Domestic Transportation Infrastructure - Research Paper Example

?Introduction: A transport is a means through which people shift from one place to another. There are many reasons for people to move from a place toanother which may include studies, job or any other purpose. Whatever the reason for travelling from one place to the other place would be, means of transportation serve important purpose in making people fulfill their various needs. The modes of transport include: Cars Bus Trains and Trams Airplane Ferries and ships etc. Hypothesis: The hypothesis in this paper is that “if cycling infrastructure is provided, consumption of fuels can be controlled”. The paper will discuss what modes of transport are, which modes of transport are more commonly used in urban and especially metropolitan areas, why people do not use cycles or other clean fuel options to go to work anymore, and how can this trend be changed. To study this hypothesis, the researcher has carried out some primary data collection. For this purpose a small questionnaire was prepared. The questionnaire was focused on providing reasons of not using bicycles, walk or other modes of transport to reach one’s work place. Another focus for this questionnaire was to guide about the probability of using bicycles or going to work on foot if proper infrastructure was provided. A small sample of 20 people was considered for primary data collection. Some secondary data was also collected to ensure that the researcher has ample information to base hypothesis testing upon. Modes of transport in urban areas: The modes of transport used in urban areas are slightly different from the ones used in rural areas. In the areas known as metropolitans that are actually the heavily populated areas, the need of public transport rises. In these regions, people have to adopt various means to go for work or for children to go to school. The most common type of transportation is provided by transit systems in most regions. Transit systems are basically bus services which run around the city to provide transportation facilities to students, workers and all kinds of people. These buses provide their services to city dwellers at low fares which increase their usability in urban areas. Usually, bus service appears to be the preferred means of transportation by a majority of people because of inexpensive rates and convenience (Curtis and Tiwari, 2008). There are different types of transit systems that are run in various countries. In New York, for instance, subway system is among the transportation system which is probably the biggest one in the world. People living in urban areas in New York prefer travelling by bus to car. It is one of the cities in which the use of public transport is frequent and constant. The reason for this frequent use of bus as a mode of transport might be because of the less amount of cars people own in New York. Similarly, London has a large network of trams, both underground and over ground rails, subway and buses which help people in shifting from a region to another. Usually, people have travel cards for travelling in buses and people are not allowed to drink alcohol in public transport in London. However, in some countries the use of cycle is preferable as a means of transportation in urban areas (Krizek, 2003). There are many factors that determine the use of a specific means of transportation by people. However, the main reasons of choosing bus services are the cheap costs and affordability; need to have more spacious roads that cannot be possible if everyone moves on his own car and social responsibility that everyone gets a chance to travel regardless of whether he owns a car or not (Naess, 2005). Some modes of transport are used in specific regions depending on the people’s needs. For instance, in such a place where people collect the products from various factories and intend to export them, they need some means through which they can transport the materials to different places. Usually this is done by means of ship if there is an ocean nearby or by bus, train or airplane. Change of Trend: Had Mother Earth not been a dead entity, it would have cursed technology a great deal. Not because it would have envied human sustainability on this machinery, rather due to the perils of the earth crimes committed by the bi-products released by these human creations. In these “modern” times, when we prefer human sustainability over our planets sustainability, we draw a blank to the time there was all “clean” fuel or no fuel. Not many decades ago, the socio-economic life of humans was confined to the healthier and more environment friendly modes of transport such as walking, traveling over animals or a little more recently, cycling. With the growing pace of evolution in technology, automobile industry came into being and swerved the trend of transport modes. The anti-technologists do not go too far when they deem this scientific achievement as an evil one. Agreed that to travel all the way from U.S to Singapore, a businessman “needs” to take flight, But to do her groceries in a supermarket in the neighborhood does a housewife “need” to harm the environment? Thus the evolution from necessity based lifestyle to luxury based lifestyle is prevalent. When this shift of a life style a few might benefit, but the big picture might reveal devastating effects (Cervero and Radisch, 1996). Even those few benefiting are ignorant of the