Oh The Dreams To Own a Car....But What About Their Impacts?

(Picture Taken in POS)

Mobility in the city is very important. According to Hall and Barrett, mobility is the ability to move around cities but it is more than getting from point A to B, rather it is central to culture and a sense of identity (2012). Mobility has the power to shape the size and form due to the type of transportation available or being used. Movement in cities is dominated by cars, especially in the Global North but it also occurs in some Global South countries. This idea of cars being the dominant mode of transportation originates from the idea where they are seen as luxury items and if a person has one he or she is of a higher class. In Trinidad, there are 151 motor vehicles per every 100 persons, that is approximately 2 cars per person and I find this absurd. Why does one person need 2 cars? But we need to consider 2 cars may just be registered to one person so it may be more appropriate to say that the average amount of cars for a household in Trinidad is 2. It is the same in the United States of America where there average is also 2 per household. You may say well that’s not really a lot because it’s just 2 but when all these twos add up. The effect of all the cars on the road is definitely felt. These effects may be environmental or social.

Cars can have profound impacts on the environment. Firstly, the production of the materials to make the cars have impacts on the environment. So we haven’t even made the car yet and the problems begin. Materials such as: steel, plastic, glass and paints have to be made before the production of a car can begin and this results in the release of greenhouse gases, large amounts of heat and also solid waste is produced. After that is done you have a car but the problems only continue. To use the car fuel has to be burnt. But before it can be burnt it has to be extracted and transported. Extraction of petroleum products from the earth is energy intensive and destroys local ecosystems. While, the transportation of the fuels is also problematic since oil spills can occur, which will also affect ecosystems and kill organisms. Fuel consumption contributes about 80-90% of a car’s environmental impact. This fuel consumption also contributes greenhouse gases and by extension to air pollution, which are responsible for the changing climate that is being experienced. U.S. automobiles are responsible for nearly half of all greenhouse gases emitted by all automobiles (Environmental Defense 2004). In addition, three automobile makers: General Motors, Ford and DaimlerChrysler accounted for nearly three-quarters of the carbon dioxide released by cars and pickup trucks on U.S. roads in 2004 (DeCicco and Fung 2004). After all that the damage done by cars to the environment is still not complete since, the after life of a car also have impacts. Items such as: plastics and toxic battery acids stay in the environment and pollute areas. Environmental impacts of cars do not only occur in cities but rather all around.

Then there is the problem of air quality or air pollution that results from the excessive use of cars and the exhaust fumes that they produce.  This exhaust fumes consist of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, benzene, formaldehyde, hydrocarbons, lead and suspended particulate matter. Vehicles are America’s biggest air quality compromisers producing about one third of all their air pollution. Exhaust fumes also affect the environment in terms of global warming and so on but it’s major impact is on society. Once exhaust fumes are released into the air they are breathed in and transported in the blood to major organs in the body. The most prominent health problem that exhaust fumes have is on the respiratory system and may cause asthma, bronchitis and even lung cancer. Exhaust fumes are responsible for approximately 24 000 deaths in the U.K. each year. (BBC Health 2013) Exhaust fumes can also cause heart attacks or other heart diseases. A very important effect of exhaust fumes that I wish to explain is that of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning. CO binds more effectively than oxygen to hemoglobin on the red blood cells. When the CO is present in the atmosphere from exhaust fumes and it is inhaled it binds to the hemoglobin and so reduces the amount of oxygen available to be transported around the body. This reduction in oxygen will starve the body of it and the person can die from suffocation if the CO is not removed from the system and oxygen is introduced back. Lastly, exhaust fumes can affect the Central Nervous System and cause behavioral changes and impair mental and learning. These social impacts are mostly felt in cities where there is an abundance of cars being used to move around the city.

Another major problem plaguing the world with the increase use of cars is traffic. Yes Traffic! One of the most inconvenient, stressful and frustrating phenomenon out there. Everyone tries to find some big complicated reason as to why there is so much traffic and the answer is simple, there is just too much cars on the road. Apart from traffic being stressful to persons who face it everyday hence it may affect their health in terms of that stress and their nervous system it has other impacts. Traffic is typically the main cause of air pollution, contributing more than 50% of air pollution in many cities (Hall and Barrett 2012). Traffic in Trinidad is a major problem that commuters face twice for the day on a daily basis. If you are heading into Port-of-Spain on a morning from Central or South the traffic situation is deplorable. I leave home at 6:20am to reach to school for 8:00am and I am not even going into POS but I am a part of that traffic for quite a while and I can tell you it is very stressful to be subjected to everyday. I usually don’t end up in traffic on an afternoons when leaving school but to those who do I sympathize with them. Traffic can also result in injuries and loss of life. This occurs mainly among non-car users especially children or teenagers who live in areas where there is no access to safe playing areas so they use sidewalks or streets (Hall and Barrett 2012). These fatalities have great social and economic costs.

All of the impacts of cars have great costs associated with them and it’s not only costs to the environment or society but economic costs also. Governments spend millions of dollars annually to solves problems such as: pollution, combating the effects of global warming, on the health care to ensure that everyone is taken care off and to solve traffic problems. There are various solutions to some of the impacts of cars and one of the major solutions is using other forms of transport such as: public buses, water taxis and even carpooling. I used Curitiba (a city in Brazil) in one of my other posts and I will use it here again. Curitiba does not have any major traffic or environmental problems associated with mobility because they have an integrated transport system of buses. There is a lack of traffic congestion eventhough there are about half a million private cars because people use the buses. The buses are biarticulated, work on specific lanes for efficient movement and it is cheaper than metro but just as efficient. Another consequence of these buses is that there is low air pollution eventhough the city is involved in heavy manufacturing. In Trinidad there may not be a perfect transit system as the one in Curitiba but we have some here such as: PTSC buses, water taxis and maxi taxis so we should make use of them. Also, alternative forms of fuels or biofuels could be used to reduce emissions. Biofuels are made from organic materials like corn, grass, and agricultural waste and have the potential to provide more than 10 percent of U.S. fuel needs (Union of Concerned Scientists 2012). However, we need to be careful when this is being produced to ensure that in our attempts to produce sustainable gasoline we are not being unsustainable in any other way be it environmentally or socially. Along with biofuels, fuel-efficient vehicles can also be used. They use less gas to travel the same distance as their counterparts. When we burn less fuel, we generate fewer emissions. When emissions go down, the pace of global warming slows. Lastly, the parts such as steel and plastic from cars can be recycled so they don’t just sit as waste polluting areas.

The song says All I Wanted Was a Car.....and this is how alot of people are. In the song he worked hard to get his car and alot of people do the same because (as mentioned before) it a a sign of a higher class and it is also convenient to most. But at point we should put aside what we want (not need...a car is not a need) for the greater good. 

There is so much more to be said on this topic but I think I will end it there today.  

Reference:

BBC Health. 2013. Exhaust Emissions. http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/physical_health/conditions/exhaust_emissions.shtml

DeCicco, John; Freda Fung. 2004. Global Warming on the Road. http://www.edf.org/sites/default/files/5301_Globalwarmingontheroad_0.pdf

Hall and Barrett. 2012. Urban Geography. 4th Edition. London and New York: Routledge Publishing.

National Geographic. 2013. Car Buying Guide. http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/green-guide/buying-guides/car/environmental-impact/

Union of Concerned Scientists. 2012. Clean Vehicles. http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_vehicles/why-clean-cars/global-warming/

UNEP Convention on Biological Diversity. 2012. City of Curitiba Brazil. http://www.cbd.int/authorities/casestudy/curitiba.shtml#waste1