​Transportation Issues Resources

Automotive Emissions and the Greenhouse Effect. Texas State Energy Conservation Office. Grades 6-12. http://www.energyeducation.tx.gov/pdf/43cinv.pdf. This is a laboratory activity in which students will compare the amount of carbon dioxide in four different sources of gas and determine the carbon dioxide contribution from automobiles. They test ambient air, human exhalation, automobile exhaust, and nearly pure carbon dioxide from a vinegar/baking soda mixture.

Car Quest. Your Climate, Your Future by World Wildlife Federation. Grades 9-12. http://www.worldwildlife.org/climate/curriculum/WWFBinaryitem5970.pdf.

In this lesson, students assess the environmental impacts of a fleet of cars and then research and prepare a report about greener transportation choices.

The Air That I Breathe by Streets Education through the Livable Streets Initiative. Grade 4. http://streetseducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/lse_elem_the-air-that-i-breath_sample_lesson1.pdf. http://streetseducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/lse_elem_the-air-that-i-breath_sample_lesson2.pdf. http://streetseducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/lse_elem_the-air-that-i-breath_sample_lesson3.pdf. This unit focuses on the impact that cars have on overall air quality – and in particular around your school. Sample lessons include a study of pollution, calculating Carbon Footprint and looking at who is driving in your neighborhood.

The Air That I Breathe by Streets Education through the Livable Streets Initiative. Grades 6-8. http://streetseducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/lse_elem_the-air-that-i-breath_sample_lesson3.pdf. This unit makes the connection between our transportation choices and air quality, using the area around your school to do hands-on science lessons. Sample lesson focuses on measuring “Average Vehicle Occupancy” to find out if people are carpooling in the area around your school.

The Impact of Cars by Streets Education through the Livable Streets Initiative. Grades 6-8. http://streetseducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/lse_ms_the-impact-of-cars_sample-lesson.pdf. An interdisciplinary project that explores the overall impact of cars on our lives and the environment. Sample lesson is an outdoor exercise where students are able to measure car speeds using a radar detection device.

Better Air For Our City by Streets Education through the Livable Streets Initiative. Grades 6-8. http://streetseducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/lse_ms_better-air-for-our-city_sample-lesson-1.pdf. http://streetseducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/lse_ms_better-air-for-our-city_sample-lesson-2.pdf. A summer or afterschool –geared project to study air quality in your program’s neighborhood. Sample lessons include a particulate matter collecting activity and the creation of public service announcements to show what the students have learned.

Trip Tally: Discovering Environmental Solutions by the Northeastern Sustainable Energy Association. Grades 3-6. http://www.nesea.org/uploads/textWidget/890.00010/documents/TripTally.pdf. As a class, students complete a simple air pollution experiment and discuss what they find. Students discover actions that they already take that help keep our air clean by recording how they get around for one week. They will discover that they can avoid creating air pollution by taking public transportation, carpooling, walking, and other means. At the end of the week the class tabulates, graphs, and analyzes their data. Students finish up by making posters to give a message about how to save pollution.

Travel Solutions to Global Warming by the Northeastern Sustainable Energy Association. Grades 5-7. http://www.nesea.org/uploads/textWidget/890.00010/documents/Travel_Solutions.pdf. Teacher demonstrates a burning candle experiment with students posing hypotheses, to review the relationship of the carbon cycle, fossil fuels, and the atmospheric CO2 level. Students then graph the relative populations and production of CO2 by different countries and discuss the results. Students follow up by using a personal trip log to discover simple but powerful solutions.

How We Get to School by Streets Education through the Livable Streets Initiative. Grades K-1. http://streetseducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/lse_elem_how-we-get-to-school.pdf. Designed to enhance any Neighborhood/Community Study that you are doing with your students, this unit focuses on how the streets around the school are organized. Students will look at the way streets are designed and how signs and symbols are used to give information. Special emphasis will be placed on improving safety and awareness for walkers, bikers and drivers. Sample lesson shows a step-by-step pictograph about getting to school.

The Streets Around Us by Streets Education through the Livable Streets Initiative. Grades 1-2. http://streetseducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/lse_elem_the-streets-around-us_sample_lesson1.pdf. http://streetseducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/lse_elem_the-streets-around-us_sample_lesson2.pdf. The streets around the school act as your classroom as students learn about all of the ways the streets, and cars in particular, impact our lives. By using air quality and the speed of cars outside the school, students will take away valuable lessons about the environment and the importance of going green, all while combining simple math skills with science. Sample lessons include making air quality particle boards and using a speed gun to measure speeds around the school.

