Fact Sheet on:

MTA Transit Racism

Part I. Buses and Depots

While the MTA’s 2000-2004 Capital Plan could provide the opportunity to dramatically improve air
quality and health in this city, it is being wasted by the MTA, which chooses to build noxious depots in
seemingly powerless communities instead of building clean facilities throughout the city. Diesel bus depots
are notorious for their negative impacts on local health and quality of life. The high frequency of diesel buses
entering and leaving the depots, idling outside of crowded depots or in outdoor parking lots, means a continuous
stream of diesel emissions. These high concentrations of diesel fumes increase as buses become older and more
diesel buses are added to the fleet. Depots in heavily residential neighborhoods not only pose a serious public
health threat to residents but they’re also notorious for tying up traffic on the narrow streets buses use to enter
and exit the facility.

Diesel Bus Depots are Disproportionately Located in Communities of Color

Much like most of the other noxious facilities in New York City, bus depots are located primarily in communities of color.

• Citywide, there are almost twice as many depots in communities with more than 65% people of color as there are
  in communities that are more than 65% white.
• In Manhattan, six of the borough’s eight depots are in Northern Manhattan, in communities that are at least
  80% people of color.

Diesel Buses are Hazardous to Our Health

The high concentration of diesel depots in low-income communities of color--where access to decent health care and
green open spaces is limited—is a direct attack on community health.

• Diesel emissions have been classified as toxic by the California Air Resources Board because of their connections
  to cancer.
• The New York Post has reported that four of NYC’s five boroughs (Staten Island being the exception) are among
  the Top Ten regions in the country with the highest risks for cancer from air toxics.
• Even the best-maintained diesel bus emits millions of fine particulate matter (or soot) during the course of its
  daily run.
• The World Health Organization, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and other leading health experts agree
  that particles from diesel emissions trigger increased asthma emergencies, bronchitis, lung cancer and a variety of
  other cardiopulmonary ailments.
• A recent study in the Journal of Asthma by researchers at Mt. Sinai Hospital reveals that low-income communities
  have the highest rate of hospitalizations for asthma in the city.

MTA is Investing in More Diesel for NYC

Instead of adopting a "No New Diesels" policy like other polluted cities around the country (i.e. Los Angeles, Atlanta,
Boston, and Houston), the MTA plans to continue purchasing diesel buses and building diesel depots in low-income
communities of color in New York City. Meanwhile the MTA is converting all of their Long Island bus fleet to
Compressed Natural Gas. MTA Long Island Bus will have a 100% CNG fleet by 2004. CNG buses emit virtually no
particulate soot and fewer smog-forming gases, and they operate safely and reliably.

• The MTA’s 2000-2004 Capital Plan calls for construction of two new diesel depots and expansion of others.
  The depots will have a lifespan of at least 50 years before reconstruction for CNG becomes an option again.
  One of the new depots is slated for East Harlem, the other will be located somewhere in Brooklyn near the
  Brooklyn-Queens border (most likely Bushwick or East New York). A new Central Maintenance Facility will
  be built at an unnamed location once an existing maintenance facility in East New York is converted to a depot.

• In its proposed 2000-2004 capital plan, the MTA plans to use over 75% of its bus money to buy 756 new diesel
  buses: 400 diesel-powered "articulated buses" (the long accordion looking thing), and 356 diesel "over-the-road"
  coaches. These buses will be on the road until nearly 2020.
  
• While the MTA’s Capital Plan calls for purchasing 300 "clean fuel" buses, the MTA won't say whether these
  buses will ever run on CNG. Instead, MTA officials have spoken about substituting buses that use "clean diesel,"
  something that the diesel industry says is just around the corner. Fact: Today's supposedly "clean-diesel"
  technologies decrease the levels of more benign pollutants while actually increasing the number of fine particles.
  It is the fine particulate matter that travels deep into the lungs and triggers asthma attacks. The "clean-diesel"
  label may say more about the diesel industry's marketing strategy than about any health benefits.

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