Essay : Pushing Lubbock Community

Essay: Public Transport

Transportation has been integral part of social development for humans from a long time ago. The invention of the wheel revolutionized the way of transportation and improved the efficiency of moving goods and people from one place to another. In early days, migration for humans was important because changes in environmental conditions required people to move from one region to another. Since then improvement in transportation technology has dramatically improved traveling of people and goods. In the modern world people easily use buses, cars and airplanes to travel in different parts of the world. However, the way people use transportation is not completely efficient. Especially in the United States, usually people use their own vehicle to travel from one place to another, which makes them more independent, but also makes the transport inefficient. I would like to provide few reasons why public transport is important and in the United States, if tax payers money is properly spent on designing a better public transportation system, then how it can be more efficient than current system.

Public transportation saves fuel and is more energy efficient than individual transportation. Talking specifically about Texas Tech, most of the faculty, staff and students use their own vehicle to travel to campus. So each person using their own vehicle spends fuel to commute. But if there is an efficient bus service network in Lubbock city, then a bus can fit six to eight times more people than a car. Also if fewer people use their individual vehicles, there will be less traffic on the road, which will make transportation faster. European countries like France, Spain and Netherlands are good examples of efficient public transportation systems.

Public transport is better for the environment, because current vehicles run on carbon based fuels. Exhaust gases from vehicles is mainly CO₂, CO and SO₂ which are greenhouse gases and are responsible for the overall increase in earth’s temperature. If a greater number of people use individual cars, more fuel is used and more greenhouse gases are released in the air. However, if Lubbock has a good public transport network then this pollution can be reduced. The governments of big cities like Beijing and New Delhi have made rules which allow odd and even numbered vehicles to travel on alternate days, and they have observed significant reduction in pollution levels in both cities. This gives us the idea that an effective public transport can considerably reduce pollution.

Public transport is more affordable and for some people a necessary source of transportation. Students who live far from campus either have to take help from their friends or have to drive their own car to campus. Affording a car is not easy and further cost is added due to fuel consumption and hence it puts more burden on the students to bear the cost of education, living and transportation. However, with an effective transportation network in Lubbock, students can easily afford the travel because the cost of the trip is shared by whole Lubbock community and is considerably lower. 

If we consider all the benefits of public transport in to account, we can conclude that there is substantial room for improvement in the public transport network in Lubbock. If an effective network is developed by city community, it will be more economical for students. There will be less traffic on the road and less pollution of the environment. I would like to push the Lubbock community to take action in the direction so that public transport network can be improved. (Pradeep Vyawahare)