| CAFE Doesn’t Cut It: VMT Reduction Needed |
|
|
| Written by Joshua Liberles | |||||
| Wednesday, 13 February 2008 | |||||
|
Unfortunately, the key acronym in this debate may not be CAFE, but rather “VMT.” VMT, or Vehicle Miles Traveled, has consistently been on the rise both in the US and throughout the world. According to the Wall Street Journal, the annual number of miles driven by Americans has risen by 151% from 1977 to 2001. This rate is five times faster than the population growth. From the Wall Street Journal:
The reasons for the big growth in miles traveled are pretty obvious if you don't live in the center of a big city endowed with functioning public transport. To make space for ever larger suburban homes, housing developers pushed further and further from city centers and shopping areas. New neighborhoods often had street layouts cluttered with cul de sacs that forced people to drive farther to get to main roads or stores. Local zoning laws -- reflecting the preferences of residents -- tended to separate commercial and residential uses, and single family from multi-family dwellings. The US Department of Energy predicts that the VMT will continue to increase, by as much as 59% by 2030. While better fuel standards may make us feel like we’re helping to clean up the planet, the rate of pollution will continue to increase as we continue to drive everywhere. Greenhouse gas levels and temperature changes will not only get worse – they’ll continue to accelerate.
Unfortunately, biofuels and other alternative fuels don’t provide the answer. Two papers published in Science magazine have brought much-needed attention to the limitations of biofuels, Land Clearing and the Biofuel Carbon Debt and Use of U.S. Croplands for Biofuels Increases Greenhouse Gases Through Emissions from Land Use Change. When we grow crops for fuel and energy-needs compete for land with food-needs, people starve. If we destroy pristine habitats to grow fuel, we release more CO2 than if we stuck to fossil fuels. Even the best of these biofuel crops, like sugarcane, switch grass, and “crop wastes,” come with a heavy environmental price tag. As George Monbiot of the Guardian says, “apart from used chip fat, there is no such thing as a sustainable biofuel.”
Despite our propensity to eat fatty fast foods, there isn’t enough waste vegetable oil to go around. The answer isn’t a simple one, but it clearly involves less driving. We need to stop building sprawling communities that revolve around the car and create denser housing that supports walking, biking, and mass transit. Our government needs to stop subsidizing automobiles via ever-expanding road and highway systems, bending over backwards for the oil industries, and using public spaces for parking (see Park(ing) Day and Who Pays for Paradise Paved?).
Photo via flickr by K2D2vaca.
Comments (2)
J.C., Sr.
said:
|
|||||
 |
We need to stop building sprawling communities. We may have allready done that. Ouch. Just, maybe people realise The McMansion is not as sweet as you dreamt and the trip out there is a nightmare. I hope so. |
 |
It's sad that most US cities HAD some form of public transit before the 1950's, that was dug out or demolished to make money from car ownership. There was a time when we cared more about these issues...we need to get back to basics. |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
Cars are the most inconvenient convenience we have. We're required to have them, but increasingly, we dislike them. At Carectomy, we're trying to figure out how to extract cars from people.
The operation is a little bit painful, but life afterward is much more awesome. If you're interested in carectomies, sign up to our newsletter, or subscribe our RSS feed below.
Subscribe to this comment's feed