Clearing up the sky
Print Edition
EVERY morning, all walks of people in the city leave home in their own cars or vans to go on a business trip, to take their children to school, to go shopping, to visit a friend, and mostly to drive to work.
This morning, as usual, I packed my bag, put on my face mask and rushed to the bus stop, 1 kilometer away from my home. Along the way, I walked past cars waiting for the green traffic light to go. They all queued up, some vehicles even occupied the bicycle lane. Many drivers sounded their horns impatiently to hurry the cars in front of them. None of these things made up a nice morning. Worst of all, when I looked around, everything looked gray, covered with a foggy shade, and I knew that today’s PE class would be cancelled again.
As personal income increases, people are more than ever apt to looking for daily comfort and convenience. This can be clearly seen in the sharp increase in automobile purchases around China. People buy cars because they want to have the freedom to go whenever and wherever they want. It seems to be a perfect alternative to avoid the nuisance of figuring out bus and train schedules. This is simply not true, for the complication and consequences of exhaust, traffic jams and environmental deterioration would soon follow. It is believed that the recent national-wide haze situation is related to the excessive carbon emissions put out by the ever increasing number of vehicles. Carbon emission has already been proven as a factor causing air pollution. In the history of Los Angeles, there were many incidents of haze caused by cars’ carbon emission, which later formed the blue smoke and resulted in 400 deaths. In 2013, Shanghai alone has 2.13 million motor vehicles; however, it ranks only the fifth highest in the country. All those vehicles produce about 200 million cubic meters of air pollution per day.
Giving this enormous amount of pollution, why public transit is not a favorite option by public? For this reason, I come up with a survey of four simple questions and give to 200 residences in Gubei communities. I collected 180 surveys and have the following result:
Q: Are you aware car is a major cause of pollution?
A: All agree on this point.
Q: Do you take public transit or drive your own car?
A: 130 drive their own car.
Q: Why not take public transit?
A: 100 select inconveniences is the reason.
Q: If public transit is only 10 minutes away, will you use it.
A: 150 answer YES.
To combat air pollution can be a complicated issue. Given the result of my survey, I am offering a simple yet effective solution: BUS plus BICYCLE. Though it might not be the most popular choice for the general public, but taking the bus is a great way to reduce carbon emission in the city.
Since it is impossible to extend the current bus routes, for it will result in higher costs and may cause other complications. The concept of “a Micro-circulating Traffic Solution” is to offer “a community shuttle bus (no more than 16 seats) services,” and/or to provide “a bicycle rental service” to people travelling in-between Metro stations, major bus stops and large communities. This “Micro-circulating Traffic Service” will work as an extension of the public transportation system. As Shanghai continues to grow and expand, I believe this traffic microcirculation may prove to be a useful device to ease the traffic tension during rush hours and reduce air pollution in the city.
Peishan Yu is a student at Shanghai American School.
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