How do vehicles produce pollution? How much pollution
do they produce? Are there laws regulating this pollution? How could
they be made to produce less pollution?
Below are brief introductions to various types of transportation.
Clicking on an underlined item (i.e., Buses) will take you to a new
page with additional information on that item, including answers to
the questions above.
Cars, even the latest models, produce
air pollution. And even though each generation of cars is cleaner than
the one before, there are so many cars on the road, and people drive
so many miles in them, that the overall pollution from cars is going
UP, not down. It's the numbers - more houses, more cars - and more cars
at every house. There are more than a billion vehicles out there and
it's growing every day. And the things that go along with cars - roads,
gas stations, mining for raw materials, manufacturing plastics, etc.,
are growing too. There are some good things, though - like alternative
fuels, fuel cells, electric
cars, hybrids, Hypercars™,
and other innovative technologies.
Trucks, Sport Utility Vehicles, and
Vans/Minivans all produce a lot more air pollution than the
average small or mid-size car. They also use a lot more fuel. In the
United States in 2000, trucks and sport utility vehicles (a.k.a. SUVs
- Ford Explorer, Jeep Cherokee, etc.) outsold cars for the first time
ever. Very few people actually truly NEED these types of vehicles -
most people would be just fine - and pay less for gas! - if they drove
a small or mid-size car instead. These vehicles have had an enormous
impact on air quality in the past five years, and a big impact on fuel
use in the United States, too. Other countries are seeing a rise in
truck and SUV sales, too - Iceland, Australia, Canada, and others.
Scooters/Motorcycles
According to EPA, emissions non-road engines and highway motorcycles
together account for about 11 percent of hydrocarbon (HC) emissions,
9 percent of carbon monoxide (CO) emissions, and 3 percent of oxides
of nitrogen (NOx) emissions from mobile sources.
Buses and Trains use a lot of
gas and create a lot of pollution. BUT the 40 or more people on the
bus or train aren't driving 40 cars - and there would be a lot more
pollution coming from those cars than from the bus or train. Buses in
many areas are also now running on alternative
fuels like ethanol and fuel
cells, which makes them an even cleaner transportation choice. And
many cities have constructed electric
trains, which are super clean.
Other Vehicles: Planes, Heavy-duty Trucks, Boats/Ships
One of the biggest tasks these types of vehicles perform is shipping/transporting
of goods from place to place. So even if you never take boat trips,
the goods and services you use in everyday life left behind a trail
of air pollution in order to get to your local store.
