As city mayor and original developer/designer of a mid-size city, I would make sure to reduce carbon emission by creating an efficient public transportation system. According to OHPI (office of highway policy information) provided by the U.S Department of Transportation, the average annual miles per individual driver in the U.S. is 13,476. Based on information from the U.S department of energy, 1 gallon of gasoline produces 20 pounds of carbon dioxide. In addition to this, the Washington Post reported that in 2013, the average mileage per gallon, in the U.S., was 23.6. This means that each car will use about 570 gallons of gasoline per year. That’s 11,400 pounds of CO2 per year! Using a public transportation system would reduce the amount of vehicles used as many people would ride together in one, in turn decreasing the calculated amount of CO2 emitted from vehicles. As stated by All Points Transit, buses emit 80% less carbon monoxide into the atmosphere and save gasoline (4.2 billion gallons in the U.S). A great number of places have public transportation systems; howev er, some are worse than others. For example, Houston’s public transportation system is not very efficient due to the expanse of the city and limited routes and buses-causing people to wait around 30 minutes for a metro bus in some areas. In order to prevent this, I would have to first zone the city in a logistic way so that the smallest amount of transportation routes would be required, decreasing the distance needed to travel. That way, people should be able to miss the bus/train and know that the next one is coming within 5 to 10 minutes later-allowing them to be more comfortable in taking public transportation to their duties. In addition to the routes and zoning, the public transit system would be based on rail transportation because they are less polluting than fuel transportation (buses, taxi, cabs, carpool vans, Uber) and save more energy. All in all, this would help, both, the environment and the people living in it.
SOURCES:
http://www.apta.com/mediacenter/ptbenef … fault.aspx
http://www.allpointstransit.com/why-ride-the-bus/
http://www.studymode.com/essays/Efficie … 33288.html

I completely agree with this post in the sense of public transportation reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the air, but there are not enough public transportation routes for this to be efficient. For example, I live in the suburbs about 30 minutes away from the big city I go to school in, and also where my parents work, and there is not a bus route that would get us all the way there. If bus routes were to be used instead of people driving individually, then buses would start to become overcrowded, and the wait time for buses would become even longer. According to www.publictransport.about.com, a single bus costs about $300,000 to create. In order to create enough buses to reach people in suburbs, while not being overcrowded, then it would cost tens of millions of dollars. In addition to those costs, in Houston it costs $115.01 in order to run a bus for a single hour. So while it is definitely better for the environment, this plan is very costly and could take a long time to create all the bus routes, find new drivers, and find a way to pay for the entire system. I  do think that it would be very beneficial in the long run to create a plan to reduce the amount of individual driving, and carbon dioxide that cars put into the atmosphere.