The Common Council meeting begins at 6:30 PM on the second floor of the City-County Building at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Arrive by 6:15 PM if you wish to register your opposition or support, or if you wish to testify on the plan. The public hearing begins at 6:45 pm. Testimony can be up to 5 minutes.
Agenda item #11. Adopting and confirming the City of Madison Comprehensive Plan. We are dealing with a very serious threat to the entire community of Madison that is being glossed over by this plan. Damages have undoubtedly already occurred as a result of growing traffic levels in the city, and they will continue to occur. It's not right to go on with business as usual anymore. Having the DNR issue 9 days of air health advisories is indicative that a very serious problem is developing. Many people and especially children in Madison have already undoubtedly been physically damaged by the poor air quality that comes as a result of the traffic levels we are already seeing. This is not a problem that can wait. The longer it takes for meaningful mitigative action, the more damage gets done, and the harder it will be to turn thing around. It's irresponsible not to do anything about this. The city planners should have had the courage to address this problem in the plan. I went to the planning meetings when this plan first got started and told them they best address it. They have sidestepped the whole issue of sustainable transportation in this plan. Transportation was supposed to be a key element and it's not. Mike Neuman --------- Forwarded message ---------- http://madison.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/28456 ------------------------------------------------------------ Madison's Comprehensive Plan Up for Adoption Tomorrow Night - PD Task Force Recommendations Rejected ------------------------------------------------------------ Monday, 16 January 2006 by Michael Neuman Summary: The City of Madison's Final Comprehensive Plan is on the Common Council's meeting agenda for tomorrow evening. A Progressive Dane (PD) task force on transportation recommended to a PD Caucus that the plan contain a goal to reduce motor vehicle travel in Madison by 20% and extend bus service to most villages and cities in the county by 2015; however, the PD Caucus rejected the recommendations so they will not be advanced as an amendment to the Comprehensive Plan at tomorrow's meeting. The Common Council meeting begins at 6:30 PM on the second floor of the City-County Building at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Arrive by 6:15 PM if you wish to register your opposition or support, or if you wish to testify on the plan. The plan will not keep Madison's air clean. Traffic congestion in Madison will continue to worsen, as will pedestrian and bicyclist safety conflicts, and traffic noise levels. To remain a healthy and sustainable city, the PD Transportation Task Force advised that the plan should include the goal of achieving a reduction of motor vehicles miles driven in the city of 20 percent by 2015. A second PD Task Force recommendation was for the city's 20-year plan to include the goal of extending bus transit service to most village- and city-level municipalities in Dane County by 2015. Both recommendations were rejected by the PD Caucus on Saturday for lack of support. "There was not enough support for the two amendments, even among the PD alders", said PD Alder Robbie Webber in an email reply to listserv member Mike Neuman. "They simply did not think that adding a 20% reduction within the next 10 years was a reasonable thing to do at this late stage of the Comp Plan. The Comp Plan has been through so many meetings, and the feeling was that this was simply an impossible amendment to add at this point in the process", said Webber. By public health standards, air quality within the City of Madison has already surpassed the threshold level of particulates within the air from motor vehicle and other combustion emission sources at which the Department of Natural Resources has had to issue an air quality health advisory. Particulate levels in Madison and vicinity's air during 2005 exceeded safe levels a total of 9 days during 2005. On those days, the DNR had to issue an advisory to the public in the Madison area to use caution and try to reduce their exposure to particulate levels of pollution, and to reduce driving and other activities that contribute to combustion emissions. The air quality index for the Madison area on those days registered into the "orange level", the level at which the DNR, and the U.S. EPA, consider the air to be unhealthy for people in sensitive groups, such as those with heart or lung disease, asthma, older adults and all children, and including people who are not in sensitive groups but who are engaged in strenuous activities, or who are exposed for prolonged periods of time. Under an orange level advisory, all people are advised to reschedule or cut back on strenuous activities. People with lung diseases, such as asthma and bronchitis and heart disease, are advised to pay attention to cardiac symptoms like chest pain and shortness of breath, or respiratory symptoms like coughing, wheezing and discomfort when taking a breath, and consult with their physician if they experienced those symptoms. Obviously, the City of Madison should strive to attain no days of the year under which its air quality is in the orange or worse levels. There were also 4 days in Madison last year when pollution levels, again from motor vehicle emissions and other sources of combustion, were very close the levels at which Madison's air quality at the ground level exceeded the Federal Clean Air Act standard. Dane County instituted a program a couple years ago that alerts the Madison area public of when air quality in Dane County is nearing the ground level ozone standard - called "Clean Air Action Days" (there is no such similar program for particulate pollutants) and requests they cut back on driving and other fuel burning during the day. There is ample scientific basis for the DNR to issue public health advisories when the levels of particulates in the air exceed the safety threshold levels for particulates, and for Dane County to issue Clean Air Action Days. Numerous scientific studies show higher hospitalization rates for asthmatics, and increased prevalence of childhood leukemia and other forms of cancer, and a higher incidence of heart attacks and strokes in populations that live near heavily traveled roads. A study conducted in San Diego County in the 1990s showed residents who already had asthma reported more trips to hospitals if they lived within a distance of within 550 feet to a heavily traveled highway: "Examining Associations between Childhood Asthma and Traffic Flow Using a Geographic Information System". http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/members/1999/107p761-767english/english- full.html According to a study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, living near a busy road could also increase a child's chances of