A More Than Modest Proposal to Solve the Ever-Growing Traffic Troubles

Pertaining to the “day without cars” tradition the city of Bogota, Columbia : “It has seen the construction of 118 bicycle paths, the most of any Latin American city…” (Belsky, 3) A single day without cars has encouraged not only, new businesses to spring up and infrastructure to be improved but also physical activity to become more common in countries that implement such a tradition. In my own experience, a less sedentary lifestyle means lower risk of heart disease, obesity, and other weight and activity related ailments. In addition car usage reduction seems to lessen stress, a claim that mother of two, Heidrun Walter testifies to. “ ‘When I had a car I was always tense. I’m much happier this way.’...” (Rosenthal 1). This is a benefit that cannot be ignored as higher stress levels can take a toll on your mental health. Last but certainly not least, is the fact that less smog will discourage the pollution-induced respiratory illnesses permeating the developed world. Polluted air is not meant to be breathed and less of it is better for the whole of the

Automobiles play a major role in today's society. Almost every American owns at least one motorized transportation vehicle. Some say they make our lives better by reaching places faster than before. Others say they are a harmful to the environment. Have they made our society better or worse? They may be fast, but do we as humans want our environment to suffer because of time. Face it, cars pollute. And they release destructive chemicals into the air. Air pollution can threaten the health of many subjects in the environment including human beings.

The wide use of transportation contributes to how society is increasingly turning away from walking. Since, the majority of people drive either their own cars or a form of public transportation regularly they have lost the sense of distance. People may never even know that the daily commute they may take to work is faster to walk to then it is to wait in traffic for. For example, recently my roommate invited me along so she should get a tattoo at a parlor in our hometown. We had to take a bus to get near to the location because it is a bit far away from UCR, but once we got off at a bus stop instead of walking the short distance that would take about 15 minutes we decided to call an Uber. We both haven’t been in our hometown in a while, so instead of enjoying it we decided to take a car. At my high school, students were allowed to drive themselves to the campus beginning junior year. I never got my license during high school, so I would either be picked up by one of my parents or a friend who drove to themselves to school would. However, whenever one of my parents would pick me up they would refuse to pick me up directly in front of the school because of the ridiculous amount of traffic. They had me walk a little over half a mile each day after school to the exact same spot. Even though, half a mile wasn’t a long walk I realized a difference between taking that small walk and being driven home by

Traffic in downtown Austin, Texas is becoming a sever issue and is continuing to become slower and more congested every day. Austin ranks 4th on a list of U.S. cities with the least efficient roadways, and with its remarkable growth rate, the issue can only get worse. After reading numerous articles based on opinions and statements from local city planners and engineers, the best way to see an improvement in the traffic issue is to increase the amount of public transportation in the Austin area. The increase of public transportation would provide fast travel time and would help reduce the amount of money, commuters and locals use on gas by a substantial amount per year. Though many may argue the that we have enough public transportation already, reducing the number of personal vehicles on the road would decrease the amount of bumper to bumper traffic experienced on a daily basis, as well as increase the options for those commuting to the city every day. there are many possible solutions, such as widening the highways or even building them underground, these solutions however are not the most economically correct and productive way to relieve traffic downtown.

From here on, I am going to illustrate my lifestyle in a rural area versus a well developed city. I came from a small village in China. Walking to places has been build on me since I was a little kid; it was one of my habit. Back in the days, nothing seems handy to own. I remembered it was indeed hard to own a small motorcycle, not to speak of cars. On account of that, I treasure walking gratefully. I can walk to my school, relative's house, convenient stores, as well as markets for food. That has been my lifestyle for ten years until I came to the United States. My lifestyle has changed from walking to commuting through buses. San Francisco is a fairly developed city. We can access to every part of SF through muni, and the buses come in very often. Gradually, I start taking the bus to school, to hangouts with friends, and restaurants. I don’t remember when but I started to feel and think buses are so convenient. I rely on buses so much that I became surprisingly lazy. I would choose to take the bus even when the destination is

The traffic problem in Atlanta drains both time and money for thousands. It has been shown that Atlanta drivers spend on average 51 unnecessary hours behind the wheel each year (WSB Radio, 2013). That’s more than two 24 hour days spent sitting in traffic. During all this time spent, Atlantans end up spending upwards of $1000 per year on gas and collectively use 63,000,000 gallons of gas each year while sitting in traffic (WSB Radio, 2013). Traffic in Atlanta has been a huge waste of time and money for Atlantans for years and something needs to be done to alleviate the

Evidence: A study presented by the white house on its website reported that 65% of roads rated in less than good condition. 25% of bridges require significant repair or cannot handle today's traffic. Also because certain roads cannot be used there is more traffic. The Texas Transportation Institute estimates that American commuters in urban areas collectively lost 5.5 billion hours stuck in traffic in 2011, meaning the average commuter lost nearly a week to traffic. their calculations further suggest that traffic congestion caused American commuters to purchase an extra 2.9 billion gallons of fuel, costing them more than $120 billion in added fuel costs and wasted time.

