Page Content. Sustainable transportation is also about balancing our current and future needs. Examples of sustainable transportation include walking, cycling, transit, carpooling, car sharing, and green vehicles. Transportation is the single largest source of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in Canada and anyone can help reduce their harmful effects by choosing sustainable transportation over car use.
Transportation accounts for about 25 percent of total emissions, and Environment Canada has estimated that for every 2, litres of gasoline consumed, the average car produces 4, kg of carbon dioxide, Leaving your car at home and taking more sustainable modes of transportation will provide benefits for yourself and the City. These include:. Page Content 2. Using green materials is going to be a trend in the construction industry.
Green construction includes the use of recycled materials, more efficient waste management and alternative design strategies , such as green concrete. The U. Green Building Council offers specific guidelines on how to reduce energy usage and environmental impact in transportation. Rampant development in the transportation sector creates unsustainable systems heavily dominated by vehicle use.
Entire neighborhoods are designed around the automobile, making alternative transportation options to grocery stores or businesses nearly impossible. According to the EPA, integrating transportation options that increase the ways people move around will be a necessity in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving the overall quality of life. Modern highway designs lag in terms of accommodating trucks that transport most of our products and goods.
Many highway corridors see high amounts of truck congestion, and routes can be extremely inefficient. This traffic is especially concerning when considering how much waste trucks transport daily. Land use and transportation require considerable strategic planning. Increasing land accessibility will improve the efficiency of transportation networks. Practical land-use strategies include transit-oriented development and sustainable street design. They remove artificial signals such as subsidies and let users assume the real transportation cost, including road pricing and pollution carbon taxes and fees.
Motorists are charged a floating fee depending on demand variability in peak and off-peak hours for using targeted roads. This can be implemented through a variety of techniques such as tolls or licensing fees. Tax and pollution fees would involve the implementation of increased taxes on vehicle and fuel purchasing as well as imposing fees on vehicle owners who operate at low levels of energy efficiency.
The rationale of such an approach is to provide incentives to influence users towards more sustainable mobility choices. Parking controls. By raising parking prices or reducing the amount of parking space, such a strategy can be used to deter the use of privately-owned vehicles in areas of highest demand by raising the price of commuting by car to high-density areas.
The expected result is to encourage or force commuters to seek other alternatives either in mass transit, ridesharing, or carpooling. They tend to be ineffective for freight distribution since delivery trucks will infringe regulations for short duration deliveries e. Trip avoidance. A more direct method of reducing traffic demand, but avoiding trips is a complex endeavor.
It involves strategies where an activity still occurs while its related mobility is mitigated. This is mostly related to the use of information technologies, which paradoxically can, at the same time, substitute for and support mobility.
For instance, e-commerce can reduce the number of shopping trips, but this involves substituting for parcel deliveries. For freight transportation, trip avoidance is mostly the outcome of changes in sourcing strategies such as nearshoring, where fewer ton-km are generated. Traffic bans. Through traffic bans, the regulatory institution would exert direct control over the allowable limit of vehicles in a given urban area or along specific corridors depending on measures of transport supply-demand functions or arbitrary estimates of carrying capacity.
Many high-density central areas have closed streets to pedestrians to create public spaces more conducive to commercial and social activities. Central Business District Monthly Parking Rate, The Digitalization of Mobility Retail Logistics and E-commerce The implementation of such strategies relies heavily on the existing spatial structure, passengers and material flows, and transport networks.
Improving Transport Supply While the implementation of demand-oriented policies and mechanisms are an important component in promoting sustainable transport, these measures can be more effective if coupled with transport supply improvements. They may include: Energy intensity of vehicles and carbon intensity of fuels. Vehicles are the first element of the transport supply, where more sustainable improvements can be implemented.
This is the dimension for which the decarbonization of transportation can lead to the most tangible outcomes. There are many strategies, such as using lighter materials e. The material intensity of an average vehicle of 1. Because of its complexity and related supply chains, the automobile is subject to circular economy considerations where vehicles, parts, and materials could be reused and recycled. Fuels can also be improved upon using alternatives such as natural gas, biofuels, electricity, or hydrogen.
Densification and agglomeration. A higher level of concentration of activities usually leads to more efficient transportation uses because of the lesser distances involved. Spatial structures such as logistics zones or transit-oriented developments can thus result in reduced vehicle trips. They may also incite using modes more prone to economies of scale more passengers or units of cargo per load or surface unit as cost-effective alternatives.
With market signals related to land cost, densification and agglomeration often dictate more efficient and higher density uses. Context appropriate transport. Transportation modes and infrastructure must be developed and used in the context in which they are the most appropriate.
However, the relevance of specific transportation systems to service-specific contexts is subject to debate since it is reflective of societal values and priorities.
Both public and private forms of transportation have roles to fulfill. The last decades have seen substantial growth of individual mobility despite all the efforts made to promote public transportation. In the North American context, promoting public transit has seen limited success. Therefore, public transportation, being less flexible, should assert a complementary role.
The expansion and development of mass transit systems must make effective use of urban space by conforming to a number of factors including urban form, density, and modal preferences. In doing so, the fleets and networks must ensure a level of flexibility while ensuring low ridership costs. Comparatively, methods of improving and upgrading existing public transit services should include improving service coverage and quality and increasing frequency where and when it is most needed during peak hours.
A similar observation applies to freight distribution as a range of modes are available to accommodate a variety of supply chains. There is not necessarily an ideal setting in which a mode should be used. N on-motorized transport modes. The integration of individual modes of non-motorized transport such as walking and cycling can provide access to shopping, schools, and work for a growing share of the population.
Also, for cities struggling with serious traffic congestion and air pollution, non-motorized transport should be considered an alternative, or at least complementing, private vehicles while serving as a crucial link in an integrated public transportation system.
While cycling can be a challenging mode to promote and integrate into urban transportation e. For freight, non-motorized transport modes are much more limited in capacity and range. The Push for Decarbonization Decarbonizing transportation aims to reduce, mitigate, and even eliminate carbon emissions by adapting transportation infrastructures, conveyances, and operations. Decarbonizing transportation focuses on three main realms of application: Infrastructure.
The fixed asset components of decarbonization include transport corridors and terminals. Their construction, maintenance, and upgrade can be subject to procurement strategies that are less carbon-intensive, including the use of materials. Transportation modes, particularly in terms of the economies of scale they offer, can be ranked by their carbon intensity.
This implies that infrastructure supporting modes with low carbon intensity should be favored as well as the connectivity intermodalism between transportation modes.
Conveyances and equipment. For mobile transportation assets, the focus is mainly on their fuel and sources of energy. The electrification of roads and rail is seen as a key strategy as it focuses on modes that have the highest contribution to CO2 emissions. Ideally, urban mobility should have a larger share of accounted by pedestrians and bicycles.
Management and operations. A focus is on pricing strategies that change the competitiveness of transportation modes according to their carbon emission.
The expectation is that the increasing competitiveness of decarbonized transportation will displace transportation technologies based on fossil fuels. Better utilization of existing transportation assets is also recognized, such as freight platforms and ride-sharing services. Banister, D. Button eds Transport, the Environment, and Sustainable Development. London: Spon Press. Black, W.
Gilbert, R. Perl Transport revolutions. Moving people and freight without oil, London: Earthscan. Goldman, T. Haas, T. New York: Rizzoli. Hickman, R.
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