Earlier this week to coincide with today’s Earth Day celebration, MTA Bridges and Tunnels replaced the last mercury vapor necklace lights on the Triborough Robert F. Kennedy Bridge with energy-efficient LED versions. It was but a small part of the MTA’s efforts to reduce their own carbon footprint.
Today, the authority has issued a report entitled “More MTA = Less CO2.” Available here as a PDF, the report touts the environmental impact the agency’s transportation network has on the region. Because the train network is so prevalent and popular, the MTA “reduced the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions of the region by 16.6 million metric tons in 2009 through congestion relief, mode shift and land use effects.”
“The MTA’s transit system makes New York sustainable, with a carbon footprint one-quarter of the national average,” MTA Chairman Jay H. Walder said in a statement. “But our commitment to the environment goes even further, as we continue working to reduce our own emissions and improve the environmental performance of our entire operation.”
Meanwhile, the authority is working hard to become even more efficient. It has reduced its carbon output by 2.5 percent per passenger mile traveled. “It’s clear that the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority has made lowering its emissions one of its top priorities,” Ryan Schauland, a technical specialist at LRQA Americas Sustainability, Inc., said. “The MTA’s proactive approach to voluntary verification of its greenhouse gas emissions under The Climate Registry gives the organization, and the millions of people who use its public transportation system, confidence in the MTA’s emissions reduction claims. We recognize their dedication and commitment to their carbon reduction strategies and congratulate them on another job well done.”
Even as the authority struggles under the pressures of economics and politics, today is as good a day as any to ponder how polluted and traffic-choked our city and region would be without its transit network.
6 comments
And just yesterday, we discussed the MTA’s defense of the need to have diesel locomotives idling in Long Island City all day long. Oh, the irony…
There are anti-idling technologies. Considering the $4/gal diesel costs, it will pay for itself over a few years.
http://www.epa.gov/otaq/smartw.....motive.pdf
Whats more, these locomotives have 3rd rail shoes, why can’t they use sidings with 3rd rail power.
Why are subway cars kept so cold during much of the year? Just the other day I froze in an over air conditioned subway car even though it wasn’t even 60 degrees out.
During the winter, all the doors are often left open during long delays letting all the heated air.
Want to reduce the carbon footprint? Get a better handle on cooling and heating subway cars. The waste is ridiculous of electricity and so easily fixable.
Because, if it isn’t even 60 degrees out, then people are dressed for cool weather, and if the train is heated or (worse yet) unventilated, it gets very uncomfortable, especially if it’s crowded. Some of the cars do have overly strong fans, but I rarely find the temperature too low. If you do, sit or stand near the end of the car, underneath the air conditioning unit itself, where it won’t blow on you.
In the winter and summer, most of the doors (all but one door panel in each car) are closed at terminals. The doors then have to be fully reopened before the train can pull out, so for most delays, which are of unpredictable length but generally no longer than a few minutes, it doesn’t make sense to do the same thing. (Also, older cars can’t automatically close all but one door panel in each car – at terminals, the crew keys open the door panels manually, but that’s obviously not realistic during a run-of-the-mill delay.) If the conductor knows that a particular delay is going to be extensive, then it makes sense to close most of the doors.
Frankly, I think the carbon footprint of any regular subway-riding New Yorker is so much lower than that of the average American that we should be focusing our environmental efforts elsewhere.
If you find yourself often too cold on a subway train, please bring a sweater. Other people would prefer being comfortably cool and dry vs. hot, sweaty, smelly, and stifling, which is what we will all end up suffering with if the MTA listens to enough people like yourself that think it’s too cold. Thank you.
*gasp*
If you operate a large fleet of diesels that take a large amount of time or effort to be restarted, you may leave some idle!
Stop the presses!