Those roaring, whining jets that suddenly impacted your home aren’t your imagination. They’re part of the FAA’s NextGen Program (Next Generation Air Transportation System) designed to optimize U.S. airspace using GPS (Global Positioning System) technology.
Across the country, NextGen dramatically changed the historical patterns of where planes flew and significantly increased plane noise in communities around airports.
In the Bay Area, NextGen took one the busiest airspaces in the U.S. and concentrated arriving and departing San Francisco and Oakland Airport flights over East Bay neighborhoods. Previously, flights were dispersed over areas many miles wide and flew at higher altitudes. This arrangement seemed to sit well with East Bay residents, as the airports received few complaints. We live in a suburban area and some airplane noise is tolerable since it comes with the territory.
However, the FAA eliminated dispersion and created infamous “sky superhighways.” NextGen shifted and upended historical East Bay flight patterns. It forced all aircraft into a few narrow corridors, shrinking flight paths from miles wide to a mere couple of thousand feet wide with frequent flights at lower altitudes. The result was an immediate and devastating noise impact to homes that had never experienced such noise before. In doing this, the FAA demonstrated major insensitivity to the fate of those they unilaterally selected to suddenly bear the noise brunt for all. It’s hard to truly understand how destructive the impact of such noise is to the quality of life unless you live under it.
As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Here’s how NextGen changed the East Bay:
The orange shading represents concentrated, high volume traffic. NextGen took the previously dispersed (yellow shading) aircraft traffic and focused it into new, narrow corridors. This concentration created an intolerable noise situation for many who live under the orange shaded flight paths.
The good news is we believe NextGen is a good concept with flaws that can be fixed.
In theory, NextGen was supposed to use the power of GPS technology to achieve the goals of cutting costs by saving time, fuel and money, as well as curb traffic delays. The FAA claimed they could achieve these goals with “no significant noise impacts.” By focusing on its mission to “optimize” air space, the FAA minimized concerns about the noise and health impacts these changes would bring to communities on the ground.
NextGen’s worthy goals have not been reached here. The East Bay’s problems were created with the new concentrated arrival and departure flight corridors alongside some newly implemented perplexing and polluting flying procedures. These procedures include arriving flights flying at low-altitudes in a level or ‘flat’ position for many miles under greater (thus noisier) engine power over residential communities instead of the much touted “quiet glide” descents NextGen promised. These paths and flying procedures are not in keeping with NextGen goals and have resulted in increasing fuel usage (according to the FAA), dramatic noise impacts, and a huge outcry from the public.
The East Bay solution lies in looking at the airport arrivals and departures portions of NextGen and how to better distribute current paths or restore the flight patterns that existed prior to its implementation when complaints were minimal. The technology that brought us NextGen is very capable of delivering a quieter, cleaner and an even more efficient NextGen traffic flow around airports. These goals are all achievable.
Airports in urban areas are convenient, yet noisy. Everyone who shares this convenience should also share the noise, as was the case before NextGen came to town. NextGen is here to stay, and a simplistic solution of returning to what planes used to do is not going to happen. Instead, the noise must be restored to echo the pre-NextGen patterns as closely as possible or create better flight paths to get planes where they need to go and actually fulfill NextGen’s environmental goals. Yes, it’s about fixing arrival and departure noise issues, but, at the same time, fixing the airspace issues in the East Bay will help fuel efficiency and reduce environmental impact. It’s a win-win.