Three quarters of emissions in 2004 were coming from road traffic (Woodcock, p.1930, 2009). Emissions used from transportation are forecasted to increase from the year 2007-2030 by about 80% according to studies done by James Woodcock who is currently studying climate change and health from car fuels (Woodcock, p.1930, 2009). This is due to the fact that the emissions from vehicles are increasing significantly and are higher than any other energy fragment (Woodcock, p.1930, 2009). The only way to lower this percentage is to decrease the number of individual automobiles on the road and increase the number of public transit systems, starting long distance walking to work or school, carpooling or even biking to destinations. These principles would …show more content…
The town of Halton Hill’s population includes the areas of Georgetown and Acton and other communities such as Erin, Oakville, Burlington and Milton regions. This is what is considered to be my community because these are the many places that I am visiting most often and they are always referred to together as “Halton Hills Region” (p.5, 2011). With the substantial increase in population in the Halton Hills region, more specifically Georgetown, there should be a strong demand for a public transit system to counteract all of the environmental disturbances that are being caused due to this increase. One of the things that is happening is that there are so many trees they are cutting down in order to expand and grow the population with houses being built. Statistics are showing that the population of Halton Hill’s region will expand by 54% over the next 20 years (p.5, 2011). By the year 2031, employment rates will increase by 75%, leaving Halton with 42,100 jobs being offered (p.5, 2011). With this rapid influx of citizens, this will only increase the demands of travel to get to these work places as well as other destinations (p.5, 2011). Over the past couple of year’s the traffic congestion on the major roads in Halton Hills such as Trafalgar Road and Regional Road 25 with individuals trying to get to and from work. There used to be very little traffic in these areas, however since Halton Hill’s has continued to expand, the utilization of automobiles has significantly increased due to the fact there is no public transit system. The Transportation Demand Management in Halton Hill’s is noticing the increase in automobiles stating that there needs to be a major shift in more efficient ways of transportation, yet there still has been nothing improvised (p.7, 2011). The Transportation Demand
With a declining or no use of cars can result in the reduction of pollution quite tremendously. They can by reducing the greenhouse effect. As the author reports in the article, “In German Suburb Life Goes On Without Care” by Elisabeth Rosenthal, “Passenger cars are responsible for 12 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in Europe… and up to 50 percent in some car-intensive areas in the United States.” Therefore, with cars being a leading factor of greenhouse gas emissions, reducing their usage would have a positive effect on the environment. After days of near-record pollution,
Some examples of changes that could be made are: educating citizens about the benefits of turning off electricity, cutting back on building new highways and using those funds for a light rail system, or giving benefits to states that are leaders in renewable energy, such as solar or wind energy. According to the EPA, electricity accounts for 37% of the U.S.’ carbon dioxide emissions and transportation accounts for nearly 31%. (EPA, "Overview of Greenhouse Gases") Both these figures could be lowered, respectively, by a stronger effort to turn off electricity in homes and businesses, and an increase in public transportation. Providing subsidies to businesses who install environmentally friendly lighting, or make a clear effort to turn off their electricity at night is one example of using a policy design to encourage this behavior. Additionally, having states cut back on automotive transportation in favor of public transportation would help lower their total emissions as well. Trains and light rail only emit 25% as many per passenger mile as a single-occupant automobile, and nearly 100% hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide. (First State
Public transportation provides numerous positive attributes to the community at large. It enhances personal opportunities by providing personal mobility and freedom, gives people transportation options to get to work, go to school, visit friends, or go to a doctor’s office, provides access to job opportunities. It saves fuel and reduces congestion, provides economic opportunities and drives community growth and revitalization. Statistically, every $1 invested in public transportation generates approximately $4 in economic returns, every $10 million in capital investment in public transportation yields $30 million in increased business sales, every $10 million in operating investment yields $32 million in increased business sales, and from 2006-2011, residential property values performed 42 percent better on average if they were located near public transportation with high-frequency service. Public transportation saves money and reduces gasoline consumption. According to APTA’s transit saving report, a two-person household can save, on the average, more than $10,174 a year by downsizing to one car. Public transportation use in the United States saves 4.2 billion gallons of gasoline annually and households near public transit drive an average of 4,400 fewer miles than households with no access to public transit. Public transportation also reduces the carbon footprint in that its use
If the public transportation improves, more and more people would take buses instead of driving. Then there would be less CO2 for our environment. Mohammad-Beigi, Nouri and Liaghati (2015) claim that the population in large cities is growing very fast, which means that transportation needs also increase really fast which leads to environmental problems. Therefore, in order to solve the problem, improving public transportation is a good solution. This study shows that driving cars really causes air pollution and it is harm for our environment. Phoenix is the largest city in Arizona, so the population growth in Phoenix will lead to the same problem that the three author mentioned. Improving public transportation will be helpful in decreasing the number of drivers and therefore reducing toxic emission. According to the PR Newswire Europe Improving public transportation in Brasilia (2009) claim public transportation is good because buses are more orderly, and they are safer and have less impact on the environment. It also shows that public transportation can help to reduce air pollution. Phoenix is an urban city like Brasilia, so it has a similar situation. Improving public transportation would be a good solution because it will lead to less driving. Then we will reduce exhaust gas
Point4: We have become so dependent on our cars to get from one destination to another. We drive just about anywhere instead of walking. Everybody drives it’s gotten to the point we drive around for just a hobby. When we do this we don’t take into consideration that we’re only hurting ourselves. Those are unnecessary drives we can avoid. Now it’s essential as well we need to drive to our jobs, but on our drive there we encounter traffic. In the article “How Traffic Jams Affect Air Quality” by Paul Sanders explains how “One study suggests that emissions start to go up when average freeway speed dips below 45 miles per hour (mph).” (Car pollution). So being stuck in traffic only gets cars to emit more harmful gases. We need to go about this and change our way of
One of the many advantages of limiting car use is it’s better for the environment. In Elisabeth Rosenthals “In German Suburbs, Life Goes On Without Cars” she says that cars are responsible for fifty percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. In some places like Paris they have had to temporarily ban the use of cars on certain days to try and reduce the smog in the air because near record pollution caused by cars (Source 2) was becoming such a huge
Using public transport and avoid driving cars is preferable option because today cars gas emission is measured as so high, and the most harmful. The reason why I believe that this is one of the biggest treats is that even the new cars today they don’t seem to fulfil the requirement for gas emission. Furthermore,
Public transportation, such as trains and buses, in America is a thriving business that helps cuts down on the emission of greenhouse gases into the environment. During the weekdays, 35 million people take public transportation to get to work, travel around the country, or just to easily get around a major city without having to worry about parking. In 2013 alone, Americans took public transportation over 10.7 billion times, which it the highest amount in over 57 years. Because of this high amount of people taking the public transportation 865 million hours have been saved in time that would have otherwise been spent in traffic. Public transportation has also saved 450 million gallons of fuel that would have been burned in traffic alone.
