Vous êtes sur la page 1sur 9

Building a Green City on a Blue Lake: The role of Clevelands

transportation system

By Emily Mastroianni

Forty-eight years ago, on an ordinary Sunday in June, the city of

Clevelands environmental reputation went up in flames - literally. On this

day, Clevelands Cuyahoga River, which runs through Northeast Ohio and

feeds into Lake Erie, caught fire due to its immensely polluted water. This

event set the stage for how the city of Cleveland would be perceived for the

following decades to come; a symbol of environmental degradation, a true

Mistake on the Lake.

In 2009, Mayor Frank Jackson and the Office of Sustainability decided

to alter this negative image of Cleveland, by launching the Sustainable

Cleveland initiative, a 10-year plan to transform the Mistake on the Lake,

into the Green City on a Blue Lake. The goal being that by 2019, the 50th

anniversary of the Cuyahoga River Fire, the City of Cleveland will be

recognized as a thriving, environmentally friendly community.

Matt Gray, Chief of Sustainability for the City of Cleveland commented,

We will work through these 10 years, so that when the media comes back to

do a retrospective on Cleveland, theyll see this city transformed in a more

sustainable way. With only two years left to go, Sustainable Cleveland has

been a proven success according to Gray, If you compared Cleveland now to

2009, its night and day, and a lot of that progress is looking at it from a

sustainability standpoint.
Much of this progress has also stemmed from the initiative dedicating

each year to one particular action area, for example, this year is The Year of

Vibrant Green Space, and last year was the Year of Sustainable

Transportation.

According to Kari Solomon, Budget Management Analyst and Head of

Sustainability for the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, Public

transit is pretty crucial to the quality of lifeit influences how people work,

who they socialize with, what they do in their free time, and who they

connect with. Therefore, The Year of Transportation was a vital part of the

Sustainable Cleveland initiative.

The first recognizable idea of sustainability as a pressing agenda item

for cities and nations worldwide happened in 1987, when the United Nations

World Commission on Environment and Development released its report, Our

Common Future, which emphasized the reality of issues such as global

climate change.

The Commission distinguished sustainability as the idea that humans

should maintain Earth in a healthy manner, so that it may be left in equal, or

better condition than when they inherited it.

So, what role does transportation play in sustainability? According to

author Jean-Paul Rodrigue in his book, The Geography of Transport Systems,

sustainable transportation is the capacity to support the mobility needs of

people, freight and information in a manner that is the least damageable to

the environment.
According to a CQ Researcher article on mass transit in the United

States, Public transit ridership has grown 35% between 1996 and 2015,

reaching an all-time high in 2014 of 10.5 billion passenger trips.

At a local level, approximately 33 million people use the transportation

system annually, which results to approximately 160,000 passengers every

single day travelling to and from work, school and other activities, according

to the Greater Cleveland Transit Authoritys 2015 Annual Sustainability

Report.

Even though these numbers may seem high, only 5 percent of

Americans take public transportation to work everyday, leaving the

remaining population to rely upon their own cars as their primary means of

transportation, according to CQ Researcher. The substantial amount of

single-occupant cars on the road is immensely damaging to the environment

according to Gray. Transportation is crucial; we all do it everyday, and our

current system isnt the most sustainable system with a lot of people driving

alone in their own cars, says Gray, confirming that the availability of public

transportation, in itself, has a direct impact on environmental sustainability.

According to the Federal Transit Administration, the transportation

sector is one of the primary users of energy in the United States, and most

of the energy consumed for transportation is provided by fossil fuels,

according to Ramesh Agarwal, 2013, in the International Journal of Energy &

Environment. Burning fossil fuels emits greenhouse gases into the


atmosphere, which contributes to massive environmental issues such as

global climate change.

When comparing the impact of transit vehicles versus private vehicles,

it is important to realize that, although transit vehicles consume more

energy than private vehicles, the average amount of energy utilized per

passenger is far less, according to the Federal Transit Administration. In

fact, heavy rail transit, such as subways and metros, produce on average,

76% lower greenhouse gas emissions per passenger mile than an average

single-occupancy vehicle.

Public transportation not only reduces the amount of greenhouse gases

emitted into the air, but also reduces the amount of wasted fuel. For

example, in 2004, the Federal Transportation Administration claimed that

947 million gallons of fuel were saved solely from passengers using transit

systems rather than driving their own cars.

Accordingly, taking public transportation is a convenient choice for

passengers because it removes the distance and travel time spent sitting in

congested traffic, and is ultimately very economically rewarding. According

to the Texas Transportation Institutes periodic report on congestion, The

average American annually spends more than 47 hours in congestion with a

resulting cost of 3.7 billion hours of travel delay, and 2.4 billion gallons of

wasted fuel.

Additionally, the Federal Transit Administration confirms that a family

that owns one car and supplements this by using public transportation can
save around $6,000 a year compared to those families who use two cars, and

have no access to public transportation.

