Talks About Cars

You may find it ridiculous or crazy. Or perhaps, the other way around. But some individuals insist that creating compact communities and getting rid of the need to drive everywhere is the best remedy to fight the ills of global warming by slashing greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. They added the answer to the problem of American car is not under the hood.

The production of modern cars is pricey and deemed an environmental nightmare. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, transportation generates more than a quarter of greenhouse gases in America. Part of that comes from moving freight around but over 20% is personal transportation.

To stress, our vehicle emissions serve as a major climate change contributor. But the tailpipe emissions are just a fraction of the total climate impact of driving a car. Moreover, having better mileage won’t solve the problems.

Yes, we are aware of the fact that density cuts driving. And we are capable of building dense neighborhood, right? Dense community isn’t synonymous with congested environment. It conveys public places, prosperous neighborhood retail, and a tangible sense of place. Not only is the result one of the most liveable cities in North America, but 40% of all downtown Vancouver households are car-free, according to BusinessWeek.

We are also capable of creating compact communities. Infrastructure, habitat and more are workable. Creating dense communities to save those 85 million metric tons of tailpipe emissions is uncomplicated - minus politics, of course.

If this end is materialized, it would mean dramatic energy and cost savings. Researchers at Brookings have this to say: "Transportation costs are a significant part of the average household budget. The average transportation expenditures for the median income household in the U.S. in 2003 was 19.1%, the highest expenditure after housing."

Yes, there are a lot of savvy environment-friendly allies who are absorbed in making green road machines. Worth noting is the pool of designers and engineers behind the 100-mpg Aptera. Take VDS Vision 200. According to the Vehicle Design Summit, it is a "hyperefficient four-to-six-passenger vehicle earmarked for India that will demonstrate a 95% reduction in embodied energy, materials, and toxicity.”

The report continued: “Green, compact communities, smaller, well-built homes, walkable streets, and smart infrastructure can actually offer a far better quality of life than living in McMansion hintersprawl in purely material terms: more comfort, more security, more true prosperity. But even more to the point, they offer all sorts of nonmaterialistic but extremely real benefits that suburbs cannot.”

We think of cars as things which are swiftly substituted and buildings as things which seldom modify. Such will not be the situation over the next few decades. Do you smell an overhaul of America? How about drastic transformation?