Getting Around Town by Streets Education through the Livable Streets Initiative. Grades 2-3. http://streetseducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/lse_elem_getting-around_town_sample-lesson1.pdf. http://streetseducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/lse_elem_getting-around_town_sample-lesson2.pdf. This unit focuses on transportation in New York City and its relationship to environmental sustainability. It can be used to enrich your curriculum for transportation, the importance of community, and any bridge or tunnel study. Sample lessons include a description of the streets around the school and a scavenger hunt street walk as the beginning of the unit.

The Impact of Cars by Streets Education through the Livable Streets Initiative. Grades 6-8. http://streetseducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/lse_ms_the-impact-of-cars_sample-lesson.pdf. An interdisciplinary project that explores the overall impact of cars on our lives and the environment. Sample lesson is an outdoor exercise where students are able to measure car speeds using a radar detection device.

Better Air For Our City by Streets Education through the Livable Streets Initiative. Grades 6-8. http://streetseducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/lse_ms_better-air-for-our-city_sample-lesson-1.pdf. http://streetseducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/lse_ms_better-air-for-our-city_sample-lesson-2.pdf. A summer or afterschool –geared project to study air quality in your program’s neighborhood. Sample lessons include a particulate matter collecting activity and the creation of public service announcements to show what the students have learned.

Asphalt Nation by Jane Holz Kay. (1998). Asphalt Nation is a powerful examination of how the automobile has ravaged America's cities and landscape over the past 100 years together with a compelling strategy for reversing our automobile dependency. Jane Holtz Kay provides a history of the rapid spread of the automobile and documents the huge subsidies commanded by the highway lobby, to the detriment of once-efficient forms of mass transportation. Demonstrating that there are economic, political, architectural, and personal solutions to the problem, she shows that radical change is entirely possible.

Carjacked by Katherine Lutz and Anne Lutz Fernandez. (2010). Carjacked is an in-depth look at our obsession with cars. While the automobile’s contribution to global warming and the effects of volatile gas prices is widely known, the problems we face every day because of our cars are much more widespread and yet much less known -- from the surprising $14,000 that the average family pays each year for the vehicles it owns, to the increase in rates of obesity and asthma to which cars contribute, to the 40,000 deaths and 2.5 million crash injuries each and every year.

Health Effects of Transportation Policy. Judith Bell and Larry Cohen. There is a deep and evolving knowledge base about the links between transportation and health. Research shows that when properly designed, transportation systems can provide exercise opportunities, improve safety, lower emotional stress, link poor people to opportunity, connect isolated older adults and people with disabilities to crucial services and social supports, and stimulate economic development. Conventional auto mobility-focused planning by local, regional, and state transportation agencies generally overlooks or undervalues the impacts of transportation investments on health and equity. This chapter provides an overview of the impacts of transportation on health. Subsequent chapters on transportation options and key issues provide further detail.

Wedge Analysis of the U.S. Transportation Sector. http://www.epa.gov/oms/climate/420f07049.htm. The U.S. transportation sector represents about 10% of all energy-related greenhouse-gas emissions worldwide. Over the next 50 years, rising numbers and use of vehicles could increase greenhouse-gas emissions from U.S. transportation sources 80% above current levels. However, many current and anticipated vehicle and fuel technologies, as well as approaches for reducing vehicle use, could be deployed to slow or halt the increase in accumulated greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from transportation.

Great Lakes Bioenergy Resource Center Energy Statistics. http://www.glbrc.org/education/bioenergy101/energystatistics. The mission of GLBRC Education & Outreach is to inform a variety of audiences about bioenergy research, energy concerns, and sustainability issues affecting our planet. Our goal is to broaden the understanding of current issues in bioenergy for the general public, and students and educators at the K-12, undergraduate and graduate levels. This page describes energy statistics in the United States, particularly those directly related to the transportation sector.

Center for Land Use Education (CLUE). http://www4.uwsp.edu/cnr/landcenter/about.html. The Center for Land Use Education was established in July 2000. It is a joint venture of the College of Natural Resources at the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point and Cooperative Extension in collaboration with UW System institutions. It is a focal point for land use planning and management education. This web site provides publications on community design and land use planning, and useful links for additional information.

Transportation and Climate. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. http://www.epa.gov/otaq/climate/basicinfo.htm. This web site provides information on how transportation has affected climate change, particularly from greenhouse gas emissions.

Environmental Impacts of Transportation. Clean Water Action Council. http://www.cwac.net/transportation/index.html. This web site provides an overview of the ways in which transportation has impacted the environment.

Transportation’s Role in Climate Change. U.S. Department of Transportation. http://climate.dot.gov/about/transportations-role/overview.html. Virtually all human activities have an impact on our environment, and transportation is no exception. While transportation is crucial to our economy and our personal lives, as a sector it is also a significant source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This site provides a brief overview of how transportation and climate change are related.