A video produced by greenRELAY about EYCEJ’s Goods Movement Toxic Tour:

Members of greenRELAY decided to attend the Goods Movement Toxic Tour led by East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice last week.  The tour, which focused primarily on the cities of Commerce and Bell Gardens, highlighted the environmental justice implications of international trade and the expansion of the Long Beach Freeway, Interstate 710.

[Show as slideshow]

In Vukan R. Vuchic’s Transportation for Livable Cities, I read about how important transportation is to keep cities in the United States and the rest of the world functional. He emphasizes on how different transportation methods are analyzed in characteristics and uses. But when reading throughout the book I noticed that his idea of a perfect transportation system would be the construction and running of rail.

One of his main emphases, however, was the construction of rail systems are the main way of maintaining a reliable transportation, basically saying that Rail is number 1. From my own point of view after reading this, I felt like he shared some of the same ideas that I have about transportation. However, you definitely need a public transportation made up of the bus and existing urban city rail. If rail was the only source of public transportation alone it would not be sustainable. Cities such as New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and around the eastern seaboard implement not only rail transport but a first class transit system composed of road vehicles such as buses, van pools, carpool and para-transit. The use of the auto is all well and good, but people need to be ready to limit their use of the automobile, especially in the United States and Canada. If we want a stable city and civilization the use of the car needs to be in moderation.

The implementation of urban transportation would create a better balance for major big cities, civilians would have better transportation choices, and they would be able to decide whether to drive their car which would cause more traffic and congestion, or sacrifice their use of the auto temporarily and get on either a bus or an existing rail service that would take them to work, school, etc. Its about moderation, if the use of auto was limited, then the world would have a better transportation infrastructure.