Quality of Life, Public Health, and Cultural Costs

The current prevalent pattern of growth has affected the cultural fabric of our communities as well as environmental health. People in spread-out locations drive much more, resulting in environmentally linked social costs, including

• Poor air quality (smog and ozone problems) and increases in atmospheric deposition
• Health problems from air pollution and ozone days due to traffic
• Reduced worker productivity
• Less leisure time
• Increased stress due to traffic congestion
• Longer commuting times and more aggressive driving patterns
• Reinforced spatial disparity between income groups
• Increasing obesity due to sedentary automobile-dependent lifestyles
• Greater traffic-related morbidity and more accidents
• Increased nonpoint source pollution from deposition of airborne pollutants generated by automobiles
• Impacts on drinking water quality