At the moment the theme in class is sustainable travel. Transport undoubtedly has had a major influence on economic and social development facilitating the movement of goods, people and ideas. Greater accessibility, mobility and communication has shaped the type of global society we live in today.

But is there a cost? Environmentalists will emphasize the problems associated with unlimited travel - depletion of fossil fuels, local air pollution, emissions of greenhouse gases, congestion and accidents, destruction of the countryside and the expansion of land under concrete to name but a few. Even our over-reliance on motorized transport has been linked to a general lack of fitness in the population at large.

So...what are your views? Is there really a transport problem? Do the benefits of motorized transport outweigh the costs? Are there any minor (or perhaps major) changes you personally feel could make our present transport system more sustainable?



In today’s society, business and commerce is a weapon not to be taken lightly. If you look on the roads today, you will see that a large proportion of the vehicles are either people involved in business & commerce or heavy goods vehicles. Both of these are directly related to our present lifestyles in that we have become so dependent on obtaining our food from supermarkets or our latest design clothing from the High street that the road capacity is being stretched beyond its capable abilities, highlighting a severe transport problem. Large Lorries have to continuously be up and down the country to ensure the shelves are replenished to reach the supply and demand of the shops and their customers. This leads to major congestion at peak times on busy roads such as the M1 where people involved in business & commerce are commuting home. Usually, if there is a problem (car crash on roads), preventing the traffic from flowing, then the road becomes so congested that the traffic tails back for miles. As well if there is a problem on one mode of transport this can sometimes correspond to problems in another i.e. the train. Obviously this can lead to an enormous amount of stress created, as well as being late for work. All of which is very unsustainable in that turning up to work stressed is not going to allow you to work at your optimum conditions, the additional time spent waiting in traffic queues where the car is still ticking over releasing exhaust fumes is damaging on the environment, and finally the prospect of this continuous lifestyle is only going to be damaging on your health if it is a regular occurrence.
I think it all comes down to what you want from your life. In my opinion, there are two sides, do you want to have enough money for you to be comfortable, leading a relatively stress free life and of course being happy, or do you want to be well off able to afford lush cars, but on a day-to-day occurrence experiencing high levels of stress and not being all that happy. Therefore if the latter statement appeals to you, then obviously you will be very much in favour of motorised transport to allow commuting to and from work, probably a high paid job in London or another major city. But on the other side of the spectrum, if you have a job that is low paid but is relatively close to your home, then you will not probably think the benefits of motorised transport is not worth the unsustainable lifestyle.
The main problem is the roads whereas the other means of transport are more often than not running relatively fine i.e. plane and trains. Therefore to combat the issues associated with the roads would be to improve the rail system significantly. This could include additional stations opening around the country, lowering prices on the trains and even by the addition of high speed trains such as the Bullet Train in Japan. This would be much more appealing to the business & commerce executives as they would be able to get to London easily, cheaply and most importantly quickly, if the trains are running as planned. This would reduce the stress on individuals if the trains were reliable, saving money and most importantly reduce the environmental impacts.