Nabeel Chaudhry

Professor Dr. Neely McLaughlin

English 1001

4 February 2016

Most Polluted City in America

Air pollution is one of the biggest problem the world is facing today especially the

countries that are progressing industries like Iran, India, Qatar, or China. It is an issue that also

troubles America. The contamination of the air is also being linked to some of the diseases. Most

people don't recognize this problem but some people who do know about this are neglecting to

solve this important issue. Air pollution is becoming an increasingly worse problem that needs to

be taken care as soon as possible for the environment and the people. Many factors are present

for why air pollution has become such a large issue in the world, with neglecting the issue being

the culprit. However, if the people of the world were to address the issue it would definitely

benefit mankind, including mother nature. There are many activities that can be done by both the

common citizen and the governments. If the current way of the world's environmental problem

is being handled doesn’t change, catastrophic consequences can follow for the future

generations.

Over the years, air pollution has become more of a problem for a number of reasons. Due

to the great increase in the world's population rate (1.13% annually or 80 million per year) which

leads to increase energy use, and the numbers of vehicles on roads that make air pollution. As a

result of this increase, air pollution related deaths increase each year due to respiratory related

problems. Along with this, 40% of the world's mortality is being attributed to environmental

factors which is the result of pollution. With such a high number of people dying each year due

to the effects of air pollution, one can see the value of this issue. There are many other factors as

well like radiation or radioactive wastes being thrown away that are destroying natural ecological

systems. There are many cities in America having problems with air pollution, including

Cincinnati. It is the third largest city in Ohio

and the 65th-largest city in the United

States. It had a population of 296,943 in

2015 and the region’s largest county.

Cincinnati has the worst air quality in Ohio

and the eight worst air quality in America.

More than 40% of people in the

United States live in areas where air pollution continues to threaten their health. That means

more than 127 million people are living in counties with dangerous levels of either ozone or

particle pollution that can cause wheezing and coughing, asthma attacks, heart attacks or

premature death. Air pollution is a mix of very tiny solid and liquid particles that are in the air

we breathe. According to 24/7 Wall St, “Like most cities with high particle pollution, the

Cincinnati metro area has a problem with severe ozone pollution. The greater Cincinnati area has

been under several air quality advisories this summer due to dangerously high ozone levels.

Similar to California’s Center Valley, high traffic volumes in the Cincinnati area contribute to

high pollution levels. In addition, this city located in a valley, which, like the mountains

surrounding Central Valley, helps trap emissions.” In other words the author is saying that over

the years air pollution in Cincinnati has raised too much! There are lots of things that cause air

pollution; like manufacturing, construction, demolition, mining, mold, and the main one is

automobile these days. Almost everyone owns a car. Even there are some people who have more

than one vehicle, who live in Cincinnati. Over the years these automobiles are increasing rapidly

and they are the main source of polluting air with harmful gases.

Cincinnati is a city where mostly people drive their own vehicles for going to work,

shopping, and for traveling. Even teenagers have their own cars and they use for everyday and

most of them drive to high schools. These days majority of high school buses are empty and

there are some parents who drop and pick up their kids form schools. The main big cities in

America have public transport and train systems instead of using their own cars. There are more

cities in America using subway systems to help reduce traffic in big cities like New York or

Chicago. However Cincinnati does not have public transport that can reduce air pollution in

downtown, so people have to use their automobiles every day. Thousand of people travel through

Cincinnati downtown every day to get their destinations and other people make their way

through this city. The main highways are going through the downtown and they all create lot of

pollution in the air.

Ohio’s roads, highways, bridges and public transit systems form vital transportation links

for the state’s residents, visitors and businesses, providing daily access to homes, jobs, schools,

shopping, natural resources and recreation. Ohio has been able to increase spending to upgrade

the condition and efficiency of its roads, highways and bridges and modernize its transportation

network. It will be critical that the state continue to make improvements and address the state’s

backlog in needed road and bridge improvements. In order to improve safety, relieve traffic

congestion and improve the condition of locally maintained roads and bridges, ensuring residents

and visitors a well maintained, efficient and safe transportation system, the state will require

significant local, state and federal transportation funding.

There are many types of problems that are making air pollution worse that we have

discussed and automobiles account for majority of them. There is one way to reduce air pollution

and it’s reopening the Cincinnati subway and finishing the

construction. Kevin Williams wrote the article, “Cincinnati

Built A Subway System 100 Years Ago–But Never Used

It”. Williams argues that Cincinnati is one of the cities who

began the subway construction in 1920 and never

completed it. This subway had been abandon over 100

years and never finished the construction. There were some

other cities at that time that started same project and they

are running trains underground these days. Pittsburg,

Cincinnati, and Detroit started the project after New York

City, which began running trains underground in 1904. “Cincinnati was unique in that they were

the only (Midwestern) city to actually begin working on the subway, says Jake Mecklenborg”.

