Green transportation in USA: difficulties and mirages
We use “green” to describe activities that result in little or limited amount of carbon emissions and pollution. Green transportation, covers
- non-vehicle involved commuting such as walking, biking, scooting.
- public transportation (buses, trains, subways).
- electric vehicles (with green energy source). My father-in-law had to install solar panel on his roof because when he bought his Tesla and showed off this “green” car to his father-in-law, who, by the way, used to be an engineer, the old man immediately made fun of him, “hah, so you are now burning coals instead of gas?”
Why is green transportation important
Every summer, we all have a same question: why is it so hot? We only ask questions when we don’t understand. When we ask why it is hot this year, we are actually asking why it is hotter than last year. It is not a disillusion – our global temperature are indeed rising steadily faster. In 2024, the average global temperature has risen a whole Celsius degree – a new record.
When we relate the temperature change to our transportation, naturally we may think: we should drive since it’s so hot. It’s a reasonable sense that people don’t want to wait under the sun for dozens of minutes for a bus, and then have a walk over to their office – this is what happens to me almost every two weeks.
But I want to take a tiny step further on this thought: we drive because it is so hot, or, it is so hot because we drive?
It’s not a philosophic question like chickens and eggs. It’s not even an opinion, it’s just simply true that the global temperature has been synchronizing with our carbon emission since ever. These data are public and anyone can get access to it.
Data to carbon emission and global temperature change
Fortunately, people do act on it, particularly Europeans and Asians – two pioneers on public transportation. However, the greatest carbon emitter, USA, is not doing its job as well.
Why is non-vehicle commuting hard
During a basketball game stream, half of the ads in timeouts are about cars, while the other half is about fast foods. Well, welcome to America.
People need cars simply because they live so far away from each other. It’s buried in the American culture for a long time. For example, all guys dream of having a garage for their home lab or workstation – just search “home work station” on youtube and you will be amazed and entertained.
The zoning policy does not help to bring people closer either. In China, the best restaurant to people is always the one downstairs. Here, the best restaurant is always the one driving out of my neighborhood, onto I-40 highway and take the exit 171 and then drive onto highway I-70 and take the exit 76, take a few turns – “hey, it’s only forty minute driving, I feel so lucky have this restaurant nearby”. I am not insane, the policy that doesn’t allow opening restaurants in the neighborhood is.
Why is public transporation so bad
A few most important things for public transportation: on time, clean, safe, and maybe not too pricy (it should be at least cheaper than driving). Buses here failed almost all these requirements. Trains here are pretty clean, but it’s slower than driving a car and more expensive than taking a flight – which is really amazing!! Taking the public transportation is a great way to show that you are a tough guy.
Why is it so hard to have good public transportations in America, the most wealthy country in the whole world?
Having lived here for four years, I can see a clear pattern in most things I experience here: they are hard to change, but easy, super easy, to understand – anything that can make profit is possible, and very likely, to happen. Profitable is never one of the things we know about public transportation. In China, having been built and put into use for several decades, most railways still can’t make ends meet. I believe the same thing happens to Europe too. America doesn’t have good public transportation simply because it doesn’t bring in money. And people don’t do things that can’t make money.
Agreements such as Paris Agreement presented a great vision to restrain carbon emission with economy penalties. It could have made a difference in USA and companies are already trading their carbon emission indice – we all know what happened after 2024 election. RIP.
What am I not satisfied with American electric vehicle industries
The situation of electric vehicles here is very interesting. Big companies, important technologies of electric vehicles all started here in USA – a fact that I appreciate very much.
What I do not appreciate is people’s motivation to buy electric vehicles. For example, Tesla used to be a symbol of personalities: smart, wealthy, responsible people drive Tesla. They are like Porsche owners, but more environment-friendly. Now we can all agree that Mr. Musk ruined that for every Tesla vehicle and every Tesla driver. Ever since the establishment of DOGE, Tesla’s sales have droped rapidly. People might have cared more about the image their vehicle build on them than the real difference it makes on the environment.
Besides the social image, the way how people purchase electric vehicles are also concerning. The most ideal timing to buy an electric vehicle is when you have to replace your vehicles. But now people are mostly just extending their collection of cars. What might be invisible to EV buyers is that purchasing an electric vehicle does not make driving fully carbon-less – our power grids here in USA are still burning coals. Plus, producing a vehicle requires a lot of energy, which is what the carmakers are trying so hard to hide. The manufacturing & shipping of components, transporting cars (using a big truck to carry small cars), are probably generating more emissions than what you would have saved (I don’t have specific data right now, so please feel free to question or argue this statement. But I will figure it out in the future).
Solutions?
I like the golden rules of recyle – “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”. I think reforming transportation system here should follow the same philosophy. Reduce the needs for individual vehicles first. And taking the bus tomorrow (for the first time in your life?) would be a great start.
Also, as ambitious as I can get as an electrical engineer, I have to admit that political / social revolution have more significance in this fight than technologies.
What we can do is to be seen on your bikes, be seen taking a walk, be seen riding a bus, show up and vote for more and better buses when you can. How much difference can we make? I don’t know. But it’s not zero.