Trucks are Banned on Oakland’s I-580. These Sixth Graders Wondered Why

Bay Curious

KQED

History, Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.9 • 999 Ratings

🗓️ 1 July 2021

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, we take on a question from the sixth graders at East Oakland's Life Academy of Health and Bioscience. Many of them live near Interstate 880. They've seen lots of big rigs on I-880 but none on nearby I-580, which runs parallel but closer to the hills. They want to know why. Additional Reading: Trucks are Banned on Oakland’s I-580. These Sixth Graders Wondered Why Asthma Rates Higher in California's Historically Redlined Communities, New Study Finds Reported by Laura Klivans. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Katrina Schwartz, Suzie Racho and Brendan Willard. Additional support from Kevin Stark, Erika Aguilar, Jessica Placzek, Kyana Moghadam, Isa Mendoza, Paul Lancour, Carly Severn, Ethan Lindsey, Vinnee Tong and Don Clyde.

Transcript

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0:00.0	from K-QED. I'm so glad that all are here today. A handful of kids sit in
0:07.4	teacher Patrick Messick's sixth grade classroom surrounded by colorful displays of
0:11.6	anatomy, moon cycles, and books.
0:14.4	And then we have a lot of people joining us online.
0:17.2	The rest of their classmates are connected through Zoom.
0:19.6	Despite the stop and go conversation,
0:21.8	the students are focused. They care a lot about this
0:24.9	conversation. This diesel trucks burn fuel that causes black carbon and
0:29.7	nitric oxide. All these gases are pretty deadly.
0:35.0	The students attend Life Academy of Health and Bio Science, a school in East Oakland.
0:40.6	Many of them can hear this from their homes.
0:43.0	880, a 6-8-lane highway with heavy truck traffic,
0:51.0	most of which runs on diesel.
0:54.0	We may not see this bad air, but we can breathe it.
0:57.2	It just hurts to know that our community
1:00.6	is slowly dying because of this air pollution.
1:04.0	A few miles away, there's another highway.
1:06.0	It runs roughly parallel to this one, but driving on it feels different.
1:11.0	There are more trees around it, for one one and you won't see any big rigs on it.
1:16.1	That highway is 580. These Life Academy students can't drive, but they are obsessed
1:22.3	with the 580 freeway for one very important reason.
1:25.6	Trucks weighing more than 9,000 pounds like big rigs are not allowed on it.
	...

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