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The office of Rover.com sits empty with employees working from home due to the coronavirus pandemic on March 12 in Seattle, Washington. John Moore / Getty Images
The office may never look the same again. And the investment it will take to protect employees may force many companies to go completely remote. That's after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued new recommendations for how workers can return to the office safely.
<p>If companies choose to follow the guidelines, it would lead to a dramatic change in the corporate work experience, and likely increase pollution. One of the most striking features of the recommendations is that they upend years of environmental activism that urged people to take public transportation or car-pool. The new recommendations suggest avoiding public transportation and driving to work alone, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/28/health/cdc-coronavirus-offices.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported.</p>
<p>The CDC's new recommendations suggest making this cost-effective. "Offer employees incentives to use forms of transportation that minimize close contact with others, such as offering reimbursement for parking for commuting to work alone or single-occupancy rides," the guidelines say.</p><p>However, the guidelines did not address the environmental impact of such policies or the health impacts from increasing traffic congestion.</p>
<p>Besides making the commute a lonelier and less environmentally friendly, the guidelines also make the office environment lonelier. The CDC recommends placing workers six feet apart. If that's not possible, then companies should erect plastic shields around desks, remove seats in common areas, and avoid perks like coffee machines and snack bins that encourage communal activities and many people touching them, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/28/health/cdc-coronavirus-offices.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>.</p><p>In another environmentally damaging recommendation, the CDC does leave room for replacing those items with pre-packaged single-serve coffee and snacks.</p><p>"Replace high-touch communal items, such as coffee pots, water coolers, and bulk snacks, with alternatives such as prepackaged, single-serving items," the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/office-buildings.html" target="_blank">guidelines</a> say.</p>
<p>The guidelines also address the technical aspects of the office. The CDC recommends employers ensure that building ventilation systems are operating properly. It also encourages allowing as much fresh air as possible by opening windows and doors, when feasible, to "increase circulation of outdoor air as much as possible," as <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/health/amid-coronavirus-cdc-offers-guidelines-on-office-reopenings" target="_blank">Fox News</a> reported.</p><p>The guidelines also eliminate many office norms and pleasantries that were once common place. The guidelines tell employers to "[p]rohibit handshaking, hugs, and fist bumps." It also recommends that employees wear a cloth face mask "in all areas of the business," as <a href="https://www.axios.com/cdc-guidelines-coronavirus-office-business-jobs-ab19791a-357e-412a-9a5d-516f78610b4c.html" target="_blank">Axios</a> reported.</p><p>The guidelines encourage daily health checks, including temperature screenings before employees enter the workplace, and to send home sick workers. Then the office should go through enhanced cleaning and disinfection, as <a href="https://www.axios.com/cdc-guidelines-coronavirus-office-business-jobs-ab19791a-357e-412a-9a5d-516f78610b4c.html" target="_blank">Axios</a> reported.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/28/health/cdc-coronavirus-offices.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> noted that many white-collar offices have successfully transitioned to a fully distributed workforce and are finding that their office environment is able to continue through video conferencing and Slack channels. With that in mind, companies might find the cost of putting protective measures in place too steep, or they might find that isolation in the office makes it difficult to recruit and retain talent. Businesses may decide to allow their workers to stay home.</p><p>Already companies like Twitter and Square have decided that their employees never need to come back to the office.</p><p>"Companies, surprisingly, don't want to go back to work," said Russell Hancock, president and CEO of Joint Venture Silicon Valley, a nonprofit think tank, to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/28/health/cdc-coronavirus-offices.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>. "You will not see the drum beat and hue and cry and rush to get back to the office."</p>
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An aerial view shows new vehicles that were offloaded from ships at Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics on April 26, 2020 in Wilmington, California. "Vehicles are the biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in America," said California Attorney General Xavier Becerra. David McNew / Getty Images
Twenty-three states and Washington, DC launched a suit Wednesday to stop the Trump administration rollback of Obama-era fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks.
<p>The Trump rollback, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-fuel-efficiency-pollution-2645597122.html" target="_self">finalized in March</a>, slashed a requirement that automakers increase fuel efficiency by five percent a year through 2026 to 1.5 percent, <a href="https://uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUKKBN2332UT" target="_blank">Reuters reported</a>. The lower standard undid the single greatest U.S. attempt to fight the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/climate/lawsuit-fuel-economy-climate.html" target="_blank">The New York Times pointed out</a>, and the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/epa" target="_self">Environmental Protection Agency's</a> (EPA) own scientists warned it could increase deadly <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/air-pollution" target="_self">air pollution</a>.</p><p>"Vehicles are the biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in America, and pollution-related respiratory illnesses make people more susceptible to Covid-19," California Attorney General Xavier Becerra told The New York Times.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BREAKING?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BREAKING</a>: we’re suing the Trump Administration over its reckless rollback of national <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CleanCarStandards?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CleanCarStandards</a>.<a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RealDonaldTrump</a>’s so-called SAFE rule is a job killer and a public health hazard. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SaveCleanCars?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SaveCleanCars</a> <a href="https://t.co/1dILJu88yC">https://t.co/1dILJu88yC</a> <a href="https://t.co/6ceaoC8F2t">pic.twitter.com/6ceaoC8F2t</a></p>— Xavier Becerra (@AGBecerra) <a href="https://twitter.com/AGBecerra/status/1265700972858208256?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 27, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="_self">Donald Trump</a> has touted the new standards as the most important rollback of his time in office and argued they would help the economy and the auto industry. The industry, however, is split on the new rules, with the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which includes General Motors and Toyota, backing the administration, while Ford, Honda, BMW and Volkswagen <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/automakers-emissions-california-trump-2639356453.html" target="_self">have struck a deal</a> with California to follow tougher standards.</p><p>Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, whose state has also joined the suit, told Reuters the new standards would actually decrease auto industry employment by four percent.</p><p>Nessel also called the new rule a "gift to the fossil fuel industry" and "a slap in the face to public health," according to Reuters and The New York Times respectively.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">AG Nessel Files Lawsuit Challenging Federal Government's Reckless Rollback of National Clean Car Standards ➡️ <a href="https://t.co/jSMnG8xhFv">https://t.co/jSMnG8xhFv</a> <a href="https://t.co/1NzIzPIXIF">pic.twitter.com/1NzIzPIXIF</a></p>— Michigan Attorney General (@MIAttyGen) <a href="https://twitter.com/MIAttyGen/status/1265722254371028998?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 27, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>The EPA did not comment on the lawsuit, but defended the new standards as a "sensible, single national program that strikes the right regulatory balance, protects our environment, and sets reasonable targets for the auto industry," according to Reuters. However, the administration's own figures show the new rule would increase greenhouse gas emissions by at least 867 million metric tons compared to the original standards, The New York Times reported. The difference amounts to more than the yearly emissions of many midsized countries.</p><p>This is the 82nd lawsuit California has filed against the Trump administration, according to Becerra, and most of the suits have targeted environmental rollbacks. The suit claims the reduced standards violate national laws requiring the government to issue the highest possible standards for automakers, <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/499770-23-states-sue-trump-over-rollback-of-obama-fuel-efficiency" target="_blank">The Hill explained</a>.</p><p>The states are joined in the suit by the cities of New York City, Denver, San Francisco and Los Angeles, Reuters reported.</p><p>Moments after the state lawsuit was filed, a coalition of 12 environmental groups including the <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/" target="_blank">Sierra Club</a> issued a separate legal challenge to the new rules, The Hill reported.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Bit of a litigious day when you've got ~40 parties suing you over your clean car rule all at once.<br><br>Obama rule: 55 mpg by 2025<br>Trump rule: 40 mpg by 2026<a href="https://t.co/ZLVvFYmxKO">https://t.co/ZLVvFYmxKO</a></p>— Rebecca Beitsch (@RebeccaBeitsch) <a href="https://twitter.com/RebeccaBeitsch/status/1265730658250481665?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 27, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>"This flawed rule — which will increase pollution, endanger public health, cut auto jobs, and further burden American families with higher fueling costs — will not hold up in court, just like the vast majority of the Trump Administration's unjustified actions," the Sierra Club said in a statement reported by The Hill. </p>
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Working From Home During the Pandemic Has Environmental Benefits — But We Can Do Even Better
24 May
Insights + Opinion
Junjira Konsang / Pixabay
By Matt Casale
For many Americans across the country, staying home to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) means adapting to long-term telework for the first time. We're doing a lot more video conferencing and working out all the kinks that come along with it.
