Free Transportation Policy Essay Sample

In the year 2011, Ralph Buehler and John Pucher wrote an article on transportation policies titled “Sustainable Transport in Freiburg: Lessons from Germany’s Environmental Capital.” Buehler is a scholar from the School of Public International Affairs, Virginia Technology in Virginia, USA while Pucher comes from Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA. The article is a 40 years examination of changes that have taken place in policies on transport and land-use in Germany that have encouraged the use of public transport, bicycling and walking as mode of movement from one place to another. This article provides a case study of the city of Freiburg and the changes that have taken on its transportation policies. The article discloses that over the last three decades the city have experienced major changes on its transport resulting to tripling of the bicycle trips, doubling of the public transport ridership and a decline from 38% to 32%. The article also identifies an inverse relationship of growth rate and the per-capita CO2 emission rate and the motoring rate. Towards the end of the article, the authors recommend policies that can be adopted globally by countries that are car oriented.
The article is dependent on transport data that is provided by various organizations in Germany relating to the city of Freiburg and derives most of its insight from the data that shows a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, in the country. The article narrows its research to the city of Freiburg and enumerate on its contribution to the overall reduction of emissions. However, the authors do not make an effort to assess the exact contribution of the transport industry in Germany to the total CO2 emissions. It is, therefore, not possible to tell exactly whether the policy changes which were made on the transportation industry were effective enough in reduction of CO2 emissions. The validity of the information provided in the article is questionable. This being a policy issue; certainty and exactness is required to avoid making wrong recommendations to other countries.
With the advancement of technology, the vehicles being manufactured have a very high efficiency in use of fuels. This means that increased use of new vehicles may also lead to a reduction CO2 emissions. Nevertheless, the article has evaded this fact and has not argued its case in this sense. Instead, the authors solely rely on the reduction on the rate of motoring that may not be the only factor that has led to decrease in emission. In addition, the article ignores all other changes other than the policy changes that might have taken place and that may have caused a reduction in motoring. For example, there may have occurred deterioration in living standards due to changes in the economy of the country that has made it difficult for citizens to buy and maintain vehicles. This may have led to reduction of motoring and consequent decline in carbon emission to a greater extent than changes in policies.
This article ought to incorporate details from different perspectives to attain maximum reliability. The authors need to explore the issue in a dynamic manner. This will decrease susceptibility to making wrong recommendations and enhance reliability of the recommended policies.
This article is one-sided, and, therefore, policies recommended can be adopted under the assumption that all the other factors do not affect transportation for the forty years of study. However, this is would raise questions on the competence of the authors as the assumptions made are hard to go by. The authors should expressly state the assumptions and give reasons in the article as to why the assumptions were made. This would make anyone who would wish to make reference from the article to have insights of what the article may not provide.