Transportation and Air Pollution in the United States

Air pollution has become a significant problem in the US as well as the world over years. It’s the result of variety of sources like industrial, agriculture, mechanical and transportation. Sadly, transportation which releases a great amount of carbon dioxides, nitrogen oxides and other toxicity is proven the leading cause of air pollution. There are several transportation factors that contribute to air pollution in the US.

The first factor is the excessive use of SUVs and cars. Vehicle has played an important role in the US because of its use of connecting people to anyplace. As “America's population of automobiles & drivers are increasing” (Davis), it’s true that every households has the average of 2 or 3 cars in their garage. It means most of people have their own car. In developed country like US, there is high level of activities that requires people to move around a lot. They like to use cars as their favorite transportation even if it just takes 5 minutes to go to Wal-Mart or grocery, then cars become necessary in their life. Whenever cars are turned on, they pollute. The author of “Car, Pollution and Environment” lets us know that cars harm the air by releasing “30 percent of the carbon dioxide” from “the combustion system” (“Car, Pollution and Environment”). Then, just imagine millions cars are running on the way everyday to see how much it affects our environment. In addition, with their bigger size, weight and guzzling engine, SUVs are more likely to burn more gas than cars do. For example, one article reported that “a new Dodge Durango sports utility vehicle (with a 5.9 liter engine) that gets 12 miles per gallon in the city will emit an estimated 800 pounds of carbon dioxide over a distance of 500 city miles. […] A ...

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...oad through their routine. Therefore, it is easy to imagine what would happen is they pollute as much as cars or SUVS do. In another word, private vehicles and public transportation create significant emission in to the atmosphere at the same time.

Works Cited

“Causes of Global Warming.” Ecobridge. N.p. n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2009.

Davis, Tony. “Cars and Air Pollution.” ADEQ 1 Apr. 2009. Web. 20 Oct. 2009.

Gorham, Roger. “Air Pollution from Ground Transportation.”

Kilcarr, Sean “Cleaner Road Ahead.” American City & County 121.2 (2006): 32-34. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 15 Oct. 2009.

"The Car, Pollution, and the Environment." 123HelpMe.com. 20 Oct. 2009.

“Truck Emissions Control Regulations.”

Sharke, Paul “Idle Hour.” Mechanical Engineering 127.1 (2005): 32-34. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 27 Oct. 2009.