Air pollution in New
Haven County is “moderate.”
Indicator 7.1: Air Quality
Indicators for New Haven County (ranked nationally)
Why is this important? Air
quality directly affects human health, ecosystem health, and visibility. The Air Quality of an area is determined
from several major pollutants: carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O3), and
particulate matter (PM-10) are among the most serious indicators. Rapid development
of a region is directly linked with increases in energy consumption and
automobile use, both of which significantly impact air quality. Carbon monoxide
(CO) in particular, deprives people of necessary oxygen, and particularly
affects children, pregnant women, and those with cardiovascular and pulmonary
disease.
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New Haven County air quality is moderate as measured by
the Pollutant Standards Index.
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Air quality in New Haven County is over the 90%
percentile in four key pollutants.
Definition A
comparison of Air Quality in New Haven County to the rest of the nation.
Data Source Scorecard.org
Commuters
are driving by themselves more.
Indicator 7.4: Commuters Traveling by Means Other Than
Driving Self
Why is this important? Commuters who commute by means other than
driving themselves help to reduce road congestion and air pollution.
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Between 1990 and 2000, the number of commuters not
using single-occupancy vehicles (SOVs) (18.8%) declined for the region by 7,943
or 2.0 percentage points, which is approximately the state average.
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Madison was the only city to have an increase in
commuters not using SOVs; however, there was a decrease in the percentage of commuters who don’t use
SOVs (1.5 percentage points).
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New Haven had the highest percentage of commuters not
using SOVs, 42.6%.
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New Haven was the only city to not have a decrease in
the percentage of commuters who don’t use SOVs (it had 1.5 percentage point
increase).
Definition Single
Occupancy Vehicle (SOV) is any vehicle with one occupant, including motorcycles
but not bicycles.
Data Source US Census, 1990,
2000.
More commuters are traveling 30 minutes or more to
work.
Indicator 7.5: Travel Time to Work
Why is this important? This
indicator measures the accessibility of jobs relative to the location of
population. As a result, commute time
is a key factor in measuring job accessibility in a given location. Traffic congestion can be costly in terms of
wasted time and fuel in major metropolitan areas, decreasing worker
productivity and the delivery of goods.
Public transportation can take drivers off the road, thereby improving
the commute times of transit riders 
and
automobile users alike.
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The COMPASS region saw a loss of 7,979 commuters and a
stable number traveling 30 minutes or more (only 0.3 percentage point
increase).
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From 1990 to 2000, 3 of 15 towns had decreases in
commuters traveling 30 minutes or more that outpaced their decreases in
commuters. New Haven had a decrease in
the number of people traveling 30 minutes or more (-7.4%) but it is
overshadowed by the decrease in commuters (-15.2%). No city had an increase in commuters that exceeded (in percentage
terms) their increase in commuters traveling 30 minutes or more.
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Meriden had one of the highest drops in both commuters
and commuters traveling 30 minutes or more: from 2,638 (9%) in 1990 to 1,326
(19.2%) in 2000.
Definition Commuters
are people who do not work at home.
Data Source US Census, 1990, 2000
