By Peter Koven
It’s easy to ignore the dangers of vehicle emissions. Perhaps that’s why the majority of Ottawans choose to do exactly that.
The statistics have been drilled into the public’s consciousness so many times that they shouldn’t need repeating. Or wouldn’t, were they not so staggering — 70 per cent of the carbon monoxide in the atmosphere comes from gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles, as does 50 per cent of the nitrogen oxide and 25 per cent of the carbon dioxide. The health hazards are appalling; cancer risks, respiratory ailments, heart disease.
And in Ottawa, vehicles contribute more to total air pollution than most other North American cities.
“In Ottawa, it’s mostly cars and trucks, there’s very little industry,” says Dennis Whitfield, a chemist with the National Research Council of Canada. “And there’s more cars because there’s more people. There was a huge increase in cars in the ‘90s. And people drive further as the suburbs have spread.”
Still, the last few years provide some encouragement that things may change. Some innovative new programs at the provincial, municipal and community level show that efforts are being made to reduce emissions. But are they working?
“I see progress, which is encouraging” says Cynthia Levesque, program manager of environmental management for the City of Ottawa. “I see a willingness among some people (to cut down on emissions), although there’s a big gap between what that means and what people can do on a regular basis.”
In July 2002, the province of Ontario finally extended its Drive Clean program to include the Ottawa region. The premise is simple — a vehicle must be tested for emissions every two years before a license plate sticker is renewed.
The goal is to get older vehicles, which pollute more, off the road. It’s estimated that five per cent of the vehicles on the road are responsible for 90 per cent of the pollution. A new phase of the program that will be implemented this year will tighten emission standards from their current level by an additional 21 per cent.
“It’s definitely helped,” says Charles Ross, spokesman for Drive Clean. “Although we haven’t got stats beyond 2001, we’ve seen marked reductions in ‘nocs’ and ‘vocs’ (oxides and volatile organic compounds).”
While there is general agreement that the program is a good idea, not all agree that it has been implemented properly.
Taxis, despite their frequent usage, aren’t subject to more rigorous testing standards. Many believe stricter standards are needed for SUVs as well, given their rapid spread in urban areas in recent years and reputation as a notorious polluter.
“Going back to the ‘80s, light trucks weren’t subjected to any emissions control,” says Whitfield. “So some smart person figured out that if they marketed these light trucks (SUVs) to suburbanites, they could avoid emissions control. And so the car companies started doing that.”
There are other complaints about the program.
“I’ve heard some stories from people about (Drive Clean) being basically a cash grab for certified mechanics because of the ($30) charge for getting the inspection done,” says Richard Briggs, from local advocacy group Auto-Free Ottawa. “My initial impression of the program was that it was an indirect handout to Mike Harris’s friends in the automobile industry by forcing people to get new cars instead of repairing old ones.”
Municipally, the city has a draft plan that it hopes to implement this year that would see a 20-per-cent reduction rate in greenhouse gases by 2012 relative to 1990 levels. The Kyoto Protocol requires six per cent.
To reach these goals, city officials are encouraging the use of public transit as much as possible, and promoting the anti-idling campaign, which asks motorists to turn off their cars when not in use.
On the transportation side, the city wants 30 per cent of the population using public transit to get to work, as opposed to 17 per cent today. The light rail system is supposed to grow, and some new buses will operate partially on electricity and others with a more environmentally friendly ethanol-diesel fuel blend.
It’s an ambitious plan, but the increase in vehicle use throughout the ‘90s has made it difficult to implement.
“There’s more work required,” says Levesque, the program manager. “We have gained efficiencies, but some of them are offset by vehicles getting bigger and people driving longer distances, and the population growing.”
Assessing the impact of the anti-idling campaign is difficult. And trying to convince Ottawans of the benefits of turning off their engines after idling for more than 30 seconds during winter is virtually impossible.
“It’s hard to measure (its impact), but we’ve educated some people on its benefits,” Levesque says. “There seems to be an increase in awareness (of the campaign) but not necessarily in the time that people might be idling.”
It might be the community level that provides the most innovative solutions. Two new programs are trying to convince drivers to “think green.”
The premise of the vrtuCAR program is frighteningly logical. Developed by Chris Bradshaw, former Green party candidate in both federal and provincial elections, vrtuCAR is a members-only car-sharing business that charges according to usage. Members pick up or drop off the car whenever they like (the cars are left wherever they want), fuel costs are included, and all administration, insurance, maintenance and financing is handled by vrtuCAR. Membership requires a cost of $500. It now has more than 300 members.
“We’re proud of having a positive impact,” says Bradshaw. “When people have access to a vehicle where the costs are shared, it greatly inhibits a person’s desire to use a car. Plus ours are the lightest and most environmentally friendly on the market.”
The Ottawa chapter of Friends of the Earth, an international, non-profit environmental organization, has its own program — it will actually take your car off the road for you and recycle it. The goal is to remove as many pre-1988 cars — the year catalytic converters were improved — from the road as possible .
In return, the former car owner gets $60 and a choice of different transportation packages, including heavy discounts on city bus passes and cheap membership in the vrtuCAR program.
It’s an appealing idea on paper, but getting people to buy into it is another matter.
“It’s been a challenge,” admits Bea Olivastri, of Friends of the Earth. “We’ve got these incentives for people, but it’s difficult to communicate. I think it suits people at a certain point in their lives. For parents who have to drive to work, school and soccer practice, it doesn’t work.”
Recycling vehicles isn’t a viable option for most people. But programs are in place, and more can and should be done at an individual level to combat emissions in Ottawa.
Says Whitfield: “It’s the number one cause of air pollution. We have to set the trend.”