Under California constitutional law, services provided by state agencies generally must be performed by state civil service employees. In some cases the state may contract with private firms to obtain services. However, there are limitations as to when such contracting is allowed, for example, if services needed by the state are: (1) of a temporary nature, (2) not available within the civil service, or (3) of a highly specialized or technical nature. According to the argument in favor of Proposition 35, private contracting has been further limited by several lawsuits filed by Caltrans bureaucrats.

The money goes towards building an efficient mass transit system that gives about 4 million rides a day, and it makes car buyers think twice before purchasing a vehicle that is going to cost them a fortune (Source B). Although the idea of using the money to build a mass transit system seems controversial to reducing air pollution, mass transportation, such as Singapore’s, actually emits about 62 percent less pollution per passenger mile compared to a single operating vehicle, according to the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). If the U.S. government were to carry out a policy similar to this, the amount of pollution emitted by roadside transportation would drastically decrease due to the limited access of cheap vehicles and unlimited access of mass transportation.(does this work?). The positive effects of green policies have already been seen in the U.S. through the Clean Air Acts of 1970 and 1990, which were set to control pollution and are upheld by the EPA and the White House Administration, . This act

Attention Getter: We all need our cars to get us from point a to point b but with the price of gas being so high, many people ride the bus or train to save themselves from shelling out money at the pump. Spending money is an emotional process for most working class citizens, especially if it’s something that we need daily but alas we don’t have a choice. We will always have places to be in life, but if only gas were less expensive, commuting wouldn’t be as taxing on our wallets.

I propose a green expansion that will go towards building electric buses and trains. Individuals could submit a one-time form to the government proving that they have a household income of less than $30,000 a year and receive monthly bus tokens. By giving free bus tokens it will help those in need in the United States by providing them more autonomy to travel without the stress of worrying about affordability. Be implementing a green policy towards public transportation we can decrease the amount of carbon dioxide emissions in our environment; reducing the effects of global warming, protect communities from air pollution, and create public sector

Congestion and traffic pollution has been a major problem in New York City for years. There have been many laws, tolls, and fines implemented over the past few decades to try and fix the problem. Yet, congestion still exists. Congestion occurs when there is overcrowding on roadways that’s causes traffic jams. There are several reasons for the severity of this issue. Congestion causes a lot of delays in the city. It is unlikely that people are on time for anything, even if they planned ahead. With traffic in the city the way it is, you can’t blame them. The indirect effect of congestion is traffic pollution. Traffic pollution is polluting of the environment caused by harmful toxins and gases given released by cars. The amount of pollution

With the overall objective in mind of providing public transportation to all Americans, we have to understand all of the different modes of transportation that need to be reconstructed and funded properly. America is a geographically diverse nation and all need to be taken into account to meet the growing demand of transportation over these differing regions. First off, we have to address states that must begin to rely on ferry transport across bodies of water. The ferry system needs adequate funding so that commuters can cross bodies of water such as the Puget Sound and Chesapeake Bay. Docks, landings, ferry boats, and employees will all need funding to ensure that this happens. Water public transportation is an unutilized territory and in this growing age we hope to help it strive. We plan to rebuild ferry landings

Globally, numerous urban cities such as New York City and London have the issue of traffic congestion, and in the United States, Los Angeles and New York City take the top title of the worst traffic jams (Bekiempis). Even though traffic congestion ratings may not indicate how much air pollution in an area, most times, traffic congestion does communicate the approximate degree air pollution lies at. Atlanta does have an honorable—or rather, notorious—mention of daily traffic congestion, even though Atlanta’s traffic may not live up to the scale of that of New York City. The quality of air in the Atlanta metropolitan area can also play a testament to how far traffic congestion has gone in the

Being lazy is a great thing because so much time is saved. Time may be saved, but in exchange, the environment gets destroyed instead. Driving a car to work may be faster, but it also destroys the environment so much faster. Biking to the store serves the same purpose and it saves the environment greatly. Cars are a huge contributor to global warming. Cars and trucks combined are responsible for one-fifth of all US emissions. They release about 24 pounds of carbon dioxide and other global warming gases for every gallon of gas used (Union of Concerned Scientists). About five pounds of those gases come from production, extraction, and delivery of gasoline. More than 19 pounds are released per gallon from a car's tailpipe (Union of Concerned Scientists). 1.2 billion cubic yards of polluted air is from manufacture. Painting and coating cars produces 40 million pounds of air releases and 24 million pounds of hazardous waste a year. A car's lifetime produces 1.3 billion cubic yard of polluted air and scatters 40 pounds of worn tire particles, brake debris, and worn road surface into the atmosphere (Bike to Work Day). Pollutants released a year add up to over 12,140 lbs for cars and 17,000 for light trucks. Some of those pollutants are carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen oxides (Bike to Work Day). By choosing to bike or walk instead of drive, the amount of gases and waste contributing to global warming, drops drastically. Choosing to drive instead of taking a greener form of transportation is a great threat to the environment.