ECONOMICS OF AIR POLLUTION ABATEMENT IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: HOW PARKING POLICIES IMPEDE GOAL ATTAINMENT OF THE RIDESHARE PROGRAM REQUIRED BY REGULATION XV
Part I: Introduction and Summary of Findings
The problems, economic and otherwise, associated with air pollution in the Southern California region are both legion and legend. A substantial and significant proportion of the air pollution in the Southern California region is attributable to motor vehicle emissions, especially to emissions from the use of private automobiles for commuting to and from home and work (Litvan 36).
To reduce air pollution cause by commuting to and from home and work, the federal Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 mandated reductions in solo commuting in the 10 most polluted regions in the nation, of which the Southern California region is one. In the Southern California region, the South Coast Air Quality Management District implemented Regulation XV prior to the enactment of the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act. Regulation XV requires employers to reduce solo commuting through the implementation of the Rideshare Program (Green 16).
The Rideshare Program is popular with governments and has been embraced (perhaps not warmly) by most employers (Litvan 37; Dutton 49-50). Research has found that the Rideshare Program, which has never been popular with commuters in the Southern California region, from its inception has been and continues to be undercut by parking policies implemented by both municipalities and employers (Smith and Barnes 5; Green 16; Wells 24; Shoup 14, 27).
Wilson (29) found that parking policies frequently are "a tacit policy for automobile use and sprawl." Wilson's (29) study found further that "parking typically was oversupplied and provided at no direct cost to tenants or their employees." Concerns about the effects of parking policies on the Rideshare program, which is a car-pooling program, and the resulting increas...