The obsession with personal vehicles is one of the reasons mass transit has failed in L.A. and smog continues to be such a problem.
Not to get OT, but that is a terribly old-fashioned idea you have there. It's not 1977 anymore.
The air quality in Southern California is dramatically improved over what it was just 20 years ago, and it is about to the point where the term "smog" really no longer exists. I can't remember that last time I heard anyone here say "smog" in a contemporary reference.
The amount of pollutants in the air in SoCal has declined
dramatically in the last 25 years, with the most rapid rate of improvement beginning about 15 years ago. Here's a link to a chart from the South Coast Air Quality Management District showing the dramatic reduction in days per year since the mid 1970's where air quality was unhealthful
http://www.aqmd.gov/smog/o3trend.html
There were
121 Stage 1 Smog Alerts in calendar year 1977 alone!
There has been
only one such alert in the last 8 years, on one single day in 2003 for San Bernardino.
The late 1970's averaged
15 Stage 2 Smog Alerts per year! In '78 they had 23 Stage 2 Alerts in one year.
There hasn't been a Stage 2 Smog Alert in Southern California since
1988.
Not a single one. They don't exist anymore.
Charts and statistics are one thing, but there is also simple knowledge from someone like me who lived in SoCal in the late 1970's and who lives here now. I've never seen the air quality better. It's been over a decade, if not closer to two decades, since I remember a smoggy day when your lungs hurt when you breathed hard.
ANYONE who lived in SoCal in the 1960's and 1970's remembers the days when your lungs hurt because of the smog. Schools kept children inside, the radio issued alerts and you were advised not to jog or work outdoors, etc. That doesn't happen anymore, and it hasn't happened in years. An entire generation of children has now grown up not knowing what a Smog Alert even is. Ask a 12 year old today what a Smog Alert is and they'll look at you funny.
I remember barely ever seeing the San Gabriel Mountains in the 1970's cause the smog smudged them out of the horizon. Now they are out and in crystal clear skies more often than not. The air now is crisp and blue and bright.
It's not 1977 anymore, with Johnny Carson making smog jokes in his opening monologue on the Tonight Show. To talk about "smog" in SoCal in the 21st century is about as timely as talking about Disco or Jimmy Carter. :wave:
