Timothy Powell
November 6, 1996
FNR 101-01
Dr. Harris

San Luis Obispo (SLO) is a small city located on the central coast of California about halfway in between Los Angeles and San Francisco. The local population is about 45,000 composed of mostly Senior citizens and college students. Like many small cities SLO doesn't have lot of large streets and parking areas for a heavy volume of traffic. But, like a lot of larger cities SLO is facing a major dilemma: what to do about all the car traffic. Indeed, the amounts of cars and vehicles driving around the city has become such a serious problem, that it now demands a serious and radical solution, that of eliminating all cars and vehicles from driving in the city limits. The purpose of this essay will be defend this position by giving supporting reasons for why SLO should become a car free zone and then to address the problems with the original proposal in order to generate a revised proposal that will solve our original problem but still be sensitive to the reality of our present day environment.

The first reason SLO should become a car free zone is because plain and simply the city is just too small to accommodate car transportation. SLO is not some sort of sprawling metropolis where one can't even see the city boundaries, let alone hope to reach it without some sort of personal transportation. In fact the city itself has only a 3 mile radius , making it at least plausible for a person to walk, and very possible for that person to bike. Along that line, the city wasn't built for 100's of cars to be clogging its streets for the morning and afternoon commutes. There only a few major streets capable of handling any significant amount of traffic and the rest of them are the small residential types one would expect to find in a city of this size. The fact that we try to use these streets as highway detours only worsens the problem and strongly reiterates the obvious fact that SLO is just too small to properly handle car traffic.

The second reason that SLO should become a car free zone is because of SLO's natural inversion layer. An inversion layer (or more properly a thermal inversion) is a layer of cool dense air trapped under a layer of less dense, warm air. This prevents upward air currents from developing.. Thus in an environment where this is a natural event the inversion can be prolonged allowing air pollution to build up in the trapped layer, sometimes even to dangerous amounts. This is clearly evident in cities like Los Angeles where because of the sheer volume of air pollution produced (50% of which id from cars ) it takes relatively little time for smog levels to rise. The same thing is true of here in SLO except on a less massive scale. All the cars you see idling in traffic jams during the commute and circling around the parking lot are all contributing to the air pollution problem here. And when this pollution remains trapped in our atmosphere we are the ones who suffer the health risk. Thus making SLO a car free zone would be in the best interest of our own personal health.

The third reason why SLO should become a car free zone is an aesthetic one, that of preserving the city's natural beauty. SLO has the blessing of being nestled in one of the most beautiful environments in all of California. The natural setting around here is the very epitome of serenity and tranquillity, that is, all except for the blaring of horns and the roar of engines. Indeed, the natural setting here is being heavily tarnished by the hundreds of cars crisscrossing the city everyday. Even as I look out the window of my room instead of seeing a beautiful hillside complete with birds singing and an occasional deer grazing I get the sights and sounds of all the traffic going up into the R2 parking lot, creating a somewhat less than peaceful and serene climate for me to live in. Indeed, the natural setting of SLO is probably what keeps us at peace with both ourselves and with each other. But keeping cars in SLO may be eroding that peace away.

But, while it may be one thing to propose that SLO become a car free zone, in reality it may not always be practical and in some cases even desirable.

In proposing that SLO become a car free zone one overlooks the importance of cars and vehicles that are necessary to the city's survival. So called emergency vehicles such as police, fire, and medical units are obviously critical and cannot simply be asked to stop driving. Likewise, city maintenance and sanitation vehicles (which undoubtedly put out a significant amount of vehicular exhaust) are equally needed to keep the city functioning properly. The proposal to ban vehicles in SLO has not adequately taken this factor into mind. A blind desire to make SLO some kind of alternative transportation utopia could very well bring about its demise.

The second flaw in proposing SLO to be a car free zone is that the idea doesn't take into the account the needs of its permanent citizens. Both Seniors and those with kids cannot readily just do without their cars and vehicles. For many of them (and us) it has become a necessary part of life. In simple things like going to the grocery store or taking some clothing to the Laundromat, it is neither practical nor, desirable to propose that a Senior citizen or a working mother with two small kids simply walk or bike to where they are going, no matter how short the distance. A realistic proposal that will benefit SLO must be one that is fully acceptable to those for whom the city exist.

In thinking about the problems with my original proposal that SLO be made a car free zone, it is clearly insufficient in its current form and thus needs revision in order to make it a proposal that both beneficial and practical. Since Cal Poly is clearly the biggest source of cars (and thus car pollution) in the city, than I propose that the Cal Poly campus should be made a car free zone. This would of course exclude service vehicles and other vehicles necessary to the functioning of the university, but would get rid of all the student and faculty lone drivers who commute back and forth to campus. Alternative methods such as more walking and bike paths, free bikes for everyone, increased bus service all around the city, and vanpools for those living farther away would not only help to reduce the congestion/ pollution in our city, but also preserve the natural beauty of the local environment and exclude the city's permanent citizens from unnecessary hardship. In the end this will help make this city a better place for us all.