If I were to plan a sustainable city with low carbon transportation in mind, I would make sure to include different means of public transit. Public transportation is one of the easiest way for us to reduce our amount of carbon footprint. By not using our own cars for all transportation, we reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emissions into the environment. In my opinion, I think most people do not feel comfortable using public transportation because they feel it is out of their way or too inconvenient for them. My goal would be to make make public transit seem like less of a hassle and make it comfortable for all people.

The first way I would improve public transit is by making it more available to people. I live in the Bay Area, and we are very lucky to have an efficient Bart system that makes public transit very easy. Unfortunately, not all cities have this. According to the American Public Transportation Association, American's took 10.8 billion trips on public transportation in 2014, which is the highest in 58 years. This data is very hopeful because it shows that  more and more people are getting involved with public transportation, and therefore are reducing their carbon footprint. In order to encourage more people to get involved with public transportation, I would set up a subway system with lots of stations. In addition to the subway system, I would set up bus transit with lots of routes, so that people do not feel like it's inconvenient for them to get somewhere. Transportation is a big way that we contribute to a large carbon footprint, and by installing more means of public transportation, I would hope to decrease the citizen's carbon footprint.

My name is Paulina and I live in Guatemala. I agree with your plan in order to reduce the amount of carbon use in a city, but the problem here in Guatemala is that this city is not design to have several public transportation because of the space. A realistic solution for my country is the carpool.

I also live in Guatemala and not only is the country not spacious enough to have several different public transportions but sometimes the transportation methods that are avaliable are not safe. Many dont travel using public transportation because they far being attacked or robbed.

I am a Guatemalan citizen and in my country, the public transportation is not accessible for all citizens for various reasons. First of all, many people are frightened about the security because there have been many incidents where people get assaulted or even killed. This issue leads the residents to utilize different means of transportation such as cars and motorcycles. The countries who suffer from insecurity such as Guatemala, should take into consideration the implementation of a better security system and transportation system so more people use this systems to reduce the average carbon footprint. If this is not possible, it would be beneficial to implement a method such as "Uber" where citizens get and give rides to other people who are leading in the same direction. This system has many advantages, not only to benefit people economically, reduce traffic jams but also to reduce the carbon footprint per person and conserve our environment. In order to accomp lish this common goal, the citizens must be aware of the effects of the amount of carbon we utilize daily throughout our daily activities.

Henna, I do agree that our public transportation system could use some improvement. A lot of harmful gasses are emitted from all the transportation we do. In fact, China has addressed their problem by creating the world's first hydrogen powered tram. Since this tram uses water, no large amount of a harmful gas is produced, for water isn't harmful. They only take about 3 minutes to refuel. This tram is extremely beneficial; in 2013, transportation caused more than half of the released carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide. An accumulation of gasses produced by transportation can have unhealthy, negative effects on us, including some cancers and oxygen blockage.
   If we could get this greener fuel to power everything we use in the world, everyone's carbon footprint would reduce pretty dramatically. Since only water is released, no bad gas would harm the atmosphere. I do believe that, in the future, almost everything could be powered by hydrogen or be on the road to b ecoming greener!
Source: http://www.alternative-energy-news.info … ered-tram/
Source: http://www.ucsusa.org/clean-vehicles/ve … -27KygrK00

Henna, I like your proposal for increasing public transit to lower the effects of carbon emissions. Recently, the U.S. proposed the GROW AMERICA Act, which is a six-year, $478 billion plan to enhance and build up transportation routes on highways, railways, and public transit routes. The proposal is part of our country's efforts to address climate change and improve clean energy. This bill hopes to increase transit funds by 76% and fund extensive improvement on railway transportation. This bill also seeks to increase the number of charging stations for electric cars, as well as improve air pollution through the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Plan. Henna, I see parallels between this bill and your improvements for a more sustainable city. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, 70% of U.S petroleum consumption is a result of transportation and 45% of Americans still do not have access to public transportation from home. By mainstreaming more sustainable transportation, we can drastically reduce our carbon emissions.
source:
U.S. Department o f Transportation. "GROW AMERICA: Providing Environmental Protection." Transportation.gov. Department of Transportation, 7 Apr. 2015. Web. 01 Oct. 2016. <https://www.transportation.gov/grow-ame … vironment>.

Henna! I totally agree with your proposal. I think that driving is so much easier in the bay area, because the bart stations are far away from where a lot of people live. I think that bart is a good train system, but it could be way more convenient. I would  definitely want to take bart more because then I would not have to deal with traffic or parking. It would also contribute to slowing down global warming because there would be less cars.