IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2019 - 24

Street parking occupies areas
that could be utilized for
moving vehicles.

rail services should be profitable
privately-owned businesses such as
in the Japanese model, will be an
interesting question for historians
of transportation.

Air Pollution Caused by Rail
and Cars is More or Less Equal
Modern vehicles, if kept in satisfactory
condition, will emit ver y small
amounts of air pollutants. New cars
are manufactured with advanced cat-
alytic converters [14] and in most of
developed countries use of catalytic
converters is obligatory [15]. In addi-
tion, the selling of leaded fuel is out-
lawed in most developed countries.
Unleaded fuel is obligatory because
lead is a potent neurotoxin and pollut-
ant. But in most developed countries,
unleaded fuels are standard [16].
On the other hand, many devel-
oping countries do not inspect the
emission of vehicles moving in
their territory. Nor do they inspect
the quality of the fuel sold in gas
stations. Also, since catalytic con-
verters contain expensive materials
like platinum, palladium, rhodium,
and gold, thefts of catalytic con-
verters are not unusual. In develop-
ing countries, sometimes even the
car owner takes out the catalytic
converter and sells it [17]. The car
owner will be paid for the catalytic
converter, but everyone else will
breathe in the pollutants.
It is common to measure the pol-
lution concentration in the air by the
values of PM10 and PM2.5; whereas
PM10 is particulate matter in diam-
eter of no more than 10 microme-
ters and PM2.5 is particulate matter
in diameter of no more than 2.5
micrometers [18]. Therefore, PM2.5
will never be greater than PM10.
The typical threshold for air
pollution is quite similar in most
developed countries. The American
standard [19] is in accordance with
the World Health Organization's
stipulating of a threshold of 50 for

Air Pollution in the U.S.

22
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0

San Jose

Dallas

San Diego

San Antonio

Philadelphia

Phoenix

Houston

Chicago

Los Angeles

PM10
PM2.5

New York

µg/m3

their cars and make use of public
transportation such as trains. Some
of these drivers come to an under-

standing that it is better for
them not to drive, but there
are still too many vehicles
in the hands of inept driv-
ers. When driverless cars
become standard, these
risky drivers will not exist.
When the use of driver-
less cars becomes widespread, the
question of whether the state must
provide rail services, or instead

City

FIGURE 3. Air pollution in the 10 most crowded cities in the U.S.

Vehicles Per Capita

900
800
700
µg/m3

600
500
400
300
200
100
San Jose

Dallas

San Diego

San Antonio

Philadelphia

Phoenix

Houston

Chicago

Los Angeles

New York

0

City
Vehicles Per Capita
FIGURE 4. Vehicles per capita in the 10 most crowded cities in the U.S.

24

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

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JUNE 2019
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2019

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