Dragging out the crystal balls on this one
Why climate change is about to make your bad commute worse
Something remarkable happened on American roadways during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic: In even the most congested cities, traffic started moving again. With Americans staying home, cars suddenly rolled over highways like water through a freshly unclogged pipe. By mid-April, traffic had fallen to just 52 percent of pre-pandemic levels, according to traffic research firm INRIX.
But the reprieve was short-lived. As states and cities reopened their economies, drivers restarted their vehicles. By late June, INRIX reported, travel nationwide had already reached pre-pandemic levels, and in many states traffic was actually exceeding those levels.
Most motorists are familiar with many of the reasons for bad traffic: more cars on the road, unskilled drivers, construction, inadequate mass transit, crashes. Increasingly, however, there’s at least one more culprit to consider: climate change.
“America’s transportation system is not set up to recover and regain functionality after a major disruption or disasters,†said Paula Pagniez, director of the Climate and Resilience Hub at global risk management firm Willis Towers Watson. “Both chronic and acute changes in weather impact America’s roads, bridges, tunnels and transit.â€
Got that? You ate a cheeseburger and took a fossil fueled trip, so, that’s going to cause more Bad Weather which harm the roads.
In fact, weather already causes approximately 15 percent of congestion, according to the Federal Highway Administration. And with climate change escalating — scientists expect extreme weather events such as heat waves, snow storms, hurricanes and floods to increase in both frequency and intensity — gridlock will only grow. That is, unless governments change the way they plan, design and manage climate-sensitive infrastructure.
Did they just say that greenhouse gases are going to cause more extreme snow storms? Yes, this is a cult
The problem is, thanks to climate change, past is no longer prologue. “We’re not going to shut off CO2 emissions overnight, so the climate is going to continue changing. The question is, by how much and in which direction?†Chester said.
“Let’s say you design a road in Chicago for the hottest week on record, which might be 105 degrees. Well, the hottest week going forward might be 108 degrees, or it could be 120 degrees,†he said.
See, it’s all about prognostication. And freakouts. All over a minor 1.5F increase over 170 years. And guess who gets to pay for someone else’s cultish beliefs.
