Sustainable Transport: What Methods Can You Use Today?
- Carrie Potter
- May 26
- 3 min read
The environmental impacts of how we move
With an increase in the number of Americans who view climate change as a major threat, going from 44% to 54% over 13 years, it’s important to understand the largest domestic greenhouse gas-producing sector. The burning of fossil fuels, such as gasoline or diesel, results in carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere. This can then build, resulting in carbon dioxide and other gases causing the Earth’s atmosphere to warm, which leads to climate change and its effects. Personal vehicles are the biggest producers of emissions in both U.S. transport emissions, U.S. GreenHouse gases (GHG) emissions, and global GHG emissions, with both light-duty trucks and medium- and heavy-duty trucks producing about half of U.S. transport emissions. While there have been plans put into place to improve on this issue and the harm it causes, such as emission standards or renewable fuels, there are still many improvements to be made.
How can sustainable transport benefit you and the world?
Multiple forms of transport are more sustainable than the personal vehicles mentioned earlier, such as using public transportation, walking, or even cycling. Public transportation not only cuts back on the amount of emissions, with buses and rail having a significantly lower emission amount that personal vehicles, it also opens up access to those who are unable to gain other means of travel for reasons like financial hardship or personal beliefs, which allows more people to freely move to places they need, such as work or grocery stores. Another benefit is that large group transportation can allow for saving energy, space, and physical infrastructure, which then allows for reduced resource use, transportation impact, and GHG reduction. While many areas may struggle with the ability to cycle, cycling has many benefits to the environment, as it can lower pollution emissions and lower pollutant exposure to others. Cycling can even benefit you, as it can result in lower your risk of dying from incidents of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes and improve your mental and physical health. With a hopeful increase in the number of walkable cities, people may be able to walk instead of driving to most places, too. Walking can have many environmental benefits, as walking 1.5 miles would produce less than a quarter of the GHG that would be produced if you drove, which is a massive reduction in both GHG and pollution. Walking can also be a massive improvement to your health, as it lowers the risks of heart attack, stroke, and glaucoma, and can positively impact you mentally as you experience lower stress due to avoiding heavy traffic and long commutes. While sustainable forms of transport have many benefits, there are still improvements that must be made to put this into action.
The future of sustainable transport
Currently, conditions within cities and other areas make it a struggle to take advantage of walking and cycling. There are solutions to this problem, though, and it's taking more consideration of how we build cities and making them more compact, and having more reliance on mass transit. In addition to shared electric cars, either with a driver or autonomous, cities have also been moving to invest in electric buses, trams, and self-driving shuttles to reduce emissions. In the future, it is also possible to have autonomous buses as well. These electrical forms of mass transport allow for a reduction of both noise and air pollution, which results in a healthier population and world. Many cities are working to more heavily integrate sustainable transportation, and it’s predicted to have many new forms of transport open to citizens by 2050 that will allow for a cleaner way to move.
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