Ela Borowiec Sustainable Transport

Did you know that in the times when your grandparents were young there weren’t many cars in the streets? Cars were expensive and not many people could affordaffordafford them. Today many families ownownown one or two cars. More and more people depend ondepend ondepend on them in their everyday activities. People use cars to get to work, drive their children to school and even do shopping. It definitely makes their lives easier. A car may be convenientconvenientconvenient but when you go somewhere there may be such problems like traffic jamstraffic jams [traffic jam]traffic jams, long queuesqueues [queue]queues, and the lack of car parks.

But the problems are much more serious today. We can't forget about the harmfulharmfulharmful effects of today's transport on the environment. Transport produces one quarterquarterquarter of the world's carbon dioxide (CO2)carbon dioxide (COIndeks dolny 2₂)carbon dioxide (CO2) emission. It is also responsible forresponsible forresponsible for such environmental problems like the greenhouse effectgreenhouse effectgreenhouse effect, global warmingglobal warmingglobal warming, and smog.

FortunatelyfortunatelyFortunately, there is a solution - it is sustainable transportsustainable transportsustainable transport. Sustainable transport can be described as any kind of transport that does not use natural resourcesnatural resources [natural resource]natural resources like fossil fuelsfossil fuels [fossil fuel]fossil fuels, which emit harmful substances. Advanced technologiesadvanced technologies [advanced technology]Advanced technologies and electric vehicleselectric vehicles [electric vehicle]electric vehicles may be the answer to that need. You can find examples of sustainable transport in both public and private sectors. There are electric buses, trains, or trams. Electric scooters are getting more and more popular. Let us not forget about bikes, rollerskates, or skateboards which do not causecause (verb)cause any pollutionpollutionpollution and are good for our health.

For sustainable transport to really work, the local authoritieslocal authorities [local authority]local authorities must make some decisions. The infrastructureinfrastructureinfrastructure changes are very important. There must be cycle lanescycle lanes [cycle lane]cycle lanes and other services to supportsupportsupport our choices. Imagine you want to skateboard to school but the pavementpavementpavement is roughroughrough. You won’t be able to do it. The same happens when you think of public transport. It must be well‑planned and offer fast and convenient routesroutes [route]routes. Imagine you change your school. It takes an hour by bus or by tram and only fifteen minutes by car. Which means of transport will you choose? That is why it is so important to start the change from our local areas.

Good news ia that things are changing all over the world. The changes are happening on a global and local scale. There are more and more cycling and walking lanes in towns and cities. Governments support electric energy and electric car charging stationscharging stations [charging station]charging stations. Public transport is more and more reliablereliablereliable, which encouragesencourages [encourage]encourages people to use it more often. It is important to make people realise how important it is to change our transport habits. Will the future be greener and healthier? It’s up to us.

1 Źródło: Ela Borowiec, licencja: CC BY-SA 3.0.