Eco Alley

Living Green with Connie Pumphrey

The most important component of reducing my carbon footprint is driving less – not an easy habit to break.  I’ve been taking public transportation when I can and it involves riding the MARC train from Odenton to Union Station and then Metro’s Red Line to Bethesda.  On a perfect day, it takes 45 minutes.  It isn’t bad unless it’s raining or snowing as trains will be packed and seats filled.  Metro is sometimes delayed for one reason or another.  In December, the escalator at Bethesda Metro station was broken so I walked up 160 steps (at a 45 degree angle).  This week, the metro was unloaded mid-trip because the doors malfunctioned so we all stuffed ourselves into trains that followed.  I am not whining, however, because it took me less than two hours to get home while some drivers were on the road for several hours. 
Hundreds of thousands of people – workers, students, tourists, the elderly, people with canes or even without sight – use MARC/Metro for school, work, entertainment, etc.  Many young urban dwellers do not own cars in favor of it.  In fact, Metrorail boasts ridership of 343.4 million passenger trips a year and is the second busiest in the country – second only to New York City.

New York City & Washington DC Metro Area transit systems are massive.  NYC provides billions of passenger trips annually and DC provides hundreds of millions.  What is the environmental savings in all this?  On a national scale, public transit saves 3.4 billion gallons of oil each year, prevents 541 million hours of traffic delay and reduces global warming pollution by 26 million tons.  For those who think investing in public transportation doesn’t help, let it shut down for a week and see what happens on the roads.

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Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 01/30/11 at 08:18 AM

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