Moving People: Traffic Congestion, Road Building, and Sustainable Transportation Solutions in Urban Areas, страница 16

Heavy taxation of common natural resources could be immediately beneficial to the transportation field.  The Netherlands has a car tax for 110% of the vehicle's value.  A higher tax on gas, if mandated by the federal government, would be extensively unpopular but also practical, useful, and successful.  In 2005, the United States Congress passed an energy bill that subsidizes energy companies to stimulate oil production.  If tax payers in the United States are already funding their oil consumption both at the pump and through taxes, then a gas tax would, at the absolute least, reflect more of the true cost of this nonrenewable natural resource.  

With an increased gas tax, the United States consumer still would apply basic free market principles to select a transportation mode or vehicle.  The oil costs are normally hidden from the majority of consumers; thus, the United States’ price for oil is curiously low when compared to the prices in other nations.  Many agencies, including the Transportation Research Board (1997), suggest higher fuel taxes in the United States as a means to increase the demand for fuel-efficient vehicles.  

The marketplace should also reflect the environmental costs of both conventional and alternative fuels.  The National Research Council (1999) has indicated that many economists favor fuel-use taxes as an efficient method to reach this goal; some developed countries already have systems in place to tax nonrenewable natural resources.  Some developing nations and regions have already implemented strategies to promote alternative vehicular fuels: Brazil has a long history of using ethanol made from sugarcane to run both private and public vehicles (AAAS, 2000).  Additional technological breakthroughs in fuel-efficiency technologies may be another long term strategy.  As an example, hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles may be produced from renewable domestic energy resources, and green hydrogen is made from renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar and biomass (Pegg, 2003).  

Further research is needed to reach the goal of increased sustainability.  Increasing sustainability in the transportation sector will demand an even deeper knowledge of how carbon dioxide emissions and infrastructure layouts affect the environment.  The authors of the National

Cooperative Highway Research Program’s Report 541 (2005) surveyed state Departments of Transportation (DOTs), metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), and environmental resource agencies across the United States.  What the survey reveals in terms of the scientific information available to these agencies charged with planning transportation networks is remarkable.  The authors noted that 66% of the DOTs, 57% of the environmental resource agencies, and 51% of the MPOs felt that “only part of the data needed for considering environmental factors in transportation planning is currently available” (NCHRP, 2005).  The interest is there, but more research is required and desired.

As indicated, improving public transportation and transport options, using innovative land use strategies, reducing private vehicle use and vehicle emissions, increasing taxation, researching  new technologies, and integrating these and other approaches are some mitigating strategies that can help regions move away from unsustainable road building and subsequent congestion.  However, this requires direction from a governing agency that is able to finance and champion part or all of these strategies.  A suggested methodology to implement such solutions via a governing body is proposed in the following section.

5.  Conclusion

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (2004) defines sustainable mobility as “the ability to meet society’s need to move freely, gain access, communicate, trade, and establish relationships without sacrificing other essential human or ecological values, today or in the future.”  This agency elaborates further on the three categories of sustainability needed in transportation: economic (i.e., cost-effective, responsive to shifting needs), environmental (i.e., technological solutions, land use planning, consumption management), and social (i.e. equity).  There is overlap among the three categories, but each has unique requirements for successful sustainable transportation.  For example, economic sustainability should incorporate modes of transportation that bear full costs.  Environmental sustainability should use strategies that leave no ecological liabilities for future generations.  Furthermore, social sustainability should promote transportation access for all members of society to avoid marginalizing minority groups.