<p>While this particular situation is not ideal for many — for example, I'm currently writing this with an infant in a baby carrier on my chest and our almost-three-year-old belting "Let It Go" in the background — in many ways we're playing out a real-time experiment on whether telecommuting is possible on a large scale.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzMxMzY4My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNDc5NTEzOH0.UPtJT4Pjinn-wiHkF4vbFGF_2M2R3DrqPh_VGN_mPxQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="61bc2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4aeee8da3400abc67c12130a6bbe03ae" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
The author (above) wrote this while working from home, baby in tow. Emily Anderson (author's wife/home office mate)
<p>The coronavirus will pass, but it's looking more and more like remote work will stick around. This time has demonstrated that, despite the ups and downs many of us have experienced, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/04/06/telecommuting-will-likely-continue-long-after-the-pandemic/" target="_blank">telework works</a> for way more of us than we knew.</p><p>Even before this we knew that there were several benefits for both employers and employees to sidestepping the office. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrealoubier/2017/07/20/benefits-of-telecommuting-for-the-future-of-work/#3f278e0916c6" target="_blank">Studies have shown</a> that it can lead to increased productivity, higher morale and lower employee turnover. It can also reduce real estate and office operation costs for employers.</p><p>We may now also be seeing some larger societal benefits that make the case for taking telework even further. Our current situation has provided a window into how a reduction in driving, buoyed, in part, by a greater adoption of telework, could relieve some of the stress on our overburdened transportation system and help heal at least a portion of the environmental damage it causes.</p><p>Today, roads that would normally clogged at all hours of the day are <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-empty-airports-trains-roads-during-coronavirus" target="_blank">virtually empty</a>, even during rush hour. And the reduced car travel leads to fewer crashes and less air pollution, which harms human health and contributes to global warming. Air that's usually cloudy with smog has cleared. Los Angeles, which has notoriously pollution-choked skies, could recently boast having the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/07/us/los-angeles-pollution-clean-air-coronavirus-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">cleanest air in the world</a>. And this year, experts predict, the transportation transformation will contribute to the <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-coronavirus-set-to-cause-largest-ever-annual-fall-in-co2-emissions" target="_blank">largest-ever annual decline in global carbon emissions</a>.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzMxMzY4NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxODAzNTcyNX0.2WzQzdHTSN6ob08B_hb9WcYdlBeUtg53i1RoYGIO1Do/img.jpg?width=980" id="44ac4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ea0ed6763606e660a909d62f41f9d54f" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Virtually empty Los Angeles streets on May 7. Chris Yarzab / CC BY 2.0
<p>Clearly not every job can be done from home, and it's not just commuting for work that has come to a halt during coronavirus lockdowns. In 2017 only around <a href="https://nhts.ornl.gov/assets/2017_nhts_summary_travel_trends.pdf" target="_blank">28 percent</a> of total miles driven were work-related. Even if telework continues or expands on a much larger scale, non-work-related car trips — shopping, recreation, visits to doctors and the like — can be expected to go back to normal.</p><p>Still, telework's potential for taking cars off the road can clearly have an impact on global warming emissions and air pollution. Just how much of an impact could telework have? As it turns out, the answer is a significant one — and with a few important steps, the benefits can be even greater and more sustainable.</p>How Much of the Workforce Could Reasonably and Permanently Transition to Telework?
<p>According to the U.S. Census Bureau, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/13/people-who-work-from-home-earn-more-than-those-who-commuteheres-why.html" target="_blank">5.2 percent of U.S. workers</a> — around 8 million people — worked from home in 2017. But that's still just a fraction of potential teleworkers. Earlier this month researchers at the University of Chicago found that <a href="https://bfi.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/BFI_White-Paper_Dingel_Neiman_3.2020.pdf" target="_blank">37 percent of U.S. jobs can plausibly be performed at home</a>. The U.S. workforce reached <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CLF16OV" target="_blank">164.5 million</a> in February 2020, before the pandemic, meaning approximately 61 million of those workers could plausibly telework permanently once the economy starts up again.</p><p>Of course, the full economic consequences of this public health crisis are still unknown. It's possible that coronavirus-related job losses will impact the overall number of those employed for some time. But for these purposes, this assumption of 53 million new remote workers will be useful to illustrate the potential impacts of telework.</p>How Much Driving Would Full-Capacity Telework Avoid?
<p>In 2019 Americans drove a total <a href="https://afdc.energy.gov/data/10315" target="_blank">3.23 trillion miles</a>, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The DoE doesn't break that down by reasons driving, but we know that in 2017 there were <a href="https://nhts.ornl.gov/assets/2017_nhts_summary_travel_trends.pdf" target="_blank">683 billion total commute miles</a> driven. Reducing the commuting workforce by about 32 percent (37 percent of total workers who could telecommute minus the 5.2 percent of them who already do) would theoretically decrease commuting totals by about 219 billion miles.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzMxMzY4Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MDE5NzkwNn0.NsQ8r0Opjbst4FFYG9IGfKIkekxBMPGG8viKKCB9Afc/img.jpg?width=980" id="f3198" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="bbf1191abdd0b796a70fbb2a36b827e2" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
A traffic jam on January 17. Raphael Labaca Castro / CC BY-SA 2.0
<p>Of course telecommuting won't let us avoid logging <em>all</em> of those miles, since people may occasionally still need to travel to an office for meetings and may need to make new trips they wouldn't otherwise have taken (you can't stop at the grocery store on the way home from work when you work at home). Various studies have found that telecommuting actually reduces driving somewhere between <a href="https://ww3.arb.ca.gov/cc/sb375/policies/telecommuting/telecommuting_brief120313.pdf" target="_blank">60 and 90</a> percent of commute vehicle miles traveled (VMT). We'll split the difference and calculate that telework reduces commute miles by about 75%, meaning the new teleworkers could avoid around 164 billion miles driven.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzMxMzY4OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzODE3NzE2NH0.x6snYt1idN9K7pPfL-rp11ITuPasCu09GYlTXCmZqH0/img.jpg?width=980" id="7175e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a2862401e39968c61d3a00f932157acd" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
U.S. Department of Energy, Alternative Fuels Data Center
<p>Still, that much of a transformation may not work for everyone, as people will still need to do face-to-face work — and, let's be honest, the other thing the lockdowns have taught us is to appreciate the value of regular social contact. That said, even if most people worked from home two to three days a week and the actual VMT reduction were closer to 2 or 3 percent, the difference would still be significant — especially considering that VMT has been <a href="https://afdc.energy.gov/data/10315" target="_blank">steadily rising</a> since the 1970s, except for a few years during economic downturns. Even if just a quarter of American workers started working from home one day a week, total vehicle miles traveled would fall by <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063006473" target="_blank">1</a> percent — not a huge amount, but enough to make a difference on a grander scale.</p>Impact on Global Warming Emissions
