One way of ‘greening’ your daily commute is to consider public transportation. I know, I know, nobody wants to ride the bus. But have you considered the benefits? Even if you can only commute by bus one day per week, you’ll have contributed by reducing emissions for that day. If every American commuted one day per week, it is estimated that we could reduce our fuel consumption in the U.S. by as much as 40%!
In addition to being a greener form of transportation, buses are much safer than automobiles. You can also catch up on work, read the newspaper or a novel, take a nap, or just chat with your fellow passengers while skipping traffic jams and road rage.
Riding the bus means less carbon emissions per passenger vs. the average automobile. It also means more efficient use of fuel per passenger. Not only that, but progressive communities are beginning to replace the diesel fuel in their buses with biodiesel. This means even less emissions while burning a sustainable fuel.
For an even greener form of transportation, ride the rails. As airlines continue to have financial problems and troubles with security, trains are looking better and better. France just set a world speed record for a conventional rail train at 357.2 miles per hour. The all-time speed record for a train was a Japanese magnetic-levitation (maglev) train that reached a speed of 361 mph in 2003. Most jets cruise at speeds of 450 mph or less. Trains are catching up to airline speeds! When you consider the amount of time required to drive to the airport and pass through security, the advantages of travel by train begin to add up.
Unfortunately the United States has lagged behind the rest of the world in providing super high-speed train service to its citizens. The only super high-speed trains in operation at the present are in the Northeast Corridor between Washington, D.C. and Boston. Political infighting usually kills any bill that would fund such projects at the federal level, but the National Conference of State Legislators (http://www.ncsl.org) has decided to take matters into their own hands. Florida is working on a train system using a mixture of public and private financing. The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) began the project on January 1, 1997. Until 2022, FDOT will provide an annual average of $70 million for the development of this project. If Florida is successful, maybe the United States will catch up with the rest of the world in a generation or two.
Another green transportation choice that might not be so obvious is taxis. A regular gasoline-powered taxi has about the same emissions as your own car, but taxis are available at all hours of the day and are therefore used constantly instead of just sitting idle in the driveway. Additionally, as more communities become environmentally conscious, hybrid taxis and pedi-cabs are increasingly popular. Taxicab companies find that when they add greener options, they tend to beat out competitors who do not offer such choices.
Finally, if your community doesn’t offer public transportation, or if your public transportation is inadequate for whatever reason, you can take action yourself to change it. Write to your local newspaper. Notify your congresspersons. Start a grassroots movement. Let the people in charge know that you want public transportation and you want it now!
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