How white and affluent drivers are polluting the air breathed by L.A.’s people of color

Los Angeles Times ^ | March 9th, 2023 | Sammy Roth

[shadowlands1960]

(This story originally published in Boiling Point, a weekly newsletter about climate change and the environment.)

Like many Angelenos, I spend a lot of time behind the wheel of my car. I drive from my Westside apartment to Dodger Stadium near downtown and farther east to hike in the San Gabriel Mountains. I take the 405 Freeway north to the San Fernando Valley to see friends, or occasionally south to the L.A. Times office — or to the airport, where I grow my carbon footprint even further.

So I couldn’t help but consider my own complicity while reading a new study from USC researchers, finding that Angelenos who drive more tend to be exposed to less air pollution — and Angelenos who drive less tend to be exposed to more pollution.

It may sound like a paradox, but it’s not. It’s a function of the racism that shaped this city and its suburbs, and continues to influence our daily lives — and a stark reminder of the need for climate solutions that benefit everyone.

My colleague Terry Castleman wrote about the study, which was published in the peer-reviewed journal Urban Studies. The core finding is that for every 1% increase in miles driven to and from work by people who live in a particular part of L.A. County, there’s an estimated 0.62% decrease in the lung-damaging “fine particulate matter” to which those Angelenos are exposed.

[Bon of Babble]

Good thing no on reads the LA Times any longer.

I walk my dogs every morning around many residential blocks - and don’t see a single LA Times on anyone’s driveway - and I know not a single person that reads it.

No wonder - the LA Times is full of pro-illegal sob stories (one per day), White People Bad and all cops are racist Nazis.

[shadowlands1960]

I guess the theory is that all those non whites are good and virtuous people who live in the center of the city and take public transport (as good and virtuous people are inclined to do) and all the evil and selfish whites live in the suburbs and drive big evil cars and trucks, which unlike the good virtuous public buses spew planet killing carbon with the deliberate intention of killing their good and virtuous darker toned neighbors.

[PhineasSpear]

Yes, only minorities breathe all that pollution.

[KittyKares]

Notice that it also says:

“Regardless, switching from oil to electricity won’t solve everything, as Boeing’s study notes. Electric vehicles still produce harmful air pollution via dust from brake pads and toxic chemicals in tires. And cars of all kinds can kill pedestrians and drivers.”

Maybe the answer is to close all the freeways./sarc

[Chicory]

Not to mention the fact that lots of EVs will probably cause more blackouts in CA, which will have a disproportionate effect on those who are poor.... so driving an EV will turn out to also be racist.