health issues and the challenge this lifestyle is posing to the future generations. The same scientific knowledge, at the expense of which automobiles were invented, proves that humans need to burn a certain level of calories each day to live a healthy life. They would rather turn to the “gym culture” but won’t walk or ride a bicycle for that matter a few miles which would benefit the earth as well. In reality, this generation of ignorant individuals is blinded by the “trends”, “fads”, “status consciousness” and other concepts driving them towards a certain behavioral pattern. Analyzing the facts, in developed countries and even in some developing countries all license holder own a car, some even more. Even if we assume that all these cars are fuel efficient with minimum sulphur content of 50ppm, we still might get a vague idea about how many fuel emissions would be emitted in just a day. Adding the fuel emissions generated by railways, buses and aircrafts, we might predict a disastrous figure of fuel emissions sent out to the environment everyday. Thus, this situation really puts a question mark on the future. The predictions claiming that world will soon come to an end sounds very authentic given the circumstances. Serious efforts need to be put in to carve out international “implemental” laws to take account of the issue and the mindsets of the global population needs to be changed through soft power and cooperative measures, so that these modes of transport can be replaced by more environment friendly one’s like bicycling can be reintroduced into our lifestyles (Cervero and Kochelman, 1997). Therefore we need to mend our ways today and own Mother Earth, for a better and a sustainable tomorrow. Results from Questionnaires: Six Reasons Why People Don’t Walk to Work A small questionnaire was used to get response about the selected hypothesis. To the first question “Your preferred mode of transport to go to work/school?” The answers received were: Car (Personal, or taxi) (50%) Bus (35%) Tram (10%) Others including bicycles and walking to work (5%) From the data collected it is clear that most of the people prefer cars as mode of transport while buses remain the second most popular mode of transit. Walking to work saves fuel money and keeps you fit. However, surveys have shown that the number of people who walk or cycle to work has decreased sharply over the years. In response to the question “Reason of using this mode of transport. Rate them in order of importance” these are the six main reasons people mention for using Cars and Buses as most common mode of transit. 1. Long distances. Recently, most cities have expanded shifting the work place away from residential colonies hence increasing the distances between. Normally, a person can walk one mile without getting adverse effects i.e. dehydration, fatigue but, unfortunately, now these distances have increased by 10 to 20 times making it impossible for people to walk or ride on bicycle. 2. Lack of Infra-structure. Except in a few planned metropolitans, no sidewalks exist for people to walk safely without being hit by some speedy maniac thus, putting off many prospective walkers. Meanwhile, cyclists are not tolerated on the streets as the hinder the smooth flow of traffic. So in the end either they stop for their own safety or are banned by the authorities labeled as a nuisance. 3. Weather. In places with extreme and unpredictable weather, many do not have the choice to walk. And you have to agree that a foot of snow, torrential rainfall and scorching heat are not the best walking conditions. After all, you cannot reach office dripping on the carpet or fainting from dehydration. Thus, walking in bad weather may do more damage than good for one’s health. 4. Freedom. A car gives you the freedom and comfort which is not possible with walking or catching the bus/train to work. People do not want to be bound by the train timings and waiting on the stations unless they absolutely need to. Then again it saves time to use car than walk. Especially, today when the world has become so busy that the 24 hours are insufficient for most, walking to work is a leisure that only few can afford. 5. Street crime. Street crime and mobile snatching incidents have been on the rise over the last 10 years making more and more people to choose cars over walking. An automobile gives a sense of safety that walking lacks giving you an advantage over the criminal on the road. Especially when it comes to women and walking after dark, cars are by far a better option. 6. Socio-cultural Aspects. A car has become a symbol of financial prosperity and status in many societies. And with growing competition among people to own the best, it is imminent that walking is now considered out-dated. People who walk and do not own a car are looked down by those who do. Hence with the change in the socio-cultural values mode of transportation has also been modified to suit the status quo. When the 3rd question “What are your reasons for not bicycling or walking to work/school at the moment” was asked, most of the people rated Lack of infrastructure for walk, social insecurity, street crimes and distances as major reasons of not using bicycles to go to work. The same reasons apply to not going to work on foot. In the next question, the respondents were asked about “What changes in infrastructure would make you rethink and go for bicycling or walking to work/school? Rate them