implications of School Siting
Author: Reid Ewing (2003)
Synopsis: Travel and Environmental Implications of School Siting, released by the EPA on October 8, 2003, is the first study to empirically examine the relationship between school locations, the built environment around schools, how kids get to school, and the impact on air emissions of those travel choices. Over the next few decades, communities making decisions about the construction and renovation of thousands of schools will be challenged to meet multiple goals -- educational, fiscal, and environmental. The study finds that:School proximity to students matters. Students with shorter walk and bike times to school are more likely to walk or bike. The built environment influences travel choices. Students traveling through pedestrian-friendly environments are more likely to walk or bike. Because of travel behavior differences, school location has an impact on air emissions. Centrally located schools that can be reached by walking and bicycling result in reduced air emissions from driving. More data collection and research are needed to add further to the understanding of these effects. Specifically, improved data about both school travel and the built environment as well as new modeling techniques can build on these results. For some time, there has been a trend toward construction of big schools and requirements for large sites. Guidelines, recommendations, and standards that encourage or require building large schools on new campuses or discourage renovation are embedded in a variety of state and local regulations, laws and funding formulas. This study provides important information about the effect of school location on how children get to school. It shows that school siting and design can affect choices of walking, biking, or driving. In turn, these changes in travel choices could affect traffic congestion, air pollution, and school transportation budgets.
Relationship Between Urban Sprawl and Physical Activity, Obesity, and Morbidity
Author: Reid Ewing, Tom Schmid, Richard Killingsworth, et al. (2003)
Synopsis: Purpose. To determine the relationship between urban sprawl, health, and health-related behaviors.Design. Cross-sectional analysis using hierarchical modeling to relate characteristics of individuals and places to levels of physical activity, obesity, body mass index (BMI), hypertension, diabetes, and coronary heart disease.Setting. U.S. counties (448) and metropolitan areas (83).Subjects. Adults (n 5 206,992) from pooled 1998, 1999, and 2000 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS).Measures. Sprawl indices, derived with principal components analysis from census and other data, served as independent variables. Self-reported behavior and health status from BRFSS served as dependent variables.Results. After controlling for demographic and behavioral covariates, the county sprawl index had small but significant associations with minutes walked (p 5 .004), obesity (p , .001), BMI (p 5 .005), and hypertension (p 5 .018). Residents of sprawling counties were likely to walk less during leisure time, weigh more, and have greater prevalence of hypertension than residents of compact counties. At the metropolitan level, sprawl was similarly associated with minutes walked (p 5 .04) but not with the other variables.Conclusion. This ecologic study reveals that urban form could be significantly associated with some forms of physical activity and some health outcomes. More research is needed to refine measures of urban form, improve measures of physical activity, and control for other individual and environmental influences on physical activity, obesity, and related health outcomes. (Am J Health Promot 2003;18[1]:47–57.)
Measuring the Health Effects of Sprawl: A National Analysis of Physical Activity, Obesity and Chronic Disease
Author: Reid Ewing and Barbara McCann (2003)
Synopsis: The findings presented here are from the article, Relationship Between Urban Sprawl and Physical Activity, Obesity and Morbidity, by Reid Ewing, Tom Schmid, Richard Killingsworth, Amy Zlot, and Stephen Raudenbush, published in the September 2003 issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion. This report is intended to make this important piece of research more accessible to the general public. In addition to presenting research findings, this report summarizes recent research done by others on the links between the way we've built our communities, physical activity, and health. It also includes recommendations for change and resources for those interested in further exploration of this topic.
Talking Smart in the United States
Author: Gerrit Knaap (2002)
Synopsis: As in many countries around the world, concerns about contemporary urban development patterns and their effects on the natural and social environment are high and rising in the United States. Though these concerns are not new, the recent period of sustained economic growth has led to both rapid urban expansion and falling relative concerns about other problems like crime, unemployment, and government deficits. Urban sprawl is now a major public policy issue (U.S. Office of Technology Assessment 1995, U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) 1999, GAO 2000).
Personal, Social, and Environmental Correlates of Physical Activity in Urban African-American Women
Author: Deborah Young and Carolyn Voorhees
Synopsis: Background:African-American women are at risk of chronic diseases for which regular physical activity can provide benefits. This group, however, remains predominantly sedentary. Little research has been undertaken to elucidate the multiple factors that influence their physical activity levels. This study was designed to determine associations among personal, social environmental, and physical environmental factors with physical activity level in urban African-American women.
Personal, Social, and Physical Environmental Correlates of Physical Activity Levels in Urban Latinas
Author: Carolyn Voorhees and Deborah Young
Synopsis: Background:Nationwide, Hispanic women report low levels of physical activity and bear excess health risk associated with inactivity. This study investigated the relationship between physical activity levels and sociodemographic, social environmental, and physical environmental factors.