<p>The cars and trucks we drive every day are major sources of air pollution and global warming emissions. Transportation as a whole accounts for <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/inventory-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-sinks" target="_blank">28</a> percent of all greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., more than any other source. Light-duty vehicles and medium- and heavy-duty trucks are responsible for<a href="https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/fast-facts-transportation-greenhouse-gas-emissions" target="_blank"> 82</a> percent of the transportation sector's emissions.</p><p>The average American car or SUV emits <a href="https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/greenhouse-gas-emissions-typical-passenger-vehicle" target="_blank">404 grams</a> of carbon dioxide (CO2) per mile traveled. So reducing commuting by 164 billion miles would avoid 66 million metric tons of CO2 emissions annually. These are significant emissions reductions, but they'd only make a small dent in total transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions, which reached nearly <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/inventory-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-sinks" target="_blank">1.9 billion metric tons</a> in 2018.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzMxMzY4OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwOTEzMDQ2N30.kNeCqEqhHQcOV8p2HMENkbOtLoShEGEsXOycpTdlxco/img.jpg?width=980" id="e7f7b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ce9e7ab7f9c21489e7487b820813367e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" /><p>Nevertheless, it would help us move in the right direction. And while it only represents a small percentage of total emissions, it would still be the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator" target="_blank">equivalent</a> of more eliminating emissions from than 7 million homes' total energy use for one year, or the same as shutting down more than 16 coal-fired power plants.</p>
Impact on Health-harming Air Pollution
<p>People across America regularly breathe polluted air, which increases their risk of attacks and other adverse health impacts, and even premature death. In fact, in 2018 <a href="https://uspirg.org/sites/pirg/files/reports/EnvironmentAmerica_TroubleintheAir_scrn.pdf" target="_blank">108 million Americans</a> lived in areas that experienced more than 100 days of degraded air quality. Our cars and trucks are a major source of this pollution, which includes ozone, particulate matter and other smog-forming emissions.</p><p>There's a reason the air has cleared over many of our major cities during the coronavirus lockdowns. When you remove cars from the road, you also remove smog. The lockdowns have resulted in an extreme reduction of VMT — between <a href="https://frontiergroup.org/blogs/blog/fg/america-pause-vehicle-travel-during-covid-19-and-what-comes-next" target="_blank">68 and 72</a> percent across the country (and in some places closer to 90 percent). Assuming that telework has contributed something close to its peak potential reduction of 7 percent, it seems likely that it has played at least a supporting role in helping to clear our skies.</p>Additional Emissions Reductions From Reduced Traffic
<p>The average American commuter wastes <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/22/us/traffic-commute-gridlock-transportation-study-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">54 hours</a> a year stuck in traffic. That's lost time with friends and families, lost productivity at work, wasted money, tons of unnecessary stress, and a lot more pollution from idling cars.</p><p>Traffic patterns are complicated because traffic is <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2014/12/4-steps-to-tackling-traffic-congestion/" target="_blank">non-linear</a>, meaning there isn't a one-to-one ratio of percentage of cars removed to percentage of traffic alleviated. As such, just a <a href="https://www.accessmagazine.org/spring-2017/the-access-almanac-traffic-congestion-is-counter-intuitive-and-fixable/" target="_blank">few extra cars</a> on or off the road can have an outsize impact on traffic. Reducing commute VMT by up to 7 percent would have a huge impact on rush hour traffic (when bottlenecks are at their worst and most of that driving occurs). A greater adoption of telework could give people back some of those 54 hours so they can spend it doing the things that matter to them. And slow moving or stop and go traffic results in <a href="https://www.accessmagazine.org/fall-2009/traffic-congestion-greenhouse-gases/" target="_blank">greater emissions</a> than free-flowing traffic. So freeing up the roads and alleviating traffic for the remaining will result in even greater emissions reductions.</p>What Needs to Happen for Telework to Live Up to Its Potential?
<p>It's clear that telework can have significant societal benefits, including less global warming pollution and cleaner skies. But significant benefits are only possible if everyone whose job could plausibly be done from home has that opportunity.</p><p>To reach that goal, several barriers must be overcome:</p><p><em>Technology: </em>We've all had technical mix-ups when using Zoom or Google Hangouts or one of the other conferencing platforms. But the real technological barrier is access to broadband. <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/internet-broadband/#who-has-home-broadband" target="_blank">Roughly three-quarters</a> of American adults have broadband internet service at home, but the rate of access is much lower in rural parts of the country, according to a report by Pew Research Center. Those locations often don't have broadband infrastructure and even <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/04/06/telecommuting-will-likely-continue-long-after-the-pandemic/" target="_blank">14</a> percent of households in urban areas lack access, usually because they are not able to afford it. States should make funding available to develop broadband capacity in underserved areas.</p><p><em>Employer policies and managerial reluctance</em>: Coronavirus lockdowns across the country have forced employers and managers to adapt to large-scale telework quickly on an emergency basis, meaning these barriers are less likely relevant now than before. But general employer and manager <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/690/683455.pdf" target="_blank">reluctance</a> to embrace working from home has slowed this transition. Cities and states can encourage employer acceptance of telework by providing <a href="https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2019/07/25/gov-baker-proposes-telecommuting-tax-break-for-companies" target="_blank">tax benefits</a> or other incentives for greater adoption.</p><p><em>Car-centered transportation policies: </em>Our current transportation policies often incentivize driving or parking. From commuter and parking benefits to decades of outsized spending on <a href="https://uspirg.org/reports/usp/highway-boondoggles-5" target="_blank">highway infrastructure</a>, we tip the scales toward getting behind an automobile's wheel. In other words, our transportation policies are meant to move cars rather than incentivize things, such as telework, that would take cars off the road.</p><p>We need to rethink this approach and shift toward better "<a href="https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/plan4ops/trans_demand.htm" target="_blank">Transportation Demand Management</a>." This requires the implementation of a set of strategies aimed at maximizing traveler choices. Those strategies should include greater employer and employee incentives for telework, as well as policies designed to facilitate more walking, biking, ridesharing, vanpooling and public transportation use.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzMxMzY5MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNzUwNTM5OX0.9ePNI--qrX2Z32AA7sgDeU5lwKBZtReALXYY8Y9b_Sc/img.jpg?width=980" id="a9e3d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d41b19fddabdda0afee848bbc5b6c005" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/telework-environmental-benefits/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>. </em><em></em></p>Bikeshare in Milan, October 2019. Guilhem Vellut / CC BY 2.0
<p>That's important, because the potential gains we'd see from telework would only be sustained if that shift were paired with other policies to ensure those commuter miles aren't just replaced with other trips. We usually talk about this in relation to widening or building new highways, but when you open up highway capacity, it usually fills quickly. This is what the wonks call "<a href="https://uspirg.org/reports/usp/highway-boondoggles-5" target="_blank">induced demand</a>." People who otherwise would have driven at a different time of day, taken a different route, taken public transportation or would have avoided traffic on the highway some other way, come back to the road. The same could happen here if additional measures aren't taken.</p><p>It's likely that, even after the coronavirus lockdowns are over, telework is going to become more and more common in the American workforce. As it does, the environmental benefits will be significant. In a time when climate change presents an existential threat to life as we know it and millions of people across the world are subjected to unhealthy levels of air pollution, we need to be taking an all-hands-on-deck approach to solving these problems. Telework can clearly be a significant part of the long-term solution — especially if we take further steps to maximize its potential.</p>From Your Site Articles
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Unused rental cars are stored in the parking lot of dormant Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California on April 23, 2020. Clearer skies have followed coronavirus lockdowns around the world. Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
The lockdowns imposed around the globe in response to the coronavirus pandemic led to a record drop in greenhouse gas emissions, according to research published in Nature Climate Change Tuesday.