One particular town in china called, chengdu. Has created a town where it is not essential to drive. Every service can be reached by walking in approximately fifteen minutes and the road land use will be cut in half to reduce the amount of cars. By reaching bigger cities chengdu provides efficient public transit. This is an example of new urbanism, which can definity reduce the amount of air pollution, traffic and created by cars. (Peters, 2015). In tokyo japan they have an unique source of transport called a shinkansen, which is a bullet train. This model can convince some citizens to ditch their cars and use the bullet train to get to their destination much quicker. To prove that this model is efficient tokyo isn't on the most polluted cities in the world list or the most congested cities list either. This would really reduce canada's traffic and our air pollution levels. Having one train going to a destinations instead of having a few thousand cars backing up on the 401. In china and mexico the government only lets portions of the population drive on certain days. This idea allows for there to be less traffic and air
Have you ever thought about what Seattle would be like if there are no cars on the street? The cars make our lives become convenient and there are so many other advantages that we cannot live without cars. However, the large number of cars in Seattle are gradually destroying our environment since the emissions of cars contribute a lot to the Greenhouse gases which cause the climate change. The car emission problem in Seattle becomes so intense that must be fixed as soon as possible because it affects the global climate, influences the citizens' health conditions and ………
Transportation is the number one thing we consumers do that harms the environment. Transportation causes the highest amount of environmental damage overall - nearly half of the toxic air pollution and more than a quarter of the greenhouse gases traceable to household consumption. Over time, however, sales of trucks, vans and SUV's went from 16% market share to over 50%. One big auto manufacturer even shelved their work of the last three years, spent updating their most popular selling economy car, so they could spend the money getting SUVs to market faster.
There are many different ways that we as a society could slow down the pace of climate change. One of the different ways is carpooling to and from work with co-workers. This is an easy solution to the increasing use of fossil fuel. Average workers travels 39 miles to work, and when gas is $3.00 per gallon the average household is paying $5.32 each day for gas alone. (Carpooling benefits) $5.32 may not seem like a whole big deal but the money saved could
Today the world is struggling with environment change and the issue of global warning. The world has never been like this before because of so many reasons. The biggest problem is increasing temperatures year to year. Increasing temperature further creates issues with public health and economy. Governments and nongovernmental organizations are working to change the situation this planet is facing. In this case, most human daily activities have a big impact on the atmosphere. One of the biggest problem is air pollution. Air pollution is mostly caused by industries and motor vehicles. Industry and motor vehicles produce harmful carbon dioxide. Therefore, People should contribute their part to save the planet to stop using their own car for everyday activities, and they should use public transport more. When people start using public transport, the carbon dioxide emissions become limited. In most cities population is growing, and the same time the traffic is increasing. As the matter of fact, cities polluted by the vehicles which produce toxic gas, and this makes the environment adulterated. If people use public transport, they could reduce pollution, avoid air pollution related diseases and global warming. Using public transportation has a lot of benefits for the environment and the economy. Weather it is using buses, train or shuttles. Public transportation is the best solution to save the environment, money and reduced traffic jam.
This paper describes how world population growth is the most challenging factor in affecting urban road emissions. As world population grows, urban population has increased leading to greater demands for private motor vehicles due to issues like urban sprawl and the aspirations for owning a motor vehicle. Although there have been mitigation methods like increasing road infrastructure to ease congestion, the rate of urban population growth and demand for private motor vehicles far exceeds the measures, leading to what is known as
With growing climate change and the dependence on oil becoming more of a problem, people are beginning to look towards more responsible ways of living (Vidalis, et al. 2010, p. 1). Driving less is one of the easiest ways to reduce one’s carbon footprint, and is a key factor in the success surrounding increased cycling. In the U.S., over 50 percent of all car trips are five miles or less (Vidalis, et al. 2010, p. 3). By cutting down on unnecessary car trips, the release of air pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and lead could be drastically reduced in larger cities. The environmental benefits, along with the health aspect