One of the courses I teach to graduate students is on transportation policy and planning. My students are a mix of engineering and planning master’s and PhD students.
As my service work to my faculty, I do a workshop with high school students, and most recently with incoming and current undergraduate students at my university. The workshop is on the importance of transportation and the transportation issues we currently face. The aim is it to help them think critically about these topics. It is also to inform them the possible career options available to them as urban professionals.
I love meeting them and learning about them and their interests. My workshop focuses on understanding their travel behavior, specifically the modes of transportations they use and why. Without fail, their popular preferred mode of transportation, even with a hypothetical scenario where they can afford and have access to any mode of transportation is: driving. I give them a follow up question why. They mention convenience, speed, and comfort.
Its appeal to these young people is very strong. Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong with driving to get around. It is a mode of transportation, one that is predominately used in Canada. As I teach in my transportation course, the availability of the personal automobile to the masses allowed people to travel to places they had not been able to. For instance, people were able to drive in their personal car and visit Rock Creek Park in DC.
One thing I have been thinking about is that these young students are comparing driving with the current state of public transportation and other modes of transportation offerings. They are young and perhaps haven’t had the length of life to travel to places where public transportation can be superior. You will hear most transportation people talk about Europe as a good example of public transit use, for instance Switzerland. And when it comes to cycling, Denmark, specifically Copenhagen. I have been to a few places in Switzerland and used the transit. I have also been to Copenhagen and rode on the many protected lanes in the city. I wouldn’t choose driving if I had that option, in fact even with the current state of transit and active-mode infrastructure, I chose not to drive. I am not sure the students’ response (I.e., their choice to still drive) is well informed as that of an adult’s who had the life experience of seeing other places. That is my tentative theory, anyway.
I am planning to continue doing this short survey in my future workshops with high school students. I will try to present the question differently to allow them to think about the possibility of a seamless public transit, pedestrian walkways, and biking infrastructure. I am even thinking of conducting a full fledged research on this.
Their response concerned and got me curious. I have got to dig deeper to understand more about the appeal of driving to these young people. I hope you don’t ask why, but in the unfortunate incident that you do, I would have to tell you the obvious: driving is one of the highest CO₂ producers.
Like many of people, I am concerned about the drowning and burning world.
Mahtot [Mah-tote] Gebresselassie, PhD 