Amid a rainy March in which millions of Angelenos observed orders to stay at home, sight lines in the city got clearer and the region’s notorious smog was nowhere to be found.
For nearly the entire month of March, air quality maps tracking the region’s scores on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Quality Index were nothing but green—the color that denotes the cleanest air.
Historical data from the EPA suggests that it may have been the longest stretch of clean air since 1980, the earliest year with available data.
March had 24 days—including 20 days in a row—with a daily air quality score below 50, denoting air that’s healthy even for people sensitive to pollution (those with respiratory issues or heart problems, for instance). March 2019 had 14 such days—the highest number for the month since 2006. In March 2008, LA County’s air quality score fell below 50 just once.
“We’re seeing very clean air all around California,” says Bill Magavern, policy director with the Coalition for Clean Air. “This time of year we usually have better air, especially with the rain, but the drop-off in traffic has definitely reduced emissions.”
It’s a small silver lining to a pandemic that’s shut down businesses, closed schools, and put strain on LA’s healthcare system.
Magavern points out that this could even aid those afflicted with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The European Public Health Alliance warned last week that residents of cities with poor air quality are “more at risk” from the disease, which can cause severe respiratory issues.
According to the California Air Resources Board, the last time ozone (a major contributor to smog) in the Los Angeles area reached unhealthy levels was in February. Over the summer, the region saw unhealthy ozone levels every day for more than two straight months.
Still, Magavern says, a global pandemic is not a worthy trade for cleaner air.
“This is not the way we want to reduce emissions,” he says.
The coalition has long advocated for policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gases caused by transportation—the largest source of emissions in California. Those include incentives to get more drivers to switch to electric vehicles, or simply stop driving so often.
“This is a reminder that the vast majority of our air pollution comes from the transportation of people and goods,” Magavern says.
In 19 of the last 20 years, the American Lung Association named Los Angeles the smoggiest metropolitan area in the United States. Traffic analyst Inrix recently found the city’s traffic congestion to be the sixth-worst in the nation.
As a measure of how much that traffic congestion has dissipated, Inrix found that cars were moving 63 percent faster than average at 5:30 p.m. last Tuesday.
Romel Pascual, director of open streets festival organizer CicLAvia, says he’s hoping that Angelenos use this time stuck at home to rediscover their own neighborhoods. Though local officials have ordered residents not to leave the house except for essential needs, walking and outdoor exercise has been encouraged—so long as people aren’t doing it in groups.
“I’m walking in my neighborhood more than ever before,” he says. “I’m noticing a lot more folks walking. You don’t have to go some [other] place to experience the environment; you can listen to the birds flying by and look at the trees almost anywhere.”
Bryn Lindblad, deputy director of Climate Resolve, says she’s hopeful people will be able to retain some of the habits they develop during this time.
“It’s ironic to me that it’s a quarantine order that’s getting people to do what public health experts have been advising for years—walking around the neighborhood,” she says. “I’m hoping people hold on to that a little bit. After this whole rigmarole is over, we can still keep our streets nice and inviting to people.”
Comments
Hopefully more companies allow working from home more often than they do now. My department in my company just started getting 1 day of working from home per month in November; if that goes up to even once per week, and across thousands of companies, that can help reduce lots of trips with no major lifestyle modifications needed. But after this is over and we’re all allowed to leave our homes and our neighborhoods, I can imagine people will be on the road more to enjoy things they could not. I know I can’t wait to go to the beach or go out on the town for a change of scenery from my suburban apartment complex, especially if this lasts for another month or more.
By hoped on 03.26.20 4:41pm
It took this situation for my company to realize that everyone in our division can work from home effectively. Hopefully they don’t forget this once the stay-at-home mandate is lifted.
By SC310 on 03.27.20 10:45am
This. So many jobs can be effectively done from home. That said, I honestly hate working from home. But, in expensive metro areas without great public transportation where many people have to make significant commutes, having a substantial percentage of the workforce working from home is the best option – at least in regards to the environment. Not many people have the benefit of living close enough to work to bike or walk, or at the most have a short car or train/bus trip. I’m productive at home, but, still, I loathe working at home. But I get the bigger picture.
By DNUice on 04.06.20 11:09pm
This is exactly the solution. I’ve been screaming for years that a good percentage of jobs can be perfectly facilitated from home. Employers are often too afraid of innovation or too controlling to do it, so maybe now they’ll learn it can be done. And there are ways of managing off-site staff to make sure they’re working… it’s called examining results. Imagine if even 100,000 people shifted from offices to home in LA, what that would do for traffic and pollution.
By TheEntity on 03.27.20 10:50am
everybody who works on a computer – demand. telework. going. forward.
it’s a giant win for everyone. it’s the future so stop putting it off.
the air’s much better like this
By JohnnyBlades on 03.26.20 4:45pm
people will get right back to their old lifestyle as soon as they can. enjoy the clean air while it lasts
By LAoneWay on 03.26.20 4:52pm
Agree unfortunately. Also, transit is taking a terrible hit that may never recover. The homeless had pretty much ruined it for many and now you have to wonder if people are infecting you in addition to the sexual harrassment and crime. I think transit may have peaked forever.
