Have you visit my Jakarta? Traffic jams have become a new norm in my capital city, Jakarta. It is a sad reality that Jakarta commuters have to be used to spending hours on the road every single day.

In recent years, the need for environmentally sound forms of transportation has become obvious: transportation that uses less fossil fuel, that emits less toxic gases and transportation that helps eliminate the need for more or larger roads. 

The 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report (which represents the consensus of the world?s leading climate scientists and was approved by member governments including the U.S.) concluded that greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced by 50 to 85% by 2050 in order to limit global warming to 4 degrees Fahrenheit, thereby avoiding many of the worst impacts of climate change. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transportation will require a broad range of strategies, including increasing vehicle efficiency, lowering the carbon content of fuels, and reducing vehicle miles of travel. Public transportation can be one part of the solution.

As a Eco-Gen team, if we want to help reduce global warming, let alone air pollution, one of the best things we can do is to get out of our car.

Walk, ride a bicycle for short trips, or take public transportation for longer ones.Riding a bus is 79 times safer than riding in an automobile, and riding a train or subway is even safer. Studies have shown that people who use public transportation regularly tend to be healthier than people who don?t, because of the exercise they get walking to and from bus stops, subway stations and their homes and offices. (see my  photo in shelter of Trans Jakarta)

Public transportation can minimize its own greenhouse gas emissions by using efficient vehicles, alternative fuels, and decreasing the impact of capital project construction and service operations.Public transportation can also reduce greenhouse gas emissions by facilitating compact development, which conserves land and decreases the distances people need to travel to reach destinations.

Moreover, by reducing congestion, transit reduces emissions from cars stuck in traffic. So why don?t more Eco-Gen use public transportation?