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 >
New and Old Transportation Methods
In our modern era of the 21st century, we still find ourselves driving cars requiring massive supplies of gasoline. In fact, the average car in America has a fuel mileage of 25.4 gallons. This is not exactly disastrous, but as humans equipped with modern science and research, we must find ways to increase this efficiency. One way we can do this is carpooling on daily. We can cut down on fuel emissions in this easy way. Another method is to use natural transport, like biking, skateboarding, or even walking. This we do not emit any carbon and even a good exercise. However, these methods may not be suitable for people who have long commutes daily. One solution to this may be electric cars. Throughout the last 7 years, electric cars and hybrid cars have grown in the car industry and have become more popular. In 2014, the number of HEV's in America was around 3,500. This number has only been going up. In the last couple of years, innovators like Toyota, Nissan, and Tesla have introduced practical electric cars and plug-in hybrids. If Americans in the next decade decide to pur chase vehicles like this instead of gas-powered motor vehicles, our carbon emissions will decrease astronomically. However, this has its own problems due to cost and overall practicality. Nevertheless, investing in electric, hybrid, and high mileage cars will help improve our environment and lower the rate of carbon emissions. Plus, investing in these more expensive electric and hybrid cars will result in up to $2,400 of annual savings!
I completely agree with your point of the importance of carpooling. Not only does carpooling help the environment by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, carpooling can also shorten your commute time. Many big cities have High Occupancy Vehicle lanes that can only be used by cars with two or more people in them. HOV lanes usually have less traffic then regular lanes on the highway. Another way you could shorten you commute time is by leaving at different times in the morning to see what time gets you to your destination faster. Even though carpooling reduces the amount of carbon dioxide in the air, carpooling is not a permanent solution because it only can only help the environment to a certain extent. I think some possible permanent solutions could be walking or biking to your destination or the use of electric cars.