The reason our carbon emissions are so out of proportion to our population is largely because of this disastrous mode of urban/suburban development. As I note in my new article on suburban planning, transportation accounts for 32 percent of total CO2 emissions in the U.S. — the most of any end-use sector. Americans use cars for almost 90 percent of all their trips, compared to 58 percent in the United Kingdom. This is more attributable to the proliferation of unattractive, inaccessible environments like the one I saw today than it is to the inefficiency of city automobile fleets. $300 million for cleaner buses is great as far as it goes, but it does not go nearly far enough in curbing carbon emissions. Only a radically new approach to urban planning will have the effect we need.
reblogged from dandrews-deactivated20120326
