Thoughts on transportation

This is a fact, and it’s a tough one: We’re going to have to use the resources of planet earth way more efficiently than we currently do. Earth Overshoot Day[1] occur earlier every year. This year it has already passed, globally it was the 29th of July. Here in Sweden it was April 3th.

This means that we need to change the way we use earth’s resources. And we need to do it now.

I don’t believe just “Electric” is the full answer to the massive climate challenges that we’re now facing. Sure, it’s convenient to think that as long as we can roll out electric cars and trucks we’ll be fine. But the truth is that while electric cars may reduce carbon emission it is still not equal a sustainable use of world’s resources. A SUV is not sustainable just because it’s electric.

Here’s how I see it: Electric cars is just one piece of a larger puzzle. The thing is, electric cars still accounts for about 95% of the weight itself when transporting goods and people and they are parked 96% of their lifetime!

What we need is smarter transportation solutions that is more efficient and suited for the job they’re doing. Do we really need a 2500kg car to go grocery shopping for milk 10 minutes away? Or even to commute 30min to work? When you think of it that way, the debate about gas prices is actually not about how expensive it is to get yourself from A to B, it’s mainly about how expensive it is to transport your car from A to B.

Let’s step up and create a feature of smarter mobility where we can transport people and goods from A to B without killing what’s in between, shall we?

/Victor Öman

[1] http://wwf.panda.org/?350491/Earth-Overshoot-Day-2019

This article was first published on LinkedIn

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