in order of importance”. In reply to this question, most of them have asked for: Paths for cycling Street security for cycling Most of the respondents, especially women replied that they are hesitant in opting for cycling as mode of transit as there are no proper pathways made for cyclists. At places, the paths available for cyclist are through vacant and deserted patches of land, where various kinds of crimes can take place in case an independent and alone cyclist cycles through. The next question talks about “If proper infra structure is provided, will you prefer bicycling or walking to work/school? Rank on the scale of 1-100” and the response to this question is shown in the following table and graph: Respondent Number Chances of switching to cycling rated on 1-100 1 75 2 89 3 60 4 68 5 78 6 77 7 87 8 83 9 90 10 95 11 76 12 73 13 80 14 50 15 25 16 45 17 64 18 72 19 84 20 30 The line of regression drawn in this graph confirms that the respondents believe that if they are provided with the proper infra structure and security for cycling, most of the people would like to switch to cycling. People will also start preferring to walk to work. Their opinion is geared towards the fact that people around them also want to use cycling to remain health and fit as well as use a low cost and healthier fuel (or no fuel) to go to work or to school. In the last question, respondents were asked the following question: “What are your chances of using bicycle or walk to go to work/school? 0-25%, 26-50%, 51-75%, 76-100%” 70% of the respondents fell in the third category. 76-100% category (2 affirmative) 51-75% category (14 affirmative) 26-50% category (3 affirmative) 0-25% category (1 affirmative) Whatever the reason maybe, the trend has shifted towards driving and even with measures to facilitate the walkers it may never be possible to reverse this change. However, this change has not been without consequences and detrimental effects on the environment cannot be ignored. Importance of fuel consumption control: Cities are covering 2% of surface on the globe. This 2% is more than enough to utilize the lion share of key resources. The estimated amount of carbon releases because of fossil fuel that are used in cement preparation is almost 78%. The use of industrial wood in city is 76%. Half of total water is consumed in irrigation and by city inhabitants. One third is utilized by industries in city and the remaining water used in sanitation and drinking. The carbon prints surround the city; they are spread in air, giving their full share in global warming and polluting the environment in quiet a fast manner. A city is primary accumulation of over all human actions and behaviors. Increase in environmental hazards is dangerous in a variety of manners. The increase in environmental hazards is the result of human hobbies, occupations, leisure interests and other actions. Devices which are making our life easy, fast, efficient, quick and offer enormous opportunities to manage the work in perfect manner are also leaving negative impacts on our life. The negative impacts are long lasting and unrecoverable. These impacts are holding the roots of our environment, our economy, our living in quiet strong manner. The efforts which are made to stop negative impacts on environments are not enough. We need more resources and define planning with proper strategies. One of the step is taken by APN/IGES or Asian Mega-city Program. This program is under study since two years. Under this agenda, research is focused on two Indian cities. These are the mega cities, namely Kolkata and New Delhi. Manila is also taken as a part of this research study. Manila is a city of Philippines. The major environmental concerns by the developments process in large cities is the basic objective of this research work. The traces of gas in environment are detected during process of measuring air pollution. Atmosphere is polluted with different gases emitted by industries, smoke emitted by cars, trucks, local buses and many other sources. Consumption of fossil fuels results in emission of carbon dioxide, which is the biggest enemy of ozone layer. Waste management is not proper in many metropolitans of the world. As a result careless or irresponsible use of fuel by industry emits dangerous gasses like methane. There are many indirect sources from which gases are emitted. Methane is emitted from fields of rice paddy. The consequences of these gases are examined in national context. Emission of all these gases from different sources when combined becomes a big source to pollute the environment. Natural gas can be used instead of oil. It is easily obtained from land. It is cleaner than other gases but it also emitted from carbon dioxide. It is a cheaper as compared to oil. The largest reserves of natural gas are found in Pakistan, Iran, Yemen, Qatar, Angola, Algeria and Russia. The usage of natural gas is increased due to its easy extraction form land plus it’s much cheaper than oil. It is used in all the major industries to run the business. It is estimated that the next fuel shortage that we are going to face after oil will be natural gas (Pucher, et. al. 2010). Though using cleaner fuel seems like a part time solution, but the actual solution is to avoid heavy consumption of all these fuels. As a huge percentage of fuel is consumed while driving to and from work or school, people can save this percentage very easily by switching to bicycling and walking to work or school. Another benefit of this plan would be better health of community, as in general due to huge in take of junk food, the younger generation has become obese. Proving the hypothesis: If proper cycling infrastructure is provided, Fuel consumption can be controlled: States that have spent in bicycling industry can observe a positive change in their economy. It increases the economic activities plus employment level as well. It can be a wise decision to include bicycle as a local transport. Riding a bicycle instead of driving a car has economic impacts that are not much obvious in some conditions. But if we sum up all the small fractions of individual level, a big saving can be computed. This saving will not only increase the GDP of a country, but it also saves an individual’s income. We can observe the high prices of fuel. Prices are increasing as we move forward. A preventive measure is required to save our natural resources. Bicycle is convenient option for youngsters. Youngsters are the future and they are responsible to reduce the consumption of fuel. Todd Litman, a researcher of Victoria Transport Policy Institute gives a clear picture of advantages gained by using bicycle instead of car. The long list of benefits includes: Reduction in air pollution Reduction in congestion Saving in vehicle cost Saving in roadway cost Improvement in traffic safety Saving in parking cost Energy conservation. According to his estimate the calculation of saving is 2.73 dollars per mile, if a person is using bicycle instead of car. Energy resources used in car includes petroleum. Petroleum is the expensive natural resource required in every business, to run machines in factory, for car driving, for aero planes and in many sectors. Saving fuel with the help of cycling is beneficial for all (McClintok, 2002). To achieve this goal making proper cycling structure with in a city is required. Make proper tracks for cycling. The accurate network for cycling can help the user to reach their destination in less time. The road where the reduction of heavy traffic is not possible, we have to introduce lanes for cycling within that road. The cyclers can get more preferences from traffic police than a driver. This can increase the number of bicycles on road. Cycling infrastructure gives an optimistic impact on the citizens of that state where cycling infrastructure is preferred. It is good for health, people remain physical active. The usage of a non- fuel transport reduces the air population caused by burning of fuel (Garrard and Rissel, 2006). Once again looking at the graphs and figures obtained by the small survey, it is clear that if people are provided with proper infrastructure for cycling, a lot many will prefer to switch to cycling as primary mode of transit. This can result in a cleaner environment and healthier nations. Conclusion: To control consumption of fuel with the help of bicycle is much convenient. Cars are a much easier transport as compared to bicycle. But the cost connected with car makes it an expensive transport. It includes gas, taxes, fuel and maintenance. Fuel contributes the highest share in expenses of car. This share needs to be reduced globally. Cycling to work can be made a popular mode of transit by paying a little attention towards cycling infra structure development plans. It may require more time to reach the destination with the help of bicycle. But heavy traffic seems too big hurdle in car driving. Cycling is a healthy activity with worth mentioning benefits over car. References: Curtis, Carey and Tiwari, Reena. Transitioning urban arterial roads to activity corridors. Urban design International: 2008 Vol. 13 pp. 105-120. Garrard, J. and Rissel, C. Cycling for active transport and recreation in Australia: Status review and future directions. World Transport and Policy Practice. Bradford, England: 2006. 49-63 Kevin J. Krizek, Residential Relocation and Changes in Urban Travel-does Neighbourhood scale urban form matter? APA Journal, Summer 2003, Vol. 69 No. 3. Pp. 265-288 McClintok, H. Planning for cycling: Principles, practice, and solutions for urban planners. Woodhead publishing limited, Abington Cambridge, England: 2002. Peter Naess, Residential location affects travel behavior-but how and why? The case of Copenhagen metropolitan area. Elsevier: Progress in planning 6: 2005. 167-257 Pucher, J. Dill, J. and Handy, S. Infrastructure, programs and policies ort increase bicycling: An international review. Preventive Medicine, 2010. 106-125 Robert Cervero and Carolyn Radisch, Travel choices in Pedestrian versus automobile oriented neighbourhoods. Transport policy Vol. 3 No. 3, 1996. 127-144. Robert Cervero and Kara Kochelman, Travel Demand and the 3 Ds: Density, Diversity and Design. Elsevier: Transpn Res-D, 1997, Vol 2 No. 3. 199-219. Appendix A Questionnaire: 1. Your preferred mode of transport to go to work/school? 2. Reason of using this mode of transport. Rate them in order of importance. 3. What are your reasons for not bicycling or walking to work/school at the moment? 4. What changes in infrastructure would make you rethink and go for bicycling or walking to work/school? Rate them in order of importance. 5. If proper infra structure is provided, will you prefer bicycling or walking to work/school? Rank on the scale of 1-100. 6. What are your chances of using bicycle or walk to go to work/school? 0-25%, 26-50%, 51-75%, 76-100% Read More