Sustainable transportation doesn’t rime necessarily with new technology. It has more to do with a reintegration of good sustainable habits. It could means using your bicycle or public transportation, an electric car or doing carpool and even walking. Every single of these transports can help the resilience of our planet. The Earth Charter has four main goals that could all be influenced in a positive way by small sustainable actions such has sharing a ride with friends.

1. Earth, Our Home

One of the main goals of the Earth Charter is to preserve the Earth. Our lifestyle is demanding a lot on the biodiversity, ecosystems and participates to the pollution of the soil, the air and the stream. We can take for example car use; it is really damageable for the environment but has also various externalities that touch the economy and the society. On one side, there is the pollution made by the car itself because of the gaz use. On the other side, the extraction of the oil is also bad for the environment but had also drove to several conflicts between states because on this ressource. In this perspective the more efficent transport would be the bicycle with less negative impacts on the planet. When you think about a country with a lot of bikes, the first to come in mind is The Netherlands. More than 90% of the population drives a bike for their transportation. On one hand the urban planning for the cycle track has proved for many years that bikes and cars can co-exist in a city. On the other hand the success of this transportation is so big that the new problem is now to deal with the lack of “bike parking space” in cities which is a municipalities matter. It might be fixed as soon as possible for the social quality of life of the country. Nevertheless, Netherlands is still the leader of bicycle use and it is mostly because of the good governmental policies on cycling. So we can say that Netherlands are doing their part for the Earth.

2. The global situation

The capitalism system since the Industrial Revolution has established a mode of production that relay on mass consummation. We have to find alternatives for this paradigm or to change the consummation paradigm in a way that the impacts will be less negative on our resources. This will help to support a climate of stability and equity between poor and rich people. This improvement will contribute to the security of the Earth. A majority of people in developed countries and developing countries owns a car and soon it will be the same in undeveloped countries. This is the situation that we know now because of the capitalism system. The same system that creates disparities between countries and inside a country and his population. How a more responsible transportation can improve the situation. It is as much an international responsibility than a local one. Mexico won the Sustainable Transport Award in 2013 for its Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, cycling and walking infrastructure, parking program, and revitalization of public space. The successes of their sustainable transportation relay on the variety of options that the city offers. As we can read on the website of Institute for Transportation and Development policy: “Mexico City has implemented many projects in 2012 that have improved livability, mobility, and quality of life for its citizens, making the Mexican Capital a best practice for Latin America. It also piloted a comprehensive on-street parking reform program (ecoParq), expanded its successful public bike system (Ecobici) and revitalized public spaces such as Alameda Central and Plaza Tlaxcoaque”. The key for a better global sustainable transportation situation is to use more sufficient and multi-model transportation.

3. The Challenges Ahead

The Oxford English Dictionary defines sustainable as ‘capable of being upheld; maintainable” and to sustain as ‘to keep a person, community etc. from failing or giving way; to keep in being, to maintain at the proper level, to support life, nature etc. with needs. The etymology of the terms originates in the French verb soutenir ‘to hold up or support” . The Earth Charter is a definition of sustainability in itself. The Charter endorse sustainable development by promoting respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, social and economic justice and democracy, nonviolence and peace. Sustainability in our societies needs a change of mind and heart. It requires a new sense of global interdependence and universal responsibility. We must imaginatively develop and apply the vision of a sustainable way of life locally, nationally, regionally and globally. Copenhagen is a city that understood the challenges with which we will have to struggle eventually with. One of their initiatives is focusing on reducing as much as possible car traffic. In the most crowded area in Copenhagen it is 13 cars by 100 habitants which is the lowest rate of the city. This achievement has been possible by using five principles of sustainable urban planning: 1. an urban planning favoring proximity, 2. easy, attractive and safe alternative transportations, 3. Public transport attractive and fast, 4. Space for pedestrians, 5. Political will to favor sustainable development. To fight against these future challenges we have to work all together, this is why cities should share their expertise on sustainable transportation.

4. Universal Responsibility

The Earth future is a universal responsibility, it means that wherever you are from or your age, you have to participate to improve the world in changing your lifestyle. Youth has to get more and more involved in this process. It is really easy for us to change our habits and to inform ourselves on the new challenges that we have to deal with. The governments have their part of responsibilities but political changes can take a long time, so if we are using the bottom-up approach we could obtain better results faster. We can find good motivation on the  youth side; “2013 leading the way youth summit” took place in Calgary, Canada. It was a Youth Summit on sustainable transportation that welcomed young people from all around the world. They developed several path of solution such as: Greater partnerships (national, international, private, public); Increased attendance of international delegates; More attention to the development of youth action plans; Stronger partnerships at the local level through “Mentors for Sustainable Transportation”; Increased media coverage (local, national, international). The Jakarta government showed us couple of years ago his implication for more sustainable transportation with the  TransJakar which is a bus rapid transit (BRT) system designed to provide the citizens of Jakarta with a fast public transportation system to help reduce rush hour traffic. Launched in February of 2004 by the city administration of Jakarta, TransJakarta represents a breakthrough for Asia as the region’s first full BRT system with physically separated bus only lanes, at level boarding platforms and prepaid ticketing. In 2011, the TransJakarta Bus way was used by some 360,000 people per day, a 32 percent increase from the previous year. This resulted in a saving of more than 54,000 tons of CO2 emissions, the equivalent of taking 10,000 cars off the road. The estimated fuel savings by bus way users amounts to 117 billion Indonesian rupiahs (about $120 million USD). Jakarta is a great example of the power of political implication.   It is in working all together locally, regionally or internationally on day to day issues that we will transformed our way of life.

General transportation could be a really boring subject, but when you take it in a sustainable perspective it could change and improve a lot your quality of life on the Earth. So be part of this worldwide movement now!

By Stephanie Daigneault

Sources

ITDP,Mexico City Wins 2013 Sustainable Transport Award, 2013, https://go.itdp.org/display/live/Mexico+City+Wins+2013+Sustainable+Transport+Award
New York City Global partners, Best Practice:Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)System, 2012,http://www.nyc.gov/html/ia/gprb/downloads/pdf/Jakarta_BusTransit.pdf

The Earth Charter Initiative, The Earth Charter, 2012, http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/pages/Read-the-Charter.html