Here's your chance not just to be the mayor, but the original city planner as well! Imagine a medium sized city that would be developed with modern, low carbon transportation in mind, and other strategies to reduce the average citizens' carbon footprints.
What would that city look like? Would that make you more likely to want to live there?
Sustainable City >
Alternate forms of transportation
A lot of people these days use cars and trucks to get to where they need to go. Not many realize how much they contribute to their carbon footprints with gas-guzzling cars. I think more people should walk and bike to work or school. In 2009, about 127 million walking trips and nine million bike trips in the U.S. every day. That's a pretty big amount. If people want to get serious about saving the environment, this is a great way to start the sustainability chain. If not biking or walking, we should use some more sustainable and eco-friendly ways of public transportation. For example, in Minneapolis, the Metro Transit runs its Hiawatha light rail line on a a 20 percent blend of renewable sources such as hydropower, wind and biomass. Also in Dallas, the Dallas Area Rapid Transit has recently finalized the purchase of up to 452 new natural gas-fueled buses. These are sustainable and found very easily. If we can implement more ideas like this in our cities, it will help the environment and get closer to achieving a sustainable city.
I totally agree, because from past classes I have learned that cars release many terrible gases. If all those gases were not released, (if people walked/biked) then the average carbon footprint would probably go down. The only problem with this idea is that many people are not willing to change their transportation methods, including myself. I would only ride my bike or walk to school if I lived close to it, but unfortunately I don't. Possibly, instead of going completely green, the students who are unable to walk or use their bike could instead carpool to lower the amount of vehicles on the road. I think that would be a good alternative, and if all together everyone carpooled or walked/biked when necessary the carbon released would be nowhere near as high as it is today.
You make a good point. It's quite logical and reasonable.