<p>The researchers found that daily emissions fell by 17 percent during the height of quarantine measures in early April when compared with the same time in 2019, the <a href="https://www.uea.ac.uk/about/-/covid-19-crisis-causes-17-drop-in-global-carbon-emissions" target="_blank">University of East Anglia (UEA) reported</a> in a press release.</p><p>"Globally, we haven't seen a drop this big ever, and at the yearly level, you would have to go back to World War II to see such a big drop in emissions," UEA professor of climate change science and lead author Corinne Le Quéré told <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/carbon-emissions-dropped-17-percent-globally-amid-coronavirus-n1210331" target="_blank">NBC News</a>. "But this is not the way to tackle <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate change</a> — it's not going to happen by forcing behavior changes on people. We need to tackle it by helping people move to more sustainable ways of living."</p>
<iframe width="100%" height="150" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode twitter-embed-1262761177408512000" id="twitter-embed-1262761177408512000" lazy-loadable="true" src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-1262761177408512000&created_ts=1589900700.0&screen_name=uniofeastanglia&text=%F0%9F%8C%8D+The+%23COVID19+global+%23lockdown+has+had+an+%E2%80%9Cextreme%E2%80%9D+effect+on+daily+carbon+emissions%2C+but+it+is+unlikely+to+last+-%E2%80%A6+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FHR0vkyM0w0&id=1262761177408512000&name=UEA" frameborder="0" data-rm-shortcode-id="272e0b2caa1eb04b7d262143bed87058"></iframe>
<p>The research is the first major study of emissions this year, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/19/lockdowns-trigger-dramatic-fall-global-carbon-emissions" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>, though the International Energy Agency <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/greenhouse-gas-emissions-coronavirus-lockdowns-2645880717.html" target="_self">projected</a> a record 8 percent decline in emissions for 2020. Because it is not possible to measure the change in carbon dioxide emission directly, since the gas remains in the atmosphere for such a long time, researchers instead relied on data for on-the-ground indicators like traffic, energy usage, flights and manufacturing, <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/carbon-dioxide-emissions-pandemic/" target="_blank">Wired explained</a>.</p><p>That data also revealed the major drivers of the emissions decline, the UEA press release explained. The drop in ground transport, such as cars, was responsible for 43 percent of the decline, while declines in industry and power together accounted for another 43 percent. While air travel was majorly impacted by the pandemic, it only accounted for 10 percent of the emissions drop because it is only responsible for three percent of emissions overall.</p>
<p>The data was gathered from 69 countries responsible for 97 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. At the height of the global response, areas responsible for 89 percent of emissions were under some kind of lockdown. On average, countries saw their emissions fall 26 percent. In the U.S. and the UK, emissions fell by a third, Wired reported.</p><p>While these numbers are dramatic, they also illustrate the challenges involved in lowering emissions enough to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis.</p><p>"This is a really big fall, but at the same time, 83% of global emissions are left, which shows how difficult it is to reduce emissions with changes in behaviour," Le Quéré told The Guardian.</p>
<p>She also pointed out to Wired that the 17 percent drop at the height of confinement measures only returned emissions to 2006 levels.</p><p>"So this is really showing just how much emissions are increasing through time every year. This incredible drop in emissions only takes us back 14 years," she told Wired.</p><p>What happens next will depend on political decisions and how soon lockdown measures are lifted, the press release explained. If they are lifted fully by June, emissions for the year will fall four percent. If some restrictions are in place all year, they will decline by seven percent. That is around the yearly decline needed to meet the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/paris-agreement" target="_self">Paris agreement</a> climate goals of limiting global warming to "well below" two degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.</p>
<p>"We would have to have the same speed of reduction that's happening in 2020 every year for the next decade," Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at the University of California, Berkeley who was not involved with the study, told NBC News.</p><p>The researchers called on governments to craft economic recovery plans that encouraged the systemic changes that will ultimately make sustainable emissions declines possible.</p><p>"The extent to which world leaders consider climate change when planning their economic responses post COVID-19 will influence the global CO2 emissions paths for decades to come," Le Quéré said in the press release.</p><p>For example, governments could follow the lead of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/milan-car-limit-coronavirus-2645805180.html" target="_self">Milan</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/car-free-zones-london-2646014436.html" target="_self">London</a> in reopening cities in ways that prioritize walking and cycling over driving. Le Quéré suggested to Wired that governments stimulate the economy by directing money towards electric cars.</p>
<p>One positive development is that people around the world now have an illustration of what emissions reductions make possible.</p><p>"The most obvious change was the beautiful blue skies we saw from India to Indiana," study coauthor and Stanford University Earth system science professor Rob Jackson told NBC News. "People can relate to that more than abstract discussions about greenhouse gas emissions — you could just see that skies were clear."</p>
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Frédéric Soltan / Corbis / Getty Images
By Jessica Corbett
Following in the footsteps of leaders in Milan and New York City who are heeding global calls to #BuildBackBetter from the coronavirus pandemic, London Mayor Sadiq Khan on Friday unveiled plans to create "one of the largest car-free zones in any capital city in the world" to improve local air quality and encourage more walking and cycling.
<p>"This is genuinely exciting," London-based author and physicist Helen Czerski <a href="https://twitter.com/helenczerski/status/1261273671139758083" target="_blank">tweeted </a>of the plans. "Yes, of course, it will be disruptive (and like any change, there will be both winners and loser at the start). But it could also make London a far more human place and a new sort of city, with huge health benefits for everyone."</p>
<p>Environmentalists and public health advocates also welcomed the initiative. The UK branch of the advocacy group Greenpeace declared: "This is a great first step!"</p>
<iframe width="100%" height="150" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode twitter-embed-1261292961310167041" id="twitter-embed-1261292961310167041" lazy-loadable="true" src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-1261292961310167041&created_ts=1589550650.0&screen_name=GreenpeaceUK&text=This+is+a+great+first+step%21%0APutting+walking+and+cycling+first+means+less+toxic+air+pollution+-+we+need+these+measur%E2%80%A6+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2F0klzTm2CQt&id=1261292961310167041&name=Greenpeace+UK" frameborder="0" data-rm-shortcode-id="e52c46b4da0147822a1698100ecdd003"></iframe><p>Khan <a href="https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/mayoral/car-free-zones-in-london-as-cc-and-ulez-reinstated" target="_blank">announced</a> the upcoming transformation of central London streets — intended to help promote social distancing — in a joint statement with Transport for London (TfL). The government body will release more details in the weeks ahead, but the statement said roads between London Bridge and Shoreditch, Euston and Waterloo, and Old Street and Holborn may soon be limited to buses, pedestrians and cyclists.</p>
<p>Beginning Monday, the city will also reintroduce fee schemes for drivers that aim to cut pollution and help tackle the climate emergency: the low emission zone, the ultra low emission zone, and the congestion charge — the last of which may temporarily increase next month.</p><p>Khan has made tackling London's polluted air a top priority since taking office in 2016. The Labour Party member <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/23/toxic-air-over-london-falls-by-50-at-busiest-traffic-spots" target="_blank">released</a> figures last month showing how air quality in the UK capital has "<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/24/coronavirus-lockdown-has-dramatically-improved-air-quality-in-london.html" target="_blank">dramatically improved</a>" in the wake of both anti-pollution measures introduced in 2017 and the city's pandemic-related lockdown.</p><p>"Covid-19 poses the biggest challenge to London's public transport network in TfL's history," Khan said Friday. "It will take a monumental effort from all Londoners to maintain safe social distancing on public transport as lockdown restrictions are gradually eased."</p><p>"That means we have to keep the number of people using public transport as low as possible," he added. "And we can't see journeys formerly taken on public transport replaced with car usage because our roads would immediately become unusably blocked and toxic air pollution would soar."</p><p>The mayor urged all of the city's 32 boroughs to support the plans and work with officials to implement similar restrictions. He encouraged all Londoners to walk and cycle more while steering clear of public transit "unless it is absolutely unavoidable."</p><p>Khan also highlighted that the plans have benefits beyond ensuring the safety of transport in London as the city lifts coronavirus restrictions. "By ensuring our city's recovery is green," he said, "we will also tackle our toxic air which is vital to make sure we don't replace one public health crisis with another."</p>
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<p>Theo Highland of <a href="https://www.sustrans.org.uk/about-us/" target="_blank">Sustrans</a>, a UK charity that works to make it easier for people to walk and cycle, called the initiative "a potential game-changer" and echoed Khan's call for boroughs to embrace efforts to make miles of roads across the city more walkable and cycle-friendly while reducing toxic traffic.</p><p>"TfL's bold and ambitious plans to get London moving at this critical time are exactly what's needed right now," said Highland. "All boroughs must now make the changes our streets need to give Londoners space to move around safely and build our spirited city's resilience as we begin to bounce back from this pandemic."</p><p>"Sustrans is also here to help local authorities wanting to transform their streets with new infrastructure and give their residents confidence to cycle," he added. "Taking immediate action will help tackle health inequalities, air pollution, and the climate emergency. And by making successful changes permanent we'll emerge from this pandemic as a healthier, happier, and fairer London."</p>
<p>The Guardian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/may/15/large-areas-of-london-to-be-made-car-free-as-lockdown-eased" target="_blank">reported</a> Friday that David Miller of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, which recently has helped coordinate similar plans in metro areas around the world, congratulated Khan "for showing the world what is possible when we reimagine our cities for the benefit and health of everyone."</p><p>"These measures <a href="https://c40.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=529235039ea48b192727b37a9&id=7dd3792851&e=50c10b1cb5" target="_blank">announced in London today</a>, including major car-free zones, will clean the air that Londoners breathe, improve public health both during the Covid-19 pandemic and long into the future, while also helping to avert the climate crisis," Miller said. "This is the future we want."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/05/15/future-we-want-london-joining-global-trend-car-free-streets-cut-pollution-fight" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em><em></em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A cyclists wears a protective mask as he cycles through Manchester city center, UK on March 17, 2020. Jacob King / PA Images via Getty Images
Fears of catching coronavirus on public transportation coupled with drops in vehicular traffic has led to a spike in the sales of bicycles, and safer streets to ride on.