There was not lot of cities that had these plans to build subways for public transport. If they had

finished this project at that time it could reduce almost 50% current air pollution and save lot of

people form dangerous diseases that are caused by air pollution. There were some problems at

that time when construction was progressing because USA entered in WWI, which changed the

nation’s needs and redirected resources from the effort. This is how Cincinnati City lost the

chance to step forward like those cities who are helping not to pollute the air by using public

transport. Over the years there have been various attempts to retrieve the Cincinnati subway but

none of them have taken hold. The Cincinnati subway is still there and it is locked down for

safety reasons but the new research report shows that this subway is in very good condition. This

subway is 2.2mi (3.5km) long and it has four stations that connected main parts of Cincinnati

downtown. It is located in Cincinnati downtown beneath Central Parkway, and on up to

Norwood. This subway will cost millions of dollar to reopen but at the same time Cincinnati

have to fix roads and bridges that cost lot of money as well.

Sometimes small problems can lead to big ones. James leggate wrote the article, “Report

finds nearly half of roads, third of bridges in Cincinnati need repair”. Leggate is trying to say that

there is lot of work to do and it will cost billions to fix all the roads and bridges that need to be

replaced. Cincinnati had the second largest average number of hours lost to congestion for each

motorist with 37 hours. “Whether it’s the Western Hills Viaduct or the economically-critical I-75

corridor and Brent Spence Bridge, Cincinnati’s infrastructure is in desperate need of repair and

continued investment,” said Brian Carlry president and CEO of the Cincinnati USA Regional

Chamber. Here Carley is telling that it doesn’t matter what part of Cincinnati you talk about they

all need to be repaired soon. This city definitely needs long term budgets that can help to do all

the construction. “Ohio’s transportation system will become increasingly deteriorated and

congested if greater funding is not made available at the local, state and federal levels,” Will

Wilkins, TRIP’s executive director, said in a press release. “Congress can help by approving a

long-term federal surface transportation program that provides adequate funding levels, based on

a reliable funding source. If not, Ohio is going to see its future federal funding threatened,

resulting in fewer road and bridge improvements, loss of jobs, and a burden on the state’s

economy.” This is not talking about only the roads or bridges in Cincinnati. It’s talking about

future of this city and it is faced with lot of big financial crisis. This city doesn’t have that much

money to do all the projects unless federal government step in and invest money for long time. If

the federal government doesn’t step in, then Cincinnati can lose a lot of jobs that’s a threat to its

economy. Ohio spent 2.4 billions on road construction last year and there are many unfinished

projects which are still being worked on.

There are many ways to improve the public transport and it can help reduce the air

pollution up to 40%. I think the best solution to save Cincinnati from pollution and economic

crisis is to start working on the subway system. It will help to reduce more than 40% air

pollution. Using public transport will not only help air pollution, but reduce accidents as well.

Cincinnati had the highest average number of traffic deaths out of Ohio urban areas from 2011 to

2013. There was an average of 135 traffic deaths in Cincinnati each year during that period, out

of an average of 1,042 traffic deaths across the state during that time, according to the report,

titled, “Modernizing Ohio’s Transportation System." If you compare this report to any other

city’s report then they are more deaths and more accidents than any other city in Ohio. The

number of automobiles increasing every day and we can predict the future by just looking at the

data form past several years. So we can see there will be more pollution in the air and in the

future and it’s very dangerous for next generations if we do not attended to this issue. Finishing

the subway costs more than fixing roads but it still worth the lives of people who live here. Some

people think that buying electric cars can reduce air pollution but the truth is it is out of

economical range for the majority of people to actually make a difference, unless funded by the

government. There are many ways to improve, but I think finishing the Cincinnati subway would

help more than anything else.

Cited Worked

Williams, Kevin. “Cincinnati Built A Subway System 100 Years Ago–But Never Used It.” Atlas

Obscura. Atlasobscura.com. , 4 February 2016. Web. 29 January 2016.

Fein, Zach. “The Cincinnati Subway.” Architecture Cincinnati. Zfien.com. , 4 February 2016.

Web.

Leggate, James. “Report finds nearly half of roads, third of bridges in Cincinnati need repair.”

WCPO Cincinnati. Wcpo.com. , 4 February 2016. Web. 18 June 2015.

Strickley, Bob. “Cincinnati air quality among the worst in US.” Cincinnati.com. Cincinnati.com.

, 4 February 2016. Web. 13 August 2015.

Reflective note

The draft of this essay was not that bad at all. It was hard to come with a idea and talk about that

but when I started searching than everything start coming as well. While I was working on this

essay I went writing lab for help. It helped me a lot when writing lab looked over my essay and

gave me advice what part of the essay I should work more. It is hard to understand how

everything related and how can this help but I worked hard to made possible. There were many

areas where I didn’t explain in more depth about but now I have ideas about second essay. I

think everything is step by step. It feels like impossible at beginning to write about but when you

start searching more about the topic than there more things will show. I have not researched

about how will the government pay for this project that I came up with. I used many resources to

do this project and some of them were government reports as well. I might need more time on

fixing the grammar or any other mistakes to fix. Every time I have to write any essay than I learn

something new and build my knowledge.