Technology advances could alter 'green' transportation picture


Determining which forms of transportation could prove most eco-friendly in the future can get complicated.

A broad range of factors – fuel and energy sources, infrastructure, materials from which vehicles are made and the amount of carbon dioxide emissions, to name a few – have to be figured into the equation to predict how various modes of transportation will eventually stack up as being “green.”

In addition, potential advances in automobile, rail-line and airplane technologies – and the life cycles of these technologies – need to be assessed to get a true picture of their long-term environmental footprint.

In a recent article on a major international news website, Arizona State University engineer Mikhail Chester weighs in on the long-range impact question in comparisons between car travel and high-speed train travel.

Chester is an assistant professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, one of ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

He’s been involved in a variety of research efforts to accurately forecast the costs – both economically and environmentally – of transportation systems and technologies throughout their life cycles and over the coming decades.

Article source: The Guardian

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