Saturday, June 14, 2008

Selfish People Should Use Public Transportation

...simply because they'd live longer, even if they don't care about the environment. According to this Forbes article:

What's really taking a toll on your health is the polluted air you're breathing, lengthy traffic delays and dodging accidents to and from work.

[A report] that investigated diesel exhaust levels during commutes [in various US cities] documented diesel particle levels four to eight times higher inside commuter cars, buses and trains than in those cities' ambient outdoor air. The only commutes found to be low in diesel exposure were those on electric-powered subways and commuter trains, buses running on alternative fuels or retrofitted with diesel particulate filters, and in cars traveling with little truck traffic.

I'm pretty certain that scooter riders - who account for the majority of commuters in Taiwan - breathe in even more pollution that car drivers and bus passengers. Unfortunately, anyone riding a bicycle is also vulnerable.

1 comment:

John Naruwan said...

It sounds counter-intuitive but scooter riders and car drivers actually get the same exposure to air pollutants in rush-hour traffic. I once edited a paper by a public health prof who did such a study. He suspects that cars still take in quite a lot of air from the outside even when set to "circulate" so you don't really benefit from sitting in a confined space breathing the same polluted air.