<p>In the UK, where emergency service personnel still need to get to work, a cycle-to-work initiative has led to a 200 percent increase in bicycle sales among people working for emergency services, according to the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52564351" target="_blank">BBC</a>.</p><p>However, it is not only emergency service workers hopping on two-wheels. Across Great Britain, the demand for bikes has soared as people look for mobility and exercise amidst lockdown and social distancing orders, as the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52564351" target="_blank">BBC</a> reported.</p>
<p>Commuters in New York City, the epicenter of the U.S. epidemic, expressed the same concern.</p><p>"I'm 51 and healthy, but I don't want to get on the subway," said John Donohue, a Brooklyn-based artist who bought a bike two weeks ago, to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-bikes/wary-of-public-transport-coronavirus-hit-americans-turn-to-bikes-idUSKBN21Z1BX" target="_blank">Reuters</a>. Donohue, who doesn't own a car, said he's not sure when he'll be comfortable on mass transit again.</p><p>In Australia, bike shops are struggling to keep up with demand.</p><p>"We're the new toilet paper and everyone wants a piece," Grant Kaplan, manager of Giant Sydney, a bike store in Sydney, told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/apr/22/bicycles-are-the-new-toilet-paper-bike-sales-boom-as-coronavirus-lockdown-residents-crave-exercise" target="_blank">Guardian Australia</a>. "We can't keep up with sales. Literally the phone is ringing nonstop."</p>
<p>The phenomenon has reached the U.S. too, where more and more people are shelling out over $2,000 to buy a Peloton to make up for their lost access to gyms, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/06/technology/peloton-boom-workout-virus.html?searchResultPosition=1https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/76.0/whatsnew/all/?oldversion=75.0" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported.</p><p>Peloton has seen its stock soar 95 percent and <a href="https://investor.onepeloton.com/static-files/1d578332-048e-4b0c-8909-b532c100f65d" target="_blank" title="">said its revenue rose 66 percent</a> in the first three months of 2020 from a year earlier. The company ended the quarter with a "backlog" of bike deliveries and added 1.1 million people to digital-only free trials in March and April, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/06/technology/peloton-boom-workout-virus.html?searchResultPosition=1https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/76.0/whatsnew/all/?oldversion=75.0" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>.</p><p>"The demand is through the roof," said John Foley, the chief executive, in an interview, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/06/technology/peloton-boom-workout-virus.html?searchResultPosition=1https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/76.0/whatsnew/all/?oldversion=75.0" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported. "It's not just people wanting more bikes, but if they have one, they're using it more."</p><p>In the U.S., people are also turning to less expensive bikes that offer mobility. Bike shops in Tucson, Arizona have seen an increase in sales and an increase in the number of people coming in to have their bikes repaired.</p>
<p>Roadrunner bicycles in Tucson has seen its sales increase at least fivefold, to an average of about six or seven bikes per day, according to the shop's owner, Elliot Dumont, as <a href="https://tucson.com/business/bike-shops-enjoy-boom-as-tucsonans-look-to-ride-out-coronavirus/article_0a437a0f-5171-564e-a0fc-09494fb9030d.html" target="_blank">Tucson.com</a> reported. Dumont noted that the bike shop experienced record sales in March.</p><p>"It's a huge increase in entry-level bikes, and a lot more service," said Cory Foster, who manages another bike shop in Tucson. He has seen a number of purchases for kids' bikes since children have outgrown their old ones, as well as an increase in repairs from people stuck at home who are dusting off rarely used bicycles, as <a href="https://tucson.com/business/bike-shops-enjoy-boom-as-tucsonans-look-to-ride-out-coronavirus/article_0a437a0f-5171-564e-a0fc-09494fb9030d.html" target="_blank">Tucson.com</a> reported.</p><p>The government has declared bicycles an essential transportation item, so many bike shops remain open despite the widespread business shutdown, as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-bikes/wary-of-public-transport-coronavirus-hit-americans-turn-to-bikes-idUSKBN21Z1BX" target="_blank">Reuters</a> reported. Many, though, have modified how they operate, no longer letting buyers test bikes and handing them over on the curb rather than inside the store.</p><p>Bicycle sellers might also have trouble keeping up with demand. Wholesalers are also telling bicycle dealers that they may not have any new inventory until the 2021 models arrive in the middle of July.</p><p>However, some bike shops are unable to meet the increased demand because of strict state laws. In Pennsylvania, for example, bike shops are open for repairs but they're not allowed to sell new bicycles.</p><p>"It's sort of stupid that somebody can come in and buy an innertube, but they're not allowed to leave with a bicycle," said Allen Kinkead, owner of a Pittsburgh-based bike shop, as the <a href="https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2020/05/05/pennsylvania-coronavirus-bike-demand/" target="_blank">Pittsburgh CBS News</a> affiliate reported.</p><p>In Texas, the bike business is booming, too. "I thought, 'Wow, this could go either way,'" Ray Atayde, the owner of Ray Jay's Bike Shop in Dallas, told the <a href="https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2020/05/05/pennsylvania-coronavirus-bike-demand/" target="_blank">Pittsburgh CBS News</a>. "I was very concerned. And it's just been going like gangbusters around here."</p>
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General view of Milan during the lockdown due to Coronavirus emergency on April 12 ,2020. Mairo Cinquetti / NurPhoto / Getty Images
By Jessica Corbett
Climate activists from across the globe on Tuesday welcomed an ambitious new plan for Milan that will, according to the Guardian, transform 22 miles of street space currently reserved for cars "with a rapid, experimental citywide expansion of cycling and walking space to protect residents as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted."
