Sustainable transportation - Essay Example

newable resources is secured by using appropriate methods of regeneration, b) even if a specific transportation means is based on nonrenewable resources, it should be checked whether the amount/ volume of non-renewable resources used can be replaced by renewable resources of the same amount/ volume and c) the pollution caused as a result of the use of a particular transport means should not be above the limits set by the authorities (Daly 1996, in Black 36). At this point, a critical issue appears: are there specific facts that can lead to the characterization of a transport system as non-sustainable?

The answer is positive. Indeed, as noted in the study of Black a transport system does not meet the requirements of sustainability when it is related to the following problems: a) extremely high atmospheric pollution, b) employment of non-renewable resources above the limit stated by the relevant authorities, c) quite high level of accidents, resulted either to deaths or to injuries, d) the level of the system’s congestion is high (Black 36). According to the above when having to check the sustainability of a transportation system it would be necessary to identify primarily the effects of the specific system on the environment.

In USA the needs of transportation sector in petroleum are above the country’s oil production level; in fact the petroleum used in US’ specific sector reaches the ‘147% of US oil production’ (Davis, Diegel and Boundy 2). In addition, the petroleum used in US’ transport sector represents the ‘67% of the country’s overall petroleum use’ (Davis, Diegel and Boundy 2). It should be also noted that the high percentage of petroleum used in US’ transportation sector, about 63% is used by cars and light trucks (Davis, Diegel and Boundy 2).

This percentage can be considered as high if taking into consideration the following fact: the energy employed for covering the needs of US’ transportation industry is about the one third