Digital Artifact #2

Sarah Goodyear
EDGI 541
May 5, 2015

The concept for this digital artifact is sustainable and green solutions for
transportation. I chose to look at this topic for a variety of reasons. The first being
a spark in interest of electric cars from when I was in college, the second reason
being an interest in cities that support bike riding, and the third from the desire to
look for more sustainable fuel resources. Within my Prezi presentation, I have
provided a variety of pictures, articles and videos to support the research within this
idea of sustainable transportation.
The first topic that I chose to look at is a Ted Talk about cities that support a
greener way of transportation, whether it be walking, biking or just less traffic. The
idea of the talk is not that the citys roads are better or they have more advanced
technology, but that the city is designed better to provide for a walking or biking
experience by its citizens. The streets are more narrow and the shops are close
together. People enjoy being able to walk from place to place. In addition, there
just isnt the space for cars. Many of these towns that he uses for an example are
very old towns that were created before cars were widely used or even invented.
The mode of transportation when these towns were created was foot traffic or
perhaps horses. Roads were designed for this purpose, and the towns have
maintained that atmosphere to this day.
The Sierra Club is an organization that believes in exploring, enjoying and
protecting the environment. Their webpage on transportation contained this picture
with a variety of interesting statistics. The goal with this picture is to encourage
people to fight for better emissions standards. The facts that are presented are
meant to encourage people to stand up for stronger vehicle standards and entice
the public with the dollar sign. The goal of the organization is, however, to reduce
emissions, and put money back into our own economy. Although the money aspect
of this picture is interesting and exciting (especially putting jobs into our
communities!), the real focus should be on the amount of oil that will not be used
and pollution that will not be forced into our atmosphere.
Another interesting picture that I found was a chart on green transportation
with pedestrians being at the top. For people that dont live within walking distance
to their job or stores, they could use this chart to find the next best sustainable
alternative. Most frequently, we find ourselves at the bottom of this chart driving
our single occupancy vehicle. There are many major commuter highways that have
a carpool lane to encourage people to drive at least a double occupancy vehicle
which would put the driver and passenger above the lowest rung on this graph.
One of the initial reasons I became interested in sustainable cars was
because of a video that I watched during my undergraduate years. I have provided
a Youtube clip of the movie trailer since the movie itself is very long. The professor
showed us this video and I was intrigued. The purpose was not for us to think about
sustainability, but for a public speaking class. I researched this topic, discussed it
passionately and have been forever bitter about the death of the electric car.

Although this is an excellent alternative, it is still not 100% sustainable because of

the amount of charging that it requires. A truly sustainable electric car would be
solar or wind powered or perhaps hydrogen in the future. Still, the idea of a
completely electric car that does not produce carbon monoxide and other pollutants
is ideal to me.
Another mode of transportation that I looked into is aviation. I was curious
how this mode of transportation could be more sustainable and what types of
innovations were occurring. The airline Airbus seems to be one of the airlines that
is at the front of the fuel research. Biofuel is being looked into and plans are being
made through an initiative called the European Advanced Biofuels Flightpath. They
are looking at alternative sources as well like yeast, woodchips, organic waste and
algae. I found this idea to be extremely interesting. It is a little disappointing that it
is an individual airline that is looking at doing this rather than all of the airlines
together which would provide the most impact. The hope would be that other
airlines would follow suit and also be creative with their fueling to help reduce
emissions.
After reading about green buses and how they are not actually green, I was
curious whether there were truly green buses. I found this information on a bus in
India that runs on ethanol. They rolled out one bus and are testing to see if the use
is going to be efficient and make an impact as well as be financially responsible for
the city. I think this is a great way to inspire other towns and cities to find
alternative mass transportation as well. Hopefully the bus is popular enough that
they can purchase more buses to further reduce their pollution.
Finally, I was curious to find places that banned cars, taxis and buses. I found
a list of cities that do not allow cars. I think this is a great thought for those towns
to encourage people to be active and to keep a more laid back attitude. I thought
that all of these towns would be in Europe, but I was surprised that three of them
were in the United States. This idea of having to walk and ride bikes, makes the
towns seem more relaxing and like a peaceful get away from the hustle and bustle
of every day life.
I could have found many more pieces of information and artifacts to support
green transportation, but I had to stop somewhere. Reading about alternatives to
gas and oil was eye opening to me as I have really only ever heard of the electric
car and hybrid cars. Its exciting to see that there really is research being put into
alternatives even if it is not being put into practice as quickly as we would like.

References
Sierra Club. (2015). Green Cars, Fuels, and Transportation for the 21 st Century.
Retrieved from http://vault.sierraclub.org/transportation/
National Center for Sustainable Transportation. (2015). Retrieved from
http://ncst.ucdavis.edu/
Conserve Energy Future. (2015). What is Green Transportation? Retrieved from
http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/modes-and-benefits-of-greentransportation.php
TEDx Talks. (2013). Sustainable transportation in cities: Ricky Angueira at
TEDxUConn 2013. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=o793_X9c3b4
NDTV. (2014). Indias First Ethanol-Run Bus Rolls out in Nagpur. Retrieved from
http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/indias-first-ethanol-run-bus-rolls-out-innagpur-652406
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. (2012). Who Killed The Electric Car?-Trailer.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sc-NxP6mmI
Airbus. (2015). Sustainable Aviation Fuel. Retrieved from
http://www.airbus.com/innovation/eco-efficiency/operations/alternative-fuels/
Huffington Post. (2015). 10 Magical Places Where There Are No Cars. Retrieved
from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/27/places-with-nocars_n_4847466.html