Promoting Public Transportation for Sustainable Development

This policy proposal will address the issue of public transportation as a means for sustainable development. Transportation is an issue that needs to be addressed because it has two deleterious effects on the environment. One is the effect of vehicle carbon dioxide, CO2, emissions on climate change and the second stems from other vehicle emissions that cause air pollution leading to negative health effects. These two issues warrant the conclusion that transportation needs to be monitored. Policies can be instituted to mitigate these negative consequences. This report will focus its policy recommendations on promoting public transportation as a means for environmental sustainability. The idea is that increased use of public transportation will lessen the demand for private transportation thereby lowering the number of vehicles on the road and thus lessening global vehicle emissions. INTRODUCTION Addressing issues of sustainability allows societies to meet their present needs without compromising the environment for future generations. This policy proposal will address the promotion of public transportation systems as a means for sustainable development. A more sustainable approach to transportation will lead to less environmental damage before it occurs rather than as a reaction to the damage that results from vehicle emissions (Fergusson and Skinner, 1999). There are two important aspects of environmental damage: the first is CO2 emissions that cause climate change and the second is other emissions that contribute to air pollution and subsequent health effects. These two problems are exacerbated by the increasing trend for private vehicles. The trend calls for more vehicles on the road which means more vehicle emissions and thus more