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.
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