Ethical Travel - Sustainable Transport
The power of flight makes crossing continents a snap, but for local routes the only way is overland. After you've experienced the drama of air travel, waiting for a train or bus feels positively last century. Worse still a long car journey seems like the slow road to nowhere and as for a bicycle - no thanks right? But there is something to be said for going slow and these means of movement are changing for the better. It's been over thirty-years since the global oil and gas crises of the 1970s, and time, and necessity have been great teachers. We've got bio-fuels, hybrid engines, better urban planning and now we even have shared bikes. It may not always look sci-fi, but sustainable travel is moving along at lightning speed.
Story Highlights
- Here In My Car
- Here, There and Everywhere
- A Hitchhiker's Guide
Here In My Car
As a Yank, I'm honour-bound to love my car but that love isn't cheap. After years of skyrocketing petrol prices and complaints about fuel efficiency, Ford halted production of its Crown Victoria and Town Car models. It's the end for these icons and so for those who insist that life should be lived on four wheels - let's start the sustainable transport overview with hybrid cars. Most hybrids available commercially get their juice from a petrol or diesel-powered, internal combustion engine and an electric battery. They're designed to save energy and if, for example, you tap the brakes in stop-and-go traffic, energy normally lost as heat is stored in the battery. Some hybrids rely on bio-fuels for their internal combustion, but bio-fuel benefits are debatable. They take up space that could be used for food crops and if processed incorrectly, they release greenhouse gases.
Here, There and Everywhere - Around the World With Sustainable Travel
It's not the norm in most of the US, but for everyone else, public transportation is a part of everyday life. As we've witnessed with London's buses, Japan's Hybrid Train E200 and as we'll soon see with NYC's taxis, hybrid technology is incredibly adaptable. But some urbanites eschew the hi-tech for simplicity and thankfully cycles are the ticket for crowded city streets. London, Washington and Paris all have cycle sharing programmes, and with 50,000 bikes - the Chinese city of Huangzhou has the biggest scheme in the world! But for Raj Janagam of Mumbai's Cycle Chalao! programme, it's all about access and ensuring that bikes are used for short distance commuting by registered users.
The success of schemes is often down to identifying local needs and implementing solutions to solve them. For example, the Brazilian city of Curitiba is famous for its bus system. They may run on diesel but with careful urban planning these buses are an efficient and affordable option for the local population, making Curitiba a transport model for Bogota, Vancouver, LA and Kuala Lumpur.
A Hitchhiker's Guide
Organisations like the US-based GreenXC and sites like rideshare.co.uk encourage lift sharing by providing comprehensive listings of who's going where and when. The idea is that by sharing a vehicle, passengers are lessening the environmental impact of their car journey. If you don't want to schlep it on a coach or a train, but can't afford car rental fees, this could be your happy medium.
So much for a slow ride then. Cars, trains, buses - these modes of travel may not be anything new, but the sustainable concept that's powering them deserves full props for taking us here, there and everywhere.
- Jackie Reddy
