(The following article by Tom Avril appeared on the Philadelphia Inquirer website on May 28.)
PHILADELPHIA — Proposed cuts in SEPTA’s train and bus service would cause dirtier air in the Philadelphia region – nearly 11,000 added tons of pollution a year, according to an Inquirer analysis.
The SEPTA cuts also would mean that motorists would burn an additional 1.2 million gallons of gasoline a year, the analysis found. The calculations assume that some bus passengers and most rail passengers would switch to cars instead.
The added pollution and gasoline consumption are not dramatic, compared with the current totals from the 2.3 million cars, vans and SUVs in the five-county Philadelphia region. The extra pollution and gasoline represent less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the current amounts.
Yet clean-air advocates said that dirty air is nevertheless a good reason to avoid the service cuts. Public transit is a good investment for many reasons, including air quality, said Tom Walker, a transportation modeler with the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC).
“It’s not a huge reason,” Walker said. “But it adds up.”
SEPTA officials say they are forced to make the cuts to help plug a $55 million budget gap. The R1 Airport, R2 Warminster, R8 Chestnut Hill West, and R6 Cynwyd rail lines would be eliminated. A variety of bus lines also would be cut, including the popular Broad-Ridge Spur.
“It’s obvious we do not want to make the service cuts,” agency spokesman Jim Whitaker said. Air quality “benefits by more people taking transit and fewer people driving cars. 1.5 people per car… vs. 100 people in a railway car – it makes a big difference.”
A SEPTA decision is expected by June 30.
The Inquirer analysis is based on SEPTA’s estimate that 4.5 million “rides” would be lost a year if the cuts are made. The agency estimated how many riders would be displaced by each service reduction. The total does not include those who would still be able to use SEPTA by going to a different station or bus stop. The analysis includes only the train and bus routes that would be eliminated, not those that are to be reduced or truncated.
The analysis assumes that 80 percent of the displaced rail passengers and 50 percent of the displaced bus passengers would drive cars, instead. Not everyone would switch to cars; some might switch jobs, work from home or carpool. The different numbers reflect higher car ownership in the suburbs.
The added pollution was calculated by multiplying the number of displaced riders by the average trip length, by the amount of pollution generated by the average vehicle per mile. About 11,700 tons of pollutants would be added.
The added pollution from cars would be offset somewhat by roughly 1,000 tons in reduced pollution from not operating as many buses, resulting in a net pollution increase of about 10,700 tons.
The per-mile pollution figures were obtained from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the DVRPC.
The pollutants include nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons, which together lead to smog – a pollutant that in Southeastern Pennsylvania violates EPA standards. Other pollutants include carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a so-called greenhouse gas, widely blamed for global warming.
The biggest number of lost rides would be on the R2 Warminster line, according to SEPTA: nearly 948,000 fewer trips a year. The average trip length on that line is 14.2 miles.
If 80 percent of those displaced passengers switched to cars, they would need to drive more than 10 million miles a year.