Transport: Current Status and Future Needs

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Few people would dispute that personal vehicles cause environmental harm. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) has estimated that at least 76 percent of commuters get to work each day in personal vehicles, and in some cities the percentage exceeds 90 percent. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the U.S. Department of Energy, 136 cars operate for every 1,000
people in the world, but in the United States the population has almost 800 cars per 1,000 people. Most of these vehicles carry a single driver; car pools account for only about 10 percent of U.S. daily commuters. The BTS statistics also show that in the United States people prefer cars to any other form of transportation, followed by trucks, motorcycles, long-distance buses, domestic air travel, local transit buses, freight transport rails, and
commuter rails. The table on page 34 shows how this pattern of vehicle use translates to energy consumption.

Personal vehicles account for most travel. The heavy use of personal vehicles has the following three major effects on the environment:

1. Personal vehicles put a strain on nonrenewable fossil fuel reserves.
2. Vehicles demand an enormous amount of other resources to feed the automotive industry.
3. Vehicles hurt ecosystems and biodiversity by causing pollution and requiring extensive roadways, which destroy habitat.

Proponents of sustainability put considerable effort into getting people out of their cars and onto public transportation or alternative vehicles such as bicycles. If people must use cars, they should rely more on

alternative fuel vehicles. California has led the way toward this goal by passing the 2008 California Complete Streets Act that requires communities to include multipurpose thoroughfares in all new roadway expansion plans. The bill’s author, Assemblyman Mark Leno, remarked, “Streets aren’t just for cars, they’re for people, and with the Complete Streets Act local governments will plan for and build roadways that are safe and convenient
for everyone—young or old, riding a bike or on foot, in a car or on a bus.” In fact, new laws to build transit infrastructures might be the only way to convince people in the United States to leave their cars in the driveway. But it will not be easy: Cars provide convenience and a sense of freedom and independence that Americans find irresistible.

Sustainable transportation’s success will probably depend on technologies that achieve two complementary outcomes: (1) fuel-efficient personal vehicles for drivers who cannot or will not give up their cars, and (2) attractive and efficient mass transit for everyone else. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor of mechanical engineering John B. Heywood has commented, “We’ve got to get out of the habit of thinking that we only need to focus on improving the technology—that we can invent our way out of this situation.” In other words, new technologies that conserve natural resources will work only if accompanied by changes in behavior. “We’ve got to do everything we can think of,” said Heywood, “including reducing the size of the task by real conservation.” Sustainable
transportation will need a four-pronged approach by targeting the following objectives: (1) reducing personal vehicle use; (2) developing alternative car technologies; (3) taking advantage of mass transit; and (4) developing compact cities.