<p>Greece-based author Julian Hoffman <a href="https://twitter.com/JulianHoffman/status/1252512236049960960" target="_blank">declared</a>, "Turning 35km of Milan's streets over to cyclists and pedestrians shows how there are openings amidst the crisis to boldly and beneficially reimagine our lives, landscapes, and future on the other side."</p><p>The coronavirus pandemic has <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/23/green-stimulus-demanded-battle-convergent-crises-coronavirus-economic-injustice-and" target="_blank">sparked</a> calls for a <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/18/global-green-new-deal-supporters-urge-world-leaders-learn-coronavirus-tackle-climate" target="_blank">global Green New Deal</a> and <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/10/pairing-green-deal-just-recovery-eu-groups-embrace-tackling-covid-19-and-climate" target="_blank">just recovery</a> that incorporates climate action—particularly a swift transition to 100% renewable energy and other initiatives to cut planet-heating emissions—into rebuilding the world's economy. The crisis has also <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/07/decades-heavy-air-pollution-could-make-some-areas-more-likely-see-high-coronavirus" target="_blank">elevated</a> concerns about air quality, as studies have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/20/air-pollution-may-be-key-contributor-to-covid-19-deaths-study" target="_blank">shown</a> that high levels of pollution may be "one of the most important contributors" to deaths from COVID-19.</p>
<p>As the <em>Guardian</em> reported:</p><blockquote>The northern Italian city and surrounding Lombardy region are among Europe's most polluted, and have also been especially hard hit by the COVID-19 outbreak.<br><br>Under the nationwide lockdown, motor traffic congestion has dropped by 30-75%, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/20/air-pollution-may-be-key-contributor-to-covid-19-deaths-study" target="_blank">air pollution with it</a>. City officials hope to fend off a resurgence in car use as residents return to work looking to avoid busy public transport.</blockquote>
<p>The <em>Strade Aperte</em> or "Open Streets" plan, which the <em>Guardian </em>called "one of Europe's most ambitious schemes reallocating street space from cars to cycling and walking," will be implemented this summer. Milan Deputy Mayor Marco Granelli said that "we worked for years to reduce car use. If everybody drives a car, there is no space for people, there is no space to move, there is no space for commercial activities outside the shops.</p><p>"Of course, we want to reopen the economy, but we think we should do it on a different basis from before," he said. "We think we have to reimagine Milan in the new situation. We have to get ready; that's why it's so important to defend even a part of the economy, to support bars, artisans, and restaurants. When it is over, the cities that still have this kind of economy will have an advantage, and Milan wants to be in that category."</p><p>Granelli's comments were applauded by Greenpeace U.K., which tweeted that he was "hitting the nail squarely on the head."</p>
<iframe width="100%" height="150" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode twitter-embed-1252573441082961920" id="twitter-embed-1252573441082961920" lazy-loadable="true" src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-1252573441082961920&created_ts=1587471754.0&screen_name=GreenpeaceUK&text=%E2%80%9COf+course%2C+we+want+to+reopen+the+economy%2C+but+we+think+we+should+do+it+on+a+different+basis+from+before.%22%0A%0AThe+Dep%E2%80%A6+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FiMYOmlHz3x&id=1252573441082961920&name=Greenpeace+UK" frameborder="0" data-rm-shortcode-id="ee980ec78f22b701a3a79d9e37175b6a"></iframe><p>News of the plan was also welcomed on Twitter Tuesday by <a href="https://twitter.com/c40cities/status/1252530541661958144" target="_blank">C40 Cities</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/XRCamden/status/1252508066278445058" target="_blank">Extinction Rebellion Camden</a>, and Swedish teen climate leader <a href="https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg/status/1252562461804433409" target="_blank">Greta Thunberg</a>, who founded the global Fridays for Future movement. Others <a href="https://twitter.com/RichardHullster/status/1252522697252311041" target="_blank">celebrated</a> the plan as an "excellent example of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BuildBackBetter?src=hashtag_click" target="_blank">#BuildBackBetter</a>" and called for crafting similar schemes for other major cities like New York, London, and beyond:</p>
<iframe width="100%" height="150" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode twitter-embed-1252549601690820608" id="twitter-embed-1252549601690820608" lazy-loadable="true" src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-1252549601690820608&created_ts=1587466070.0&screen_name=aoibhinn_ni_s&text=%E2%80%9CIt%E2%80%99s+a+once-in-a-lifetime+opportunity+to+take+a+fresh+look+at+streets+%26amp%3B+make+sure+that+they+are+set+to+achieve+wha%E2%80%A6+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FTUqMMhrUE3&id=1252549601690820608&name=Aoibhinn+N%C3%AD+Sh%C3%BAilleabh%C3%A1in" frameborder="0" data-rm-shortcode-id="f056e329e27552645d17e5202261868a"></iframe>
<iframe width="100%" height="150" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode twitter-embed-1252496864387235840" id="twitter-embed-1252496864387235840" lazy-loadable="true" src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-1252496864387235840&created_ts=1587453497.0&screen_name=EuCyclistsFed&text=%23Milan+launches+Strade+Aperte+to+%22reopen+the+economy%2C+but+on+a+different+basis%22.%0A-+35km+of+streets+to+become+%23bike%E2%80%A6+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FggZJarzT0k&id=1252496864387235840&name=ECF" frameborder="0" data-rm-shortcode-id="4eb57824bcb3077a67d10a0ace2328ff"></iframe>
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<p>"As cities across Europe move out of lockdown, it's a superb opportunity to say goodbye to traffic-clogged streets," <a href="https://twitter.com/sthompsonIT/status/1252536458595926019" target="_blank">wrote</a> Sylvia Thompson, a contributor to <em>The Irish Times</em> who covers health, nature, science, and environmental issues.</p><p>Janette Sadik-Khan—a former transportation commissioner for New York City who is working with cities including Milan and Bogota on their <a href="https://nacto.org/program/covid19/" target="_blank">transport recovery programs—</a>told the <em>Guardian</em> that Milan's scheme could serve as a model for the rest of the world.</p><p>"A lot of cities and even countries have been defined by how they've responded to historical forces, whether it's political, social, or physical reconstruction," said Sadik-Khan. "The Milan plan is so important is because it lays out a good playbook for how you can reset your cities now."</p><p>"It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take a fresh look at your streets and make sure that they are set to achieve the outcomes that we want to achieve: not just moving cars as fast as possible from point A to point B, but making it possible for everyone to get around safely," she added. "I know we'll be looking to Milan for guidance from New York City."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from<a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/21/milans-plan-limit-cars-after-covid-19-lockdown-lauded-excellent-example" target="_blank"> Common Dreams.</a></em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A Boeing 727 flies over approach lights with a trail of black-smoke from the engines on April 9, 2018. aviation-images.com / Universal Images Group via Getty Images
With global air travel at a near standstill, the airline industry is looking to rewrite the rules it agreed to tackle global emissions. The Guardian reports that the airline is billing it as a matter of survival, while environmental activists are accusing the industry of trying to dodge their obligations.
<p>The governing body of the airline industry, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has warned that airlines will start to pull out of a plan to offset and reduce carbon emissions if the International Civil Aviation Organization does not amend the rules, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/08/airlines-lobby-to-rewrite-carbon-deal-due-to-coronavirus" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>.</p><p>The issue is that future offsets are determined by a benchmark that averages emissions from 2019 and 2020. The higher the emissions are, the higher the bar will be set and the less the airlines will have to pay. Rather than commit to a low-carbon future, though, the airline-lobbying group is complaining that the global pandemic has reduced emissions so drastically that it will push the average down too much and future carbon targets will be too steep a challenge, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/08/airlines-lobby-to-rewrite-carbon-deal-due-to-coronavirus" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p>
<p>The Green Alliance found that before the coronavirus lockdowns the airlines' plans to reduce emissions would not meet the requirements of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/paris-agreement">Paris agreement</a>.</p><p>As <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/08/airlines-lobby-to-rewrite-carbon-deal-due-to-coronavirus" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported, James Elliott, a Green Alliance policy adviser, said, "Calls to reduce burdens on the [aviation] sector as it recovers are understandable. But the climate emergency also presents an urgent challenge which must be addressed. If the sector cannot find ways to rebuild itself sustainably after the Covid-19 crisis, it will face painful disruption again in the future as its part in the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-emergency">climate emergency</a> has to be addressed."</p><p>A new investigation by <a href="https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2020/04/07/coronavirus-airlines-lobby-for-tax-breaks-subsidies-vouchers-passenger-refunds/" target="_blank">Unearthed</a> revealed that the airline industry is coordinating efforts around the world to push governments and airports around the world to roll back environmental taxes. Furthermore, the papers <a href="https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2020/04/07/coronavirus-airlines-lobby-for-tax-breaks-subsidies-vouchers-passenger-refunds/" target="_blank">Unearthed</a> found are a strategy to lobby for public money to be poured into funds to restart or maintain air travel and for any planned tax increases to be delayed for up to a year.</p>
<p>Emirates, America's largest international airline, has gone one step further than the IATA recommended and asked the New York Port Authority to defer any tax obligations until 2022, according to a letter from the CEO of Emirates, as reported by <a href="https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2020/04/07/coronavirus-airlines-lobby-for-tax-breaks-subsidies-vouchers-passenger-refunds/" target="_blank">Unearthed</a>.</p><p>Jo Dardenne, aviation manager at campaign group Transport and Environment, told <a href="https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2020/04/07/coronavirus-airlines-lobby-for-tax-breaks-subsidies-vouchers-passenger-refunds/" target="_blank">Unearthed</a>, "We fear that this list of demands is a way for airlines to reduce charges not only now but also once things go back to 'normal'.</p><p>"Any financial aid to the sector should be conditional on them paying their taxes and committing to governments' plans to regulate the climate impact of the sector. Given the current climate emergency, governments can't afford to be bailing out polluting sectors without strict green conditions."</p><p>IATA's director general, Alexandre de Juniac, told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/08/airlines-lobby-to-rewrite-carbon-deal-due-to-coronavirus" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> that the industry was not relinquishing its responsibilities.</p><p>"We haven't given up our environmental goals … After the recovery we will continue to reduce emissions and noise footprints – that hasn't changed," he said. "This crisis is a matter of survival for the industry … We are asking governments for urgent help. Of course we will comply with our environmental obligations. Before that, we have to survive – or there will be no issue with the environment, the industry will have disappeared."</p>
<p>Greenpeace, however, is appalled by what the industry is asking for and takes issue with carbon offsets as responsible environmental stewardship. "At the same time as they're asking for huge government bailouts, airlines are also lobbying furiously to dodge their obligations towards cutting carbon emissions," said John Sauven, Greenpeace UK's executive director, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/08/airlines-lobby-to-rewrite-carbon-deal-due-to-coronavirus" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported. "Offsetting schemes have always been big polluters' favorite excuse to carry on polluting while shifting responsibility for their emissions to someone else. The industry's current proposal would only make the buck-passing easier."</p>
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Trump Administration Finalizes Car Rule Which Will Worsen Economy, Public Health
01 April
Insights + Opinion
ROBYN BECK / AFP / Getty Images
By Dave Cooke
So, they finally went and did it — the Trump administration just finalized a rule to undo requirements on manufacturers to improve fuel economy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from new passenger cars and trucks. Even with the economy at the brink of a recession, they went forward with a policy they know is bad for consumers — their own analysis shows that American drivers are going to spend hundreds of dollars more in fuel as a result of this stupid policy — but they went ahead and did it anyway.
