Why do large European/Japanese cities generally have much better air quality than US cities of a similar and even smaller size?

12 comments

1. Ummm….where in Europe?

2. Cars

3. Functioning government

4. Whenever I’m in the USA, I feel like I’m in the 70s. The technology is not optimized for efficiency and low/zero emissions. The ACs are loud and the vehicles stink. Giant engines for relatively low HP. The roads are tailored to cars. Public transportation between cities is often limited to buses or cars, train connections are quite rare. My impression of the situation in the USA is, that so many things could be optimized quite easily, but there don’t seem to be any drivers. So a lot of things don’t develop any further just because no one sets incentives (like regulations or taxes).

5. Higher standards

6. And guess what, with the present Trump administration US cities are going to degrade much more.

7. More walking.
   Cities were layed out before cars.

8. Rotterdam, a huge shipping port, has pure air because all docked ships get ducts attached to their exhaust pipes (i know thats not the correct naval term). The ducts have air purifiers in them that remove all pollution. So no smog like in LA.

9. Maybe it’s the obvious answer that Europe and Japan actually give a shit about trying to protect the environment.

10. Green spaces and environmental protections

11. I’m not sure, but it definitely would have been helpful to link to an article specific to the title.

12. We value human life more over profits. Simple

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