DES MOINES, Iowa - The city of Des Moines is trying to get ahead of a troubling trend that is plaguing metro areas throughout the country.
Newly gathered data shows emissions from driving in the Des Moines metro area have grown faster than the population between 1990 and 2017, which reflects an increase in emissions per person.
Emissions grew by 85% over the 27-year span, translating to a 20% increase per person.
The trend is striking, given that fuel efficiency in motor vehicles has steadily increased over the same time period.
Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie, an active member of efforts to make the city more environmentally friendly, thinks vehicle emissions are a major issue. "Transportation is a problem," said Cownie. "I think that we all have to look and try to figure out what it is that we do."
Cownie points to a regional effort known as the "Tomorrow Plan" which has a key objective of reducing car usage. Among other things, it calls for "decreased per capital Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) and transportation related emissions for the region."
But metro cities have been slow to dedicate resources to the Tomorrow Plan, at one point opting to boost budgeting for automobile infrastructure instead of public transportation.
Cownie thinks boosting transit ridership on DART (Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority) will play a major role in reducing auto emissions. "What are the options that we have out there to accommodate people to make it better to use public transportation," Cownie said. "So we're trying to step up into the 21st century and look at all those options and see how you team all those options together."
The mayor points out that infrastructure issues such as sidewalks are being addressed. "We're improving all of our sidewalks," said Cownie "We're adding another 180 miles of sidewalks, putting them around,especially access to bus stops, so that it's safe to access public transportation."
Homeowners in metro communities that have DART service pay a property tax levy to finance the bus system. There is a state mandated cap on the levy of 95 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation. Des Moines and Windsor Heights impose DART taxes at or near the cap, while other suburbs are somewhat below the threshold.
Transportation emissions in Des Moines actually dropped during the great recession years before 2013, but have risen dramatically in recent years, a trend consistent with most other metro areas.
The latest data comes from a New York Times analysis of new information released through Boston University’s Database of Road Transportation Emissions.