20-year-old Ava Kerkorian hops in the car and heads for Ralphs grocery store on Sunset Boulevard. Her parents forgot a few things for dinner, so she begins her five-minute ride past the mix of modern and old, Spanish and Cape Cod houses. She rounds the corner into Ralphs’ wide lot, runs in, grabs what she needs and heads home.
While the Kerkorians drive an electric car, only one percent of LA’s vehicle population in 2021 was electric, according to dot.LA. So there are still many gas vehicles on the roads. While seemingly inconsequential, this commonplace grocery run done in a gas-powered car contributes to transportation emissions, which accounts for nearly 20 percent of LA’s annual CO2 pollution.
Los Angeles skyline, with visible smog, Sep. 18, 2016. Wikimedia Commons
“I'm lucky enough that I could walk to the grocery store if need be, or if just to be better for the environment. But for people who don't live that close, you know, that's, that's a problem,” Kerkorian said.
Approximately 88 percent of U.S. households drive an average of four miles to get groceries, according to a 2015 USDA survey. Those car trips to and from the grocery store emit more than 17 million metric tons of CO2 every year, according to the EPA. That’s the same amount of CO2 emissions as 3.3 million homes' annual electricity use.
Clearly, those quick grocery store runs are big polluters. But that’s just one small part of daily life.
The UN Environment Programme estimates that cities constitute 75 percent of global CO2 emissions, with transportation among the biggest offenders. Urban areas are home to 55 percent of the world’s population as of 2018, a proportion that the United Nations expects to increase to 68 percent by 2050. As populations increase, emissions follow a similar trend, according to a 2019 study.
This familiar narrative plagues urban centers around the world, but cities like Barcelona aim to reduce transportation emissions by limiting the need for carbon-emitting vehicles through walkable city design.
Barcelona introduced nine-square-block communities, known as Superblocks, that outlaw motor through-traffic within their boundaries in 2016. Traffic is confined to the perimeter streets, with interior transportation putting pedestrians and cyclists first.
Meanwhile, increased CO2 concentrations in cities like LA are known to form CO2 domes, which raise local temperatures and “in turn increase the amounts of local air pollutants, raising concentrations of health-damaging ground-level ozone,” according to a Stanford news release on a 2010 study.
Elevated ozone levels are linked to more frequent asthma attacks, shortness of breath, lung diseases, lung damage, hospitalizations, emergency room visits and premature death, according to the EPA. Further, air pollution can increase the death rate, according to Stanford’s Atmosphere/Energy Program director Mark Z. Jacobson.
But Barcelona’s Superblocks help reduce vehicle traffic and emissions, which decreases CO2 emissions and reduces associated health concerns.
Personal vehicle trips in Barcelona could decline by 230,000 each week if the 503 planned superblocks are completed, according to a study by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health.
“When you take the cars away, [...] that will reduce air pollution levels. Noise levels go down. There’s more space for green space that you can put there, and that also reduces heat island effects [...] and people do more physical activity, they don’t use the car as much,” Barcelona Institute for Global Health’s Urban Planning, Environment and Health Initiative Director Mark Nieuwenhuijsen told Fast Company.
That drop in pollution can save lives, too. Barcelona’s superblocks could prevent nearly 700 premature deaths in the city each year and add almost 200 days to average life expectancy, according to a 2020 study of the urban design strategy.
Barcelona has already implemented six superblocks, and LA City Councilmember Kevin de León is chasing his first with his Aug. 2022 proposal to emulate Superblocks in LA’s 14th District.
“Other parts of the world are demonstrating that big cities can be pedestrian-centric, by using portions of streets in neighborhoods for residents to make it their own and expand open space, give kids more room to play, and allow cyclists safer passage on neighborhood streets,” de León said. “It’s time for Los Angeles to be a leader in the United States by proving big American cities built around car-centric infrastructure can transform into liveable cities.”
However, that may be easier said than done.
Despite its aggressive moves to combat transportation emissions, LA still has a reputation for being car dependent. So, it could be difficult to block streets or complete construction to implement LA’s version of Superblocks, especially considering how bad traffic in LA already is. Such a move would also require cultural adoption, with a commitment from the community to subscribe to the walkable lifestyle encouraged by superblocks.
“In an ideal world, I'd love for [Superblocks] to come to LA,” Kerkorian said. “But the realistic part of me does think it would be difficult.”
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Nikolas Liepins is an award-winning environmentalist and journalist with a passion for community-based storytelling. Outside of journalism, he enjoys photography, baking, exploring the great outdoors and going on adventures. Somehow, storytelling creeps its way into everything he does.
Contact Nikolas at contactnktl ‘at’ gmail.com, or find him on Instagram and Twitter @nikolasliepins.
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