Creating more walkable and bike-friendly streets, expanding electric vehicle fleets and reducing congestion and increasing access to public transportation in cities, suburbs and rural and low-income communities across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions are among the strategies outlined in a new report calling for a regional clean transportation plan.
Unveiled on July 19, the Natural Resources Defense Council’s report entitled Transportation Reimagined, says the nation’s current transportation system cost the economy $147 billion in 2015 alone. A nonprofit environmental organization, NRDC also says transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the nation and that improvements to the nation’s transportation sector could provide nearly a third of the emissions reductions needed to cut U.S. greenhouse gas by 80% by mid-century. “We cannot solve climate change unless we address this sector,” says Bruce Ho, the report's principal author and a senior advocate at NRDC.