“The answer to global transportation challenges is not less transport – it is sustainable transport. We need more systems that are environmentally friendly, affordable, and accessible.”

— Ban Ki-moon

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How we travel and how we interact with transportation systems in our daily lives is enormously impactful, both individually and socially. No matter if you walk, bike, drive, take public transportation, fly, sail, or move about by any other means, you rely on systems, both social and infrastructure. Transportation is an immensely complicated web of interconnected links, and each of these links has a part to play in moving toward sustainable living. The history of transportation systems, in all their varied forms, stretches back to pre-historic times. Be they stagecoaches, pennyworth bicycles, chariots, or bullet trains, each technology has been iterated on and improved, and, when necessary, replaced by a more efficient paradigm. When discussing the transportation technology and customs of today, it is important to remember that the car-centric present will not last forever, and the technology of the future may be totally distinct from today. In what mind frame we approach this new, more sustainable, world indicates the first step along the pathway to sustainable transportation.

Today, transportation represents 26% of annual energy use in the United States and on-road vehicles account for more than 80% of all transportation energy use.

The U.S. further accounts for 25% of global transportation energy consumption.

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transportation account for about 29 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, making it the largest contributor of U.S. GHG emissions.

While a significant proportion of total emissions generated from transportation comes from commercial and industrial sources, transporting goods in semi-trucks, for example, a large portion of emissions come from individuals' choices and actions.

How do different vehicle types compare on their emissions?

Impacts range from massively impactful, at your average single-occupant car or electric vehicle using brown power bought off the grid to minimally impactful alternatives, such as trams, buses, and electric vehicles powered by renewable energy.

The personal car is not only seen by many as a convenience, but as a necessity, but the true cost of our collective reliance on personal cars is often overlooked.

We often ignore the full scope of the costs of owning and operating a personal car. While we fixate on the initial capital investment and the price of fuel, many less direct costs chip away at it’s assumed benefits.

According the the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Pennsylvania is No. 15 for the most expensive state to own a car. It costs Pennsylvanians, on average, $11,782 to own a car for three years, not including the vehicle's initial purchase price. People who ride public transportation can save, on average, $10,160 annually based on the 2018 national average gas price and the national unreserved monthly parking rate.

Despite this, the utilization of public transportation, or any transportation other then by personal car, remains extremely low in both the United States and Pennsylvania.

United States - Commuting Practices

Pennsylvania - Commuting Practices

This is consistent with data from PennDOT’s Bureau of Public Transportation who have found that fixed-route transit ridership, which includes trips on regular scheduled bus routes, commuter rail, and light rail, has declined slightly in Pennsylvania, as well as nationwide. They attribute the decrease in public transportation ridership to lower gas prices and a growing economy, which encourage increased automobile ownership and use.

But what are the indirect, non-financial impacts of our fixation on driving personal cars?

Air Quality

Transportation is an enormous contributor to airborne particulate matter. Be it Carbon dioxide, Nitrogen oxides (NOx), Sulfur oxides (SOx), or Ozone, the smog and soot generated by our vehicles impacts local, regional, and global communities.

Noise

There are both social and environmental impacts of the noise of transportation. Long term exposure to loud transportation networks has been proven to have serious medical implications such as the increased risk of cardiovascular disease and psychological wellbeing. Noise adversely affects the natural world by affecting various species that depend on sound for hunting or watching for predators.

Water Quality

Road surfaces are impervious - water can not pass through them - which leads to more runoff. This runoff can wash harmful chemicals and pollutants from gas and oil leaks into streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans.

Air travel is also an important sector within transportation systems that has an outsized impact compared to the number of people flying. Just 12% of adults who fly account for almost 70% of total flights taken. Choices made by these individuals can have drastic effects on the environmental impacts from flying.

Discern

What is wrong with the status quo? Why are we obligated to make changes in our life to reduce our reliance on personal vehicles, which the majority of the time are only being driven by one person? Because there will be consequences to inaction and these consequences will be felt personally, in our communities, in our states, in our country, and in our world.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.

The three goals most pertinent to the discussion of shelter and energy are goals three, nine, and eleven.

The implications of continuing with the status-quo are vast

SO WHY TAKE ACTION?

There are many universal and interrelated principles that should guide every person in how they interact with the world around them, especially in regards to activities and actions that have the potential to have a disproportionate impact on those less fortunate than themselves. These principles are areligious, apolitical, and cross-cultural and national borders. When deciding on whether or not to take action in your own life and take that first step toward sustainable living, consider if these four principles that we have identified have meaning to you.

Human Dignity

Our fundamental worth is not earned but is inextricably part of being human and inherent in each person.

Common Good

Common Good is the measure of our collective progress towards creating conditions that allow everyone to flourish.

Solidarity

Solidarity is the firm commitment to the good of each person and of all because we are all deeply interconnected and interdependent with not only each other but all of life.

Subsidiarity

Subsidiarity is the belief that matters are to be handled at the lowest level possible and the highest level necessary, in order to allow each part of the social order to receive its due so it can carry out its proper function.

If these principles are in line with your beliefs and identity, then how can we not take action?

Act

Each of us have different resources that we can bring to bear when taking action. We may be students living on a university campus, single working parents, or retirees, each person willing to make a change in their lives will begin their own personal path.

PERSONAL

While the impact of our actions are felt by our communities, nations, and world, many of the actions we take are personal changes to our behavior and conduct. For those who are willing to make personal changes, we have identified several tried and true actions that you can try.