Blog post 10: Motorization and sustainability: five ways of how cars reduce sustainability

Cars ensure freedom of movement. But what do we sacrifice for the right?

Henry Ford’s model T caused arguably the most significant revolution in human transportation. We acquired freedom of movement and defeated ‘the tyranny of distance’ by the use of cars. It was a fast, powerful and elegant invention which transformed our society into completely different one from the one before 1908. Nowadays, cars are almost indispensable in our society, which is hard to deny. However, can we rationally justify the wave of motorization? Here are five problems of sustainability caused by cars that are threatening humanity.

1.     Traffic accidents

Car accident has been one of the major cause of mortality. WHO (2018) reports that more than 1.3 million people were killed by drivers in 2016. This is the leading cause of death for population aged 5 – 29 years. Despite remarkable improvement in post-crash care and safety standards, number of death by car is increasing due to a rapid increase in cars on roads caused by the increasing global population (WHO, 2018). Especially in developing countries where motorization is currently taking place, the number of death has been increasing in recent years. WHO warns that we are likely to fail meeting SDGs target 3.6: halving road traffic deaths by 2020.

2. Air pollution

Combustion of fossil fuel in vehicle engines is a major source of air pollution. Particularly in urban area, vehicles have caused a substantial health impact via polluting air. Globally, 4.2 million people die from air pollution. More than 91% of urban residents live in the air quality exceeding the WHO guideline limit (WHO, 2018). Gasoline and diesel cars emit health threatening particles such as NOx, PM₁₀ and PM_2.5. They cause respiratory diseases including lung cancer (Oldenkamp, Zelm, & Huijbregts, 2016). The potent trend of urbanization would bring further people to highly polluted area. Air pollution leads to avoidable social cost as well. One report discovered that a diesel car in London costs society about £8000 in its entire lifetime (Brand & Hunt, 2018). Air pollution caused by cars reduces sustainability.  

3. Global warming

Likewise air pollution, vehicles emit greenhouse gas. CO2 emitted by combustion of gasoline and diesel keeps earth warm which leads to climate change. 17% of global emission of CO2 is reported to come from vehicles (Tanaka et al., 2018). This rate is estimated to increase as global number of cars on road grows. Therefore, transformation into low carbon alternative is a necessary step to meet the Paris agreement.

4. Social exclusion

Cars reduce not only environmental sustainability, but social sustainability. Ownership of a car has something to do with social exclusion. Traffic infrastructures based on transport by cars considerably limits people’s ability to participate in economic, political and social activities if they don’t own a car (Schwannen et al., 2015). For instance, smaller range of traveling due to a poor transport system diminishes opportunity of employment. Hence, those who can afford to buy a car may have financially better job thus the disparity gets deeper.

5. Food desert

One of the main cause of food desert is difficulty to get to a supermarket without a car. Large supermarkets are typically located in suburb area which is unfriendly for those who have no car. This leaves poor neighborhood without access to fresh and nutritious food (Walker et al., 2010). In such neighborhood, it is more convenient to eat at a fast food restaurant and go to small shops where junk food is sold. Therefore, poor household who is unable to drive to a large supermarket suffer from health issues.

Cars have been completely integrated into our society. There are structures that make human be hostage of cars. Freedom of traveling is certainly a human right. However, this has to be ensured by more sustainable alternative transport.

Reference

Oldenkamp, R., van Zelm, R., & Huijbregts, M. A. (2016). Valuing the human health damage caused by the fraud of Volkswagen. Environmental pollution, 212, 121-127. doi:

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2016.01.053

Schwanen, T., Lucas, K., Akyelken, N., Solsona, D. C., Carrasco, J. A., & Neutens, T. (2015). Rethinking the links between social exclusion and transport disadvantage through the lens of social capital. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 74, 123-135. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2015.02.012

Tanaka, K., Lund, M. T., Aamaas, B., & Berntsen, T. (2018). Climate effects of non-compliant Volkswagen diesel cars. Environmental Research Letters, 13(4), 044020. doi:

https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aab18c

Walker, R. E., Keane, C. R., & Burke, J. G. (2010). Disparities and access to healthy food in the United States: A review of food deserts literature. Health & place, 16(5), 876-884. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2010.04.013

World Health Organization. (2018). Global status report on road safety 2018. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/road_safety_status/2018/en/

World Health Organization (2018). Air pollution. Accessed in December 5, 2018. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/airpollution/en/