Assignment on ​​​​​​​Traffic Jams in New York and Los Angeles

Traffic Jams in New York and Los Angeles.

Traffic jams are almost everywhere across the globe. These issues have been nagging since the industrial revolution. A vehicle is slowly becoming a necessity in the united states, and this is the main reason for the rise in traffic jams (Jayapal, 2016, March). The low cost of fuel and the low cost of purchasing a vehicle are among the main reasons for every person wanting to drive.

Causes.

There are several causes of traffic jams; they are mentioned below.

• Mechanical – mechanical is the leading cause of traffic jams on our roads. This is because mechanical issues ranging from a simple puncture to engine malfunction will cause a stop in the vehicle we are driving and hence causing traffic jams.
• Environmental – snowing is one of the causes of traffic jams since snow reduces vision, and hence drivers have to drive slowly. This will cause traffic snarl-up in the cities. 
• Human – human errors are another cause of traffic jams. Ranging from emotional drivers to drunk drivers. All these causes traffic jams on the road.
• Infrastructure – the infrastructural causes range from potholes to bottleneck areas on the road. These causes slow movement in the road and eventually causing traffic jams.

Effects.

The effects of traffic jams range from lateness to accidents. Lateness is a normal occurrence when there is a traffic jam. Accidents are another issue associated with traffic jams. This is because in case there is a mechanical problem on the road, the probability of the car that stopped being hit from behind is high hence causing an accident that may result in deaths.

Government Actions.

The government is trying hard to eradicate traffic jam issue. There are introduced public trains and vehicles that are used by the public. These trains and busses are known to charge low fares to encourage people to use public transport. Building more roads is another action the government is introducing to try and curb traffic jams. Finally, building highways is one way to try and deal with traffic jams in these cities. All the above methods helped but the issue was never eradicated because people continue to purchase vehicles every day.

Pollution

Air Pollution Issue.

Air pollution is an issue that has been around for a very long time. Air pollution in masses began during the industrial revolution in the united states. During this period the country was focusing more on industrialization rather than keeping the environment clean. Pollution refers to the contamination of the environment especially caused by human activities Air pollution is the most adverse form of pollution (Landrigan, 2017). Air pollution refers to the mixture of solid particles in the air. These solid particles include smoke released by moving vehicles, dust particles, and many other particles found in the air. Each kind of pollution is harmful to humans, plants, and animals. 

Causes.

To effectively handle the pollution issue, we are going to look at it with two different perspectives. The first is the natural causes of pollution and then we look at the artificial causes of pollution.  

Natural Causes.

These are those causes that are not controlled by humans. There are several of these causes that we are going to discuss below.

• Dust – in a place where there are little or no cover crops, there is a tendency of wind blowing dust into the air. This causes air pollution. 
• Wildfires – wildfires are another cause of air pollution. Prolonged dry periods cause fires, especially in the forest. This causes air pollution because when the fire burns, it produces carbon-related gasses raising the level of Carbon dioxide in the environment and other greenhouse gasses.
• Volcanic activities – eruption is a natural occurrence. This process is harmful because it releases harmful elements to the air. These elements include Sulphur, ash products, and chlorine. These chemicals are harmful to the environment since they reflect the amount of sunshine that reaches the ground. As is also harmful since like dust they are blown away by wind and hence polluting the environment.

Artificial Causes.

This is by far the greatest cause of air pollution. This is because human activities are in the highest percentage and yet most of the activities have damage to the environment. Below are some of the causes of air pollution.

• Fossil fuel combustion – the use of fossil fuels is always rising, this is because vehicles are manufactured daily and many other forms of machinery that uses fossil fuels. The use of fossil fuels can be said to be the main source of air pollution. This is because research shows that the use of fossil fuels accounts for 21% of the air pollution. Vehicle manufacturing companies are still manufacturing fossil fuel-based vehicles and people still rely on these kinds of vehicles for transport.
• Agricultural activities – agricultural activities also emit a great percentage of greenhouse gases. These include the tractors that are used in cultivation and the factory emissions. Deforestation is another cause of air pollution. All these activities cause the release of toxic gasses and dust to the environment and hence causing pollution.
• Wastes – wastes is another form that causes pollution. When we release wastes to the environment, we are polluting the environment. 

Effects.

Earth has a mechanism that removes pollutants form it but the rate of pollution is overtaking this mechanism. There are several effects of air pollution and they include the following: 

• Smog and soot – when we look over some cities, we always see a white cloud over them, this is smog and it is the effect of pollution. This is also called ground-level ozone. A lot of dust in the environment causes blurred visions.
• Health complications – the release of harmful chemicals to the air causes health problems when we breathe in. 
• Global warming – the release of harmful gasses to the environment causes global warming. This is because greenhouse gasses have adverse effects on the ozone layer which protects us from ultraviolet sun rays.

Governmental Actions.

The government has taken a great initiative to ensure that there is little or no release of dangerous gasses to the environment. Planting trees and other cover crops are among the initiative the government is taking. Another initiative is setting standards in which affluent may be released. Companies have been urged to treat the effluent before releasing it to the environment. The release of harmful gasses to the air is also prohibited. The government is also encouraging movement towards electric vehicles. This will greatly assist in getting rid of fossil fuel-based vehicles.

References

Jayapal, C., & Roy, S. S. (2016, March). Road traffic congestion management using VANET. In 2016 International Conference on Advances in Human-Machine Interaction (HMI) (pp. 1-7). IEEE.

Landrigan, P. J. (2017). Air pollution and health. The Lancet Public Health, 2(1), e4-e5.