Finally, some good news for New York: The Big Apple beat out 49 other U.S. cities in a Sierra Club analysis of spending on mass transit and programs to reduce vehicle-generated smog. According to the group’s air pollution report card issued yesterday, New York is the only big city in the country to spend more money per year on alternative transportation ($460.69 per person) than on roads ($360.97 per person). The city also produced the least amount of vehicle-generated smog per person (about 54 pounds annually). Thirty-two of the 50 cities flunked, with the last-place slot going to Oklahoma City, which spent just $15.31 per person on public transportation, compared to $262.96 on highway construction. The report had scathing words for the country’s overall transit habits, noting that the average American driver spends the equivalent of 55 eight-hour work days behind the wheel.
