Transportation- A necessary nuisance?

Try imagining life without cars, buses, trains, planes, bicycles or for that matter, any means of transportation. I’m simply asking you to imagine the unimaginable!

Humans’ first means of transportation were walking and swimming. But it was only a matter of time until the fixed wheels on carts, the first wheeled vehicles in history, were invented in 3500 BC. Ever since, man has become increasingly dependent on various modes of transportation. Thus, I can safely claim that the presence of easy means of travel is imperative to the functioning of the contemporary society we are a part of. In “The Context of Urban Travel”, Susan Hanson refers to transportation as “an absolutely necessary means to an end” (Page 1). She also points out the pertinent fact that home and work are in the same location for only about 3.3% of the U.S workforce in 2000. Moreover, according to The U.S Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, 1994, p.4-72, only about half of 1% of all trips in The United States are trips for pleasure driving (Page 2). Thus, in a nutshell, if one wants to make both ends meet, one has to travel!

Now coming to the different modes of transportation, one may argue as to which mode should be deemed best. I personally believe that cars are the best mode of transportation. Allow me to present my main line of argument.

Two concepts that are central to understanding transportation are accessibility and mobility. Accessibility refers to the number of opportunities, also called “active sites”, available within a certain distance or travel time. Mobility refers to the ability to move between different activity sites. Cars help in maximizing accessibility and mobility. In other words, they help in increasing an individual’s “space-time autonomy”. A measure of an individual’s space-time autonomy is the space-time prism (“The context of Urban Travel”, page 7, figure 1.1). Figures 1.1a, 1.1b and 1.1c illustrate a substantial increase in space-time autonomy by virtue of car availability.

With the recent trend being one of “going green”, there are growing concerns about the debilitating effects of cars on the environment. Cars release greenhouse gases and other toxic emissions that lead to global warming. Thus, one may argue that cars do not qualify as sustainable means of transportation.

One of the prerequisites for a mode of transportation to be deemed as sustainable is that it should “meet the basic access and mobility needs in ways that do not degrade the environment” (Sustainable Transportation- Policy, planning and implementation, page 2). Therefore, cars would best fit under “Business as Usual (BAU)” rather than under sustainable means of transportation.

Cars run on fossil fuels that are non-renewable sources of energy, estimated to die out in the near future, going by the present rate of consumption. Imagine the picture of cars scattered all over the roads and highways but with nothing to run them!

I believe the environment and cars can live in communion with each other. We see the introduction of alternative, reliable and eco-friendly sources of energy. In many parts of the world, cars run on Compressed Natural Gas and Liquefied Petroleum Gas that substantially reduce emissions to a minimal amount. Engine efficiency has been steadily improved with improved engine design, more precise ignition timing and electronic ignition, more precise fuel metering, and computerized engine management.

Thus, I believe that the presence of various modes of travel has its drawbacks in more ways than one. But at the same time, it is imperative to the hustling and bustling society we live in!

Works Cited:

Hanson, Susan. “The Context of Urban Travel.” The Geography of Urban Transportation. 3^rd ed. Eds. Susan Hanson and Genevieve Giuliano. New York: Guilford, 2004. 3-29.

Scheller, Preston, Eric C. Bruun, and Jeffrey R. Kenworthy. Introduction to Sustainable Transportation: Policy, Planning and Implementation. London: Earthscan, 2010.

“The History of Transportation.”