The Rule, by the Numbers
<p>The administration recognizes this is a bad deal for the country — even their own cooked books couldn't make this look like a good idea:</p><ul><li>American drivers will burn an additional 2 billion barrels of oil, resulting in 900 million metric tons of additional global warming emissions;</li><li>Vehicle prices could be reduced by $1,000, but consumers would pay more than $1,400 more in fuel, a net loss and obviously a terrible deal;</li><li>Accounting for miles traveled, the rule results in more premature deaths from air pollution (up to 1600), than offset by the agencies' (optimistic) estimate of less than 800 avoided traffic fatalities;</li><li>The rule cuts automotive revenue by $50 billion dollars, resulting in job losses in the auto sector of 10,000-20,000 in 2030, a number which excludes the <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/don-anair/auto-standards-rollback-oil-companies-win-everyone-else-loses" target="_blank">even worse macroeconomic job losses</a> which would accrue;</li><li>The net benefits of the rule are actually negative, resulting in $10-20 billion in net monetized harm to the country, which is actually a worse outcome than most of alternatives the agency considered!</li></ul><p>And on top of all this, the EPA and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NSHTA) found time to incorporate special corporate giveaways to the fossil fuel industry, <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/don-anair/auto-standards-rollback-oil-companies-win-everyone-else-loses" target="_blank">the only industry slated to benefit from this rule</a> in the first place.</p>The Final Rule Is Not Necessarily Better Than the Proposal
<p>There will likely be a lot of reporting that says that this final rule is better for the environment than the proposal, but this is wrong. On paper, the Trump administration has replaced its proposal to halt required progress entirely after 2020 with a rule that requires 1.5 percent improvement per year, a rate which is of course <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/dave-cooke/most-fuel-efficient-cars-a-win-for-consumers-pockets-the-economy-and-climate-but-whats-next" target="_blank">lower than the automakers have averaged now for more than a decade</a>. But paper targets don't matter — what matters is what happens in the real world. And all this rule is doing is maintaining the status quo.</p><p>While ostensibly increasing the requirements of the rule, the Trump administration has also increased flexibilities and credits granted to automakers compared to the proposal, credits which the industry requested and which we've shown <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/dave-cooke/congress-is-pushing-back-on-the-trump-fuel-economy-rollback-why-arent-auto-companies" target="_blank">could be as bad as the rollback</a>. Incredibly, they've even granted credits that no automaker asked for, for natural gas vehicles that no one currently sells (of course, that was a handout to the oil industry, just like the rest of this rule). While they didn't grant all automaker requests, they did extend through 2026 the decision to ignore emissions from the electricity powering EVs and increased the number of technologies eligible for credits not captured by standards test procedures (so-called "off-cycle credits") while simultaneously reducing the public scrutiny on those emissions, even though recent data on some of these credits <a href="https://theicct.org/publications/US-2025-off-cycle" target="_blank">calls into question their value</a>.</p><p>Awarding automakers these flexibilities and loopholes makes the miniscule change in stringency completely toothless. Consumers will continue to be railroaded by this change in policy.</p>The Economy Is in a Tenuous Position — This Rule Will Make It Worse
<p>Right now, the economic outlook is uncertain — we are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/26/upshot/coronavirus-millions-unemployment-claims.html" target="_blank">shedding jobs by the millions</a>, and even after we come out of this pandemic, we will <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2020-03-17/coming-coronavirus-recession" target="_blank">likely be dealing with a recession</a>. The administration's policy just compounds that economic pain for consumers by ensuring they pay more at the pump. This is exactly the wrong policy at the worst time — what we need to be doing is helping consumers pay less in fuel so they can put those saving back to work in our local economies.</p><p>Consumers will pay thousands more for fuel as a result of this rule, which hurts the economy and <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/don-anair/auto-standards-rollback-oil-companies-win-everyone-else-loses" target="_blank">negatively impacts job growth</a>. The only people that benefit from the administration's finalized rule are the oil companies.</p>The Safe Rule Is Unsafe
<p>One of the biggest, dumbest points made in the original proposal was that this rule would save lives. But the administration admits now that such claims were total nonsense. Even by their own fuzzy math, the "tens of thousands of lives saved" from the proposal have been reduced to just a few hundred, and now that they've finally bothered to calculate the adverse health impacts, they've found that up to 1600 people would die prematurely thanks to the additional air pollution from this rule (a number that is <a href="http://blogs.edf.org/climate411/files/2019/05/FINALGHGREPORT.pdf" target="_blank">likely a significant underestimate</a>).</p><p>We are in the middle of a public health crisis that's devastating our economy, and the administration is finalizing a rule that will undermine both public health and the economy. If that isn't some of the most backwards nonsense ever, I don't know what is.</p>Fighting It out in the Courts
<p>As with <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/24/trump-has-lost-more-than-90-percent-of-deregulation-court-battles.html" target="_blank">so many of the administration's wrongheaded rollbacks</a>, this one will end up in the courts. There continue to be a mountain of errors in the policy and a number of corners cut to <a href="https://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabproduct.nsf/LookupWebProjectsCurrentBOARD/1FACEE5C03725F268525851F006319BB/$File/EPA-SAB-20-003+.pdf" target="_blank">avoid public scrutiny</a> and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/02/an-inside-account-of-trumps-fuel-economy-debacle/606346/" target="_blank">sideline the administration's own experts</a>.</p><p>This policy is bad for consumers, bad for public health, and bad for the environment. And we will continue to fight it in the courts because this country deserves better.</p>From Your Site Articles
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Trump Expected to Announce Weakened Fuel Efficiency Rules, Increasing Air Pollution
31 March
Politics
Traffic moves across the Brooklyn Bridge on Aug. 2, 2018 in New York City. Drew Angerer / Getty Images
The Trump administration is expected to unveil its final replacement of Obama-era fuel-efficiency standards for cars and light trucks Tuesday in a move likely to pump nearly a billion more tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere over the lifetime of those less-efficient vehicles.
