The Story of Transportation Society
We rarely ever talk about the relations we have with the transportation system. While we often mention how clocks rule our lives, can we say the same thing about transportation? I believe we can. See we created a society to depend on transportation and then bent the structure of society around the system of transportation we created instead of transportation being built around our society. This speech is about transportation technology but the most importantly about how we choose to use them.
I come from a society where the primary form of transportation is walking. Even in the capital of Mogadishu; a city of about a million people, even if your 70 years old, if you need to go to the Ministry of Health or the Ministry of Education then you walk across 2km or whatnot the city to get to there. A lot of people would call it backward but I see it as want vs. need scenario. There are things we want but don’t necessarily need. And there is things we need but don’t know it.
Traditionally society has built around natural circumstances. Such as this place makes the best agricultural land so I will farm here, or there is a nice river here for water so this a good place to live near. But recently (meaning the last couple hundred years) this trend has changed. And this is due to an increase social mobility. That is the ability of people to move from one place to another has become easier, cheaper, safer, and the way its done has become more reliable but most important of this practice has become mandatory.
I live in Hinesburg, I have lived there for the past 13 years. And transportation has always been an issue. But I didn’t get my license until I was 18 and I didn’t get my own car until I was 20. People kept expecting me to get a car and drive. Its like I was suppose to, as if it was right of passage.
The rural setting and sparse population density of Vermont has made it essential for everyone of driving age to have their own cars. An Vermont Agency of Natural Resources report stated that the “per capita mileage traveled on Vermont highways is higher than all but six other states”. Even though our cars are becoming cleaner we are using them more often and for longer periods of time.
Let me explain this by using Vermont as an example. Vermont, traditionally, is an agricultural state but land use has changed in the last half century or so, the population density has not in the same way. And this has greater ramification in the transportation sector because it has become culturally expectable to drive and own a car as soon as one can. What I am trying to express here is that the face of the relation between transportation and society has changed. We are no larger building our transportation technologies (such as cars, trains, and airplanes) to fit the society but rather building society to revolve around our transportation system. This is exacerbated by rural development on what was previously farmland into little suburbia where a cluster of houses are built on former fields.
The reason why we need to take a very close look at how we use and build our transportation system is that if you do you will see as I have it is increasingly inefficient. It is an energy hog. Part of the demand for energy has to do with us as consumers and our expectation that we can do whatever we want and we always going to get it. But it also has do with the inefficiency of the technology we use, the amount we use them, and the way we use it. Much of this is not something that I can show you. But it helps if you imagine how you get to where you are going everyday. This will tell your “transportation footprint” sort to speak. Instead of saying, we have this great need for energy; where do we find it, we should be saying we have this much viable energy; how do we use it. And that presents us the opportunity to use one of humanity’s must amazing gifts. Our imagination for innovation and invention.
According to the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, every summer Vermont ground level ozone comes close to exceeding by our standard and qualifies of being considered unhealthy in many developed countries. Obviously in owning a car cost is a major consideration. Cost in the form of fuel, insurance, and registration are well known. But we often don’t consider the external cost of accidents not covered by insurance, medical cost due to air pollution, and the cost of policing the highway.
Sparse development introduces another thing I like to call Wasted Space Syndrome. Wasted Space Syndrome is simply the fact that private land in the country side tend to have large lawns which are not needed nor used. Another aspect is houses are not miles apart but maybe a few hundred yards apart, and the space between them become wasted space because it neither provides privacy nor opportunity for better use.
The idea of sustainable transportation has only been taken of interest in the last decade or so. But less face it we are using up a finite fuel source. The use of this fuel creates health hazards in air-quality standards and is contributing to global warming. We should not for that there were almost 43,000 car related death in 2003 according to federal government assessment.
So in conclusion I present the following solutions for your consideration:
An obvious one is public transportation. Now this is a two lane one-way street. See the government has to support and authorize such a transportation system. However, in doing so the citizens must agree to use. And it is obvious to me that people don’t want to give up there car because (1) having your own personal transportation is convenient (2) it’s a society norm. So much is this a societal norm that to ban cars out right to the degree which would provide the needed momentum for sweeping socioeconomic change, would only ignited social and economic unrest. Now I think that in general not owning a car is connected with poverty. This goes with framework that public transportation only benefits’ the poor and those on welfare.
Public transportation remains the fixed route bus services that do not extend to those areas of low demand. This the reason why a regular public transportation system does not work overly well in Vermont. As often is a case we must consider cost. But the fact are plan that any type of shared transportation will decrease cost of the individual. Shared transportation is basically any mode of transportation in which people collective travel from place to another in. The individual will no longer have to worry about buying a car, maintaining a car, insurance, and will dramatically reduce their ecological foot print by using a shared transportation service.
Something else that is already being used it ride share. While I don’t believe it works very well with complete strangers, it can work well within a small group such as co-workers or fellow students. Even to go one further get a few friends together and buy one car to share, we will call this a car share. My personally favorite idea is what I call Community Shared Transport. It is simply a community car cooperative where a group of neighbors collectively own, maintain, and use a small number of cars and trucks.
Even if we switch to alternative fuels, there is not enough of these to maintain our system of transportation. So a dramatic shift is need anyway. And instead of looking for ways to maintain the present system, this is an opportunity to change it.
Small cars that are built to fit one or two people like Smart Cars would also dramatically increase the efficiency of the transportation system. Because these cars use less resources, in building them and to run them. The use of SUV is in the opposite direction sustainability. The Smart Car presents us with another idea that is often express in household appliances; Energy Conservation. See we seem to that energy and energy production for granted. We demand more energy and then we look for ways to make more energy. If we recall what we learned of physics, the first law of thermodynamics is that energy can be neither created nor destroyed. We merely transform on energy type into another. So with this it becomes plan that we must use less energy to save energy. A possible solution this to ban private transportation one day a week. I suggest Sundays because many places are closed anyways. With private transportation banned people will either stay home, thereby decreasing pollution and the need of cars for at least one day. In general we must decrease the demand for motor vehicles.
So walk when you can. Share rides, use public transportation but most of all think about how you use the transportation system, and how you can use it better.
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