EZ-Pass Saves Lives.... Apparently...

Mathew Yglesias writes on his blog about a paper by Janet Currie on how “EZ-passes” can save lives. On Yglesias’ editorial he seems to be writing towards the crowd who live in urban areas such as a city like our own, Austin, TX. According to wikipedia, Matthew Yglesias is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard University and was the editor-in-chief of The Harvard Independent.  He has also written for mainstream publications such as the New York Times Magazine, and has made occasional appearances on radio and television as a political commentator. Yglesias truly has an enormous background filled with plenty of political education. The argument Yglesias is making in his article is if someday in the near future everyone should be required to have EZ-pass because he believes the universal use of EZ-Pass would make it much easier to tackle the large issue here which is that taking up space on a crowded road at a crowded time imposes large costs on other people by thinking it will save lives. As simple as it sounds, how on earth can someone claim if all of society has an EZ-pass for the road it will directly save lives. He supports his statement from Janet Currie’s paper stating, “We find that reductions in traffic congestion generated by E-ZPass reduced the incidence of prematurity and low birth weight among mothers within 2 km of a toll plaza by 6.7-9.1% and 8.5-11.3% respectively, with larger effects for African-Americans, smokers, and those very close to toll plazas.” Even though Yglesias’ argument believes that EZ-Passes do save lives, I want support him in his belief because in some way lives are being saved, but maybe not as much as saving a human child’s life but more mother earth’s life. To me I don’t understand how heavy traffic and people living by congested highways causes’ death; I believe that it’s more of an effect on communities around toll ways. According to the March of Dimes Foundation they state that “The causes of preterm labor are not fully understood, but the latest research suggests that many cases are triggered by the body’s natural response to certain infections, including those involving amniotic fluid and fetal membranes. However, in about half of all cases of premature birth, providers cannot determine why a woman delivered prematurely.” So that being, how can Yglesias and Currie claim there is a correlation with communities living around toll areas being diseased or plagued by car emissions, they’re claims are more of a “it might be a cause” statement. The thing I do support about this article is that yes, we do need to do something about roads being congested all the time, and enforcing drivers to have an EZ-Pass is a good idea to help out with the stopping of cars and traffic jams, but to me I also believe that if drivers are forced to get an EZ-Pass the rate for each pass should be incredibly low because it wouldn’t be fare to be overcharged for something that will help our future. Just like Yglesias stated in his opening line if we do something about this problem “the future people are going to regard the level of traffic congestion tolerated by the people of the early 21st century as slightly bizarre.”