Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 1
Passenger transport - growth of traffic by mode of transport
EU-15: 1970-1999
[4]
of pleasure and social status. So are its disadvantages, including local air pollution,
greenhouse gas emissions, road congestion, noise, mortality and morbidity from
accidents, and loss of open space to roads, parking lots and urban sprawl. Many
people are aware of the disadvantages but see no comparable substitutes to the
automobile. The dilemma of an automobile owner is similar to that of a herd owner
described in the classic case of the “tragedy of the commons”
[2]
. In the EU car use
is on the rise (in Fig.
1
).
As stated in a report by the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership
[3]
, voluntary
agreements made by the European Commission in 1998 with automobile manu-
facturers in Europe, Japan and Korea to reduce average emissions to 140 g/km
CO
2
emissions by 2009 are far from being achieved - and an EU regulatory
framework has therefore been proposed, to be ready by mid-2008. There are a
number of reasons as to why progress has been slower than anticipated: (i) consumer
preference has been towards higher performance and larger cars; (ii) progress
with tax incentives for low carbon vehicles across the EU has been mixed; and
(iii) the three trade bodies have been unable to influence the CO
2
emissions of
vehicles produced by their members and there has been no clearly laid out system
of burden sharing.
Part of the analysis is to suggest ways to revert the car dependence trend,
through evidencing its intricate relation to urban and energy planning, behavior
change campaigns, and a shift in the perception of how to account for the externali-
ties of road transport. Car-Free development encompasses a range of ideas that
places
humans before cars
and stresses a new urban order based first on quality of
life. To better understand sustainable mobility, causes and effects of transportation
activities must be identified and its upstream issues dealt with accordingly.