<p><br>The Obama-era policy was the first federal policy aimed at combating the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> by reducing emissions, and is the federal policy that would have been the most effective, since transportation is the nation's leading source of carbon pollution, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/climate/trump-fuel-economy.html" target="_blank">The New York Times pointed out</a>. It would also have had the added benefit of reducing <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/air-pollution" target="_self">air pollution</a> at a time when the country is battling the spread of the new <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a>, which can cause pneumonia.</p>
<p>"[Even] given the catastrophe they're in with the coronavirus, they're pursuing a policy that's going to hurt <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/public-health" target="_self">public health</a> and kill people," former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/epa" target="_self">EPA</a>) senior official over emissions and mileage standards Chet France said in an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/administration-to-release-final-rule-on-mileage-rollback/2020/03/31/390753fc-7306-11ea-ad9b-254ec99993bc_story.html" target="_blank">Associated Press story published by The Washington Post</a>. "This is [the] first time that an administration has pursued a policy that will net negative benefit for society and reduce fuel savings."</p><p>The move furthers the Trump administration's efforts to reduce regulations designed to fight the climate crisis, such as <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-begins-withdrawal-paris-agreement-2641223963.html" target="_self">withdrawing from the Paris agreement</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/clean-power-plan-trump-epa-2638927020.html" target="_self">weakening rules</a> for coal fired plants.</p>
<p>"In the march of rollbacks of climate rules, this is the biggest step," David Victor, director of the Laboratory on International Law and Regulation at the University of California, San Diego, told The New York Times.</p><p>The administration originally <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-fuel-efficiency-proposal-2592345279.html" target="_self">wanted to cap fuel efficiency standards</a> at 2020 levels, but feared such a move would not be possible to defend in court, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-03-30/trump-rolls-back-car-pollution-standards" target="_blank">The Los Angeles Times reported</a>. Instead, the policy is expected to require fuel efficiency increases of 1.5 percent a year, ending with a 40 mile-per-gallon average by 2026. That's still well below the Obama-era mandate of a 5 percent efficiency increase every year, leading to an average of 54 miles per gallon by 2025.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump is expected to defend the rule as a boost to an economy crippled by the coronavirus pandemic, according to The New York Times.</p><p>"When finalized, the rule will benefit our economy, will improve the U.S. fleet's fuel economy, will make vehicles more affordable, and will save lives by increasing the safety of new vehicles," EPA spokeswoman Corry Schiermeyer told The Associated Press Monday.</p><p>However, internally, the move's economic advantages has been harder to prove. A draft sent to the White House in January found that, while the rule would lower the price of new cars by around $1,000, it would increase the amount of money Americans spent on gas by around $1,400, according to The New York Times.</p>
<p>Over the weekend, there was a push to justify the rule based on the amount the auto industry would save by not being forced to produce and sell fuel-efficient vehicles less popular with American consumers, two people familiar with the situation told The New York Times.</p><p>However, administration forecasts also show that the auto industry could lose jobs by building cars less efficient than the requirements in China and the EU, according to The Los Angeles Times.</p><p>"From everything we know, the administration has been absolutely flailing in their justification of this new rule," senior vehicles analyst for the <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/" target="_blank">Union of Concerned Scientists</a> David Cooke told The Los Angeles Times. "And they still can't fudge the numbers enough to make it look like a good idea."</p><p>Despite these difficulties, the administration is under pressure to announce a rule this week for two reasons:</p><ol><li>Any vehicle regulations have to be finalized by April 1 to apply to the 2022 model year for car makers.</li><li>Any rule passed after May 19 could be invalidated by the next Congress under the Congressional Review Act.</li></ol>However, Delaware Sen. Tom Carper, the senior Democrat on the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee, criticized the administration for rushing out the new rules: "[It's] the height of irresponsibility for this administration to finalize a rollback that will lead to dirtier air while our country is working around the clock to respond to a respiratory pandemic whose effects may be exacerbated by air pollution," Carper told The Associated Press. "We should be enacting forward-looking environmental policy, not tying our country's future to the dirty vehicles of the past.
<p>The future of the new regulations is already in doubt. Around 20 states are expected to sue to stop them, which means their fate will likely be decided by the Supreme Court, according to The New York Times.</p>
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A school bus rides through the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston on Sept. 11, 2019. Boston's public school district held a contest last year to more effectively move its 25,000 students to more than 200 schools. Barry Chin / The Boston Globe via Getty Images
By Raphael Gindrat
Advocates of autonomous mobility are looking forward to the day when zero-emission, shared autonomous vehicles deliver services that dramatically reduce urban congestion and pollution. But as the mass deployment of autonomous vehicles seems farther and farther off, it is important to point out that we don't have to wait for autonomy to realize many of the efficiencies that shared mobility can provide.
<p>Trip-optimization technology that can make shared transport work already exists — whether a computer or a human is driving. One proof point can be found in a project to make Boston's public school buses more efficient. What can the humble yellow school bus teach us about efficient urban transport? Plenty, as it turns out.</p>
<h3>Learning From Schools</h3><p>In 2019, Boston's <a href="https://www.routefifty.com/tech-data/2019/08/boston-school-bus-routes/159113/" target="_blank">public school district</a> held a contest to find a solution that could better move its 25,000 students to more than 200 schools across 20 zip codes. Parents are allowed to select their children's schools, so the transportation patterns are irregular. To further complicate matters, Boston's schools have different start times. Student transit was costing the district $2,000 per student — 10% of its budget.</p><p>Researchers at MIT's Operations Research Center rose to the challenge. They developed an algorithm capable of ingesting all ride requirements simultaneously instead of optimizing service for each school independently, one by one. By optimizing the entire network, under the new schedule, some buses dropped students off at multiple schools. In short, the algorithm enabled the district to eliminate 50 buses, more than a million miles of driving, and 9,000kg of CO2 emissions per day. Student ride times and walking distances were not impacted. And the district now has $5 million per year in savings to invest in education programs.</p>
<h3>Sharing the Future</h3><p>Many, including me, have argued that the future of urban transport is <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/electric-vehicles">electric</a>, autonomous and shared. I still believe this to be true. But the real key to reducing traffic and pollution comes from sharing — and we don't have to wait for the widespread adoption of electric and/or autonomous vehicles to achieve significant efficiency gains that remove cars and their emissions from city streets.</p><p>Multiple studies have found that shared autonomous vehicles can dramatically improve traffic:</p><p>· An International Transport Forum (ITF) study of traffic in <a href="http://oecdinsights.org/2015/05/13/the-sharing-economy-how-shared-self-driving-cars-could-change-city-traffic/" target="_blank">Lisbon</a> found that shared self-driving cars combined with the existing public transport system could reduce traffic by 90% with a maximum wait time of five minutes.</p><p>· A University of Texas simulation of traffic in <a href="http://www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/kockelman/public_html/TRB15SAVsinAustin.pdf" target="_blank">Austin</a> found that one shared autonomous vehicle could do the work of nine private vehicles with extra ride times of two to five minutes.</p><p>· A study of traffic in <a href="https://blog.ptvgroup.com/en/city-and-mobility/oslo-study-autonomous-vehicles/" target="_blank">Oslo</a> by the PTV Group found that shared autonomous vehicles could meet the city's rush hour needs with just 7% of today's vehicles, and that combining the services with public transport would reduce trip times by an average of 11 minutes.</p><p>Swap autonomous vehicles that receive instructions into a computer with human-driven vehicles that receive instructions through a driver's mobile app, and you can achieve the same results — albeit today with fossil fuel-powered cars. But reducing the number of vehicles on streets by as much as 90% would enable proportionate emissions reductions.</p>
<h3>Public Benefits</h3><p>Critical to the success of these models is the integration of services with public transport. The flip side of the equation would be to use shared services in place of public transport, which would likely worsen congestion. Shared transport integrated with public mass transit would have to be mandated by cities rather than deployed as a free-for-all — which is how peer-to-peer ride-hailing services were introduced. Unregulated and unintegrated, these services have <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-ride-hail-utopia-that-got-stuck-in-traffic-11581742802" target="_blank">dramatically worsened traffic in most large cities</a>.</p>
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<h3>Orchestrating Success</h3><p>Analysts at Accenture <a href="https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/industry-x-0/orchestrating-mobility-ecosystem" target="_blank">recently released a report</a> calling for cities to take the lead in creating coordinated, "orchestrated" mobility ecosystems. Limiting shared services to routes that connect people with mass transit would be one way to deploy human-driven services now and to prepare for driverless services in the future. Services and schedules can be linked at the backend, and operators can, for example, automatically send more shared vehicles to a train station when the train has more passengers than usual; or the cars can wait for a train that is running late.</p><p>Orchestrating large fleets and processing large volumes of ride requests simultaneously and in real time, and dispatching vehicles and pooling ride requests in the most efficient manner possible, are extremely complex processes. This complexity increases as most urban environments are continually changing. Traffic, weather, special events, construction and other conditions can impact trip times and wait times.</p>
<h3>Managing Space</h3><p>Managing urban congestion and mobility comes down to managing space. Cities are characterized by restricted residential, commercial and transportation spaces. Private autos are the most inefficient use of transportation space, while mass transit represents the most efficient use of transportation space. Getting more people out of private cars into shared feeder routes to and from mass transit modes is the most promising way to reduce auto traffic. Computer models show that it can be done, and we don't need autonomy to realize the benefits of shared mobility. With our <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis">climate crisis</a> growing more acute by the day, we can and should start implementing shared mobility now.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/how-to-move-more-people-in-fewer-vehicles-today/" target="_blank">World Economic Forum</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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