Sustainability Through Transportation and Urbanism: Saving the Planet, One Fewer Car Trip at a Time

It's been a while since I've written anything on here- life has been pretty busy lately. Between the Amtrak trip, starting a new job, and moving into a new apartment in Downtown Cleveland, there hasn't been a whole lot of downtime. Now that I am all settled into the routine of being an urban dweller, I hope to post more frequently. "Gas pump entertainment" by MarkinDetroit is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. Here, I want to discuss something that has been on my mind for some time now- multimodal transportation- or more specifically, the lack thereof. To me, a multimodal transportation system means that you are able to easily and safely utilize multiple transportation methods to carry out the needs of life. This includes transit, walking, biking, scooters, inter-city rail travel, air travel, and anything else. Yes, this includes driving as well. As it stands currently, our transportation system is extraordinarily unimodal. We drive everywhere.  Indeed, 76% of commut...

Over the past few months of doing this blogging thing, it has become abundantly clear to me that most people with whom I associate, at least verbally, are committed to having rapid transit options in their city, or would like to live in a city that has such infrastructure.   Typically, when we think of rapid transit, we immediately think trains. We love trains. They provide a novelty that transports us back to our childhood days of watching Thomas the Train. In an increasingly globalized world, many people have traveled to Europe, Chicago, and New York City, and few (if any) are not amazed by their extensive rail network and long for such a thing to exist all across the United States. Something about being able to walk 5 minutes, hop on a train, and go anywhere they could possibly imagine, quickly, is something I think most of us can stand behind. Driving sucks. So why are trains so awesome and fast? For starters, they are grade separated. This means that trains have their own...

The Interstate Highway System is often seen as the most impressive achievement in American transportation history. Once completed, people and goods could travel between cities at speeds people could only dream about before. It is pretty amazing that I can make the trip from home to Columbus in just 2 hours (a 110 mile trip), or that you can make it all the way to South Carolina in just about 9 hours. The Interstate Highway System was the backbone of suburbanization, allowing people to live farther away from their jobs and still get to work in a reasonable amount of time.  "Connecticut - Eisenhower Interstate System"  by  wallyg  is licensed under  CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Our society wastes no time worshiping this system, and the benefits it has brought to Americans are undeniable. While we worship the engineering marvel that the Interstate Highway System is, we rarely consider the absolutely horrific things that had to occur to make it a reality. You might not think any...