The City of Cleveland continues to recognize the importance of public

transportation and has made significant changes to the Greater Cleveland

Regional Transit Authority, or RTA, throughout this initiative. The RTA as a

system removes cars from the road. If we didnt exist, you would see a lot

more congestion in Cleveland, and a lot more pollution, so by its very nature,

all public transit systems are good for the environment, says Jerry Masek,

head of media relations at the RTA.

In terms of changes made, Masek confirms that the RTA has recently

become 100 percent environmentally friendly in all of their vehicles. All of

the rail cars run on electricity, the buses are fueled using either propane or

compressed natural gas, and one of the newer additions, the Bus Rapid

Transit, runs on diesel electric. In fact, Solomon adds, there are 93 buses in

service right now fueled by compressed natural gas, which is projected to

reduce emissions by 6% per year solely from those buses.

In 2015 Solomon confirmed that the RTA set priorities and strategies

for sustainability efforts in upcoming years, aligning most of their goals with

the goals of the Sustainable Cleveland initiative. These monumental

changes have allowed the Cleveland RTA to be recognized as a silver level

recipient for sustainable commitment by the American Public Transport

Association, according to Solomon.


In its quest to become the Green City on a Blue Lake, Cleveland has

been making positive changes to its public transportation system, offering

more sustainable options to the Cleveland community. Therefore, Solomon

truly believes that the City of Cleveland will be remembered much more

positively during the 50th anniversary of the Cuyahoga River Fire in two short

years.

She states, One of the reasons we have the Environmental Protection

Agency is because Cleveland and Chicago kept catching on fire, but I know

that Cleveland will have a much more environmentally-conscious association

with it, and its efforts will be recognized nationally come 2019.
References

Agarwal, R. K. (2013). Sustainable ground transportation - review of


technologies, challenges and opportunities. International Journal of
Energy & Environment, 4(6), 1061-1078.
Bell, D., Cheung, Y. (2009). Introduction to sustainable development.
Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems.
Carr, C. (2016). Sustainability. Salem Press Encyclopedia.
Department of Transportation. (2012). Department of transportation climate
adaption plan: ensuring transportation infrastructure and system
resilience. Retrieved from
https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.dev/files/docs/DOT
%20Adaptation%20Plan.pdf
Federal Transit Administration (2016). Transits role in environmental
sustainability Retrieved from https://www.transit.dot.gov/regulations-
and-guidance/environmental-programs/transit-environmental-
sustainability/transit-role
Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority. (2016, March 31). 2015 Annual
Sustainability Report. (2-14).
Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority. (2017, March 15). RTA
recognized for sustainability achievements. Retrieved from
http://www.riderta.com/news/rta-recognized-sustainability-
achievements
Gu, J., Mohit, B. & Muenning, P. (2016). The cost-effectiveness of bike lanes in
New
York City. BMJ Publishing Group, New York City. 1-5.
Jackson, F. (2013, August 20). Cleveland complete and green streets
typologies plan, Retrieved from
http://www.city.cleveland.oh.us/sites/default/files/forms_publications/Cl
evelandCGSTypologiesPlan2013.pdf
Jia, Z. (2009). Quantitative Comparison method of choosing protection
schemes of highway cut-slope based on environment protection.
International Conference on Transportation Engineering. Retrieved
from http://ascelibrary.org/doi/pdf/10.1061/9780784410394.fm
MacMillan, A. (2014). The societal costs and benefits of commuter bicycling:
simulating the effects of specific policies using system dynamics
modeling. Environmental Health Perspectives, 122(4). 1-4.
McCutcheon, C. (2016). Mass transit. CQ Researcher, 26, 1013-1036.
Muench, S. (2012). Greenroads: Sustainability counts. U.S. Department of
Transportation Research and Innovative Technology Administration.
Rodrigue, J., Comtois, C., & Slack, B. (2017). The geography of transport
systems. London: Routledge.
Rojas-Rueda, D., de Nazelle, A, Tainio, M, & Nieuwenhuijsen, M. (2011).
Health risks and benefits of cycling in urban environments compared
with car use. British Medical Journal. Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21816732.
Rotman, M. (2010). Cuyahoga River Fire. Cleveland Historical. Retrieved from
https://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/63#.WMV9CSMrJO0
Rutsch, R. (2008). The role of public transit in sustainable communities. The
Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute. Retrieved from
http://www.law.du.edu/images/uploads/rmlui/rmlui-sustainable-
publicTransit.pdf.
Savage, I. (2013). Comparing the fatality risks in United States transportation
across modes over time. Research in Transportation Economics, 43(1),
9-22.
United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2016). Smart growth and
transportation. Retrieved from
https://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/smart-growth-and-transportation.
United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2014). Sources of
greenhouse gas emissions. Retrieved from
https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions.
Williams, D. (2014). New plan will add more than 70 miles of bikeway by end
of 2017, supports Mayors efforts for sustainable, healthy living.
Retrieved from https://clecityhall.com/2014/01/17/new-plan-will-add-
more-than-70-miles-of-bikeway-by-end-of-2017-supports-mayors-
efforts-for-sustainable-healthy-living.

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi