Truly Low and No Carbon Transportation
As a sector, transportation accounts for 29% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
An individual switching a single trip per day from car to biking can reduce their carbon footprint by half a metric ton per year.
About half of the global populations living in urban areas are exposed to air pollution levels 2.5 times greater than the safe standard from the World Health Organization.
While efficiency improvements are projected by experts to decline by 2035, from 2035 to 2050 those emissions are then expected to increase again as population growth leads to greater overall travel.
Current Problem
Transportation has long been pegged as one of the greatest areas needing sustainability intervention. Left unchecked, traffic congestion continues to pour pollution in into local communities. Collectively, greenhouse gas emissions from transportation continue to grow unchecked, creating climate concerns. Worse yet, the land used up by transportation infrastructure— paving roads and parking lots over natural lands– seems to be accelerating.
While Tesla and others in the electric vehicle space kicked off a revolution in how cars and trucks can be powered, EVs are not the only solution. Two issues include 1) the negative land impact that mining for battery materials requires and 2) the tendency to charge the vehicles from the main power grid that still runs heavy with coal and gas fired power plants, major carbon producers.
While EVs are an improvement over gasoline and diesel-powered cars, we can push even further to truly low carbon and even no carbon transportation solutions. In doing so, we can prevent contributions to climate change, clean up air quality that directly impacts public health, and even make cities and neighborhoods more interconnected and healthy spaces.
Truly sustainable transportation strategies don’t look just at what fuels our existing vehicles, but they question the very nature of how we get around, how often, and why.
Emerging Solutions
LOS ANGELES
Los Angeles is notorious for being one of the global cities where cars are most coveted, needed, and used, which unfortunately leads to daily interactions with smog, air pollution, frustrating traffic, and many other ills.
Rather than convert all drivers in the city to EVs, some future forward-looking leaders in Los Angeles have embraced what it means to actually reduce carbon emissions. LA’s Green New Deal set targets to increase the percentage of all trips made by low-carbon and no-carbon methods (walking, biking, micro-mobility, or transit) to 35% by 2025, 50% by 2035, and maintain that 50% through 2050.
Specific steps for truly sustainable transportation the city has taken to work towards these goals in a real way include fostering livable/walkable neighborhoods that eliminate the needs for cars, adding dozens of miles of new bike lanes, and mandating future developments that incorporate public transportation considerations to reduce trips completed by car.