By LA Denizen on 03.26.20 8:06pm
Mass transit is not the answer, though we should certainly have it. The answer is electric cars, less driving, and a smaller population.
By Scott Reardon on 03.28.20 7:00pm
Sure, smaller population. Are you just going to round up people into camps there Hitler?
By LA Denizen on 03.29.20 4:27pm
Damn. You went from zero to "Hitler" pretty quick!
By LosFeliz$ean on 03.29.20 8:46pm
Um, no.
Our population is already set to decline. We can encourage further decline by limiting development. We could also restrict the number of wealthy people moving here from other countries. And we could stop illegal immigration by punishing those who employ illegals.
We have a perfect infrastructure to support a slightly smaller population. Drive around the freeways right now and you can see how the roads work so efficiently and seamlessly to get you virtually anywhere. Add in a more robust public transport system and this would be a very livable, pleasant place.
By Scott Reardon on 04.05.20 9:40am
"We can encourage further decline by limiting development."
That’s…not how it works.
By Greyvagabond on 04.06.20 12:23am
But my boy, that is exactly how it works. The market has been trying to reduce the population naturally for nearly five years. Development did not keep pace with the population which resulted in high prices. As a result, there has been a net positive outward migration of people from California to other states.
However, we also have government regulations which artificially allow people to live in housing they otherwise could not afford. We also have state immigration policies that have resulted in a net inward migration of foreign nationals. If we lifted the government regulations (rent control, etc.) and stopped allowing illegal aliens to come here, then the lack of development would result in a decline in population as people move away to more affordable places.
By LADude on 04.06.20 8:34am
Not to get all hippy dippy… but maybe C19 is mother nature’s way of giving us a warning to clean up our act? We’ve been barebacking the planet like it’s going out of style for way too long.
By corner soul on 03.26.20 5:12pm
It’s not hippy dippy. There’s been hundreds of articles and think pieces already about how C19 is a wake up call, a reset, a time for reflection, a glimpse into an alternate future if we learn from it.
By DNUice on 04.06.20 11:12pm
Now we know how the honeybees feel…
By ByeByeLA on 04.08.20 9:02pm
Um, so people learned that if you cannot go to your job or your kids cannot go to school that this leads to less driving. Yeah, let’s apply those lessons in the future. That will work.
By Mitche444 on 03.26.20 5:40pm
Unfortunately because of zoning and NIMBYs, most LA neighborhoods don’t have a corner market or any other retail to walk to. It’s subjected to one main street. So the people have to drive.
By Odiar5 on 03.26.20 7:25pm
corner markets don’t offer the selection or pricing the big super markets or places like Costco offer.
By LAoneWay on 03.27.20 5:29am
I agree, but the point I’m making is more commercial businesses in walking distance of ones home would get more people walking and driving less. Instead of going to Costco every other day, you could go once every two weeks/month. If I need a quick snack, drink, etc., instead of getting in my car, I can walk down the block, say hi to a couple neighbors, strike up a conversation with the owner/cashier, etc. There are so many other benefits.
By Odiar5 on 03.27.20 6:45am
Mixed-use development brings home closer to occupations, activities, institutions, stores, entertainments, parkspaces now too far to walk or reach on poorly designed transit systems, particularly buses, routes and schedules. Transit Oriented Development TOD requires radical rezoning to for instance, convert a single-family home into a neighborhood center, or a material goods supply store, or a mini-grid solar array back yard site to serve surrounding houses, or cut sensible pathways when walking is here and there seen agreed on as a sensible option.
By Sirkulat on 03.28.20 9:28am
I keep hearing corner markets are a good bet for some of the items big box stores are all out of (TP, eggs, etc.) Unfortunately, I don’t have one in my neighborhood to confirm.
By corner soul on 03.27.20 4:34pm
This is not really true. Much of LA is flat and, if there were safe bike lanes, a large number of people could walk or bike to a little village. And even if you must drive, you don’t have to go more than a mile or two before hitting stores. You can also do what most of are doing now, which is shop once per week or once every other week. The traffic we have is largely caused by commuters, gardeners, kids traveling to distant schools, and too many unnecessary trips.
By Scott Reardon on 04.05.20 9:46am
Life is complicated and random, the silver lining of a pandemic we learned is that the sky becomes really clean. The major draw back to you and everyone you know having jobs and living life with out restrictions is constant traffic and smog it looks. Hopefully this does show people that if we worked really hard on phasing out autos that run on gas for electric that even though there will be a cost to some we will have clean air as a reward. I’m just not the most optimistic that full economic collapse will result in the current federal government and citizens to rally behind a goal that will be expensive.
By Mr Balls on 03.26.20 7:27pm
At first read I thought you said/say that people should rally behind a goat…
By landscape_vision on 03.27.20 1:24pm