Our TransportationGood or Bad for us?

Emilie Sano

Many times I’ve seen cars and buses leaking oil

from their pipes, or smoke bellowing out from their pipes. Boy was that REVOLTING! And that wasn’t the first time I’ve seen that happen before. But honestly, the most disturbing? Thinking everyone all over the world uses cars. That day I promised myself I will NEVER ride cars or buses again…but then I went shopping. Then, I realized, how much we needed cars. Without them, traveling would take so long, we couldn’t get supplies we need, and we wouldn’t be able to go where we pleased. But will we travel for the cost of clean air?

Our CarsWe humans breathe about

3000 gallons of air a day according to www.epa.gov/air , yet we continue to pollute that exact air that we breathe. Ewe. The only word to describe it. And most of it comes from our cars. 3/4 of our air pollution is from cars and trucks alone. This proves how harmful these cars are…which leads to wonderings, such as “Is it good for us humans to use these cars?”

Our Cars

To prove my point, I took a survey at MNS (PS290) in class 503, Caitlin and Carolyn’s class. From this survey, I saw 15/25 kids ride a car a few times a week, 4/24 say they ride a few times a month, 3/25 say a few times a year, 2/25 say every day, and 2/25 they never ride in a car. From this I learned that more than ½ the kids in our class ride the car a few times a week. I remembered the time at the bus when I saw leaking oil. This survey proved how much we need cars, and also how we constantly use cars, damaging the earth.

Now, buses are similar to cars in those air polluting ways, but the thing that comes from the air polluting is more terrifying, and yes that’s possible. The fumes can damage the exact buildings we live in according to www.epa.gov/air because of the stew of chemicals in them. Trucks and buses alone cause ¼ of the United States’ air pollution. Also, according to http://www.nhtsa.gov buses cause many accidents, around 24 people die in school bus related accidents each year. Are buses the best option for traveling?

Our Buses

Now, although I’ve been saying that our transportation is utterly disgusting, I must admit this transportation is probably better than the rest of our transportation. Still, it has it’s faults. We cause tons of litter on the very tracks. And not just that, but people die because the debris! According to www.suntimes.com/news/metro/2224506-418/fire-cta-control-report, it says that a fire starts from the debris from the tracks catching on fire due to the subways causing friction. Isn’t anything safe for us?

Our subways

You’re probably thinking, “Seriously? Bikes? They don’t pollute!” OK, OK, so this time it is not about the pollution, it is about safety. There are many accounts where bikers are killed or run over by cars. Too many accounts. Although they do not pollute, the risk of us being injured high. What can we do about it?

Our Bikes

What WE Can DoNow, I am done critiquing our transportation, let’s

think about solutions for fixing them. Well, if we go back to the beginning I talked about cars being the biggest problem, so let’s start with that. New Hybrid cars are more fuel efficient with their new shape, and release less polluting fumes. Also, new electric charged cars are better, for they do not use Diesel, one of the big causes of our pollution. Subways. Our subway workers are working to their best ability to keep the subway clean, to prevent the debris from burning, and killing/injuring people. Bikes. Months ago they applied the Bike Lanes, ensuring the bikers’ safety. Our world is trying to progress better and better. So in these ways listed above, it benefits our life, safety-wise and health-wise. Thank you and hooray for our transportation!