Phoenix as Everycity: A Closer Look at Sprawl in the Desert - Design with the Desert: Conservation and Sustainable Development - page 254

FIGURE 14.4
Once the destination for people with lung ailments needing a rest cure, Phoenix now has many “bad air days.”
build new and wider roads, ostensibly to accommodate increased traffic, building new
and wider roads does not relieve traffic congestion, according to a study by the Surface
Transportation Policy Project. In this study, researchers found that high road-building
areas actually showed more traffic congestion than low road-building areas. Newer and
wider roads generate more traffic, a phenomenon known as “induced traffic.”14 14 According
to the 2011 urban mobility report by the Texas Transportation Institute, Phoenix ranked
15th worst in terms of annual delay per traveler and 12th worst in wasted fuel per traveler. 16
In addition to costs associated with just building more and more freeways, sprawl
drives up transportation costs for individual families as well. Families living in an area
that is sprawling significantly spend thousands of dollars more per year than those liv-
ing in areas where they can use mass transit, bike, or walk to work, shop, etc. 17 Families
in Phoenix spend 18.2% of their family budget—about $6826 per year—on transporta-
tion (including purchase, operation, and maintenance of automobiles), resulting in a total
household expenditure on transportation in Phoenix of $7.6 billion (Figure 14.4). 17
Because sprawl does not accommodate a mix of transportation choices, when the pop-
ulation increases, there is a disproportionate increase in vehicle miles traveled. Sprawl
development also disturbs large areas of land that in turn contributes to the particulate
pollution. Phoenix is a nonattainment area, meaning that it does not meet the federal
health-based standards for both ozone and coarse particulates, referred to as PM 10 as they
are 10 μm in size or smaller.
The Phoenix area failed to meet its deadline for reducing PM 10 pollution by the end of
2006 and therefore had to develop a special plan to reduce particulates by 5% per year or
risk losing federal highway dollars, not to mention the health impacts. Maricopa County
experienced 59 PM10 violation days in 2007 and 16 in 2008.* The MAG submitted a 2012
Five Percent Plan for PM10 for the Maricopa County Nonattainment Area in May 2012.
Coarse particulates, PM 10 , are generated by construction-related activities, vehicular travel,
driving on unpaved lots, road shoulders, and roads. Other sources of PM 10 pollution are
created by off-road vehicles, agriculture, and leaf blowers.
According to the Arizona Department of Transportation, on the average weekday,
residents of Maricopa County make 13 million vehicle trips covering approximately
* http://arizonaindicators.org/sustainability/particulate-matter