Comment Log Display

March 8, 2013
Ms. Mary Nichols
Chair, California Air Resources Board
1001 I Street
Sacramento CA 95814

Dear Chair Nichols:

I am recent graduate from UC Berkeley with a Bachelor's in Civil
and Environmental Engineering. As someone who has studied
infrastructure development and believes in key role transportation
plays in transforming our cities and regions into more sustainable
places, I would like to use this letter to express my strong
support for the Sustainable Communities For All proposal. The goals
outlined by  SB 375 can be reached by reinforcing transportation
and housing choices that minimize the need to drive cars, reduce
monetary costs, and provide new opportunities, especially for
low-income families.

According to a recent report by the California Housing Partnership
Corporation,
preserving and building affordable homes near transit will allow
California to achieve the
maximum VMT and GHG-reduction benefits of investment in transit
infrastructure and
transit-oriented development.

Sprawl and congestion are also bad for health - each additional
hour spent in a car per
day is associated with a 6 percent increase in the likelihood of
obesity. Investing in safe
bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure and programs like Safe Routes
to School improves
health in both urban and rural areas, and especially in minority
communities where
pedestrians are significantly more likely to be killed by
vehicles.

Investments like these will have the greatest impact on the
communities most affected
by climate change while also increasing access to opportunities.

Thank you for considering my comments,

Sincerely,

Ritu Garg