Sustainable transport is the movement of people and goods from one location to another. Within urban areas, it is a key aspect of creating more Sustainable cities.
Modes of transport include air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline, and space. Transport can be public, where operators provide scheduled services, or private.
Types of vehicles
In general, following vehicles types can be distinguished:
- water vehicle (includes supersurface water vehicles (regular or hydrofoiling), subsurface vehicles (regular or supercavitating))
- ground vehicle (includes supersurface ground vehicles, subsurface ground vehicles)
- air vehicle (includes lighter-than-air air vehicles and heavier-than-air air vehicles)
Most vehicles above can be either
- privately owned; see personal water vehicle, personal ground vehicle, personal air vehicle
- public: see public transport. Public transport vehicles includes cabs, trains, bicycles (Bicycle sharing systems), buses, trucks, helicopters, and aircraft (renting services).
Appropriate use of vehicle types
To determine the most fuel-efficient vehicle depending on the method of travel -ie via air, land or water- see Appropriate methods of transport
To determine a vehicle type based on various factors (including cost, speed, carrying capacity, ...) use the table below. Also keep in mind that you can also change the places you visit to reduce carrying capacity requirements. For example, if you switch from going to supermarkets to collect your food to having your food delivered (ie from CSA-farms) you can reduce your carrying requirements greatly (ie from a 4-wheeled car to a bicycle).
Mode | Single journey range (km) / optimal (feasible) | Speed of journey within optimal range | Cost | Mass transport capacity | Reach/ Coverage | Safety | On-demand | Infrastructure investment | Comfort | Customer Acceptance | Fuel Efficiency | Environmental, aesthetic and social impacts | Land Use |
Walking | 0-2 (0-6) | ||||||||||||
Bicycle | 0-6 (0-30) | ||||||||||||
Motorized bicycle | 0-6 (0-30) | ||||||||||||
Car | 3-300 (0-1500) | (urban) (other) | |||||||||||
Motorcycle | 3-100 (0-1500) | ||||||||||||
Bus (urban) | 0.2-20 (0.2-50) | ||||||||||||
Coach (long distance) | 1-300 (1-3000) | ||||||||||||
Urban Rail/ Metro | 1-20 (0.3-50) | ||||||||||||
Conventional Rail | 10-300 (0.3-5000) | ||||||||||||
High Speed Rail/ Maglev | 100-800 (10-10,000) | ||||||||||||
Boat | 1-200 (0.2-20,000) | ||||||||||||
Aeroplane | 600-20,000 (100-20,000) | ||||||||||||
Helicopter | 10-500 (0-3000) | ||||||||||||
Airship | 300-2000 (50-20,000) | ? | |||||||||||
Cable Car | 0.3-10 (0.3-50) | ||||||||||||
PRT | 1-100 (0.3-500) | ? | |||||||||||
Elevator/Lift | 0.1-0.5 (0.02-0.5) | ||||||||||||
Escalator | 0.1-0.5 (0.02-1) |
Tweaking old vehicles
Old vehicles can be made completely ecologic by means of changes to the propulsion technology. These changes include changing IC-engines to run on a emissionless fuel, or swapping out the engine altogether for ie a electric motor, ...
See also
- SkyCab and Shweeb: railed vehicles suspended above the ground that can be directed to a specific destination (unlike most public transport vehicles as city buses, ...) See also http://www.sakaramenta.com/
- Electric vehicle
- Hybrid vehicles
- Public transport
- Transport modeling reform
Interwiki links
External Links
There are many websites and groups around the world with a significant focus on sustainable transportation, in different contexts and countries.
Some of the significant research and communication centers focused primarily on this topic and working towards broad, systematic change are:
- The EMBARQ project, http://www.embarq.org/ :- "EMBARQ’s mission is to catalyze and help implement sustainable transport solutions to improve quality of life in cities."
- The World Streets website and community, http://worldstreets.wordpress.com/ :- "World Streets consistently argues for and supports Equity-Based Transportation Policies in the interest of efficiency, economy and environment. (Click to get started.)."
- The Streets Blog website, http://www.streetsblog.org/ :- "Streetsblog is a daily news source connecting people to information about sustainable transportation and livable communities."