Heavy traffic ahead: car culture accelerates

Environmental Health Perspectives, April, 2005 by Richard Dahl

Wachs doesn't believe that the report succeeds in making a convincing case for global automotive sustainability. What's significant, though, is that it took place at all, he says. "What it represents," he says, "is an awakening of industries, which just a few years ago might have said, 'This isn't our responsibility; our responsibility is to our shareholders.' But now they're saying that they do have responsibilities and they should be thinking in terms of fuel cells and other more energy-efficient forms of powering automobiles. So I think that's reason to have a little bit of optimism."

Mobility 2030 outlines seven goals that the council believes must be met in order to achieve automotive sustainability: (1) reduce conventional vehicle emissions "so that they do not constitute a significant public health concern anywhere in the world"; (2) limit greenhouse gas emissions to sustainable levels by moving toward hydrogen and bio-based fuels; (3) significantly reduce the number of traffic-related deaths and injuries worldwide; (4) reduce traffic noise; (5) reduce traffic congestion; (6) narrow "mobility divides" between rich and poor people within countries, as well as between rich and poor countries, by improving access to transportation for poor people in rural areas; and (7) improve mobility opportunities for the general population so that people don't need to rely on privately owned vehicles.

Sperling agrees that automakers seeking to take advantage of expanding markets in the developing world have a responsibility to ease the impacts of their products on poor societies. He also believes that private investment can be a strong tool in developing innovative transportation strategies in developing countries. Private investment, he says, and not government, accounts for most of the resources that flow from industrial to developing countries. He suggested that the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, a development agency created by the U.S. government in 1971, might create a public-private investment fund specifically targeting transportation needs in developing countries.

Schipper recently attended the 2004 Challenge Bibendum in Shanghai. This yearly meeting is attended by all the major car manufacturers and sponsored by Michelin. Schipper says he noticed the same kind of attention to the problem of global motorization that the World Business Council of Sustainable Development recognized in its Mobility 2030 report. "They were more than willing to play ball on the clean air side," he says. "But no individual company sees an upper limit on the number of cars that can circulate. The reality, though, is that there isn't going to be a car in every garage because there isn't going to be room for the garage--or the car."

Sensible Responses

Not all of the news about the invasion of cars and other motorized vehicles into the developing world is dire. In fact, there are several examples of strong governmental leadership taking action to soften the blow of motorization.