Growing Sustainable Transportation in an Autocentric Community: Current Trends and Applications

Abstract

Transportation is among the highlights of human achievement, but it comes at a major cost in exhausting nonrenewable resources and increasing environmental pollution. In particular, the expansion of automobiles throughout the world has led to higher levels of air pollution, greater degree of congestion, and the promotion of urban sprawl. This chapter examines how initiatives in sustainable transportation can counter some of the environmental distress caused by our current transportation system. It first looks at the meaning of sustainable transportation by looking at what makes our transportation system unsustainable, including resource depletion, air pollution, congestion, and inequities in access. It then examines several means by which to shift transportation modes to more walking and bicycling by altering the community infrastructure, encouraging denser housing, functional integration, and traffic calming. It then discusses how to enhance the efficiency of personal vehicles through improvements in gas mileage, introduction of electric and hybrid vehicles, and strategies to make traffic run more smoothly. Finally, the chapter shows how accessibility can be improved for those who have been left behind through greater investments in transit and in making automobiles available for short term use. Taken together, many of these initiatives can lead to a more sustainable transportation future.