getting bronchitis or asthma in the first place: "Living Near High-Traffic Areas Linked to Childhood Asthma, Bronchitis". http://my.webmd.com/content/Article/93/102364.htm It is the fine pollution particles (the mostly unseen ones) that are emitted from operating motor vehicle emissions which are the most injurious as they lodge deep into human lung tissue. The problem occurs most frequently in children because children are more likely to be breathing deeper as their lung capacity is smaller and they are more often engaged in active outdoor activities that require faster and deeper breathing: "Experts: Childhood Asthma "Epidemic" Among Inner-City Youth Seen in Absence of Steps to Curb Global Warming, Fossil Fuel Use". http://www.resultsforamerica.org/calendar/files/042904childhoodasthmaG WreleaseFINAL.pdf Pollution emissions from motor vehicles can also trigger ischemia, a potentially catastrophic shortage of oxygen to the heart muscle: "Air pollution: particularly offensive to the heart. Tiny particles from traffic and industry, along with other pollutants, can trigger heart attacks and spur the development of heart disease". [Harv Heart Lett. 2005 Aug;15(12):4-5] A study by New York's Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health concludes that babies in the womb are more sensitive than their mothers to pollutants from motor vehicle tailpipes and other combustion sources: "Study of Effects of Air Pollution in New York City Reveals that Babies in the Womb are More Sensitive to DNR Damage from Pollution than their Mothers". http://www.ccceh.org/news-events/CCCEH%20PRESS%20RELEASE%20 (Jun23).htm The medical journals are filled with reports of scientific studies that link human exposure to even moderate levels of particulates from automobile emissions to increased risk of getting asthma, asthma attacks, bronchitis, heart attack, stroke and cancer. A report prepared by the Sierra Club documents many other of the known health hazards for people who live near heavily traveled highways: "Highway Health Hazards: How highways and roads cause health problems in our communities—and what you can do about it. How highways and roads cause health problems in our communities—and what you can do about it. http://www.sierraclub.org/hhh/HHHFinalReport6-28-04.pdf Recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued proposed revisions to the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for particle pollution that reduce even further the number of fine particles that can be present in the air for it to be considered in compliance with the Clean Air Act. Presently, the annual (average) standard for fine particulates is 15 micrograms per cubic meter and that standard would remain unchanged. The current daily (maximum) standard for fine particulates is 65 micrograms, and EPA proposes a reduction to 35 particles per cubic meter cubed. The American Lung Association claims the proposed limits are still not low enough to protect public health and will lead to thousands of premature deaths. The American Lung Association states that, despite the strong scientific consensus by an independent outside scientific review panel and the EPA's own staff scientists that stricter standards are needed to protect public the health. Personal motor vehicle operation in and around Dane county is the leading contributors to Madison's high ozone and particulate levels. Reducing the annual number of motor vehicle miles driven in and around Madison by 20% by the year 2015 would help ensure Madison's air remains healthy to breathe and in compliance with the Federal Clean Air Act requirements, asserted Neuman in his report "Justification for Reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled by 20% in Madison" that he distributed to PD Task Force members last Thursday, adding that a 20% reduction in motor vehicle miles driven in Madison would also reduce traffic congestion, the potential for collisions and automobile-pedestrian and automobile-bicycling conflicts, and reduce the need for highway/street capacity expansion and maintenance. "It would also help Madison meet its climate protection commitments, since emissions from motorized transportation is undoubtedly the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere in the Madison area as it is in the country as a whole", the report states. Wisconsin is by no means immune from the dangers of global warming. There presently exists overwhelming scientific consensus that earth's climate is warming in response to rising concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. http://madison.indymedia.org/feature/display/28405/index.php In adopting its "Climate Protection Plan" (Final Update - 2002), the Madison Common Council recognized that local actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase energy efficiency provide many other local benefits including decreased air pollution, more jobs, reduced energy expenditures, and money saved for City government, its businesses and its citizens, in addition to helping to preserve Madison's hospitable climate for the future. "Increasingly, cities are providing the answers to some of America's toughest problems. So it's fitting that we're leading the way on global warming as well", said Mayor Dave Cieslewicz in May 2005 upon his signing of the U.S. Mayor Climate Protection Agreement, which presently has 195 mayoral endorsements from around the country. http://www.ci.seattle.wa.us/mayor/climate/quotes.htm#mayors The UW Population Health Institute released a study late in 2005 which ranks Wisconsin's 72 counties according to how healthy they are for people to live in the county. Dane County missed out on being among the healthiest counties due to its poor air quality score. The study attributed the poorer air quality in Dane County to too much motor vehicle traffic and suggested alternatives to automobile use along with stronger adherence to smart urban planning as a way to move up in the statewide county health rankings in 2006: "Health Goes With Wealth Throughout Most of State" http://www.madison.com/tct/mad/topstories/index.php? ntid=61560&ntpid=0 Wisconsin Department of Transportation estimates show the number of motor vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in Dane County has grown from 3.0 billion VMT* in 1990 to 4.9 billion VMT* in 2004, an increase of 63%, which is over two and a half times Dane County's population growth rate of 23% (450,730 - 367,085)** during the same period. Per capita VMT in Dane County (a surrogate for the amount of driving done by Madisonions) grew from 8,172 miles per capita (MPC) in 1990 to 10,871 (MPC) in 2004 (a 33% increase). A 20% reduction in VMT using the county's current population would therefore amount to a reduction in vehicle miles traveled per capita per year to 8,697 miles, which still exceeds the average number of miles driven per capita in 1990 by 525 miles per year. * Source: Wisconsin Department of Transportation ** " " : Wisconsin Blue Book Madison IMC: http://madison.indymedia.org/ _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
