Sustainable transportation involves the development of economic, environmental and social aspects. It is the broad subject related to the transport that includes vehicles, infrastructures, railways, roads, pipelines and other transport related projects. Logistics and other transport related operations are also involved in this system.
The sustainability of the transportation system is largely measured by the effectiveness and efficiency of the environmental impacts on it. It is the system which allow to access the basic needs of societies and individuals in a consistently manner with environmental and human health. System supports a vibrant economy and offers different choices for transport media. Basically transport system exist to provide a connection between economic and social aspects and with the increased use of mobility, peoples quickly take the opportunities offered by the system.
If we talk about the environmental impact, than it has a great impact on the ecosystem. The consumption of world's energy by these systems is around 20% to 25% and emits carbon- dioxide in large amount. The policy has been made to control the environmental impact of transportation system and have their greatest impact at city level. The policies have been recognized as of city wide, nationwide and international wide. Environmental experts are concerning the increased emphasis on social equity and fairness issues and also concerned about the need to ensure the proper access of services even in lower income groups and also includes fast growing population of older citizens.
Sustainable transportation faces various issues which include:
It is responsible for 13% emissions of anthropogenic gases which lead great effects on green house effect.
It account for 23% of world's CO2 emission from fossil fuel combustion and it is estimated that it gets double in next 40 years.
Cars and other four wheelers are responsible for half of transport CO2 emission which gets triple between 2000 and 2050.
The container sector and the shipping value get double from 2000 to 2020.
From the transport sector, road transport accounts the largest part of CO2 emissions and will remain same in the coming future.
Air transport is expected to be 2.5 times higher in 2025 than today and it will be three times higher for air cargo traffic.
Issues not ends here as traffic congestion impacts on ecosystem and consumption of non renewable resources are other problems face by sustainable transportation. However there is a solution for every problem, by using cycling, by home walking, and car sharing, resources can be save. Using public transport facility which is reliable and frequent way to save resources is another solution for the issue. Car travelling becomes a trend these days and creating a complex situation since 2000 and the concern about the sustainable transportation is noticed because of the oil and energy crisis.
