A new international report on climate change finds rapid changes could cut emissions from transportation by 80% to 90%. Three behavior change trends could bring big improvements.
Studies show that when people can ride in a car without having to operate it, they increase their car use. That could increase traffic and pollution, unless government puts a price on car travel.
Renewable energy is expanding at a record pace, but still not fast enough. Here are the key areas to watch for progress in bringing more wind and solar into the power grid in 2022.
As demand grows for real estate and housing prices rise, more people are being priced out of the market. Government intervention is needed to produce affordable housing and control speculation.
The goal of carbon neutrality changes everything. Canada can no longer limit itself to solutions that partially reduce emissions here and there. The chosen solution must be zero emissions.
While the outcome of the 2021 federal election offered little in the way of change, it may have left Canada better positioned to make progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Many communities in Canada currently lack intercity and regional transportation. A national public transportation system would improve connectedness between cities and access to essential services.
The pandemic could be a boon to car use, but it would be a mistake for governments to let that happen. There’s a golden opportunity to push towards a zero-carbon transportation system.
COVID-19 has underscored the value of parks and public spaces. A new survey shows that US mayors have gotten the message, but post-pandemic plans for public spaces remain largely undefined.
Current travel restrictions aren’t applied uniformly for air and land travellers. Similar restrictions need to be applied to land border crossings to curb the spread of COVID-19 and its variants.
Recent federal mask mandates on all public transit have burdened bus drivers with difficult and sometimes dangerous duties to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.
The need for social distancing sparked a cycling boom, cutting air pollution and boosting city dwellers’ mental and physical health. But when the pandemic ends, will it be back to life as usual?
Electric cars get a lot of hype, but what really matters for the climate are excess emissions from the many millions of gasoline vehicles still sold each year.
An increase in cyclists due to the COVID-19 pandemic means that cities need to look at what it means to develop and maintain inclusive bicycle infrastructure.
Life cycle assessments of electric vehicles show that they cannot fully eliminate the greenhouse gas emissions of personal travel. We also need bikes, buses and trains to solve our climate problems.
Distinguished Blue Planet Prize Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Founding Director, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis