THE DREAM

Sustainable transport is a plan that America needs to be pursuing at full force in this day and age. Preston L. Schiller’s Sustainable Transport: Policy, Planning, and Implementation describes many of the negative effects of our transportation: the massively car-dependent mindset. The pollution created by cars does not only negatively affect the hopefully more-than-fleeting existence of mankind, but also to the physical health of the populace, the environment, the economy, and even the social norms of communities. With all of these negative effects, it seems that the effort for achieving a form of transportation that is more reasonable in at least of the aspects above would be complete and desperate. However, it seems that for states that are addicted to gasoline and caged in their cars, a future with any other sort of transport seems faraway; a sort of fairytale that is obscured by the black stream of exhaust spat out by the battalion of cars that fill the roads.

Before I describe the dream (the milestones to grasping it and the rewards to reap from it), we must discuss; why has sustainable travel become a fantasy? Well, imagine what a large shift of transportation devices from cars to more sustainable devices means: as of now, in regards to an equivalent or close cost, the new modes of travel have disadvantages, whether it means less independence or speed, a sacrifice will usually have to be given. Although these seem like whimsical and petty factors for the sake of the preserving of humankind, some of them can cause complete changes in the way of life. Buses mean transportation only to certain locations. Walking and cycling both contract the radius of reasonable travel to jobs or certain amenities likes stores or hospitals. It forces a limit on the possibilities of lifestyles that could have been possible with more accessible modes of transportation such as cars and motorcycles. Basically, people are afraid of the change that would accompany the transition and final product of a nation that relies on sustainable transportation.

But the thing about infrastructure and the modern consumer’s world is that it is the interests and wants of the people that point the economy. Whatever the mass majority chooses as their wants, the producers must adapt and follow hand-in-hand in order to survive. This is where innovation plays such a huge part in the probability of the future of sustainable transportation; it will give the idea life and movement. Hopefully, the latter will be taken quite literally; the elimination of speed being a problem with safer modes of transportation would be a death blow to the use of personal and wasteful automobiles. No change in infrastructure is needed; the transition would be clean and easy. If this is not reasonably possible in the near future, there is always the possibility of moving cities; the idea that people, if they were to be restricted to a certain area, jobs and services would follow them as if on a leash. The pattern is already visible today and shown in table 1.1 (page 9) of Context of Urban Travel by Susan Hanson, but only on a small scale. A transition to sustainable vehicles must be huge and unified in order to catch the attention of the economy.

All this seems like a dream, but even dreams can be reached with hard work and progression. Innovation and change never came to people who sat back on the bleachers; rather those who saw the need and took the initiative to recreate the world to their ideals. I believe we must all work together in order to create a giant ball of supporters, backed up by nothing but out sheer numbers, that cannot be ignored. Only then will the goal be achieved.

- Brian Jo