Transportation and urban sustainability

[Extract] Of all dimensions of urban sustainability, nothing has more profound impact on the quality, vitality and sustainability\ud of a city as its transportation system. It allows the pursuit of human activity pattern and economic thrust to the life of a city. Without it, cities simply cannot function in the modern world. It is, therefore, unrealistic to believe that urban sustainability can be attained without sustainable urban transportation.\ud \ud However, transportation is responsible for significant consumption of non-renewable resources and a contributor to\ud unsustainable levels of greenhouse gas emissions and adverse health impacts. Private motorcar, especially solo\ud driving, has been identified as the major cause of transportation woes congestion, depletion of scarce resources, emissions, accidents etc. and is largely responsible for leading our transportation systems towards unsustainability.\ud \ud The use of private car is entrenched in our lifestyles, values and attitudes and it will be extremely difficult to achieve major shift in peoples aspirations and expectations. Yet without such shift, it is unrealistic to expect that significant progress towards sustainability will be achieved, and herein lays the dilemma.\ud \ud There are no simple solutions to achieving sustainable transportation. This paper presents short- and long-term\ud strategies including those, which represent deliberate attempts to covertly influence human behaviour through shift in values and attitudes. These cover a range of technological, economic, regulatory and planning alternatives. It is realised that technological solutions alone will not deliver sustainable transportation and it is essential that all key elements of transportation systems are targeted.\u